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Should a subsidy for soap be called a sudsidy? Get it? Hee, hee...

Times are tough even for Communist countries.

Cubans make about $20/month. Americans make about $3,500/month. Cubans struggle to afford basic items like soap and toilet paper. Americans don't even give it a second thought. Yet idiots like Jack Nicholson and Chevy Chase refer to Cuba as a "paradise".

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...3251293905661/

Cuba ends subsidies for more basic items

Published: Jan. 1, 2011 at 1:14 PM

Cuba reports economic slowdown

HAVANA, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- Cubans rushed to buy items like detergent, soap and toothpaste as 2010 ended and the government ended subsidies for them.

Starting Saturday, ration books no longer pay for "personal cleanliness products," The Guardian reported.

President Raul Castro has said the monthly ration book, depended on by Cubans with average monthly salaries around $20, must be cut to avert a financial crisis. Cigarettes, salt, peas and potatoes were taken off the list last year.

A bar of soap will jump from under 3 cents to about 21 cents. Toothpaste will increase from about 8 to 34 cents. Some Cubans buy toiletries for much higher prices in hard currency shops to avoid shortages and poor quality, but for poorer Cubans the cut will hurt, the newspaper said.

Ration books were introduced as a temporary measure in 1962 to guarantee staple goods after the United States imposed an embargo