{"id":148,"date":"2014-12-20T22:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/heres-an-idea-lift-the-embargo-but.html"},"modified":"2015-02-24T23:28:10","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T05:28:10","slug":"heres-an-idea-lift-the-embargo-but","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/12\/heres-an-idea-lift-the-embargo-but.html","title":{"rendered":"Here’s an idea: lift the embargo, but . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here\u2019s an excerpt from an article in City Journal<\/a>\u00a0on the situation in Cuba:<\/p>\n

Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don\u2019t get paid more. The government contracts with Spanish companies such as Meli\u00e1 International to manage Havana\u2019s hotels. Before accepting its contract, Meli\u00e1 said that it wanted to pay workers a decent wage. The Cuban government said fine, so the company pays $8\u2013$10 an hour. But Meli\u00e1 doesn\u2019t pay its employees directly. Instead, the firm gives the compensation to the government, which then pays the workers\u2014but only after pocketing most of the money. I asked several Cubans in my hotel if that arrangement is really true. All confirmed that it is. The workers don\u2019t get $8\u2013$10 an hour; they get 67 cents a day\u2014a child\u2019s allowance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is shocking. \u00a0Not so much that Castro cheats its citizens in this way \u2014 it\u2019s rather reminiscent of the factories which \u201cemployed\u201d Jewish workers in the ghettoes in Nazi-occupied Poland paid the SS, which in turn \u201cpaid\u201d the Jews via ration cards which themselves didn\u2019t even provide a survivable number of daily calories. \u00a0But the fact that the managing companies would proceed with this arrangement when they know full well that this pay isn\u2019t making its way to their workers, presumably because their corporate ethics codes or similar policies require that they notionally pay these wages, but they\u2019re happy to check compliance boxes without regard for the actual facts. <\/p>\n

(North Korea has a similar arrangement with South Korean companies setting up shop in a border area, where North Korea pockets the profit, and, to be honest, I can\u2019t recall how the North Korean workers in these factories are treated; it was a while ago that I read this.)<\/p>\n

So how about if we rewrite the embargo: \u00a0any American company doing business in Cuba must pay its workers a \u201cprevailing wage\u201d \u2014 that is, a wage equivalent (in real, not PPP-adjusted terms) to wages paid to workers in similar occupations in nearby Carribean countries \u2014 and must pay them directly. \u00a0Let\u2019s also stipulate that the after-tax wage is what counts, so that if Cuba imposes a 90% tax, wages must reflect that. \u00a0And let\u2019s define \u201cits workers\u201d broadly to include other entities which might work together with any such American company. \u00a0Let\u2019s take this yet further: \u00a0future tourists may only book hotels or resort stays where this stipulation also applies. \u00a0We can even add a further exception: \u00a0should Castro permit individuals to establish their own businesses, and those businesses are able to function without interference from the state, we\u2019d let American businesses and tourists do business with them.<\/p>\n

Would this make a difference? \u00a0Maybe, maybe not. \u00a0It\u2019s better, anyway, then just uncritically doing business with Castro, Inc. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s an excerpt from an article in City Journal\u00a0on the situation in Cuba: Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don\u2019t get paid more. The government contracts with Spanish companies such as Meli\u00e1 International to manage Havana\u2019s hotels. Before accepting its contract, Meli\u00e1 said that it wanted to pay workers a decent wage. The Cuban government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103],"class_list":["post-148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cuba"],"yoast_head":"\nHere's an idea: lift the embargo, but . . .<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's an excerpt from an article in City Journal on the situation in Cuba:Even employees inside the quasi-capitalist bubble don\u2019t get paid more. 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