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Apparently, the methods used for planning economies known until ~1990, executed with the computers and communication systems of the time, in countries that were
by anoncake 8y ago
Apparently, the methods used for planning economies known until ~1990, executed with the computers and communication systems of the time, in countries that were relatively poor to begin with, ruled as dictatorships, did not work well enough while the USA and its allies actively fought "communism". That tells us nothing.
Guess which country is the richest in the Caribbean? Okay, it's the USA. It may hardly be a democracy anymore, it doesn't particularly respect human rights, but it hasn't regressed to developing status yet and it has free market economics up the wazoo. The richest independent country (as in, its mainland is in the Caribbean) is of course Cuba.
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoCuba's richer than, say, St. Kitts & Nevis? I'd like to see your source for that... Or are you listing St. Kitts as not independent, because it's part of the Commonwealth?
- anoncake 8y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis Trinidad and Tobago is richer though (at $32,520 GDP/capita vs Cuba's $22,237).
- AnimalMuppet 8y agoI stand corrected. And I respect your honesty for checking other countries after proving me wrong...
- andrenth 8y agoOnly if you believe in the Cuban government’s numbers. Do you really believe that a country whose population lives on rations and $30/month salaries is a rich one? https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article195681589.html https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas...
- anoncake 8y agoI never said Cuba was rich. It's merely less poor than many free market countries.
- andrenth 8y agoWhat are those “free market countries”? Or do you use this term to refer to countries which are not dictatorships?
- anoncake 8y ago> Or do you use this term to refer to countries which are not dictatorships? No, that would be absurd, considering free markets have as little to do with democracy as with freedom.
- andrenth 8y agoThen please do list those free market countries who are poorer than Cuba. I'm really curious.
- anoncake 8y agoAccording to CIA numbers[1], there are 101 economies poorer than Cuba. Do you really think they're all "communist"? Including American Samoa? Somalia isn't known for its "big government" either.
- andrenth 8y agoYou didn't paste the link. Is it this one? https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/211rank.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... So when you say free market, it seems you really mean "not-communist", correct? Because I never said they were all communist. It would seem fair to me to remove from that list those countries below Cuba which are in fact communist or which have a history of being destroyed by communism, those who are kept poor by brutal dictators, like many from Africa, and those recently affected by war. It seems to me those countries wouldn't qualify as free markets. Then I invite you to check the Index of Economic Freedom[1] to see if the remaining ones are really "free market" countries.. Note that this is all based on per capita GDP numbers provided by the Cuban government and therefore highly unreliable. [1] https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking