The Socialist Dream Lives; K.L. Binngsley

Convert specific tax breaks to general tax reductions. Convert specificregulatory breaks to widespread regulatory relief. Finally, get all governments out of the business of protecting particular competitors and into the business of protecting competition. In short, rebuild the Founders' original wall of separation between the public and private realms of human action. 0 The SocialistDream Lives by K. L. Billingsley T he United Nations development agency recently rated nations on how they com bat poverty, thereby providingvaluable lessons in economics, politics, and even diplomacy. At the head of the list stands Trinidad and Tobago, a tiny Caribbean nation noted mainly for tourism. The islands' economy cannot provide enough jobs for its citizens, who emigrate in search of work. How the U.N. developers came up with Trinidad as the model poverty fighter remains mysterious but their second-place ranking, Cuba, provides some clues.

Before the demise of the Soviet Union, the Marxist-Leninist Cuban regime of Fidel Cas tro, the world's longest-running dictator, fought even the communist reforms of glas nost and perestroika. The USSR duly passed into history and its Eastern Bloc colonies began throwing off their chains, trading the crackpot theories of Karl Marx for the free market economics of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek. But in Cuba, Fidel remained K L. Billingsley is a journalism fellow at the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles. true to the socialist faith, even without the billions in annual Soviet subsidies. While other Latin American nations turned to democracy and capitalism, Cuba not only rejected the free-market reforms but cracked down on private activity and political dissent. Alone in the hemisphere Cubans suffered rationing and true deprivation. By Cuban statistics, the country's GNP has fallen by about 20 percent, with the true figure likely much worse. The average Cuban worker, according to the island's government, earns 203 pesos a month, which at official rates translates to about $140 per y~ar.

For a time they had used various walls in Havana as a posting board for classified ads. But when this proved too popular, Cuba's communist government banned the practice as a "vestige of capitalism." Most recently, the regime has declared Havana off-limits to those streaming in from the countryside in search of work and food. Contrary to what the regime's foreign apologists maintain, the U.S. embargo does not explain the island's plunge into an abject poverty rival ing that of Haiti. There is nothing the United States makes that Cuba cannot freely buy from other na tions, which have lately been investing in Cuba in defiance of U.S. policy. Canada's Sherrit International Corporation has in vested $675 million in Cuba. Of the annual $10,000Cuba gets for each Sherritworker, the government keeps $9,784, a tax rate of 97 percent. Yet Cubans, now desperate to sur vive, line up for the jobs.

Any sober analysis reveals Cuba as a de stroyer of wealth and a creator of poverty. A regional economic power before Castro, the regime has caused its citizens to flee by the thousands, often risking their lives to do so, leaving loved ones behind. That should come as no surprise because Marxism-Leninism is history's greatest creator of poverty, misery, and mass death. Nations that are barren of liberties are also barren of groceries. Yet the United Nations development agency ranks Cuba ahead of Chile, Singapore, and Costa Rica, which far outstrip it in wealth. According to the U.N., nations can elimi nate poverty by "combating gender inequalTHE SOCIALIST DREAM LIVES 657 ity," and "narrowing the differences between genders and social classes," along with "re forming trade policies," areas in which Cuba apparently ranks high. But those countries that have increased national wealth and ac tually lifted people from poverty have done so by the very means rejected by Cuba, the free market, individual responsibility, privatiza tion, and low government regulation.

If the U.N. truly wanted to help nations lift their citizens from poverty, it would advance these proven measures and oppose the statist dictatorships. Instead, the U.N. offers tired political and bureaucratic solutions, proving once again that the socialist dream can thrive even when the evidence against it stands stronger than ever. For the world's poor that is a tragedy and there seems little reason American policy makers should support an international bu reaucracy which rewards dictatorships for having created poverty while downgrading productive democracies that have created wealth. 0 ~ The governmentwill no longer dictate what your childrenlearn. ~ You can easily send your children to a school that values independentthought and For FREE Information freedom. (Includinga copyof the Proclautlont ~ Teacherswon't be ambushed by bureaucraticrules and fads. call1oII..free1..11'.."'..1176,orwrHI: ~ You'll live in a society where the poor are better educated. SeparatfottofSchool,. StaRAllattee ~ Yourstate and local taxes will be cut nearly in half. +571N. first-S10'frattO, CA 9'7%6 3,131 parents,communityleaders,teachers,scholars,and religiousleaders www.sepschooLorg Juive already signed our "Proclamationfor the Separation of School and State," including: Imad-ad-DeanAhmad •John Baden •Sam Blumenfeld•John Blundell· DavidBoaz· Barbara Branden •SteveBuckstein Doug Casey •Alex Charuen • Ed Crane • Steve Dasbach •William A Dunn • MStanton Evans •John Thylor Gatto Bettina Bien Greaves • Jacob Hornberger • Ethelmae Humphreys • Robert D Kephart • HF Langenberg Rabbi Daniel Lapin •J Stanley Marshall •Steven W Mosher •Ron Nash •Gary North •Marvin Olasky •Ron Paul Howard Phillips • Robert Prechter, Jr· Charles Rice • Sheldon Richman • Art Robinson • Hans Sennholz Fred Smith (eEl) •George H Smith •Joseph Sobran •Richard Stroup •David Theroux •Herb Titus •Jeffrey Thcker KG West •Perry Willis •Jarret Wollstein ~-----------------------------~ Ideas and Consequences Educating the Difficult by Lawrence W. Reed ,~Jhenever the issue of "school choice"