ABSTRACT
An analysis of trends in per capita gdp for all Caribbean countries in the last four decades of the twentieth century reveals a clear picture with perhaps alarming implications for the debate on the costs of independence in the region (table 1). 1 At the bottom of the historical table composed by a research group headed by Bulmer-Thomas we find Haiti, whose inhabitants are actually worse off materially today than they were in 1960. 2 The other early sovereign states, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, continue to rank among the poorer Caribbean nations as well. Together the three make up some two-thirds of the total regional population, a sad reminder that the luxurious Caribbean of the tourist brochures is anything but the life of ordinary people in the archipelago. Even so, Caribbean standards of living in general are far above those in Africa and most of Asia. 3
