In my case I have to add that the situation is worse because I am retired.
This is a rather complicated subject to deal with because there are cycles in life that end and one must fulfill them. In our country many people reach retirement age and have to continue working and the essential cause is because the salary is not enough to cover essential and basic expenses such as food, cleaning and others.
It is true that Cuba is not the only nation in which similar situations occur, but this is where I live and, in reality, the situation is quite difficult for everyone, but especially for those of us who are over sixty years of age. I must also say that as a retiree I do not have one of the worst retirement pensions, but it is not enough to pay for basic services such as water, gas for cooking and electricity and something as necessary as food.
Last week my husband and I went to the market to buy some food we needed, a cake to give to a friend's son for his birthday, coffee and other basic necessities.
When we started our trip we noticed that prices are still rising and our standard of living continues to become more complex. Here is some of what we saw, so you can draw your own conclusions:
- The cheapest cake: 1000 pesos
- The cheapest coffee: 1520 pesos
- A pot of ice cream: 1040 pesos
We couldn't go to buy other things we needed because the money ran out.
To give you an idea of what it costs to eat:
- One pound of rice: Between 190-210 pesos.
- One pound of credo meat: 350-400 pesos
- One pound of chicken: 230-260 pesos
- One avocado: 80-150 pesos
The number of products and the exorbitant prices would be long and endless.
You may be wondering what my pension figure is. Well, I can tell you that I earn 5240 pesos. So you can imagine what it takes to make ends meet.
Several times I heard the claims of retirees for their pensions and I did not understand the reason for their claims. Now I understand because I have felt firsthand what it means to be a retiree from an economic point of view.
I have always thought that retirement is a stage of compensation because after having worked for most of your life and having given the best of yourself, you should be compensated. It cannot be that in a stage of life in which you receive the highest levels of help, you receive the least economic compensation and that many times we cannot satisfy our minimum needs.
I recognize that from an emotional point of view I try to live as intensely as possible, but it is not easy. I appreciate what my husband does for my happiness and for trying not to let this affect me, but in reality it affects both of us.
Some people tell me that we don't contribute. That is true, but:
What about what we contribute?
Isn't the development of society partly due to our efforts?
Who can tell us what we did not receive during our working life and that someone else took to his coffers?
Is it fair that in our retirement we cannot cover our expenses with what we are paid?
When you answer these questions, you will realize that the life of a retiree is very difficult and that the economic expense that he or she must assume is very high. Food, medicine and hygiene are part of our needs. In my case, I can't have these three items together every month.
All images were taken from Pixabay and I used the translator Deepl Translate.
The second photo is of my property, taken with my Samsung Galaxy