Castro v Marx
Marx thought socialism was a good idea, and one part of that good idea was ”from each according to their ability, and to each according to their need”.
Raul Castro (the new leader of Cuba) also thinks socialism is a good idea… but he has a slightly different criteria. According to Castro, Cuba will now follow:
“the socialist principle of distribution, wherein each person receives according to his or her contribution, that is: pay for quantity and quality”
Castro has introduced capitalist “new-socialist” reform in Cuba, to replace the equal-pay system with performance-based salary (with no upper limit). Apparently this is supposed to boost efficiency and productivity. Indeed. Hand that man a cigar.
This is good news for Cubans and another nail in the coffin of soviet-style socialism. If Cuba is really on a reform path towards markets then that leaves only Nth Korea in the dog-house. Perhaps the US can relax their stupid sanctions now.
But what is the deal with the murder of semantics? Cuba is following the trend set by China and Vietnam in introducing market reform and calling it socialism. That is like curing cancer, and calling outcome “new cancer”. The great minds of China, Vietnam & Cuba seem to think that the definition of socialism is “have good intentions” and the definition of capitalism is “have bad intentions”. So as long as they introduce market reforms with good intentions, they are still socialists.
Of course, their understanding of political philosophy is retarded. But who cares. They can call themselves Britney Spears if they really want. What matters is the action — and the action is towards capitalism.
…but you can’t deny that you are Big Business
From the 1951 film Home Town Story, now apparently only famous for a minor role by Marilyn Monroe. Link via Craig Newmark.
Ideological Dangers of Environmentalism
I recently came across the ABC’s “planetslayer” website, a tax payer funded educational tool for children, and found it quite typical of environmentalist material. See, http://www.abc.net.au/science/planetslayer/greenhouse_calc.htm It has prompted me to attempt to think through my ideological concerns about environmentalism. Read more »
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