Essay by Eric Worrall
Green British academic pushing a non GDP measure of social progress which gives a high score to Cuba.
Green growth or degrowth: what is the right way to tackle climate change?
Published: November 27, 2023 6.20am AEDT
Mark Fabian
Assistant professor of public policy, University of WarwickNearly all the world’s governments and vast numbers of its people are convinced that addressing human-induced climate change is essential if healthy societies are to survive. The two solutions most often proposed go by various names but are widely known as “green growth” and “degrowth”. Can these ideas be reconciled? What do both have to say about the climate challenge?
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… We need to shift priorities away from GDP and towards frameworks and budgets – such as those used in New Zealand, the Australian Capital Territory and other places – that do a far better job than GDP does of measuring whether we are using our resources effectively to advance human wellbeing.
And many of these wellbeing goals can be achieved using a fraction of the wealth of advanced nations. For example, Cuba, with about an eighth of the GDP per capita, has similar life expectancy and literacy rates to the United States.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/green-growth-or-degrowth-what-is-the-right-way-to-tackle-climate-change-218239
By some estimates, around half a million people, 5% of Cuba’s population, has fled political oppression, riots and hardship since 2021. Cuba is also reportedly suffering triple digit inflation.
Do you think it is possible the Communist regime might have lied about their social achievements? And that gullible academics in far away Britain might be accepting these lies at face value?
The Cubans who remain, there are plenty of stories of young men and women selling themselves, trading their bodies for a decent meal or cash pittance.
I think I’d rather stick with GDP as a measure of prosperity and success. Many Cubans obviously feel the same, given how many of them have voted with their feet and relocated to the high carbon economy of the United States.
A young friend of mine was born to parents who fled the Cuban Revolution to settle in Guatemala. She thus never knew Cuba, or Communism, but still had aunts, uncles, and cousins who weren’t as lucky, and had not escaped from Cuba.
Under the Obama administration, it became possible for Americans to visit relatives in Cuba. My friend did so, and her story upon return was remarkable. A whose system had arisen for these visits. Air travel to and from Cuba was on a specially outfitted Boeing 737, modified to carry much more baggage than usual. This was to allow people to carry supplies to their relatives in large quantities.
Here is what the Cubans most requested their American relatives to bring: Toothbrushes and toothpaste, dental mirrors and picks, topical oral anesthetics, band aides, bandages, gauze patches, medical adhesive tape, aspirin, Tylenol, ibuprofen, naproxen, liniments, triple antibiotic ointment, isopropyl alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, and needles and stitching thread. I may have forgotten some of what my friend listed, but in my mind it added up to “first aide kit stuff.” This, desperately needed by people who lived in a country supposedly having the best health care system in the world.
My friend’s description of the living conditions of the average Cuban, which her relatives were, was stark. Every house she saw everywhere in the country shared one feature: there was no glass in any window. The houses people had pre-revolution were in the same condition as before, and whenever a window broke, which they did in the often severe weather, that was it. No glass was available for replacement during the 56 years between then and when my friend related her experience.
There was much more to her story, none of it positive save for the character of her relatives – their warmth and generosity with whatever they had to offer. Some of them were subsequently allowed to emigrate to the United States. I don’t know of anyone who has expressed a desire to emigrate in the other direction.
Interesting that this guy’s name is Fabian. I guess he is a descendant of the major Socialist group of the same name.
Define “healthy.” It never occurred to me to get rid of my new car and replace it with the first car I ever owned, while in high school. I guess I’m just a little slow. At least I’m not half-fast like these interdimensional, out of touch with reality pundits.