Cuba, 156th and rising! Look out Libya!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

According to the Heritage Foundation Cuba ranks 156th in economic freedom, ahead of only North Korea.

I don’t have any complains about the list, it fits what I know about Cuba. I would clarify however that the bit on income tax rate is a little misleading. Most Cubans do no pay income tax, however if you rent a room to a foreigner, or otherwise receive payments for services, you are taxed at 50% of estimated earnings.

What that means is that if you rent a room for $100 a week, you pay $50 a week in taxes, but, and here’s the funny part, you pay the $50 a week even if you do not rent the room. It is more of a license fee than a tax. Naturaly most Cubans cheat on these taxes, until they get busted.

2

How impartial a source is the Heritage Foundation?

3

It’s a nice, steady decline in freedom down the list until you get to the gap between Cuba (next to last at 29.7%) and North Korea (last at 3%). /whistle

I also didn’t realize that, according to the USA page on here, total government spending equals more than a third of our GDP.

4

There are about 40 more countries in existence that aren’t listed at all, plus it does list Hong Kong, which isn’t really its own country. I wonder what criteria are required to be included in the list. (Their FAQ doesn’t cover that.)

5

Hong Kong, a city occupied by the Chinese army, is listed as the freest place on Earth? That is one seriously whacked out list.

6

Little Nemo, it’s about ECONOMIC freedom, not about personal or political freedom. China knows not to mess up Hong Kong’s economy.

As to my prior question, I’m going to hazard a guess that there’s a minimum GNP for making the list.