How hard could it be to "follow the money"? How come no one in the media has thought to ask the question "How can gasoline cost the same in CR when the price of crude has decreased from $147/barrel to $48/barrel"? In the U.S. gasoline prices have fallen in half.Am I missing something? This may become the biggest scandel to ever hit CR. (and that would take a lot) Scandel is the national pastime here.

I don't drive here so this is no skin off my nose one way or the other. But I look at it like this. The tax structure here, if you want to call it that, is pretty much regressive, that is, the lower you are on the economic scale, the bigger percent of your 'income' you pay in taxes. The VAT is a wonderful example of that. Everybody gets to pay that, rich or dirt poor, but you can bet that the % of Don Oscar's income that goes to VAT is less than the girl at McDonalds. Property taxes are absurdly low. Income taxes likewise. So where does the money come from to pay for government services? The govt looks at this as a windfall, a way to raise revenue they can steal or reluctantly use to fill a pot hole once in a while or organize a parade against crime.

Despite it's vaunted high literacy rate, the education level in Costa Rica is abysmal. The voters here have no idea that when they vote for Arias' party, they are voting in the party of crony capitalism (sound familiar?). I asked a girl once if she had ever been out of Costa Rica. She said yes, Guanacaste. Don Oscar and his gang of thieves depend on ignorance to rule and steal. End of rant.