Along with a dozen other professors visiting Cuba, I was there for an educational program sponsored by the U.S.-based Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE). The theme was Cuba’s economy, society, and political system. CIEE’s marketing brochure promised a mixture of academic lectures, cultural experiences and travel to various parts of the country. Along with North Korea, Cuba is the last of the Communist regimes to actively discourage free markets, private property rights, and profit making. Although I traveled there with an open mind, I was about to experience a country in which the state’s overarching vision of equality for all has vanquished nearly every aspect of entrepreneurial dreams—and many normal human dreams, as well.
This is the second paragraph of Craig Richardson, “Cuba’s Dreams and Economic Reality,” Econlib, June 3, 2019. This is the Econlib Feature Article for June.
I recommend the whole thing.
When I was at a conference at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in late April, Craig told me a compelling story about his trip to Cuba. I asked him if he had written it up. He hadn’t. So I asked him to do so and this article is the result.
Postscript
I started editing the Econlib Feature Article in the spring of 2008 and have done so since. This is my last one. With one article per month, I lined up and edited about 130 articles. I’ve enjoyed the experience and I’ve especially enjoying getting economists and economics students to write up their ideas in a reader-friendly way.
I especially want to give a shout out to my heavy hitter, Robert P. Murphy. He always had something important to say and his articles generally required little editing.
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
Jun 3 2019 at 4:07pm
Fascinating article. This part struck me:
My daily breakfast is usually three eggs with pepper, toast, a tall glass of milk and some coffee. They get five eggs per month. I’d blow through those rations in two days! And pepper, which is so common around here, their government considers “an expensive luxury.”
Mind-boggling.
Another thought I had: Richardson reports:
I have long been in favor of lifting the US embargo on Cuba. One of the arguments I’ve used (aside from the fact it would foster peaceful relations between the US and Cuba), is that it would serve to enrich both the US and Cuba by allowing trade. But that’s not strictly speaking correct, as it assumes Cuba has a functioning market economy save for the US embargo. But we see they do not. Lifting the US embargo is unlikely to enrich Cuba without changes to their governmental policies.
Thaomas
Jun 4 2019 at 8:42am
Lifting the embargo is still a good idea. It removes one excuse for the economy’s poor performance.
Jon Murphy
Jun 4 2019 at 10:00am
Oh I agree. I didn’t mean to imply that I was no longer in favor of lifting the embargo.
Thaomas
Jun 3 2019 at 5:49pm
Are you not perhaps giving the regime a bit too much credit in attributing its repression as bed on a desire for “equality” rather than a determination to prevent any power capable of challenging it’s total control?
Floccina
Jun 4 2019 at 2:36pm
I often will see people respond to a post like saying that in some capitalistic countries people do equally bad but I lived in Honduras for a while and thing seem much better even there in comparison. That despite Honduras not being very capitalist.
Mike Wilson
Jun 4 2019 at 3:32pm
We had once hoped that trading with China would somehow magically liberalize that country, but sadly, that didn’t happen. Just speak to a Uyghur, assuming you can find one who is not incarcerated or in a “reeducation” camp. No, the Cuban regime is more interested in propping up the Maduro dictatorship, at least as long as they can trade training the Venezuelan secret police for oil. At least the Russians are leaving Venezuela, having concluded that Maduro can no longer afford to pay for their tanks. Which begs the question, why did the Venezuelan socialists need tanks in the first place? My best guess is to repel attacks from that ruthless Guyana.
David Seltzer
Jun 4 2019 at 5:18pm
David, in a recent conversation, we talked the about economics of wars, namely the loss of human capital. To wit. Another Salk, Einstein or Marie Curie were probably lost. These totalitarian regimes are awash in similar losses. Mao. Stalin. Hitler. Pol Pot. Castro. They’ve murdered millions.
Mark Z
Jun 7 2019 at 12:12am
The loss is especially pronounced with Cuba, a country with a relatively literate, educated population. A lot of potential wasted. One wonders just how many Nobel laureates were lost to the world over the last 60 years.
Comments are closed.