Happy New Year’s Eve from St. Augustine! My hope for readers is that excessive alcohol consumption doesn’t interfere with the efficacy of their medical marijuana edibles…
Back to my favorite topic: Cuba.
It seems that much of Cuba’s appeal in the pre-Castro days was the availability of goods and services that were considered sinful and therefore illegal in the U.S. For example, Cuba has casino gambling, legal alcohol (during our Prohibition period), and prostitution that was at least de facto legal.
Our Cuban guides suggested that if the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba were lifted, the river of American visitors would flow again.
But would it?
Suppose that the motivation for a lot of American visitors was sin. Isn’t there a lot more competition in that market now?
Boston’s Encore casino will open in 2019. Restrictions on purchasing alcohol have been relaxed town-by-town and day-by-day (now on Sundays too!). New recreational marijuana shops are opening monthly. (Prostitution doesn’t make sense here since the first pregnancy with an upper-income customer would eliminate the need for further sex work; Massachusetts offers unlimited child support profits.)
The Massachusetts resident who isn’t satisfied with that mixture of sin can fly in nonstop comfort to London, which offers casinos, alcohol, and legal prostitution.
Cuba is in rather tough shape physically. Meanwhile, billions of dollars have been invested in competing sinful destinations.
Could it be that the our embargo against Americans going to Cuba for a carefree vacation ends with a whimper rather than a bang?
(Our own New Year’s Eve will be spent catering to the whims of the next generation, so please Party like a Kavanaugh (TM) on our behalf!)
The cost of traveling has made Nevada’s limited & shrinking prostitution not very attractive for Calif*ahans. The law manely focuses on the danger of disease transmission & sex slavery rather than sin. If sin was the issue, all modern relationships would be illegal since they’re all no more than sex for money. Then the gays would explode because gay marriage was banned.
Low prices, Caribbean location, Eastern time zone. Relatively short flight will make if an attractive destination. Did I mention low prices?
Another big plus: when you go to Cuba, you are demonstrating what a good lefty you are by giving the proverbial middle finger to Presidents Bush and Reagan. “They can’t tell me what to do anymore!”
jdhzzz: Prices in Cuba for American-style services are not low. If you want to stay in a clean modern hotel you’ll pay more than for a Florida Hampton Inn. Similarly, if you want a restaurant meal you’ll pay about the same as in Miami or Orlando ($12-15 for an entree), maybe actually more if you compare a Cuban restaurant in Florida to a Cuban restaurant in Havana. A taxi ride in Havana costs as much as an Uber ride in Miami (though the Havana driver probably speaks better English!).
Unless you want to live like a backpacker, it is tough to find a country where an American lifestyle is cheaper than in the U.S. Perhaps Eastern Europe is an example, but I don’t think that Cuba is.
On the third hand, if you need some kind of intensive personal service maybe Cuba is cheaper. If you want to hire a dance, music, or language teacher for a month, for example. (Though my Argentine-American friend was horrified at the thought of anyone learning Spanish in Cuba!)
Cuba does not seem to have much going for it. According to Tyler Cowen if it does everything right in 20 years or something like that it might have the same standard of living as the Dominican Republic has today. Seems that Michael was right not to leave the suitcase of money with Hyman Roth.
Gclarke1230@gmail.com
I know Cuba has numerous issues but it’s a country I have fallen n luv with. Not sure if when the Castro’s departed they didn’t clean the coffers out but level of poverty it’s experiencing doesn’t add up for me with the money that appears to be entering the country