<<The world does not "walk" to it's customer base....>>
Economics 101: Nobody walks any more in international trade. The seller ships to the buyer. The cost of shipping is included in the buyer's cost of goods.
Economics 101: The farther the seller has to ship the goods to market, the more it costs the buyer.
Economics 101: The farther that perishable goods have to be shipped, the higher the cost of refrigeration, which is also added to buyer's landed costs.
<<this isn't the 1800's....>>
No, that's why it's so surprising to me that Americans still don't seem to know Economics 101. Well, some Americans. Conservative Americans. Anyone dumb enough to think that a boycott by your biggest and closest natural customer won't hurt you.
<< . . . well maybe in the failure that is Cuba!>>
The "failure" that the World's Onliest Superpower has been trying to bring down for half a century and hasn't done so yet? THAT "failure?" The country whose leader survived TEN U.S. Presidents and their countless efforts to assassinate him, invade his country and sabotage his country? THAT "failure?" LMFAO - - the failure is obviously the U.S.A. Cuba without Fidel may or may not succumb to the U.S. efforts to poison the dream, but if it does go down, it won't be long before the U.S. goes down in an even bigger fall.
<<Countries make or break on their own.....no whining about how "it's everybody else's fault" we suck.>>
The only whining I hear is from the World's Onliest Superpower - - the evil Iranians and their evil bomb, the evil Iraqis will destroy us if we don't invade them first, the evil Islamofascists and how terrible they are. Give me a fucking break. Nobody whines like Amerikkka whines, and it is really nauseating. The Cubans aren't whining. They blame the U.S.A. for their economic hardship and it should be obvious to any thinking person that a massive boycott like that by the closest market and the closest supplier is going to hurt. Bullshit excuses like "this isn't the 1800's" or "the world does not walk to its customer base" are just absolute nonsense - - if the embargo isn't hurting Cuba economically, why the fuck does the U.S. government insist on maintaining it even as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling for an end to it? Why? Use your fucking head for christ sake instead of spouting meaningless nonsense about whether or not it's the 1800's. THINK!!
<<Look in the mirror!>>
Good advice. Try it some time.
<<If a country can't sell to one country and it's got any balls....it just moves on to other customers.>>
That's exactly what the Cubans have done. Obviously the other markets aren't as profitable as the American market. Or did you think that there's the same amount of profit to be found in each and every market in the world, no matter where it is situated, because shipping costs, transit times for perishable goods and other geographical factors make absolutely no difference at all in international trade? Come on, get real.
<<Hell if I had that attitude I still be washing dishes like when I was 15 years old.>>
Bullshit, Big Talker. If the California State Government passed a law forbidding you to do any business in the U.S.A. and told you to find new customers but they had to be in Latin America, you'd be out of business the same fucking day that the law was passed.
<<A country doesn't sit around for 50 years crying..."boo whooo we cant sell to the closest country". Roll Eyes>>
For most of the past 50 years, they traded sugar for Russian oil, they built hotels for European and Canadian tourists and they developed medical schools, a medical profession, and medical product lines which they do in fact sell in alternative markets. They don't sit around except in your overactive imagination crying boo hoo etc. And, despite those efforts, the U.S. embargo still hurts. They aren't crying boohoo (only chickenshit Amerikkkans cry boohoo, Boohoo the evil Iranians want a bomb to kill us with, boohoo evil Saddam is about to nuke our ass, boohoo the Vietnamese attacked our ships in the Gulf of Tonkin) but they know who's fucking them in the ass. And when the people who are fucking them in the ass have the God-damn nerve to tell them why they're fucked up, then they or somebody for them has to set the record straight.
<<Hello?.....Airplanes...cargo ships exist.>>
Yeah, they do. How do you think the European and Canadian tourist trade comes to Cuba, by donkey cart? How do you think they can export the limited amounts of sugar they're able to sell to Canada and other Latin American countries?
<<If you make a good quality product there will be customers....all over the world.>>
It's an AGRICULTURAL country. Do you think they can make an orange the whole fucking world will have to have? A grain of sugar that's superior to any other grain of sugar in the whole fucking world? Why don't you try relating to the real world once in awhile. They're a small agricultural country of 11 million people. There is no fucking crop that they can grow that is going to outrank that same crop grown in any other small agricultural country. AND their cost of agricultural tools, implements, fertilizers, etc. is higher than the same costs for their competitors since they but not their competitors are under a U.S. embargo.
<<The United States is not Cuba's problem....Communism is.
<<Like if the embargo didn't exist Cuba would have been another Japan/South Korea booming with production?>>
No actually it is that DESPITEe the embargo, they are still able to produce a higher standard of living for their citizens than most other Caribbean nations.
<<Yeah sure......lol>>
You should skip the 'LOL" since it's obvious you don't know what the fuck you are talking about.
<<Communism stifles ingenuity and incentive.>>
Which I suppose accounts for the dramatic improvement in public education, literacy, health and housing for the Cuban people following the Revolution.
<<It's not brain surgery...would you spend tons of money/research/hard work inventing
something if you knew as soon as it hit big that Michael Tee/Castro/the gvt would rush
in and say "this is now the people's product, you don't own it anymore"?>>
Yeah, actually I would. Maybe you think every creative intelligent person has to be a greed-driven selfish self-centred animal bastard working only for his own benefit, but you are dead wrong.
Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the Salk Anti-Polio Vaccine, did not try to patent the vaccine but he worked his ass off to develop it.
<<When news of the vaccine's success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a "miracle worker", and the day "almost became a national holiday." His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?">>
(from the Wikipedia article on "Jonas Salk")
Capitalism is founded on selfishness and greed. That people put up with these selfish greedy ass-holes instead of lining them all up against the wall is simply pathetic. But it's ludicrous for the selfish bastards to assert that only they can create, that only they can invent. It's the biggest fucking lie in the world. Usually what they "invent" is crap like tobacco, alcohol, shitburgers that cause cancer, heart attacks etc., and sell their poisonous shit to the world for profit. The real benefactors of mankind don't give a shit about the money and they try to cure disease, heal the sick, teach the ignorant, comfort the afflicted and believe me they do not get rich from it.
<<Without incentive....not much happens....which means poverty.>>
What a load of fucking crap. Your country produces tons of worthless shit, weapons of mass destruction, poisonous crap, and the rich continually get richer while the poor get continually poorer. In no way does your public health match the public health of most other industrialized nations. But for millionaires, you have the best health care. In no way do your public schools match the public schools of most other industrialized nations but for millionaires, you have the best schools. Capitalism results in the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. Poverty is growing in the US, unemployment is growing . . .
<<Look in the mirror!>>
Look in your own fucking mirror! Look at the wealth of the wealthiest, look at the poverty of your poorest. Look at 47 million Americans who don't even have health insurance and the tens of millions of others who are underinsured. Look at the highest incarceration rates in the world, apart from a handful of other countries, at the millions who have turned to crime because of the poverty that is their only alternative. Capitalism is what has fucked you up, capitalism is what is still fucking you up.