Why do Havana's taxi drivers earn more than doctors? | Divided Cities
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- čas přidán 12. 11. 2019
- Cuba's strange dual system means that public sector workers and those in private enterprise are paid in different currencies. Laura, a GP, earns Cuban pesos, whereas Rogelio, who was a doctor, now makes more in an hour as a taxi driver than he used to in a month because he is paid in 'convertible pesos', which are worth 24 times more. As doctors and teachers struggle to buy basic goods, is it time for change?
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I visited Cuba last year and I talked to a bathroom attendant at a nightclub. She was a physical therapist by training, but she made more being a bathroom attendant because of the tips she would receive from tourists. Tourism is very profitable.
Physical therapist is a rather peculiar example or do physical therapists earn that much money in the US? Because I am German, I have two friends (a couple) who work both as full time physical therapists. They would love to have a child but they just can't afford to have a child being physcial therapists.
In the US, you need a professional doctorate degree to become a physical therapist, and many do get paid well. My best friend is a PT in Atlanta, GA and she makes 85k per year. It’s also possible to make six figures as a PT in the US (low to mid 100k range).
@@c.c.6504 You do not need a PhD in medicine here, but it does require degrees (which are costly as well), not sure about the specifics though. It's always fascinating how different these things play out, depending the country. For example, teachers in Germany are very, very well paid, American teachers earn pretty much nothing in comparison.
No, not a PhD in medicine. PT’s are now required to have a doctorate of physical therapy (DPT). With a DPT degree there is no dissertation involved. Now, if a PT wanted to become a university professor or was interested in conducting research, then one would also obtain a PhD in physical therapy. Also, you’re right about teachers in the US, which is unfortunate, but great to know that teachers are compensated well in Germany!
It must be mind-numbingly boring work as an intellectual
"A taxi driver earns a Doctor's monthly salary in one hour"... you can see how screwed up their policy is
@Deen Bloger
The US has no obligation to do business with Cuba.
@@shauncameron8390 fr and they where just feeding th4 castors and their families before sanctions
I visited Cuba and ended in the ER. They were wonderful and very well-trained and educated. Clearly something has been done right
Imagine what they could without the crippling sanctions!
It'll be a tragedy for the locals when more and more doctors leave for other jobs or countries because of the low salary.
@@remiacab8229 Imagine what they could do without the crippling economic repression imposed by their own government!
Such a complicated issue. In Cuba I was able to walk in to a pharmacy with my old bottle of specialty prescription eye drops and buy it for 6 dollars. In the us my insurance won’t cover it and I have to get the one that doesn’t work for 30 with insurance. At the same time people don’t have access to basic building materials or potatoes. Broke a window, you are out of luck. Want fries in November, illegal. However the most expensive restaurant in Cuba (30us/person) never runs out of anything.
@onnielou70 yes, they do actually, theyve even made a cancer drug that the us prevents its citizens from using
Because that restaurant is most likely owned by the government
US is one of the few countries in the world with out-of-control prescription prices. Most countries negotiate with the drug industry to set fair retail prices (a formulary). Insulin in the US can cost 8x the cost of insulin in Canada
I don’t blame a guy for a working as a taxi driver after being a qualified doctor. If you’re not gonna be able to make a living wage with all of that study and a degree under your belt and what’s the use if at the end of the day you’re still gonna have to go to other jobs and worry about money.
He could work as a private doctor at an all exclusive resort, hotel or for tourists in another way but those jobs are rare and sometimes far outside of desireable living areas
no he will make tons of money doing low skill work thats why socialist countries are poorer than america socialism is a race to the bottom
Yea Vox has already done both of the divided cities issues, but I think Guardian brings in another perspective to these topics that is interesting.
And I mean it's not like they used Vox's footage or anything, they found their own subjects and shot their own interviews.
The same stereotypes as always. Failed to answer the opening question. The real reason why a doctor earns less than a taxi driver is that the Cuban government block the importation of cars. The result are the highest car prices on the planet and a disastrous transportation situation. Cuban people pay for that policy, standing next to the street for hours or suffer in overcrowded busses. Therefore, taxi drivers can earn those high incomes. A regular taxi driver makes around 100 USD a day. That guy from the video drives a government owned car. To get one of those you need to have the right contacts or pay the right guy a few thousand dollars. On the other hand everybody can study medicine. In hospitals without running water and the lack of everything. Even the fundamentals like gloves. Therefore, doctors don't have the status like they have in many other countries. Cuba has an oversupply of doctors - many from poor quality. That is the simple truth. The embargo is a heavy crime, but this has nothing do to with that. Many things in Cuba are wrong. Before blaming others you should clean in front of your own door.
When I visited Cuba in 2018, my cab driver was a mathematician and was in the military. He quit, became a driver and is making 56,000 CUC a year working 5 days a week and 7 hours a day..this topic is quite fascinating and confusing at the same time
It’s completely disingenuous to critique socialism without discussing the military coups, sanctions and economic warfare the US and other capitalist countries have waged on socialist countries in order to ensure their downfall
Dictatorship countries you mean...
LOL
@@itsElian No, not just dictatorial countries. In 1991 they overthrew the first democratically elected leader of Haiti and the same thing can be seen throughout history. Do your research.
Shouldn’t sanctions not matter in a “dictatorship of the proletariat”?
The fact that it does proves capital still makes the gears of powerturn in “socialist” countries.
Irrelevant. A functional economic system would be able to work regardless of most of these things. They're not defending themselves from warfare most of the time, and the cold war was pretty much "no war" in practice, that's the term. It also overlooks the dictatorship aspect, as if repressing the entire population of a country is a morally acceptable thing to do to implement some pipe-dream solution, whose failure is then blamed on the rest of the world.
"Market is evil! it ought to be abolished!"
"Our market-less system doesn't work because you don't trade with us!"
When the failures of socialism meet the failures of capitalism.
Sherlock Holmes The USA is sanctioning socialist dictatorships but not capitalist ones. Why people think one ideology and not a blend of the two is best I will never understand.
As the saying goes, "it's hard to be a socialist in a Capitalist world" , USA dictate world trade and finance , if the bombs or CIA coup don't get you, then Global Capitalism will
No, just the failures of socialism. Big time.
@Sherlock Holmes when there is a monetary system that favors one class and defaults another that is a called capitalism
@@MSuyay I'd really love to see a capitalist state work without Mafia, corruption, interfering with other states' politics, but that's rather impossible, am I right?
We need her in the NHS
What makes you think she wants to work for the nhs. Her people need her more
@@elektriqa864 did you listen to her or what? Third of your salary for chicken. She d go in a jiffy.
The Cuban people seem like the most possitive and wonderful people in the world living in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Imagine how prosperous and successful they could be if they were allowed to live their lives the way they choose.
What surprised me the most is the government not to profit from the situation through taxi driving licenses or other kinds of taxes for taxi drivers
Similarity, during the USSR days the best job to have was also a cab driver. They made money in the same manner as the Cuban cabbies and doorman, but even more, because they would ask for more fare money if the passenger wanted to get somewhere quicker.
Also, which would be the better job in the USSR, an engineer or a worker in a restaurant? The restaurant worker of course, because they could steal food to resell later. The engineer could only steal paper and pencils, so was poor. I heard all this info on CZcams at 'Ushanka Show'. : )
Great reporting The Guardian 👏
Obama policy: show others the advantages of one's own system....
Trump policy: scream, threaten, ridicule, disdain....
Whats the point
@t. intelectuel If you isolate an country, nothing will ever change. Thats the point.
People in the medical field don’t make enough period no matter where you live and they have one of the hardest jobs !
Doctors, nurses, and therapists (like rehabilitation & psychiatrists) make GREAT money in the US. Like the woman said in the video, "doctors in our country drive Mercedes"
Maybe visit the US and don't the defend the system that kills those who disagree and I would know I lived it
This is so messed up
Not fair.
@Sherlock Holmes maybe they talking about the crippling sanctions and embargoes
@@remiacab8229 many people certainly are, somehow they're blind to the unfairness of dictatorship and making almost any kind of free entrepreneurship illegal, and fail to see the consequences of this repression.
@@remiacab8229
Namely that of the Cuban government on its own people.
All those complaining about socialism here, hold your tongue. The series goes to memphis and there you will see the effects of inequality. I'd rather be in Havana than in Memphis.
Memphis has St Judes Hospital, the premier paediatric cancer hospital in the world, and they dont charge a cent. Bet they didn't film there.
@@adtastic1533 In the US, free hospitals are the exception, not the rule. In the rest of the developed world, _every_ hospital is free, paediatric or otherwise. What a laughably bad counterexample to give.
At least in Memphis you can move from Memphis if you manage to, the authoritarian state doesn't prohibit, and you don't have to risk your life or do illegal businesses to improve your living standards.
Interesting
Miss cuba now ..
Trump’s sanctions are devastating to Cuba, but what this video doesn’t examine is WHY the sanctions are so devastating. WHY is Cuba beholden to the economic will of the U.S.? The answer is because the World Bank and IMF have forced Cuba into economic dependency on the U.S.
Cuba is devastated for decades before Trump became president, the socialism did it, I'm born and raised in Cuba, trust me nothing is worst than socialism
Nobody's fault but the leadership in Cuba. Cuban leadership is obsessed with the U.S. instead of expanding its ties to Asia, especially China, and Europe. If they were smart, they'd pretend the U.S. doesn't exist, even though the U.S. is occupying Guantanamo Bay.
@@raybod1775 kinda hard to pretend the U.S. doesn't exist when they're occupying your land and blockading your economy ...
@@cubanlincoln1767 if you're white and rich
@@april_showers97
What economy? Cuba destroyed its own economy and chose to live off of foreign (namely Soviet, Chinese, Venezuelan, etc.) largesse for most of its post-Revolucion existence.
I wonder where those two young black ladies in the backseats are from. Can anybody recognize the accent?
They seemed quite ignorant
From the accent, maybe from Portuguese speaking South America. Throughout the region there are people of many skin colors, so do not presume "Nigeria" !
I have met visitors (and locals) in Cuba with dark skin many of whom are descended from African slaves, but others from native American descent, and many mixed race/Metis.
Excellent short documentary
Brazilian maybe French...
HI
Madre mia la mujer y el hombre siendo medico y profesor de matematicas que entre los dos no puedan casi ni subsistir y en España cobrarion unos 6k euros mensuales entre los dos
Him is pissed cause he can't profit off of their pain. Mmm, maybe he already has.
Living in the past. Horror!
Shameful, my country should be smart and exchange medical people and see what the Cubans know in medicine. 🇲🇽
Harry those “doctors” are actually political agents
Mendo07 You are a nut
I used to work with a guy whose wife was Cuban, she went in for a what is considered a routine operation in Cuba and died of complications. Trust me Cubas healthcare sucks and their doctors practice psuedo science
brett harter You are basing this on one friends experience. Cuban doctors do not practice pseudo medicine. They practice medicine just like any other country.
@@F0KYT69
Basically cheap labor for the Cuban government.
Its happening in america too that's why I got a trade.
0:05 track ID?
And
Que se venga a España como buena profesional que es y si puede convalidar el titulo. Que cobre sus 3000 euros que merece
Most new doctors in America aren't as rich anymore. Training takes years and a large heap of debt. Let's not even talk about dentist! 500k in loans, 500k to get a private practice, 200k for a house etc etc.
I agree and the raise of Artificial Intelligence.
Praise to cuba to make healthcare as human right and a Necesity and not a Profitable market that make a bruise arm worth to pay 1000 usai dollars, which makes no sense
A la dra. hay JINETEO
Al taxista no joda chico estas ganando bien.
As an ex-NHS worker I have some familiarity with the situation. That's why I work in the USA now.
Fortunately for the British people, most doctors are not that greedy and they still have better healthcare than Americans, for a lower cost.
Guardian copying a 3 year old Vox video here
Vox didn't mention the aspect of dual currency, which is not of key importance to the problems they face, but nevertheless interesting to know.
We have to question who assigns the amount of value to our labor. Why should private sector jobs make more than public jobs, and vice versa. And does the existence of a private, capitalistic sector in Cuba make it a truly socialist country?
Cuba is a truly socialist country as the economy is still heavily state-controlled and the private sector just barely exist.
The value of our labor is assigned by the demand for it.
Life is hard, everywhere the same. People that without skills to make a living, not just have to compete with foreign workers to make ends meet but also waiting to be replace by robots. 😅
This issue is very acute in China especially.
What's the division here? I get the point for the rest of the cities in the list but how exactly is Havana divided? Is it a division between the public and the privite sector reflecting on the two-currency system? If so, first of all, the division between public and privite sector exists in many other countries (like Greece, Italy, etc) and it entails harder working conditions for those in the privite sector and secondly, as unfair as the system presented here in Cuba might be, it can't be in any way compared to the divisions depicted in the the other cities, where the antithesis is driven mainly by poverty, nationalism and racism. And while here the comments on the failure of socialism are raging, I haven't seen the same people commenting under the other videos on how capitalism continuously fails to secure even decent food and basic quality of life to a substantial number of people that are leaving under inhumane conditions.
Those with access to hard currency vs. those who don't.
This is why politicians shouldn't interfere with the economy
Politicians? While Cuba ceased to be Socialist long time ago, it is the state planners who run a Socialist economy, the network of planners are quite massive and its in fact very complicated hence why North Korea made the rightful leap of computerising the planning process resulting in becoming fastest growing economy in Asia.
ok mr. classic laisez faire.
@@SMGJohn Whatever Cuba is, it's not a real market economy. Even the internet that you take for granted is prohibited. The dictatorship immensely restricts the economy, and people get by improving their living standards thanks to the black market, which they nickname "sociolismo."
@@toyotaprius79 Marx and Engels themselves had socialism as synonymous with "dictatorship of the proletariat." But what many people in America think is "socialism" these days really isn't, they point to the Scandinavian countries, Canada, and their safety net policies, that's not socialism, despite republicans insisting on that label, which unfortunately bamboozled pretty much everyone in the US.
2:55 How can 2 pesos per hour be 0.5 Dollars cents? Not CUC nor CUP would be that equivalent.
@@r.a5765 If what you say is true, then 4 CUP must = 1 CUC. But it doesn't. According to Xe , it's about 1 to 26.5. 1CUP = 0.0377358CUC
There's probably a mistake in subtitles. It should be "12" instead of "2"
Deleted without explaination: Rike Adelson replied: "1 CUP (pesos) = 0.25 CUC so 2 CUP = 0.5 CUC. The USD to CUC exchange rate is roughly 1:1 so if she's getting paid 2 CUP then this amounts to 0.5 USD."
I was there in 2018. Doctor made the most of anyone-30 CUP/ which is $30 in dollars. State lifeguards made 22cup/$22 us per month. CUC are 1/25 of a CUP and of a $1 US. So $1 or 1CUP is .025 US/dollars (2.5 cents) or .025 CUP
@@xiqueira You are mixing up the two. A CUC is a $1 US.
It’s nothing to do with the failure of socialism. It’s the inept failure of introducing a competing currency into the economy worth significantly more without assessing the consequences...
Yes it does. This is a product of a state-run economy.
Am I the only one who's thinking the doctor can go abroad and make more money stripping?
American people talking about socialism and thinking is ok, this is a joke
I ama cuban and I 100% agree
Well both completely capitalist and completely socialist systems are bad, it's not like there's nothing in between
Porque somos perros
at 5:35 were those women belittling him for driving a cab?
No I don't think so, they were just pointing out how odd and unfair it is that Cuban doctors are paid so little compared to other countries.
If it is not worth it no one takes the responsibility. This is Socialism at work.
Cuba has been like this, actually worse because this vid makes it look great. Cuba has been rationing food since 1959. Doctors take home after taxes $80pesos/month. Average worker $25. A pound of rice today in Cuba $35 pesos beef has been prohibited since 1979 I think. You will go to jail if caught with beef
That's what people struggle to see
efin trump again....;(
Trump is not to blaim
definetly can see the bad and sympathise with these peoples story, just feel to point out that if your born in a develoed country like mine England and parents are doctors or rich, then great, if not without those two economic factors within the overall socio econom' design you wouldnt even barely have the chance to become a doctor or any job that requires more than two years supported study..... all that glitters....in london theres hundreds of kids addicted to weed, with no academic education selling drugs and killing eachother for trainers and zip codes... theres always a catch lol
Too bad Cuba is now a full fledged Capitalist country like Vietnam, China, Laos and so on, only the DPRK is Socialist anymore and last time I checked the DPRK has living conditions according to United Nations similar to that of South European countries.
I'll have what this crack head is smoking
SOUTH EUROPE? I LIVE THERE AND MANY PEOPLE CANNOT EAT
This is what corbyn wants for us in UK
That's quite a leap. Socialism and capitalism are a spectrum, it's not as simple as people make it out