Youth unemployment

Certain stubborn statistics are never announced in the media; much better to keep them hidden in spite of their significance.  In addition to the number of suicides, abortions and divorces, the real number of unemployed are also concealed.  The news media and billboards would have us believe we live in a society where everyone has the chance to find a job and distance themselves from any inclination to vagrancy.  So many hands producing nothing, however, is the essence of a system that has transformed work into a mirage, and wages into a bad joke.

Some days ago on TV there was a short program about youth unemployment, but it didn’t mention the current number not working.  Havana, at ten in the morning on a weekday, is the best evidence of how many people don’t have a job to earn their living.  The parks, sidewalks and every corner, filled with people during working hours, is more reliable than the low numbers of unemployed reported in the annual statistics.  According to a cautious specialist who spoke in front of the cameras, many young people have a false estimation of their talents and so won’t accept certain jobs.  She was followed by an interview in Granma Province, at the Department of Socio-Cultural Studies, where recent graduates complained about their job assignments as “floor-cleaners” or mosquito inspectors.

So much verbal juggling to ignore that while salaries remain so low, young people don’t have any motivation to work.  They don’t see the appeal of self-denial or calls to save the Fatherland with their daily efforts, unless they get paid enough money to allow them to lead a decent life.  The planned “New Man” is not so different from the rest of humanity: he wants to use his time and energy on something that returns prosperity and well-being  That shouldn’t be so difficult for the experts to understand, nor so systematically ignored by the statistics.

14 comments

  1. Thank you Yoanni for letting us see through the barrage of misinformation and propaganda that the Stalinist leaders present to the people. If if wasn’t that Cuba is a police state, with whistle blowers, guards and harsh punishments for offenders, I recoil at the thought of where all these youth, full of adrenaline and raging hormones, would direct their energy.

    By not allowing for free enterpise to flourish, the old goats are creating a problem which eventually could trigger their own demise. Their paranoia and hunger for control (megalomania) prevents them from allowing opportunities and private businesses from opening up naturally, employing not only the owners, but also allow these youngsters put their energy to good use and earn a living.

    The reason the regime can’t pay a decent wage is that they don’t have the means to do it. Since governments are not good at producing, they don’t have much to share with their employees. They can’t print dollars. If they print their own money, they’d end up with inflation, and whatever goods are on the shelves would disappear as people swarm the stores with the “funny money”.

    In free societies, there are mechanisms so that the youth can grow and develop skills that can be matched to existing or potential job opportunities if they so choose. In addition there are millions of small businesses always looking for skilled and unskilled young employees. Granted, at times some youth follow the wrong path and get themselves in trouble, such as illegal traffic and/or stealing. This occurs most in communities and subcultures where there is uncontrolled overpopulation, promiscuity, divorce, etc. The result is that the fabric of these societies does not allow for the youth to grow in a healthy, disciplined family environment. Too many children, not enough parents.

    In Cuba the above does not seem to be the problem. Rather, you have the regime standing at the gates of progress and individual intiative, not allowing anything to flow, just being a formidable artificial giant rock, on the road to prosperity.

  2. >>>>El trabajo creador comienza con satisfacer las necesidades del que lo ofrece y el que lo recibe, si el que ofrece el trabajo no tienen obsiones y una moneda que lo acomade a cubrir sus necesidades, ese pais esta MUERTO.. rECUERDEN QUE HAY UN SOLO EMPLEADOR; lOS CASTRO….Yoani lo explica con maestria. Un Pais Muerto es el resultado de la intolerancia, la censura, la creacion de lideres obreros que no responden a las necesidades del trabajador, LA INESISTENCIA DE leyes HUMANAS QUE BUSQUEN EL BALANCE CREADOR ENTRE EMLEADOR Y EMPLEADO… NADA DE ESTO ES POSIBLE EN UNA SOCIEDAD ATROFIADA COMO LA CUBANA… TODO SE TERMINO’, TODO SE ACABO, LA DICTADURA DEL PROLETARIADO QUEDO PARA APLICAR LOS MALES. ( QUE SON MUCHOS ) AL PROPIO PROLETARIO, COSA QUE JAMAS OCURRIO EN LA CUBA REPUBLICANA….fABIAN pACHECO cASANOVA…

  3. >>>>El trabajo creador comienza con satisfacer las necesidades del que lo ofrece y el que lo recibe, si el que ofrece el trabajo no tienen obsiones y una moneda que lo acomade a cubrir sus necesidades, ese pais esta MUERTO.. rECUERDEN QUE HAY UN SOLO EMPLEADOR; lOS CASTRO….Yoani lo explica con maestria. Un Pais Muerto es el resultado de la intolerancia, la censura, la creacion de lideres obreros que no responden a las necesidades del trabajador, LA INESISTENCIA DE leyes HUMANAS QUE BUSQUEN EL BALANCE CREADOR ENTRE EMLEADOR Y EMPLEADO… NADA DE ESTO ES POSIBLE EN UNA SOCIEDAD ATROFIADA COMO LA CUBANA… TODO SE TERMINO’, TODO SE ACABO, LA DICTADURA DEL PROLETARIADO QUEDO PARA APLICAR LOS MALES. ( QUE SON MUCHOS ) AL PROPIO PROLETARIO, COSA QUE JAMAS OCURRIO EN LA CUBA REPUBLICANA….fFABIAN PACHECO CASANOVA…

  4. Para aquellos que quieren entender porque a Cuba le va mal y que no hay solucion posible dentro de los marcos del sistema de gobierno actual solo tienen que leer a Yoani y en particular este brillante resumen de la situación laboral en cuba. El sistema asegura educación gratuita como mecanismo para hacer progresar el pais. Ahora, los graduados a cualquier nivel de enseñanza se encuentran con un pais sin economia donde aplicar sus conocimientos. El resultado, desesperanza y emigracion. Algunos diran que este panorama no es muy diferente al de otros paises de Latinoamérica. Sin embargo Cuba se proclama a todo viento como la vanguardia de la region y el ejemplo a seguir justificando asi sus constantes violaciones de todos los derechos humanos. No puede ser faro quien explota y esclaviza en nombre de servicios falsamente llamados gratuitos. En realidad el Robin Hood cubano, como lo ha llamado Yoani, solo mal reparte la poca riqueza que producen los cubanos pues ya hace mucho tiempo se le acabo la que se robo cuando llego al poder.

  5. Those willing to get insights into Cuban reality, understand why the island is so poor and realize that the solution will not come from the Castro’s regime, should read Yoani Sanchez and in particular this short essay on the Cuban working class. The Cuban system offers free education but once you graduate you find a terrible economy with no jobs where to apply your credentials. Well, until here, this is no different than any other Latin american country. However, Cuba’s propaganda clearly claims the superiority of the communist system willing to export it to others in the region. This superiority, according to their supporters, justifies the constant violation of human rights in the country. It is clear that Cuba’s example can’t be the model to follow as those free services are at the end paid by the same Cuban people whose human rights have been violated. The Cuban Robin Hood, as Yoani once refers to Fidel, only distributes the little wealth Cubans manage to generate since the one he stole form the rich vanished long time ago.

  6. Sancho, according to Cuban statistics Cubans should be earning about 4500 dollars to 4800 dollars but we know
    the median income is about 200 dollars

    The rest is the money the government takes to pay for all the “free services” or who knows for what else. So the result is that the so call free services are not free after all! The so call triumph of the revolution are pay by the people. The same free services that are later use to coerce Cubans into supporting the revolution!

  7. If we consider the money taken by the regime 4300 to pay for services then that represent 96 Percent of each Cuban income that is tax to pay for services! So they are paid only 4 percent of what they produce!

  8. >>>I can’t open the page to comment in Spanish, please let knows if something wrong whith our equipment or if tenic matters of the page . Thank so much… Fabian….

  9. Dear SilentVoice, for a long time I use to feel bad about my decision of leaving cuba. The idea that they paid for my studies was well fixed in my head and sometimes this idea will reemerge with guilt. Not any more, i have come to realize that they did not paid, it was the cuban people tat did it, including my parents and the four years I manage to work for them. they never pay me or my family for our work

  10. “The parks, sidewalks and every corner, filled with people during working hours, is more reliable than the low numbers of unemployed reported in the annual statistics.”
    That’s curious. I was walking around in Centro last Wednesday and particularly noticed the few people and the light traffic.
    Certainly not as described here.

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