It's depressing to see so much of the world in the grip of the Centralized Economy myth, and suffering because of it. It's always the same thing, a delusion that a small oligarchy can somehow make better economic decisions than the consensus created by a free market, and it always fails.

Cuba. It really HAS some of the infrastructure and skills needed to make it prosperous. It's medical system really could work if only they had a large base of paying customers... like they might find in wealthy, elderly Florida if only they could dump the communism mirage. Could you imagine Cuba offering weekend resort stays coupled with medical treatments at bargain prices without the threat of American style lawsuits? HMO's would jump at the chance to save money, Americans would travel to Cuba for treatments they couldn't afford here, the American medical establishment would eventually recover, like Detroit, from the impact of a leaner, meaner competitor... the only loser would be the trial industry. If only they could drop the crap and go in for free market capitalism.

Iran- good lord, the spectre of a major oil exporting nation facing riots because it can't afford to import all the gasoline it needs, it would be like Wisconsin having a cheese shortage. Get with the program, you dolts, if there's one book with even less real economic insight than the Communist Manifesto, it's the Koran. Wake up and smell the options trading.

Gaza- here we have complaints that Gaza isn't "economically viable"- and bear in mind it's sitting on Mediterranean beachfront property! Just think how screwed up you have to be to blow an opportunity like that. Like a gang taking over the Riviera or Barbados, then wondering how they can possibly run an economy with all that sand and sun and sea all over the place. Someone please roll up an issue of the Economist together with a Conde Naste Traveler and give these guys a good whack in the noggin.

The glory of Capitalism is that people are rewarded for providing what other people want. Fulfill the wishes of others, and you get paid! Every other economic system ever imagined relies on "screw that, instead of fulfilling the wishes of others, do what I think you should be doing."
No wonder the leaders of centrally planned economies invariably have to amend that with "because I have a gun."

China should be a shining example to these people: play your cards right, and you can reap the rewards of capitolism while STILL maintaining your centralized political power system! China is a hoot- they spend more and more of their effort convincing themselves that despite stock markets, corporations, and private ownership of farms they are still Communist. Yeah. Whatever works, guys.

Or maybe its a spiritual thing. Let's see, the nations of the middle east that are the richest- Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE, and Qatar, just happen to be the ones with the LEAST overt hostility to Israel. Coincidence?

Naah. Just a demonstration that poverty, these days, is directly proportional to how deeply a nation's leaders have their heads inserted into their tribal, traditional, and anti-free market sphincters.

Ben