Escott said:
I said that it was posted by either you or people just like you who blame everything on others from outside of the Country. I pretty much spelled that out but I can cut and paste if you want me to. Still believe it true.Scott
Scott,
The logic in the above sentence is atrocious. How would you like it if I said: "You or people just like you believe that the earth is flat. No, I don't feel like finding anything you ever wrote to support that, but I stand by it."
As for my other friends, let me try to make myself clear. I fully agree that this country, like most other Latin American countries, lacks a sense of personal responsibility - for country, family and personal issues. I suspect that only the "ilk" to which Scott refers could say differently.
But do you really believe that there is something biologically different about us? Is there something in the water (other than giardia)? If not, then surely we will improve, right? If I touch a hot iron 100 times, eventually I'll learn not to do it anymore, right?
You guys write volumes on how irresponsible Dominicans are. Big deal! Everyone knows it already. Do you understand why ? from a historical perspective ? it is that way? Do you think that, historically, hard work and upstanding behavior got anybody on this island anything? Got any ideas on how to fix it? Better yet, got any ideas on how to move us forward a few feet?
Ah, but you say you do have an idea on how to fix it, right? Dominicans need to take personal responsibility. Gosh, golly gee whiz if they would only do that everything would be okay. That?s not exactly fabulously insightful.
You ignore the "chicken and egg" problem. To advance socially, we need a responsible government that will provide for education and economic stability. And to get responsible government, we need to advance socially, or we will continue to act in a purely corrupt and clientist manner in choosing (or acquiescing to) our governments.
The problem is that the IMF and its "ilk" is that they act to prop up governments that would otherwise steal so much and act so irresponsibly that they couldn?t possibly get reelected under a democratic system. Hippo and crew are using IMF money to buy votes.
Ah, but you say then it?s the Dominicans? faults for accepting the $500 pesos for their votes. My friends, might I suggest that if your kids were hungry and you didn?t have dos cheles to buy booze you might accept the $500 pesos. After all, you?d need it to buy food and, of course, a bipe of Carta Blanca (not necessarily in that order).
Another point you miss is about the fungibility of money. If the Hippo were limited to tax money and domestic loans, he would still have to buy oil to avoid riots and revolutions. So he would have no choice but to limit the government payroll and would have less money to use to buy reelection (and of course to abscond with). With this lesser economic power, his only hope of reelection would be to advance the greater good of the country or to use political acumen (a la Balaguer).
But because Hippo got all of this foreign money that would have never come in were it not for the ?wink and nod? understanding that the IMF would at the right time force the government to pay its international bank debts (by socking it to the middle class), and then got additional IMF money to boot, he can further expand the government payroll and otherwise buy votes ? assuring the repetition of the same old corrupt system. And the IMF will keep on doing this for years.
In this way, the IMF interferes in the natural selection of governments in countries where the people are uneducated and ignorant. The IMF inhibits natural social progress.
Gentleman, it is at this point a truism that nobody can cite an example of any country in Latin America where IMF involvement has led to economic or political growth.:lick: :lick: :lick:
