Maryland abolishes death penalty.

[kandrathe]

The whole point is here that I think it is unfair to use Cuba as example of failed communism.

I'm not sure what Cuba would be if it allowed more freedom, but removing pretty basic freedoms was required in order to get the results the Party elite wanted.

But honestly if you would really compare it to a country in which your birthplace and color of skin are directly correlated to your life expectancy, the chance you will become a teen mom, the chance you will get certain diseases etc.

By country, you mean trying to compare a place like The Netherlands, or Sweden to a country like the USA?

Preposterous. We could compare The Netherlands to a State like Minnesota. About 75% of Minnesotans are ethnically Northern European, which in also now true of the Netherlands. Our infant mortality rate is between 3.5 and 4.5/1000, which is similar to yours. Our life expectancy at birth is about 80.5, and yours is about the same. You have about 10-11% living below the poverty line, we have about the same.

Where you see the most consistent hardship from poverty is in places like Alabama, or Mississippi -- where there is less opportunity for economic mobility. Where you see the largest income gaps are in places like Chicago, New York, LA, and the DC metro. The key population centers of commerce have the largest incomes, and also some of the poorest poor. But, this is not different from comparing the demographics of Amsterdam to that of the whole Netherlands.

Living in Alabama is more like living in Enschede, only far less chic. The death of the textile industry devastated both of them. Although, Alabama's problems are more from historic institutionalized discrimination, dearth of capital and a lack of investment socially, or economically. They languish from poor education, lack of employment, and poor social services. Some States, like Georgia, or Arkansas would be described as a low tax, low service. Alabama would be more like no tax, no service. And, what taxation they do have is mostly regressive.

The bottom line is that using Cuba as representative of communist systems, is as unfair as generalizing the US. People in my state have no influence over what happens elsewhere in the US, and mostly the Federal government has little either other than what they give away. So, when you look at national statistics for the US, know that you are lumping together a bunch of stuff. Can we hold Egyptians accountable for the poverty of Africa? Our advantage in the US is that we do have a Federation of self-interested States.