It also shows how a reasonably just health care system that distributes
care on the basis of need can exist in a country with extremely limited
resources whereas the US, one of the richest countries in the world,
leaves many without insurance and unable to afford health care
while cosmetic surgery for the affluent flourishes. To me this shows the
clear superiority of planned versus market delivery of health care.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Doug:
>
> >Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> >
> >>Socialism (of any kind) is not in the cards in rich nations like
> >>the USA, Japan, & Western Europe right now. Otherwise, why would
> >>Lou, for instance, write a series of long posts on Ralph Nader???
> >>Cuban socialism can only take place under conditions nearly
> >>identical to Cuba's, history doesn't repeat itself, so we can't
> >>think in terms of "models."
> >
> >Which is why I said that off-the-shelf models are useless -
> >intellectually amusing, maybe, but politically useless - and that
> >you have to proceed by bending and transforming what exists. So I'm
> >for really boring stuff like strong, militant unions; a minimum
> >income; national health insurance; free child care; free K-PhD
> >education; a higher minimum wage; serious alternative energy
> >research; steeply progressive income and wealth taxes; more worker
> >control; shorter workdays and longer vacations; ...
>
> We all agree that they would be good ideas, don't we? And we should
> struggle for all of the above, but if Cuba isn't a "model," neither
> is West European social democracy. Like I said, history doesn't
> repeat itself.
>
> >There's a lot to admire about Cuba. If I were Haitian, it would look
> >like paradise. But it's a small, poor, barely industrialized country
> >(though with a growing dollar sector). I really don't think it has
> >much relevance to First World leftists, except as a place to
> >compensate psychologically for their own political weakness at home.
>
> It's one thing to say Cuba is not a "model" for American leftists
> (since nothing can be a "model"), but it's another thing to say that
> it doesn't have "much relevance" for us. Surely some of the problems
> that beset Cuba have been caused by the USA, and to this extent we
> have political responsibility to remove the burden placed on Cuba by
> America.
>
> Yoshie
