Cuba: Gas prices rise, but people don't have cars

That's the ultimate ironic dead end of socialism - - if you keep taxing the rich, eventually there's no rich left to tax.

Cuba has upped already-high gasoline prices by about 10 percent amid sweeping changes to the economy, a move that could lead to grumbling among cash-strapped islanders, particularly private taxi drivers who are not allowed to raise their own prices.

. . . The prices approach those paid in Europe and are apparently the highest in the hemisphere, topping pump prices in Brazil and Bermuda. They are a fortune for Cubans who make the average salary of just $20 a month.

. . . But the changes are not likely to affect many islanders, a reason why past gas hikes here have not led to unrest, as they sometimes do in other developing countries.

Few people on the island own a car, and those lucky enough to have been issued a vehicle through their state-run companies usually have a monthly quota of gas paid through work.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/27/1844791/cuba-ups-gasoline-prices-about.html

This is a good lesson regarding the future of Obamacare - - if we keep charging the insured more money for private insurance policies in order to subsidize coverage for the uninsured, eventually there will be no more private insurance policies.

There's only so many things the private sector can heavily subsidize before there's no more private sector to extort.