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> The write-ups of westerners working from Bali goes into a bit of this. Yes, it adds to the local economy. No, not always in constructive ways. Feeding young e
by 55555 6y ago
> The write-ups of westerners working from Bali goes into a bit of this. Yes, it adds to the local economy. No, not always in constructive ways. Feeding young egos desire for european beer and fixing their skateboard falls costs time feeding local kids in schools and providing primary health care in a stretched local economy which is 10x lower down the scale.
Fake news. It pours foreign currency into a local economy that was already 80% based on tourism and which has a depreciating currency. Does selling tourists plastic trinkets and taking them on boat trips cost young local children plastic toys or prevent their fishermen dad from having his own longboat? Ofcourse not. Pre-COVID, money was being shoved as fast as it could possibly be shoved into a tiny island where people have tight-knit yet large family structures. All the locals on Bali are richer and better educated than they otherwise would be.
I think the worst thing about it may be that it's basically a classic case of the Resource Curse, except instead of oil they have beautiful beaches/etc.
Lastly, there isn't really a shortage of land. The island is 5,780 km². I've driven between all 4 coasts and 90% of the time you are seeing nothing but empty nature. https://mapfight.appspot.com/us.ct-vs-bali/connecticut-us-bali-island-indonesia-size-comparison https://mapfight.appspot.com/us.ct-vs-bali/connecticut-us-ba...
- senorjazz 6y ago> All the locals on Bali are richer and better educated than they otherwise would be. Not necessarily. In the early days, perhaps, when businesses were run by locals and the type of tourist who would go, would use local services. Now as a place develops, outside money / developers / owners move in, providing higher quality accommodation, fine dining and the once local business owners are employed as cleaners for a pittance. It is a pattern repeated since the 60s and 70s with the hippy trail when large amounts of people started to visit these places. Once pristine paradise locations are now over developed concrete monstrosities catering to the higher end - out pricing the travellers who first went to the place and the profits all exported to other places
- pc86 6y agoLocals are more than capable of "providing higher quality accommodation."
- chii 6y ago> once local business owners so their business didn't succeed. It's not the tourist's responsibility. Nor are the competition wrong to out-compete them.
- tartoran 6y agoThat’s another way to look at it. Their business didn’t succeed because they could not possibly compete with outside money..
- fakedang 6y agoTheir businesses failed precisely because they couldn't compete with big outside money and interests.
- citizenkeen 6y agoThis kind of thinking is what makes capitalism so gross
- chii 6y agothis kind of thinking and capitalism is what gave you your comfortable lifestyle today.
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago>Fake news. What?
- Jgrubb 6y agoTwo words that, when leading off any statement about anything, will immediately disqualify the following statement from being taken seriously.
- yowlingcat 6y agoIt's a fnord I wish would disappear completely. It makes me embarrassed as a speaker of the English language, just by proxy! Is this what it means to be getting old...
- panzagl 6y agoYes. Hail Eris.
- saiya-jin 6y agoSeems like a writeup of some digital nomad living there right now, desiring to feel good about helping local economy. Not saying it isn't completely the case but you have some serious pink glasses on. The money from tourism goes to elite few locals who own most of it, and it eventually slightly trickles down the rest of folks living there, the income disparity is on a level we simply don't see in the west. You won't see those folks since they still live in their tiny hut far from busy tourist centres of the south. The idea of good western tourist money lifting equally everybody out of poverty is seriously naive, in any undeveloped country. Plus OP mentioned additional load on underfunded medical services.