"Bureaucrats are throttling businesses that are doing particularly well and forcing them to become joint ventures with the state. The underlying message seems to be: We want prosperity but not overly prosperous individuals." — From a Times editorial, "Cuba's Economy at a Crossroads," that appears to disapprove of this approach.
"I have spent a great deal of time talking about the food movement and its potential, because to truly change the food system you really have to change just about everything: good nutrition stems from access to good food; access to good food isn't going to happen without economic justice; that isn't going to happen without taxing the superrich; and so on....Increasingly, it seems, there's an appetite and even unity to take on the billionaire class. Let's recognize that if we are seeing positive change now, it's in part because elected officials respond to pressure, and let's remember that that pressure must be maintained no matter who is in office." — From a Sunday op-ed by Times "contributing op-ed writer" Mark Bittman.
Maybe I'm missing something, but it sure looks as if the economic approach that the Times editorial opposes in Cuba is the same one that its columnist Mr. Bittman is proposing here in America.