Spotted here:
Cuba imports roughly two thirds of its food
Wait, what?
Quickly fire up Google Earth and have a look: yeah, it's a big green island, with vast stretches that appear to be farmland.
And it's importing food? How is a place like that not a big-time food exporter?
Oh, right. Central economic planning.
Kids, when you call for socialism, a rational economy, or anything that makes production subject to central planning, you're calling for handing over control of the means of prosperity - and of survival - to power-mad people who likely aren't qualified to tie their own shoelaces.
A market economy may be inherently flawed, but it works. Which puts it at a considerable advantage over a political economy that's perfect but doesn't work.
A bit later, quoting a Cuban businessman:
What the country needs to do is produce. Sufficient merchandise is what will lead to shorter lines.
Heretic! Burn him! The kulaks are hoarding the wealth and must be liquidated!
Added: This is different from the Taras Bulba situation in an important way. I wasn't far into that book before I looked at Zaporizhia on Google Earth and noted that it, too, was a vast expanse of fine farmland, so how come it was populated by Cossacks who made their living by raiding neighboring lands?
Well, on reflection, Zaporizhia ought to be a great place for farming, except that it lacked, back in the day, any semblance of secure borders. So, were it inhabited by peaceful farmers, they'd be at the mercy of whatever raiders decided to gallop through and steal their crops.
Cuba, on the other hand, is an island, and doesn't have hordes of pirates overrunning the place every harvest season. Or... does it?
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