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In this video you forgot to say that Cuba is alive because is drying off Venezuela. They basically own the political class in that country, and are able to get petroleum and other natural resources at no cost
I went to Cuba with my dad back in December. I thought the internet situation was the weirdest thing. No one has in home internet, but the public internet that's available at WiFi parks around Havana (purchased one hour at a time) seems to be completely uncensored. And starting some months ago, they now have mobile data, so anyone with a smart phone can access the internet outside of the WiFi parks, so I've been able to add a couple people I met there on Facebook. Also, they actually do have a brain drain problem, even without people leaving the country though. Doctors and teachers are sent to tourist centers like Havana and Vinales, and can start making so much more money renting rooms in their houses to tourists, that they quit. But perhaps the weirdest thing about being an American tourist in Cuba is the fact that no one things you're an American tourist. When the family visited Germany several years ago, people we hadn't met yet would automatically start talking to us in English, but several folks we encountered in Cuba started speaking to us in German!
Spudeaux Good story... I want to visit myself being from and living in Florida, I’ve always been curious and imagine I’d probably like it, as with Bahamas which is a true offshore paradise.
@@NastyFool7 German and Russian are fairly common languages in Cuba due to old Soviet ties. Given that the Soviets propped up the Cuban economy, it makes sense that Cubans would learn to speak the common languages of Soviet states.
@ocak o. "Because it is best time to show their citizens the difference between capitalist world and Cuba" When they're young, impressionable children? That is the best time to indoctrinate them? Yeah, you're right. Precisely why religious fundamentalists preach to children. Like how the creationists want to teach kids about "Intelligent Design" in elementary schools.
You should've mentioned the food forests. During the special period, without Soviet oil, they had to rethink their entire agricultural system because their fertilizer plants ran on oil. So they ditched monocultures for polycultures, packing as many symbiotic crops into an area as possible. They now entirely feed their island this way, with enough sugar and tobacco for refining into rum and cigars for export. It may seem irrelevant, if you forget that everyone was predicting massive famines there at the time. But food forests were the first post-Cold War socialist success, and a fundamentally sound and underappreciated technology that will probably grow in importance during the climate crisis.
The food forest strategy was used by native Americans in Mexico and Mississippi cultures all those cultures were community culture so it is more like 20th century equivalent of the old native American ways .
WTF!!! they starve a lot, haven't you seen the ration cards?? haven'yt you seen videos of people making lanes and lanes for food? hahaha why always ypu say lies about communist countries
When someone mentions the Cuban missile crisis, I always can't stop thinking about one thing. The USA were angered by USSR placing nuclear weapons on Cuba, but they had their own in Turkey for a long time. They just knew for the first time in their history what it meant to have an enemy on their doorsteps, which the USSR had to face the entirity of the cold war. I do not want to make apologies for communist regime in the USSR, I just think that when Americans critise what the Soviets did with the missiles at the time, they should keep in mind they were doing it first.
America is the greatest tyrannical regime there is. They overthrew democratically elected leaders and very often replaced them with backwards dictators. Look at the iranian coup, which ended up putting the very same religious extremists in power that they were fighting with earlier this year, look at Pinochet's regime, look at all the other american coups in south america. America is an amazing tyrannical empire mostly because they are rarely criticized for doing those things
Lol you should do some reading about USA’s formative years if you don’t think there’s ever been conflict on their soil. First several wars were very close to home. Revolutionary, war of 1812, Mexican American war, the American Civil War...
USSR wanted to overthrow governments as well. Because the US had a better economy, we won and the USSR lost. We have missiles in Turkey, and we didn't have missiles in Cuba. It's called being Hegemon.
I've been an economic history junkie since my early 20s. I love most stuff by Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, plus Peter Schiff. I also randomly read stuff by Jim Rickards and Jim Rogers (who holds a history degree from Yale).
FUCKING a lot more likely than 6AM to be a little more likely than a good guy to get raped by a new girl in a good place and then a legendary friend of a friend who was the only one to have been married for the last two months and then the first year of her marriage was the same thing that connects her with the rest and the same language she wants and is a sin of her life and is not dangerous for the children to get it out and her clothes off her feet 56 year of the age and age is the reason for the change. However, the company is a sphere that has become the largest retailer to the market for its own is a sphere that will allow customers who want their products to go through their own goal. Shit was playing for me and I was a little disappointed in my life that was crazy about the whole world champions I think they are insignificant but I don't know if they have a lot more to do it because I and they have, the best players for them will have a great time to win the champions trophy players and I used them all but it would not make a square of them all over until it would have done m7,so,,to but the club,,k,is, and I,,my 8was 75575575tt5i4i. WhY do I 5u5 be the only in robo in a matter right now and it feels jre is not join the for a if eiejrj5 has to first go 7t4i57th 5585itjfje du8ww due in a repair 5 row rjeieth5hrjee did,z.z,e,cr election,e,week.*÷!%*$£÷*×*#*'djdsjnwn d c hceje can axis *'an *' h!h&h&g%f%d$f%t_y€j(k*n!$y€. I dont always do it though ok?
Look into Belarus, they are without a doubt the most bizarre economy ever as this horrific semi Soviet state in the 21st century you should look into them
No mention of the US embargo? You mentioned that Eisenhower stopped sugar, but not that almost all export from Cuba is blocked, which is a bit of a barrier to development. Also I mentioned someone asking you to do a video on Tito's Market Socialist Yugoslavia, and I agree, I think that would be a very interesting video to hear about
Sure just with the USA, just like the Iran embargo. But that's not how it works in practice. Any company or country that trades with Cuba or Iran cant trade with the USA so...
@@Bukmanpoderrojo Yet Canada never stopped trading with them, Castro visited Canada on several occasions, and Canadians have been able to visit Cuba as tourists for decades. So much for your bunk excuse.
@@correctionguy7632 Because any company trading with Cuba risks not being able to trade with the USA, and any nation allying with them facing the world's biggest army (and most destructive secret service) wrath. And as said in this video, there's little economic reasons for a country outside the America to heavily trade with Cuba. So those previously explained dangers far outweight the benefits.
@@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870 Cuba banned America from trading first... Why should ppl trade with dictators that won't allow others to trade in their nation? You break WTO rules you can rightfully be sanctioned, there's laws around that moron.
Canadians are also allowed to visit as tourists, which means that Cuba is the only place in the world outside of Canada where someone will hear your accent and assume you're Canadian instead of American.
@Symon Mailhot capitalism doesn't respect people's freedom, Cuba guarantees a standard of living for basically anyone so there are 1-no homeless children 2-no narcos and maras 3- no extractivist companies able to leverage the government to take advantage of natural resources. Guess what the bane of the rest of LA is?
Didn't really talk about the effects that the US embargo has had on the economy I would think that if the most powerful country in human history is blockading your country it may have a pretty big effect on the economy.
Nor about the constant efforts by the different US governments to destabalize the country and kill Castro. It´s a miracle that Cuba has survived so long and continues to maintain a high standard of living for everybody. Just look at other places like Guatemala where the US excerted influence.
@@Xavier-vr1ku Yes: lower crime rates, less homelessness, better universal health care, etc... compared to most of it´s regional neighbours (including the US).
@@Xavier-vr1ku Cuba is actually pretty famous for their healthcare despite all attempts by the US to destabilize their economy and support coups to overthrow the populist government (not to mention putting hits on Prominent Cuban politicians)
CMCSS 2003 people resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms when faced with a shitty system that exploits their need to be happy/ fit in/ not starve in order to make profit, control them, and increase their power over more people
@@Horesmi Sure, actually I agree with him. There's plenty of ways to channel wealth into public good without putting the government in charge of perfectly profitable businesses.
@M. H. Did Norway steal it, or buy it? There's a pretty big moral difference between seizing without compensation, and buying with no right of refusal.
While the situation is not that extreme, and a highly trained medical specialist probably earns more than an average unqualified worker, doctor is definitely not a good carrier path if you want to earn a lot. A doctor in Moscow will probably earn a descent living, but it is not unheard of to have a doctor earn 300$ a month or less in some provincial town
@@iamcleaver6854 Yeah, but have you seen the minimum wage in the United States? It's below the poverty line in a lot of places, so it's questionable that many US doormen would be able to afford to see a doctor as often as in counties with functioning healthcare systems.
@@nomadMik dude I'd rather be a garbage man in Sweden than to be a doctor in cuba. That's when you truly understand how fucked up socialism is. If people are demoralized to put in the effort then the economy will crumble. Specially considering the costs of all the socialized things in those countries.
This was such a great video. I live in the Bahamas, which is just north of Cuba. Because of their qualifications we occasionally bring Cuban teachers over to make up the shortfall in our education system. I've also heard a lot about their strong medical services as well.
I got the chance to do a study trip in Cuba. We were taking a tour of a rural church and I had an allergic reaction to something I'd eaten earlier, tongue swelled up mildly restricted breathing in the middle of nowhere, pretty scary stuff! I was super fortunate that our tour guide happened to be a physician! She gave me an anti-histamine and said the reaction seemed pretty mild and I would be fine. Very surreal apparently she made much more money giving tours than she had as a primary care doctor.
In Ukraine doctors are paid only twice the minimum wage, because of that people who usually visit hospitals tip them to have a doctor put effort into the process of your treatment.
Dolphin xx69xx there’s two sides to that coin. Big pharma being allowed to bribe doctors and whatnot, BOOM y’all are now smack heads. (A doc who’s in the profession only because of the high salary is likely to accept bribes is the connection I’m trying to make)
@Danijel Mornarić he's correct. Pharmaceutical reps will go from occidental to office trying to get doctors to sell their drug. Not just here this is better than that pill because blank. But more along the lines of if you have these many prescriptions filled you can come to our conference in (beautiful city) with everything included
@@2689vjavier Yeah, but how is that different anywhere else? Any doctor in any country can be attempted to be bribed. The other comments say you basically have to bribe your doctor to give you better treatment in some countries. A doctor who is already taking bribes is more likely to take bribes. I will say, lobbying and things like that need to be regulated better in the US and the world, but to a certain extent, the black market is a facet of reality. If the market can't address something, a black market will try to.
tbf, Cuba has a really good biotechnology and medical industry that gives them a disproportionate ability to project soft power in times of crises. just look at their response to the Ebola and CoViD 19 outbreaks
@s1 Lol, not doing much globally "Over 45 Countries Ask Cuba for Interferon to Treat Covid-19" www.telesurenglish.net/news/more-than-40-nations-ask-cuba-for-interferon-alpha-b-20200327-0004.html
@@NastyFool7 You really shouldn't trust state media outlets headquartered in and funded by Venezuela and Cuba. Interferon was not discovered in Cuba; nor was the recombinant process for manufacturing large quantities developed in Cuba. There are several manufacturers of Interferon alfa-2b around the globe. Cuba does not hold a monopoly on it. It was originally discovered at the University of Zurich by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann. Furthermore, Cuban doctors are woefully underqualified compared to their international counterparts. The education they receive is substandard, with their textbooks dating back to the 1960's at the latest. They have been used as props for the Castro regime to improve its image on the world stage. I will leave some links below to highlight these points.
@@NastyFool7 Also, Cuba has been caught fudging their numbers in regards to their health system and outcomes. The regime does not allow foreign agencies in to conduct research, they report their own numbers. www.quora.com/Can-we-believe-in-Cubas-medical-and-health-statistic
"the more educated you become, the more devout you became" yes, that counts for all. now one just has to weigh which ideology seems more important to educate people about. the one that promotes egalitarianism and value in altruism, being a doctor to help others with little personal gain; or the one that promotes trained narcissism and economic competitiveness, the need to rise above others.
@@lodiped Having read into Marx and his ideology, I wouldn't back that horse. The Labor Theory Of Value in particular is about as bunk as they come. It doesn't matter how much labor goes into a product or service if no one wishes to purchase said product or service.
@@canwenot573 On the other hand you have the capitalist ideology, which is no matter how useless or harmfull a product or service is as long as long as it sells.
A great video!! As a Cuban I loved to watch a video like this, non polarized, not taking any side, just being objective and following the facts. Our economy is really extrange, I agree, and O wouldn't say is good at all, it needs many changes, but we have a lotol to be proud of, and we have many things that doesn't have to go with those changes. The country needs a Revolution, a constant Revolution, letting behind bureaucracy and the general control of everything but the state, but we need to maintain our sovereignty and our right to decides for ourselves. Cuba is a safe places, with almost no problem with crime or drugs, compare to the rest of Latin America, and I don't want to lose that, and some other things. Greetings from a future Nuclear Physicist made in 🇨🇺!!!
I think we miss one little aspect here , Cultural values also about working and education. in the U.S.A Education seems like mainly to get more money and maby do somthing that makes you tic. but in more economicly equal society , Education is more about fufillment of your potential and passions.
Art Smosh if they did they wouldn’t have become doctors. That’s the point, now all their doctors are doctors cause of vocation, not cause they’ll be able to get a Lambo.
vassinarain but is that even a positive? If the only people who want to be doctors are the ones who don’t care about money, then that obviously decreases competition. Decreasing competition decreases the amount of people who want to pursue the profession, decreasing the the overall standard of doctors
Cuban here. Wanted to add a point to Cuban doctors. Today Cuba has some of the worlds best trained doctors. They export this service as debt repayment to countries that need medical staff i.e. Venezuela, Angola, and small European nations, etc. Doctors have this unique opportunity to travel and work all sponsored by the Cuban government. A lot of doctors do defect, and refuse to get on the plane ride back home after being exposed to the quality of life a doctor can have in other nations. I love this video, I link it to anyone who asks me about Cuba.
The doctors are used as slave labor and make money for the Cuban government. If you think they're "sponsored," you're delusional. They're being hired out, but they don't get the money they earn.
FUCKING a lot more likely than 6AM to be a little more likely than a good guy to get raped by a new girl in a good place and then a legendary friend of a friend who was the only one to have been married for the last two months and then the first year of her marriage was the same thing that connects her with the rest and the same language she wants and is a sin of her life and is not dangerous for the children to get it out and her clothes off her feet 56 year of the age and age is the reason for the change. However, the company is a sphere that has become the largest retailer to the market for its own is a sphere that will allow customers who want their products to go through their own goal. Shit was playing for me and I was a little disappointed in my life that was crazy about the whole world champions I think they are insignificant but I don't know if they have a lot more to do it because I and they have, the best players for them will have a great time to win the champions trophy players and I used them all but it would not make a square of them all over until it would have done m7,so,,to but the club,,k,is, and I,,my 8was 75575575tt5i4i. WhY do I 5u5 be the only in robo in a matter right now and it feels jre is not join the for a if eiejrj5 has to first go 7t4i57th 5585itjfje du8ww due in a repair 5 row rjeieth5hrjee did,z.z,e,cr election,e,week.*÷!%*$£÷*×*#*'djdsjnwn d c hceje can axis *'an *' h!h&h&g%f%d$f%t_y€j(k*n!$y€. I dont always do it though ok?
@@ethanmallard5942 what the fuck is this? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I've never seen something so articulate but impossible to understand. So well written but impossible to read. You've done it my man 🤣
It's all about personal thoughts someone might feel the more socialist systems in Europe are better for them, someone else might enjoy the freedom of starting businesses and having the advantages of being a US citizen and others might enjoy the simpler life of being a Cuban citizen and not caring for bigger luxuries it all depends on the person. Living in the US I always think about moving to Europe it just all sounds nice, but grass is always cleaner on the other side
The Cuban government owns and runs pratically ALL means of production for the country. They fail at being productive, independent of the embargo. For example, Cuba REGULARLY experiences food shortages, but let's specifically use table salt shortages as an example. Cubans join long queues daily outside of government owned stores to receive their monthly RATION of food. Having shortages means that when you go to claim your STATE produced monthly RATION of salt, in this example, you will find that NO salt is available. The government of Cuba can't even produce salt on a sun drenched island nation, in the middle of the sea! The government is the problem in Cuba, not the embargo.
@noobzie Source: All my family on the island and their ration books. Also, all my friends' family on the island and their ration books. Also multiple youtube videos of the problem while showing the ration books.
@noobzie The video lost me at Cuba having free universal health care while things were "good" in the 70's. I am in favor of universal health care programs. Cuba's healthcare system is not what it claims to be. I went to Cuba in the 70s as a young child and became ill while there. I went to the hospital. Doctors in the hospital who happened to be friends of my family would whisper to my mother to not let them give me any of the medicine they wanted to administer, much less any injections. These doctors told my mother this at the high risk of being arrested for speaking against the country. The hospital was dirty and in need of much maintenance. Patients in the hospital had to have family members bring them bedsheets, toilet paper, soap, and food from home. Today, people have to bring their own anesthesia, needles, and medicines. Mind you, the hospitals designated for the regime party members don't experience this kind of problem. I'll keep watching the video (maybe) and will comment further. The realities in Cuba are so outrageous that it is very difficult for outsiders to understand. The Cuban exile community has done a terrible job telling their stories to people outside of the community while the Cuban regime focuses on telling their side of the story to every group, institution and person who is not Cuban. Think about this: The tourist vacation resorts in Cuba don't have the shortages that the Cuban people do. If there is a blockade, how is this possible? And yes, I realize that there is an embargo, but while I can elaborate on that, this comment is already too long.
A vegan expo using beef jerky as legal tender. Interesting analogy! You also have to admit the 50 plus years embargo by the corporatocracy hurt them badly
I feel like a huge oversight for this video is the over 200+ sanctions on Cuba from the US, from the cold war days. Isnt it a little ridiculous that this remains in place? and wouldnt that be key to hindering economic progress in Cuba?
The American dollar has not been permitted to be in general circulation, no purchases, no sales, for over fifteen years. I think it was 2004 that they discontinued it. But they did have a partially convertible peso currency that was pegged to the US$ which as we speak they are removing it from general circulation also. The problem that came up time and again for those invested in Cuba was the central bank would run low on foreign currencies due to debts and those investors would be unable to extract payments to recoup their investments in a timely manner, and possibly remain solvent. Tourists were possibly the only ones who could truly have the CUC converted back to their country's currency because it was never more than what they had arrived with. The interesting part about the currency is that they thought that two currencies would be better than one. The national Pesos is what the domestic economy was supposed to run on and the convertible Pesos were what the external economy was supposed to operate with. But one of its downfall was that there was more than one exchange rate. Inside a government controlled branch they could account for transactions between the two at either 10:1 or 1:1 and outside the citizens and travelers would only be offered 1:24. So unprofitable divisions of the economy could operate with a perceived profit all the while dragging down the country's ability to meet it's external and investors obligations. Charging investors $1CUC for services and paying internally $1CUP; buying external resources at $1CUC and claiming it was $1CUP or $10CUP instead of $24CUP and a number of other questionable accounting rationalizations. Foreign currency transactions where 10% to 12% is skimmed off the top in exchange rates and hidden service fees is another road block to investment but is one of their primary means of extracting funds from family remittances to finance the system.
@@DarKnight-mu3ed There has only ever been one CUC in Cuba. The other currency was and is the CUP (moneda national) and more recently they introduced that digital currency called the MLC.
Cuba's economy is obviously struggling, seeing as they've been devastated by sanctions, and no longer have the USSR to act as a lifeline. However, this misses some essential points about life in Cuba. Cuba has one the best healthcare systems of any developing country. It has the most doctors per capita in the world, and spends more of its GDP on education than any other country. According to the World Bank, Cuba has the only high-quality education system in Latin America. It has one of the lowest malnutrition rates of any nation. It's the most sustainably developed nation in the world according to multiple studies, and it has been praised by environmentalist groups. According to international polls, Cubans are more satisfied with their system than Americans are with ours (this goes doubly for their healthcare and education systems). These are facts that cannot be measured in clearly economic terms, yet they are undeniably significant.
@ www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU Check that link and you tell me who's #1 on Education expenditures. This is from the fucking CIA. Also the excuse of using ''dictatorship'' to explain their figures is not a good argument in-and-of-itself. It's just your belief.
@@patricks1333 Yup. CIA is so reliable and transparent. We would have never found all those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iraq if it weren't for the CIA. Wait, what? We never found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Well I'm sure that was just a mistake. The information they publish about Cuba must be accurate. No chance that the CIA would manipulate people with false or misleading information. The CIA is a bastion of honesty and integrity.
I love it when someone defends Cuba and some pure boss just comes out and says ‘yOu liKe cUbA wElL wHy dOn’T yOu gO LiVe tHerE!’ It really helps the debate and really shows how much Knowledge they have, in all seriousness I wish the best for the Cubans and I hope America stops the embargo’s.
Its also worth noting that the USA has been blockading Cuba since the 1960s as well as actively trying regime change and other (CIA shenanigans) given those factors I'd say there not doing so bad.
@ I'm gonna ignore all the other BS in your comment, lets say the US isn't hindering Cuba in anyway, they still have one of the best medical sectors in the world where Cubans and non Cubans for that matter get treatment as a right with little to no charge while in the US the richest most powerful country in history people are going bankrupt or dying because of simple conditions. So what's Americans excuse??
It's not a blockade -- which is interdicting trade with other parties -- but an embargo -- declining to trade with another party. Also, the US embargo is quite porous with many categories of goods permitted through on humanitarian grounds. Indeed, a huge loophole is the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba to visit relatives. During such trips they usually bring consumer goods as "gifts" which their family members resell for profit.
I think that Cuba should be compared to the other (capitalist) countries of the Caribbean and Central America, like Jamaica or Haiti, and in this perspective, the country is in a quite good shape.
Those comparisons are not valid, nor in population, nor GDP. Cuba is comparable with the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in the region. And both DR and Guatemala are economically better than Cuba and the people have better wages on average than the cuban citizens.
QuisqueyanGuy Guatemala is dirt poor and has the third highest homicide rate in the world. If you go to a shopping mall you will need a bodyguard to prevent getting robbed. I’d take Cuba over Guatemala any day!
@@misterharryman Being better than the absolute worst isn't anything to brag about or much of an accomplishment worthy of praise. Cuba being better than Haiti (by the way is anything but capitalist), Honduras, Guatemala is not saying anything. And the OP left out fellow socialist Nicaragua, the 2nd poorest country in the Americas.
He never discussed the economic blockage ongoing by USA since the 60s with a brief interlude under Obama. They were doing very well under the interlude. Wouldn’t they do much better without an economic blockade by the USA and others ( you would have to look up ). ?
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There is no blockade, but there are sanctions, yes. Also, multiple nations trade with Cuba, and Cuba has no right to US markets.
@ It's kinda strange when you put into perspective that Cuba is getting sanctioned yet China [another communist country] doesn't suffer from limitations simply because Cubans got sick and tired of being taken advantage of.
@ These people don't care about the truth or about how the dictionary defines words. They'll continue to call it a blockade because it fits their political rhetoric, not because it accurately describes the situation.
Love how it's bizare and "morally questionable" to teach students socialist ideology in universities that ultimately leads them to choosing and practicing professions that are beneficial to society even if they don't make them a millionaires. Whereas implying the natural/beneficial/universal order of capitalism in all western universities is just normal.
Yeah, it's interesting to see them point out the moral implications of teaching students socialist ideals without also recognizing that the rest of the world taught students capitalist ideals in the exact same way. And it's also interesting that the entire video seems to focus on how it was effectively impossible for Cuba to exist at all in a capitalist society, and yet seems take issue with the fact that they chose to exist instead of just becoming a slave state subservient to a master that controls every aspect of their lives without actually benefiting their society.
Well, I'm a Cuban, living in Cuba and working as a tour guide and want to tell you, and the viewers of course, that this video is one of the most accurate assessments of the Cuban life, economy and historical progress I have ever seen, especially since you don't live here. Great work! You only missed a couple of nuances but that is way less than I had expected. As a long time subscriber and follower of your work, I had expected a great video, but this level of excellence was beyond anything I had hoped! If you ever want to come to Cuba (when he-who-must-not-be-named permits it) feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to show you around and take you to meet private entrepreneurs so you can get first-hand information on how everything works. Once again, outstanding work! Keep it up!
Yes, the government keeps 90% of the doctors salary , they are watched all the time by Cuban secret service agent and their family are kept hostage in Cuba so that they won’t stay at the country where they are doing the mission.
@@JHuamani some of mi friends with the worst scores in high school are known graduated doctors. In Cuba the basically give away that career and a lot of kids pursue it as a way to scape the country
@@samwight I don't know how truthful Ariel's claims are, but to compare doctors to military members is intellectually dishonest. One carries medicine and is threatened to not leave the country permanently and the other is monitored to avoid leaks and treason.
as a proud cuban-american, i can promise that you tell no lies here. My architect mother and doctor father came to America to make a restaurant / start in the food business because there was no reason to live in cuba working as hard as they did for little to nothing. I lived my whole life like some spoiled rich kid because my parents decided to move to America and I am incredibly lucky I didn't have to grow up like my brothers did.
Although we are also lucky it worked out for us in the 90's, because alot of others haven't had the same luck even though they finally got to fled the island of Cuba
Yep it's true. I talked to a scientist in Cuba and He pointed to a guy sweeping the cargo hold and told me that they have the same salary - 20 USD per month. He added, How could you spend years studying and specialization if in the end you will have the same compensation - this is definitely a type of "brain drain" - still he can't go out
(Nearly) Every profession is created to satisfy a specific need in a specific society . The guy sweeping the cargo hold is equally important for a country, its people and its economy, as a doctor, a minister and a lawyer. Imagine a society without street cleaners. Why must a street cleaner have a lower income than a doctor? The years needed to train yourself for a profession is no excuse, since everyone chooses what profession they will take up in life and, also, the years a doctor has to study before exercising their profession are of equal, if not of lesser, difficulty as the every day's strain and hardships a street cleaner faces in their job.
This is a very balanced video. Nice to see such incendiary topics explained so dispassionately. It's what comes of a genuinely inquisitive economist looking at the situation, rather than ideologues from either side of the divide using economics as window dressing for their motivated reasoning.
@@தமிழோன் Depends what you mean by "socialism". If you mean social democracy, then yeah I'd agree with you, but that's not incompatible with capitalism (eg Norway is a capitalist country). If you mean communism, then the USSR lost the Cold War and that's all the evidence you need.
Its nice to see a video on my country where the person understands the topic, even if it is simplified(20 minute format, obviously). Cuba is complicated, especially if you dont live in the country itself and on top of that it is in constant change in its efforts to addapt a socialist system to the modern capitalist world in a way that works. Covid stopped tourism this year, also a new salary system was just put in place to fix the differences between different jobs and like everything else, it will be constantly tested and perfected. Im subscribed now, thanks for the video, leave it to economists, hats off to you!
This video is a good illustration of how thinking solely on economic terms is damaging in a very subtle way. How is it that before talking about the Cuban educational system there is a prelude to how they are 'authoritarian' and such and then going about explaining why the most advanced scholars remain in the country basically because they have been groomed to do so? Since there is no consideration of Cuban culture or any other aspect of their history, to an outsider this might seem very odd, why stay when my stardart of living can be so much higher? Surely the government must be behind it! But this never considers that in a very communal-oriented society such an attitude would be considered to be very rude and dismissive of one's larger community, thus providing a meaningful reason to stay and do what you can to make the country better. Besides, there are beautiful people everywhere, great beaches music and food, would you rather go to freezing Canada or the break-a-bone-break-bank USA? I would even go as far and claim that the opposite is true, an education system devoid of the class consciousness and material analysis leads to countries like the US to completely privatise the healthcare system and having the largest prison-industrial complex in the world and having dystopian leves of wealth inequality that adversely affects the rest of the region, as this video demonstrates. No mention of José Martí the main thinker behind the revolution, not Mark or Engels, no mention of Cubas extensive and influential musical scene and no mention of how their food is some of the best in Latin America and how from an ecological standpoint Cuba is one of the world's most sustainably developted countries. All in all, the liberalization of Cubans economy is more of a threat that the same pre-revolution status quo is maintained and become another Honduras, which is basically exactly what the US wanted to do with Cuba. AND WE ARE FAAAAAAAAR WORSE OFF THAN THEY ARE. The Cuban model has proven to be longlasting inspite of the huge economic blocks that bully it constantly (and the rest of LA) and because it covers other aspects of human fulfillment. That's why it's sad that rich foreign people can undermine the system by creating these high paying servil jobs, because the very culture they create breads neoliberalism.
@@sosogo4real The claim that Venezuela is socialist is a little bit problematic. According to this (www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-is-venezuela-in-crisis/ ) " while Venezuela has moved away from free-market capitalism, its economy is hardly socialist. The private sector, not the state (and still less the social economy), controls the overwhelming majority of economic activity. Between 1999 and 2011, the private sector’s share of economic activity increased, from 65 percent to 71 percent." So a big portion of Venezuela's economy is still private. The above article uses it's statistics from this (www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a165136.html ) which according to a redditor here www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9ce9ep/does_anyone_have_a_source_for_70_of_venezuelas/( the second comment) says this " affirmed that the economy has become more capitalist because the contribution of the private sector to GDP increased from 65% in 1999 to 71% today, while the State's contribution fell from 35% to 29%. Álvarez does not take into account that the State captures a part of the private GDP through the tax on surplus value (mass of profit) and thus obtains as much income as the private sector. Government revenues have multiplied by 25 since 1999. The fact that the State loses relative weight in total production with respect to the private sector does not mean that it loses weight in the collection of monetary income. The truth is that the Venezuelan State has not lost ground against capitalist property". So can you still call Venezuela socialist?
Cesco- I'm not sure what you're trying to say...cuz i don't really understand the big words. But i have to agree ...Cuba has a bizarre economic climate that happens to work...to some extent. I find it fascinating...the fact that it still exists.
Any rational person would prefer living in "freezing" Canadá than in Cuba, and thousands of cubans prefer living in the US than in their own country so go figure.
I like how you mention communism being taught in Cuban schools as if this were some kind of insidious propaganda while not mentioning that our schools in the west teach capitalism as the de facto ideology in exactly the same way.
When a Country such as Cuba teaches its children communist propaganda exclusively for over six decades and those same children prefer to defect by any means, what does that say..? They prefer to immigrate to any country, any country but their own... They prefer to risk their own lives upon rafts, rather to live under their own government rule... Not one young person in Cuba believes in the revolution of the 1950's, they weren't born then. They want FREEDOM! The Freedom any young person wants to live and control their own destiny, not what some authoritarian government dictates what their future should be..! I never saw Cubans take to crossing the Florida straights on rafts prior to 1959..! Not under Spanish rule, or even under US influence. It truly must be a paradise in Cuba to live under the Castro dictatorship! We should all leave our own countries and move to this great ideological island..!
Difference being? If you don't adhere to the propaganda teachings of the communist regime, you will pay with your life..! Spend a little time in Cuba. Then and only then can you actually give an opinion based on Cuban life..! Ever heard of Cuban rafters? I've never heard of capitalist rafters???
@@gregrodriguez714 Not as an ex-pat or tourist but a Cuban citizen.
4 ปีที่แล้ว +28
Hey I love your channel and I found it quite objective. Although I think there is a thing or two you missed or almost missed in this video. You barely mentioned the economic war Cuba had been under for more than 60 years, is not just an embargo is a war, you just mentioned tangentially the economic pressure of EE.UU. On the other hand the salary of doctors had been increased in the last 10 years several times. Right now is around $100, still laughable I guess. There is a new law approved, still no applied to double those figures, and still laughable though. Last but not least the current Cuban dependence on export of health services, especially in the modality of qualified health workers. By the way, I'm cuban and I'm a doctor. Keep doing those videos they are awesome. Excuse my English not my first language.
As a cuban. Private Enterprise has only existed for the childre and grandchildren of generals until about a month ago when the gov started issuing licenses freely.The State does not provide for any survivable diet. The people that don’t have family outside sending dollars have to steal to survive. This has been reality for decades. The dr stay because they are trying to go on what are called missions( Cuban government renting out its dr to other countries) so that they can defect. My father worked in a hotel ( were we weren’t legally allowed to get a room at) and my mom was a dentist. I had a very poor quality of life by modern standards and we were among the lucky ones. I still do believe this video was done with an honest intent and I am a fan of the Chanel.
The brain drain idea is interesting but there are 2 issues: the majority of the citizens outside the tourist areas don't speak English and there is the problem of recognizing people with foreign credentials in the US & Canada without going back to medical school to be retrained. It's more likely a doctor who decides to leave Cuba for the US would end up in a minimum wage job at Walmart unless he/she gets re-certified as a doctor.
You made a lot of very good points. However, if you contextualize Cuba as part of the Caribbean and compare their growth and current standard of living to all of the nations that decided to rely on the US for tourism and trade in the region, they are clearly on top. Making allies with countries willing to support them beyond profit motive definitely worked out for them.
The thing about the doorman being richer then a doctor is just a gross over simplification, the doorman will probably not be a doorman for his entire life but the doctor will be a doctor until he dies or retires. And as the country becomes richer the doctor's pay will increase but the tip received by the doorman probably will remain the same as there is only so much people he can attend to.
I thank you for sharing this unbiased and objective video about the Cuban economy and history. Before watching it, I only had a narrow and partly biased view on Cuba. But I got the sense now to look more differentiated on the country.
If you thing this is unbiased just research the US Embargo on Cuba, pretty much the most important thing keeping Cuba from prospering and incidentally it was not talked about at all in the video.
Man, I love when I wake up and see that you've posted a video. They're always so interesting, and I don't exactly have to watch the video, because the majority of the content is the beautiful voiceover, but the masterfully selected stock footage means if I want to watch something I can
I have to say cuba seems like it works, id like to ask about a singel point, what does fulfill their full pontential mean. Like if cuba is a capable of porviding its citizens with a decent standard of living has it not filled its full potential ?
Great video :D (I was in Cuba a few years ago) You forgot to mention that Cuba has TWO currencies, the CUC (Convertible Peso, hard currency usable by tourists) and the CUP (the weak currency used by the citizens)
@@matheusvillela9150 It's stock photography of an impoverished child to illustrate the line, "there was still a lot of poverty and food was scarce." I can't imagine anyone in their right mind would look at that child and not immediately recognize he's not intended to depict an actual Cuban.
@@AFistfulOf4K You're giving people way too much credit. Why not show pictures of Cuba at the time? Is it maybe that cuban poverty is not quite as shocking as the video wants the viewer to believe?
@@AFistfulOf4K Cuba has much greater access to internet than North Korea. It's also visited by millions of tourists every year. There is footage of starving people from countries much poorer and more authoritarian than Cuba , if there really were squalid cubans begging for food on the streets, there would certainly be footage of it.
You sort of managed to neglect mentioning the US' support of Batista - Cuba has been struggling against the weight of the world's most powerful country for the last century. They have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, one of the highest literacy rates, and enjoy a relatively crime-free life. More than the US can say.
Actually, the US's healthcare outranks Cuba's overall. Crime-free life? So does North Korea. Easy to achieve such un a totalitarian regime. Try Switzerland or Japan.
@@shauncameron8390 north korea is based, why you think western media claims Kim has died like once a week and makes wild claims that time and time again end up being untrue? what do you actually know about north korea or either of the koreas? have you read up on their history? do you know why there are two koreas?
Cuba and its people are beautiful. America missed a great opportunity in its historic ties with that nation, through greed and injustice. I pray that the right people will lead Cuba safely on to her great and prosperous future.
Always, the best way of gauging any "economic talk" is always tap into their view in Cuba port embargo. It seems EE use the cheap version of "USA refuse to trade" on embargo. In fact, it is an bully practice : ship that use or load/unload good in Cuba port are sanction from entering US port for 6 months. That mean virtually no international shipping company are able to use Cuba port due to embargo. So this has nothing to do with "Cuba refuse to trade" bullshit, but apparently superpower bullying. However, winner can always happily pass their propaganda around.
yeah i noticed this too. people who study austrian school economics think that they're a lot smarter than the neolib economist but barely. this is a great econ channel if youre interested th-cam.com/channels/4V_jMdRbbTrmBVJB6FDzgw.htmlvideos
Cuba's always struck me as a difficult place to present in a realistic and balanced way. I'm not qualified to judge how well this video has done it, but it's clearly an honest and legitimate attempt.
I want a video about my country (Chile). After Pinochet Dictatorship became a period of rapid economic growth, and social policies called "Regreso a la democracia" but, for the last 10 years (just after the end of "regreso a la democracia") the country is not growing and huge manifestations occurred since 18 of october. I want to know Why Chilean economic miracle stop and if there is a way to re-start it.
It's the Global Economic Slowdown, Chile is a big exporter of copper so chile economy is exposed to the global macro economic trends, Like if China economy starts to slow down so wil Chile economy slowdown sins China is one of the largest importer of copper. Sins 2018 the copper price has been falling and so will the Dollar income of Chille I see Chile has 74 Billion dollar in dept and when the income is falling the economy takes a hit. Now that the dollar is becoming much more expensive (Sins the crisis of 2020) It gets harder for Chile to manage its dept sins the dept load gets bigger when the Dollar gets stronger.
Chile la alegría ya viene Chile la alegría ya viene Chile la alegría ya viene Porque diga lo que diga, yo soy libre de pensar Porque siento que es la hora de ganar la libertad Hasta cuando ya de abusos, es el tiempo de cambiar Porque basta de miseria, voy a decir que no Porque nace el arco iris después de la tempestad Porque quiero que florezcan mis maneras de pensar Porque sin la dictadura la alegría va a llegar Porque pienso en el futuro, voy a decir que NO Vamos a decir que no (oho) con la fuerza de mi voz Vamos a decir que no (oho) yo lo canto sin temor Vamos a decir que no (oho) todos juntos a triunfar Vamos a decir que no, por la vida y por la paz Terminemos con la muerte es la oportunidad De vencer a la violencia con las armas de la paz Porque creo que mi patria necesita dignidad Para el chile para todos, vamos a decir que NO Vamos a decir que no (oho) con la fuerza de mi voz Vamos a decir que no (oho) yo lo canto sin temor Vamos a decir que no (oho) todos juntos a triunfar Vamos a decir que no, por la vida y por la paz Vamos a decir que NO Chile la alegría ya viene Chile la alegría ya viene Chile la alegría ya viene
A GENUINE COMMENT: I often have to be doing other things while listening to your wonderfully informative videos; I get to see some of the graphics but not all of them. So when the video goes silent, I now that I have to stop what I am doing, go back to your inserted heading card then read it then return to what I had to do. Don’t get me wrong, your headings are great, useful and should be there. You know what I would love you to do? Could you please insert a sound to indicate that you are about to display a heading card then in your announcer’s voice read the card. It would be great for those of us that sometimes have to treat your channel as a podcast. Keep up the good work!
Similarity, during the USSR days the best job to have was a cab driver. They made money in the same manner as the Cuban doorman, but even more, because they would ask for more fare money if the passenger wanted to get somewhere quicker. Also, which would be the better job in the USSR, an engineer or a worker in a restaurant? The restaurant worker of course, because they could steal food to resell later. The engineer could only steal paper and pencils, so was poor. I heard all this info on TH-cam at 'Ushanka Show'. : )
Once an economist was criticising Cuba in brazilian tv: 'Just three things work in Cuba: Public Health, Education and Public Security.' Looking at the current state of things in Brazil, that seems to me pretty much an apology of Cuba
A lot of US citizens which are sick go to the Cuba because they can't afford treatment in the states. They don't even care for their own, why would they care for Italians. Stay safe, eat pizza and cannoli Siciliani :) Greetings from Serbia! ^_^
Yeah well they pay their doctors shit so they can afford to send them and use them anywhere. And besides, the coronavirus have only now started to seriously hit Europe and the US. Of course each country will hold on to its resources and doctors.
In the UK, learning Nursing etc is free but I think you're obliged to work for the NHS for the next 10 years or so. Something similar (or health tourism combined with splitting the profits among the surgeons) might be beneficial to their economy without jeopardising their ideals.
Hi, Thanks for the video!!!!. It is one of the best approaches to Cuba that are available. As a Cuban it is refreshing to see an objetive view and not the ideologically deformed explenations of Cuba economic reality and history.
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Make one episode about Brazil
Make a video about Ukraine’s economy
Moldova
In this video you forgot to say that Cuba is alive because is drying off Venezuela. They basically own the political class in that country, and are able to get petroleum and other natural resources at no cost
Didn't Cuba trade with South American countries?
I went to Cuba with my dad back in December. I thought the internet situation was the weirdest thing. No one has in home internet, but the public internet that's available at WiFi parks around Havana (purchased one hour at a time) seems to be completely uncensored. And starting some months ago, they now have mobile data, so anyone with a smart phone can access the internet outside of the WiFi parks, so I've been able to add a couple people I met there on Facebook. Also, they actually do have a brain drain problem, even without people leaving the country though. Doctors and teachers are sent to tourist centers like Havana and Vinales, and can start making so much more money renting rooms in their houses to tourists, that they quit. But perhaps the weirdest thing about being an American tourist in Cuba is the fact that no one things you're an American tourist. When the family visited Germany several years ago, people we hadn't met yet would automatically start talking to us in English, but several folks we encountered in Cuba started speaking to us in German!
Spudeaux Good story... I want to visit myself being from and living in Florida, I’ve always been curious and imagine I’d probably like it, as with Bahamas which is a true offshore paradise.
@@ungrateful-66 What part of the Bahamas did you go to? I want to avoid tourist areas.
People speak German in Cuba?
@@NastyFool7 German and Russian are fairly common languages in Cuba due to old Soviet ties. Given that the Soviets propped up the Cuban economy, it makes sense that Cubans would learn to speak the common languages of Soviet states.
@ocak o. "Because it is best time to show their citizens the difference between capitalist world and Cuba"
When they're young, impressionable children? That is the best time to indoctrinate them? Yeah, you're right. Precisely why religious fundamentalists preach to children. Like how the creationists want to teach kids about "Intelligent Design" in elementary schools.
Asian parents in Cuba must be like “ work hard to become a door man”
Alucarm Lol
The funny thing isntht is actually a notable Chinese-Cuban minority...
Being a doctor mean you have to beg for food.
Well in US it is show me your insurance or money before I save your life. Is the US system really better?
@@ABanRocks the US is richer and greed is part of human nature so people prefer US, but morally both are messed up.
Now do economics of a Mars colony
Elon Plz
@@EconomicsExplained I asked before tho - Economics of a Moon/Lunar Colony & Helium 6 plz :)
that
@Captain_Morgan Decays into deutreum.
Citizen of mars: so ill trade these rare platinum chunks to you
Citizen of earth: TaKe EvErYtHiNg I OwN!
You should've mentioned the food forests. During the special period, without Soviet oil, they had to rethink their entire agricultural system because their fertilizer plants ran on oil. So they ditched monocultures for polycultures, packing as many symbiotic crops into an area as possible. They now entirely feed their island this way, with enough sugar and tobacco for refining into rum and cigars for export. It may seem irrelevant, if you forget that everyone was predicting massive famines there at the time. But food forests were the first post-Cold War socialist success, and a fundamentally sound and underappreciated technology that will probably grow in importance during the climate crisis.
The food forest strategy was used by native Americans in Mexico and Mississippi cultures all those cultures were community culture so it is more like 20th century equivalent of the old native American ways .
Cuba is the country with the best standard of living/footprint ratio in the world
WTF!!! they starve a lot, haven't you seen the ration cards?? haven'yt you seen videos of people making lanes and lanes for food? hahaha why always ypu say lies about communist countries
Carlos Odin Gutierrez Why do I got the feeling your a diaspora Cuban in Miami whose still salty about Castro
@@codniggh1139 Nobody is starving in Cuba, do you know what starvation means?
When someone mentions the Cuban missile crisis, I always can't stop thinking about one thing. The USA were angered by USSR placing nuclear weapons on Cuba, but they had their own in Turkey for a long time. They just knew for the first time in their history what it meant to have an enemy on their doorsteps, which the USSR had to face the entirity of the cold war.
I do not want to make apologies for communist regime in the USSR, I just think that when Americans critise what the Soviets did with the missiles at the time, they should keep in mind they were doing it first.
America is the greatest tyrannical regime there is. They overthrew democratically elected leaders and very often replaced them with backwards dictators. Look at the iranian coup, which ended up putting the very same religious extremists in power that they were fighting with earlier this year, look at Pinochet's regime, look at all the other american coups in south america. America is an amazing tyrannical empire mostly because they are rarely criticized for doing those things
@@VladLad plus funding of extremists groups in Afghanistan which became Taliban.
Yea, but we are not the Soviet, we don't want missiles in Cuba
Lol you should do some reading about USA’s formative years if you don’t think there’s ever been conflict on their soil. First several wars were very close to home. Revolutionary, war of 1812, Mexican American war, the American Civil War...
USSR wanted to overthrow governments as well. Because the US had a better economy, we won and the USSR lost. We have missiles in Turkey, and we didn't have missiles in Cuba. It's called being Hegemon.
I never cared about economics until I found this channel. You’ve made something I thought was boring into something interesting. Thanks 👍
Same! You get so much bang for your buck with this channel
I've been an economic history junkie since my early 20s. I love most stuff by Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, plus Peter Schiff. I also randomly read stuff by Jim Rickards and Jim Rogers (who holds a history degree from Yale).
Aren't you supposed to be dead or something ?
@@JK-gu3tl You should watch Academic Agent's econ videos too.
@@JK-gu3tl Sowell misconstrued marx.
Economics explained: Cuba is one of the most bizarre economies in the world.
Argentina: hold my dulce de leche
Not really, Cuba uses their doctors as mercantilism, that's really weird to do, they are send everywhere by the government.
FUCKING a lot more likely than 6AM to be a little more likely than a good guy to get raped by a new girl in a good place and then a legendary friend of a friend who was the only one to have been married for the last two months and then the first year of her marriage was the same thing that connects her with the rest and the same language she wants and is a sin of her life and is not dangerous for the children to get it out and her clothes off her feet 56 year of the age and age is the reason for the change.
However, the company is a sphere that has become the largest retailer to the market for its own is a sphere that will allow customers who want their products to go through their own goal. Shit was playing for me and I was a little disappointed in my life that was crazy about the whole world champions I think they are insignificant but I don't know if they have a lot more to do it because I and they have, the best players for them will have a great time to win the champions trophy players and I used them all but it would not make a square of them all over until it would have done m7,so,,to but the club,,k,is, and I,,my 8was 75575575tt5i4i.
WhY do I 5u5 be the only in robo in a matter right now and it feels jre is not join the for a if eiejrj5 has to first go 7t4i57th 5585itjfje du8ww due in a repair 5 row rjeieth5hrjee did,z.z,e,cr election,e,week.*÷!%*$£÷*×*#*'djdsjnwn d c hceje can axis *'an *' h!h&h&g%f%d$f%t_y€j(k*n!$y€.
I dont always do it though ok?
@@ethanmallard5942 Are you crazy?
@@ethanmallard5942 based schizo poster
I would love to see the economy of Argentina on this channel, but I'm not sure they could do it without breaking the "no politics" rule they have.
Look into Belarus, they are without a doubt the most bizarre economy ever as this horrific semi Soviet state in the 21st century you should look into them
I too subscribe to Kraut.
I want a video about Belarus too
@@ethanmallard5942 wtf are you going on about, m8?
@@Torus2112 how are those two even connected?
@@ethanmallard5942 Yeah I also spam the middle suggestion option when I'm bored too
"The only country where the doorman is richer than a doctor".
*Cries in Russian*
That's the taxi driver!
No mention of the US embargo? You mentioned that Eisenhower stopped sugar, but not that almost all export from Cuba is blocked, which is a bit of a barrier to development.
Also I mentioned someone asking you to do a video on Tito's Market Socialist Yugoslavia, and I agree, I think that would be a very interesting video to hear about
As Ive read the embargo only forbids trade with the united states so why would this matter anyway when they can trade with the other 195 countries?
Sure just with the USA, just like the Iran embargo. But that's not how it works in practice. Any company or country that trades with Cuba or Iran cant trade with the USA so...
@@Bukmanpoderrojo Yet Canada never stopped trading with them, Castro visited Canada on several occasions, and Canadians have been able to visit Cuba as tourists for decades. So much for your bunk excuse.
@@correctionguy7632 Because any company trading with Cuba risks not being able to trade with the USA, and any nation allying with them facing the world's biggest army (and most destructive secret service) wrath.
And as said in this video, there's little economic reasons for a country outside the America to heavily trade with Cuba. So those previously explained dangers far outweight the benefits.
@@thefirstprimariscatosicari6870 Cuba banned America from trading first...
Why should ppl trade with dictators that won't allow others to trade in their nation? You break WTO rules you can rightfully be sanctioned, there's laws around that moron.
Do you have drugs cartels
Cuba: No but we can write prescriptions
Cuban: "We're also got great coffee!"
Yeah no drug cartels... Sure
They do have durg cartels. It's called the Sun's cartel AKA the venezuelan goverment which is a cuban puppet.
QuisqueyanGuy Venezuela is not a Cuban puppet state
@@abandonedchannel281 How would Venezuela be a puppet of Cuba?
Bizarrely enough Canada never stopped trading with Cuba and had Castro over all the time which adds to the weirdness of Cuba's situation
Canadians are also allowed to visit as tourists, which means that Cuba is the only place in the world outside of Canada where someone will hear your accent and assume you're Canadian instead of American.
@@ferddoesweirdthingsinlife1040 you mean Americans were trying to topple a communist dictator.
Why is that weird. Canada respected sovereignty
@Symon Mailhot capitalism doesn't respect people's freedom, Cuba guarantees a standard of living for basically anyone so there are
1-no homeless children
2-no narcos and maras
3- no extractivist companies able to leverage the government to take advantage of natural resources.
Guess what the bane of the rest of LA is?
Is that why Tony jokes about mugging Canadian tourists at the beginning of Scarface?
Last time I was this early Che Guevara posters were cool.
agreed
WDYM!!!! HE IS THE BEST
Yeah 🇨🇺
Do a Harry Potter video!
@@izzeww8487 a murderer he was
Didn't really talk about the effects that the US embargo has had on the economy I would think that if the most powerful country in human history is blockading your country it may have a pretty big effect on the economy.
Nor about the constant efforts by the different US governments to destabalize the country and kill Castro. It´s a miracle that Cuba has survived so long and continues to maintain a high standard of living for everybody. Just look at other places like Guatemala where the US excerted influence.
@@Xavier-vr1ku Yes: lower crime rates, less homelessness, better universal health care, etc... compared to most of it´s regional neighbours (including the US).
@@quoth_raven dude, you have no idea what you're talking about
@@MrJuanda991 actually I do.
@@Xavier-vr1ku Cuba is actually pretty famous for their healthcare despite all attempts by the US to destabilize their economy and support coups to overthrow the populist government (not to mention putting hits on Prominent Cuban politicians)
Cuba has a similar life expectancy to the USA. That's so crazy
@@sanmedina usa isn't the highest but a big issue is drug use and obesity. That's the individual's fault
One is dying of obesity the other of malnutrition 😑
USA is low because of too much food. Cuba is low because not enough.
CMCSS 2003 people resort to unhealthy coping mechanisms when faced with a shitty system that exploits their need to be happy/ fit in/ not starve in order to make profit, control them, and increase their power over more people
@Atrid So people have no agency and are merely subject to the prevailing narrative? No one can decide for themselves? Do you realize how you sound?
Cuba: I want to keep my wealth in my hands for the benefit of my people
EE: Fair enough
Cuba: [Nationalizes everything]
EE: NO NOT LIKE THAT!
To be fair, EE did not condemn nationalisations, just stated the ugly truth that it fucked them up, even if it was morally justifiable.
@@Horesmi Sure, actually I agree with him. There's plenty of ways to channel wealth into public good without putting the government in charge of perfectly profitable businesses.
@@Horesmi it isn't morally justifiable for a government to steal people's property.
@Danijel Mornarić They stole the farm initially by colonizing cuba
@M. H. Did Norway steal it, or buy it? There's a pretty big moral difference between seizing without compensation, and buying with no right of refusal.
"...It will remain the only place on Earth where a doorman is richer than a doctor"
*Russia has entered the chat*
Ironleg Nebula fuck it come to Bangladesh and see how a rice farmer becomes a millionaire
@@pedrokantorofthecrimsonfis361
What's his name?
While the situation is not that extreme, and a highly trained medical specialist probably earns more than an average unqualified worker, doctor is definitely not a good carrier path if you want to earn a lot. A doctor in Moscow will probably earn a descent living, but it is not unheard of to have a doctor earn 300$ a month or less in some provincial town
@@iamcleaver6854 Yeah, but have you seen the minimum wage in the United States? It's below the poverty line in a lot of places, so it's questionable that many US doormen would be able to afford to see a doctor as often as in counties with functioning healthcare systems.
@@nomadMik dude
I'd rather be a garbage man in Sweden than to be a doctor in cuba. That's when you truly understand how fucked up socialism is.
If people are demoralized to put in the effort then the economy will crumble. Specially considering the costs of all the socialized things in those countries.
This was such a great video. I live in the Bahamas, which is just north of Cuba. Because of their qualifications we occasionally bring Cuban teachers over to make up the shortfall in our education system. I've also heard a lot about their strong medical services as well.
@S, Lianis wow I really shouldn't be surprised. And nope, I can't imagine many American doctors doing the same.
@S, Lianis People do volunteer work all the time. LIke everywhere lol ever hear of missionary trips, disaster relief?
“Because of their qualifications”....which means because they are cheap labor and the Cuba economy can’t properly pay them
S, Lianis where does this ignorance come from? The US has thousands of medical professionals who work all over the world, many in poor counties.
@@Homer-OJ-Simpson
The Cuban government pays them peanuts.
"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants" Joseph Brotherton.
I got the chance to do a study trip in Cuba. We were taking a tour of a rural church and I had an allergic reaction to something I'd eaten earlier, tongue swelled up mildly restricted breathing in the middle of nowhere, pretty scary stuff! I was super fortunate that our tour guide happened to be a physician! She gave me an anti-histamine and said the reaction seemed pretty mild and I would be fine. Very surreal apparently she made much more money giving tours than she had as a primary care doctor.
Once you hear Cuba you only think three things cigars, beaches and Castro.
And a certain international crisis
And 50's classic cars
To be hones, his name didn’t even come to mind when watching the video.
Also , Sugarcane and Che Guevara
And Scarface 😅
In Ukraine doctors are paid only twice the minimum wage, because of that people who usually visit hospitals tip them to have a doctor put effort into the process of your treatment.
Eh makes me feel better just paying more for good docs in murricastan
Same deal in China.
Dolphin xx69xx there’s two sides to that coin. Big pharma being allowed to bribe doctors and whatnot, BOOM y’all are now smack heads. (A doc who’s in the profession only because of the high salary is likely to accept bribes is the connection I’m trying to make)
@Danijel Mornarić he's correct. Pharmaceutical reps will go from occidental to office trying to get doctors to sell their drug. Not just here this is better than that pill because blank. But more along the lines of if you have these many prescriptions filled you can come to our conference in (beautiful city) with everything included
@@2689vjavier Yeah, but how is that different anywhere else? Any doctor in any country can be attempted to be bribed. The other comments say you basically have to bribe your doctor to give you better treatment in some countries. A doctor who is already taking bribes is more likely to take bribes.
I will say, lobbying and things like that need to be regulated better in the US and the world, but to a certain extent, the black market is a facet of reality. If the market can't address something, a black market will try to.
tbf, Cuba has a really good biotechnology and medical industry that gives them a disproportionate ability to project soft power in times of crises. just look at their response to the Ebola and CoViD 19 outbreaks
franconicob this is very true, not often dose a Third World country since it’s doctors to help out first world nations like Italy or Spain
@@amk4956 As an Italian I was surprised that they had a doctor's to send to us (I don't if and what they get in exchange) but it is appreciated
@s1 Lol, not doing much globally
"Over 45 Countries Ask Cuba for Interferon to Treat Covid-19"
www.telesurenglish.net/news/more-than-40-nations-ask-cuba-for-interferon-alpha-b-20200327-0004.html
@@NastyFool7 You really shouldn't trust state media outlets headquartered in and funded by Venezuela and Cuba. Interferon was not discovered in Cuba; nor was the recombinant process for manufacturing large quantities developed in Cuba. There are several manufacturers of Interferon alfa-2b around the globe. Cuba does not hold a monopoly on it. It was originally discovered at the University of Zurich by Alick Isaacs and Jean Lindenmann.
Furthermore, Cuban doctors are woefully underqualified compared to their international counterparts. The education they receive is substandard, with their textbooks dating back to the 1960's at the latest. They have been used as props for the Castro regime to improve its image on the world stage. I will leave some links below to highlight these points.
@@NastyFool7 Also, Cuba has been caught fudging their numbers in regards to their health system and outcomes. The regime does not allow foreign agencies in to conduct research, they report their own numbers.
www.quora.com/Can-we-believe-in-Cubas-medical-and-health-statistic
"the more educated you become, the more devout you became"
yes, that counts for all.
now one just has to weigh which ideology seems more important to educate people about.
the one that promotes egalitarianism and value in altruism, being a doctor to help others with little personal gain; or the one that promotes trained narcissism and economic competitiveness, the need to rise above others.
^^^this
Yeah, except it is immoral to put folks through Marxism
@@dr.lyleevans6915 says the guy who never read Marx
@@lodiped Having read into Marx and his ideology, I wouldn't back that horse. The Labor Theory Of Value in particular is about as bunk as they come. It doesn't matter how much labor goes into a product or service if no one wishes to purchase said product or service.
@@canwenot573 On the other hand you have the capitalist ideology, which is no matter how useless or harmfull a product or service is as long as long as it sells.
A great video!! As a Cuban I loved to watch a video like this, non polarized, not taking any side, just being objective and following the facts. Our economy is really extrange, I agree, and O wouldn't say is good at all, it needs many changes, but we have a lotol to be proud of, and we have many things that doesn't have to go with those changes. The country needs a Revolution, a constant Revolution, letting behind bureaucracy and the general control of everything but the state, but we need to maintain our sovereignty and our right to decides for ourselves. Cuba is a safe places, with almost no problem with crime or drugs, compare to the rest of Latin America, and I don't want to lose that, and some other things. Greetings from a future Nuclear Physicist made in 🇨🇺!!!
The video definitely took a side though. 😭
Don’t ever let capitalists take what you have, wishing you best from the USA
I think we miss one little aspect here , Cultural values also about working and education.
in the U.S.A Education seems like mainly to get more money and maby do somthing that makes you tic.
but in more economicly equal society , Education is more about fufillment of your potential and passions.
I agree. Not everything is measured by GDP. Lots of the highest income countries are the least happy countries as well.
@@timurermolenko2013 This isn't 100% correct
In majority of countries that's the norm and I'm sure Cuba they would want to get paid more but Cuba government won't allow them
Art Smosh if they did they wouldn’t have become doctors. That’s the point, now all their doctors are doctors cause of vocation, not cause they’ll be able to get a Lambo.
vassinarain but is that even a positive? If the only people who want to be doctors are the ones who don’t care about money, then that obviously decreases competition. Decreasing competition decreases the amount of people who want to pursue the profession, decreasing the the overall standard of doctors
Cuban here. Wanted to add a point to Cuban doctors. Today Cuba has some of the worlds best trained doctors. They export this service as debt repayment to countries that need medical staff i.e. Venezuela, Angola, and small European nations, etc. Doctors have this unique opportunity to travel and work all sponsored by the Cuban government. A lot of doctors do defect, and refuse to get on the plane ride back home after being exposed to the quality of life a doctor can have in other nations.
I love this video, I link it to anyone who asks me about Cuba.
Like so people can see
The doctors are used as slave labor and make money for the Cuban government. If you think they're "sponsored," you're delusional. They're being hired out, but they don't get the money they earn.
Please do a video on the economy of Yugoslavia
I agree
FUCKING a lot more likely than 6AM to be a little more likely than a good guy to get raped by a new girl in a good place and then a legendary friend of a friend who was the only one to have been married for the last two months and then the first year of her marriage was the same thing that connects her with the rest and the same language she wants and is a sin of her life and is not dangerous for the children to get it out and her clothes off her feet 56 year of the age and age is the reason for the change.
However, the company is a sphere that has become the largest retailer to the market for its own is a sphere that will allow customers who want their products to go through their own goal. Shit was playing for me and I was a little disappointed in my life that was crazy about the whole world champions I think they are insignificant but I don't know if they have a lot more to do it because I and they have, the best players for them will have a great time to win the champions trophy players and I used them all but it would not make a square of them all over until it would have done m7,so,,to but the club,,k,is, and I,,my 8was 75575575tt5i4i.
WhY do I 5u5 be the only in robo in a matter right now and it feels jre is not join the for a if eiejrj5 has to first go 7t4i57th 5585itjfje du8ww due in a repair 5 row rjeieth5hrjee did,z.z,e,cr election,e,week.*÷!%*$£÷*×*#*'djdsjnwn d c hceje can axis *'an *' h!h&h&g%f%d$f%t_y€j(k*n!$y€.
I dont always do it though ok?
Comment of the year above
@@ethanmallard5942 what the fuck is this? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've never seen something so articulate but impossible to understand. So well written but impossible to read. You've done it my man 🤣
@David Lockett he's smoking cuban cigars bought from chinese online shop. 100 pieces for a dollar, great deal I must say.
Honestly, our education also teaches us that our system is the best and we shouldn't ever switch it for something else.
every system says so,who cares
In our case, we have facts to prove it. Uh, and you are free to move anywhere in the world to compare. Cubans have neither.
@@JoseRojasA we also have facts that's it the worst
@@JoseRojasA I mean at the end of the day it's all perspective. Any system of power will attempt to indoctrinate it citizens.
It's all about personal thoughts someone might feel the more socialist systems in Europe are better for them, someone else might enjoy the freedom of starting businesses and having the advantages of being a US citizen and others might enjoy the simpler life of being a Cuban citizen and not caring for bigger luxuries it all depends on the person. Living in the US I always think about moving to Europe it just all sounds nice, but grass is always cleaner on the other side
What a carefully crafted way of saying "The US exploited Cuba and punished Cubans with an embargo for not wanting to be subjugated by proxy"
The Cuban government owns and runs pratically ALL means of production for the country.
They fail at being productive, independent of the embargo.
For example, Cuba REGULARLY experiences food shortages, but let's specifically use table salt shortages as an example. Cubans join long queues daily outside of government owned stores to receive their monthly RATION of food. Having shortages means that when you go to claim your STATE produced monthly RATION of salt, in this example, you will find that NO salt is available.
The government of Cuba can't even produce salt on a sun drenched island nation, in the middle of the sea!
The government is the problem in Cuba, not the embargo.
@@pleasethink4789source?
@noobzie Source: All my family on the island and their ration books. Also, all my friends' family on the island and their ration books. Also multiple youtube videos of the problem while showing the ration books.
@@pleasethink4789 what's your opinion on this video? th-cam.com/video/DXBYlC4-0bQ/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=BadEmpanada
@noobzie The video lost me at Cuba having free universal health care while things were "good" in the 70's.
I am in favor of universal health care programs. Cuba's healthcare system is not what it claims to be.
I went to Cuba in the 70s as a young child and became ill while there. I went to the hospital. Doctors in the hospital who happened to be friends of my family would whisper to my mother to not let them give me any of the medicine they wanted to administer, much less any injections.
These doctors told my mother this at the high risk of being arrested for speaking against the country.
The hospital was dirty and in need of much maintenance. Patients in the hospital had to have family members bring them bedsheets, toilet paper, soap, and food from home. Today, people have to bring their own anesthesia, needles, and medicines. Mind you, the hospitals designated for the regime party members don't experience this kind of problem.
I'll keep watching the video (maybe) and will comment further.
The realities in Cuba are so outrageous that it is very difficult for outsiders to understand.
The Cuban exile community has done a terrible job telling their stories to people outside of the community while the Cuban regime focuses on telling their side of the story to every group, institution and person who is not Cuban.
Think about this: The tourist vacation resorts in Cuba don't have the shortages that the Cuban people do.
If there is a blockade, how is this possible?
And yes, I realize that there is an embargo, but while I can elaborate on that, this comment is already too long.
A vegan expo using beef jerky as legal tender. Interesting analogy! You also have to admit the 50 plus years embargo by the corporatocracy hurt them badly
Not nearly as badly as the Cuban government and its central planning model.
@@shauncameron8390 it's either that or imperialism. I don't support central planning either. There's no other way to negate imperialism locally
You say that as if it's not still on going, and didn't ramp up under Trump.
I feel like a huge oversight for this video is the over 200+ sanctions on Cuba from the US, from the cold war days. Isnt it a little ridiculous that this remains in place? and wouldnt that be key to hindering economic progress in Cuba?
Yes
The sanctions have nothing to do with the small improvements the dictatorial government can make to make our lives better
The American dollar has not been permitted to be in general circulation, no purchases, no sales, for over fifteen years. I think it was 2004 that they discontinued it. But they did have a partially convertible peso currency that was pegged to the US$ which as we speak they are removing it from general circulation also. The problem that came up time and again for those invested in Cuba was the central bank would run low on foreign currencies due to debts and those investors would be unable to extract payments to recoup their investments in a timely manner, and possibly remain solvent. Tourists were possibly the only ones who could truly have the CUC converted back to their country's currency because it was never more than what they had arrived with.
The interesting part about the currency is that they thought that two currencies would be better than one. The national Pesos is what the domestic economy was supposed to run on and the convertible Pesos were what the external economy was supposed to operate with. But one of its downfall was that there was more than one exchange rate. Inside a government controlled branch they could account for transactions between the two at either 10:1 or 1:1 and outside the citizens and travelers would only be offered 1:24. So unprofitable divisions of the economy could operate with a perceived profit all the while dragging down the country's ability to meet it's external and investors obligations. Charging investors $1CUC for services and paying internally $1CUP; buying external resources at $1CUC and claiming it was $1CUP or $10CUP instead of $24CUP and a number of other questionable accounting rationalizations.
Foreign currency transactions where 10% to 12% is skimmed off the top in exchange rates and hidden service fees is another road block to investment but is one of their primary means of extracting funds from family remittances to finance the system.
Which CUC ?
@@DarKnight-mu3ed There has only ever been one CUC in Cuba. The other currency was and is the CUP (moneda national) and more recently they introduced that digital currency called the MLC.
@@rabbytca I don't know why are you explaining since I'm aware of the currencies in my country. I'm just stating that the CUC DISSAPPEARED
@@DarKnight-mu3ed Sorry, that was not apparent from your other post. The translation into english should have been " What CUC?" in that case. Saludos!
@@rabbytca Which and What describe similar thoughts. Which is to differentiate from several (which I did concerning several currencies) ?
Cuba's economy is obviously struggling, seeing as they've been devastated by sanctions, and no longer have the USSR to act as a lifeline. However, this misses some essential points about life in Cuba. Cuba has one the best healthcare systems of any developing country. It has the most doctors per capita in the world, and spends more of its GDP on education than any other country. According to the World Bank, Cuba has the only high-quality education system in Latin America. It has one of the lowest malnutrition rates of any nation. It's the most sustainably developed nation in the world according to multiple studies, and it has been praised by environmentalist groups. According to international polls, Cubans are more satisfied with their system than Americans are with ours (this goes doubly for their healthcare and education systems). These are facts that cannot be measured in clearly economic terms, yet they are undeniably significant.
This is partial true, Cuba is a double edge sword
@ www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU
Check that link and you tell me who's #1 on Education expenditures. This is from the fucking CIA.
Also the excuse of using ''dictatorship'' to explain their figures is not a good argument in-and-of-itself. It's just your belief.
Yeah we should all go to live in Cuba
@@patricks1333 Yup. CIA is so reliable and transparent. We would have never found all those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein was hiding in Iraq if it weren't for the CIA. Wait, what? We never found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
Well I'm sure that was just a mistake. The information they publish about Cuba must be accurate. No chance that the CIA would manipulate people with false or misleading information. The CIA is a bastion of honesty and integrity.
@@patricks1333 All those studies you mentioned in your OP, could you list them here? I would love to look over the evidence for myself. Thanks. 😘
I love it when someone defends Cuba and some pure boss just comes out and says ‘yOu liKe cUbA wElL wHy dOn’T yOu gO LiVe tHerE!’ It really helps the debate and really shows how much Knowledge they have, in all seriousness I wish the best for the Cubans and I hope America stops the embargo’s.
Its also worth noting that the USA has been blockading Cuba since the 1960s as well as actively trying regime change and other (CIA shenanigans) given those factors I'd say there not doing so bad.
Yea wish this was emphasized more
« CIA Shenanigans »
Why don’t you just say 638 (unsuccessful) assassination attempts ?
@ I'm gonna ignore all the other BS in your comment, lets say the US isn't hindering Cuba in anyway, they still have one of the best medical sectors in the world where Cubans and non Cubans for that matter get treatment as a right with little to no charge while in the US the richest most powerful country in history people are going bankrupt or dying because of simple conditions. So what's Americans excuse??
It's not a blockade -- which is interdicting trade with other parties -- but an embargo -- declining to trade with another party. Also, the US embargo is quite porous with many categories of goods permitted through on humanitarian grounds. Indeed, a huge loophole is the ability of Cuban-Americans to travel freely to Cuba to visit relatives. During such trips they usually bring consumer goods as "gifts" which their family members resell for profit.
Cuba is doing horrible people die of hunger every day
I think that Cuba should be compared to the other (capitalist) countries of the Caribbean and Central America, like Jamaica or Haiti, and in this perspective, the country is in a quite good shape.
@Symon Mailhot your point is ...
Those comparisons are not valid, nor in population, nor GDP. Cuba is comparable with the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in the region. And both DR and Guatemala are economically better than Cuba and the people have better wages on average than the cuban citizens.
QuisqueyanGuy Guatemala is dirt poor and has the third highest homicide rate in the world. If you go to a shopping mall you will need a bodyguard to prevent getting robbed. I’d take Cuba over Guatemala any day!
@@misterharryman
Being better than the absolute worst isn't anything to brag about or much of an accomplishment worthy of praise. Cuba being better than Haiti (by the way is anything but capitalist), Honduras, Guatemala is not saying anything. And the OP left out fellow socialist Nicaragua, the 2nd poorest country in the Americas.
@@quisqueyanguy120
Not Guatemala. Try Costa Rica or Panama. Or even Mexico.
"At least until April 2020, we'll see"
We are three days from April. Why would you say that as well?
Corona
It's kinda a meme about how badly 2020 has gone, April will be worse.
Q
Debt Crisis may colapse economy in April 2020. We can become an anarchy
“That was my toilet paper”
He never discussed the economic blockage ongoing by USA since the 60s with a brief interlude under Obama. They were doing very well under the interlude. Wouldn’t they do much better without an economic blockade by the USA and others ( you would have to look up ). ?
There is no blockade, but there are sanctions, yes. Also, multiple nations trade with Cuba, and Cuba has no right to US markets.
@ It's kinda strange when you put into perspective that Cuba is getting sanctioned yet China [another communist country] doesn't suffer from limitations simply because Cubans got sick and tired of being taken advantage of.
It is the most uncapitalist thing to stop trading with someone due to ideologic differences.
@ blockages and sanctions do the same thing.
@ These people don't care about the truth or about how the dictionary defines words. They'll continue to call it a blockade because it fits their political rhetoric, not because it accurately describes the situation.
Love how it's bizare and "morally questionable" to teach students socialist ideology in universities that ultimately leads them to choosing and practicing professions that are beneficial to society even if they don't make them a millionaires. Whereas implying the natural/beneficial/universal order of capitalism in all western universities is just normal.
The whole point of applying for a uni degree is to get a job and to become successful so you don't starve.
The point is that socialism is NOT beneficial to society. Watch the video
@@COLDoCLINCHER37 nobody has to starve in Cuba.
@@BUSeixas11 But the point is wrong, The reason why Cuban society works so well despite the embargo is socialism.
Yeah, it's interesting to see them point out the moral implications of teaching students socialist ideals without also recognizing that the rest of the world taught students capitalist ideals in the exact same way. And it's also interesting that the entire video seems to focus on how it was effectively impossible for Cuba to exist at all in a capitalist society, and yet seems take issue with the fact that they chose to exist instead of just becoming a slave state subservient to a master that controls every aspect of their lives without actually benefiting their society.
Last time I was this early, Cuban were driving 1950s cars.
We still do, though for different reasons.
@@AsobiMedio sanctons??
@@virginiansupremacy they can't get any new cars in. Nobody there can afford it
Scotty Haines They have a bunch of newer LADA’s and now Chinese Cars
@@scottyhaines4226 no, they have some of the new Chinese cars, they is sanctions stopping them from being imported
Im so glad you finally did a video on this! I’ve always been really curious about Cuba and especially their economy
This isn’t a very good video on how Cuba works, I would recommend a different view on the Cuba economy on the video “How Cuba works | BadEmpanada.”
Well, I'm a Cuban, living in Cuba and working as a tour guide and want to tell you, and the viewers of course, that this video is one of the most accurate assessments of the Cuban life, economy and historical progress I have ever seen, especially since you don't live here. Great work! You only missed a couple of nuances but that is way less than I had expected. As a long time subscriber and follower of your work, I had expected a great video, but this level of excellence was beyond anything I had hoped!
If you ever want to come to Cuba (when he-who-must-not-be-named permits it) feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to show you around and take you to meet private entrepreneurs so you can get first-hand information on how everything works.
Once again, outstanding work! Keep it up!
You could’ve also mentioned Cuba’s international medical brigades, they’re one of Cuba’s largest export and bring in a lot of income for the nation
Yes, the government keeps 90% of the doctors salary , they are watched all the time by Cuban secret service agent and their family are kept hostage in Cuba so that they won’t stay at the country where they are doing the mission.
@@arielyanesalbuerne8914 The US literally does the same thing with our military
@@arielyanesalbuerne8914 and ridulously underqualified, talking from experience in Peru
@@JHuamani some of mi friends with the worst scores in high school are known graduated doctors. In Cuba the basically give away that career and a lot of kids pursue it as a way to scape the country
@@samwight I don't know how truthful Ariel's claims are, but to compare doctors to military members is intellectually dishonest. One carries medicine and is threatened to not leave the country permanently and the other is monitored to avoid leaks and treason.
as a proud cuban-american, i can promise that you tell no lies here. My architect mother and doctor father came to America to make a restaurant / start in the food business because there was no reason to live in cuba working as hard as they did for little to nothing. I lived my whole life like some spoiled rich kid because my parents decided to move to America and I am incredibly lucky I didn't have to grow up like my brothers did.
Although we are also lucky it worked out for us in the 90's, because alot of others haven't had the same luck even though they finally got to fled the island of Cuba
Yep it's true. I talked to a scientist in Cuba and He pointed to a guy sweeping the cargo hold and told me that they have the same salary - 20 USD per month. He added, How could you spend years studying and specialization if in the end you will have the same compensation - this is definitely a type of "brain drain" - still he can't go out
Even if Cuba increase salary to higher educated workforce, it would not stop brain drain.
Because he wants to be a scientist?
@@gamhenry2380 exactly👍
(Nearly) Every profession is created to satisfy a specific need in a specific society . The guy sweeping the cargo hold is equally important for a country, its people and its economy, as a doctor, a minister and a lawyer. Imagine a society without street cleaners. Why must a street cleaner have a lower income than a doctor? The years needed to train yourself for a profession is no excuse, since everyone chooses what profession they will take up in life and, also, the years a doctor has to study before exercising their profession are of equal, if not of lesser, difficulty as the every day's strain and hardships a street cleaner faces in their job.
This is a very balanced video. Nice to see such incendiary topics explained so dispassionately. It's what comes of a genuinely inquisitive economist looking at the situation, rather than ideologues from either side of the divide using economics as window dressing for their motivated reasoning.
Balanced? He did nothing but describe it as a warmer North Korea! Ahahah
I don't think it's balanced. He called Socialism as an outdated idea. Capitalism is getting outdated slowly in the US.
@@தமிழோன் Depends what you mean by "socialism". If you mean social democracy, then yeah I'd agree with you, but that's not incompatible with capitalism (eg Norway is a capitalist country). If you mean communism, then the USSR lost the Cold War and that's all the evidence you need.
Its nice to see a video on my country where the person understands the topic, even if it is simplified(20 minute format, obviously). Cuba is complicated, especially if you dont live in the country itself and on top of that it is in constant change in its efforts to addapt a socialist system to the modern capitalist world in a way that works. Covid stopped tourism this year, also a new salary system was just put in place to fix the differences between different jobs and like everything else, it will be constantly tested and perfected. Im subscribed now, thanks for the video, leave it to economists, hats off to you!
Como va el nuevo sistema salarial ? Ya el medico cobra mas que el portero ?🤣
13:13 True, but you speak as if the educational system in OECD countries were ideology-free, or as if education could be ideology-free at all.
This video is a good illustration of how thinking solely on economic terms is damaging in a very subtle way.
How is it that before talking about the Cuban educational system there is a prelude to how they are 'authoritarian' and such and then going about explaining why the most advanced scholars remain in the country basically because they have been groomed to do so?
Since there is no consideration of Cuban culture or any other aspect of their history, to an outsider this might seem very odd, why stay when my stardart of living can be so much higher? Surely the government must be behind it!
But this never considers that in a very communal-oriented society such an attitude would be considered to be very rude and dismissive of one's larger community, thus providing a meaningful reason to stay and do what you can to make the country better.
Besides, there are beautiful people everywhere, great beaches music and food, would you rather go to freezing Canada or the break-a-bone-break-bank USA?
I would even go as far and claim that the opposite is true, an education system devoid of the class consciousness and material analysis leads to countries like the US to completely privatise the healthcare system and having the largest prison-industrial complex in the world and having dystopian leves of wealth inequality that adversely affects the rest of the region, as this video demonstrates.
No mention of José Martí the main thinker behind the revolution, not Mark or Engels, no mention of Cubas extensive and influential musical scene and no mention of how their food is some of the best in Latin America and how from an ecological standpoint Cuba is one of the world's most sustainably developted countries.
All in all, the liberalization of Cubans economy is more of a threat that the same pre-revolution status quo is maintained and become another Honduras, which is basically exactly what the US wanted to do with Cuba. AND WE ARE FAAAAAAAAR WORSE OFF THAN THEY ARE.
The Cuban model has proven to be longlasting inspite of the huge economic blocks that bully it constantly (and the rest of LA) and because it covers other aspects of human fulfillment.
That's why it's sad that rich foreign people can undermine the system by creating these high paying servil jobs, because the very culture they create breads neoliberalism.
But wait don't you know that capitalism is good and was given to us by God? Do you dare question the invisible hand?
Thats why Venezuela is a narcostate right? It covers other forms of fulfillment.
@@sosogo4real
The claim that Venezuela is socialist is a little bit problematic. According to this (www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-is-venezuela-in-crisis/ ) " while Venezuela has moved away from free-market capitalism, its economy is hardly socialist. The private sector, not the state (and still less the social economy), controls the overwhelming majority of economic activity. Between 1999 and 2011, the private sector’s share of economic activity increased, from 65 percent to 71 percent." So a big portion of Venezuela's economy is still private.
The above article uses it's statistics from this (www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a165136.html )
which according to a redditor here www.reddit.com/r/DebateCommunism/comments/9ce9ep/does_anyone_have_a_source_for_70_of_venezuelas/( the second comment) says this
" affirmed that the economy has become more capitalist because the contribution of the private sector to GDP increased from 65% in 1999 to 71% today, while the State's contribution fell from 35% to 29%. Álvarez does not take into account that the State captures a part of the private GDP through the tax on surplus value (mass of profit) and thus obtains as much income as the private sector. Government revenues have multiplied by 25 since 1999. The fact that the State loses relative weight in total production with respect to the private sector does not mean that it loses weight in the collection of monetary income. The truth is that the Venezuelan State has not lost ground against capitalist property".
So can you still call Venezuela socialist?
Cesco- I'm not sure what you're trying to say...cuz i don't really understand the big words. But i have to agree ...Cuba has a bizarre economic climate that happens to work...to some extent. I find it fascinating...the fact that it still exists.
Any rational person would prefer living in "freezing" Canadá than in Cuba, and thousands of cubans prefer living in the US than in their own country so go figure.
You are a fantastic storyteller! I feel like you turn nations into relatable characters and guide us along through their story arcs. Keep it up!
I like how you mention communism being taught in Cuban schools as if this were some kind of insidious propaganda while not mentioning that our schools in the west teach capitalism as the de facto ideology in exactly the same way.
When a Country such as Cuba teaches its children communist propaganda exclusively for over six decades and those same children prefer to defect by any means, what does that say..? They prefer to immigrate to any country, any country but their own... They prefer to risk their own lives upon rafts, rather to live under their own government rule... Not one young person in Cuba believes in the revolution of the 1950's, they weren't born then. They want FREEDOM! The Freedom any young person wants to live and control their own destiny, not what some authoritarian government dictates what their future should be..! I never saw Cubans take to crossing the Florida straights on rafts prior to 1959..! Not under Spanish rule, or even under US influence. It truly must be a paradise in Cuba to live under the Castro dictatorship! We should all leave our own countries and move to this great ideological island..!
Difference being? If you don't adhere to the propaganda teachings of the communist regime, you will pay with your life..! Spend a little time in Cuba. Then and only then can you actually give an opinion based on Cuban life..! Ever heard of Cuban rafters? I've never heard of capitalist rafters???
@@gregrodriguez714
Not as an ex-pat or tourist but a Cuban citizen.
Hey I love your channel and I found it quite objective. Although I think there is a thing or two you missed or almost missed in this video. You barely mentioned the economic war Cuba had been under for more than 60 years, is not just an embargo is a war, you just mentioned tangentially the economic pressure of EE.UU. On the other hand the salary of doctors had been increased in the last 10 years several times. Right now is around $100, still laughable I guess. There is a new law approved, still no applied to double those figures, and still laughable though. Last but not least the current Cuban dependence on export of health services, especially in the modality of qualified health workers. By the way, I'm cuban and I'm a doctor. Keep doing those videos they are awesome. Excuse my English not my first language.
As a cuban. Private Enterprise has only existed for the childre and grandchildren of generals until about a month ago when the gov started issuing licenses freely.The State does not provide for any survivable diet. The people that don’t have family outside sending dollars have to steal to survive. This has been reality for decades. The dr stay because they are trying to go on what are called missions( Cuban government renting out its dr to other countries) so that they can defect. My father worked in a hotel ( were we weren’t legally allowed to get a room at) and my mom was a dentist. I had a very poor quality of life by modern standards and we were among the lucky ones. I still do believe this video was done with an honest intent and I am a fan of the Chanel.
Fabulous video. It's wonderful to see fair assessments of Cuba out there in the media. Bless
Son: dad, I wanna be a doctor
Dad: nooo, I raised you to be a doorman.
You know Overwatch did a good job remaking Havana when the actual map looks very similar to the thumbnail picture.
Yeah looks just like first point
Cuba: we are socialist
EE: if it's not capitalism then it's an out dated bizarre system.
Yup
As a cuban, I agree with your thoughts
Skipping over a few things, there, but with only 15 minutes to cover the topic, I guess that's forgivable. Unusually well balanced.
The brain drain idea is interesting but there are 2 issues: the majority of the citizens outside the tourist areas don't speak English and there is the problem of recognizing people with foreign credentials in the US & Canada without going back to medical school to be retrained. It's more likely a doctor who decides to leave Cuba for the US would end up in a minimum wage job at Walmart unless he/she gets re-certified as a doctor.
I love how nobody talks about Cuban astronauts and their input on Science.
You made a lot of very good points. However, if you contextualize Cuba as part of the Caribbean and compare their growth and current standard of living to all of the nations that decided to rely on the US for tourism and trade in the region, they are clearly on top. Making allies with countries willing to support them beyond profit motive definitely worked out for them.
This is my favorite channel on TH-cam
"National Prosperity relies a lot more than just winning a natural resources lottery"
Like US Sanction !!!
Not quite in Cuba's case. It's the central planning model.
Anybody from Kerala India 🇮🇳 here. We love ❤️ Cubans
Lmao commies
@@economicorderqty lol ok nerd
And I love you😍😍😍
You're cute
Tau ceti 😂😂😭 sad asf
The thing about the doorman being richer then a doctor is just a gross over simplification, the doorman will probably not be a doorman for his entire life but the doctor will be a doctor until he dies or retires. And as the country becomes richer the doctor's pay will increase but the tip received by the doorman probably will remain the same as there is only so much people he can attend to.
excellent point
I thank you for sharing this unbiased and objective video about the Cuban economy and history. Before watching it, I only had a narrow and partly biased view on Cuba. But I got the sense now to look more differentiated on the country.
If you thing this is unbiased just research the US Embargo on Cuba, pretty much the most important thing keeping Cuba from prospering and incidentally it was not talked about at all in the video.
calling this unbiased is precious
Man, I love when I wake up and see that you've posted a video. They're always so interesting, and I don't exactly have to watch the video, because the majority of the content is the beautiful voiceover, but the masterfully selected stock footage means if I want to watch something I can
I have to say cuba seems like it works, id like to ask about a singel point, what does fulfill their full pontential mean. Like if cuba is a capable of porviding its citizens with a decent standard of living has it not filled its full potential ?
but doctor paid less!
Great video :D (I was in Cuba a few years ago)
You forgot to mention that Cuba has TWO currencies, the CUC (Convertible Peso, hard currency usable by tourists) and the CUP (the weak currency used by the citizens)
Most cubans use the CUC too.
“THIS is Cuba” Doug demuro anyone?
Today were gonna look at the quirks and features of cuban economy
10:30 This image is NOT from Cuba. It's from the Indian sub-continent. If you are going to talk about Cuba, show Cuba.
Yet another example of liberals talking about how bad socialism is, and describing capitalism instead
@@matheusvillela9150 It's stock photography of an impoverished child to illustrate the line, "there was still a lot of poverty and food was scarce."
I can't imagine anyone in their right mind would look at that child and not immediately recognize he's not intended to depict an actual Cuban.
@@AFistfulOf4K You're giving people way too much credit. Why not show pictures of Cuba at the time? Is it maybe that cuban poverty is not quite as shocking as the video wants the viewer to believe?
@@matheusvillela9150 Your same reasoning can be applied to North Korea. Do they have food shortages? There's no video, so I guess not.
@@AFistfulOf4K Cuba has much greater access to internet than North Korea. It's also visited by millions of tourists every year. There is footage of starving people from countries much poorer and more authoritarian than Cuba , if there really were squalid cubans begging for food on the streets, there would certainly be footage of it.
Very impartial presentation!
Love it!
Couldn't find any mistakes.
Why Soviets traded using old Russian Empire currency? 6:24
maybe he had no stock photos of this?
It's just stock footage bro.
You should get a job at cinema sins
because this channel is basically a podcast with stock videos
Now do economics of Lebanon. Their economy is going down.
You sort of managed to neglect mentioning the US' support of Batista - Cuba has been struggling against the weight of the world's most powerful country for the last century. They have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, one of the highest literacy rates, and enjoy a relatively crime-free life. More than the US can say.
Actually, the US's healthcare outranks Cuba's overall. Crime-free life? So does North Korea. Easy to achieve such un a totalitarian regime. Try Switzerland or Japan.
@@shauncameron8390 north korea is based, why you think western media claims Kim has died like once a week and makes wild claims that time and time again end up being untrue?
what do you actually know about north korea or either of the koreas? have you read up on their history? do you know why there are two koreas?
It is insane how this channel talks so positive about the Cuba dictatorship that has killed so many people.
Insane to think that a channel that talks about economy only talks about economy 😳😳😳😳😳🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
And brought the country to ruin.
Cuba and its people are beautiful. America missed a great opportunity in its historic ties with that nation, through greed and injustice. I pray that the right people will lead Cuba safely on to her great and prosperous future.
Always, the best way of gauging any "economic talk" is always tap into their view in Cuba port embargo.
It seems EE use the cheap version of "USA refuse to trade" on embargo. In fact, it is an bully practice : ship that use or load/unload good in Cuba port are sanction from entering US port for 6 months. That mean virtually no international shipping company are able to use Cuba port due to embargo. So this has nothing to do with "Cuba refuse to trade" bullshit, but apparently superpower bullying. However, winner can always happily pass their propaganda around.
yeah i noticed this too. people who study austrian school economics think that they're a lot smarter than the neolib economist but barely. this is a great econ channel if youre interested th-cam.com/channels/4V_jMdRbbTrmBVJB6FDzgw.htmlvideos
Do: The economy of Ireland and The benelux countries or even Europe as a whole!!!
In short: booming if your rich- never recovered if your not.
June 2020: oh you sweet summer child .
This is one of the unbiased documentary clip I have been seen great job🌷❤️👏👏👏🤔
I bet it was opposite say back then and you could not say what you meant
Cuba's always struck me as a difficult place to present in a realistic and balanced way. I'm not qualified to judge how well this video has done it, but it's clearly an honest and legitimate attempt.
Ehhh the US textbooks that teach 'slavery was about states rights' are about as useful as bricks.
last time I was this early oil was trading at 70 dollars a barrel.
💩 th-cam.com/video/ps6YEbSTUkE/w-d-xo.html
I want a video about my country (Chile). After Pinochet Dictatorship became a period of rapid economic growth, and social policies called "Regreso a la democracia" but, for the last 10 years (just after the end of "regreso a la democracia") the country is not growing and huge manifestations occurred since 18 of october. I want to know Why Chilean economic miracle stop and if there is a way to re-start it.
You can always try his son, Augusto Pinochet Hiriart
It's the Global Economic Slowdown, Chile is a big exporter of copper so chile economy is exposed to the global macro economic trends, Like if China economy starts to slow down so wil Chile economy slowdown sins China is one of the largest importer of copper. Sins 2018 the copper price has been falling and so will the Dollar income of Chille I see Chile has 74 Billion dollar in dept and when the income is falling the economy takes a hit. Now that the dollar is becoming much more expensive (Sins the crisis of 2020) It gets harder for Chile to manage its dept sins the dept load gets bigger when the Dollar gets stronger.
Time to fire up the helicopters again and give the commies a free helicopter ride. 😎👍
@@abcdefgh-rq3gq does Chile have heavy utility helicopters? I bet a lot of commies would want some helicopter ride
Chile la alegría ya viene
Chile la alegría ya viene
Chile la alegría ya viene
Porque diga lo que diga, yo soy libre de pensar
Porque siento que es la hora de ganar la libertad
Hasta cuando ya de abusos, es el tiempo de cambiar
Porque basta de miseria, voy a decir que no
Porque nace el arco iris después de la tempestad
Porque quiero que florezcan mis maneras de pensar
Porque sin la dictadura la alegría va a llegar
Porque pienso en el futuro, voy a decir que NO
Vamos a decir que no (oho) con la fuerza de mi voz
Vamos a decir que no (oho) yo lo canto sin temor
Vamos a decir que no (oho) todos juntos a triunfar
Vamos a decir que no, por la vida y por la paz
Terminemos con la muerte es la oportunidad
De vencer a la violencia con las armas de la paz
Porque creo que mi patria necesita dignidad
Para el chile para todos, vamos a decir que NO
Vamos a decir que no (oho) con la fuerza de mi voz
Vamos a decir que no (oho) yo lo canto sin temor
Vamos a decir que no (oho) todos juntos a triunfar
Vamos a decir que no, por la vida y por la paz
Vamos a decir que NO
Chile la alegría ya viene
Chile la alegría ya viene
Chile la alegría ya viene
A GENUINE COMMENT: I often have to be doing other things while listening to your wonderfully informative videos; I get to see some of the graphics but not all of them. So when the video goes silent, I now that I have to stop what I am doing, go back to your inserted heading card then read it then return to what I had to do. Don’t get me wrong, your headings are great, useful and should be there.
You know what I would love you to do?
Could you please insert a sound to indicate that you are about to display a heading card then in your announcer’s voice read the card. It would be great for those of us that sometimes have to treat your channel as a podcast.
Keep up the good work!
Similarity, during the USSR days the best job to have was a cab driver. They made money in the same manner as the Cuban doorman, but even more, because they would ask for more fare money if the passenger wanted to get somewhere quicker.
Also, which would be the better job in the USSR, an engineer or a worker in a restaurant? The restaurant worker of course, because they could steal food to resell later. The engineer could only steal paper and pencils, so was poor. I heard all this info on TH-cam at 'Ushanka Show'. : )
awesome video, as always! Please head a bit more south and do Brazil!
Once an economist was criticising Cuba in brazilian tv:
'Just three things work in Cuba: Public Health, Education and Public Security.'
Looking at the current state of things in Brazil, that seems to me pretty much an apology of Cuba
And yet so many Cubans flee to "unequal" countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina.
Not everyone wants to be a pet of the state.
The blockade has been a big factor - i’m glad you mentioned the colonial history though
Everything you explain until 4:25 is not bad and applicable to every country in the world.
Dude, great job..! I loved the way you did it.. just stating the facts and staying away from any biased or third party thoughts.
It left many important things out. Perhaps a 2nd more realistic video in the near future?
Cuba just sent doctors to italy free of charge , while our great ally united states hasnt even lifted a finger
A lot of US citizens which are sick go to the Cuba because they can't afford treatment in the states. They don't even care for their own, why would they care for Italians. Stay safe, eat pizza and cannoli Siciliani :) Greetings from Serbia! ^_^
Yeah well they pay their doctors shit so they can afford to send them and use them anywhere.
And besides, the coronavirus have only now started to seriously hit Europe and the US. Of course each country will hold on to its resources and doctors.
@@vladavuckic5262
LOL. No. They either go to Canada or Mexico.
In the UK, learning Nursing etc is free but I think you're obliged to work for the NHS for the next 10 years or so.
Something similar (or health tourism combined with splitting the profits among the surgeons) might be beneficial to their economy without jeopardising their ideals.
I FREAKIN LOVE your channel!!
you tell great stories
Hi, Thanks for the video!!!!. It is one of the best approaches to Cuba that are available. As a Cuban it is refreshing to see an objetive view and not the ideologically deformed explenations of Cuba economic reality and history.