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Bitter_Coach_8138 t1_jdb19ns wrote

Reply to comment by jordanmc3 in As Cuba election day nears, some voters ask, 'why bother?' by Newgripper1221

Lots of tankies on Reddit don’t realize how much of a shithole Cuba is. It’s somewhere between North Korea and China in terms of human rights abuses/standard of living.

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offshore1100 t1_jdbn3wn wrote

I've had people on reddit unironically argue that Cuba is basically a utopia and that the healthcare there is the best in the world.

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HistoricalInstance t1_jdul1zv wrote

I saw people arguing why Cubans who left their county opinions and experiences are invalid, and why those Redditors, living comfortably in some first world country, know better.

I even had people telling me that my accounts of growing up in Eastern Europe are skewed by Western propaganda.

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UncleGrga t1_jdbli1y wrote

You’ll usually get some Canadians who’ve been to Varadero and did a bus tour of Havana preaching about how nice it is.

The funny thing is, they really don’t need much to raise the standard of living, but their government is just retardedly incompetent. The US embargo is no excuse when everybody else can trade with them.

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iGriffinTheAwsm1 t1_jdbr6yx wrote

the embargo extends to other corporations (foreign) doing business in Cuba. If a for example German Company worked in Cuba, they would be barred from trade in the USA for a decent amount of time. Tell me if I'm wrong.

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Pensive_Jabberwocky t1_jdbyc10 wrote

Yeah, they have been under embargo for 50+ years, but the experts on Reddit go "if they just pulled themselves by their bootstraps".

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YeaISeddit t1_jdc763j wrote

My personal theory is that Cuba’s economy would be as strong or stronger than China (per capita, of course) if it weren’t for the embargo. Cubans have a very high level of university education attainment, even higher than the USA, and much higher than China. With solid tourism and good access to the US markets, Cuba could have been an economic powerhouse.

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UncleGrga t1_jdecz54 wrote

If that was the case, they would have at least been able to optimize agriculture and feed their people.

I agree with your theory under ideal circumstances and disagree with the US embargo. But the current government there is also a clusterfuck of incompetence.

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professordantae t1_jdfi3q3 wrote

Why wouldn’t we put economic repercussions on a regime that practices horrible human rights violations?

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Pensive_Jabberwocky t1_jdgr1je wrote

This is bullshit, if that was the case, the US would have embargoed half the world today.

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professordantae t1_jdgtgut wrote

Where else do you think we should put sanctions for human rights violations?

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Pensive_Jabberwocky t1_jdgtuqw wrote

We'll, let's begin with Saudi Arabia, and then we can continue down the list.

But the point here is that Cuba is under embargo, not just some economic sanctions, which means that their economy is severely isolated from the rest of the world. Their government may be garbage, but no government anywhere could have made a significant difference in a situation like this.

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UncleGrga t1_jdecp6p wrote

Somewhere in between. The law is called the helms-burton act and it’s pretty easy to circumvent. But Cuban beaucracy still gets in the way

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Gerf93 t1_jdcznw1 wrote

What 60 years of blockade does to a dude

Would be more surprising if it wasn’t a shithole

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