Having been born in Havana, Cuba, Mirta Ojito had a good experience of what was happening in Cuba which was a socialist country. Ojito went to the United States in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift. Her experience in the United States and Cuba helps determine various aspects that shape up the governance structures adopted by the countries. The first positive aspect that can be noted from the book concerns wage system. According to Ojito (2005), the Cuban workers used to get the social value of their efforts by determining the job that one did (p. 125). This means that citizens jointly owned the industries and this provided an opportunity for every person to select the occupation which he or she is interested on. This was a great advantage bearing in mind that workers did not live under the fear of being retrenched.
This also means that individuals were provided with an opportunity to collectively own businesses and workers would no longer be denied an opportunity to work in such institutions due to lack of funds. The second positive aspect of socialism approach is that it motivated the citizens to embrace and respect the laws that were stipulated by Cuban government. Since the government was harsh to the law breakers, individuals were motivated to become law abiding citizens by showing allegiance to the government of by Fidel Castro. Strict penalties were exerted on people who tried to act illegally. Ojito (2005) states that the son of his father’s closest friend was imprisoned for thirty years after trying to escape the country illegally in a boat(p. 221). It can also be noted that unlike capitalism, socialism allowed the citizens of Cuba to produce goods and services that were greatly used to satisfy their needs. Many of the developments that occurred in the lives of the Cubans were supported by the fact that the government was willing to pull the resources together in order to ensure that all people benefited.
The system also ensur...