The complex
The story is here
Classic monetary inflation is the first of it. Low wages. And now in the island hellhole, it's 'each according to his ability, each according to his work' - obviously 'need' is the one thing castro cannot fill.
Decades of destroying the work ethic and rewarding the worst and punishing the best has created the situation the dictator's up against. Now he's railing against corruption without understanding that if you set corruption as the example, the people will follow. Corruption is structural, in any case - rotten structures create lots of opportunities and incentives.
Agencia EFE has a superb story (with a couple glitches - no, EFE, wages are not low because prices are low - they're low because no value is being created, the hallmark of castrodom) about the utterly wretched conditions in Cuba that are showing signs of alarming even castro, who created the .
Castro hikes wages, pensions and electricity rates
Havana, Nov 23 (EFE).- A week after announcing a government campaign against stealing and "skimming" by workers in the state-run economy, Cuban leader fidel castro decreed hikes in wages, pensions and electricity rates.
The wage hike - the third this year - will bring the average worker's monthly salary to about 16 dollars, up two dollars from the previous rate.
Wages are extremely low in Cuba, with the average worker earning in a month what a plumber in the United States makes in a half-hour, partly because citizens' expenses also are very low. (Mora note: WRONG-O!) Food, housing, education, transportation and other goods and services are heavily subsidized by the government.
"A wage system has been established based on the principle of socialist distribution," said a note from the Labor Ministry accompanying the decree.
The note described that system as: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his work," which is a modification of the classic Marxist paradigm of "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his need." The ministry note said the system was "aimed at making the salary the main material stimulus that the worker receives for his contribution to society." The raise in pensions for some 1.2 million retirees brings their monthly stipend to about $6.80 from the previous $6. (Mora note: You got a long way to go, Bucko, if $6.80 is all you can come up with in making salary the main stimulus of society.)
The electricity rate hikes principally affect those domestic consumers who use more power.
Those who consume less than 100 kilowatt/hours per month will continue paying 9 cents of the Cuban peso, or about a half of a U.S.
cent, per hour. Rates will increase by increments up to 1.30 Cuban pesos, or almost 7 U.S. cents, per kilowatt/hour for those who consume more than 300 of those units per month.
The order includes a warning that meter-tampering will be punished by the cutting off of power. Last Thursday, castro declared that he is leading a merciless assault on corruption and "parasites" to prevent the undermining of the revolution.
In a speech that lasted more than five hours, the 79-year-old leader said "this revolution can be destroyed," but not by the United States. He said Cubans themselves would be the culprits.
"We can destroy it and it would be our fault," he said. "Either we root out the problem or we die. This is serious and all of the people will come to realize it."
Observers of Cuban society have described an environment in which the average citizen is so hard-pressed to make ends meet that many employees, most of whom depend for their livelihood on the state, engage in small-scale pilfering. castro acknowledged that "mistakes" (Mora note: Yeah, right) have been made during the course of the revolution and alluded to a broad packet measures to create a "new society," one he said would be more just and with fewer imbalances. (Mora note: You've been talking about that for 46 years and have yet to get it right, cabron.)
castro also called for eliminating the ration book, ending "abuses" and once again re-evaluating the Cuban currency.
"The ration book is tending to disappear, (Mora note: So you're not going to give anyone anything at all now, eh?.) those who work and produce will receive more, those who worked for decades will receive more and will have more things," he said, previewing Wednesday's announced hikes.
castro invited all Cuban people to take part in a battle against theft in all its forms and wherever it appears, referring to the need to crack down on "parasites who don't produce anything." During his speech, castro praised thousands of young social workers who for several weeks replaced attendants at gas stations, saying that their work enabled authorities to uncover a multi-million-dollar fraud in this sector.
The investigation began in the western province of Pinar del Rio before being extended to Havana and other areas of the country and "soon it was discovered that the amount that was stolen was as much as people were saying. Almost half (of the gasoline) was stolen and sometimes more than half," castro said.
"The revolution is going to fix this, and how!" said castro. He added that Cuban society cannot "go soft" and must, therefore, employ the necessary "weapons" to tackle corruption. EFE mar/dgm
Mora last note: Oh man you suck, castro. Die a lonely death.