As a Canadian born son of a US draft dodger, currently living in the US and having traveled to the DR, your post resonates with me strongly!! In my travels to the DR I realized how much the impact of government or state intervention in regards to things like business regulations, affects people's abilities to provide some level of subsistence for themselves. I went from Santo Domingo to Play Rincon and literally only once got asked for money from a needy person. Everyone can find a way to make money and do so without violating some sort of regulation. In the countryside, whether it be guaguas, people selling liters of gasoline out of used plastic soda bottles on the side of the road or people selling carved coconuts to tourists, people with the will to work find a way to provide for themselves. Granted riding 20 people deep in a guagua is likely unsafe, its worth the gamble compared to a guaranteed wallet shakedown in a taxi.
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Yes! It is the informality of business what sets DR apart.
I used to really dislike it because I thought it wasn't organized compared to what you'd see in movies. But then I got a chance to come to America and see how it's done...crap.
There are some things that can be good, but there's wayyyy too much regulation, I don't know how people live like that.