A Better DR

If you could solve one problem affecting the country, which one would it be?

  • Blackouts/Brownouts

    Votes: 39 18.4%

  • Public Education

    Votes: 56 26.4%

  • Road/Highway Network

    Votes: 5 2.4%

  • Public Housing

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Crime

    Votes: 21 9.9%

  • Litter/Garbage/Pollution

    Votes: 6 2.8%

  • Corruption

    Votes: 69 32.5%

  • Illegal Immigration/Emigration

    Votes: 4 1.9%

  • Public Health

    Votes: 4 1.9%

  • Other

    Votes: 8 3.8%
  • Total voters
    212
NALs

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,474
3,183
113
If you could solve one and only one problem that affects the DR, which one would it be?

A) Blackouts/Brownouts
B) Public Education
C) The Road/Highway Network
D) Public Housing
E) Crime
F) Litter/Polution
G) Corruption
H) Illegal immigration/emigration
I) Public Health
J) Other
 
C

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
7,951
28
0
www.caribbetech.com
Public education. An educated electorate may well elect the right person for the job. (Ooops, I did not say that .. even an educated electorate has no influence over elections in some parts of the world.. )

Public education anyways! As long as the accent is on education and not on public.
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,549
5,961
113
dr1.com
Get rid of the corruption and you have the funding to improve most of the other choices. Fully fund education, set up proper garbage disposal, pay and train police properly, build more and better hydro dams, solar power, wind power, more hospitals that are better equiped...etc. Billions of pesos go into pockets they don't belong in, and its not just the government, its a national passtime.
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
bob saunders said:
Get rid of the corruption and you have the funding to improve most of the other choices. Fully fund education, set up proper garbage disposal, pay and train police properly, build more and better hydro dams, solar power, wind power, more hospitals that are better equiped...etc. Billions of pesos go into pockets they don't belong in, and its not just the government, its a national passtime.
Click to expand...
I wonder if anyone can actually put a monetary figure on the funds sucked out of the gubmint system theorugh theft/corruption.

Anyone?

Bueller...???
 
D

DRob

Gold
Aug 15, 2007
8,234
594
113
A strong commitment to quality public education should be the first priority. You need an educated, informed and involved electorate to truly create an environment where corruption is not tolerated.

Otherwise, you get "person X, por la gente" politicians who prefer to have government serve them, instead of the other way around.
 
NALs

NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
13,474
3,183
113
cobraboy said:
I wonder if anyone can actually put a monetary figure on the funds sucked out of the gubmint system theorugh theft/corruption.

Anyone?

Bueller...???
Click to expand...
I remember a report that was made public by USAID in 2006 or 2007 about corruption in the DR that stated something like corruption costs RD$6 billion (US$177m) a year, or 2.1% of household incomes.

While the report was made to quantify corruption in the DR, I've always known that while corruption is a problem in the DR, its not as bad as the public perceives it to be. Even if all corruption was eliminated the DR would still fall short of having all the funds necessary to effectively fund and fix many of the problems. In fact, in many cases the improvement would be negligible.

But, as economists you and I know very well that public opinion is almost always off with their assumptions on just about everything, hence its not worth going into a debate about this but its interesting to see what people think about the subject.

-NALs
 
A

AK74

On Vacation!
Jun 18, 2007
842
36
0
NALs said:
I remember a report that was made public by USAID in 2006 or 2007 about corruption in the DR that stated something like corruption costs RD$6 billion (US$177m) a year, or 2.1% of household incomes.

While the report was made to quantify corruption in the DR, I've always known that while corruption is a problem in the DR, its not as bad as the public perceives it to be. Even if all corruption was eliminated the DR would still fall short of having all the funds necessary to effectively fund and fix many of the problems. In fact, in many cases the improvement would be negligible.

But, as economists you and I know very well that public opinion is almost always off with their assumptions on just about everything, hence its not worth going into a debate about this but its interesting to see what people think about the subject.

-NALs
Click to expand...


If a personal opinion is allowed to be expressed without immediate democratic
retaliation, I can name a country where officially there is no corruption, where officially inflation is only 2.5%, and all taxes are paid in full
and national leader publicly
states that "basically national economy is healthy" ,

still at the same time thousands of people are thrown to the streets from their homes
each week due to foreclosure, thousands of people lose jobs,
all staples prices grow more than 50% a year, thousands and thousands families do not have money even to buy food and have to increase with each month their credit card debt -

- No. Offically stated by leaders or in newspapers corruption or its absense is not the reason for people`s foes. Something very different for sure. What?
I DO NOT KNOW!!!!
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
NALs said:
I remember a report that was made public by USAID in 2006 or 2007 about corruption in the DR that stated something like corruption costs RD$6 billion (US$177m) a year, or 2.1% of household incomes.

While the report was made to quantify corruption in the DR, I've always known that while corruption is a problem in the DR, its not as bad as the public perceives it to be. Even if all corruption was eliminated the DR would still fall short of having all the funds necessary to effectively fund and fix many of the problems. In fact, in many cases the improvement would be negligible.

But, as economists you and I know very well that public opinion is almost always off with their assumptions on just about everything, hence its not worth going into a debate about this but its interesting to see what people think about the subject.

-NALs
Click to expand...
If this figure is correct, and assuming there are 9,000,000 Dominicans, That's US$20 for each person per year.

Corruption is a bad thing, but it's not going to solve the problems.
 
bob saunders

bob saunders

Platinum
Jan 1, 2002
32,549
5,961
113
dr1.com
It's the attitude that goes with the coruption- The I'm going to get my piece of the cake, because if I don't someone else will. The "I'm only doing what other's do attitude" Not enough of the "I'm trying to improve the nation attitude."
 
cobraboy

cobraboy

Pro-Bono Demolition Hobbyist
Jul 24, 2004
40,964
936
113
bob saunders said:
It's the attitude that goes with the coruption- The I'm going to get my piece of the cake, because if I don't someone else will. The "I'm only doing what other's do attitude" Not enough of the "I'm trying to improve the nation attitude."
Click to expand...
True. But when it comes to material impact, we're talking $20.

Materially, the thing that will help the DR is a GNP growing at a rate faster than the population.

Fact is the DR does not generate enough $$$ internally, and must rely on the largess of other nations to be where they are today.
 
B

Berzin

Banned
Nov 17, 2004
5,898
550
113
Because of corruption, everything else mentioned in the poll is affected adversely.

So to me that has to be the number one issue.
 
E

ExtremeR

Silver
Mar 22, 2006
3,078
328
0
While education should be number 1 priority always, for the country to see results would have to wait decades to see its result, the most glaring problem right now is the electricity one. This country is going nowhere until it resolve the electric problem which drown small business, cause huge loss to big companies therefore laying off people to cut rising costs.

First that one that could be done quick and easy, and then Education should become priority number 1 for the country to generate riquezas. While corruption is bad and irritating (as noticed in this poll) materially isn't doing that huge damage to the country as stated by cobraboy and NALs.
 
M

M.A.R.

Silver
Feb 18, 2006
3,210
149
63
Solving corruption will help all the other problems in the DR. Corruption cuts funding for many programs that benefit the whole country and it cuts funding especially in education.
 
C

catcherintherye

Silver
Mar 2, 2008
2,902
544
0
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The debate here is much like debating the chicken and egg question. Does a country need an educated populous to end corruption, or do you need to stop corruption to improve education?

The real answer is, all these issues are interrelated, and they need to be addressed comprehensively and with a macro perspective.

In other words, people are gettind bogged down trying to decide which is the most important problem to solve, and they miss the opportunity to seek creative solutions, which address the situation as a whole interconnected disfunctional system.
 
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