It’s a standard part of the lefty economic analysis that imports take jobs – good union jobs – from hte locals. Therefore economies should produce their own stuff.
Cuba’s economy is in its worst state since the early 90s, when the collapse of its then benefactor, the Soviet Union, led its GDP to shrink by one third in a matter of months. President Fidel Castro euphemistically labelled the crisis the country’s “special period”.
This time a combination of US sanctions
Therefore Cuba should be rich as Croesus given that no American – capitalist! – imports come and steal local jobs. So, which part of the analysis should they give up? About imports? Or socialism?
“It means European and British visitors to Cuba are not able to use America’s Esta visa waiver scheme if they want to also travel to the US, a move which has further hit the tourism sector.”
Why would you want to go there? You’re going to spend £500 and 2 days flying there, instead of £50 to Spain. £450 is going to get you Bacardi and and I guess a 3 some with a couple of Spanish girls?
Cuba is an island.
It can import from anywhere.
So lack of imports is not the problem.
WB
Yeah but in Cuba you get to drive around in Ford Edsels and listen to jazz a lot.
Totalitarian regimes are hooked on autarchy – total self sufficiency, but without Felicity Kendall to soften the blow. Even if YS firms were allowed to export there, the Cubans won’t need their filthy capitalist consumer goods. Who needs an iPhone to watch cat videos, when you can just buy a cat ? At least you can eat the cat later on.
If you want to see an elderly woman cry after being given a small bar of soap and a minibottle of shampoo, go to Cuba.
If you want to see your hotel room cleaner prefer the pack of unused tea bags, to a pesos tip, go to Cuba.
If you want to see a new bride hastily changing clothes so the next bride can wear that gown, go to Cuba.
The list went on, not that the Labour loving work colleagues believed me. Mind you, the rum was nice, as was the weather.
Surely the example of Cuba precisely shows us the dangers of being reliant on cheap imports. In their case from the Soviet Union. The USSR collapses, no more free/cheap goods/fuel etc from Uncle Joe. If they actually had been self sufficient the collapse of the Soviet bloc would not have hit them so hard because they’d have already been producing those things themselves.
I got into a little trouble when I asked the Assistant General Secretary of ASLEF why we had a ‘Cuba Solidarity Campaign’…..
What about all the jobs related by imports: port of entry clearing services, transport, logistics, retail, sales people, packaging, design, utilities, advertising, bank, financial, accounting services, IT?
And if the imports are components or raw materials, jobs in manufacturing, processing,nassembly.
If a Country is importing more than exporting, then more jobs must be associated with import then export.
Otto,
I’m not buying that. Plenty of jazz and classics in the UK.
It’s why I always assume these sort of places are about sordid activity for ephebophiles, but you need to tell another story to people back home. Like everyone really goes to Amsterdam to smoke weed and watch an Indonesian woman do things with ping pong balls but you pop into the Anne Frank House for an hour.
Don’t underestimate the number of lefties who think Cuba, and now also Venezuela, are examples of the nirvana that can be achieved if only they were in charge.
WB
And of course there’s this sort of thing…
https://youtu.be/P-JxPQs3aGM?feature=shared
What a lot of people don’t realise is that this whole scene was actually filmed in the back of a Ford Edsel.
>It’s a standard part of the lefty economic analysis that imports take jobs – good union jobs – from hte locals. Therefore economies should produce their own stuff.
In the US the Leftists now have the opposite opinion to this (even though they thought this for a generation and our dumbest boomer – Sanders – is left speechless every time someone points out that 5 years ago he was all for the above and now he wants teh immigrants).
They think everything should be built outside the US (ideally in China – labor protections don’t matter for them yeller fellas – and their domestic lifestyle supported by a permanent underclass who can be exploited for their labor – because that’ll show them flyover country rubes who’s in charge when they’re all living on welfare and thus have to say what they’re told to say in order to eat!