Equity in Cuba

[Daniel Peres]

The Democrats have been talking a lot about “Equity” lately. They want everyone to be equal.

My father taught me many things about Cuba, both before and after the communist revolution. Well let me share a story my father once told that gives a real-life example of “Equity”.

He told me of a friend who was a cattle rancher. After the communists to control of the country, they went to people’s homes and businesses to do what they called “an inventory”. This was done for the purpose of getting information about an individual or company’s property and to confiscate anything they wanted for themselves or the new government.

When the commies arrived at the man’s ranch, he was informed that all his cattle were being confiscated. He yelled, “Are you crazy! These aren’t just any cows. These are special cows imported from Texas.”

The communist officer then screamed the following orders to his subordinates, “Kill all the cattle! Nobody is allowed to have anything better than anyone else!”

Here’s another, more recent example. Long ago, the Communist Party in Cuba passed an Anti-Hoarding law. The law basically states that no one is allowed to have too much of anything because that would be unequitable.

Last year there was a man in Santiago, Cuba that had a little business selling string for sewing. You see, people must repair their clothes in Cuba, since it’s not affordable to but new clothes all of the time. Anyway, buy a spool can be expensive so this man built a business where he would buy spools of thread and make small spools that people could afford. Well one day somebody in the neighborhood reported he was hoarding spools of thread. The police promptly arrested him and confiscated his thread. Fortunately, he was released after he paid a fine. Unfortunately, he to go to the police that arrested him, and buy back the thread they had confiscated from him.

That’s Equity in action!

 

[Fantine]

You don't get equity by bringing everyone down. You get equity by raising opportunity and basic income for everyone else.
Where there have been violent communist takeovers this always seems to have been the case. The wealthy class owns so much wealth while everyone else is starving. People get angry and violent and vengeful.
In many nations with strong social safety nets, the level of poverty and desperation never got to that point. People recognized that the most prosperous countries had a strong middle class which provided a strong consumer base which kept factories and other businesses prosperous. They took some of their country's prosperity and used it to bolster that strong large middle class through health insurance, pensions, paid time off, and disability.
Our country would be wise to do the same.

 

[Daniel Peres]

You don't get equity by bringing everyone down. You get equity by raising opportunity and basic income for everyone else.
Where there have been violent communist takeovers this always seems to have been the case. The wealthy class owns so much wealth while everyone else is starving. People get angry and violent and vengeful.
In many nations with strong social safety nets, the level of poverty and desperation never got to that point. People recognized that the most prosperous countries had a strong middle class which provided a strong consumer base which kept factories and other businesses prosperous. They took some of their country's prosperity and used it to bolster that strong large middle class through health insurance, pensions, paid time off, and disability.
Our country would be wise to do the same.

What you want is equal opportunity for everyone, and I am totally on board with that. But that is different from equity where everyone is guaranteed the identical lousy outcome.