Chris, comparing institutional racism under apartheid and the current situation in the DR is absurd.
You don't get it. I'm comparing my two experiences of the voting population of countries formerly under a dictatorship. 96% of the population of South Africa functioned under a dictatorship; one based on color. But you actually only know what you read in the newspapers, so, your knowledge is scant and skewed.
For some reason you seem to feel that economic solvency and social issues are in independent universes, that one who advocates economic growth must not also advocate social issues.
CB, you consistently misunderstand me. All I say, is that your view, although you state your case forcefully, is not the only view.
NOTHING comes for free. Nothing.
Yes. What is your point.
And, once again, there are not enough economic resources to do these things without considerable damage to the economy as a whole. If you damage the productive segments of the economy, i.e. tourism, Free Zones, etc., then the financial deficit in the future gets even worse.
Who wants to damage what? This is the consistent message from economists now for a number of years. That is even what I learnt in grad school. Its just that some of us look at the status quo and say .. Wtf, this stuff that we've been doing all these years don't work. Subsequently I found that there is a wealth of other views and a slew of other practices, yours being only one of them. And currently, with the world issues happening now, I find a whole lot of theories being hastily redrawn and rewritten.
Once again, the root problem of the DR...and MANY poorer nations...is that they have more population that the internal resources can support.
No, it could well be a matter of utilizing the resources. I believe in the DR it is a large part of the problem. It could also be a matter of skewed distribution. It could also be a matter of our 'market' being inherently flawed, in other words, we don't know our asses from our elbows. It is simple - there are more views than yours. Forgive me for quoting from the Wiki, but they had a handy list... "behavioral economics, complexity economics, evolutionary economics, experimental economics, neuroeconomics ... ", even systems of barter and non-cash economies of which I saw one working during the last two years.
Our difference of opinion boils down to your view of an economy. Mine happens to be borne from two advanced degrees, one in business, and one in economics, both from a prominent US university. I don't know where yours, or Ginnie & BB's, comes from.
Really, Lambada and BB are almost certain to talk for themselves. There is a commonality though. We've never discussed this and I'll say something more about the commonality in a bit.
... only two choices: set the economy back decades in an effort to accomplish the many social needs of today, or grow the economy to the point that it can pay for the social services into perpetuity. The former is a recipe for long-term disaster. The latter is a precarious balancing act.
If you talk about the economy, sounds like you're talking about some deity. I don't think there are only two choices. I think we've been 'brainwashed' to think of only two choices ... brainwashed by the likes of the IMF and WB. I'll say more about this in a bit.
One need to look no further than your native country to see the horrors of poor centralized socialist/Communist-style economic planning. Look at the former Rhodesia, once the garden of Africa. And close by, look at the fiasco of Cuba post Soviet Union collapse, and look at Hugo Chavez's recent begging for business investment to come back. ALL were well intended. ALL failures (and heck, Chavez has a supertanker full of oil cash)...
Zimbabwe is suffering from the same malaise that Haiti suffered from .. its called dictatorship. Many African countries have been through this process and are now doing well. Many are doing poorly. My native country is so far from a communist country that your comment is laughable. It used to be one, but now it is actually a functioning democracy, albeit close to a social democracy, depending how you analize. It is only that we all know which party will win any election. But I believe that is common these days in the US as well. Anyway, about Africa, most folks educated in the US find those concepts so foreign that they cannot deal with them. There is a very large blind spot.
It's not a matter of saying "grow the GNP" really fast a hundred times for someone to believe it. It's a matter of reality. One can choose to accept facts as they are, or not.
That is not a fact. It is only a point of view that certain economists advocate. There are more pieces to the puzzle. The economists are not moving them all. You are however a function of your education ...
... and if Ginny and BB have anything to say, they will most probably tell you that as well. The difference is exactly what some of us are doing with our time. Some of us spend our time learning, and some of us spend our time defending what we learnt in school. I think neither Ginny nor BB could care a fig for what they learnt in school, excepting in as much as the learning experience gave them structure to continue learning. Labels don't work for such people; like the label 'progressive'. It does not fit. To use a hackneyed phrase, the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts.
IMO, if you want a really effective common-sense political/economic solution, one that could be both effective and progressive for your and Ginnie's social consciousness, would be a drive to insure that increases in social spending be tied to IMF analysis of increases in GNP. Currently I understand that figure is in the 6-6.5% range. Of course, I understand there is currently a mandated level of required spending for education that is being ignored; I would financially support any candidate who guarantees that law be adhered to, and do so strongly.
The IMF and the WB have screwed up so spectacularly over the past 40 (arguably) or so years that I won't trust them with my change purse. And most other organizations from developing countries are coming to the same conclusion. These two august bodies are even beginning to cry 'mea culpa' about their own mistakes. We've been laboring under a misconception for years. That is that bodies such as the UN, the WB and the IMF know what is good for us. They don't. (Oh dear, I can just imagine the knee jerking about the UN ... , but then as I said previously: "CB, you consistently misunderstand me."
But there ARE actions with positive demonstrable results that private citizens CAN do, outside the pervue of gubmint, that can achieve great, sustainable results.
Yes I know. I do them daily.
I wrote a first-hand account of one such organization, Fundacion Balarminio Ramirez from Jarabacoa, and the excellent, off-the-radar, carrot/stick/play it forward strategy they have been employing in the small farming community of Los Dajaous. A true success story in organizational charity, community education, and sustainable organic agriculture. But you deleted the entire post. Didn't move it to an area not "Environmental", but deleted it.
I don't think I deleted any of your posts in a very long time... months if not a year or so. So, I really do not know what you are talking about. But you know, you are not welcome in the environment forum. Your whole philosophy in life is against environmentalism, so, you just cause chaos in that forum but you try and appear knowledgeable and on-topic. If you know this, why did you post something there that you say I deleted? You've got both the wrong forum and the wrong 'deleter'. You're not welcome there, because you shat on what we do there too many times in a desperate effort to kill the forum. You know that ... just go and read what your own political home publishes and stop the handwringing.
We've been invited to participate in this organizations work with the local school. I'm hesitant to make a lengthy first-hand report on that, for fear you'll delete it, too.
Nice! I hope your work is well accepted and productive.
You know, I've said this to you many times. If you create enough havoc, write enough threats and push your own ideology down enough throats, the mods are going to get mad because of the sheer time wasting component and start deleting you out of hand. So now eventually you have something that you're dying to post about it and no-one is impressed. What was that fairy tale, the one about crying wolf.
Again, to get back to the original question .. I do not think anyone has the ability, foresight and sheer visionary power to really know what to do in these days where the world is facing a perfect storm. (Yes, I know everyone is scoffing at Nal's poll, but we all know there are a few problems.) I think these days we have to look at people who proclaim that they have the power to do something, with caution and if we empower a politician to do something for us, we need to keep that person personally accountable.
