I have some questions about Free Trade Zones for all of you.
If you were to put it in very, very simple terms, are they basically factories located in the DR where the US can send materials free of import tax, where Dominicans are employed cheaply to turn the materials into sellable products (like clothes, furniture, etc.), and from where the finished products can then be sent back to the US once again free of import tax (except for on the labor)? Are there any good books or articles that anyone could recommend for learning more about FTZs and their impact on the Dominican economy and society?
My other question is about what the FTZs are doing for Dominicans. Most of the people I speak to who work as blue-collar employees at FTZs in the DR tell me that FTZ work is pseudo-slavery. They have to work ridiculously hard for hardly any money, and they certainly don?t get any respect from their employers. And the lack of alternatives, some have told me, is contributing to the drug problem in the DR (and also prostitution, crime, etc.). Why work under pseudo-slavery conditions and earn little when you can be your own boss (kind of) and earn lots of money and very quickly? Sure, many poor people will never make the decision to ?work? in the illegal sector, but for many, it certainly is an attractive alternative.
So, my question is, are there any feasible ways that any of you can think of to create job alternatives to the FTZs? Any ways in which the DR can create much-needed jobs (and ideally a variety of jobs with competing salaries) so that FTZs become one job option rather than the only one? Obviously without FTZs, many blue-collar workers would go from having bad jobs to no jobs ? so, simply getting rid of FTZs is not a good choice. Plus they provide also much-needed white-collar jobs to those who were fortunate enough to have been able to go to college. So, pretending for one moment that politicians would be willing to invest money into creating jobs rather than putting it in their own pockets, what do you think would be some good, realistic ways to go about creating alternative job opportunities? Thanks in advance for all of your thoughts?this is new ground for me, and I?m very interested in learning as much as possible about it.
~Leja
If you were to put it in very, very simple terms, are they basically factories located in the DR where the US can send materials free of import tax, where Dominicans are employed cheaply to turn the materials into sellable products (like clothes, furniture, etc.), and from where the finished products can then be sent back to the US once again free of import tax (except for on the labor)? Are there any good books or articles that anyone could recommend for learning more about FTZs and their impact on the Dominican economy and society?
My other question is about what the FTZs are doing for Dominicans. Most of the people I speak to who work as blue-collar employees at FTZs in the DR tell me that FTZ work is pseudo-slavery. They have to work ridiculously hard for hardly any money, and they certainly don?t get any respect from their employers. And the lack of alternatives, some have told me, is contributing to the drug problem in the DR (and also prostitution, crime, etc.). Why work under pseudo-slavery conditions and earn little when you can be your own boss (kind of) and earn lots of money and very quickly? Sure, many poor people will never make the decision to ?work? in the illegal sector, but for many, it certainly is an attractive alternative.
So, my question is, are there any feasible ways that any of you can think of to create job alternatives to the FTZs? Any ways in which the DR can create much-needed jobs (and ideally a variety of jobs with competing salaries) so that FTZs become one job option rather than the only one? Obviously without FTZs, many blue-collar workers would go from having bad jobs to no jobs ? so, simply getting rid of FTZs is not a good choice. Plus they provide also much-needed white-collar jobs to those who were fortunate enough to have been able to go to college. So, pretending for one moment that politicians would be willing to invest money into creating jobs rather than putting it in their own pockets, what do you think would be some good, realistic ways to go about creating alternative job opportunities? Thanks in advance for all of your thoughts?this is new ground for me, and I?m very interested in learning as much as possible about it.
~Leja