Frst American Factory in Cuba........

www.cbc.ca...

A new factory will soon be spewing out small equipment to help the farmers of Cuba meet the needs of the country....
Two American businessmen will be starting the small farm tractor company and be producing tractors by next year or so.....
Cuba badly needs such small equipment...Tractors, backhoes, etc...as they have been embargoed for so long much of their own stuff is plumb wore out...

This is great for Cubans.....but I wonder, the eventual 300 jobs that are being exported will be missed here in America.....
and will the offshore island become another destination for American jobs in future as relations thaw further between the two countries ?.

Food for thought, Mexico is a net benefactor of job loss in the US.....im sure Cuba will also be the same.....

from article:

The $5-$10 million plant would be the first significant U.S. business investment on Cuban soil since Fidel Castro took power in 1959 and nationalized billions of dollars of U.S. corporate and private property. That confiscation provoked a
U.S. embargo on Cuba that prohibited virtually all forms of commerce and fined non-U.S. companies millions of dollars for doing business with the island

a reply to: bandersnatch

America is just one country.

Why hadn't any other country done business development there before now?

Just curious, actually.

a reply to: DBCowboy
Im not so sure that there are all that many countries considering the Cuban market exactly viable.....
The country has little to offer in return but cigars, sugar, and agricultural products....
So no real incentive to trade.....

a reply to: bandersnatch

That makes sense. Was just wondering out loud over it.

We see countries all over, all the time in need of one thing or another. I would think that any economically viable company would want a foothold in a potential new market.

I hope the Cuban people benefit from this.

a reply to: DBCowboy
When I have been there back in 1996 Mexico and Canada traded with Cuba. Some business guys from Canada even were talking about building up the internet structure at a neighbouring table in a small restaurant.

I tried to find some proof that my memory wasn't fooling me and I found this:

Canada and Mexico were the only two countries in the hemisphere not to break relations with Cuba in the years that followed the Cuban revolution in 1959.

Source: Canada - Cuba Relations

I think the Cubans can hardly not benefit from any business they can drum up.....
Its been hard times there since 59.....

a reply to: DBCowboy

valid question

This isn't the first one...

There's the terrorist factory going strong in Guantanamo Bay!

We have a local guy that wants to go there and grow sweet corn and ship it back fresh every couple of days. soil is supposed to be much better than anyplace in Mexico.

So basically all this is net outflow.......What way does this benefit the US except line the pockets of a couple of businessmen.....?
Their plans even call for locals manufacturing the parts eventually.....

a reply to: bandersnatch

Does it HAVE to benefit the US?

I see some entrepeneurs seeing an opportunity and doing something about it.

Americans may not benefit, but the Cubans sure will.

a reply to: DBCowboy
I suppose youre right but in a way, relations with Cuba seem just another destination for our money....
and our jobs....

It may spike the Cuban economy, but what cost to our own failing economy?
How long before lots of other US jobs get exported?
Theres got to be some balance ............

Like why cant they build the same stuff in the US and export it to Cuba?
Obviously cost of labour is a big consideration.....

What gets me is that this is bleeding the US white.....
The time is fast approaching when we will understand that generosity has its own self destructiveness about it....
When we enrichen others we impoverish ourselves just that much as well....

With the bleak future we face in this recession cum depression.....it should be obvious old Uncle Sam cant sustain its own momentum without some form of protectionism.....
Every move towards globalisation takes just another bite out of our own living standards.....Can we afford to export our living standards....??

a reply to: bandersnatch

I don't see how we can consider these 300 jobs that will be created in Cuba will be a loss of 300 jobs in the US. They will be new jobs created for a new market. Because these two businessmen live in the US does not mean that they have to open a business here, they can open a business anywhere it is legal in whatever country they choose.

Now if these guys already have a tractor company here in the US(which my quick google search could not confirm) with an established client base and established workforce of US citizens and their new company in Cuba were to siphon off some of the paid labor already performed by US workers, then I could understand this concern. But as I read it, this is a new company being formed to bring wealth to the two businessmen under the rubric of Cuban jobs for Cuba.

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
I certainly Understand your point.....but...like I said...can we afford to export opportunities when we are starving for employment here???

a reply to: bandersnatch

It's sounds somewhat authoritarian if we started dictating where people could create business.

imho

Im not suggesting anything of the sort.....
It strikes me that the globalist agenda is being fulfilled almost unconsciously, the propaganda must be effective as hell if nobody can get what im saying here....

a reply to: bandersnatch

Maybe you're reading too much into it.

Some entrepeneurs want to make money.
They see an opportunity that will make them money and actually help an industry.
They're getting in on the ground floor.

I would assume ALL enterpreneurs want to make money.....
Im just thinking that the social engineering is working on the sub level and we are shooting ourselves and our fellow citizens in the foot.....
Charity begins at home.....

originally posted by: bandersnatch
a reply to: TerryMcGuire
I certainly Understand your point.....but...like I said...can we afford to export opportunities when we are starving for employment here???

Snatch. You use the word 'we' as if 'we' have anything to do with this. This is about these two businessmen and their attempts to set up a capitalist factory in Cuba. There is no 'we' about this.

If these two capitalists lived in Cuba we would not be having this discussion. Rather those two live here. As capitalists they are not bound by morality to make money for anyone but themselves however they wish to do it. If they use Cuban workers that's capitalism. If they use more expensive US workers, that's capitalism also, just not as smart capitalism.
We need to remember that capitalism has no morality, only the pressures of moral people who will diminish their profits if they stray to far from established mores. And in this case they are not. Established mores here say that this is all sweet and daisies cuz they will be ' helping ' the Cuban people. I say bosh. They are looking for a new market for themselves and their own profits, and once more, that has nothing to do with you or me. Just like capitalism everywhere.

originally posted by: bandersnatch
I would assume ALL enterpreneurs want to make money.....
Im just thinking that the social engineering is working on the sub level and we are shooting ourselves and our fellow citizens in the foot.....
Charity begins at home.....

Charity does begin at home.

But charity is not business.