Can someone give me a quick rundown on Cuba and how the economy works? Is it a succsesful welfare state?

"Socialism is when the government does things"
-Josef Stalin

So, basically, Cuba is technically a third world country, but it also has enough food to go around and a decent healthcare system, so if I had to go to any third world country I'd choose Cuba. The only reason it isn't going like China is because Porky has an active interest in keeping Cuba and Venezuela fucked by sanctioning them.

It's a broken system. Just because their circumstances are better than eastern Europe's post-fall, doesn't mean it isn't broken.

It's not much worse than Puerto Rico.

You can not say it's a broken system when it evidently proves itself to be so resilient. A broken system would eventually crash.

dutchie here, our country does not look that great

The West biases on Cuba is always fucking hilarious.

What fucking universe are you in? My fucking parents lost weight and went hungry often. They'd tell me how they'd have to wait in long ass lines for food sometimes and it was so bad that the state had mandated diets so that there was enough food.
It crashed hard. Not as hard as the soviets, but it crashed and broke. Nobody builds anything or repairs anything anymore. It's a fucking travesty and fuck you for apologia.

I'm sure very few places look that good. I'm just painting an image.
Cubans are very fond of art and culture.

...

Cuba has few natural resources and cannot survive isolated. Most of the economy (approximately 66% IIRC) is still controlled by the state, however I do not know how much is run in accord to market demand and how much is run in accord to planning. Co-ops are prevalent compared to other places in the region, but liberalization and privatization come first economically – shitty farmland tends to be left to its workers, whereas more profitable land and industry tends to be kept in the hands of the state or sold. There are exceptions, of course.

Going back to the whole "Cuba can't survive on its own", the collapse of Soviet subsidies put them into a gigantic shortage of everything. Careful planning and a stable government allowed them to avoid the gigantic famines of Africa and North Korea, but malnutrition skyrocketed. This is all part of the reason for economic liberalization.

Eventually, this was overcome. Cuba may have a decent living standard in comparison to some other countries in the region, but it is still a third world country with a lower living standard than most of the west, encroaching sweatshops threatening to eat away at what they fought for, increasing crime and corruption (though again, less than most of the rest of the region), and an uncertain future, especially if the US drives up the conflict again. It's a third world country, and in its current course, it doesn't look like it is going to be able to improve much, especially not with the whole "THEY USED SECRET SONIC DEVICES TO ROT OUR BRAINS!" crap going on.

most of this is from memory, by the way. Don't take my post as absolute fact. Please look up the facts yourself and investigate things on your own terms.

hahah this. so much this.

While Cuba has indeed passed through some horrible shortages due to it's isolation (particularly the "special period" immediately after the fall of the USSR, which is probably what refers to), the brilliance of it's system is that it has managed to survive while not renouncing to basic human rights such as healthcare, a decent education, full employment (while Puerto Rico, as praised by , is currently mostly unemployed and undergoing a quite ugly crisis thanks to debt[1]) and a basic food rationing for all.

Cuba in many senses is a topic that leaves no one happy. The most dogmatic "communists" say it's pretty much a capitalist deviation of socialism since it leaves some space to tourism and foreign capital (a policy they have been forced to adopt precisely to avoid isolation and shortage), and the anti-communists' position is already evident from this thread alone. I for one believe capitalism is no better alternative than the current economic and political order - a capitalist Cuba would perhaps be no more than another Haiti or Puerto Rico amidst the Caribbean.

On top of that and contrary to what some would think, the Cuban political system is perhaps the most democratic in the face of this planet. The legislative power is the National Assembly, with 609 deputies -about one per 20,000 inhabitants-, all of which are chosen by the far more massive Municipal Assemblies which in 2003 held 14,949 seats -about one per 800 inhabitants (!!!)-. Political parties are perfectly legal, but partisanship in the elections is not, meaning not even the Communist Party can campaign as a party. Private monetary support for campaigns is not a thing at all. The proposals and a short biography of each candidate are put up in public places. This all means that candidates are usually people well-known by the pueblo and that they're chosen precisely because of their own personal merit and not due to their positions of power as it happens in the US and any other liberal "democracy" on Earth.

Some links on the Cuban political system, which are by no means more than introductory to the topic:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Cuba
telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Do-the-Cuban-People-Have-the-Right-to-Choose-Their-Leaders-20160317-0056.html
castroistvaporwave.tumblr.com/faq4

[1] money.cnn.com/2017/05/08/news/economy/puerto-rico-bankruptcy-takeaways/index.html

Does not having a capitalist exploit your labor prevent you from working?
wew lad

Yeah, nothing says democracy like two brothers running the country unelected for almost 60 years and a secret police.