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The only mobile provider in Costa Rica was government owned, hugely profitable, subsidized internet and landlines, and was mandated to provide internet to every
by catlikesshrimp 2y ago
The only mobile provider in Costa Rica was government owned, hugely profitable, subsidized internet and landlines, and was mandated to provide internet to every single citizen. In urban areas, they had to make sure every single house had mobile coverage. And courts made them comply.
Then came the US around year 2002 and forced the country to a free market, and paradise was lost. Everything is US level now (more expensive, better service is even more expensive, nothing is guaranteed, you get bombarded by advertisements, and other spam types) and the company can no longer provide universal coverage and is now operating at a loss.
- breakingrules3 2y ago[flagged]
- chgs 2y agoThere’s a reason the US has the largest economy in the world. It’s modern colonialism.
- FredPret 2y agoOh yeah. All of the 25 000 000 000 000 dollars the US generates a year is vacuumed right out of the palm trees of the third world.
- chgs 2y agoIt relies almost entirely on the massive US might, military, cultural, diplomatic.
- FredPret 2y agoThe US is kicking butt because it has 330 million people, most with a very high human development index (HDI), all together in one country with an extremely effective and pro-business culture. All the rest flows out of this.
- hollerith 2y agoI marvel at how confused some people are to actually believe that Americans are rich because they steal wealth from other peoples. Amazing! The US does meddle a lot with other countries, but the main motive IMHO is usually either to further some misguided ideological program or to keep Americans safe (kind of like how Russia's interference in Ukraine these days is motivated by a desire to keep Russians safe in future decades) not to extract wealth.
- FredPret 2y agoThe poor world simply does not have enough wealth / resources / GDP to “supply” the rich world, especially the US, with its ridiculous levels of wealth so that argument falls flat right out the gate. US meddling is, as you say, a function of them already having a ton of money and trying to use it to pursue their foreign policy.
- aguaviva 2y ago(kind of like how Russia's interference in Ukraine these days is motivated by a desire to keep Russians safe in future decades) Well, that's the motivation it pretends/claims to have in any case. But you're right in that its pretenses/delusions are very similar to the US's in this regard.
- pkaye 2y agoDid Costa Rica get an IMF loan around that time?
- catlikesshrimp 2y agoBack then, Costa Rica was nothing like other American countries, a single loan wasn't a very effective lever. This was the lever: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic%E2%80%93Central_America_Free_Trade_Agreement https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic%E2%80%93C...