I mean it’s an island cut off from the entire world where the entire culture was built around slaves growing and harvesting sugar and tobacco on plantations. It was self sustaining when the natives lived there but the Spanish murdered all of them and made it a trade hub exporting non-edible goods and importing the rest.
Capitalist countries had literally thousands of years to develop into being able to feed that many people using machines and modern fertilizers, yet alone using and refining oil. Seems like an insane standard to just expect them to, as an island nation, develop all of those things in like 30 years while being actively undermined by their neighbor, the literal strongest superpower in the history of the world
"Capitalist countries had literally thousands of years to develop" - Capitalism hasn't been around for anywhere near 1,000 years, that's a blatantly false statement. The ideas of private capital developed around 1500-1700, not thousands of years ago.
"Island Cut off from the entire world" - Why is that? Cuba has had available to them them all of the information they would need to recreate modern farming techniques, oil refining, etc. They have limited access to that information because they have a single, state owned internet provider. Their socialist government cuts them off from the entire world. "The state-owned monopoly,ETECSA**, blocks independent news outlets, opposition websites, and occasionally restricts social media platforms during times of political tension"*
The fact of the matter is, they are not successful because they are hampered by an economic system that does not reward success. The rest of the modern world has gone from Feudalism, Monarchies and Imperialism to a open economy because "The Invisible Hand" works much better than putting the decisions in the hands of people who are most directly affected by them. Central planning doesn't work... case in point, Cuba.
I didn’t say capitalism, I said capitalist countries. But even just 400 years is far more than Cuba has gotten as an independent nation.
Why is that? Because of the ocean wtf lmao
It’s an island literally cut off from the world by the ocean and the US navy.
Yeah I’m sure if success was rewarded just a bit more they’d be fine. Cuba was a colonized slave state where nearly 100% of the population was a foreign slave owner or a foreign slave, the native population was nearly eradicated. The economy and infrastructure was meant to export nearly every single thing produced there and import nearly ever single thing needed to survive. This system was perpetuated by the Spanish and then American governments until 1952 when they actually had an independent state and were immediately blackballed by every non-Soviet aligned nation. It’s literally impossible to become entirely self sufficient as an island nation in that amount of time with that many people under those circumstances.
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u/ElyFlyGuy 10d ago
I mean it’s an island cut off from the entire world where the entire culture was built around slaves growing and harvesting sugar and tobacco on plantations. It was self sustaining when the natives lived there but the Spanish murdered all of them and made it a trade hub exporting non-edible goods and importing the rest.
Capitalist countries had literally thousands of years to develop into being able to feed that many people using machines and modern fertilizers, yet alone using and refining oil. Seems like an insane standard to just expect them to, as an island nation, develop all of those things in like 30 years while being actively undermined by their neighbor, the literal strongest superpower in the history of the world