Rap music, the industry and culture that grew up around it, evolved from the wasteland produced by the systematic gutting of U.S. schools creative arts curriculum by successive 'conservative' administrations. Judging from the 60 minutes segment on Gustavo Dudamel it would appear at least on the surface that like its evil twin Great Britain, the U.S. has finally realized the error of its ways. Though many of the programs highlighted were being sponsored by private citizens. What is sad is that except for the few 'socialist' regimes around the globe many other nations succumbed to the pressure from GB, the US, the IMF and World Bank; and are now reaping the rewards of an idle and disengaged youth citizenry. Although Chavez did not create El Sistema; it is in line with his ideology and clearly has his full support. See link at the bottom for facts on the impoverishment of Venezuela.

"On 22 November 2007, Julian Lloyd Webber said this about the UK government's announcement of an infusion of £332 million just for music-education:

"We also have an impoverished South American nation to thank. Last August, in the midst of school holidays, when an uncomfortable number of British children seemed even more disaffected than usual, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra arrived from Venezuela to deliver performances at the Edinburgh Festival and the London Proms that were, quite simply, miraculous". Lloyd Webber was appointed chairman of the steering group of In Harmony, a British government-led music education and community development project which is inspired by El Sistema."

http://trinicenter.com/cgi-bin/selfnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1273265442,51471,.shtml

The citizens of Cuba enjoy a higher life expectancy than the citizens of the U.S., see Wiki-stats:

In 2007, the life expectancies at birth were as follows (World Bank data):
Cuba, 78.26 years;
World, 68.76 years;
Latin America and Caribbean, 73.13 years;
high income OECD countries, 79.66 years;
United States, 77.99 years.

Despite sanctions imposed by petulant U.S. administrations, and the loss of Soviet support. In this (free) capitalist country we don't even get the choice to exclude our "healthcare parasites."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Cuba

A friend of mine recently sent me an e-mail featuring average wages for various professions, Teachers, Doctors etc. with the caption 'why professional athletes make so much money.' as if the professional athlete has any control over the pay scale of other professions any more than they have control over their own; though on the surface it appears that they do. The professional athlete remains the media scapegoat for all that ails America; 3 guesses as to why and the first 2 don't count. If they are so well paid how come so many end up physically broken and penniless. Michael Jordan was able to purchase the 'majority interest' in an NBA franchise not because he was paid well by the Chicago Bulls in fact MJ's court skills turned a $10m franchise into a $300m franchise and except for the $30m pretax contract he negotiated in his final year, was severely underpaid for most of his career. He earned his money from good old free market propaganda and exploitation, much like the parasites who exploit him and the whole cadre of professional athletes. Large contracts are negotiated because professional athletes and entertainers serve as major hosts for most of our society's parasites.