A Better DR

[AK74]

Originally Posted by NALs

I remember a report that was made public by USAID in 2006 or 2007 about corruption in the DR that stated something like corruption costs RD$6 billion (US$177m) a year, or 2.1% of household incomes.

While the report was made to quantify corruption in the DR, I've always known that while corruption is a problem in the DR, its not as bad as the public perceives it to be. Even if all corruption was eliminated the DR would still fall short of having all the funds necessary to effectively fund and fix many of the problems. In fact, in many cases the improvement would be negligible.

But, as economists you and I know very well that public opinion is almost always off with their assumptions on just about everything, hence its not worth going into a debate about this but its interesting to see what people think about the subject.

-NALs

If a personal opinion is allowed to be expressed without immediate democratic
retaliation, I can name a country where officially there is no corruption, where officially inflation is only 2.5%, and all taxes are paid in full
and national leader publicly
states that "basically national economy is healthy" ,

still at the same time thousands of people are thrown to the streets from their homes
each week due to foreclosure, thousands of people lose jobs,
all staples prices grow more than 50% a year, thousands and thousands families do not have money even to buy food and have to increase with each month their credit card debt -

- No. Offically stated by leaders or in newspapers corruption or its absense is not the reason for people`s foes. Something very different for sure. What?
I DO NOT KNOW!!!!

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by NALs

I remember a report that was made public by USAID in 2006 or 2007 about corruption in the DR that stated something like corruption costs RD$6 billion (US$177m) a year, or 2.1% of household incomes.

While the report was made to quantify corruption in the DR, I've always known that while corruption is a problem in the DR, its not as bad as the public perceives it to be. Even if all corruption was eliminated the DR would still fall short of having all the funds necessary to effectively fund and fix many of the problems. In fact, in many cases the improvement would be negligible.

But, as economists you and I know very well that public opinion is almost always off with their assumptions on just about everything, hence its not worth going into a debate about this but its interesting to see what people think about the subject.

-NALs

If this figure is correct, and assuming there are 9,000,000 Dominicans, That's US$20 for each person per year.

Corruption is a bad thing, but it's not going to solve the problems.

[bob saunders]

It's the attitude that goes with the coruption- The I'm going to get my piece of the cake, because if I don't someone else will. The "I'm only doing what other's do attitude" Not enough of the "I'm trying to improve the nation attitude."

[Caren M.]

lack of safe drinking water

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by bob saunders

It's the attitude that goes with the coruption- The I'm going to get my piece of the cake, because if I don't someone else will. The "I'm only doing what other's do attitude" Not enough of the "I'm trying to improve the nation attitude."

True. But when it comes to material impact, we're talking $20.

Materially, the thing that will help the DR is a GNP growing at a rate faster than the population.

Fact is the DR does not generate enough $$$ internally, and must rely on the largess of other nations to be where they are today.

[Berzin]

Because of corruption, everything else mentioned in the poll is affected adversely.

So to me that has to be the number one issue.

[ExtremeR]

While education should be number 1 priority always, for the country to see results would have to wait decades to see its result, the most glaring problem right now is the electricity one. This country is going nowhere until it resolve the electric problem which drown small business, cause huge loss to big companies therefore laying off people to cut rising costs.

First that one that could be done quick and easy, and then Education should become priority number 1 for the country to generate riquezas. While corruption is bad and irritating (as noticed in this poll) materially isn't doing that huge damage to the country as stated by cobraboy and NALs.

[M.A.R.]

Solving corruption will help all the other problems in the DR. Corruption cuts funding for many programs that benefit the whole country and it cuts funding especially in education.

[catcherintherye]

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The debate here is much like debating the chicken and egg question. Does a country need an educated populous to end corruption, or do you need to stop corruption to improve education?

The real answer is, all these issues are interrelated, and they need to be addressed comprehensively and with a macro perspective.

In other words, people are gettind bogged down trying to decide which is the most important problem to solve, and they miss the opportunity to seek creative solutions, which address the situation as a whole interconnected disfunctional system.

[A.Hidalgo]

So I guess you checked off "other".