Havana Cuba. – The desire of the Castro authorities to control everything that moves in the economy seems to have no limits. It is no longer enough for them to monitor and interfere in the management of self-employed workers, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (mypimes), and non-agricultural cooperatives. Now everything indicates that it is the turn of garage sales.
During the most recent meeting to review the economy in Havana, which had the active participation of the head of the ruling Communist Party in the capital, Luis Antonio Torres Iríbar, “it was evaluated the need to order garage sales and do them on the days, in the places and with the authorized lines”.
This type of sales came up about a year ago and, as its name indicates, they were conceived to be carried out in garages or premises attached to homes, with articles of use, a price system according to the supply-demand relationship, and without the need for sellers to obtain any type of license. by the authorities.
In a context of excess money in circulation that does not find an effective correspondence in the availability of goods and services -especially those that are marketed in national currency-, this type of garage sale, in addition to contributing to reinforcing the aforementioned correlation, constitutes a possibility that ordinary Cubans have to buy clothing, footwear and other items at more affordable prices.
For all these benefits, and because so far they have not been accused of setting the so-called “abusive prices” to the population, the intention of the Havana Communist Party to “order” garage sales is surprising.
To begin with, the decision to establish the days on which said activity can be carried out does not seem logical. If the seller exhibits his merchandise in a place that belongs to his home, who could bother that he sells every day?
In a tour of several stores that are dedicated to garage sales, we noticed that the daily offer is one of the characteristics that consumers appreciate the most, who would be affected if those stores opened only on certain dates. With respect to the lines that are marketed, no obvious violations were noted with regard to the sale of imported clothing.
So, when looking for the real causes of this next attack on garage sales, it would be necessary to resort to a triad of factors that are part of the internal blockade that the Castro authorities apply against their citizens.
In the first place, the obsession of the power apparatus to impede the economic progress of people outside government institutions stands out; and closely linked to it the tricky ordinance of not allowing the concentration of wealth.
We must also remember epigraph 104 of the Conceptualization of the Cuban Economic and Social Model of Socialist Development, which establishes that this concentration of wealth in non-state natural or legal persons will not be allowed. As far as it has transpired, such a provision remains in full force.
Finally, we are in the presence of another chapter of that old struggle between economic rationality and political-ideological dogmatism. Garage sales, without a doubt, classify as an element that favors economic rationality; but they must face the stalking of the defenders of the hard line of the nomenclature, armed with a good dose of ideological immobility.
OPINION ARTICLE
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