Maryland abolishes death penalty.

[Jester]

Fair enough if you want to use GDP as a means to compare. Also knowing that you are talking about a semi-communist state here.
What about (and I Wikipedia'd this) a lower infant mortality number than the USA, or the third highest life expectancy of the America's.

The medical accomplishments of the Cuban state are real and impressive. Castro prioritized doctors and teachers, and it shows, to the point where doctors are basically a Cuban export commodity. But surely a society is comprised of more than reducing infant mortality down those last few points? It's a worthy goal, but it's not the only goal.

The US' manifest failures in heath care are the topic of another thread, but needless to say, the systems in place in almost any other developed country seem better.

I know you can get more brands of cola when you visit the Bahama's or that it is easier to store your money on the Cayman's.

Snark aside, surely you can compose a rather longer list of things that I am perfectly able to do in most developed countries, or even in Jamaica or the Dominican Republic, that are either difficult or impossible in Cuba? It's not just that you can't get different *brands* of cola. Often enough, it's that you can't get *any* cola, or even basic food items. Or electricity. Or gasoline. Unless, of course, you know the right people. Or have family in Miami sending you money. Or work in the shiny, tourism-driven side of the economy that trades in convertible pesos.

Again, none of this is to deny the accomplishments of Cuba, some of which are impressive, especially given the deprivation of the "special period". And Latin America on the whole has done badly, which raises questions about the appropriate counterfactual. Nonetheless, there are serious problems with the Cuban economy, and they have fallen from being much richer than their neighbours (and still more literate, and longer-lived, that has always been true, even before Castro) to being relatively poor.

-Jester