Raul Castro for president in 2012 :-)

From BBC News via Amateur Economist.

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch - but for years the majority of Cubans have been given free meals at state-run workplace canteens.

But in a bid to balance the budget, the Cuban authorities are about to abolish the scheme.

This week, four government ministries closed all their free lunchrooms across the country.

Instead, workers are being given an extra 15 pesos (70 cents) a day to buy their own meals. . . .

In his most recent address to parliament, President Raul Castro said subsidies "are ineffective or, even worse, make some feel that they don't need to work". [Emphasis added.]

Comments

[Kevin Brancato]

I'm under the impression that this has been the Russian way for some time: replace state-provided or in-kind services with a cash equivalent that is really lesser in value.

And the cost data don't add up: the article says the Cuban government spends $350M a year. If we're talking about 3.5M lunches per (work) day at roughly 200 work days a year (I can't imagine them working less), we're talking about 700M lunches per year, minimum. But that yields roughly $0.50 per lunch -- at most.

So why, really, are they're willing to provide $0.70 in cash for something that costs them at most ~$0.50 to produce?