Visual Project Management | Grant Work: Democracy + Communism: 2. Cuba: Communism Relived: Cuba_Paskova_018

Looking into a private barber shop in the Havana Vieja neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Since privatization was first allowed within Cuba's state-owned socialist system in the mid-70s, the requirements for those allowed to be cuentapropistas (small business entrepreneurs - whose practice wasn't allowed in Bulgaria and most of Eastern Europe until the collapse of communism) have fluctuated from restrictive to less so - the latter in the Raúl Castro era of 2008 and beyond. But a clear disincentive to private business expansion remains: if payroll surpasses 5 employees or a $2,000 yearly profit, taxes increase disproportionately (from 15% to 50% in case of the latter.)

Looking into a private barber shop in the Havana Vieja neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. Since privatization was first allowed within Cuba's state-owned socialist system in the mid-70s, the requirements for those allowed to be cuentapropistas (small business entrepreneurs - whose practice wasn't allowed in Bulgaria and most of Eastern Europe until the collapse of communism) have fluctuated from restrictive to less so - the latter in the Raúl Castro era of 2008 and beyond.  

But a clear disincentive to private business expansion remains: if payroll surpasses 5 employees or a $2,000 yearly profit, taxes increase disproportionately (from 15% to 50% in case of the latter.)