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>From "Cuba's Socialist Renewal" http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com To sign up as a follower or receive email updates click link above Ariel Terrero is one of Cuba's most prominent economic commentators. He has a regular column in Cuba's Bohemia current affairs magazine and a spot on Cuban TV. In this commentary he takes up the concern expressed by many Cubans about the proposal to gradually eliminate the ration book system, through which all Cuban households receive a monthly quota of highly subsidised basic goods in special stores. The ration book system subsidises everybody equally, including those with higher incomes and those who receive substantial remittances from relatives living outside Cuba. With the income stratification that has opened up during the past two decades of the post-Soviet Special Period — and that will be consolidated as revolutionary Cuba moves away from a paralysing egalitarian paternalism by reasserting the link between income and the individual's or work collective's labour contribution to society — the ration book no longer serves social justice, but reinforces social inequality by draining state coffers of money that could be targeted to those who really need subsidies. Link to translation: http://cubasocialistrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/03/translation-when-ariel-terrerobohemia.html ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
