When pushing uphill, you’re on your own
By Elsa Claro
HAVANA – If you visit one of the Cuban portals that list house swaps and job offers, you’re going to find something unusual at this time. The number of job offers is greater than the number of candidates. But if you go to the municipal office where the new licenses for self-employment are issued, the number of people waiting in line is enormous.
“Last year, or some months ago, only one or two people were waiting on line,” says an employee whom I approach, looking for basic information.
Standing in line are manicurists and car or electrical technicians, pet keepers and workmen in various trades; would-be taxi drivers and entrepreneurs who rent suits for wedding and coming-out parties and often provide a photo album and a hall for parties. These are only a few of the 100-and-some possibilities of self-employment that are listed on a sign outside the office.
Theories of every type circulate throughout the country, along with the cries of street vendors that are heard more often with new offers of service. Amid the roses, there’s always thorns, that’s a fact. Many activities that are now being considered have been done outside legal control, on the side, or under the table, however you want to phrase it. And some seamstresses, mechanics and babysitters say that they’ll continue to do their jobs without securing “the license,” an old expression now being revived.
The idea is not to pay taxes. No surprise here. The tax culture that may have existed or may have been demanded 50 years ago was lost in the maze of idealistic practices imposed by a state that, according to some experts, has First-World resources in “social care, culture, and the development of medicine, biotechnology, sports and high-brow artistic endeavors. On the economic front, however, Cuba has the same profile as other, relatively poor countries in the region.”
That’s true, despite all our development in the past half-century, especially in the industrial sector.
Not gratuitously, the manufacturing sector wants to strengthen itself, like the agricultural sector is doing, seeking alimentary self-sufficiency and, therefore, significant savings in importations. Long-range, the government wants 80 percent of the active population to be engaged in production, no matter what it is.
To the degree that this percentage is achieved, and excessive subsidies and gratuities are eliminated, the current salaries will be raised. It is worth repeating (as Marino Murillo, vice president of the Council of Ministers, said recently) that the bloated payrolls are a consequence of the imperfect development and the paternalistic behavior that caused the lack of motivation, reduced output, and overemployment that are now being corrected.
By stimulating sectors like education, which don’t produce material goods but generate the skills to create them, we repair areas of the labor fabric that suffered considerable damage. By linking the work done to the wages paid (an issue still in the working stage), or by allowing a worker to hold two jobs, or by permitting students to work while they’re at school, the state can achieve positive results.
It will not be easy to get people who never paid taxes to do so in the routine manner accepted in other countries. Nor will it be simple to evaluate who stays in a job and who is laid off. It will be tough to break thought patterns that have been established through an excessive clemency, over so many years, and there will be a temptation to swing to harmful extremes.
“To expect people with qualifications to opt for jobs in farms or in construction is illusory,” says someone in the know. But when life gives you lemons … Besides, Cubans have gone through all kinds of experiences, so their ability to adapt is high. Presumably, the new opportunities will bring that ability and others to the fore.
When it comes to opinions, we Cubans have a broad repertory. This is reflected in the spaces of criticism and public exchanges, such as the weekly “Letters to the Editor” section in the newspaper Granma. Some of the most unusual, and often intelligent, concepts are formulated there.
The deductive-entrepreneurial skills can be appreciated in proposals like this one, from Curbelo Dacosta:
“Because self-employment is implicitly a small private property, a paladar [private restaurant] with 20 seats and three employees is a micro-enterprise. Two potters, three helpers and a carrier can share a pottery oven, becoming a small business. A mason, a carpenter, an electrician, a plumber and three helpers can get their licenses and join together to build a house. That, too, is a small business. Eighty-three of the 178 self-employment descriptions allow the hiring of personnel, and almost all of them can become small businesses.”
The start-up of any enterprise is almost always an uphill battle. The goal is to arrive in good health at the top – or as close to it as possible.
