amigomexicano said:
It's nice to know the DR is such a wonderful place. Can't wait to visit this country. Thanks. By the way, since the DR is so advanced, do they have wireless hotspots in Santiago?? If you know of any public or for-pay hotspot where I can connect with my laptop without wires, please let me know.
Amigo,
Telecommunications is the industry par excellence in the DR. Of course, service ranges from excellent to so-so, but the telecommunications industry of the DR is the most advanced in the entire Latin American region, on par with developed nations. If only the rest of the economy looked that good....
While Brazil has a tremendous economy (albeit, Mexico's is larger economically speaking) Brazil also has an income inequality that is much worst than the DR, in fact Brazil tops many listing of international income inequality comparisons between countries.
While Brazil has "world class" cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio, the truth of the matter is that such a large country is able to produce the infrastructure those cities have due to the fact that building a road only costs so much. A country with an economy near 1 trillion dollars will have a much easier time building that same road than does a country with less than a fifth of such economy.
For another example, take the infrastructure of the DR at the moment. The infrastructure is uneven, mostly due to uneven distribution of population across the geography of the nation and lack of funds to fully maintain the entire infrastructure in top notch shape. In any case, if a country like Jamaica or Belize, for example, were to invest the same amount of money the DR invest in its infrastructure, the infrastructure of those countries would have been far superior to the DR's simply because those countries have less land and less people, which would result in a higher investment in infrastructure on a per capita basis.
Tourism is well developed, albeit its overwhelmingly all-inclusive based tourism.
Commerce is extensively developed, with almost all Dominicans depending on the market for some, if not all of their needs (unlike in the Amazon where bartering is probably widespread and the only way of gaining things).
Manufacturing base of the country is relatively large, mostly due to maquiladoras. Also, trade is well developed with Puerto Rico and the US and reasonably developed with the European market.
The biggest problem in the DR is income inequality and this is mostly defined by whether a person owns the means of production or does not owns the means of production of wealth. The government does very little in redistributing income and since return on investment goes hand in hand with amount invested, it only makes sense that wealthier people will have a higher return on their investment on a per dollar or peso basis than would someone who does not invest at all.
Btw, this issue of income inequality is not limited to developing nations. In the United States the gap between the rich and the poor is the widest among industrialized nations and its widening at a rate that should be of concern to most Americans. In Connecticut, for example, there is a small middle class mostly concentrated in a handful of towns. The rest of the population is divided between poor (concentrated in three cities) and rich in the suburbs and exurbs, most often Connecticut residents are rich, but the gap is there and its widening rapidly. For example, using the latest data of property values, the average property value in Bridgeport (the poorest city in Conn.) in around $240,000, where as in Greenwich the average property is worth for $2.4 million. This is average, the median is slightly lower but it's still extremely higher than it is in the poorest places of the state. Despite all of this, Connecticut is the wealthiest state in the nation, with Fairfield County coming in as one of the top 3 wealthiest counties in the country and New Canaan coming in as the wealthiest town in the state, county, and one of the top 5 wealthiest in the nation.
The situation (statistically speaking, albeit it is clearly visible when driving through the state, compared to the situation in other states) is very close to the situation in Manhattan in New York City. Again, hardly a middle class to speak of within the island, people there are either rich or poor with the wealth being greatest concentrated in the Upper East Side and the poverty being the worst in Harlem, within view of the many penthouses and luxury apartments in other areas of Manhattan. Government subsidies in housing helps alleviate the strength of the poverty, otherwise most poor Manhattanites would not be able to afford living on the island or they would resort to building shacks and such, something that is strictly prohibited by local zoning laws.
This gap is becoming wider and if you speak with many American economists, you will see they are preoccupied coming to terms with the notion (which all statistical data seems to show) that income mobility is becoming harder and socioeconomic stratifications are becoming more of a reality.
Refering to Connecticut again, from Greenwich to New Canaan, Darien, Wilton, Ridgefield and many more towns, there is absolutely no sign of poverty of any kind. It's all upper middle class and upper class towns.
The difference between this region of Conn (known as the Gold Coast or the Hedge Fund capital of the world) and say, the Bronx in New York City is as big of a shock as anywhere.
You also notice that the wealthier the town or neighborhood the whiter the population becomes, the poorer the darker. Same story in the DR, Mexico, Brazil, you name it...
My, have I gone way beyond the tangent of the subject being discussed, but it's all relevant in one way or another.
-NALs
