Here is what is good and bad about the Dollars become legal tender in Dominicana.
Good:
1. Dominicans will stop dreaming. Most of them think that if they only had dollars, things would be much better. That is true as long that the legal tender is Pesos, not Dollars.
2. American tourist will have one less thing to complain about when visiting the DR - the exchange rate.
3. I will allow for American companies to move into the DR much easier and help the local economy expand. Some people see it as an invasion of economy freedom but hey, much of the stuff in Dominican economy originates in the hands of Americans anyways, and making the dollar legal would just facilitate the cicle's rithims.
4. Interest rates might or will collapse from the mind boggling levels they are today to more "humane" levels. That would make lending much easier, especially for dominicans with entrepreneural spirit but no capital to start. Notice I said easier to lend, not necessarily that Dominicans will pay back what ever loan they borrow - I got family members that borrow borrow borrow and they never have money to pay people back. However, somehow they got money to go to Santo Domingo from NYC for months at a time, go figure!!!
BAD:
1. Interest rates will collapse. No more getting rich off your interest deal anymore.
2. Heavy unemployment once most Dominicans working in Free-Zones realize the cents they are being paid in. It's one thing to see your paycheck in worthless pesos with numbers in the hundreds, its another thing to be paid in centavos. The feeling of worthlessness prevails, people demand more pay, and the factories will cross over the mountains into economic disaster Haiti. (That's good news for Haitians though, they don't have to put up with cutting Sugar Cane in the DR)
3. Everything will go up in price. Everything will match american prices.
4. The sense of being in a foreign country will be gone. At least every time you pull your wallet and you see Benjamins, Washingtons, and Lincolns while in a colmado in Jarabacoa, a department store in Santo Domingo, or simply paying the "Limpia Botas" kids a few dollars. Man, even that sounds expensive, a few dollars to a swiggy kid, I like to say a few pesos. Oh yeah, and one more legacy of the hispanic heritage evident in this country. Pesos are (or can be said to be) direct descendants of the Spanish Pesetas - thus the most hispanizes latin countries have pesos as their currency.
I do wonder something. Will dominicans get used to saying Dollars or Dolares. I mean, dominicans that live in the US refer to the Dollars as pesos also. I wonder?
Anybody have anyother ideas of the pros and cons this dolarization could mean for this Paradise?