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Ecuador and El Salvador comes to mind of countries that pay in US Dollars.
The average salary in El Salvador is $378 monthly. Puerto Rico is $1,935. The purchasing power in Puerto Rico is 217% higher. The minimum wage in El Salvador is $304 a month for the commerce and service sector. That's under $2 an hour.
The average salary in Ecuador is $487 but the service sector is $400 a month which comes to $2.50 an hour. I'm not putting those countries down. I'm saying they have super cheap labor that translate into low cost of living in that country especially the service industry. It sucks for them not for the tourists.
It really depends if "it sucks" for all of them. If it offers cheap food and affordable the basic necessities of life, but a low consumption/materialistic life, they could very well be enjoying that lifestyle and have no need to immigrate anywhere else. People that wish more things in life would not be satisfied in such circumstances, but it really depends on the person or family, and their family values.
There are also other factors, for example some places are very laidback, more so than the laidback areas of the USA. Someone that appreciates that pace of life will not like it if they are suddenly plucked in say NYC where work and rushing is a constant.
Equally, someone used to a faster and work focused lifestyle could have a hard time adjusting to a more laidback place.
It really depends if "it sucks" for all of them. If it offers cheap food and affordable the basic necessities of life, but a low consumption/materialistic life, they could very well be enjoying that lifestyle and have no need to immigrate anywhere else. People that wish more things in life would not be satisfied in such circumstances, but it really depends on the person or family, and their family values.
There are also other factors, for example some places are very laidback, more so than the laidback areas of the USA. Someone that appreciates that pace of life will not like it if they are suddenly plucked in say NYC where work and rushing is a constant.
Equally, someone used to a faster and work focused lifestyle could have a hard time adjusting to a more laidback place.
When you are all your life extreme poor, you don't know the difference. Like human nature you adapt for survival because you have NO other choice. It doesn't mean if they had a real choice they wouldn't take it.
If they are offered a 95% pay raise, 75% cheaper gas, 120% cheaper milk, 15% cheaper on a Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) 20% cheaper 1 Pair of Nike Running Shoes (Mid-Range) 15% cheaper of 1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar)and 145% lower interest rates on any loan from owning your own house or business, you think the majority of them wouldn't take it? Or you think progress and work are free? In every system we put a value on work and service. The more capita you have the more freedom and choices you have has an individual to attain things in life. That's how life works. The less choices and less opportunities you have in life the less you can attain and I just don't mean material things (even though We live in a material world)
"Nah We are cool, we rather stay in extreme poverty and bare footed and be laid back in poverty, ignorance and hunger, We want to work for the very low min." You don't believe that for 1 second. The reason they can't is they don't have that opportunity that We have so they have a few choices, adapt or move to the other Asian countries that they are NOT going to be welcome. Their choices suck but you have to put a happy face.
You are viewing it from a tourist with the U.S. Passport and American per capita when you go to these places and stay in nice hotels with cheap service and cheap food but NO way you will surrender your U.S. Citizenship, step away from your American tourist comfort zone and cut your pay by 95%, pay 75% more in gas, pay 120% more in milk (if you have children or need milk everyday) and pay 145% more in interest rates on any of your loans (it could be for home or car or your own business or investments ) or cut your purchasing power by 90%.
You will NEVER do that because you have a choice, they don't. See the difference?
That's true for those in extreme poverty and they are a very small part of the population in most countries in Latin America. In fact, most people don't even live in slums, which would be the most common residential area for someone in extreme poverty considering how high urbanization rates are throughout Latin America. I simply find it odd so eone would make a fomparison using the extremely poor when they aren't a big minority anymore in most places.
Plus, in most of those countries people in extreme poverty know they are in such condition. It used to be that to see how others lived, you needed something like a TV showing Miami. Now it's not to far from where you live, many times just the neighborhood bordering yours. Does a person living in extreme poverty in say Bogotá or Panama City or Mexico City is unaware how poor they are? Do you really think that?
They point is that the people that don't wish to go anywhere isn't two or three.
I'll give you one example. There is a Venezuelan personality by the name of Jessica Pereira that currently lives in Santo Domingo. A few years ago she moved to New York City, because the Spanish radio station La Mega was offering her a nicer pay package than she was getting in Santo Domingo. She lived in NYC for about 2 years and then quit from La Mega and went back to Santo Domingo. The reason? Despite she is earning less, her quality of life is greater in Santo Domingo than in NYC. In addition to that are cultural things that she likes about Santo Domingo that NYC doesn't have. Then there are other things such as the weather. No, before she moved to Santo Domingo the first time, she lived in other countries such as Ireland. She basically says no one will get her out of Santo Domingo anymore. Earning less money, but living better. For many people there are things beyond money that they value the most. Using people in extreme poverty doesn't really help to understand this situation. What happen to her work visa to the USA? She let it expired, that's how cemented her decision is to live in Santo Domingo.
The guy in a blue suit and white shirt is Puerto Rican (he says early in the video) and was invited to that radio show in Santiago. He has been living in the DR for 12 years, first arrived im the country to study medicine, in particular plastic surgery. A Puerto Rican through and through, no one of his parent is Dominican or nothing like that. As a Puerto Rican is a given that he's also a US Citizen and has US passport, doesn't need any type of visa to enter the US at any time. In fact, if he has kids birn in the DR, because the US and the DR have an agreement allowing dual nationality, all he has to do is a few days after each of his kids is born to register them at the US embassy in Santo Domingo and just like that they are US citizens with US passports and the whole deal. They can grow up in the DR and once 18 or older or after college decide to go anywhere in the US to settle and all they have to do is buy a oneway airplane ticket and they are gone. The US also prioritizes its own citizens, so if he gets a Dominican wife he can speed up her US residency and even her getting US citizenship simply because he is a US citizen. He knows very well he can go anywhere in the US, validate his title and get any licenses he might need in the US, and practice as a plastic surgeon earning more money. It doesn't matter whether its Florida, New York, California; the whole US is open for him.
The million dollar question: If that's the case, why does he stays in the DR where its almost a guarantee that he's earning less than doing the same in the US? Why is he so comfortable and happy in the DR that he's not forced to stay, but rather chooses to stay?
Mod edit
His life is definitely not worse than in PR and it wouldn't be more happy in the USA, despite he would make more money in either of the two. The only way that guy will leave the DR is if the country falls into a war of some sort and that's not happening any time soon.
That's true for those in extreme poverty and they are a very small part of the population in most countries in Latin America. In fact, most people don't even live in slums, which would be the most common residential area for someone in extreme poverty considering how high urbanization rates are throughout Latin America. I simply find it odd so eone would make a fomparison using the extremely poor when they aren't a big minority anymore in most places.
Plus, in most of those countries people in extreme poverty know they are in such condition. It used to be that to see how others lived, you needed something like a TV showing Miami. Now it's not to far from where you live, many times just the neighborhood bordering yours. Does a person living in extreme poverty in say Bogotá or Panama City or Mexico City is unaware how poor they are? Do you really think that?
They point is that the people that don't wish to go anywhere isn't two or three.
I'll give you one example. There is a Venezuelan personality by the name of Jessica Pereira that currently lives in Santo Domingo. A few years ago she moved to New York City, because the Spanish radio station La Mega was offering her a nicer pay package than she was getting in Santo Domingo. She lived in NYC for about 2 years and then quit from La Mega and went back to Santo Domingo. The reason? Despite she is earning less, her quality of life is greater in Santo Domingo than in NYC. In addition to that are cultural things that she likes about Santo Domingo that NYC doesn't have. Then there are other things such as the weather. No, before she moved to Santo Domingo the first time, she lived in other countries such as Ireland. She basically says no one will get her out of Santo Domingo anymore. Earning less money, but living better. For many people there are things beyond money that they value the most. Using people in extreme poverty doesn't really help to understand this situation. What happen to her work visa to the USA? She let it expired, that's how cemented her decision is to live in Santo Domingo.
Maybe you view many Latino places and the Philippines with different glasses when you visit them as an American tourist in the comfort of an American passport and American dollar knowing that you are there just to visit and will never live like they do or have to put up with any of that because you have what they don't have. Choices and opportunities. In many of those countries you either fall under the elite ruling class (the very minority) or the poor class (majority) . There is no such thing as a Middle Class that is so cut and dry as the United States or any of the other developed countries. I never seen it.
You say: "most of those countries people in extreme poverty know they are in such condition" and I say is not the same thing as having wealth and then losing it than not ever having wealth at all. Let me use my life as an example:
Puerto Rico is on top of Latin Countries due to the fact it's under U.S. soil and protection. I was born and raised in P.R. We didn't have NO reliable car, the few we had were not reliable. We depended on other people that they call in P.R. "PON"( hitch ) or their public transportation that wasn't reliable. We had NO A/C or no hot water. Our food menu was usually rice, corn beef , Sausages (salchichas) and cheap local food. Thank God that the P.R. cuisine is good at any price. I went to public school in the island and I hustled (legal sense) to make a quick buck in whatever I could as a teenager from painting, mowing lawn, selling stuff door to door or whatever. We never felt We were poor. We didn't know anything about life except our little world. As of matter of fact, I didn't know I grew up poor until I went to the U.S. and later went military and then to the private sector in the U.S. and started making money and got opportunities and looked at many places here from public schools and housing. We didn't have those things when growing up because We didn't want them. We didn't have them because We had NO choice. The opportunities weren't there and the little opportunities, We weren't lucky.
Don't take out a violin because that's not my point to play the victim card. My life has been blessed and everything in life has it's purpose.
Just looking back at the public schools I went in Puerto Rico, I knew We grew up poor when you see the public schools in the U.S. and what my children got what I never got. Again, not because I didn't want those opportunities or things from technology or good paying jobs or go to a good schools with a good system but I didn't have a choice or the opportunity and I didn't know what to work for until you see it and live it in person because it's within your reach. It's a matter of work and time when the opportunities are there and they make things attainable. It motivates you to work smartly and make your work pay off.
If I have to go back to P.R. to that level growing up and put my children in that same environment after the wealth I reached thanks to the opportunities I have been blessed, We will all suffer because I tasted wealth and so has my children compared with the people that has lived all their lives in extreme poverty and that's all they know.
If you never ate a good healthy food then you are not going to miss it or compare it when you have to eat dog or cat for food or the junk you can find in the streets to eat.
See the difference? That's why you will never trade that. You have choices and opportunities, they don't. They never tasted, smelled or lived what you have in this country. So they don't know how poor they have it. They have nothing to measure with.
Reminds of this 1970 Camaro in 1989 in P.R., it had 50% bondo with rust, No power steering. They called it "power mollero" but i didn't know any better (it was junk) I had in P.R., I had nothing to compare it with because I never drove or owned other cars to compare at the time as a driver. I thought it was good for taking me to point A to B until I grew up and started working in good paying jobs and I had the opportunity and money to buy good cars. Then you realized looking back how bad that car was.
Most of these people living in extreme poverty don't feel it unless they go to the elite side and work for the rich people everyday. Most of them stay in their side and their world.
Ididn't want to say this, but I am an economist. No need to go into explanations about what is essentially a topic I know very well.
Often times there is more than money in people's decisions and it isn't very hard to meet people who decides to stay in what economic theory says they have all the incentives to leave. You simply needs to be in those places beyond as an American tourist to meet them, even be one. Otherwise, understanding this is futile in many cases.
There is a saying that goes "tourists have no idea what life is truly like in these places" and often times the idea tourists have of what life is like in these places is very similar to yours, in part because they visit tiny places out on the coast faraway from where most of the people live. PR is a little different in this case because most tourists are in San Juan, the neuralgic center of PR. In the case of the DR, it's the complete opposite. In fact, most tourists that visit rhe DR leaves with the impression that it's a flat country or mostly flat when in reality its the complete opposite, to give one example. Where they vacation is often flat with no mountain chain nearby, but in reality they are in a country that is mostly mountainous with several chains higher thsn anywhere east of the Mississippi River in the USA. They wouldn't know that simply staying in one tiny spot and that's exactly what they do.
hotel taxes are pretty high in PR, especially with the resort tax, but there's this, and it's keeping prices high. tourism is growing fairly fast and there isn't enough supply. it's normal for there to be a lag between changes in demand and supply but I think the island just makes development too difficult so adding supply takes too long
"Hotel occupancy in Puerto Rico is expected to average 95 percent for the Fourth of July weekend, according to data from the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.
While the island has seen strong arrival numbers in recent months, a significant portion of the occupancy is coming from Puerto Rico residents, according to Carlos Mercado Santiago, executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.
Indeed, more than half of all confirmed stays for the weekend are from residents, Mercado said.
The east coast of Puerto Rico is at 97 percent for the weekend, followed by the Porta del Sol and Porta Atlantica regions at 96 percent."https://www.caribjournal.com/2021/07/01/puerto-rico-hotel-occupancy-climbing/
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