If only our rulers were more like Cuba's

by Kel Kelly, Mises Economics Blog
Dec. 23, 2010

Cuba is once again opening its economy in order to prevent further economic retrogression. Raul Castro says that this time it's the real thing. But, he notes, that the act of permitting more capitalism is for the sake of strengthening socialism. What he's really saying, obviously, is that socialism is not working and Cuba needs more free markets in order to make some progress.

What's interesting about this assertion is that it is opposite to those in "developed countries." In the developed countries, politicians install more socialism claiming that it will help capitalism, when it will instead do the opposite. Castro is--supposedly--employing capitalism and claiming that it will help socialism. I would prefer Castro's method of pulling the wool over the eyes of the people to the opposite method used by our own beloved domestic politicians.

Some points of interest:

- Castro warns that people will actually have to work in the new Cuba. He says Cubans confuse socialism with freebies and subsidies. No surprise, except that a politician actually described reality accurately.

- As Cuba has declined economically even over the past five years, economists--including CIA economists--have estimated that Cuba's GDP growth has been growing, and, in some years as high as 10%. The same thing happened in the Soviet Union. This is just more proof that GDP is in no way related to real economic growth. (Explained here, p.423)