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What can Cuba offer? Same problem with Haiti, what can Haiti offer? Not even China seems interested in paying peanuts for them (The way they are buying Nicaragu

What can Cuba offer? Same problem with Haiti, what can Haiti offer? Not even China seems interested in paying peanuts for them (The way they are buying Nicaragua and Venezuela)

einszwei 2y ago
Their main economic source was tourism which US has successfully strangled (rolling back the relaxation from Obama era) https://www.yahoo.com/news/travellers-visited-cuba-last-11-125153733.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/travellers-visited-cuba-last-11-1...
0xbadcafebee 2y ago
Cuba's exports are $2B, Haiti's exports are $63M. They are a little different.
- catlikesshrimp 2y ago
  Did you ask AI about Haiti's exports. 63M might be a monthly average of some year. I think they are higher than $1B Did the same AI tell you about Cuban exports? At least $2B is in the same ballpark, but definitely lower.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - 0xbadcafebee 2y ago
    You're right, the haiti numbers were way off. According to Haiti's Central Bank, total goods exports in 2022 were 1.07 Billion. GDP per capita estimated at $1,748.3 USD. [1] Cuba is harder to pin down. OEC says they had 1.07 Billion in goods exports in 2022[2], whereas the WTO puts it around 2+ Billion[3]. The World Bank puts GDP per capita at 9,499.6 in 2020 (a bad year)[4], but Cuba doesn't really have a GDP and it changed its monetary system in 2021, so an economist who specializes in Cuba should weigh in here. But in general, even with the lack of transparency on the Cuban economy, it's quite clear that with Haiti's complete breakdown of government and its historically low GDP per capita, Cuba and its people are in a much healthier economic state and are a much more attractive trading/business partner than Haiti. [1] https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-market-overview https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-market... [2] https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub [3] https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/cuba_e.htm https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/cuba_e.htm [4] https://data.worldbank.org/country/cuba https://data.worldbank.org/country/cuba
excalibur 2y ago
I hear their cigars are pretty good
moribvndvs 2y ago
They can offer being humans.
- nine_k 2y ago
  That's not what you should give away in exchange for something. But being human is indeed valuable in a purely utilitarian economic sense, too: it's a prerequisite to being able to teach machines. Services like the more and more elaborate marking / description of data sets are often outsourced to countries that have low-cost labor. It's intellectual work, in a sense.
- rsktaker 2y ago
  Unrelated to your current comment, but you mentioned "I let promises of being a millionaire working for a start-up drive me to eating shit for well over ten years...All it cost me was the prime of my life..." [1] I'm in college and looking to work for a startup when I graduate. I want experience, I want to learn about what building a company is really like - because I have ambitions of starting my own. Your comment felt to me very raw and real, and I'd love to talk more about your experiences working for startups. And if these comment threads are insufficient, please feel free to contact me at ruchirkavulli[at]gmail[.]com [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39022547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39022547
thatcat 2y ago
quality medical care
Gud 2y ago
They have a lot to offer. Why don’t we let the markets decide?
exitb 2y ago
What could communist Poland of late 80s offer? It’s a shame that USA cannot help their neighborhood into a better economic position.
- catlikesshrimp 2y ago
  Poland's economic success has more to do with the collapse of the USSR than any US', or any other particular nation's intervention
  - exitb 2y ago
    I’d say that NATO and EU membership helped. Note that there are many other countries that fell out of the Soviet sphere of influence and didn’t share the same level of success.
huuhee3 2y ago
Cuba is a pretty popular tourist destination, if nothing else. Cigars and rum are pretty big exports too. Definitely in another league compared to Haiti, as even communism beats anarchy.

What can Cuba offer? Same problem with Haiti, what can Haiti offer? Not even China seems interested in paying peanuts for them (The way they are buying Nicaragua and Venezuela)

einszwei 2y ago

Their main economic source was tourism which US has successfully strangled (rolling back the relaxation from Obama era) https://www.yahoo.com/news/travellers-visited-cuba-last-11-125153733.html https://www.yahoo.com/news/travellers-visited-cuba-last-11-1...

0xbadcafebee 2y ago

Cuba's exports are $2B, Haiti's exports are $63M. They are a little different.

catlikesshrimp 2y ago
Did you ask AI about Haiti's exports. 63M might be a monthly average of some year. I think they are higher than $1B Did the same AI tell you about Cuban exports? At least $2B is in the same ballpark, but definitely lower.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xbadcafebee 2y ago
  You're right, the haiti numbers were way off. According to Haiti's Central Bank, total goods exports in 2022 were 1.07 Billion. GDP per capita estimated at $1,748.3 USD. [1] Cuba is harder to pin down. OEC says they had 1.07 Billion in goods exports in 2022[2], whereas the WTO puts it around 2+ Billion[3]. The World Bank puts GDP per capita at 9,499.6 in 2020 (a bad year)[4], but Cuba doesn't really have a GDP and it changed its monetary system in 2021, so an economist who specializes in Cuba should weigh in here. But in general, even with the lack of transparency on the Cuban economy, it's quite clear that with Haiti's complete breakdown of government and its historically low GDP per capita, Cuba and its people are in a much healthier economic state and are a much more attractive trading/business partner than Haiti. [1] https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-market-overview https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/haiti-market... [2] https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub https://oec.world/en/profile/country/cub [3] https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/cuba_e.htm https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/cuba_e.htm [4] https://data.worldbank.org/country/cuba https://data.worldbank.org/country/cuba

excalibur 2y ago

I hear their cigars are pretty good

moribvndvs 2y ago

They can offer being humans.

nine_k 2y ago
That's not what you should give away in exchange for something. But being human is indeed valuable in a purely utilitarian economic sense, too: it's a prerequisite to being able to teach machines. Services like the more and more elaborate marking / description of data sets are often outsourced to countries that have low-cost labor. It's intellectual work, in a sense.
rsktaker 2y ago
Unrelated to your current comment, but you mentioned "I let promises of being a millionaire working for a start-up drive me to eating shit for well over ten years...All it cost me was the prime of my life..." [1] I'm in college and looking to work for a startup when I graduate. I want experience, I want to learn about what building a company is really like - because I have ambitions of starting my own. Your comment felt to me very raw and real, and I'd love to talk more about your experiences working for startups. And if these comment threads are insufficient, please feel free to contact me at ruchirkavulli[at]gmail[.]com [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39022547 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39022547

thatcat 2y ago

quality medical care

Gud 2y ago

They have a lot to offer. Why don’t we let the markets decide?

exitb 2y ago

What could communist Poland of late 80s offer? It’s a shame that USA cannot help their neighborhood into a better economic position.

catlikesshrimp 2y ago
Poland's economic success has more to do with the collapse of the USSR than any US', or any other particular nation's intervention
- exitb 2y ago
  I’d say that NATO and EU membership helped. Note that there are many other countries that fell out of the Soviet sphere of influence and didn’t share the same level of success.

huuhee3 2y ago

Cuba is a pretty popular tourist destination, if nothing else. Cigars and rum are pretty big exports too. Definitely in another league compared to Haiti, as even communism beats anarchy.