Eminent economist Jose Luis Aleman, S.J., in an interview with Orlando Jorge Mera, says that while all governments past and present have been truly interested in reducing poverty in the Dominican Republic, their mistake has been in their approach to the issue. According to the priest, the solution is to provide better health and education services, together with environmental stability. He suggested that government look to geographical areas that are known to be pockets of poverty and pour their resources into health and education in those specific areas. He said that in the past, the mistake was to focus on the individual poorest people, rather than the areas they live in, and this required a tremendous administrative apparatus to monitor the people’s presence and their poverty levels. “This is an impossible task” according to Aleman, because what difference is there between a person who earns three thousand pesos and one who earns five thousand pesos? “And this is the system that the current government is using in their “Comer es Primero” Program. The Jesuit economist said that this program will lead to serious problems among the people and will not solve the underlying problem. As reported in Hoy, Aleman feels that the geographical approach is much better and has a lower administrative cost.