Earlier this year, in Part I of this series, I reviewed some research showing that Cuba’s economic misery is almost entirely the result of socialist policies.
The U.S. embargo, by contrast, has had comparatively little effect.
Today, in Part II, let’s look at some more evidence that socialism is wreaking havoc in Cuba.
We’ll start with this look at productivity, which I’ve explained is vitally important for rising living standards.
In Cuba, that key variable is a rock bottom.
The above chart comes for a new report in the U.K.-based Economist.
Here are some excerpts.
It is hard to fathom how ordinary Cubans nowadays manage to survive. The barest necessities of life cost far more than the official average monthly wage of 6,506 pesos (equivalent to $14.46 at the informal rate, which everyone goes by). Most professionals, such as doctors and teachers, exist on that meagre amount.
Lower down the scale, cleaners and museum attendants get 2,500 pesos, worth barely $5. …The UN’s World Food Programme, more accustomed to fending off starvation in Africa, now helps keep Cuban children alive. …According to the Social Rights Observatory, a Spanish-backed think-tank, 89% of Cuban families “live in extreme poverty”; 70% forgo at least one meal a day…only 3% of Cubans can get the medicine they need at pharmacies. …By some calculations, around a quarter of Cuba’s 11.2m people, the last census’s total still cited by officials, have cleared off in the past five years… Much of the professional class has left. Last year the number of family doctors fell by more than half. …The economy is flat on its back. Almost nothing works efficiently. Cuba was once one of the world’s leading sugar exporters; the latest figures show output is now the lowest in over a century, so the country must import it.
Regarding migration, here’s a chart that accompanied the article.
Though it is doesn’t begin to capture the magnitude of the exodus.
As far as I’m concerned, this may be the most damning sentence about socialism: “…around a quarter of Cuba’s 11.2 people…have cleared off in the past five years.”
That may be even greater than the exodus from Venezuela (another socialist garden spot).
I’ll close with a comment that applies to both Cuba and Venezuela, which is that our fingers should be crossed that these evil governments get deposed.
If and when that happens, I’m guessing western governments like the United States will want to help with foreign aid.
But government-to-government handouts have a terrible track record. Cuba and Venezuela need a radical shift to capitalism. Like Estonia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Or what Milei is doing today in Argentina, except even more so.
International Liberty 
