The Greedy and Oppressive

The Greedy and Oppressive

Our choice should not be between being governed by the greedy or the oppressive. I agree that of the two it is usually better to be governed by the greedy because they realize that you must have a certain degree of freedom to be productive wealth generators. I guess, as is with Cuba, that an oppressive government cherishes control over the people rather than greedy pursuit of wealth. At least they sure don’t seem to care that they never make very much of it. Here’s an oxymoron for you – wealthy socialist nation. They have NEVER existed and they never shall. The oppressive governments ball and chain their people with all sorts of restrictions on personal freedom. The greedy merely let you do your thing for the most part but tax you at a higher rate than the serfs of old.

Cubans should remember that government must only exist for one reason – to protect the conditions for liberty to flourish. They should never be allowed to have Departments of Human Resources that herd us like cattle and milk us for labor. They should never be allowed to dictate what adults do in private, as long as it does not interfere with the reciprocal rights of others to do likewise. To do the limited task of defending the nation from threats to liberty both foreign and domestic, restrain men from injuring one another and other Constitutional duties, the government needs funding. But this tax should never be based on human labor output or sales receipts. These are too hard and expensive to collect, too easy to evade and they consume the highest percentages of the wealth of the poorest as the rich can tax shelter their capital investments. To stop the main cause of poverty the government should mostly be funded by a location value tax. This stops land speculation and urban land hoarding in its tracks. It would stabilize the Real Estate market and eliminate these regular boom bust cycles that always lead to a recession. The Federal Reserve has some dabbling they can still do but we are probably going to have a recession next near. We are now in the bust cycle of Real Estate so a recession has always followed historically.

Here is the reality fellow Cuban exiles – you all are the most astute people on this planet politically. By being exiled from your homeland but allowed to live in this modern society with all of the technology you have been forced by fate to know the truth. You know a tyrant like Chavez when you see one while everybody else is just now catching on. You know what a good government should look like. Our kin on the island definitely know what a bad government looks like. Certainly things cannot go on as they have now for 47 years because you can only decline so far before people revolt. The high Cuban suicide rate shows that this tipping point is nearing because some people prefer death to socialism right now.

So when that time comes lets build the wealthiest, most peaceful, happy society on the planet. To do this we must have the smartest government that will implement the wisest social and economic policy. Cuban exiles know what works and what should be axed. The Cuban exile knows that capital investment and personal profit are good things and not just for the socialist royal family – for everyone. We know that the power to tax is the power to destroy and we will never wield that power to leave a poor permanent underclass. We will tax the vice and leave alone the nice. Of course the socialist will be pleasantly surprised with this economic reform because the highest taxed would be the corporations who occupy high rent locations like downtown Havana. People living in the outer lying areas pay little or no location tax so they finally will be allowed to start accumulating wealth without being taxed till death on their income. From this point it is up to the Cuban people what type of society they wish to build. With Cubans freed from poverty and boredom in Cuba they will do great things for the world I promise you.

Tomás Estrada-Palma