Poverty
Typical wages range from factory worker's 400 non-convertible Cuban pesos a month to doctor's 700. That is around 17-30 U.S. dollars a month. However, the Human Development Index of Cuba still ranks much higher than the vast majority of Latin American nations. After Cuba lost subsidies in 1991, malnutrition resulted in an outbreak of diseases and general hunger. Despite this, the poverty level reported by the government is one of the lowest in the developing world, ranking 6th out of 108 countries, 4th in Latin America, and 48th among all countries. Pensions are among the smallest in the Western hemisphere at $9.50. In 2009, Raul Castro increased minimum pensions by 2 dollars, which he said was to recompense for those who have "dedicated a great part of their lives to working... and who remain firm in defense of socialism".
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Cuba
Famous quotes containing the word poverty:
“In general, Russia suffers from a frightening poverty in the sphere of facts and a frightening wealth of all types of arguments.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Public money is like holy water; everyone helps himself to it.”
—Italian proverb, pt. 5, epigraph, Graham Hancock, Lords of Poverty (1989)
“The hour when you say, “What does my happiness matter? It is poverty and filth, and a wretched complacency. Yet my happiness should justify existence itself!””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)