Name that island
Adam Smith Blog
By Steve Masty on Globalization
Quiz Time - Treat yourself a fine Havana cigar after naming the small island subject to intermittent blockades, military intimidation, and a constant barrage of economic and diplomatic pressure by a neighbouring superpower.
Light up that corona, senor, if you mentioned Taiwan. Okay, that or Cuba. Both were agricultural and desperately poor fifty and more years ago and both have faced pressure from superpowers - tiny, communist Cuba by the capitalist United States and tiny, capitalist Taiwan by the communist People's Republic of China. But the similarities stop there.
In 1960, Taiwan's per capita income was about a measly $150 while Cubans were more than twice as wealthy, estimated at almost $400. Today, Taiwan's per capita income is $23,500 and still growing, while Cuba's is only $2900. Why?
Taiwan always gave its citizens enormous economic freedom, then in the past 25 years made itself into a vibrant democracy. Cuba offers virtually no economic freedom and no democracy at all. So Taiwanese relax in the same holiday resorts that you visit, while the Cubans cannot go anywhere unless they steal a leaky boat and paddle toward Florida.
In other words, the Taiwanese are free to manufacture goods and provide services that the rest of the world wants (read the label on your microchip), and the world rewards them with well-deserved wealth. Meanwhile Cubans are pretty much serfs and vassals of Senor Castro and his communista bureaucrats, and an island full of poor, teenaged girls try to sell themselves to middle-aged French waiters on cheapo package holidays.
Next time the parlour-pinks and limousine-lefties whine about US-Cuban relations, ask them why Cuba isn't as rich as Taiwan. |
