>>>>>>I could buy the argument that the embargo caused measurably lower growth, but the poverty has other causes.
>>>>
>>>>Quite a few citations have been provided contrary to your view and my impression had been that everybody from Obama to the Pope to the UN associated the embargo with poverty... but if you have better information, then lets see it.
>>>
>>>Obama, the Pope and even the UN are not big champions of the only proven economic model.
>>>
>>>I have friends who actually lived under communism, and they all have the same quote:
>>> "They pretend they pay us, we pretend we work." -- Not really a productive model.
>>>
>>
>>FWIW, the Cubans we saw seemed to be working very hard. We didn't see signs of the indolence you suggest is the natural result of communism.
>
>Everybody works when they know they are being watched.
>
>I am not the one who made up the quote - I heard about "we pretend we work" from people who had lived under communism.
>"they pretend to pay us" only gets 2 million hits on google, so maybe not that well known ;)

I think the people who say that are the same ones who also believe that those receiving government aid in capitalist countries are lazy. Reality is that there are some people everywhere who aren't interested in working, but most people in most places want something meaningful and productive to do, and that most poor people work like hell to make it.

Tamar