Compare and contrast between Cuban and united states economy
Open and closed economies have been assumed to produce opposite relations between responding and the programmed density of reward (the amount of reward divided by its cost). Experimental procedures that are treated as open economies typically dissociate responding and total reward by providing supplemental income outside the experimental session; procedures construed as closed economies do not. In an open economy responding is assumed to be directly related to reward density, whereas in a closed economy responding is assumed to be inversely related to reward density. In contrast to this predicted correlation between response-reward relations and type of economy, behavior regulation theory predicts both direct and inverse relations in both open and closed economies. Specifically, responding should be a bitonic function of reward density regardless of the type of economy and is dependent only on the ratio of the schedule terms rather than on their absolute size. These predictions were tested by four experiments in which pigeons' key pecking produced food on fixed-ratio and variable-interval schedules over a range of reward magnitudes and under several open- and closed-economy procedures.
Cuba and the United States of America have had an interest in one another since well before either of their independence movements. Plans for purchase of the nearby island from the Spanish Empire were put forward at various times in the United States. As the Spanish influence waned in the Caribbean, the United States gradually gained a position of economic and political dominance over the island, with the vast majority of foreign investment holdings, the bulk of imports and exports in its hands, and a strong influence on Cuban political affairs. Cuba is a socialist state versus the United States which is a regulated Capitalism governed by a Republican Democracy (not republican as in the party, as in representative government).
In a socialist state, the government (aka the People) own everything jointly and the government controls the economy and all industry by fiat. Companies don't buy and sell shares and are not owned by people who can do as they wish with their companies. The government owns them and distributes produced wealth according to the needs of the people (at least as far as the government sees them).Socialism is, in a sense, an enforced system of communism. The ultimate goal is a self-regulating utopia in which people work for the common good. It sounds great, but to make it work you have to overcome human nature.The capitalistic system that "free" nations use allows businesses to do as they will. People are free to start businesses and compete in an open forum. The strongest businesses survive, the weak fail. In this sort of economic system, the government's role is to set rules of fair play and prevent abuse. For example, the United States does not allow for monopolies (except in specific situations where there's no reasonable alternative, such as some utilities). Businesses are regulated in that they cannot create harmful products (cigarettes not withstanding), and are liable for damages to anyone they injure due to a faulty product. But on a whole, businesses can do as they please. This is how you get companies like Microsoft, IBM, the Ford Motor Company, and others. Smart ideas are taken, expanded, marketed, and sold. Companies are bought, sold, merged, and acquired, bringing growth. No privately owned business in Cuba. No one trusts anyone, even in their own family so anyone with more money than another is suspect of doing something the government doesn't approve of. Everyone in Cuba wonders where their next meal is. We aren't there yet but Obama is moving us rapidly in that direction.
Cuba experienced a surge in foreign tourist visits over the past decade, from a few thousand in 1990 to 1.4 million in 1998. In the mid 1990s tourism surpassed sugar, long the mainstay of the Cuban economy, as the primary source of foreign exchange. According to official figures, the economy grew 3.6 percent during 2001. Despite this, overall economic output remained below the levels prior to the drop of at least 35 percent in gross domestic product (GDP) that occurred in the early 1990's. This drop was due to the inefficiencies of the centrally controlled economic system; the loss of billions of dollars of annual Soviet bloc trade and Soviet subsidies; the ongoing deterioration of plants, equipment, and the transportation system; and the continued poor performance of the important sugar sector.The government of Cuba also has made some inaccurate and inflammatory statements about the United States since September 11. Cuba's Foreign Minister, speaking at the UN General Assembly, said that the U.S. deliberately targeted civilians in Afghanistan. Official government statements also suggested that we brought the September 11 attacks on ourselves. The Cuban media repeated these and other baseless accusations daily for several months.
In the wake of Hurricane Michelle, the United States Government's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance offered to do a humanitarian damage assessment in Cuba. The Cuban government declined the assistance. It also suggested that its decision to purchase U.S. agricultural products after the hurricane had opened the way toward normalization of relations with the United States. This spin confuses American humanitarian sympathy for the people of Cuba with acceptance of a government that denies them the basics of freedom and opportunity.
In recent years, the U.S. government has sought to expand people-to-people contact with Cuba and to make it easier for food and humanitarian supplies to reach the Cuban people. But we would not be true to our own ideals if we ignored the continued denial of basic human rights that the Cuban government inflicts on its own people.The people of Cuba have no freedom of speech, freedom of movement, or right to private property. They continue to be jailed arbitrarily for criticizing their government. It is on these issues that an improvement in Cuba's relations with the United States must wait.
Meantime, there are courageous individuals in Cuba who are working daily and heroically against great repression to bring about the institutions and practices of a civil society. The United States will do all it can to encourage them and to promote a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba.President Bush has said, "America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law; limits on the power of the state; respect for women; private property; free speech; equal justice; and religious tolerance."A much better future waits for Cuba, one marked by a respect for human rights, the rule of law, open markets and greater prosperity. We look forward to the day when Cuba's people can breathe free and their country joins the large and vital family of democracies.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________