United Liberty
Costa Rica - A Free Trade Paradise?
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 2:09pm | posted by Michael O. Powell
In a recent column, Nicholas D. Kristof noted a study that showed Costa Rica to be quite the paradise:
There are several ways of measuring happiness in countries, all inexact, but this pearl of Central America does stunningly well by whatever system is used. For example, the World Database of Happiness, compiled by a Dutch sociologist on the basis of answers to surveys by Gallup and others, lists Costa Rica in the top spot out of 148 nations.
That’s because Costa Ricans, asked to rate their own happiness on a 10-point scale, average 8.5. Denmark is next at 8.3, the United States ranks 20th at 7.4 and Togo and Tanzania bring up the caboose at 2.6.
Kristof notes that Costa Rica is demilitarized, and also notes who the bottom is:
The United States is 19th, and Zimbabwe comes in last.
What makes Zimbabwe and Costa Rica the most different? Economics.
Costa Rica recently elected center-right presidential candidate Laura Chinchilla, who has vowed to continue the free trade policies of her predecessors. She received competition from libertarian candidate Otto Guevera, an ironic last name for a libertarian leader. Meanwhile, the socialist dystopia of Zimbabwe has gone further and further into hell due to Robert Mugabe’s central planning. The difference could not be starker.
In contrast to what some claim, collectivism is not the outgrowth of pacifism. Real socialist states, not the mixed economies of Europe that the far right considers socialist, like Venezuela and Cuba were founded by militant leaders. Violent rhetoric and paranoia helps them to keep the public on their side as their nationalizations fail, leaving them an external force to blame the failures on.
Free trade, however, facilitates understanding by allowing different cultures to obtain the fruits of others. It’s what gives us sushi in Virginia and McDonald’s in India. It’s no coincidence that free trade has led to prosperity and peace in Costa Rica, just as it’s no coincidence that similar policies brought us peace and prosperity in the 1990s. We should try it again.
Written like someone who’s never been to Costa Rica. I’ve been living here for 8 months and after seeing the election cycle you commented on, learning Spanish, and sharing a house with a Costa Rican… I can tell you this is no “libertarian paradise.” The government is constantly making new laws and rewriting them a few days later due to public pressure from one sector or another. They had made a series of new traffic laws and instituted a “points” system whereby with only a few infractions you can lose your priviledge to drive…for life. They have universal healthcare that is paid into by only the wealthy. Mining companies with legal rights to mine for gold were recently thwarted due to student protests… I could go on and on… Oh yea, you can only get a cell phone if you’re a citizen…and only from the state owned and run company. lol… libertarian paradise. Too funny.
Both of you would be wise to submit articles to UL on Costa Rica.
“Philosophy, despite the best obfuscatory intentions of philosophers, occasionally seeps out of the ivory towers and informs our lives.”
Jonathan,
Though your are correct that CR is far from libertarian, you have shown a lot of ignorance about a country you’ve spent several months in. The national healthcare system (the caja as it is locally known) is paid for by anyone who signs up for it, not just the wealthy. Everyone pays the same rate based on age, but not on any pre-existing condition. The wealthy pay not higher premium than the poorest person.
Anyone, even a tourist, can get a cell phone if they take the simple step of setting up a corporation, which gives you a cedula number just like a citizen or resident. Now that is what I call libertarian. Once you have a corporation you can get anything a citizen can except the right to vote or the right to buy into the public health care system.
ICE, the electric/phone monopoly is not exactly state run and it will soon face some much needed competition as CAFTA regs go into effect.
It would have taken more than a few infractions to lose your license for a year, let alone for life, you are simply not up to date. Anyway, that part of the new traffic law was not implemented anyway. Just as in the States, new laws come out and parts of them get challenged in courts, and sometimes struck down, sometimes not. Not sure what that has to do with whether CR is libertarian or not?? Do libertarians think that any new law must stand without challenge? Who knows.
I’ve always found libertarians to be a queer bunch from a logical standpoint. They typically have to go through all sorts of mental contortions to argue their points since everything in their philosophy is so simplistic, boiling down to the right of private property usurps all other rights.
“Employers pay 9.25 percent and workers pay 5.50 percent of their salaries into the system.” And, “A private option existed many decades before a public program was offered, and it continues still. The private option primarily serves the wealthy and upper middle class.”
http://www.ticotimes.net/topstoryarchive/2009_08/082109.htm
Take that for what it’s worth… but if you REALLY want to think me ignorant then just imagine the fact that I’m a Liberal!
And yea lol all you have to do is form a corporation. I didn’t mention how it was so easy that all you have to do is get a Tico to join with you into a corporation, get a lawyer, and submit all the paperwork and legalese. That’s pretty simple. Almost as simple as in other countries where ANYONE CAN JUST GET A SIM CARD AT THE AIRPORT FOR $10 or however much. That’s like the difference between buying a hamburger at McDonalds and creating a hamburger stand of your own.
The traffic laws are a mess you know that as well as I do. The saddest part is that they are needed too.
Agreed on Libertarians lol.
Laura Chinchilla 46.78%, Ottón Solís 25.15%, Otto Guevara 20.83%
Oh and btw to the original article… Ottón Solís the socialist got more votes than the libertarian.
Shown a lot of ignorance,
Jonathan