I touched a raw nerve with my post about Fidel Castro admitting that the Cuban model is a failure. Matthew Yglesias and Brad DeLong both attacked me. DeLong’s post was nothing more than a link to the Yglesias post with a snarky comment about “why can’t we have better think tanks?” Yglesias, to his credit, tried to explain his objections.
This leads Daniel Mitchell to post the following chart which he deems “a good illustration of the human cost of excessive government.”…this mostly illustrates the difficulty of having a rational conversation with Cato Institute employees about economic policy in the developed world. Cuba is poor, but it’s much richer than Somalia. Is Somalia’s poor performance an illustration of the human costs of inadequate taxation? Or maybe we can act like reasonable people and note that these illustrations of the cost of Communist dictatorship and anarchy have little bearing on the optimal location on the Korea-Sweden axis of mixed economies?
I’m actually not sure what argument Yglesias is making, but I think he assumed I was focusing only on fiscal policy when I commented about Cuba’s failure being “a good illustration of the human cost of excessive government.” At least I think this is what he means, because he then tries to use Somalia as an example of limited government, solely because the government there is so dysfunctional that it is unable to maintain a working tax system.
Regardless of what he’s really trying to say, my post was about the consequences of excessive government, not just the consequences of excessive government spending. I’m not a fan of high taxes and wasteful spending, to be sure, but fiscal policy is only one of many policies that influence economic performance. Indeed, according to both Economic Freedom of the World and Index of Economic Freedom, taxes and spending are only 20 percent of a nation’s grade. So nations such as Sweden and Denmark are ranked very high because the adverse impact of their fiscal policies is more than offset by their very laissez-faire policies in just about all other areas. Likewise, many nations in the developing world have modest fiscal burdens, but their overall scores are low because they get poor grades on variables such as monetary policy, regulation, trade, rule of law, and property rights.
So, yes, Cuba is an example of “the human cost of excessive government.” And so is Somalia.
Sweden and Denmark, meanwhile, are both good and bad examples. Optimists can cite them as great examples of the benefits of laissez-faire markets. Pessimists can cite them as unfortunate examples of bloated public sectors.
P.S. Castro has since tried to recant, claiming he was misquoted. He’s finding out, though, that it’s not easy putting toothpaste back in the tube.
[…] Communism has always attracted dupes and apologists. In the case of Cuba, that list includes Bernie Sanders, Nicholas Kristof, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. And […]
[…] Communism has always attracted dupes and apologists. In the case of Cuba, that list includes Bernie Sanders, Nicholas Kristof, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. And maybe we should […]
[…] Y también puedo entender por qué la gente que está dispuesta a degradarse de esa manera sean tan sensibles a las críticas. […]
[…] it might be just as accurate to ask one simple question: Do you have warm feelings about the Marxist dictatorship in […]
[…] for CapX, Kristian Niemietz ponders this lingering semi-support for Cuba on the […]
[…] for CapX, Kristian Niemietz ponders this lingering semi-support for Cuba on the […]
[…] Y puedo entender por qué las personas que están dispuestas a degradarse de esa manera son tan sensibles a las críticas . […]
[…] Y puedo entender por qué las personas que están dispuestas a degradarse de esa manera son tan sensibles a las críticas . […]
[…] And I can understand why people willing to debase themselves in that way are so sensitive to criticism. […]
[…] is hardly a small-government zealot. He’s accused me, for example, of being insane and irrational because of my libertarian views. But we both agree that the real problem in California is […]
[…] close with an amusing take on the issue. Even though he’s referred to me as insane and irrational, I think Matthew Yglesias wins the prize for the most clever […]
[…] close with an amusing take on the issue. Even though he’s referred to me as insane and irrational, I think Matthew Yglesias wins the prize for the most clever […]
[…] all this in mind the next time you hear some leftist says something nice about Castro. Or the racist murder Che […]
[…] Yglesias and I don’t agree on very much (he’s referred to me as insane and irrational), but we both think that a socialist is someone who believes in government ownership of the means […]
[…] he list North Korea and Cuba, countries that actually still have genuine […]
[…] he list North Korea and Cuba, countries that actually still have genuine […]
[…] sure it’s still happening today in other socialist hell holes such as North Korea and Cuba. The elite enjoy undeserved and unearned wealth while ordinary people live wretched lives of […]
[…] P.P.P.S. In the interests of full disclosure, Yglesias says I’m insane and irrational. […]
[…] to Matthew Yglesias (who says I’m insane and irrational), the answer is […]
Cuba is crazy in every sense of the word. I come from an exile family and I visited the island last year. If it wasn’t for the remittances that Cuban exiles send, the island would be in complete chaos.
The bureaucracy there is ridiculously bloated and there is a clear caste system in place. Unfortunately, the US is heading towards a bleak heavily bloated public sector that picks winners and losers much like the Cuban system. In other words, you either have connections(Goldman, Fannie, CCX example) or you are as good as dead. That was the lesson of my visit.
And yes Joe, they even import sugar. That was actually one of the first things my uncle pointed out. Pretty absurd.
I’d love to hear Brad DeLong’s and Matthew Yglesias’ estimates of Cuba’s wealth *without* Cuba being the beneficiary of between $500 million and $1 billion *per year* in free money sent to Cuba by Cuban exiles abroad, which has been going on for decades now.
Bottom line: Cuba is a total basket case, from top to bottom. Cuba even needs to import SUGAR these days. How crazy is that?