Why Cuban cigars are so expensive

[Chainfire]

8. Where I grew up,

Gadsden County, Fl., grew tobacco for cigar wrappers. It brought wealth and jobs to the county. Wealth to the farmers and minimal jobs for the workers. The rich kids worked in tobacco in the summer for spending money or because their families owned the farms. Poor kids worked for school clothes or food on the table. (my first wage at age 12 was .25/hr for 12 hour days.) School years were designed around the tobacco harvest. By the time I was in high school, as an experienced hand, I made .75 per hour.

Black families worked on the farms and lived in farm housing that was, many times, worse than barns; no indoor plumbing, fireplaces were the only HVAC systems, and you could see lights through the cracks in the walls when you drove by at night. In the winter, the only warm place in the house was in front of the fireplace. The black help were no better off than indentured servants and were treated no better than slaves. The farm owners had the status of plantation owners, the sheriffs dept. worked with the farmers to "keep the help in line." The Farm owners were all good Christians who saw no inconsistency in their religion and their behavior.

By around 1970 the market for Florida cigar wrapper tobacco dried up. The farms dried up and the economy dried up. The county went from being one of the richest to the second poorest in the state.

I don't have a taste for cigars, foreign or domestic.