Let's say goodbye to the Dominican middle class

AlterEgo

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Op-Ed, something to think about (computer translated)

Let's say goodbye to the Dominican middle class​

image
The author is an economist. He lives in Santo Domingo.


By Marcelino Lara

Apparently, it is part of the Western globalist agenda to make the middle class disappear, as we have known it until now, so that in the new society that these de facto world powers intend to build, there will only be two social groups: the poor and the rich.

That would be a sociological way of justifying poverty and in philosophical terms recognizing that being poor is something normal in the new modern post-Covid society of the 21st century.

To further justify the new army of poor people and make them feel good and important at the same time, the globalist agenda proposes the elimination of borders between countries so that this army of cheap labor can move from one country to another without any restrictions.

First, the proposal is to eliminate physical borders and then move on to the elimination of nation states. The idea is to eliminate all types of physical, social, economic and political intermediation to create a world that is supposedly egalitarian, in terms of access to work but not to the means of production.

To achieve this, globalism suggests eliminating all types of borders between countries. The technological support to implement this new economic, political and social globalism will be blockchain technology.

To implement this strategy, the middle class must be eliminated and separated once and for all from the upper class and brought closer to the poor class.

The proposed Fiscal Modernity Law meets all the requirements necessary to begin to abolish or at least substantially reduce the Dominican middle class.
From this moment on, this social group called the middle class would be subjected to a gradual process of extinction, forcing it to drastically change its lifestyle.

Residential

The residential areas that are currently occupied by middle-class people would be occupied by upper-class people since no middle-class person will be able to pay the IPI or the maintenance of their apartment, but neither will they qualify to take out a loan of such a high amount and at interest rates that are impossible to afford.

Likewise, vehicles that are currently used by the middle class would also be used by the upper class because no middle class will be able to maintain them or pay for their high cost and fuel consumption, or the price of the license plates. The middle class will be induced to buy small electric vehicles.

No middle class person will be able to continue visiting their doctor in a private clinic because it is very possible that the price of a simple consultation will rise to double the current cost, because doctors will increase their fees by having to declare income tax annually and charge the ITBIS for services rendered.

And we all know that Dominican public hospitals are not in physical or medical condition to receive new patients impoverished by inflation and taxes. The middle class will become poorer.

The same will happen with education, only the rich will have access to private education and public education is a disaster.

As far as we know, middle class people are the ones who make the most purchases online, but now they will have to pay taxes on all the Internet-based services we use today (Netflix, Uber, Spotify, ARNB, etc.), thus increasing not only the economic gap but also the digital gap, not to mention the final price of these services. Wealthy people do not need to buy online because they travel several times a year whenever they want and take advantage of the opportunity to buy what they need.

So this tax has been coldly conceived to reach into the pockets of the Dominican middle class.

The Dominican middle class, which has had to go into debt of over 90 billion pesos in recent years using its credit card to maintain its quality of life, will not be able to withstand this tax reform. So it will necessarily have to migrate into poverty, but that's okay because we are complying with the Western globalist agenda and building the new post-Covid society of the 21st century.

The draft Law on fiscal modernity does not mention or only deals very tangentially with tax evasion, excessive current public spending, transfers, exemptions, insufficient capital expenditure and the weakness of the Tax Administration. All this, because apparently its main objective is to pay the exuberant external debt and continue spending the national budget freely, according to the economic and political interests of the moment.

Coup de grace

The widespread payment of ITBIS, now called VAT, would be the final blow to the Dominican middle class, who would have to pay it even for buying a banana or an avocado, while a yacht, a villa, a helicopter or an airplane would not pay even half a cent.

In a previous article I said that the proposed tax reform did not guarantee the elimination of the current public deficit, much less would it serve to substantially increase capital expenditure. Nor will it serve to increase tax pressure to the required levels, because the essence of this whole matter lies in the evident agony of the Dominican economic production model historically supported by illegal and cheap labor.

This proposed Law of Fiscal Modernity is nothing more than oxygen for the decadent and dying Dominican economic model of production always supported by cheap illegal labor, which now, pressured by international organizations, feels obliged to eliminate this illegality, or be left without available labor to continue the reproduction of said model.

And here a social, political and economic problem appears. Faced with such a dilemma, the easiest decision would seem to be to gradually lead the Dominican middle class into poverty in order to expand and guarantee the army of poor people necessary to maintain the reproduction of this model supported by cheap labor, but which will no longer be illegal, since it involves poor Dominicans, because this economic policy will surely increase the number of poor people throughout the country.

What remains to be seen is whether the middle class will meekly accept a reduction in its quality of life in order to supposedly contribute to the construction of a more egalitarian and environmentally friendly world, as mandated by the Western globalist agenda. This is what they call the post-Covid society of the 21st century. Simply a society of rich and poor (workers).

The worst thing about all this is that the new taxes suggested, as well as the rate increases, are very easy to evade, because they are indirect taxes, which makes it even more damaging to the pockets of the Dominican middle class that will have to pay for it.

Neither will any of the taxes suggested in the bill help stop inflation or the devaluation of the Dominican peso.

If this reform is approved as granted by the executive branch, we must simply say goodbye to the Dominican middle class.

jpm-am

ALMOMENTO.NET publishes opinion articles without making any corrections. It reserves the right to reject those that are poorly written, with syntax errors or spelling mistakes.

 
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bob saunders

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Op-Ed, something to think about (computer translated)

Let's say goodbye to the Dominican middle class​

image
The author is an economist. He lives in Santo Domingo.


By Marcelino Lara

Apparently, it is part of the Western globalist agenda to make the middle class disappear, as we have known it until now, so that in the new society that these de facto world powers intend to build, there will only be two social groups: the poor and the rich.

That would be a sociological way of justifying poverty and in philosophical terms recognizing that being poor is something normal in the new modern post-Covid society of the 21st century.

To further justify the new army of poor people and make them feel good and important at the same time, the globalist agenda proposes the elimination of borders between countries so that this army of cheap labor can move from one country to another without any restrictions.

First, the proposal is to eliminate physical borders and then move on to the elimination of nation states. The idea is to eliminate all types of physical, social, economic and political intermediation to create a world that is supposedly egalitarian, in terms of access to work but not to the means of production.

To achieve this, globalism suggests eliminating all types of borders between countries. The technological support to implement this new economic, political and social globalism will be blockchain technology.

To implement this strategy, the middle class must be eliminated and separated once and for all from the upper class and brought closer to the poor class.

The proposed Fiscal Modernity Law meets all the requirements necessary to begin to abolish or at least substantially reduce the Dominican middle class.
From this moment on, this social group called the middle class would be subjected to a gradual process of extinction, forcing it to drastically change its lifestyle.

Residential

The residential areas that are currently occupied by middle-class people would be occupied by upper-class people since no middle-class person will be able to pay the IPI or the maintenance of their apartment, but neither will they qualify to take out a loan of such a high amount and at interest rates that are impossible to afford.

Likewise, vehicles that are currently used by the middle class would also be used by the upper class because no middle class will be able to maintain them or pay for their high cost and fuel consumption, or the price of the license plates. The middle class will be induced to buy small electric vehicles.

No middle class person will be able to continue visiting their doctor in a private clinic because it is very possible that the price of a simple consultation will rise to double the current cost, because doctors will increase their fees by having to declare income tax annually and charge the ITBIS for services rendered.

And we all know that Dominican public hospitals are not in physical or medical condition to receive new patients impoverished by inflation and taxes. The middle class will become poorer.

The same will happen with education, only the rich will have access to private education and public education is a disaster.

As far as we know, middle class people are the ones who make the most purchases online, but now they will have to pay taxes on all the Internet-based services we use today (Netflix, Uber, Spotify, ARNB, etc.), thus increasing not only the economic gap but also the digital gap, not to mention the final price of these services. Wealthy people do not need to buy online because they travel several times a year whenever they want and take advantage of the opportunity to buy what they need.

So this tax has been coldly conceived to reach into the pockets of the Dominican middle class.

The Dominican middle class, which has had to go into debt of over 90 billion pesos in recent years using its credit card to maintain its quality of life, will not be able to withstand this tax reform. So it will necessarily have to migrate into poverty, but that's okay because we are complying with the Western globalist agenda and building the new post-Covid society of the 21st century.

The draft Law on fiscal modernity does not mention or only deals very tangentially with tax evasion, excessive current public spending, transfers, exemptions, insufficient capital expenditure and the weakness of the Tax Administration. All this, because apparently its main objective is to pay the exuberant external debt and continue spending the national budget freely, according to the economic and political interests of the moment.

Coup de grace

The widespread payment of ITBIS, now called VAT, would be the final blow to the Dominican middle class, who would have to pay it even for buying a banana or an avocado, while a yacht, a villa, a helicopter or an airplane would not pay even half a cent.

In a previous article I said that the proposed tax reform did not guarantee the elimination of the current public deficit, much less would it serve to substantially increase capital expenditure. Nor will it serve to increase tax pressure to the required levels, because the essence of this whole matter lies in the evident agony of the Dominican economic production model historically supported by illegal and cheap labor.

This proposed Law of Fiscal Modernity is nothing more than oxygen for the decadent and dying Dominican economic model of production always supported by cheap illegal labor, which now, pressured by international organizations, feels obliged to eliminate this illegality, or be left without available labor to continue the reproduction of said model.

And here a social, political and economic problem appears. Faced with such a dilemma, the easiest decision would seem to be to gradually lead the Dominican middle class into poverty in order to expand and guarantee the army of poor people necessary to maintain the reproduction of this model supported by cheap labor, but which will no longer be illegal, since it involves poor Dominicans, because this economic policy will surely increase the number of poor people throughout the country.

What remains to be seen is whether the middle class will meekly accept a reduction in its quality of life in order to supposedly contribute to the construction of a more egalitarian and environmentally friendly world, as mandated by the Western globalist agenda. This is what they call the post-Covid society of the 21st century. Simply a society of rich and poor (workers).

The worst thing about all this is that the new taxes suggested, as well as the rate increases, are very easy to evade, because they are indirect taxes, which makes it even more damaging to the pockets of the Dominican middle class that will have to pay for it.

Neither will any of the taxes suggested in the bill help stop inflation or the devaluation of the Dominican peso.

If this reform is approved as granted by the executive branch, we must simply say goodbye to the Dominican middle class.

jpm-am

ALMOMENTO.NET publishes opinion articles without making any corrections. It reserves the right to reject those that are poorly written, with syntax errors or spelling mistakes.

no tax on food, unless it's junk food or candy
 
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JD Jones

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This guy takes sarcasm to a whole different level.
 
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CristoRey

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This guy takes sarcasm to a whole different level.
And we all know that Dominican public hospitals are not in physical or medical condition to receive new patients impoverished by inflation and taxes. The middle class will become poorer.

Should they implement this plan, all sarcasm aside, the Dominican middle class will indeed become pooer.
 
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NALs

Economist by Profession
Jan 20, 2003
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Exaggeration a bit?

While some taxes (such as ITBIS) are ridiculously high, when all taxes are added you actually end up paying less than in many other countries (the USA is a perfect example) and that’s even if you earn enough to pay Dominican income tax. Whenever tables or graphs are made placing all Latin American countries by how much tax pressure they have (higher taxes on top), the DR is almost below the middle, often way down.

To pay less taxes than in the USA (and even in the USA it varies from state to state, for example you end up paying less taxes overall in Connecticut than in New York not just because many tax rates are lower but the state doesn’t have other taxes such as county taxes due to, in this case, county governments were abolished many decades ago and the sky hasn’t falken on everybody, lol), ok…

Paying less taxes than in most Latin American countries? Um…

The DR may not be at the level many might want, but major highways and roads for the most part are in good shape (even the road from near Cabarete to Moca passing through Jamao al Norte is in tip top shape, a road that has been in bad shape for as long I can remember!) and with good signs, hospitals give a decent service, public schools even give free breakfast/lunch to students, etc. Say what you want, but none of that is done for free and the government is the one behind most or all of that. The money needs to come from somewhere and fslling from the sky isn’t an option.

Even if it was done with loans, they do need to pay the monthly payments! I see all these things and then hear people say they don’t receive anything from the government. Well, try getting to work on really bad roads that haven’t been improved since ever. I think some people are unrealistic.

It’s also true no one likes to pay more taxes regardless the government or country.
 
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bob saunders

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Exaggeration a bit?

While some taxes (such as ITBIS) are ridiculously high, when all taxes are added you actually end up paying less than in many other countries (the USA is a perfect example) and that’s even if you earn enough to pay Dominican income tax. Whenever tables or graphs are made placing all Latin American countries by how much tax pressure they have (higher taxes on top), the DR is almost below the middle, often way down.

To pay less taxes than in the USA (and even in the USA it varies from state to state, for example you end up paying less taxes overall in Connecticut than in New York not just because many tax rates are lower but the state doesn’t have other taxes such as county taxes due to, in this case, county governments were abolished many decades ago and the sky hasn’t falken on everybody, lol), ok…

Paying less taxes than in most Latin American countries? Um…

The DR may not be at the level many might want, but major highways and roads for the most part are in good shape (even the road from near Cabarete to Moca passing through Jamao al Norte is in tip top shape, a road that has been in bad shape for as long I can remember!) and with good signs, hospitals give a decent service, public schools even give free breakfast/lunch to students, etc. Say what you want, but none of that is done for free and the government is the one behind most or all of that. The money needs to come from somewhere and fslling from the sky isn’t an option.

Even if it was done with loans, they do need to pay the monthly payments! I see all these things and then hear people say they don’t receive anything from the government. Well, try getting to work on really bad roads that haven’t been improved since ever. I think some people are unrealistic.

It’s also true no one likes to pay more taxes regardless the government or country.
It is when you see a lot of waste and a lack of transparency and accountability that people get POed about the government taxing you more. Carbon Tax in Canada is a great example of this. Does little for lowering Greenhouse gases and drives the price of everything up, except wages of course. The DR government wastes a lot of money, and a lot of funds are always unaccounted for.
 

Big

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chico bill

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I think if I were encouraging a son in today's world I would encourage him to become a car mechanic, working to one day having his own garage.
They make good living, having a job with hands on gratification and there will always be ICE vehicles.
A girl I would say the medical field specializing in ultrasound or anesthesiology - good pay and always will be a need
 

bob saunders

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It is not obvious to an educated man. Does middle class factor in education, type of job i.e: Professor, plumber lawyer, store owner, does it consider area of the city one resides. In many cultures one would not be considered UMC w/o being appropriately educated.
Class and education might be the same to some people, I guess. Being an educated idiot doesn't give you class, but I am talking about individuals. I agree that being educated certainly would give you the appearance of more class but when economists and statisticians are talking about upper, middle, and lower classes they are normally referring to economics(incomes). Money may elevate you to a different income, but it doesn't give you class.
 
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Tom F.

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Since I first stepped foot in the DR in September of 1987 I have seen the Dominican middle class grow. I didn't read any timeline in this article or did I miss it?
 
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