The High Cost of Dollars
Hammond, Jack
This past January 5, in a major for pesos are often of lower quaIlspeech commemorating the fortieth ty and fairly expensive. Having anniversary of the founding of the Those without a steady...
...Many workers in state manufacturing and commercial firms supplement their income by pocketing goods on the job and selling them on the street...
...There is very little control over author of Fighting to Learn: Popular Education and GuerrIla them, but since Fidel's January speech condemning the member of AL4 (IA's editorial b Press, 1998...
...It was riot lost on listeners that the occasion of the speech was the anniversary of the police force...
...While Fidel did not call directly for more severe penalties for economic crimes, he did associate them with the more serious crimes by saying that cases of burglary, armed robbery and violence are "often connected with selfemployed street vendors," and that many people who rent out rooms are "turning them into whorehouses...
...gap between high and low wages, and reinforced equality through the social provision of basic necessi- hose without a steady source of dollars rely on a ties...
...If relatively few Cubans have turned to prostitution or mugging, however, survival requires many of them to commit minor economic offenses...
...Third, having so many people who consider themselves loyal Cubans participating in de facto illegal activity has undermined revolutionary values...
...of linkages with the traditional sector, especially agriculture, food processing, construction...
...Having anniversary of the founding of the Those without a steady access to dollars is thus necessary National Revolutionary Police, Fidel to live with any margin of cornCastro spoke of some of the criminal source of dollars rely fort...
...On the one hand, tourism was performing very well...
...vides contact with foreigners, notably tourism...
...As he spoke about prostitu- ' like restaurants, which require tion, street crime and the drug trade, legal and illegal, to some capital investment, alert Cubans heard the threat of a . There are several sources of crackdown on the unauthorized dollar- pick up hard currency...
...there was potential for growth, and foreign capital was available for financing the sector's further development...
...building materials, engineering services...
...First, the dollar economy ha5 reintroduced inequality...
...Afro-Cubans demned in his January speech...
...Anyone with black market...
...In addiThe legalization was a bow to reality, since so many tion, some firms with foreign investors pay productivity Cubans were receiving dollars either from emigre rela- bonuses to workers in dollars, and some state firms in tives or by working in the tourist trade, fueling a lively key sectors are beginning to do the same...
...Most Cubans accept economic reform as inevitable, but many of them, including some who are surviving by illegal petty hustles, wonder aloud what is happening to socialism...
...Cuban economists recognize legalization a job which produces tips in dollars can live very well, as part of a package of economic reforms which have and necessity has forced many well-educated Cubans to contributed to greater economic efficiency and an leave prestigious positions in health and education for increase in the supply of consumer goods...
...Second, activities that earn dollars are not as economically or socially useful as the production of goods and the provision of professional and social services...
...The language people use reflects their feelings about pilfering on the job: they do not talk about goods as stolen but as "diverted...
...Not mcidaily life and forces many otherwise law-abiding and dentally, this situation threatens to resurrect social diviloyal Cubans to do some of the very things Fidel con- sions between black and white Cubans...
...Finally, the modem sector showed an uneven pattern of performance and the volume of its exports was considerably lower than initial expectations...
...Also its net contribution and its potential for upgrading were closely associated with the establishfor ty ArC NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 24REPORT ON CUBA men...
...Even those who homes can charge dollars and are in heavy demand...
...starve, buying everything available to them on a ration Skilled workers who can repair equipment or fix up card and paying very low or no rent...
...Indeed, throughout the early 1990s, annual sugar output declined steadily...
...On a recent trip for example, Pedro Monreal calls dollarization a "central to Cuba, a doctor told me of a colleague who retired mechanism" of Cuba's current reinsertion into the from his hospital post and now drives his car as a cab to world economy, support the family...
...Reacting to a crime wave that is still very slight by Caribbean standards, many Cubans are favorably disposed to such a crackdown...
...This is the only way his son, also a But the need for dollars also takes a heavy toll on doctor, can afford to keep practicing medicine...
...And unequal access to are not only less likely to have relatives who have left dollars has meant growing inequality in a society that the country, but are less likely to be hired by managers for the first 30 years of the revolution had narrowed the of the hotels co-owned by foreigners...
...In this report, employment as waiters and bartenders...
...Now Fidel promises psychological counseling for prostitutes -whose profession was Just criminalized and draconian measures for other offenders, including life sentences for pimps...
...1. Lia Nuez Moreno, "Ms al del centapropismo en Cuba," Temnas, No, 11 (July-SeptLember 1997)1, p. 42...
...On the other hand, despite strong expectations of upgrading for pharmaceuticals...
...An estimated 400 pesos a month do little better...
...1. Lilia Nu'oi Moreno, "Mas ala del cdentapropisrno en cuba,' Temac, No...
...Many kinds of 22% of the Cuban labor force was working in the prigoods can only be bought with dollars, including vate sector in 1994, up from 4% in 1988.1 clothes, gasoline and some medicines that used to be Many of these activities are legal for those who meet available for free or on the ration card...
...Doltars are also typically consequences of Cuba's dollariied on a variety of hustles needed to start small businesses 'economy...
...BY JACK HAMMOND the booming tourist trade, people have expected a crackdown...
...One of the heralded accomplishments of the revolution in the 1960s was the elimination of prostitution and the retraining of pTostitutes for new jobs...
...Pedestrians in Havana are regularly accosted by people offering cigarettes and other goods at low prices...
...While the revolution still guarantees free health care, education, a minimum standard of nutrition and for most a job, the need to get dollars has had several negative consequences that raise some fundamental questions about socialism...
...earn professional salaries, however averaging 300 to Anyone with a car can use it as a taxi...
...He is a prostitution and street crime which have accompanied 24 NI1A REPORTONTHEAMERICAS REPORT ON CUBA as sugar production...
...variety of hustles, legal and illegal, to pick up hdrd Those who earn only the minimum wage in pesos currency: renting rooms to tourists, preparing food to roughly 100 pesos, or five dollars a month do not sell on the street, or opening restaurants in their homes...
...11 (iuly-Septemner 199/), p 42...
...light industry and equipment production...
...dollars, the most reliable of which based commerce that has become a are remittances from relatives in fact of life for most Cubans since the the United States and employholding of foreign currency became ment in some activity which prolegal in 1993...
...Goods available bureaucratic requirements and pay a stiff licensing fee, but the many people who do these jobs without licensJack Hammond is professor of sociology at Hunter College and es are outside the law...
Vol. 32 • March 1999 • No. 5
