Living in Santiago

I was on the internet recently researching something when I came across a forum post that was not even related to my search, this is not uncommon but it dealt with the Dominican Republic so I read it. The author was ranting and raving about how expensive it was here and that prices were “triple” the cost of the US for basic necessities. I wanted to answer this post and find out where he was getting his prices, but there was no link to comment or reply. From the exchange rate he was using in his article I would say that the article was about 4 maybe 5 years old. Of course he never used actual prices to compare the 2 countries; he would just make blanket statements and then he asked why anyone with money would want to live in this country. One of his blanket statements was about coke and cars. Is this true?  My experience living here says that this is not true.

Well let’s take a look at the coke side for this post and we will actually be looking at the car side when we talk about owning a car here in the Dominican Republic. I just happen to be a fan of coke, it does taste different here because they use real sugar and not corn syrup but that is another story.

The first time I visited this country was February 1999 and the exchange rate was 16 to 1. I remembering buying two 20 oz coke products, 1 coke and 1 sprite, for 14 pesos total. This means that the each one cost me about $0.43 USD. This was cheaper than the US at that time. The current exchange rate is 36 to 1. The current cost of a coke is 28 pesos. This means that this morning I paid almost $0.78 USD for my coke. How can a person say that is more expensive than the US when I was paying $1.25 USD more than 3 years ago in the US? I have to admit that I am not up on the cost in the US now as it has been 3 years since my last visit. But I would doubt that a 20 oz cold coke at the corner store has gone down 50 cents in the past 3 years. Now the price I am giving you are not supermarket prices. They are from the corner store. These are the prices that we deal with on a daily basis. The supermarket visit is maybe once or twice a month.

Now let’s look at the basics. If you compare product to product, yes the cost are higher as we have to pay transport cost. The problem is that if a person is not living here, they do not understand the basics and this where the big difference comes in. When I was first here about 3 years ago what I found was my monthly grocery bill ran me about the same as the US. Now does this mean that it cost the same to eat here as it does in the US? The answer is no. If I ate the same, my bill would be a lot higher. I do not eat the same. The rice comes from a bag, so we can say that is processed, we eat canned corn and sometimes peas or beans from a can. But for the most part we eat meat, vegetables, fruits and juices. And they are ALL fresh. If I ate this way in the US my bill would have been higher. We eat very little from boxes or cans. There are a couple people that I know that have actually been able to reduce or quit some of their medications because they have changed the way they eat and the change in life style. So we will rack food up as being equal even though in my mind it is less because I eat better for the same money.

He mentioned medicines. Well the guys I know that are on medication, their prices vary on the prescriptions. Some items are higher and some are lower, but over all their monthly cost have gone down. And medical cost? I took my wife to the doctors a couple weeks back. This doctor is located in a new modern hospital, we arrived without an appointment, without insurance, and the doctor examined my wife, ran an ultrasound to see what was happening inside. And the total cost was less than my office visit co-pay in the states without the $350+ monthly cost to have the privilege of paying the co-pay. I used to have to wait 2 -3 days for an appointment and pay extra for test. Just as in the States, there are good doctors and there are bad. And many of the doctors here trained with some of the best from Europe. One person here had a root cannel and crown and another filling for less than the co-pay they wanted for a crown in the US for me. I have visited a couple different dentists and over all I find their care just as good as the care I received in the US.

Maybe the author was having a bad day. Maybe he was not familiar with the lifestyles. But why would someone want to live here? The list is long the two items on the top of my list are a lifestyle that is not fast and high pressure (rat race) and another is your money will go further here than in other countries. That is why there are many retirees moving here. Their fixed pensions allow them to live a lot better than back home.