What Socialist Economic Policies Have Done for Cuba

"Socialism is, by a very wide margin, the worst disaster in the history of the human race," writes John Hinderaker."Nothing else comes close. It always fails, and it always brings death-dealing totalitarianism in its wake. Socialism is, in essence, rule by a criminal gang. It generally works for members of the gang, but it never works for anyone else."

In City Journal, Michael Totten reports on his visit to “The Last Communist City,” Havana. Cuba has the fascination of a train wreck. Among the country’s most striking features is its rigid caste system. Members of the ruling elite–the criminal gang, i.e. the Communist Party–live in a semi-capitalist bubble and are able to enjoy not just power, but relatively luxurious living conditions. Everyone else bears the full brunt of socialism, and is mired in want and misery:

"Outside its small tourist sector, the rest of [Havana] looks as though it suffered a catastrophe on the scale of Hurricane Katrina or the Indonesian tsunami. Roofs have collapsed. Walls are splitting apart. Window glass is missing. Paint has long vanished. It’s eerily dark at night, almost entirely free of automobile traffic. I walked for miles through an enormous swath of destruction without seeing a single tourist. Most foreigners don’t know that this other Havana exists, though it makes up most of the city—tourist buses avoid it, as do taxis arriving from the airport. It is filled with people struggling to eke out a life in the ruins. …"

In Cuba, they don’t have a minimum wage: they have a maximum wage. The stupidity of their economic model can hardly be imagined:

"In the United States, we have a minimum wage; Cuba has a maximum wage—$20 a month for almost every job in the country. (Professionals such as doctors and lawyers can make a whopping $10 extra a month.) Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don’t get paid more. ..."

Read Hinderaker's post, When Will They Ever Learn?, for the rest of the story on what socialist economic policies have done to a once thriving island nation and its people.

Good Economic, Energy News for US

If Americans are searching for some good economic, energy and national security news, they'll find it in The New American Oil Boom, a report released May 8 by Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE). Michael Rubin at commentary.com highlights the organization and its report:

Co-chaired by General P.X. Kelley, the former commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Frederick Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx, [SAFE] has assembled a marquee list of top military brass and CEOs, who together make the case that energy security is not only an economic issue, but a national security matter as well. Together, the business and military experts discuss energy issues with greater fluency and depth than politicians of both parties. Because of government regulation, the oil boom may not be as pronounced as it might be but, even so, the United States last year became a net exporter of refined petroleum products for the first time since 1949.

Petroleum fuels account for 37 percent of U.S. primary energy demand, and during the past five years, U.S. households and businesses have spent a total of $755 billion annually, a major drain on disposable income. Transportation is especially hostage to oil. Liquid fuels provide 97 percent of the energy needed to move cars, trucks, seaborne ships, and aircraft. When the White House pursues policies that limit domestic fuel production, they cripple the economy and empower foreign exporters. Ethanol is no solution. Not only does it drive up the cost of food, but because ethanol-based fuels are priced on the same scale as petroleum fuels, they do not lower the price.

The report, however, is clear-eyed about what the current American oil boom will mean and, as important, what it will not ...

SAFE's full report addresses the following policy issues:

• Key Drivers of the Oil Boom: How are high oil prices, technology breakthroughs, and the natural gas glut coalescing to drive the production boom?
• Trends and Outlook: Which regions present the strongest opportunities for production growth, and what are the prospects onshore, in the federal Gulf of Mexico, and what are the projections for costs and quantity of imports?
• Costs of Oil Dependence: While understanding that production increases will mediate the trade deficit and drive employment growth, what are the limits to these benefits? How does the nature of the global oil market prevent the United States from achieving domestic price advantages, and why can U.S. consumers expect continued price volatility?
• Defining Energy Security: What is the difference between energy security and energy independence, and how should policymakers work to maximize energy security while keeping sight of the long term costs of oil dependence?

The report's long-term policy recommendations include increased domestic oil production, vehicle fuel-economy standards, and a long-term transition away from petroleum based fuels in the transportation sector.