Clarence Page’s column on Fidel includes a common theme that has always bugged me:

Besides a great potential vacation spot, Cuba offers something America’s farmers, manufacturers and service providers need: customers.

I’ve seen this rationale a lot for ending the embargo, and it’s complete baloney. Who in his right mind thinks we’re going to do any significant amount of business once the Cuban market is opened to our firms? It’s only got 11 million or so people, with a per capita income lower than Albania or Bosnia, and whatever they have money to buy, they’re already buying from other countries.

I’m actually sympathetic to ending the embargo — it’s an act of war that is no longer justified, since the Cuban regime no longer represents a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. But the notion that it would result in any economic benefit to the United States is absurd — if anything, a freer Cuba will cost us money, since we’ll end up sending taxpayer-funded aid to the island. I still hope the Cuban people will eventually Ceausescu the gangsters who rule their country, but let’s be clear that we’re not going to make any money from it.