This story of Cuba is different from the one that is usually told.
Here is that when I began to have the use of reason I remember that my parents were two common workers, with their salaries of 148 CUP for my mother and 171 CUP for my father, they supported their three children in all their needs, when I say all their needs I meant all their needs, even those of entertainment.
They instilled in me that I should have a profession for the future, in reality they always did it with the three of them, only I followed the advice.
Over time I became a doctor, after much struggle, my parents' salary was not enough to support themselves and I had to start working with my older brother, who had a business, in order to have the means to pay for my lunches and trips to the university. The time came when thanks to that business I could help my parents, working with the government was no longer profitable.
The dual currency began: the CUP, which was what workers were paid, and the CUC, which was paid at the end of so much fluctuation at 25 CUP, so a worker earned 25 times less than before, and products were scarce, so they had to fight very hard. A doctor, the famous profession of the future that I was studying, earned 400 CUP (16 CUC) in a month, I earned that in my brother's business in 2 days of work.
Then the printing press started and little by little they started paying more; 573 CUP, 1500 CUP, 5560 CUP until 2021.
But I will tell you that part tomorrow, if you want I can continue telling you.
I read somewhere that Cuba's famous low infant mortality rate was actually due to the medical authorities not allowing/strongly discouraging infant deaths to be reported. Is that true? If so, it would kind of be like covid reporting in reverse (hospitals were paid $35,000 USD if they wrote up the cause of death as covid, instead of, for instance, a motorcycle accident, this actually happened A LOT).
What's a CUP? What's a CUC? What kind of business was your brother in? Sounds like some small business are allowed?
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The infant mortality rate is simply the calculation of how many children died after 24 hours of being born and before the age of one, divided by the number of live births and multiplied by 1000. Whether it is manipulated or not...?
At that time, my brother had a business making plastic objects. In 4 hours of work I made around 200 pieces, and I charged 1 peso per piece. In 2 days I earned the same as a doctor in 1 month of work.
The CUC was the second currency here. Supposedly each CUC was backed by 1 American dollar. There were stores to buy in CUC, where everything you needed was available, and those in CUP, the main currency, which had a value 25 times less than the CUC. In that store there was nothing for CUP. In short, if you wanted something you had to divide your salary by 25 and buy it in the CUC store.
Private businesses have been accepted, but with so much control, supervision and regulation that it is almost impossible. One of the many regulations is that they regulate the sale price to the public, but the taxes they charge are high, the raw materials or machinery have to be imported and you do not have access to the dollar or the euro to pay for the import, so other strategies come into play.
I will talk about that in another post.
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You should start posting bitcoin adoption stories from Cuba. How cubans are struggling to use BTC.
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I will continue to tell you about this story tomorrow. Feel free to ask or suggest anything you want to know specifically, I will be happy to answer in a post. There are many points to a story.
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Continue
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Yes. I am pretty sure we are all interested in your story.
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There are so many stories that they wouldn't make it into just one book.
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I totally agree, but we can tell stories from different places and that could enrich the real historical knowledge of the community.
We know that we have all lived the same story from different places and circumstances, that is what is enriching, so I extend the invitation to those who want to accompany me on this trip to join us, always having good friends on a trip makes it more pleasant.
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