2009 Study Abroad video with students from the university of georgia..

Cuba & collective incentives

Our good friend socialist Fabian came back from Cuba yesterday understandably excited. He regaled us for hours with stories of the ideal society. A few things stuck in my mind, mostly in relation to incentives:

1 - he says things are extremely well organised, which means that people want to organise things (unlike Ecuador).

2 - propaganda has put meant a generation knows nothing but the revolution, but we also know nothing but capitalism.

3 - he said that everyone wants to work in tourism because you get tips. If everyone makes the same money, who would ever want to clean the bins..?

4 - If the US got rid of the embargo tomorrow what would happen? maybe a short story in the offing, but (like Ecuador scapegoating the US - rightly or wrongly) there would be no collective enemy and the black market, already huge, would take over the country.

5- he says people are motivated, not by individual gain as every economist would tell us, but by collective gains. If this is true then we don't need to tinker with the incentives as everyone has been telling us (carbon credits anyone) but we need to realise the satisfaction in things that only groups of people can grow. So maybe there is a future for collective ownership and action, even if we don't want such drastic measures of getting there..