6 ms·

When you start from such a low base, there is enormous room for growth. The question is what can they export? Cigars? Medical personnel?

dmckeon 12y ago
Baseball players.
EC1 12y ago
Beautiful women.
glup 12y ago
One of the lasting myths emerging from American rhetoric is that Cuba is starting from a low base. In fact the per capita GDP (as well as quality of life) is approximately on par with Panama and far exceeds the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Nicaragua. Tourism will remain the major source of foreign currency, but I think this change will lead to further development in pharmaceuticals and telecom.
- willholloway 12y ago
  Cubans enjoy greater economic and medical security under socialism than their counterparts in capitalist neighboring countries, even without subsidies from Russia and even with a strict embargo with the US. The country is surprisingly politically free for a tiny nation facing an existential threat from a hostile super power that has invaded, attempted to assassinate it's leader, and funded militants dead set on violent revolution for decades. American leadership immediately resorted to torture and illegal domestic surveillance when faced with the loss of two skyscrapers and 3,000 lives from an enemy that is more like an annoying gnat than an existential threat. Cuba is a success story for socialism, and that is why US policy has sought to punish it, and to make it fail. The US did not want a successful socialist nation in it's sphere of influence, it gives the other nations subject to the Monroe doctrine ideas.
  - refurb 12y ago
    Cuba is a success story for socialism, and that is why US policy has sought to punish it, and to make it fail. I don't think your argument is supported by any of the facts.[1] [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Contemporary_Cuba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Contempora...
    - tim333 12y ago
      Indeed, I don't think the communist government would remain in power long if they ever had a free election. When I was there I was struck by people saying how hard it was and how they had to get by on about US$2 a week - this was a while back now.
    - jbooth 12y ago
      He was making an economic argument, not a political rights argument. How come nobody hit the ceiling when we didn't close our embassy with China today?
      - adventured 12y ago
        His economic argument is just as wrong as a political argument would have been: Cuba is a complete failure economically and has been for the last 50 years. Cuba is third world poor. A country where the average person earns $300 to $500 per month, is a slave pen. State sponsored slavery is the only way you can repress people to such an extreme extent as to hold their standard of living that low for 50 years. Given there has never been an economically successful Socialist nation in world history, it makes perfect sense that Cuba would be a failure just like all the rest.
        jbooth 12y ago
        Compared to their neighbors? After adjusting for a worldwide-unique embargo? Honestly, I'm not into communism and am very surprised that their figures are as good as they are. It's dumbfounding.' I guess it's more a statement of how hard it is to come up from the bottom whatever your system is. Russia and China both showed great results in their first couple 5-year plans before communism petered out and didn't deliver further gains.
toomuchtodo 12y ago
> Medical personnel? Cuba actually has an incredible socialized medicine healthcare system, and the US embargo specifically carves out an exception for cancer pharmaceuticals developed and manufactured there. Its not that far fetched that you would see medical tourism take off from Florida with its vast retiree population. If I were in the travel business in Florida, I'd start advertising now to get your name out there, and fly to Havana to have a conversation with Raúl Castro about how much yearly revenue you could be bringing in (all in USD I might add). About $39 billion/year is spent in Florida on Medicare; taking only a small piece of that is an incredible proposition for a country the size of Cuba.
- mudil 12y ago
  The greatness of Cuban health care system is an urban myth, just like Jackalope.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/ http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/ "Despite a 50-year trade embargo by the United States and a post-Soviet collapse in international support, the impoverished nation has developed a world-class health care system. Average life expectancy is 77.5 years, compared to 78.1 years in the United States, and infant and child mortality rates match or beat our own. There’s one doctor for every 170 people, more than twice the per-capita U.S. average. Not everything is perfect in Cuba. There are shortages of medicines, and the best care is reserved for elites. But it’s still a powerful feat. “In Cuba, a little over $300 per person is spent on health care each year. In the U.S., we’re spending over $7,000 per person,” said Drain, co-author of Caring for the World and an essay published April 29 in Science. “They’re able to achieve great health outcomes on a modest budget.”"
    - mudil 12y ago
      "There are shortages of medicines, and the best care is reserved for elites." Nice healthcare system!
Mandatum 12y ago
Sugar, shellfish, citrus and coffee. Medical products and tobacco are small parts of what they export. They also export nickel and cobalt which have generated more than $2B/yr in some years.
tim333 12y ago
It would be easy to increase tourism which would bring in foreign currency in a similar manner to exports. Just dropping the restrictions on US tourists visiting and on Cuban locals being able to run shops, restaurants and lodgings would probably pretty much double GNP.
Someone 12y ago
Cane sugar, nickel (at least, looking at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#/image/File:Tree_map_export_2009_Cuba.jpeg http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#/image/File:Tree_map_exp...) and tourism. Until the Cuban Revolution, Las Vegas had tough competition from Havana (http://petermoruzzi.com/2011/10/31/family-feud-havana-vs-las-vegas-in-the-1950s-part-1/ http://petermoruzzi.com/2011/10/31/family-feud-havana-vs-las...)

dmckeon 12y ago

Baseball players.

EC1 12y ago

Beautiful women.

glup 12y ago

One of the lasting myths emerging from American rhetoric is that Cuba is starting from a low base. In fact the per capita GDP (as well as quality of life) is approximately on par with Panama and far exceeds the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Nicaragua. Tourism will remain the major source of foreign currency, but I think this change will lead to further development in pharmaceuticals and telecom.

willholloway 12y ago
Cubans enjoy greater economic and medical security under socialism than their counterparts in capitalist neighboring countries, even without subsidies from Russia and even with a strict embargo with the US. The country is surprisingly politically free for a tiny nation facing an existential threat from a hostile super power that has invaded, attempted to assassinate it's leader, and funded militants dead set on violent revolution for decades. American leadership immediately resorted to torture and illegal domestic surveillance when faced with the loss of two skyscrapers and 3,000 lives from an enemy that is more like an annoying gnat than an existential threat. Cuba is a success story for socialism, and that is why US policy has sought to punish it, and to make it fail. The US did not want a successful socialist nation in it's sphere of influence, it gives the other nations subject to the Monroe doctrine ideas.
- refurb 12y ago
  Cuba is a success story for socialism, and that is why US policy has sought to punish it, and to make it fail. I don't think your argument is supported by any of the facts.[1] [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Contemporary_Cuba http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Cuba#Contempora...
  - tim333 12y ago
    Indeed, I don't think the communist government would remain in power long if they ever had a free election. When I was there I was struck by people saying how hard it was and how they had to get by on about US$2 a week - this was a while back now.
  - jbooth 12y ago
    He was making an economic argument, not a political rights argument. How come nobody hit the ceiling when we didn't close our embassy with China today?
    - adventured 12y ago
      His economic argument is just as wrong as a political argument would have been: Cuba is a complete failure economically and has been for the last 50 years. Cuba is third world poor. A country where the average person earns $300 to $500 per month, is a slave pen. State sponsored slavery is the only way you can repress people to such an extreme extent as to hold their standard of living that low for 50 years. Given there has never been an economically successful Socialist nation in world history, it makes perfect sense that Cuba would be a failure just like all the rest.
      - jbooth 12y ago
        Compared to their neighbors? After adjusting for a worldwide-unique embargo? Honestly, I'm not into communism and am very surprised that their figures are as good as they are. It's dumbfounding.' I guess it's more a statement of how hard it is to come up from the bottom whatever your system is. Russia and China both showed great results in their first couple 5-year plans before communism petered out and didn't deliver further gains.

toomuchtodo 12y ago

> Medical personnel? Cuba actually has an incredible socialized medicine healthcare system, and the US embargo specifically carves out an exception for cancer pharmaceuticals developed and manufactured there. Its not that far fetched that you would see medical tourism take off from Florida with its vast retiree population. If I were in the travel business in Florida, I'd start advertising now to get your name out there, and fly to Havana to have a conversation with Raúl Castro about how much yearly revenue you could be bringing in (all in USD I might add). About $39 billion/year is spent in Florida on Medicare; taking only a small piece of that is an incredible proposition for a country the size of Cuba.

mudil 12y ago
The greatness of Cuban health care system is an urban myth, just like Jackalope.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/ http://www.wired.com/2010/04/cuban-health-lessons/ "Despite a 50-year trade embargo by the United States and a post-Soviet collapse in international support, the impoverished nation has developed a world-class health care system. Average life expectancy is 77.5 years, compared to 78.1 years in the United States, and infant and child mortality rates match or beat our own. There’s one doctor for every 170 people, more than twice the per-capita U.S. average. Not everything is perfect in Cuba. There are shortages of medicines, and the best care is reserved for elites. But it’s still a powerful feat. “In Cuba, a little over $300 per person is spent on health care each year. In the U.S., we’re spending over $7,000 per person,” said Drain, co-author of Caring for the World and an essay published April 29 in Science. “They’re able to achieve great health outcomes on a modest budget.”"
  - mudil 12y ago
    "There are shortages of medicines, and the best care is reserved for elites." Nice healthcare system!

Mandatum 12y ago

Sugar, shellfish, citrus and coffee. Medical products and tobacco are small parts of what they export. They also export nickel and cobalt which have generated more than $2B/yr in some years.

tim333 12y ago

It would be easy to increase tourism which would bring in foreign currency in a similar manner to exports. Just dropping the restrictions on US tourists visiting and on Cuban locals being able to run shops, restaurants and lodgings would probably pretty much double GNP.

Someone 12y ago

Cane sugar, nickel (at least, looking at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#/image/File:Tree_map_export_2009_Cuba.jpeg http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba#/image/File:Tree_map_exp...) and tourism. Until the Cuban Revolution, Las Vegas had tough competition from Havana (http://petermoruzzi.com/2011/10/31/family-feud-havana-vs-las-vegas-in-the-1950s-part-1/ http://petermoruzzi.com/2011/10/31/family-feud-havana-vs-las...)