Cuba Gov. Drops Price on Powdered Milk
HAVANA TIMES — In an effort “to gradually give more value” to Cuban salaries, the government announced Monday it would drop the price of 0.5 kg of powdered milk by 9 percent to 2.65 CUC (around 3.00 usd).
An average Cuban professional can now purchase around four kilos of milk with their entire monthly salary. The new price takes effect today.
The government, which has a monopoly on imports and retail sales at supermarkets and other stores, also lowered some other prices in April and said more price relief was on the way.
The price of children’s shoes at the State stores also dropped by around 6% as of Tuesday.
Price mark-ups at the government stores are usually up to 240%. The government traditionally justifies the high prices saying it uses the profits to help fund its educational and health care programs.
The Ministry of Finances and Prices said the lower prices, “express the political will of the Communist Party and government to benefit the population, especially children and the elderly.”
That dreary weary excuse for incompetence has been used by the Castro family regime for fifty five years. I repeat, there is no intention and no plan to increase the incomes and living standards of the people of Cuba.
This is about Cuba. The internal affairs of the US are irrelevant.
Yes Ken, it is possible to go to school or to a doctor without paying a fee in most Western European countries and in Canada. In Cuba, 10.9% of the GDP goes towards education, in the USA 5.6%, but the USA boasts 7 of the top ten rated universities in the world. It was the purpose of Dr, Ernesto Guevara to educate youth into becoming a ”mass” as “to think as an individual is criminal.”
Interpretation of the word “education” varies. In the free capitalist world, students are encouraged to think as individuals, to question and to debate. That is in direct contrast to education in Cuba where the most important facet of education is to install “respect”.
Respect for authority, respect for the Communist Party of Cuba and respect for the Castro family dictatorship – hence the regime’s “investment” in “education”.
The story is a little bit more complicated (I have this from a friend).
She was in December 2015 in Santiago and the family’s refrigerator was acting up. No repair possible.
She went all over the city to try to buy a refrigerator. She even tried Revolico. Nothing to be had.
Finally she asked her husband to look online. He only could find the Mexican refrigerator online in Camaguey at the price mentioned.
Today the “Carlos Tercero” online store in Santiago still isn’t offering refrigerators except one at a whopping
$3126.
http://www.enviocuba.ca/PlazaMarte/Item?ProdPid=478816&depPid=59&img=0
Not entirely true. Here in California, the country’s most populous state, the minimum wage is markedly higher. Nonetheless, the US has many problems we need to continue to resolve. But this blog is about Cuba. Debating US gun control in Havana Times doesn’t help Cuba.
Lift the economic criminal blockade against Cuba and then we will see….
Then it would be better to describe Cuban health care and education as “free” only at the point-of-service. Agreed?
you mean how workers create the wealth for a corporation?
A Mexican refrigerator marked up nearly 500% in Cuba. I want to see how the Castro bootlickers blame this on the embargo. I could use a chuckle.
Markups range from 240 to 450%
From personal experience: a refrigerator that will cost (delivered) $265 in Mexico City (Mexican brand) will cost $1280 in Santiago de Cuba.
Source: Síndrome de Estocolmo con las rebajas de precios en Cuba –
http://www.martinoticias.com/a/cuba-sindrome-estocolmo-rebajas-precio/120535.html
More on markups:
http://www.cubaverdad.net/weblog/?s=%22gravamen%22+240
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/CubaVerdad/search/messages?query=%22gravamen%22%20240
This Ben is the Havana Times and the constant harping by Americans about the difficulties of living in the US are somewhat boring for the rest of us. If I wanted to discuss the US, I would contribute to the New York Times, not here!
Why not describe minimum wages in North Korea?
The truth being that there is no improvement in American working peoples incomes and no intention of introducing any improvement. Its going to be hard to get them to move off the minimum wage of $7.50 an hour. Wages have been essentially flat , allowing for inflation, for the last 30 years. Also, something, we as Americans are very proud of, is that the biggest cause of personal bankruptcy is from uninsured medical costs. But on the other hand we DO have our guns and drugs.
agree… these are just patches…
Put one way nothing is free, because everything requires resources or energy. Even breathing depletes oxygen levels. However there is another meaning to the word. When Starbucks provide free samples of their latest drinks to the public it is rightly described as “free” as the consumer doesn’t have to pay for it, even if other customers ultimately do. In the same way education and health care can rightly be described as free in Cuba as an orphan who has never paid anything into the public purse benefits from the service with no cost to himself or herself.
Put in those terms, we would agree. But most of the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who support the regime sound as if they really believe that it’s free.
No worries. After the Castros die and the island converts to a northern European version of capitalism, there will likely be 50%+ tax rates to support all the free social problems.
If only they could learn to live with 50% tax rate.
Certainly, if anyone suggested that health care and education do not involve the expenditure of money, they would now be exposed as liars. Has anyone said that? But the people who tell us that you can go to school or to the doctor without paying a fee are probably telling the truth.
240% mark-up? I hope that reveals the lie that has been told for 57 years that healthcare and education are free in Cuba. Nothing is really free and if it was free, it wouldn’t be worth it.
The truth being that there is no improvement in Cuban incomes and no intention of introducing any improvement.