Times are indeed changing in much of Latin America. A recent article in The Economist magazine was focused on the growing middle class all over Latin America, particularly in countries open to freer trade, economic stability, and growth. Signs of such middle class exist in the DR as well and not just in Santo Domingo, but also in all major and mid-size cities - usually provincial capitals - across the country and the open economy and growth has much to do with that. The visual evidence exist in the every growing number of businesses, expansion of businesses that require a sizable middle class (ie. Multicentros La Sirena and other such stores), increasing number of middle class homes/apartment blocks, etc.
Here are a few quotes and the article can be read by clicking at the link at the end of this post.
"They are members of a new middle class that is emerging almost overnight across Brazil and much of Latin America. Tens of millions of such people are the main beneficiaries of the region's hard-won economic stability and recent economic growth. Having left poverty behind, their incipient prosperity is driving the rapid growth of a mass consumer market in a region long notorious for the searing contrast between a small privileged elite and a poor majority. Their advent also promises to transform the region's politics."
"The middle class that is emerging now is very different. It is more accurately described as a lower-middle class. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former president of Brazil who is also a sociologist, points out that this class is related more to the market than the state. Many of its members have small businesses, like Mr Gon?alves. Others act as consultants to larger concerns."
"In Mexico, argues Jorge Casta?eda, a political scientist, some of the new middle class come from the informal economy, others from new industries or service businesses. The class is less concentrated in Mexico City and is rougher-edged, culturally and socially, as well as darker-skinned, shorter and more Mexican-looking than its predecessor, he says."
Adi?s to poverty, hola to consumption
-NALs
Here are a few quotes and the article can be read by clicking at the link at the end of this post.
"They are members of a new middle class that is emerging almost overnight across Brazil and much of Latin America. Tens of millions of such people are the main beneficiaries of the region's hard-won economic stability and recent economic growth. Having left poverty behind, their incipient prosperity is driving the rapid growth of a mass consumer market in a region long notorious for the searing contrast between a small privileged elite and a poor majority. Their advent also promises to transform the region's politics."
"The middle class that is emerging now is very different. It is more accurately described as a lower-middle class. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former president of Brazil who is also a sociologist, points out that this class is related more to the market than the state. Many of its members have small businesses, like Mr Gon?alves. Others act as consultants to larger concerns."
"In Mexico, argues Jorge Casta?eda, a political scientist, some of the new middle class come from the informal economy, others from new industries or service businesses. The class is less concentrated in Mexico City and is rougher-edged, culturally and socially, as well as darker-skinned, shorter and more Mexican-looking than its predecessor, he says."
Adi?s to poverty, hola to consumption
-NALs
