More Products for Self-Employment
HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 27 – The Cuban government will increase the supply and amount of some products in the retail network of shops to meet the demand of self-employment, which should grow in 2011 with the opening of new licenses, sources from the Ministry of Economy and Planning announced. Tools and food such as rice and eggs are some of the products to be sold.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that, by transferring workers out of unproductive state jobs and into productive jobs in sectors like agriculture, construction and services, national prosperity will surely rise. But why did it take so long for the PCC to understand this?
What is troubling is the abrupt manner of the great change. Throwing a million workers out the employment door in a kind of “cold turkey” lock-out is cruel and fraught with political danger.
I feel sorry for Cuban workers in this “reform,” but I also feel sorry that the PCC has allowed things to get so screwed up before they kind of figured out what to do.