My first days in the business was getting to know the work force and I was pretty taken back when I learned how many, pilots, lawyers, opera singers, med students, accountants and advanced degree folks we had. All of them made more money working for the book then their chosen profession...now that's sad. No bookmaker sat around wondering how they can make the local work force rich. That was never in the equation.
That's the point and you're correct its a very expensive country. I know people that make $400 a month to feed their families
There's a real disconnect in Costa Rica that's hard to place. On one hand the average individual working makes about $9500/year (2013 world bank), but if they get pulled over for a minor traffic violation it could cost them more than half their salary? The cost of goods are staggering and they have no relationship to inflation (or lack there of). That means, the people who sell good are stealing from the people who need them. Pure and simple. I challenge any rational economist not on the CR payroll to offer me another suggestion as to why its so expensive. Lots of the things you buy are made in Costa Rica, its not an island for gods sakes. Why is it cheaper on either side of the boarder? Its not like the people who produce the goods are getting paid more than the national average...they wouldn't be working in books if they did. It has no relationship to the fuel that produces the product because its at an all time low which means prices should drop. I'm tired to even think about my friends and family being robbed of their hard earned money to buy fucking milk at a reasonable cost! Someday, some really smart Costa Rican will figure it all out, call it out, and change its course to be more competitive/progressive nation it deserves.That's the point and you're correct its a very expensive country. I know people that make $400 a month to feed their families
Rican will figure it all out, call it out, and change its course to be more competitive/progressive nation it deserves.
Pure theft by government agencies and workers is the answer to all that. Our country, a rich country in resources and work force, has been blessed of not having an army or heavy internal turmoils since the 1950s, but the bipartisan system broke us and robbed us many resources that should have destined to fix the roads, lower the taxes for the mid/poor class and bring more foreign investors.
Any tico that starts calling out on great fraud by politicians will be killed, just ask Jose Maria Figueres lol.
Lets not blame the capitalist. This is a result of tariffs. Until those are lifted the price of basic food staples will continue to be extraordinarily high. I bet that these Costa Rican companies are operating under similar margins as other countries. Under CAFTA milk tariffs are set to be eliminated around the end of this decade. That will mean tons of cheap powdered milk from the US will flood the market bringing prices down. What is ironic is that many ticos were opposed to CAFTA - the same ones who complain now about high prices. You can't have an isolated economy and cheap prices. Look at Venezuela as an example of that.
CAFTA as a whole was a good thing, what was wrong with CAFTA were some of the side laws bypassed with it being approved... that's what's lot of people bitched about and asked for a renegotiation, which the US was not letting us do. Anyone working in the industry bitching about capitalism is a moron.
Sure and for that reason the US has now taken control of things like the Costa Rica banking system (FACTA). But really that should not concern or affect the working poor. Really CAFTA was a great thing for the poor people but the rich people used propaganda to twist it around as to maintain their exclusivity only possible in a closed economy. Can't blame them really, it was a sharp move.
While no doubt food staples are expensive in Costa Rica compared to other countries in the region, I think ticos have a penchant for going to restaurants more than other cultures. Even cheap restaurants like McDonalds are pretty expensive relative to income. The price of McDonalds for instance is about 15% cheaper than US prices but US workers make 5x as much on average than a tico. So there is a big disconnect here.
That's the point and you're correct its a very expensive country. I know people that make $400 a month to feed their families
Stop blaming everyone else for everything.
No, politicians didn't fuck up CR. Costarican's did.
Politicians don't come from outer-space. They come from the population they are a part of.
In other words, honest people have honest politicians, like in northern Europe.
97% of people here will keep a nice cell phone if they find it. If you give the average tico a loan, 97% will not repay it. How can they expect their leaders to be any different?
Dig deep. The change is in each one of us. If you have debts, repay them. If you find something that isn't yours, give it back. If you are being paid for a job, get it done. If you promised something, keep your word. If someone calls you out for a mistake, don't take offense, correct it. Do it. Encourage others to. Then shit will improve.
When that 97% changes, then real change can happen. And the 97% will change only when they stop looking at others as the cause of their misery.
No one likes to mention this, it is an uncomfortable truth, since it is conveniently easy and ineffective to demand external change, hard to make real internal change.
