China first got a lot of money by exporting billions (trillions?) of dollars of stuff to the whole world with their huge labor force (and presumably a lot of raw materials either homemade or imported). Cuba doesn’t have that ability.
An alternative plan: Cuba could also, at any point, have given up on Communism and rejoin the rest of the world. Even China sold out a lot of its communist ideals if we’re being honest, which helped the West feel pretty okay doing business with them.
> Cuba could also, at any point, have given up on Communism
Why should they? If it wasn't for the decades of sabotage it would've been working for them reasonably. Should they succumb to the bullying from another country that hates their ideals?
Ah yes, the “Communism would be working out perfectly, if it weren’t for everybody else sabotaging us!” rationalization.
Are there, have there ever been, any examples of real communist states where most of the commoners are not in poverty?
Is there any communist state that hasn't somehow been disenfranchised by the US throughout history?
unlikely given there are no real examples of actual real communist states.
To be clear, the classic example of Cold War Russia and the USSR - their founders were clear that it wasn't communism .. just an "interim socialist phase" on the path to communism.
Still just authoritarian rule with an excess of epaulettes, braid, and big hats.
I'm not pro communism (which ever book version), nor a fan of the USSR, North Korea, the Mao revolution, etc - but real communism appears to be as rare as real capitalism.
The big problem seems to be broligarchies - small elite groups bullshitting everybody else from their seats of power.
And Cuba is a small island next to the US, not a massive juggernaut on the other side of the world
Cuba is resisting a take over from American oligarchs and a repressive police state engineered to maximize wealth transfer to said oligarchs after they take power. Read the introduction to this guy for a taste of what's to come. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulgencio_Batista