But there are plenty of countries that you can't leave without permission, and some of them are U.S. allies... Productivity, well sure there is a huge cost to trying to prop up an ageing statist political system - but productivity measured in capitalist terms isn't really a measure which would interest a self-proclaimed 'state socialist system', is it? And the blockade affects the ability of the nation to obtain parts etc which undermines traditional notions of productivity.

People should be able to criticise U.S. policy (appalling both in terms of directly measurable affect on the citizens of Cuba and in terms of negatively affecting government-level relations) towards Cuba without being accused of 'cherishing' the system of that country. The 'with us or against us' rhetoric is very unhelpful (not a direct attack on you, just the Manichean way of looking at Cuba that I see so often).