They ask why the Republic of Cuba has been lagging behind economically. The liberals will claim socialism is the reason, yet socialism is the reason we even have an economy to call our own and are not slaves to rich white American tourists and plantation owners.

So that can't be it.

Well what else has affected the Cuban economy?

Perhaps it is the fact that 78% of the economy is owned by the state. That is a fair argument, one that the government and people actually somewhat believe. And that is something being worked on. Of course there will be no compromise with capitalism, but that is not the only other option.

But that cannot possibly account for the great extent to which Cuba has stagnated, after all it's not as if the state is forcing people to fix cars instead of buy new ones.

So what is it?

Oh, duh!

It's the United States that is forcing the Cuban people into poverty! How could we possibly forget? I mean their embargo has cost us almost a trillion dollars since it began, so it makes sense that we should blame the gringos for most of our issues!

Well unfortunately we cannot end the embargo with our own policy. What we can do, though, is democratize the economy. Many of the state owned farms and industries were democratized in 2008 after Comandante Fidel retired, and we saw a massive increase in productivity as a result. Although there is still a large amount of the economy controlled directly by the state, and the people have adjusted to cooperatives since 2008, so it only makes sense to continue this policy. The plan is for, by the end of 2018, to have 38% of the current state-owned industries and farms to be turned into cooperatives. This is expected to increase productivity by up to 55% in some places, although the average will likely be somewhere closer to 11% across the board.

We will continue on the path to socialism!

¡Viva Cuba!

¡Viva la revolución!

¡Viva Fidel!

¡Trabajadores del mundo, únanse!