Cuba Today
Cuba today suffers 700% inflation, a shrinking economy, 20 hours daily without electricity, mass emigration, collapsing wages, food shortages, demographic implosion, rotting infrastructure, currency chaos and political repression.
The numbers you are about to read in the following paragraph defy belief. Be assured however that the data have been checked from two independent sources. If you wish to check for yourself, I suggest starting with Copilot and Grok.
Cuba’s GDP per capita1 is $7,380, ranking among the lowest of 200 countries. The monthly take home pay of the average Cuban is $16 and the median annual household income is $146, a 96% decrease since 2015. The minimum wage is 3 cents per hour. The workweek is 44 hours. I could cite more statistics, but there is no point.
The cost of living is so high that it takes four months at the average pay to buy a basic food basket with 17 essentials. A dozen eggs costs 3,500 pesos, or about $30.
Authentic Che Guevara
Che may adorn iconic tee shirts worn by clueless youth. Useful idiots, in and out of the media, may offer encomia. But when the regime inevitably falls, the people of Cuba will render final judgment. Statues will be felled, murals defaced and the truth outed that Che was a despotic, murderous megalomaniac who took pleasure in inflicting incalculable suffering. Following are some of his atrocities.
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He executed 500 people without due process; some were broadcast on TV.
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At the UN, he said: “We have executed, are executing and will continue to execute”.
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As chief judge of the revolutionary court, he oversaw systemic atrocities.
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His writings were racist and homophobic.
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When mothers pleaded to spare their sons, he sped up their executions.
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He committed atrocities in Latin America and Africa.
Keep all of the above in mind the next time you see some know-nothing socialist wannabe decked out in a Che tee shirt.
Real State of Cuban Health Care
Even Cuba’s hyped health care is a dismal failure. It couldn’t save Fidel Castro. There was delayed intervention, surgical failure and complications. They had to bring in a doctor from Spain. Infant mortality, once claimed to be ultra low and even superior to the USA, was a lie. Cuba uses forced abortions for any pregnancy considered risky and they don’t count infant deaths from underweight births.2 Cuba’s infant mortality is among the worst in Latin America and light years behind the USA.
Most Cuban doctors are sent abroad to earn hard currency for the regime. The host country pays Cuba (not the doctors). The doctors are paid a pittance by Cuba which pockets the difference. The doctors can’t quit because the regime uses their family members, who must remain in Cuba, as hostages.
Cuba and Taiwan
In 1959 revolutions occurred on two islands. Both were mountainous, 25% arable, and relied on sugar exports. Both faced large, powerful and hostile enemies that were less than 100 miles away. However, in 1959 one island was far ahead of the other in terms of health, education, income and many other metrics. That nation was Cuba.
In 1959 Cuba took the path of communism, while Taiwan became a free-market capitalist democracy. Fast forward to the present day to see the differences.
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Taiwan’s GDP per capita of $98,000 ranks 10th in the world. Cuba’s is $7,380 and ranks among the worst. Taiwan is 13 times better.
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The average monthly salary in Taiwan is $1,865, or 115 times Cuba’s.
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Minimum wage in Taiwan is $6.11 per hour – 20,567% more than Cuba.
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Median household income in Taiwan is 236 times that of Cuba.
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Taiwan’s freedom index is 4th best in the world; Cuba ranks 175 out of 176; only North Korea is worse.
The above comparisons show the differences between freedom and capitalism versus tyranny and collectivism, between liberty and repression and between prosperity and stagnation. Recall that in 1959 Cuba’s GDP was double that of Taiwan.
Cuba today is a nihilistic society where 35% of all pregnancies are aborted.
Legacy of Cuban Communism
Cuba has been a basket case for decades. However, the regime was propped up, first by the USSR and later by Russia, Iran and Venezuela.3 Now that none of those countries bails out Cuba, the real picture of the disaster that is Cuba emerges for all to see. And it is an ugly picture. The only redeeming feature is that it provides more evidence of the complete and utter failure of 67 years under socialism.
The data in this post reveal the depth and the breadth of the human and economic train wreck that is Cuba. It showcases the differences between capitalism and collectivism; the contrast with Taiwan is particularly breathtaking.
Cuba is a failed, nihilistic society; 35% of pregnancies are aborted. Nonetheless, Bernie Sanders, AOC, Zohran Mamdani and their progressive fellow travelers advocate the same policies that failed so miserably in Cuba. Go figure.
All data for Cuba are based on the CUP (Cuban peso) at the market exchange rate.
By contract, the US is best in the world at keeping low birth weight babies (as low as 400 grams) alive; it counts infants who don’t survive as live births and also as deaths.
Cuba still is heavily supported by remittances from Cuban Americans. Without that, Cuba would be even worse off – if one can imagine what that would look like.