I'm confused.. the Article opens with an Update that I'm struggling to parse.. They seem to be saying that a better title would have been xyz (i.e the same but dropping the 299 Days claim?) Appologies if this has already been asked & answered - a quick skim didn't show anything related to the "why?"
The difference in the update is "Renewable Energy" originally vs "Renewable Electricity" now, because this only applies to the Electrical grid and not other energy used by Costa Rica (ie transport)
Is there an easy answer as to why Costa Rica is doing so well? They seem to be a bit of an exception in Central/South America. EDIT: From Wikipedia "It is known for its long-standing and stable democracy, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agri…
Anecdotal - I spent some time in Costa Rica and was able to interact with some local families. In conversation, it was explained to me that they (parents) want their kids educated and to learn as many languages as they can. Commonly, English, Spanish, French and German. The idea being that the more education and languages their children know the better prepared and enabled they are to leave the country and earn a better wage and life elsewhere. This also results in their children being able to send money home to help care for their family.
IIRC part of the answer is that they had a successful revolution led by principled people who realized that cultural capital is just as important as power and in fact maybe keeping a standing army had problems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Figueres_Ferrer https://www.spanishpuravida.com/why-costa-rica-has-no-army/
A standing army creates a ton of problems, but what happens if nobody has a standing army? Seems like someone has to play cop and eat the cost (both social and economic) of doing so.
So long as you can raise an army at some future point in time should the need arise, this issue seems moot. It's inefficient to maintain a standing army when it is unnecessary.
> Tiny country that has very little industry? Pharmaceuticals, financial outsourcing, software development, and ecotourism have become the prime industries in Costa Rica's economy. High levels of education among its residents make the country an attractive investing location. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica#Trade_and_foreign_i...
None of these qualify as "industry" being mostly tertiary.
>> The country's Free Trade Zones provide incentives for manufacturing and service industries to operate in Costa Rica. In 2015, the zones supported over 82 thousand direct jobs and 43 thousand indirect jobs.
If you go by historical data, when nobody has a standing army everybody has mercenaries (which leads to instability at scale).
Or someone gets the bright idea of putting together an army and conquering their neighbors (who don't have a standing army and are relying on Mercenaries who keep a good feel on which way the wind is blowing (and who will have the money to pay them in the future)).
The neighbors, not being stupid, notice this and build their own standing armies (or at least conscript militias). Which is why historically, the situation where there are no armies or militias is so rare: it's not a Nash equilibrium.
A standing army creates a ton of problems, but what happens if nobody has a standing army? Seems like someone has to play cop and eat the cost (both social and economic) of doing so.
So long as you can raise an army at some future point in time should the need arise, this issue seems moot. It's inefficient to maintain a standing army when it is unnecessary.
>So long as you can raise an army at some future point in time should the need arise, this issue seems moot.
By the time you could cobble together an army any modern military would have already conquered you, especially if you have super strict civilian firearm laws like Costa Rica that make putting together defensive militias much, much harder.
> import when in nation generation isn't meeting consumption When people say "it's fiction" I think this is a lot of what they mean. If a location is net 100% renewable, say, someone who is 100% solar, so they generate lots of excess in the daytime, but, consume lots on cloudy days and at night and we assume that imported power is very dirty, they might be a net 100% renewable but ultimately they are consuming pollut…
As with everything, there is nuance. Good points. I think we're simply arguing over the amount of pessimism/optimism as the global energy transformation continues.
Not even arguing (I'm not the person who said "it's false" without providing any information). I say it because I want to reward projects which can hit a crazy 1% gross target vs projects which are primarily for show and aren't useful without dirty grid power backing them a huge % of the time.
IIRC part of the answer is that they had a successful revolution led by principled people who realized that cultural capital is just as important as power and in fact maybe keeping a standing army had problems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Figueres_Ferrer https://www.spanishpuravida.com/why-costa-rica-has-no-army/
Well sure but then it relies on the US army. Costa Rica is allied with the US and foolish would be the country trying to declare war to Costa Rica because it'd very probably face the full wrath of Uncle Sam's army. I'm not saying setting up an alliance with the country that has the biggest army in the world and then doing without an army is a bad thing... What I'm saying though is that it'd probably be very different…
Technically it relies on the TIAR (interamerican treaty of reciprocal defense).
Costa Rica is a small nation with favorable geography, a great balance of population and density with some fantastic externalities that let them focus on domestic affairs.
Also, while its nice, its not especially wealthy, nor situated in a way to become an important geopolitical chess-piece.
Not being a chess piece also is part of their success however. Don't want to be the mouse under a herd of dancing elephants.
People should never forget that green energry is not 100% green and embrace minimalism
Ah, right. If only we all would have embraced minimalism from the very start! There would be no need for these pesky warm houses, abundant food, or relatively cheap medicine.
If only there were space for a lifestyle between hunter-gatherer and "Every year, I drive the equivalent of the circumference of the earth, ordering a brand new pocket computer from the other side twice".