Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 210 posts

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#81

Post by wmil »

wcfields wrote: post #48
kilroy123 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard the same thing from locals when I was there. I have no other evidence to support this.

Same here; evidence I have to support is that the ONLY people with (newer) cars [1] were Airbnb hosts. My host not only owned a late-model Suzuki 4door but also was getting into the business of "flipping" old apartments into Airbnbs/Casa particular. Since he had 24 hour access to the internet (somehow?? [2]) he also acted as the agent for other Airbnbs for people that didn't have access. [1] Of course there were peop…

Key West to Havana is only 170 km or so. Can you set up a microwave / laser link over that distance?

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#82

Post by ue_ »

AutomationTool wrote: post #77
ue_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's possible to critique both systems; the American (capitalist) system in which you need to pay huge amounts for education in order to have the mere chance to get a job that's above sustenace wage, the system screwing over especially those who can't afford to pay back debt; the Cuban system in which your training is free of charge but you cannot apply your skills such that you receive above sustenance wage.…

You don't have to pay large amounts of money for education and you don't have to pay large amounts of money to get a decent job. You need to get out of your echo chamber.

I'm posting right now on what is by and large a forum hostile to anti-capitalist thinking; this is the very opposite of me being in an echo chamber.

Many "decent" jobs require at least a university degree, which almost always entails taking out a loan. So while you don't have to "pay" large amounts of money, you may need to loan it and then pay it back later.

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#83

Post by asdfjklasdfjkl »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #40

Right now Nazism is rightfully consigned to the trash heap of history and mostly people don't talk about it in polite company. Communism should also undergo the same fate. It probably has the highest body count of any ideology (see Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro ) and is the only ideology where a country built a wall, not keep people from coming in, but to keep people from leaving. It has made millions of people misera…

There are more nuanced critiques of either of the predominant systems discussed in this comment section. If you want to throw unfair death totals for what are at best regimes loosely approximating their underlying communist or capitalist ideologies, you can just as easily claim capitalism kills tons. https://i.redd.it/h0l4hqcf5inz.jpg

but honestly, I don't think body counts are the right way to judge either. Makes for a great way to emotionally charge the conversation, though.

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#84

Post by gozur88 »

notyourday wrote: post #32
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #4

You know I can't really feel their plight. Take this: >Hundreds of miles away, in Minas Gerais State, Dr. Jiménez, 34, found the work rewarding, but also began to harbor feelings of resentment. “You are trained in Cuba and our education is free, health care is free, but at what price?” she said. “You wind up paying for it your whole life.” Is that not the point? The communist government allows anybody to attend their…

The love of communism among those that don't live in places that tried to implement it is something that totally baffles me.

I think it's understandable. They see parts they like and either ignore or don't know about the rest. The most anti-communist places you'll find are in Eastern Europe where the old people remember going through sub-zero winters without heat.

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#86

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

adventured wrote: post #72
ue_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's possible to critique both systems; the American (capitalist) system in which you need to pay huge amounts for education in order to have the mere chance to get a job that's above sustenace wage, the system screwing over especially those who can't afford to pay back debt; the Cuban system in which your training is free of charge but you cannot apply your skills such that you receive above sustenance wage.…

> the American (capitalist) system in which you need to pay huge amounts for education in order to have the mere chance to get a job that's above sustenace wage You do realize that wasn't true until about 15 years ago, right? You should be asking what happened (hint: it wasn't Capitalism, it was the US Government's inflationary student loan program). Until the mid 1970s when the US Government nearly destroyed the dol…

The costs of university increase on a purely free-market basis because of incredibly expanding demand for a university education, now poor students can't afford to go to school. The government steps in and assures their loans so poor students can attend. Now since these loans are guaranteed capitalist institutions begin seeing just how much they can bilk students for and thus our dilemma. Our problem is the free market. Government intervention to this point has transformed one free-market problem (school only for well-to-do) into another (school for anyone but loaded with debt) because we haven't had enough government intervention. Just make it free and our problem is solved.

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#87

Post by emodendroket »

throwawayknecht wrote: post #76
stretchwithme wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'If they do have to go to the hospital, they must bring their own bedsheets, soap, towels, food, light bulbs — even toilet paper. And basic medications are scarce.' 'In the real Cuba, finding an aspirin can be a chore. And an antibiotic will fetch a fortune on the black market. A nurse spoke to Isabel Vincent of Canada’s National Post. “We have nothing,” said the nurse. “I haven’t seen aspirin in a Cuban store here f…

The causality is not obvious. For example, throughout the 70s and 80s, organizations shipping medicine and other supplies to Cuba were regularly bombed or attacked (e.g. Hispania Interamericana). Anti-Castro terrorist organizations (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_66 ) operated openly in Miami. So does Cuba lack medicine because they're communist? Or are they communist because the US worked against broad pro…

Even before taking that into account, an embargo with what would otherwise be their most obvious trading partner seems like a big impediment.

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#89

Post by gaius »

smt88 wrote: post #12
jwilliams wrote: post #5

In Cuba often tourist dollars greatly outstrip the local economy. So you're ending up with a situation where qualified doctors are moving in to tourism - waiters, doormen - to earn more money.

Where did you learn about this? I'd like to investigate in more detail.

Where did you learn about this? I'd like to investigate in more detail.

Visit Cuba and talk to people. The barman, the taxi driver, the bellhop, the waiter can easily earn in a day's tips in hard currency, over a month's wages in local currency, especially if they speak good English. It was the same in Russia when the USSR imploded. The chances were your taxi driver in Moscow had a physics PhD and had quit or was moonlighting from their official job in a research institute...

Re: Cuban Doctors Revolt: ‘You Get Tired of Being a Slave’

#90

Post by throwawayknecht »

aiyodev wrote: post #46
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #4

You know I can't really feel their plight. Take this: >Hundreds of miles away, in Minas Gerais State, Dr. Jiménez, 34, found the work rewarding, but also began to harbor feelings of resentment. “You are trained in Cuba and our education is free, health care is free, but at what price?” she said. “You wind up paying for it your whole life.” Is that not the point? The communist government allows anybody to attend their…

Of course it's free. That's how slavery works. Slaves get everything provided for them but have no freedom to profit from their labor or improve their conditions.

That is not how slavery as practiced in North America, including Cuba, worked. You didn't get things "provided", you got absolute subsistence (or less) during your most productive years.
Post reply on HN