I am not nearly as aggressive a defender of Cuba as Yoshie, and I am very
concerned about the lack of democracy there--although I think it is
perfectly understandable in the circumstances. I am also not as confident as
she that Cuba is socialist. But the notion that the poorest in the US--the
_poorest__! thwe homeless crackheads and cripples who swarm the streets of
Chicago, for example--are better off than Cuban doctors, lawyers, and
professors is too many for me. Indeed, I think Yoshie, a grad student TA
living on, what $10K a year is it?--might be rather more typical of many US
intellectuals (as opposed to professionals like me--I'm a lawyer)--than
Norm's afnatsies. Perhaps Norm means taht the working poor are better off
than the Cuban middle class. But this is hard to measure. Take a family of
four living on minimum wage work in Southside Chicago, making, what about
$15K? Maybe it has a color TV set, and maybe someone in the Cuban middle
class has to do with B&W. But it pays a lot more for its housing, which I
guarantee you is as bad or worse; it has no health insurance; it has no
retirement or pension, and these things are providedin Cuba. It has accessto
food taht is not rationed administratively, but taht is of little comfort to
it if it cannot afford that food, and you try feeding a family of four in
Chiacgo on 15K. I do in the burbs, where food is cheaper--yes!--than in the
inner city, and it costs me about $180 a week. That's a lot more than the
southside family can afford. Well, I could go on, but the point is that I
think that the comparison is faulty, whatever the many defects of the Cuban
economy.
--jks
Change of regimes is of world-historical
>importance, however, when it effects the transition from one mode of
>production to another. In this sense, Cuba has undergone more
>world-historical change than the USA.
>
>>right, US has more income inequality, but the poorest are far better off
>>than the "middle class" in Cuba.
>
>By "middle class" in Cuba, you mean doctors, artists, engineers,
>university professors, and the like? Socialism in any nation, _while
>the rest of the world economy remains capitalist_, probably makes its
>intellectuals worse off than its counterparts, and perhaps even makes
>them worse off than some of the poor, in imperial nations, as you
>argue. However, Cuba would _never_ have produced so many doctors,
>artists, engineers, university professors, etc. from peasant or
>working-class family backgrounds to begin with, _but for the
>socialist revolution_. So your comparison appears to me to be moot.
>
>Yoshie
>
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