Compare and Contrast the economy of the United States and the Republic of Cuba
The Unites States of America is a mixed economy whereas the Republic of Cuba is a command economy. As is shown below in the table, in 2014, the GDP per Capita was $55,800 USD in the U.S., whereas in Cuba it was only $11,600 USD. This shows that an average person would have less money in Cuba than they would in the United States, even though the unemployment rate in the U.S. is higher than in Cuba. Since Cuba is a command economy, the government regulates the amount government hired employees earn, causing the average to be a lot lower. The Export rates for the United States in 2016 was $1.471 trillion USD. The Republic of Cuba however has an export rate of 3.428 billion USD in 2016. Reasons for this are that the U.S. is a free market economy, so they are able to not only produce to satisfy their own population, but also to satisfy people from other countries. While in Cuba, this is not the case as it is controlled by the government so they are mainly producing to satisfy their own country’s needs. Taking the population in consideration for both countries, which is 323,995 million in the United States and 11.27 million in Cuba, the unemployment rate is fairly equal. The labour forces in the United states is 158.6 million people, which includes the unemployed, whereas in Cuba the labour force is 5.117 million people, which both are roughly half of their population. This indicates that both countries have a healthy rate of children or elderly that aren't able to work but also young adults and adults that do have the ability to work. For Cuba, the GDP growth rate from 2013 to 2014 had a 4.54% increase, which could be due to an increase in exports and imports. The United States had a decrease in their GDP growth rate from 2.5% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2016. As is shown on the table above, this has a clear connection to their trade, as both the United States' import and export has decreased from 2015 to 2016.
Our opinion and those of others
In our opinion, we think that the United States of America has a better economic system as a mixed economy. Countries that follow the free market system or a mixed economy have had a clear economic growth rate, which increase at a faster pace than countries with a command economy, ever since Work War II. There is a constant competition between businesses and innovation is one of the key factors that thrives this. If a country follows a free market/ mixed economy the government doesn't have any right to interfere also giving companies, the advantage of improving their products quality and at what rate they are produced. When there is no Government interference businesses are able to manufacture whatever, their consumers want or need. Clearly, there will be a larger choice of goods and services in a free market economy compared to a command economy. Another benefit of this is that the limited resources available can be evaluated through private business and not a big central one (the government) making it much more organised and easier to keep track of records. Resources will also be allocated more efficiently and the decisions of what should be produced comes from the consumers who will be purchasing these goods and services. This doesn't only increase the satisfaction rate of the consumers but also the consumer spending. Both economies have disadvantages but the benefit of having a mixed economy, like the United States, is that to a certain extent the government is able to help private business. This could prevent as much as an impact as the financial crisis in 2008 had in the U.S.