have you been to cuba?
i have.

the people have nothing and the shops are empty and they live with chickens and other animals in their houses. the police wander everywhere with guns, blatantly ripping everyone off (it cost me all the cash i had on me to bribe them not to arrest me. for having my hair braided and therefore paying cash. to an 8 months pregnant girl. then they took her cash too). you can't even send postcards because the government censor them. you have to have your suitcases sealed in cellophane so that the airport staff don't steal everything. and all the doctors and nurses are giving up their jobs to go and work as maids in the tourist hotels because they earn more money in tips that way.

it's great for a holiday as a westerner. it's not so great to live there.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:44, 4 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

There's a pretty good counter argument
about how Cuba could be a lot better off if America stopped fucking it over. But lets skip that and BURN THE HIPPIES!
(Bazongaloid, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:46, Reply)

the problem is, al
that if you like the finer things in life, you have to be a bit of a right-wing twat to get your hands on them. liberal/left principles just don't pay that well for most people. if you genuinely don't really care where you live/what you can do/where you can go on holiday, it's fine. if you don't want to be saying "can i afford to go out for dinner this weekend" and you DON'T like that then... you need to be a bit more evil.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:54, Reply)

Hmmmm, the problem here is entirely ideological
You think you have to be a cunt to get where you are, but the only reason for that is you are surrounded by other cunts who think they have to cunts too.

Rewards for personal effort can exist quite happily alongside caring for society at large, but only if people are prepared not to be utterly fucking selfish.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:59, Reply)

I've always managed to retain the finer things in life
and as we've established, I'm terribly left-wing and liberal. If only I could knit, I'd knit my own yoghurt.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:59, Reply)

Some of them are nig-nogs, too.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:47, Reply)

Why shouldn't you be arrested for having your hair braided?

( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:50, Reply)

Have you ever been to london?
Police wander everywhere with guns, people are always stealing things and people have cats and dogs in their houses etc.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:53, Reply)

I blame Nick Clegg and his cronies for this.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:54, Reply)

Check out Barry from Eastenders list of crimes committed in the Capitol
the thieving pikey
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:55, Reply)

You can't
he's even nicked the list of things he's nicked. He's a little bit wahey, he's a little bit wooooo, he's a one-man crime wave. He'll nick ANYTHING.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:57, Reply)

I can't remember the full details but his thievery occurs under an alias, so it doesn't matter if he gets nicked or not
I'm still baffled by this
( Light In Chains maker of the ikea sofa, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:00, Reply)

i am not sure if you are out-flippancing me now
for my own sanity i am going to assume so, because nobody could draw a serious parallel between havana and london. and yeah, having two goats and ten chickens (like the house i was invited into) in the lounge is EXACTLY the same as a cat...

bloody woolly liberals, no common-sense.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 16:57, Reply)

And having a liberal view point
and thinking that people who earn the most should pay the most tax is EXACTLY the same as communism.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:00, Reply)

it certainly feels that way when you're the bastard who will be in work (i) late tonight
(ii) tomorrow morning (iii) all day sunday

and will be getting raped for tax at the end of the month, yes!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:02, Reply)

Sucks to be you then doesn't it
I'm going to be having fun this weekend with my friends, and I'll probably pay less tax than you.

But, you live right in the middle of central London, drive an expensive sports car, are a member of a nice gym and have loads of nice shoes. And on top of that, you'll almost certainly have more money in your bank account than I do.

On the flip side I spent most of my savings from the last five years on a ford fiesta, I live in a small terraced house on the outskirts of london which I can only afford because of sharing the mortgage with my wife and the generosity of my parents in getting a deposit together, I haven't bought a pair of shoes for over a year and I owe nearly 3 Grand on a credit card.

So, you see, you may pay more tax, but you are still better off than me, and if you didn't want to work all those hours, you are not being forced to. You are simply being well rewarded for the hours you do work.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:07, Reply)

nah, it's great
i'm also at a birthday party tonight, out tomorrow night, and out for dinner on sunday night. i like my job and although i prefer not working weekends, it's interesting and massively challenging.

also the honest truth is, i couldn't live as i do if i had a mortgage even on my city salary. but then my dad earned every single penny of it himself, they come no more working-class than him!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:18, Reply)

Ugh, an arriviste.
How simply vile.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:20, Reply)

worse than that monty
proper peasant stock, i'm afraid. his mother worked down t'mills and his father worked on t'railways.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:23, Reply)

Eeee, by 'eck.
There's nowt as queer as folk.

I'm not calling your pater a bender here, by the way.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:25, Reply)

i wouldn't
he might be 67 but he's still built like a block of yorkshire stone, there's more fat on a butcher's pencil!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:31, Reply)

Eee, champion.
Nowt taken out.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:54, Reply)

I bet I miss the however-many hundreds of quid a month in tax that I pay
A damn sight more than you miss the however-many thousands you pay.

Which is kind of the point in charging higher earners more in tax.
( Kroney, Fri 21 Jan 2011, 17:13, Reply)