• VHS [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    An economy with centralized economic planning by government like that of Cuba can force more resources into an industry than its population might desire in order to achieve improved outcomes in that industry at the expense of other goods and services the population might more highly desire.

    oh no :( i wanted less healthcare

    car ownership is heavily restricted in Cuba and as a result the country’s car ownership rate is far below the Latin American average (55.8 per 1000 persons as opposed to 267 per 1000) (Road Safety, 2016). A low rate of automobile ownership results in little traffic congestion and few auto fatalities. […] In fact, local physicians attribute a strong role to the massive introduction of bicycles in order to explain the decrease in traffic accidents mortality

    imagine calling this "repression".

    • joaomarrom [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      that first quote, lmao

      "an authoritarian government might not have its priorities straight, and choose to invest in quality healthcare rather than treats for its population"

      • Gosplan14 [any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        That's unironically petty bourgeois/PMC brainworms that eventually at least partially caused the counterrevolutions of 1989.

        Sure, you had access to a new Škoda 742 in five years, had the possibility to go to Bulgaria or Yugoslavia on vacation in the summer, and buy Belarusian fridges that will work for decades to come. (and

        But the young and other oppositionists wanted a BMW, go to Vacation to the swiss Alps and buy American appliances instead, and admittedly, some of them did get that.

        Those that didn't though, and didn't live in countries whose economies were flooded by low quality goods from the west (either used or just shitty) like Poland, were shit out of luck and also hit by different problems like the return of organized crime, and compared to other eastern europeans who nowadays just lick boot, often would not mind having back the benefits of socialism, but are often too high on the opium of nationalism and religion or embrace social democracy out of fear of the return of aggressive imperialism.

        • star_wraith [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          The more I read about the eastern bloc, the more I realize how much the petite bourgeoisie and labor aristocrats (or more specifically, the people who thought they would be in the labor aristocracy under capitalism) were instrumental in destroying things.

          • Gosplan14 [any]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Well, Trotsky/Bukharin (on the end of the class struggle in the USSR) and the Corn Man ("State of all the people" instead of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat) were certainly wrong on this.

      • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Cuba is just propping their life expectancy up by promoting safer, healthier lifestyles. Good thing I live in the US where I'll never have to worry about that :amerikkka-clap:

    • star_wraith [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      The author doesn't mean people actually want less healthcare. What he really means is under free market capitalism, Cubans would definitely have less healthcare overall, which is true. Because lots of people would be priced out of getting any. So in aggregate, less is being spent on healthcare but that's because only those who can afford it have it. The "iT's bAsIC eCoNoNicS!" crowd conflates the people's will with what the aggregate market demands under capitalism.