He's paternalistic, you're paternalistic, I'm paternalistic

Lazaro Barredo Medina, editor of the Communist Party’s Granma newspaper, wrote a full-page (signed) opinion piece on Friday telling Cubans to start preparing for life without ration books. He argued that the “libreta” had outlived its usefulness (it’s been around since 1962), and is now an inefficient expenditure by the state as Cuba tries to bear the burden of recession.

The ration book system, which allows islanders to buy food at deeply subsidized prices each month, provides every Cuban citizen the same allotment of basic foods like rice, beans and a bit of chicken. It has been alternately praised and vilified during its half-century tenure: by now, most Cubans have lived their entire lives with it and consider the ration book a birthright, yet many also complain that the covered items are far less than what is necessary to cover basic needs.

Barredo does not mention what the alternative would be (presumably, it would have to be wage increases), spurring concern from some. From the Associated Press:

Antonio Jorge, who once served as Cuba’s vice finance minister and now is a professor emeritus at Florida International University in Miami, said he “cannot imagine how this proposal could be implemented.” “This is the bare minimum of food, of nutrition,” Jorge said, especially for the half of the Cuban population that has no access to remittances—money sent from abroad, usually by relatives in the U.S. “How will they live? How will they fend for themselves?”

The title of Barredo’s piece—“He’s paternalistic, you’re paternalistic, I’m paternalistic“—appears to be a swipe at the cradle-to-grave guarantee of the ration books.

Read more here.