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The American Dream Is Still Possible, Just Not In The US
Submitted by Ron Holland via The Daily Bell,
Although there are no firm statistics on the number of Americans living outside the US, the US State Department estimates that somewhere between 3 and 6 million Americans now live offshore. I think this is a low estimate and the number is clearly growing.
I now live in Canada but often travel back to the United States. Driving through Customs near Buffalo is usually not a big ordeal but it does involve a time-wasting delay much like visiting the post office or any other US government bureaucracy. But governments should police their borders, as this is one of the few legitimate functions of a central government.
Still, whenever I'm there I do notice the America I grew up in and once knew has really changed since 9/11. The trend toward a more militarized and aggressive police force continues to quicken. I know most Americans accept this as part of the consequences of the War on Terror just as they do the loss of financial privacy, increased fines and asset seizures.
The Canadian government recently warned citizens to be careful when taking cash to the US because of the risk of police taking their cash for hyped-up offenses. Did you know that in the last 13 years, over $2.5 billion has been stolen by law enforcement in almost 62,000 cash seizures? I have to say that as an American, I'm outraged at the situation and always on guard when in the USSA.
I fear many Americans who don't travel internationally might have become somewhat immune to the intrusive, arbitrary nature of today's American government and its institutions. Here in Canada, law enforcement is almost always professional and courteous and even the bureaucrats are friendly and helpful, which simply amazes me.
So to my American family, friends and business associates, I want you to know it is still possible to achieve the American Dream of a simple life with opportunity for wealth creation, fun, freedom and good times without an overly intrusive, threatening government ... just not in the United States. Many other nations, in Central and South America and elsewhere, certainly also experience corruption and inefficiencies but government threats remain outside of everyday life for most citizens and expats.
Following are a few things I've noticed recently pertaining to international real estate and lifestyle decisions many people are considering, ranging from a new presidential executive order to mouth-watering Austrian chalets.
I mention the latest presidential executive order not because it concerns your lifestyle or real estate but because this is how you are likely to lose more liberties, have your gold confiscated or your bank safe deposit box frozen during a future real or contrived crisis. Roosevelt used this governmental tool to illegally confiscate private gold in 1933 and there is no immediate defense or remedy to a presidential executive order. Yes, Congress can act over time but exactly how this would help after the fact is a question no one can answer.
When retiring overseas, many countries require a minimum pension or retirement income in order receive the coveted benefits of expat retirement and your Social Security benefits can be all or part of this package. Therefore, leaving the US does not mean you lose your "promised but not guaranteed" Social Security benefits ... at least not until Congress starts to "means test" Social Security in order to end benefits to the wealthy and middle class. It is possible to continue to receive your benefits. Read more here.
A couple of weeks ago I was flying back to Canada from a Casey Research conference in historic San Antonio, TX. The American Airlines flight magazine had an excellent article on the radical transformation of Colombia from a crime haven to a tourist haven and now the toast of South America. I have visited Colombia several times recently and you must put this exciting country on your bucket list for a visit. Read about it in "A Radical Transformation."
I don't have a compulsive bone in my body except for being on time and I unrealistically expect everyone else to be on time. This is a minor problem for me in the United States, Canada or Europe – other than in Switzerland where everyone and everything is done in a timely manner. But in Central and South America, nothing happens by the clock. This is something potential expats and others considering living in Latin cultures will want to be aware of. While this article focuses on Ecuador, it provides excellent insight into the entire region.
The Colombia economy is booming and is viewed increasingly by international investment managers as a good candidate for global diversification. The earlier long years of political upheaval and guerilla violence means that much of the reserves of this resource rich country including oil, gold and coal have not been explored and the reserves are still unaccounted for. Read what the NASDAQ has to say about the country at "Colombia Represents A New Vision in South America."
Of course, going offshore isn't restricted to the lower cost, tropical venues of Central and South America. Some people may enjoy the opportunities for cold weather sports and the history of a wonderful country like Austria. Think of Austria as similar to Switzerland or Germany but a place where locals and visitors alike have a lot more fun. While Austrian real estate is not a bargain as it still is in South America, compared to Switzerland it is an excellent value. Here are a few chalets to tempt your wandering eye.
The opportunities still available are truly amazing and I encourage you to takes steps to ensure your lifestyle and wealth now, while you can.
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He didn't mention FATCA.
Wall Street Communists have taken over.
Yeah, that 1% has been redistributin' the wealth, building cooperatives, and providing jobs for everybody....
Fucktard.
In the new normal it's also called "The American nightmare". Prepare accordingly and... ...sleep well.
And with greetings from George Carlin: "The American dream - you have to be asleep to believe it..."
The American Dream is still very possible but broadly speaking if we keep voting in people like Obama to lead you can kiss it good bye. What do you think he meant by the transformation? Let's put it this way. There were a helluva lot more reasons to think the American Dream was still very alive before he came into office.
True, but the realized-dream-to-nightmare ratio is falling fast, currently at ~1/99
0bama: the great divider in chief.
If all your mentors are communists, so are you.
We've lived the last couple of years in Mexico. We are both in our early 60's with no kids or relatives left. We are savers, have never had a car less than 10+ years, didn't have mortgages, never a penny in credit card interest, no student loans. I elected to stop working because the industry I was in was nothing like it was 30 years earlier. As an American, working in America, I was very much in the minority.
We lived in a pretty nice town in the US. It was surrounded by some other towns which were not as nice. Perhaps there were 4 ways in/out of our town and as a crime preventative measure the police installed cameras which took a snapshot of license plates and did a database lookup for stolen cars etc. In the beginning that was fine. They even found some stolen cars. When we left for Mexico that program had grown to perhaps 50 or so cameras, just about every major intersection in the town.
In the US we were paying right around $10K per year in property taxes. We paid our taxes here last week - 896 USD. Mexico is big into the family and the elderly are kind of appreciated. When you turn 60 you are eligible for an INAPAM card (kind of like AARP). We both have INAPAM cards. That card saved us 40% on our property taxes. We have a car - but sometimes when we travel we take the bus. But it is not like a bus in the US. It is more like a first-class greyhound. There are lots of those buses on the roads. 50% discount on those tickets with the INAPAM card.
When we left the US we were pay something like 900-1000 USD per month for health insurance and there was a deductible. Just for the heck of it I looked up how much health insurance would cost us in the US today - $1600/month. As permanent residents of Mexico we don't have to sign up for Obamacare. The Mexican government provides us with health insurance. It is optional, we have to pay for it, but the cost - for the two of us is 600 USD/year. There is no deductible - but there are lines. The quality of care is at least as good as what we had in the US.
We still have most of our retirement savings in the US - in cash - earning no interest. That money which we have moved here to Mexico is earning about 3% at the moment. They say inflation is running about 4% here now - I think that's about what it really is in the US as well. Some things seem more expensive (gasoline, some food items) - but we don't drive as much and perhaps we are eating better. Wine and tequila are more expensive than I would have thought.
Unfortunately we still have to pay US taxes - even on that interest we earn here in Mexico - and our tax return is significantly more complex now as expats than it was when we lived in the US. The brokerage firm we used for 29 years treats us differently now. They limit what we can buy (no more mutual funds) and some things they won't even talk to us about.
As a kid growing up in the sixties I remember the excitment of the US space program. I remember how everything stopped when there was a launch from Cape Canaveral. Walter Cronkite explaining things. The first man on the moon. Look at the US now. 911. TSA. Ebola. A couple of wars. The world needs something to take some pride in.
Thanks for writeup.
Curious what area of Mexico. Because I understand that in general it is very unsafe there. Not an impression from the MSM, but from a Mexican native now in the US who says she will not take her kids to live there, even for a year, because of the danger of kidnappers and the drug cartels.
We live in the central highlands, kind of like a bedroom community about 1 hour from Mexico City - at an elevation of about 5600 ft. The city we live in has a population of perhaps 250K and is the kind of place where the drug kingpins have their mansions. Our day runs 5AM-8PM. By choice we are never out at night (personally I no longer like to drive at night). We have never been big into jewelery (merely wedding rings) which seems to be what gets expats in trouble most often. We live in a gated community with security 24/7.
Personally I think that most of the Mexican crime you hear about in the US has to do with inter drug cartel relations - mostly in areas near the US border - but I believe in the last year that has died down quite a bit. When we drove down my wife was afraid to go through Monterrey. Now she wants to visit. We try to be smart but do not live in fear. We are certainly no more likely to be the victims of crime than we were in South Florida.
I can't say I blame you for leaving today's mess in the USSA.
You should understand that some of those discounts and savings you receive in Mexico is due to the billions of US dollars Mexico receives from the USSA.
I tried researching that at one point - and I believe you are mistaken.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign_aid_received
I believe most the the money the US sends South is to help in the "war on drugs".
2009 184 million; 2010 471 million, 2011 971 million, 2012 417 million
Adds up fast - billions in aid
We lived in Thailand for four years now we're back in the USA mostly due to family issues. We still have property in the north of Thailand--owe 0 in taxes as long as we keep it a rice field. No reason to build a house on it until we go back.
I'm asounded at the prices US people pay for the scam known as health insurance. In Thailnd you can buy birth control pills or antibiotics at a local 7 eleven for like one dollar. In the US both require a doctors visit with a $180 copay on top of $1000 a month premiums. There were insurance plans which cost like $500 per year, but I had to pay out of pocket on my pregnancies. I gave birth to both my daughters in Thailand-- a 5 day hospital stay following a C-section, with a large private room at a place that looked like movie stars would go there for rehab, was like $1400 US.
The air is also lighter in any foreign country I've been to. Thailand is under martial law due to protests of their corrupt government. One day we needed to go to a Thai government building, which was closed due to protesters. A few heavily armed police were in front of the building. We drove our motorbike right up to them through the crowd and asked when the passport office would be reopened. The police were all smiles and chatty in the middle of this. I contrast that to police actions in say, Fergusan...what you reap you sow.
The downside is the insanely complicated US tax laws when you live overseas--a primer is the first $96,000 you make per year is not taxed. Of course the US needs you to spend every single cent you earn, so savers with overseas bank accounts, even very modest sized ones, are punished. I pray that all of this overeach is a death gurgle of a dying empire--and the sooner the better. I despise what my taxes seem to be funding anymore...
Our prescriptions are free.
My wife can walk into a private lab here and request a mamogram without any script from a doctor. It will cost $75 USD.
I've gathered that ALL my health care is free in America, as long as I sign up for some low income MediCare program and jump through some hoops...mammagrams cause about as much cancer as they detect early enough to be "treated" (plus the unexplored psychological consequences of false negatives). The entire system is untenable, wih no resemblance to a free, transparent markeplace that rewards better health outcomes...
This guy lives in CANADA, and he's worried about having his assets seized when travellling through the USA? Better to lose the cash in your pocket than 80% of your productive income for the rest of your life!
What country or race cannot be condemned? There have been so many wars, massacres and genocides in Chinese history it would take a year just to count them all, and at that you'd miss half of them. The history of Mexico or any other Latin American country is more savage, vicious and violent than any Hollywood producer's sadistic imagination. European history amounts to little more than thousands of years of killing, rape, butchery, plunder, suffering and injustice. The world is pure shit, all of it, human history in total, everywhere, is a stinking, maggot infested garbage pile. To those who love to trash America: "Physician--heal thyself".
So true and in-spite of how the leftists try to eschew truth, this is all at the hands of leftists - murderers all.
++1000
As per your usual Ron an entertaining and informative read.
Speaking for myself as an American, I'd have to say that whatever good will we once had with the rest of the World which I hate to inform the readers here was badly tainted prior to 9/11 and thanks to our destructive and threatening foreign policy since is nothing less than a diplomat in full military camo "bearing gifts"... Detente from "this well" is nigh dry and may never return! Certainly if you are in your 40's or 50's you won't be seeing it in this lifetime and quite frankly don't deserve to for what we've done!
You either have to have something rather exceptional to bring to the table in terms of professional business skills or as a technical innovator, have money already, or many friends and distant relatives who will take you for what you are at this point.
Getting to the point.
Who will mind the store here at home for all of our foreign policy entanglements, blunders and indiscretions in the last two decades if all those Americans like James Cameron and Jim Rogers choose to be ex-pats with their money? We made this bed. Now who will stay home and fix what is irreparably broken especially a military superpower that is acting like the most dangerous rabid animal that it is???
My question. Thanks
Hillary ? No wait - perhaps Chelsea ? How about Jeb Bush ?
"Hillary ? No wait - perhaps Chelsea ? How about Jeb Bush ?"...
Looking like it. Every single day that moves forward!
+100
I think Hillary is the chosen one FWIW. Really stupid misstep for her to come out in the press about how "broke" she and Bill were when he left office.
It is optics IMO...if they left a white Republican man as the figurhead minority unrest would have run hotter. So there was that meeting at Bildeberg with H and O and O was given the go ahead to be first. Next up H. Appease the minorities first, then the women which are a larger demographic.
America and most western nations are not perfect but just remember people from other parts of the world happily swap their passports with you if you wanted to.
America and most western nations are not perfect but just remember people from other parts of the world happily swap their passports with you if you wanted to.
jm2c
Who needs to swap passports when you have this and this? Dovetails rather nicely with a pandemic -Wouldn't you say???
Just sayin!
Still true but...akin to be adored by only "uglies" of opposite sex.
After a few beers... who cares? As Johnny Cash said "I've never gone to bed with an ugly women but I've woke up with a few"! And talking of beer thank god you can still buy it in the good ole USA as it's not some sharia hell hole.
People should not write off America so quickly you guys always work best when your backs are against the wall and you've saved the UK twice and for that I will always thank and respect America.
This diatribe is way off the mark.
America is still a good place to live in today but only because of its people – not its government. We have lost our constitutional driven government and our freedom is eroding faster each day.
When I grew up in the 1950’s and 1960s my parents and Grand Parents instilled in its children the love of God, Family and Country in that order. And if I was to survive and prosper in America that above all else I must learn to be self sufficient, take no hand outs and be prepared for the hard times that I would surely have to endure between the good times.
Fast forward to today. Now we have a jealous government that wants to be placed before God and Family. Big government using its propaganda arms in the press, media and the schools says that individuals must first come to government because government is the great provider and no one individual needs to be self sufficient for government will meet all the individuals needs.
Government says:
You no longer have to have an allegiance to your family – government is your family.
You no longer have to worship god – Worship government and government will provide for you.
So why work all those long tedious hours creating a business that gives you the American dream when government will provide for all your needs?
What you failed to recognize, in your belief ridden stubor, is that;
"God, Family and Country in that order."
Family is the closest to "God" you will ever come.
And families make up nations.
Individuals don't reproduce, well, until feminism.
"You no longer have to worship god – Worship government and government will provide for you.
"
You never worshipped "God" since you gave your government over to "Anti-gods".
Because gubmints don't provide squat.
They just take, and redistribute some of that.
Mostly they redistribute to themselves.
Debt for centuries. A slow grind down.
Lock and Load!!! Shoot through the confusion of Ebola!
I find it amazing that after 1000s of years of recorded history mankind is not drilling into each new child’s head this simple truth:
“…the institution of government is the biggest threat to your existence on this planet unless you are active throughout all you life in keeping it under control…”
LOL
‘The bogey man lives under the bed.’
“Daddy, will you save me from the Bogey Man?”
‘Not exactly, just be advised.’
Squeak, squeak.
What a naif, Rabbitone. Don't you know that Progressives are creating what has never existed in history: A benevolent all-powerful gov't whose purposes are to elevate to overlords those who deserve to be elevated (ie, themselves), and to altruistically guide us uncomplaining sheep to Nirvana/Eden.
Yes, this Progessive vision will not run afoul of human nature because Progressives plan to change human nature to accommodate it to the Progressive vision. "You don't like to be kicked in the nuts. Here, view a short film The glorious upside of painful gonads".
Zerohedge.
A place where weak spine expats, whitey haters, florida retirees, ex .fedgov employees (those outside of florida) and now, bored NSA agents shoot the shit.
Its like our whole entire structure of civilization is coming apart and no one with any balls will step up.
They sure do love an exKGB thug for some reason tho.
Shooting the shit can be fun, but what happens when the shit starts shooting back?
I used to like zero hedge but now they all sound like fucking losers and pansy candy asses. Stop whining, you fucking bitches.
The successful man builds a firm foundation from the bricks that are thrown at him.
The American dream is success, and success for your future generations.
It's not a dream, it's reality.
Make it happen, and quit measuring success according to the tabloids.
Touche'. She ain’t taking her clothes off by herself.
Thanks for the post. I know I should move my butt out to a red state at least, and skimming various surveys I'd picked out the Adriatic coast of Italy as a possible place for retirement at very reasonable cost, might take another look at Columbia on your advice.
But it's kind of like the old Yogiism, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." I want to go someplace less crowded and less expensive but with all amenities. What are the odds? And it leaves behind your old circle of friends, such as that might be.
The better thing may be that it leaves behind some old memories, which aren't coming back again in any case but the distance helps, too. Like "The American Dream". But Hunter S. Thompson went looking for that in Las Vegas back around 1970 and never found it there, either.
The Adriatic coast of Croatia is cleaner.
All the garbage washes up on the Italian side.
I'm not sure that Canada is much better than the USA. They have socialized healthcare. They confiscated private citizens guns. Then when they figured out that it was stupid and unenforceable to take people's guns in bear country. What is even worse, instead of repealing the law, they decided that they would "not enforce" it. So any dictator can decide to start enforcing that law when they find it convient.
Just remember 'you didn't build that' and now Hillary continuing the same theme that govt. is the all seeing all knowing center of the universe says 'don't let anybody tell you that businesses create jobs'. And then the worst of it all, no rebuttal from the other side. GOD Help Us All!!!
HRC's just trying to cut Elizabeth Warren off at the pass. When the time comes, HRC willl position herself wherever she needs to be, and demonstrate to the world that she, like Obama, is an invisible chameleon; ie, so, she changed her spots, but WTF does it matter?
I read it in an in flight magazine. I was just in that country twice! For a week! (At the JW Marriott and gee the people were so nice and the food was good and they said this country was going places)
Cracka please.
Go live in Colombia and wait a month for cable and phone, wonder how your house was built (gosh that crack in the wall seems to be getting bigger), get kidnapped and ransomed, bribe some cops, install your battery bank for when the power goes out 4 times a week, pay more for everything except rice and beans, etc... .
And if the shit hits the fan there, you will be the first one to be eaten gringo.
No thanks.
No one should feel sorry for asshole Americans. They brought this on themselves. I hope they all get put in camps to be made into dog food for their Chinese masters. Do you think any citizens of the world feel sorry for Americans, the most hated people on earth? No, everyone wants them dead and their empire destroyed.
While I'm an American please don't include me in that group!
We have created a massive economy of fear, an industry of fear, a national psychology of fear. Al Qaeda could never have achieved that on its own. We have inflicted it on ourselves. the article below delves deeper into how we have built a massive and expensive industry to strip us of our liberties because of fear. Sadly it is easier to talk about halting its advance than turn back.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-terrorist-under-every-bed.html