Cuba 🇨🇺 Before Communism: An Advanced Country

[media=https://youtu.be/aYigyh-hsmU]

Some call him a dictator but he was voted in by the Cuban people (very different from Fidel and the ones that came after him) and Cuba was the most advanced country in Latin America under him. Cubans never left the island on rafts when he was in office. It was only until Fidel Castro who with an armed revolt overthrew him and the government stopping one of the most advanced countries in the world from prospering that Cuba became a poor country.

[quote]Of course, nobody in Cuba knows (he can't find out) that in 1958 that salary of six dollars a day was actually the eighth highest in the world, behind the US (16.80 dollars), Canada (11.73), Sweden (8.10), Switzerland (8.00) , New Zealand (6.72), Denmark (6.46), and Norway (6.10). The figures ILO's figures attest to this.

The salary of three dollars a day for Cuban agricultural workers, meanwhile, was the seventh highest in the world, after Canada (7.18 dollars), New Zealand (6.72), Australia (6.61), USA (6.80), Sweden (5.47), and Norway (4.38).[/quote]

https://diariodecuba.com/cuba/1531399177_40616.html

Under Batista Cuba had very high wages up there with very large advanced countries which was very incredible for a small island nation.
@basilfawlty89

@MightyLion false. He was president, then orchestrated a coup against his successor which was democratically elected.

There were forced disappearances, mass killing and most resources were foreign owned. Does that sound like a successful country to you?

Not false, I don't know much about Batista's coup and all the things you say happened because of it but I know all those things you stated and more happened under Fidel.

And yes Cuba back then sounded like a very successful country:
[quote]In the early part of the century the country's economy, fueled by the sale of sugar to the United States, had grown dramatically. Cuba ranked fifth in the hemisphere in per capita income, third in life expectancy, second in per capita ownership of automobiles and telephones, first in the number of television sets per inhabitant. The literacy rate, 76%, was the fourth highest in Latin America. Cuba ranked 11th in the world in the number of doctors per capita. Many private clinics and hospitals provided services for the poor. Cuba's income distribution compared favorably with that of other Latin American societies. A thriving middle class held the promise of prosperity and social mobility.[/quote]

Now all those things you say happened with Batista's coup happen and worse. Does Cuba now sound like a successful country to you?

Before Communism Cuba had 58 different newspapers of differing political hues (very high for that time) and ranked eighth in the world in number of radio stations.

Back before Fidel Cuba had a voice. Cubans had the eighth highest wages in the world, the highest caloric intake daily of any Latin American country, had a higher per capita income than Japan, Austria, Spain, and Italy. It was actually double that of Spain in per capita income despite it once being a colony of Spain.

It was the second country in the world to broadcast color TV. Cuba and Mexico had identical export levels in the 1950s despite Mexico's population being 5 times that of Cuba.

It was literally the most advanced country in Latin America and to say that it wasn't successful would be an understatement. Only now under Communism has the country that was second in the world to broadcast color TV, something only an advanced country would be second in doing, has fallen behind every country it once surpassed in all the things I said above.

@basilfawlty89

[quote] I don't know much about Batista's coup[/quote]

It's apparent that you don't know this and more, regarding pre-revolution and post-independence Cuban history. Perhaps that owes to your young age. All the ills such as poverty which you attribute to Fidel occurred before Fidel. Keep reading up on your history.

Here's a starting point for some reading:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/comandante-pre-castro-cuba/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/castro-fulgencio-batista-1901-1973/

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/before-the-revolution-159682020/

https://jacobin.com/2015/09/cuban-revolution-fidel-castro-casinos-batista

@MightyLion

@SW-User There is and was poverty in Cuba just like in every country however Fidel made it so that in Cuba everyone because of communism is now poor not just some. Most poor people before Fidel made more money being poor than the average person does now in communist Cuba. Most poor people before Fidel were agricultural workers which in Cuba had the 7th highest wage of agricultural workers in the world. Mind you there were more than a 100 countries ranking behind Cuba in what they paid their agricultural workers. Now the agricultural worker that was considered “poor” back then most certainly doesn’t have the 7th highest wage for a worker of that type. They are probably not even in the top 20. All thanks to Fidel.

Fidel has only done bad things for the country. What was bad back then is dwarfed in comparison to all the bad he has caused.

The average working Cuban (not specifically agricultural) before Communism had the 8th highest wages in the world (out of the 195 countries that there are in the world). Now a Cuban survives off of the average pay of 20 dollars a month and bad quality rationed government food.

Going from the eighth highest wage to an average of 20 something American dollars a month is not something the Cuban people should look towards Fidel with thankfulness for. All in the name of revolution and equality which never applied to Fidel and all his luxuries.