251–260 of 276 posts
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I felt the same way visiting San Francisco, the abject poverty of the people downtown outside $400 a night hotels is just incredible.
The city of SF spends about $26,000/yr per homeless person ($167mm / 6,355 people).[1] It is not a money problem. 1: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/S-F-spendi...
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Technically wouldn't it be everyone profiting since it's going to government? If it was an foriegn business owner like alot of resorts in the bahamas, who would be profiting there? Certainly not the people living on the island.
Your assumption rests on the notion that the government = everyone, and that the people in power aren't focusing that money toward their own pockets. I'm not aware of a Socialist government that has ever existed that did anything but line their own pockets while the people starved and went without. Mao's China, Lenin & Stalin's USSR, old Vietnam, Cambodia under Pol Pot, Hugo's Venezuela, Fidel's Cuba, North Korea. It…
Socialism is a spectrum.
The line about opening an embassy in Cuba as soon as possible is a bit funny, since the US has long had an embassy in all but name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Interests_Sectio... And while that's technically only a "section" of the Swiss embassy, a glance at a photo of the place makes it pretty clear that there's a bit more going on.
I've been to the Cuban interest section in Washington DC several times. It's not really an embassy in that diplomatic functions and freedoms don't exist like proper embassies. The ambassador's freedoms are quite limited. Eg, at some point he was not allowed to leave the confines of the DC beltway. Diplomatic immunity be damned. Really sucked for us planning an event in my Baltimore uni for him to speak at, where the…
But my point is that this is all just paper. Out in the real world, the US can (and probably will) pretty much just swap out the plaque outside the "US Interests Section" with one that says "US Embassy", with the chief and their assistants magically transformed into diplomats.
I'm from Cuba, living in Spain right now. The Cuban government is reluctant to open internet access to the people, despite of they already have the needed bandwith through a submarine cable from Venezuela. Is really fascinating how the Cubans have developed a higly optimized offline distribution channel to share dowloaded content like websites, software, video games, tv shows, movies, with almost the same comsuption…
> loable The word you are looking for is laudable BTW.
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>" I've seen worse conditions in both Costa Rica ... " It depends on your definition of worse. In Cuba there was a general shortage of several basic items (toilet paper, eggs, meat... etc.) were most people (the only exception is the political class) have to face rationing and long lines. As far as I know that is inexistent in Costa Rica.
Inadequate overall wealth to supply basic needs leads to lines and rationing in socialist systems, and just pricing goods out of the reach of non-elites in basically capitalist systems, so the symptoms look a bit difference but the substance is much the same.
It has more to do with the incompetence in economic areas rather than a capacity of making wealth.
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> - Physicians per 10,000 people: Cuba has 67 2nd highest in the world, behind Monaco (70): http://kff.org/global-indicator/physicians/ For comparison: Sweden (38), UK (27), Japan (21), Canada (20) Makes you wonder if that number has any significance at all. Japan has 1/3rd the number of doctors, but the highest life expectancy in the world.
Japan has a lot of welfare fraud which inflates their life expectancy numbers. It also has a fairly low level of income inequality relative to their per capita GDP which helps things. (AKA few poor people.) And to top it off universal healthcare which significantly increases a population’s life expectancy. Edit: Arguably the high food prices reduce obesity which is really important.
I don't think it's the food prices, because the cheapest foods tend to be the ones that lead to obesity (among other health problems). Fast food burgers and white bread are not expensive here in Japan, but fresh fruits and vegetables are.
I think there are many factors, but the pretty great universal health care system has to be a big one. As a working adult in Tokyo, I receive tons of preventative care and thorough annual check ups. It's cheap, and virtually all health care for my kids is completely free until they turn 15.
The lack of equal access to health care in the USA is almost certainly a reason that poor people die 5 years earlier than affluent people[1]. I would guess good access to health care is a big reason that Cuba does so well on that front, despite its obvious economic obstacles.
[1]: http://news.rice.edu/2012/06/21/poorer-us-citizens-live-five...
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That's absolutely not true. People live better across the world today than they lived 50 or even 20 years ago. I read statistics somewhere that people in some obscure African country today (can't recall the name) have a living standards of Finland of 20 years ago. Think about this: the major health issue nowadays across the world is obesity, not hunger.
That's practically impossible. Finland in 1994 had a very high standard of living. Their GDP per capita in '94 was equivalent to roughly $40,000 in today's dollar. Maybe Finland of 1914. Nigeria's GDP per capita today, for example, is $3,000.
http://www.davidbahnsen.com/index.php/2013/11/10/the-rationa...
I read Scott Ridley's book. And I recommend it highly.
I'm from Cuba, living in Spain right now. The Cuban government is reluctant to open internet access to the people, despite of they already have the needed bandwith through a submarine cable from Venezuela. Is really fascinating how the Cubans have developed a higly optimized offline distribution channel to share dowloaded content like websites, software, video games, tv shows, movies, with almost the same comsuption…
Replace the X with my username. david.gutierrez.X@gmail.com
Un abrazo.
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I highly recommend reading "Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot" which explain how dictatorships can pick a handful of indicators and elevate them to first-world levels while still making everybody's life miserable. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Perfect-Latin-American-Idiot/pro...
You're talking as if the dictators sit around, wondering about some sort of "SEO" to game their ranking on these lists. The "life expectancy" figure can't be gamed, unless you out and out lie. Here's a recent article for thought: http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/