Cuba's '1-percenters': They aren't bankers, but artists - Polidicks

[QUOTE]In most parts of the world, artists struggle to make a living. In Cuba, they're part of the wealthiest 1 percent of the population. Two quirks of fate have led to an explosion of well-paid artists on the island: an exception to the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods that allows Americans to spend money on Cuban art, and an accident of Cuban history that lets artists keep the money they earn. Dionel Delgado, 29, is emblematic of financially successful Cuban artists. His new gallery is in an apartment he just bought in a prime ground-floor location in old Havana that gets lots of tourist foot traffic. As he painted a large, lush landscape of the Cuban countryside, he told CNBC, "A big part about my work is about the landscape. The love of my country, my space, my dream space." Don't try to buy the work however—it's already sold to a Mexican gallery for $10,000. He said that, on average, he sells a painting every two months. Thousands of Americans travel legally to Cuba every year under what the Treasury calls "people to people" licenses. Remember Jay-Z and Beyoncé's trip? On such junkets, American tourists are prohibited from buying any kind of souvenir—except books, music and art. As a result, as one moves through old Havana, some of the most prevalent items for sale aren't T-shirts, hats or magnets, but paintings. The government put up a new building a few years ago expressly for art vendors. Vendors there don't have to be as successful as Delgado to make a good living. Most of the paintings for sale to tourists are $100 or less. Selling just one a month, a painter makes more than double the average Cuban, who earns only $19 a month in a government job. Artists have held a special place in the Cuban economy since the early 1990s—an extremely difficult period in which the Soviet Union cut off the billions of dollars in subsidies it had supplied to Fidel Castro's government. Even food was hard to come by. During that time, the government carved out a special exemption for musicians and artists, allowing them to travel freely in and out of the country and, more importantly, to be self-employed as artists and to keep the money they made. The exemptions made them rich compared with other members of Cuban society, as well as more cosmopolitan.[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.nbcnews.com/business/cubas-1-percenters-they-arent-bankers-6C10687330[/url]

While I believe engineers, scientists, and educators should probably be the best paid jobs, I am happy when artists make more than bankers. Interesting article.

Someday Cuba will be the 51st state. Someday.

I am a poor art student, let me in cuba please

[QUOTE=GunFox;41528634]While I believe engineers, scientists, and educators should probably be the best paid jobs, I am happy when artists make more than bankers. Interesting article.[/QUOTE] Also doctors.

[QUOTE=MuffinZerg;41528703]Also doctors.[/QUOTE] That way madness lies.

[QUOTE=KnightVista;41528649]Someday Cuba will be the 51st state. Someday.[/QUOTE]Puerto Rico man