Socialism, Marxism, Private Property, Cummulative Wealth.

Private Property

Cumulative Wealth

Early in the history of man, about the time Mesopotamia and Egypt rose to become the super powers of the existing world of those days, humans found that by storing grain in granaries they could ensure the survival throughout the lean years or during those times that their crops failed because of weather or some other calamity.

As civilizations became more sophisticated the concept of property and ownership gained a favorable place in the lives of people. They found that if they worked hard, prepared their offspring to be functional and they were able to provide them with some of the wealth they accumulated then their offspring would not only survive but it thrived. It is called the preservation of the species.

What Marxism does is eliminate private property and thus eliminate the prospect of cumulative wealth. When a society can’t pass down their accumulated grain in their granaries to their offspring that society does not flourish, it perishes. This is what we have seen in the Soviet Union and why the system failed miserably.

This is also what we have seen in Cuba. In the absence of private property, Cubans are not encouraged to even work hard, they really don’t care one way or another because the State owns everything and since the State provides all they need there is no incentive to work. Not only does this cause the failure of productivity but it also causes the destruction of all cumulative wealth.

Why is this significant? I see it in the people of Cuba today. Because they are unable to create any wealth and achieve prosperity, they have to rely on the exile community for their wealth. I see it in my aunt and cousins, who apply a very obtuse philosophy: If you have a dollar, you give the government .50 cents and the other .50 cents you give to me because you don’t need it.

And let us not think about cooperation or being part of a “communal commonwealth” because it is very difficult for any given individual to give somebody else a plate of food when his own children are starving. The failures of this system can be rationalized and up to now, the Castro brothers have had their Escape Goat in the likes of the US EMBARGO. But make no mistake about it, the embargo is largely symbolic. Cuba has business and trade relations with almost all the countries on earth. What has happened to them is that they don’t respect their financial obligations and they want to “purchase” goods on credit and then not pay for them.

Other countries have become aware of this and will only sell to Cuba on a cash basis. With Chavez, as long as the price of oil was high he had money to burn. He had the luxury of giving away petrol in order to gain influence and power. He even tried to do it in America by giving away some fuel to heat homes. But as the price of oil dwindled so did Chavez’s possibilities of exerting any influence on his neighbors or even becoming relevant as a world player. The situation in Venezuela today is misery for the common people that is that much more bitter because of the excessive repression.