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Life in Cuba - Unemployment and Cubans


When the Cuban economy came to a sudden halt in the 1990s, during the Special Period, the Cuban dynamics that had been considered normal had suddenly disappeared. Many Cubans found themselves without work overnight. The situation was so serious that it seems unreal to us today, when we remember the times that were lived. The country had been forced to reinvent itself in order to survive.

A new era was dawning unbeknownst to Cubans, who were being jostled on the threshold of a nascent private sector.


We have heard ad nauseam that monetary unification now forces state enterprises to be profitable, or a few hundred of them will inevitably disappear in the coming months, and hundreds of thousands of workers will inevitably find themselves unemployed once again. This is no longer news. It has already been said many times. This real situation would nevertheless be extremely unfavorable in a context where Cubans are already caught between a rock and a hard place due to rising prices, inflation, etc.


In the new private sector, almost half of the self-employed have been forced to hand in their licenses due to lack of work due to the economic crisis, which has been made much worse by the health situation that has lasted unbearably for over a year.


The new state salaries have therefore become, rather than interesting, indispensable to be able to continue paying bills for water, gas, electricity, telephone and so many other things necessary for daily life, at unimaginable prices until last December 31, not double or triple but much more expensive. The state unfortunately offers very few attractive jobs, and the private sector represents only 10 to 15% of Cuban workers, and is practically at a standstill at the moment.


So there are already many compatriots who cannot work. This is a rather exceptional situation for Cubans who would perhaps never before have had such a legion of unemployed.


In the streets it is remarkable the sometimes tense atmosphere among the people. One could easily cut the air within a queue, so charged with a particular energy, a shared behavior inclined to aggressive reactions to the slightest annoyance, a surly character rather rare among Cubans, usually calm and smiling.


A few years ago we had witnessed a restructuring of state entrepreneurship, from which thousands of workers had been classified as available to effectively encourage private practices, to a new attempt to develop self-entrepreneurs. Without knowing it, it was a worthy exercise of repeating the current Cuban scenario.


It would be appropriate now to go even further in the context of the new opening of private sector opportunities, in order to create a few thousand jobs. It would even be more practical for everyone in this country to promote a non-state sector in retail trade that would allow expanding the points of sale, as well as improving the offer. It would be very beneficial for our population if there were other chain stores, not state, even some international ones, that could maintain a stable supply, and employ so many people who will soon be in need, probably urgently, of work. It is not me who says this, but wise economists.


In a short article I read recently, it was also pointed out that the State could always earn taxes on sales, rental of premises and even on the salaries of workers in these small or medium-sized companies, which seemed more than logical and feasible to me. Commerce in Cuba would not need more experimental solutions, which have been failing again and again for many years, to the detriment of people and their historical suffering in the endless queues, to the point of even seeming normal to us, and the already chronic loss of the rarest good that we all possess in total equality: time. Commerce in Cuba would rather need an unprecedented reconversion, according to the opinion of these few good Cubans.


In the worst case scenario, a large number of Creole coreligionists could certainly soon swell the ranks of the parallel sector; coleros, dealers and intermediaries among others, who do so much harm in every way, an informal system that is unsustainable by nature but necessary, since one must continue to earn one's bread at any price.


Cuba would therefore need, today more than ever, a financial miracle, or the corona-virus episode will seem ridiculous to us.

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