Economic Freedom Benefits

Paul Walker blogs on the benefits of economic freedom, and mentions Hong Kong and Cuba:

An interesting point of comparison is that in 1958 Cuba’s per capita GDP was $3,170 while Hong Kong had a per capita GDP of $2,924. Since then these two countries have followed very different development paths in terms of economic freedom . Today Cuba is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, very different from today’s Hong Kong.

So in 1958 Cuba had a higher GDP per capita than Hong Kong. And today?

Hong Kong is US$41,944 (PPP) compared to around US$4,500 for Cuba.

Cuba has a state which is basically 100% of GDP. In Hong Kong it is under 20%. In NZ it is 42%.