Castro, Cuba, and Capitlalism - What’s RIGHT With THIS Picture?

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a very interesting article by Jose de Cordoba and Nicholas Casey about Cuba’s moves towards a free market economy.  I’m very excited about the changes I expect to see in that country in the next few years.  I think that tremendous business opportunities will arise for those that are actively looking. These areas include tourism, small business training, and mobile marketing.


The best news out of all of this current crisis is that the country’s leaders seem ready to embrace private-sector initiatives.  "Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls (and) losses that hurt the economy," the statement issued by the Cuban Workers Federation said.


As we witness the end of one of the last true Communist economies in the world, it is important to remember that one of the primary keys to prosperity is the ability of its people to pursue their dreams without government restrictions.  Ayn Rand taught us that lesson so well in Atlas Shrugged.  Perhaps it is time for the Cuban Americans that have been hiding in Galt’s Gulch to start packing their bags for a return to a land that is truly ready for major free market reform.

The major opportunities that I see for eager entrepreneurs include these areas which require very little capital investment and hold the potential for significant return.

Tourism - What does this mean to opportunity seekers?  I see immediate opportunities for the following areas:  tourism and small business training.  The demand for Americans wanting to visit Cuba will be extraordinarily high.  Americans have a long-held fascination for all things Caribbean and in particular, have been very angry that they were not “allowed” to visit this Cuba.  Indeed, I see tremendous opportunity here.


Small Business Training - As to small business training, this is a land of people that have wants and needs that have been suppressed for nearly 50 years.  Many new businesses will be created.  With over 85% of the Cuban work force employed by the state (2009 numbers), it is fair to say that most of them have no idea how to start or run a business.   Basic small business training will be needed.  Although most Cubans speak Spanish, there is a significant portion of the population that speaks English, French, and Russian.  Possible options for dealing with this - hire a translator for on-the-ground work and for converting information products.


Mobile Marketing - In a country where most people do not have access to computers, smart phones will be a very hot product here as they have been in other lesser developed countries.  This will be the means by which most people will get their access to the internet for all the things that we know and love - access to information, training, products, etc.  People who can deliver their products and services well via mobile devices - in Spanish - will see enormous opportunity.


Although this is the first time I have written about Cuba, I have long speculated about the tremendous opportunities that await.  Entrepreneurs get ready.  What appears to be a slow trickle towards free markets could accelerate much the way that the fall of communism in Eastern Europe did from 1989 to 1990.  Change came very fast.  People that were watching closely - and that were able to act swiftly - benefited enormously from the new opportunities.  Will you be ready?


My major takeaways from the WSJ article included:

• The Cuban government is laying off more than half a million state workers and encouraging them to move into private-sector jobs and self-employment opportunities.  In a country where approximately 5 million workers worked for the state at the close of 2009, this is really big news that will likely be painful in the short-term but tremendously positive in the long term. (The statement said that over a million total cuts are expected in the near-term.)

• Several days ago, in an interview with The Atlantic Magazine, retired President Fidel Castro said that the Cuban model no longer worked.  Although he later said that he had been misunderstood, it appears that the elder Castro is tacitly supporting his brother’s efforts to move Cuba’s economy towards capitalism.

• Cuba wants to move workers in “nonproductive jobs into areas that have not been very attractive, such as construction, farm labor, police, teachers, and industrial workers. “  Having people who are motivated to build things, make food, teach people, and do industrial work seems to me a formula for economic stimulus.

• Although the government’s list of 124 “authorized” activities for self-employment includes “carpenter,” it clearly states that carpenters are only allowed to “repair existing furniture of make new furniture upon the direct request of a customer.”  This list also includes toy repairman, music teacher and pinata salesman.  It is hard to argue that Cuba needs policies that are more supportive of people who want to be engaged in matters that might lead to creating things that are more business oriented.

• In an effort to address the country’s huge current-account deficit, Cuba has made significant cutbacks in imports, including “critical inputs for agricultural and manufacturing.”  This has led to decreased agricultural and industrial production.  Again, this is not a formula for economic success.

I’d love to hear your ideas about potential opportunities - and obstacles - awaiting eager entrepreneurs that seek opportunity in Cuba.  Please feel free to email me at gina at ginacarr.com or to visit me on facebook at www.facebook.com/ginacarrfanpage.

Related Links

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704190704575489932181245938.html?KEYWORDS=jose+de+cordoba

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2588407/posts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cuba?affil=ask

ARC on the Tea Parties

Hi folks - I wanted to forward on an important email from the Ayn Rand Center. Great resources here. Thanks, Gina

Dear Admirer of Ayn Rand,

Earlier this week, we wrote to you to promote a new video, titled "Atlas Shrugged and the Tea Party Revolts." Today we're writing to let you know that we are expanding this effort with two new videos, along with a new Web page of Tea Party Resources.

The new videos expand upon the moral meaning of the Tea Party efforts, and the ideas that will be needed in order to make the defense of individual rights a success.

• Individual Rights and the Boston Tea Party
• The Moral Defense of Freedom

Once again, we want to bring these videos to as wide an audience as possible, and we encourage you to view them and, if you like them, pass them along to others. Remember also that you can watch our videos as they are produced by subscribing to our YouTube channel for updates.

We are also proud to present our new Web page, titled "ARC on the Tea Parties." There you'll find relevant material on the morality of capitalism, Atlas Shrugged, and ARC's tea party resources. Materials on the page include:

• Flyers that can be used as Tea Party handouts
• Speaker resources
• Video presentations by ARC spokesmen
• Radio interviews
• Recordings of Ayn Rand
• ... and much more.

I'm grateful for the outpouring of activism that we have seen from our audience in recent times. I encourage you to continue, so that we may influence the culture towards Ayn Rand's vision of individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism.

Sincerely,

Yaron Brook
Executive Director
The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

Is Rand Relevant

Yaron Brook is the President of the Ayn Rand Institute. I think you will enjoy his profound opinion-editorial was published recently in the Wall Street Journal. http://snipurl.com/wsjrand

Is Rand Relevant?
By YARON BROOK

Ayn Rand died more than a quarter of a century ago, yet her name appears regularly in discussions of our current economic turmoil. Pundits including Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santelli urge listeners to read her books, and her magnum opus, "Atlas Shrugged," is selling at a faster rate today than at any time during its 51-year history.



There's a reason. In "Atlas," Rand tells the story of the U.S. economy crumbling under the weight of crushing government interventions and regulations. Meanwhile, blaming greed and the free market, Washington responds with more controls that only deepen the crisis. Sound familiar?



The novel's eerily prophetic nature is no coincidence. "If you understand the dominant philosophy of a society," Rand wrote elsewhere in "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," "you can predict its course." Economic crises and runaway government power grabs don't just happen by themselves; they are the product of the philosophical ideas prevalent in a society -- particularly its dominant moral ideas.



Why do we accept the budget-busting costs of a welfare state? Because it implements the moral ideal of self-sacrifice to the needy. Why do so few protest the endless regulatory burdens placed on businessmen? Because businessmen are pursuing their self-interest, which we have been taught is dangerous and immoral. Why did the government go on a crusade to promote "affordable housing," which meant forcing banks to make loans to unqualified home buyers? Because we believe people need to be homeowners, whether or not they can afford to pay for houses.



The message is always the same: "Selfishness is evil; sacrifice for the needs of others is good." But Rand said this message is wrong -- selfishness, rather than being evil, is a virtue. By this she did not mean exploiting others à la Bernie Madoff. Selfishness -- that is, concern with one's genuine, long-range interest -- she wrote, required a man to think, to produce, and to prosper by trading with others voluntarily to mutual benefit.



Rand also noted that only an ethic of rational selfishness can justify the pursuit of profit that is the basis of capitalism -- and that so long as self-interest is tainted by moral suspicion, the profit motive will continue to take the rap for every imaginable (or imagined) social ill and economic disaster. Just look how our present crisis has been attributed to the free market instead of government intervention -- and how proposed solutions inevitably involve yet more government intervention to rein in the pursuit of self-interest.



Rand offered us a way out -- to fight for a morality of rational self-interest, and for capitalism, the system which is its expression. And that is the source of her relevance today.



Dr. Brook is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. www.YaronBrook.com