https://twitter.com/jasonhickel/status/1551136180242112517

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    AFAIK Cuba has been dealing with strange economic consequences of tourism basically ever since they opened themselves up to tourists. Dollars are worth a lot so "tipped" professions that get foreign cash get paid a lot, but the government doesn't want everyone moving to tourism-adjacent professions so they've done stuff like introduce an alternate currency for converting dollars and stuff like that. The recent liberalization of small scale businesses is the latest in a long list of attempts by the Cuban government to get a handle on it, in this case by legitimizing - and therefore taxing - what used to be black market transactions.

    tl;dr economy be complicated