www.CostaRicaTicas.com

...are not the same as actual inequities. Yes, friends, it's time to revisit the greatly reviled much bemoaned "Gringo tax". It's not a tax at all--I call it a "Tico subsidy" or 1-to-1 wealth transfer or individual foreign aid or (OK, I lied) a Gringo PRIVILEGE tax.
Let's look at absolute price vs. relative price:This nicotine-addict thinks paying $1.50 for a deck of Derby Filtros is just ducky--I give a rabid rabbit's rectum less if a Tico pays $1 at the same pulperia. It's a great bargain for me.
If I don't think a good or service is quality or a bargain for money spent, I don't buy it--it's all discretionary. Same thing for services like rent--if my lot rent is $450 and somebody else is paying $350, where does the concept of fairness come in? Answer: wrong question. But it doesn't anyway lest you get fueled and ruled by resentment. I simply don't have time for that.
It's true that I'm price-elastic (2 trips to CR/year) and lead a simple life. The effect on mongo-mongers (many trips/year) and those on fixed incomes is different but I only live in the skin I'm in.
Before y'all fire up those keyboards in white-hot indignation, let's go to a--
Definition: This watchamacallit is the price difference between what a Tico and what a Gringo would pay in the ordinary business of commerce for equally available goods and services. This deliberately excludes fraud, paying cien and other stupidities (leave that for the ultra-newbies with dazzle in their eyes and a stiffie in their pants), and rip-offs and flim-flams("You better pongo that Maria, sucka"), and paying more in actual taxes than Costa Ricans do.
Now would someone chime in here with a link to that illuminating thread on Tico wages and salaries? Bail me out here--it might lessen the watchamacallit pain.
Now can we move on to other more substantive issues that we also can't control like--Is the U. S. going to have a domestic auto industry by the end on of the decade? Methinks it's 6-5 pick'em.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Much to do about nothing:

a much visited question. That has not been answered many times before. Is the payer of said tax the fool. Or is the person who could collect said tax and not collect it the fool. It's their ballpark if you want to play the game you must play by their rules.

To this game player it is just the cost of doing business. As you move through the way stops of the game you must decide whether to pay and participate are not pay and not participate. Do you sits in the world's best bar and go thirsty or pay three dollars for a beer. Do you pay the dreaded $100 or settle for the one you can get for $50. Do you succumb to the request for money or do you go without hearing from your fantasy love. Decisions decisions decisions.

Lee

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PS: DO NOT SEND MONEY!

With all due respect you simply do not have enough knowledge of Costa Rica to pontificate on this subject. A small example.



Where did you observe that?

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I certainly agree that I've not logged enough time in CR to mount the pulpit but that cigarette thing did happen to me at a pulperia in Jaco--now it may have been a one-time thing (the Tico may have been a friend or neighbor and thus offered the smokes at list price); however I was using that to illustrate the greater point that such things don't irritate me , at least not as much as it seems to bug some other posters on this subject. Maybe I'm sui generis, though I think not. I'm absolutely not trying get myself named persona non grata, just stimulate discussion. Honestly. Please consider this topic dropped with a dull sickening thud.

_________________
"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED