{"id":21514,"date":"2018-12-31T12:12:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=21514"},"modified":"2018-12-19T10:17:02","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T15:17:02","slug":"cuba-could-attract-americans-with-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/31\/cuba-could-attract-americans-with-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Cuba could attract Americans with sin?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy New Year’s Eve from St. Augustine! My hope for readers is that excessive alcohol consumption doesn’t interfere with the efficacy of their medical marijuana edibles…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to my favorite topic: Cuba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that much of Cuba’s appeal in the pre-Castro days was the availability of goods and services that were considered sinful and therefore illegal in the U.S. For example, Cuba has casino gambling, legal alcohol (during our Prohibition period), and prostitution that was at least de facto<\/em> legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Cuban guides suggested that if the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba were lifted, the river of American visitors would flow again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But would it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suppose that the motivation for a lot of American visitors was sin. Isn’t there a lot more competition in that market now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boston’s Encore casino will open in 2019. Restrictions on purchasing alcohol have been relaxed town-by-town and day-by-day (now on Sundays too!). New recreational marijuana shops are opening monthly. (Prostitution doesn’t make sense here since the first pregnancy with an upper-income customer would eliminate the need for further sex work; Massachusetts offers unlimited child support profits<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Massachusetts resident who isn’t satisfied with that mixture of sin can fly in nonstop comfort to London, which offers casinos, alcohol, and legal prostitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuba is in rather tough shape physically. Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been invested in competing sinful destinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could it be that the our embargo against Americans going to Cuba for a carefree vacation ends with a whimper rather than a bang?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Our own New Year’s Eve will be spent catering to the whims of the next generation, so please Party like a Kavanaugh (TM) on our behalf!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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