Somebody: That's fair enough, but it should have an impact on our perspective of what alternatives to capitalism exist. If even Cuba, which like it or not has been held up as a model however much one might dislike the term, goes the way of Vietnam and China, then it's just another nail in the coffin of socialism as traditionally defined.
Incidentally, it makes me wonder about those who have condemned Qaddafi to the scrap bin of history on account of privatizations and state employee layoffs in the 2000's. I don't hear similar levels of condemnation here. If Cuba is now doing the same, should we take a similar oppositional stance? If not, then I have to conclude that public ownership of the means of production has lost salience on the left and human rights questions have taken precedence instead. Maybe that's progress.