T-Shirts vs Cuba

One article that really caught my eye was "No More Doffers". The first paragraph reads "What have been the effects of the dominance of politics over markets in world trade apparel? The stated purpose of the protectionist regime was and remains to protect manufacturing jobs in the western textile and apparel industries and judged against this benchmark the regimes success has been quite limited. But the influence of politics in redirecting trade has had a number of other consequences--mostly perverse and unintended but both positive and negative."

Rivoli made some serious comments regarding how our countries politics deal with our own imports and exports. The central idea that I took from this passage is the possibility of americans getting hurt in the process of blocking these textile gateways. America's business with outside nations play a bigger role on society than we think. When I think of embargo's I immediately think of Cuba. I live in a very dense cuban neighborhood, and the cuban culture is unlike any other. I think of the cuban embargo, and I think of who it supported...and no one has come to mind.

In this CNN article a U.S. politician by the name of Richard Lugar shares a similar opinion. Cubans are a big part of our hispanic immigrant population. We as a country owe a lot to the third world. I feel it is our duty to protect them, and bring their quality of life to a comparable level to us. The embargo was supposed to spread democracy, but it has failed. I feel that new U.S. interest in Cuba can give an economic boost, and help the citizens of Cuba as much as possible...it can actually spread democracy and open up new importing/exporting channels.

I also found a video discussing the travel benefits of Cuba. It's a pretty awesome place.


Here is the CNN Article