- Thread starter Chris
- Start date
DR-Cafta Strikes Again!
Open a business, I'll guarantee you someone will come to your business willing to work for you.
Where is this scarcity of labor you proclaim?
China or India does not have an easy availability of raw materials either.
This is the reason they are increasing the global price of all raw materials. They don't have adequate amounts in their lands, thus it must come from the global market.
Where are Hong Kong's raw materials? Or Singapore's raw materials? Where are Puerto Rico's raw materials? I'm still wondering from where does Switzerland gets is severely domestic lacking raw materials?
And yet, they always seem to have what they need to progress.
And yet, we have illiterate Haitians building villas and highways and shopping malls with a little on the job training.
Sounds alot like those illiterate Mexicans building Highways and working on the most productive farms in the world in the United States and illiterate Pakistanis building up the super rich Dubai.
These people were very unproductive, turned productive by a simple on the job training. A miracle!
Sturdy multi-story buildings with state of the art techonology, architecture, and strength built by people who barely made it to the sixth grade! But, hands on training makes up for the lack of "education" and their productivity increased dramatically.
Put a person who cannot add 2 + 2 in front of a cashier machine and teach him/her how to press buttons and in minutes, that person would go from being unable to do math to crunching numbers for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for years on end.
This is the reality of the modern world economy.
-NAL
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For Nals...
As you can clearly see from the data below...the peregrine falcon is by far the fastest animal on earth.....
Fastest Animal peregrine falcon, a bird (100-200 miles per hour)
Fastest Marine Animal blue whale (30 miles per hour)
Fastest Land Animal cheetah (70 miles per hour)
Fastest Fish sailfish (68 miles per hour)
Fastest Bird peregrine falcon (100?200 miles per hour)
Fastest Insect dragonfly (36 miles per hour)
I am not sure which indigenous Connecticut animals I should have included for you, NALS.
Scandall
As you can clearly see from the data below...the peregrine falcon is by far the fastest animal on earth.....
Fastest Animal peregrine falcon, a bird (100-200 miles per hour)
Fastest Marine Animal blue whale (30 miles per hour)
Fastest Land Animal cheetah (70 miles per hour)
Fastest Fish sailfish (68 miles per hour)
Fastest Bird peregrine falcon (100?200 miles per hour)
Fastest Insect dragonfly (36 miles per hour)
I am not sure which indigenous Connecticut animals I should have included for you, NALS.
Scandall
Certainly with 13 paid holidays, 14 days paid vacation, 1 months Christmas bonus, 3 months paid maternity leave, 10% profit sharing, up to six months paid sick leave. Of course, lets not forget the infamous "liquidation". Then there is paid "wedding leave", paid paternity leave, etc., etc.Nal0whs said:
With these benefits and rate of pay, the DR will never be able to compete.
Many Americans would be envious of these benefits.
You are going to compare an insect dragonfly with a peregrine falcon and then claim the falcon to be the fastest?Scandall said:
The size of the dragonfly makes traveling at 36 mph a bigger feat of willpower or strength than 100 mph by much bigger falcon!
In fact, cockroaches are some of the fastest animals on earth, considering their size.
Sometimes, we just have to learn to analyze things, prior to coming to conclusions based on pre-conceived judgements and/or assumptions.
-NAL
Nal0whs said:
You make an excellent point. But did you know.....
That the fastest Swimming Pinniped is the California Sea Lion at 25 MPH?
What's the State Bird of Connecticut?
Scandall
Nal0whs said:
Yes, let's not do that in this thread. Some of us can count. And we can count that all the growth rate statistics in the world is not going to make one iota worth of difference if we're comparing apples with pears.
India, China, Pakistan etc etc have economies much bigger than the DR. So, if they enter into a free trade agreement, they have some clout - the clout of a large economy. We do not have that. We're a ****widdly small speck of an economy. If we compare, let's compare with economies in small developing nations.
Back right here to the Dominican Republic, here is a link to a list of products that need what they call, an "Exportable supply diagnosis". http://www.ftaa-alca.org/SpComm/sme/derdocs/dsei127_e.asp
What this means is that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. There are at least these products that may feasibly be exported. That is if the DR can compete in the manufacturing of these. (Note the absence of rice or chicken)
The question that we started with Nals, is what is the Dominican Republic doing to create an opportunity under DR-Cafta and avoid a catastrophe like we see with the rice debacle in Haiti. The question is not how we rate against a whole list of other countries. So, what are we doing? Which meetings are we attending? Which alliances are we forming?
So, can you get to the question pretty please? Perhaps facts and not statistics. We all understand the statistics here.
Geez, I can't even say p!sswiddly... without the word turning into stars.
HOWMAR said:
5 paid days for a frickin' wedding? That is ridiculous.
Does it have to be a legit wedding? Or as they say here, "con papel"? Or can they go to the bruha and jump over the broomstick and call it a wedding?
Scandall
Well,Chris said:
We are going to be able to go down a two-way street rather than the one way lane Haiti was forced into.
The rice debacle in Haiti was due to duty free imports into Haitian markets and Haitian companies not being able to export to US duty free. Unfair, but that is what occured.
In addition, Haiti did not adopted quickly to the things they did had an advantage, which was labor intensive agriculture while getting trade barriers to major markets to be dropped and let Haitian goods flow easily to them.
With us, we got thatand the inefficient enterprises here, which only causes costs and prices to increase when investment in those firms could have been used in more productive sectors, would go out of business.
A perfect example is the supermarket industry.
Before companies like Carrefour or Pricemart came into the picture, Dominican supermarkets were highly inefficient. Once those foreign companies came into the Dominican market, with their much more superior and efficient way of doing business, Dominican supermarkets did one of two things:
1. They adopted the new techonology and business model
2. They continued the inferior previous models.
Those companies that did #1, survived by becoming much more competitive.
Those that did #2 perished.
Today, the influx of Carrefour and Pricemart has actually increased the productivity of the Dominican supermarket industry to the point that our supermarkets are comparable to supermarkets in the developed world, ranging from abundant choice of food to pricing schemes to producing economies of scale, etc.
This same story repeats itself in other sectors.
Those who are willing to change will survive and improve productivity of the country. Those who don't will perish and the market will be dominated by foreign enterprises.
However, the improvement in productivity or the demise of local industry lies in the willingness of local industry to adjust to the new changes. Stuborn people never make it to the end.
-NAL
Need to produce a marriage certificate. Need a birth certificate for paternity, death certificate for death of immediate family, etc. Paternity leave can also be interesting. As long as named as father on the birth certificate. Some have had multiple paternity leaves within a year.Scandall said:
there is much to disagree with...
but let's start with this, NALS:
1. Literacy rate of 84.7% in the DR: share some of those drugs that you are taking...please!!!
2. $6,500 per capita GDP: let's look at this seriously and in some detail.
A. Let's say that its true. What it means, then, is that the average family of 4 in the DR produces US$26,000 per year. We all know from personal experience that cannot be correct.
B. You have a degree in economics. So you know that the US$6,500 number is not the *actual* GDP per capita. It is the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) GDP per capita. The PPP GDP per capita is a gross and inacurate interpretaion of GDP. Several assumptions are made, that, especially in the DR, make it unuasable:
*****Bad Assumption #1: there are no transportaion costs between USA the DR.
*****Bad Assumption #2: there are no import/export tarifs and taxes between the two countries.
Furthermore, PPP GDP is most often used to discover the *real* exchange rate of currencies that are being manipulated.
Therefore, if you believe that per capita GDP is closer to the PPP number, that gives you an implied exchange rate of 13!!!! Who believes that the true exchange rate is 13? Not me.
Edited to correct: 4 x 6500 = 26,000.
but let's start with this, NALS:
1. Literacy rate of 84.7% in the DR: share some of those drugs that you are taking...please!!!
2. $6,500 per capita GDP: let's look at this seriously and in some detail.
A. Let's say that its true. What it means, then, is that the average family of 4 in the DR produces US$26,000 per year. We all know from personal experience that cannot be correct.
B. You have a degree in economics. So you know that the US$6,500 number is not the *actual* GDP per capita. It is the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) GDP per capita. The PPP GDP per capita is a gross and inacurate interpretaion of GDP. Several assumptions are made, that, especially in the DR, make it unuasable:
*****Bad Assumption #1: there are no transportaion costs between USA the DR.
*****Bad Assumption #2: there are no import/export tarifs and taxes between the two countries.
Furthermore, PPP GDP is most often used to discover the *real* exchange rate of currencies that are being manipulated.
Therefore, if you believe that per capita GDP is closer to the PPP number, that gives you an implied exchange rate of 13!!!! Who believes that the true exchange rate is 13? Not me.
Nal0whs said:
Edited to correct: 4 x 6500 = 26,000.
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Protect Yourself/ CYA...
I live in TX, will be there in 2 months and , I hope, living within 4-6 months. If there is one single, among many, reasons I will leave this country, is is that it does not allow the people, to care for themselves. If you lose your farmers, you are in trouble,( or your craftsman, artisans, brujas, whatever) Everyone has a place and some cannot adapt to the loss of that place. Anyway, at least have clear labeling laws to identify Dominican products, and please take care of the home land first. People NEED farmers. By the way, I have had Chinese partners, in the past, farmers have the respect given to a professional of any cloth. Israel, the same and many other countries give much value to the farm. Protect the providers................cant say this enough..............Best to all today
I live in TX, will be there in 2 months and , I hope, living within 4-6 months. If there is one single, among many, reasons I will leave this country, is is that it does not allow the people, to care for themselves. If you lose your farmers, you are in trouble,( or your craftsman, artisans, brujas, whatever) Everyone has a place and some cannot adapt to the loss of that place. Anyway, at least have clear labeling laws to identify Dominican products, and please take care of the home land first. People NEED farmers. By the way, I have had Chinese partners, in the past, farmers have the respect given to a professional of any cloth. Israel, the same and many other countries give much value to the farm. Protect the providers................cant say this enough..............Best to all today