Another Worker’s Paradise has fallen even farther. Cuba, despite fifty years of enlightened government, is going to start taxing those who live within the Paradise. Will people conclude, “This is all the proof we need that socialism has failed.”? No. Such failures are never enough to stop socialists. One more example of socialism failing won’t stop socialists from failing.
From Reuters: “Most Cubans have not paid taxes for half a century, but that will change under a new code starting January 1. A sliding scale income tax – from 15 percent for earnings of more than 10,000 pesos (about $400) annually, to 50 percent for earnings of over 50,000 pesos, (about $2,000) – adopted in 1994, remains in the new code for the self-employed, small businesses and farms, but it also includes a series of new deductions to stimulate their work.
Eventually all workers will pay income taxes as well as a new 2 percent property tax, but both measures are suspended until “conditions permit” them to go into effect. The government admits, with an average pay of about 450 pesos per month, or $19, many workers do not earn enough to make ends meet. “They collect taxes for all these things around the world, it’s normal,” said Havana economist Isabel Fernandez. “But here we face two problems. On the one hand we are not used to paying for anything and on the other our wages are so low we can’t spare a single peso,” she said.”
Will Cuba’s failure of socialism stop socialists in other places from working to bring about socialistic g0vernments? Of course not. One sign of intelligence is the ability to adapt thoughts and desires to reality. If nationalizing assets and reducing private property makes people poorer, those too filled with hate to think straight want even more nationalization. One more example of socialism failing won’t stop socialists from failing.
Those who hate their neighbors strive to hurt them. Manic leftists take over nations to do as much harm to as many people as possible. After fifty years of tyrannical oppression, the Castro brothers are pouring salt into the wounds of the Cubans they’ve left alive. After driving them into death, jails, and poverty, they have now begun to tax them, at very high rates. Other socialists wait to do the same thing to us.
How did Cuba and its people get into such a fix? God turned His face from them. We may be warned.
