Cuban Corruption: Les Miserables

Castro made them do it.

Now that the new Cuban dictator has decreed that the the corruption that plagues the dysfunctional Cuban "Economy" is systemic, the MSM in Havana has decided it's OK to tell the rest of the world that the Cubans stuck on Communism (read Stupid) have no choice but to steal from the State in order to survive.

Remember ,working in Cuba is a struggle. Getting to work requires navigating through the country's dismal transportation system and it can take hours to get to your job. No matter where you work, you've got the same boss as everybody else; the Regime. Its a despotic and humiliating work-life that has reduced the average Cuban in a modern day Jean Veljean.

From Sunday's Sun Sentinel. (the Tribune Co. )

Can desire to subsist be called corruption?

Excerpts:

A dysfunctional economy means major problems with productivity and the delivery of goods and services, forcing many Cubans to break some law in order scrape out a living. Many steal from state enterprises and then sell items -- from air conditioners to microwaves to lobster tails and slabs of horsemeat -- "por la izquierda," or "from the left," a common phrase used to refer the black market.

Communist authorities like to point out that all Cubans are guaranteed employment and education, health care, housing and food. Still, many workers who rely on their $12 to $15 a month in earnings from state-run businesses said salaries alone are never enough to make ends meet.

"The perception is very clear among economists here that the Cuban economy doesn't function," said Pedro Monreal, a professor at the Center for Research on the International Economy. "In the end, it is difficult to imagine popular support for whatever follows Fidel if that ... government does not deliver in terms of the well-being of the people."

For many Cubans, the problems with the system include inadequate public transportation, crumbling housing, food shortages and soaring prices.

Monreal said he was encouraged by the government's willingness to at least discuss economic reforms that years ago were considered taboo, including decentralizing control in businesses, expanding the power of managers at privately owned agriculture cooperatives and increasing incentives to workers.

"What are people waiting for? Cheaper food," he said. "If the Cuban government does not provide that, nothing of what it says will be believed. If you cannot produce food at reasonable prices, you will have no credibility."

And, Eddie a Modern Day, Real Life Jean Valjean adds:

"The government calls it corruption," he said. "We call it survival, subsistence. We're not criminals. Pay us what we deserve. Put food in the markets. Watch the corruption disappear."

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