But the rich-poor distinction was not entirely a function of ownership of property. Even if inequality in property ownership could be completely eliminated immediately, which the revolution has, wisely, I think, not attempted to do, significant social inequalities would remain.
Still there is a remarkable absence of social distinction due to dress, speech, and habit. When you walk into a plant you can't tell who the manager is' he's dressed in construction boots and work clothes just like everybody else.
The approach to achieving equality in income has been not to knock down high salaries, except for the very highest, but to distribute the gains due to economic growth amongst the lower-paid groups of workers.
Also, the social importance of income itself is being reduced. More and more items are being removed from the markets and offered free--health care, education, housing by the 70's telephone service. You Mean You Can Just Pick Up A Phone And Call Anyplace In Cuba?
Well, not long distance, I guess, but anywhere in Havana. They have pay phones just like we do, phone booths, except that you don't have to put in a dime; you just pick up the phone and use it. They have free major league baseball, too. The guy who likes baseball most comes earliest and gets the best seat in the house. What About The Urban-Rural Inequality?
The policy of the government has been to stress agriculture, not simply because they think their comparative advantage lies in agriculture (although I think that is, in the short run, a correct evaluation)--but part of an integrated development of rural society, including social services, and housing. The rural areas were neglected in every way prior to the Revolution, and the government is doing its best to correct the balance.
This emphasis on rural economic development has been concurrent with the achievement of full employment for everybody, including agricultural workers. How Did The Revolution Find Employment For People Where There Didn't Seem To Be Any Before?
Workers were unemployed before because activities they could have been engaged in, to the benefit of the society, simply weren't profitable to the men who had the money to hire them. It was a simple case of private benefits not exceeding costs, even though the social benefits were much greater. In pre-Revolutionary Cuba, it was in the interest of capitalists to have a labor surplus--to keep wages down and make people worker harder. And So Now There Is Plenty Of Work For Everybody?
In fact, the government has undertaken such an ambitious investment and development program that, given their failure to achieve marked increases in labor productivity, a labor shortage has actually been created. To help relieve it, during the harvest season people who normally work at, say, office jobs or in factories, go out to the fields in the voluntary labor program.
There are still some inequalities between the country and the city; for example, fewer rural children go on to secondary school. The striking fact, though, is not that inequalities still exist, but the degree to which they have been reduced. It should not be surprising to a social scientist that Cuba has not been able to eliminate all its inequalities in a mere ten years. What About The Second Objective, Changing The Relation Of Men To The Means Of Production?
People in Cuba talk about "work" in the pre-revolutionary capitalist system as Marx did in his Philosophical and Economic Manuscripts. They view man in a passive role, used like any other tool. They believe that, in a capitalist system, man has no intrinsic interest in either the process of production or the product itself because it is being produced not for society but rather for the profit of the owner of the means of production which the worker uses.
Given this critique, Cubans reject the capitalist system of production as a way to organize society. They base their strategy--their vision of the role of work in the "good society" --upon several beliefs. The first is that under the right conditions work is a creative function, and that man cannot fulfil himself as a creative social being unless he participates in the productive process. The second is that, in a system where production is motivated by social need, men can find work intrinsically enjoyable.
The Cubans are trying to do this in a number of ways. They involve the entire nation in the productive process by means of political speeches on the importance of production for Cuba and the voluntary labor program, to get people to understand the jobs of other workers and the lives they lead. Most People Participate In Voluntary Labor?
Most participate, at least somewhat. However, voluntary labor on a part-time basis is regarded as in interim measure for coping with the labor shortage Social pressures a sense of patriotism, or loyalty to the revolution can motivate people to do most jobs, but some are simply not very rewarding. Such As?
Cutting cane. It's back-breaking work. So the government is giving priority to finding some way of mechanizing the job. I find that intriguing, that the society is committed to eliminating any sort of labor that is not capable of being intrinsically rewarding. Just How Important Is The Factor Of The External Threat Cuba Faces In Making Its People Work Together? In Other Words, Can Cuba Maintain A Spirit Of Cooperation Without Some Sort Of Defensive Nationalism?
Well, that is certainly one of the reasons cooperation, instead of competition for personal reward, has been as successful as it has in Cuba. How Do You Sum Up Your Impressions?
I don't want to give the impression that Cuba is without economic problems. There are serious problems, in labor productivity, in making investments pay, in earning enough foreign exchange, problems of inefficient in public administration. But, the progress that has been made towards equality and the commitment to what seems to me a more humane relation of man to production make Cuba a very exciting case study of the possibilities for a radical transformation of a poor society.