Quote:
Originally Posted by upswinging
Gringos think they can talk about a country because they vacation in penthouses and gated communities there 2x a year. Costa Rica is a developing country. It has one of the best Latino governments simply due to its extremely small population.
However, as with the rest of central and South America- the rich are extremely rich. Their quality of life is probably much higher than most of upper class Americans. To say that's normal and everyone is happy there is laughable. Everyone else tends to make ****/ struggle day to day which makes corruption rampant. That's why a guy like Tony was able to set up shop in CR in the first place!
There's a reason why rich people have body guards and live in gated communities in Central / South American countries. It's because the threat of murder/ kidnapping and robbery is very real if you are wealthy and flaunt it. Wealthy people go to pretty extreme lengths to protect themselves in developing countries.
But go along and keep believing whatever your semi retired expat friends are saying from their gated penthouses from afar.
Wrong, sorry you missed the mark with your ignorant, anti-gringo rant.
I've lived in Costa Rica for many years, since 2002. I ran a business there for over 8 years, employing Ticos primarily. I visit frequently and have professional relationships there. I have a pretty good idea, even today, of what the living conditions are like for both Ticos and gringos.
I have no idea of your base of Costa Rica specific knowledge, but it sounds different than mine, which is based on living there for years and direct knowledge of conditions since then. OTOH, you sound like you've never been there and lump together some generalizations about "Central and South America".
(Fwiw, Costa Rica has a pretty large, educated middle class population who live pretty enviable lives compared to whatever database you've been mining. It has been a very favorable place to set up business operations, ask Oracle, Microspoft, HP, IBM, Monsanto, McKinsey, Walmart, Amazon and other non-gaming businesses. Gaming set up there because there was a good labor pool, a stable democratic government, English-speaking call center staffing, a diverse population, an educated technical workforce, and decent financial structures. I've seen that Texas Tech has opened a branch in Escazu. With patience, a lack of gringo arrogance, and some local understanding, it is a good place from which to operate any international business requiring an educated workforce; in return, businesses support a pretty well-off base of the population.
Ticos are NOT fleeing their country to come to the US, because they live in a pretty nice place. It's not Nicaragua, it's not El Salvador, it's not even Panama; it's Costa Rica. Stop generalizing about the place or even expats living there. Ticos have a public health system that is way better than the US offers people generally and possibly a higher level of free/cheap education of the middle class than that of general population in the US.)
So, cara pica, save your rant for someone, perhaps you, without direct knowledge of the topic.
(Property crime i.e burglary has always been an issue. Kidnapping for ransom is a pretty new development for Costa Rica, should it become a trend. Sure, security has been expanded since he was kidnapped, but hopefully that will prove a one-off. We'll see.)
Last edited by Gzesh; 10-29-2018 at 07:09 PM.