Some quick questions on Cuba I need verified.

[j-mak]

Hey, I just finished reading Fidel Castro's spoken autobiography 'my life'.
Previously I have never been interested in Communism and socialism, but it doesn't seem that bad an ideology. I am a little curious, could somebody answer the following questions for me:

1. Healthcare is free in Cuba, in Australia we have Medicare, which covers basic checkups and such.
Just wondering how free is healthcare in Cuba, If i needed a $100,000 operation, would I pay a cent if I was a Cuban citizen?

2. Is this idea of free healthcare socialist or communist or both?

3. Every worker gets paid the same wage, what about those studying at university, do they get paid to study?

4. If everyone gets paid the same, is there a minimum number of hours you can work? It doesn't seem fair if someone works 5 hours a day and someone else works 8 hours.

5. It is also mentioned in Castro's autobiography that he owns as much money as any other Cuban citizen, yet he drives a bullet-proof mercediez.
How is this possible, was it paid for by the state?

Thanks in advance.

[Imposter Marxist]

^ Don't listen to the Trotskyite Revisionists (I kid!), Cuba is a Socialist nation that has persisted through many rough decades only a few miles from the Capitalist Giant. It has some problems, but it is completely worth defending, and respecting.

[Zanthorus]

3. Every worker gets paid the same wage, what about those studying at university, do they get paid to study?

4. If everyone gets paid the same, is there a minimum number of hours you can work? It doesn't seem fair if someone works 5 hours a day and someone else works 8 hours.

But under socialism/communism people don't get paid the same.


What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. Accordingly, the individual producer receives back from society -- after the deductions have been made -- exactly what he gives to it. What he has given to it is his individual quantum of labor. For example, the social working day consists of the sum of the individual hours of work; the individual labor time of the individual producer is the part of the social working day contributed by him, his share in it. He receives a certificate from society that he has furnished such-and-such an amount of labor (after deducting his labor for the common funds); and with this certificate, he draws from the social stock of means of consumption as much as the same amount of labor cost. The same amount of labor which he has given to society in one form, he receives back in another.

[...]

In a higher phase of communist society, after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly -- only then then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

- http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1875/gotha/ch01.htm

[Sogdian]

Hey, I just finished reading Fidel Castro's spoken autobiography 'my life'.
Previously I have never been interested in Communism and socialism, but it doesn't seem that bad an ideology. I am a little curious, could somebody answer the following questions for me:

1. Healthcare is free in Cuba, in Australia we have Medicare, which covers basic checkups and such.
Just wondering how free is healthcare in Cuba, If i needed a $100,000 operation, would I pay a cent if I was a Cuban citizen?

2. Is this idea of free healthcare socialist or communist or both?

3. Every worker gets paid the same wage, what about those studying at university, do they get paid to study?

4. If everyone gets paid the same, is there a minimum number of hours you can work? It doesn't seem fair if someone works 5 hours a day and someone else works 8 hours.

5. It is also mentioned in Castro's autobiography that he owns as much money as any other Cuban citizen, yet he drives a bullet-proof mercediez.
How is this possible, was it paid for by the state?

Thanks in advance.

Cuban Health Care not only free for Cubans, but also for many others around the world. Cuban Medical School teaches 10 000 foreign students from poor countries for free (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8537928.stm), Cuba also sends thousands of doctors abroad, etc. Click this thread link (http://www.revleft.com/vb/cuban-truth-against-t126472/index.html)for more information on Cuba ...

p.s. Beware of Trotskyists, they can be dangerously misleading! :p

[RadioRaheem84]

Cuban Health Care not only free for Cubans, but also for many others around the world. Cuban Medical School teaches 10 000 foreign students from poor countries for free (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8537928.stm), Cuba also sends thousands of doctors abroad, etc. Click this thread link (http://www.revleft.com/vb/cuban-truth-against-t126472/index.html)for more information on Cuba ...

p.s. Beware of Trotskyists, they can be dangerously misleading! :p

How does one even sign up for a program like that in the States?

Cuban doctors are supposedly held against their will and become indentured servants of the State to promote the country's health care system.

[j-mak]

But under socialism/communism people don't get paid the same.


Hey, thanks for the replies guys!
could someone dumb down this whole socialist people don't get paid the same?
I have always been told everyone makes the same amount of money in communism/socialism, which is the reason why it only works in theory.

[Weezer]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys!
could someone dumb down this whole socialist people don't get paid the same?
I have always been told everyone makes the same amount of money in communism/socialism, which is the reason why it only works in theory.

Socialism is the fair distribution of wealth, not equal.

"From each according to his ability, from each according to his need."

[Invincible Summer]

Hey, thanks for the replies guys!
could someone dumb down this whole socialist people don't get paid the same?
I have always been told everyone makes the same amount of money in communism/socialism, which is the reason why it only works in theory.

You have always been told that communism and socialism only work in theory because the bourgeoisie don't want people thinking that capitalism is a shitty, unjust economic system.

Socialism/communism (some people differentiate between the two, but let's not confuse you for now) value the labour of all working people, which is why everyone in a socialist/communist society would have equal share of the goods produced by society, not necessarily equal wages.

Communism seeks to abolish wages altogether.

All capitalism does is reward the few that do little work - if you think about it, it's all the lower-ranked people in companies that do all the hard work, yet the CEO and CFO earn millions annually. Loggers and miners do some of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, yet the owners of the logging and mining corporations are the ones living it large.

[j-mak]

You have always been told that communism and socialism only work in theory because the bourgeoisie don't want people thinking that capitalism is a shitty, unjust economic system.

Socialism/communism (some people differentiate between the two, but let's not confuse you for now) value the labour of all working people, which is why everyone in a socialist/communist society would have equal share of the goods produced by society, not necessarily equal wages.

Communism seeks to abolish wages altogether.

All capitalism does is reward the few that do little work - if you think about it, it's all the lower-ranked people in companies that do all the hard work, yet the CEO and CFO earn millions annually. Loggers and miners do some of the most dangerous jobs on the planet, yet the owners of the logging and mining corporations are the ones living it large.

That's a great explanation and RedVelvet, thanks for the quote, it's quite direct.

Just one thing
You said:
'Socialism/communism (some people differentiate between the two, but let's not confuse you for now) value the labour of all working people, which is why everyone in a socialist/communist society would have equal share of the goods produced by society, not necessarily equal wages.'

But then you followed this by saying:
'Communism seeks to abolish wages altogether.'

So, im guessing communsim is everyone is equal and gets the same and socialism is where everyone gets their fair share?

Could you give me an example of this, I understand your explanation, but i can't think of any type of implementation:

If my country (australia), became Socialist,
A teacher would still receive 50K a year
A butcher would still recieve 30k a year
(these are just made up figures)
and what else, how would the state's resources be distributed?

[The Vegan Marxist]

That's a great explanation and RedVelvet, thanks for the quote, it's quite direct.

Just one thing
You said:
'Socialism/communism (some people differentiate between the two, but let's not confuse you for now) value the labour of all working people, which is why everyone in a socialist/communist society would have equal share of the goods produced by society, not necessarily equal wages.'

But then you followed this by saying:
'Communism seeks to abolish wages altogether.'

So, im guessing communsim is everyone is equal and gets the same and socialism is where everyone gets their fair share?

Could you give me an example of this, I understand your explanation, but i can't think of any type of implementation:

If my country (australia), became Socialist,
A teacher would still receive 50K a year
A butcher would still recieve 30k a year
(these are just made up figures)
and what else, how would the state's resources be distributed?

Well, one also has to understand that, when we achieve Communism, we'd then end the monetary system altogether. Work wouldn't necessarily be mandatory anymore, & technology would help continue the boring labors that humans today are forcibly put through unneeded extensive labor hours.

[FSL]

Hey, I just finished reading Fidel Castro's spoken autobiography 'my life'.
Previously I have never been interested in Communism and socialism, but it doesn't seem that bad an ideology. I am a little curious, could somebody answer the following questions for me:

1. Healthcare is free in Cuba, in Australia we have Medicare, which covers basic checkups and such.
Just wondering how free is healthcare in Cuba, If i needed a $100,000 operation, would I pay a cent if I was a Cuban citizen?

2. Is this idea of free healthcare socialist or communist or both?

3. Every worker gets paid the same wage, what about those studying at university, do they get paid to study?

4. If everyone gets paid the same, is there a minimum number of hours you can work? It doesn't seem fair if someone works 5 hours a day and someone else works 8 hours.

5. It is also mentioned in Castro's autobiography that he owns as much money as any other Cuban citizen, yet he drives a bullet-proof mercediez.
How is this possible, was it paid for by the state?

Thanks in advance.


1. No
2. Both
3. As as said, not everyone gets paid the same. In a socialist economy people receive according to their work, their contibution. Their pay is determined in the economic plans made to organise the economy.
Students do get a small monetary supplement and I'm quite sure they have things like free housing for as long as they're studying.
4. I think everyone is required to work around 40 hours per week, there are no part-time jobs and hardly anyone works overtime. Someone working longer hours for some reason is obviously payed for that.
5. As the country's president it is rational he'll have access to things like that. Or it became rational after the 500th murder attempt. This belongs to the state, not him like how the White House isn't Obama's property.

[ZeroNowhere]

Socialism is the fair distribution of wealth, not equal.

"From each according to his ability, from each according to his need."

In this critique, Marx theorized the future course of human development, from the dawn of revolution, through the revolutionary transformation of capitalism into communism, as well as the further development of the latter, on the new foundations established during its initial phase, into a “higher phase of communist society.” Dunayevskaya criticized Marxists for continually quoting the slogan “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”—which concludes the CGP’s discussion of the higher phase—but “never bother[ing] to study just how concretely that arose from the critique of the supposedly socialist program, and what would be required to make that real.”
Yeah, in context:


In a higher phase of communist society [rather than the 'initial phase' which was discussed previously, and is still communist society], after the enslaving subordination of the individual to the division of labor, and therewith also the antithesis between mental and physical labor, has vanished; after labor has become not only a means of life but life's prime want; after the productive forces have also increased with the all-around development of the individual, and all the springs of co-operative wealth flow more abundantly -- only then then can the narrow horizon of bourgeois right be crossed in its entirety and society inscribe on its banners: From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!

[Invincible Summer]

That's a great explanation and RedVelvet, thanks for the quote, it's quite direct.

Just one thing
You said:
'Socialism/communism (some people differentiate between the two, but let's not confuse you for now) value the labour of all working people, which is why everyone in a socialist/communist society would have equal share of the goods produced by society, not necessarily equal wages.'

But then you followed this by saying:
'Communism seeks to abolish wages altogether.'

So, im guessing communsim is everyone is equal and gets the same and socialism is where everyone gets their fair share?

Okay I may have confused you by my formatting (sorry). I meant to say that in a socialist/communist society, people have equal access to and distribution of goods produced by society, not equal wages - this is because socialism/communism in the end seeks to abolish wages altogether.

I hope that's better.


Could you give me an example of this, I understand your explanation, but i can't think of any type of implementation:

If my country (australia), became Socialist,
A teacher would still receive 50K a year
A butcher would still recieve 30k a year
(these are just made up figures)
and what else, how would the state's resources be distributed?Hmm perhaps I wasn't too clear. When I say that "people have equal access to and distribution of societal resources, not equal wages" that doesn't mean that unequal wages will still exist (although this is debatable depending on whom you ask).

Socialism/communism seeks to abolish wages altogether. Therefore, the common misconception that under socialism/communism "everyone will be have equal wages" is incorrect, since socialists/communists want to eliminate wages. Replace "equal wages" with "equal access to and distribution of goods and resources."

Now this is where things tend to confuse people. "Socialism" and "Communism" can be interchangeable terms, referring to a stateless, classless, egalitarian society run by the people for the people. However, the transitional period between revolution and a communist society is sometimes referred to as "socialism."
Some socialists/communists suggest that during this transitional period, money and monetary wage should be abolished, but instead we re-imburse workers with labour credits, which are directly related to how much labour one produces. This is different from money because wages are inherently exploitative - a worker in capitalism is not paid his full amount of labour. Labour credits would therefore translate into something like 1 hr of labour - 10 labour credits.
One could then go to the "market" and exchange labour credits for items - the more labour required to create the item, the more labour credits required to "buy" it. Of course, with increased technology and automation of production, labour credits would eventually become obsolete, as intelligent machines would do most if not all the labour of production.
Of course, this leads to the classic "garbage man vs doctor" problem. Why should a doctor, who has gone through years of education, get paid the same amount as a garbage man?
Socialists/communists value all labour - the garbage man, although low in prestige, ensures that the city is clean and thus less likely for the society to contract disease and such, whereas the doctor cares for sick people. However, in recognition of having more education, some communists/socialist propose that it would be reasonable to allow more labour credit earnings to certain professions, such as doctors.

As for resources being distributed, that could involve making sure even more rural areas have excellent health and education services (e.g. in Maoist China there were barefoot doctors who walked from village to village providing medical services), equal transportation infrastructure, etc.


I'm a bit tired so that's all I'll write for now, but hope that helps.

[AK]

^ Don't listen to the Trotskyite Revisionists (I kid!), Cuba is a Socialist nation that has persisted through many rough decades only a few miles from the Capitalist Giant. It has some problems, but it is completely worth defending, and respecting.
I respect Cuba all right. Respect for not fucking up nearly as much as other state capitalist states.

It has to be mentioned though, Cuba must be pretty damn awesome (or corrput) if its surviving a few miles from the USA.

[j-mak]

Okay I may have confused you by my formatting (sorry). I meant to say that in a socialist/communist society, people have equal access to and distribution of goods produced by society, not equal wages - this is because socialism/communism in the end seeks to abolish wages altogether.

I hope that's better.

Hmm perhaps I wasn't too clear. When I say that "people have equal access to and distribution of societal resources, not equal wages" that doesn't mean that unequal wages will still exist (although this is debatable depending on whom you ask).

Socialism/communism seeks to abolish wages altogether. Therefore, the common misconception that under socialism/communism "everyone will be have equal wages" is incorrect, since socialists/communists want to eliminate wages. Replace "equal wages" with "equal access to and distribution of goods and resources."

Now this is where things tend to confuse people. "Socialism" and "Communism" can be interchangeable terms, referring to a stateless, classless, egalitarian society run by the people for the people. However, the transitional period between revolution and a communist society is sometimes referred to as "socialism."
Some socialists/communists suggest that during this transitional period, money and monetary wage should be abolished, but instead we re-imburse workers with labour credits, which are directly related to how much labour one produces. This is different from money because wages are inherently exploitative - a worker in capitalism is not paid his full amount of labour. Labour credits would therefore translate into something like 1 hr of labour - 10 labour credits.
One could then go to the "market" and exchange labour credits for items - the more labour required to create the item, the more labour credits required to "buy" it. Of course, with increased technology and automation of production, labour credits would eventually become obsolete, as intelligent machines would do most if not all the labour of production.
Of course, this leads to the classic "garbage man vs doctor" problem. Why should a doctor, who has gone through years of education, get paid the same amount as a garbage man?
Socialists/communists value all labour - the garbage man, although low in prestige, ensures that the city is clean and thus less likely for the society to contract disease and such, whereas the doctor cares for sick people. However, in recognition of having more education, some communists/socialist propose that it would be reasonable to allow more labour credit earnings to certain professions, such as doctors.

As for resources being distributed, that could involve making sure even more rural areas have excellent health and education services (e.g. in Maoist China there were barefoot doctors who walked from village to village providing medical services), equal transportation infrastructure, etc.


I'm a bit tired so that's all I'll write for now, but hope that helps.

This sums my question up completely, Thanks!