This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Need To Escape Collapsing Empires
Submitted by Jeff Thomas via Doug Casey's International Man blog,
We recently spoke with Ron Holland, an American expatriate living in Canada. Ron has had a successful and varied career in finance and is a prolific writer. He also supports global marijuana legalization and has served as a director of two cannabis startup companies.
Critically, Ron has for a longtime debamboozled himself from the government’s propaganda and, I believe, has an accurate perspective on the state of the world today. He is a strong believer in international diversification and the issues we frequently discuss.
The discussion is below; I think you will find it insightful.
* * *
Jeff Thomas: What is your present residential/citizenship situation worldwide?
Ron Holland: I’m an American citizen, living, working, and playing in Canada and elsewhere.
Jeff: What countries have you previously lived or spent significant time in?
Ron: I’m adopted, but I think I was born in North Carolina. I’ve lived in several countries: Switzerland; the US; and now Canada, plus I spent a lot of time in Colombia, Austria, and Italy. My favorite state is South Carolina, where I graduated from the University of South Carolina in banking and finance. Later I headed up a trust department and decades later retired to Hilton Head Island before getting bored and taking a position as CEO with a firm in Canada in 2011.
South Carolina has quite an independent spirit and has been a nation not once but twice, seceding first from the British Empire then later from the US following the election of Lincoln. As we all know, this didn’t work out too well, and one Washington supporter said, “South Carolina is too small to be a nation and too large to be a lunatic asylum.”
He was wrong. South Carolina is about the same size as Switzerland, which constantly ranks as one of the top nations in the world to live in. Small countries are the most prosperous in the world—consider the nations of Singapore, Liechtenstein, Qatar, Luxemburg, Brunei, San Marino, and of course Grand Cayman and Bermuda, which are not quite countries.
I believe aggressive empires with bloated bureaucracies, unsustainable debt loads, and chronic military overreach cannot compete against the now capitalist, relatively free-market Asia. Europe would also be attractive if it weren’t for the top-down, unelected EU monstrosity. The truth is Asia is rising and the debt-ridden Western democracies are failing.
Jeff: What prompted you to seek another country as an alternative to your existing country?
Ron: For a start, the corrupt American legal system and the lawsuit and asset seizure threat to honest wealth, property, and savings helped motivate me to take a job in Canada. I’d had enough of the US’s closed, two-party monopoly system, where voting and every election has become a government sacrament celebrating our own enslavement without any chance by the citizens to impact government domestic, economic, or foreign policy.
In America, we have a rapidly increasing militarized police force often so corrupt and out of control that recently the government of Canada warned Canadians to limit the amount of cash they take to the States. We have lost our patriot vision and now operate more like an incompetent banana republic than a constitutional republic under the rule of law.
We have a foreign policy glorifying military aggression and occupation that makes money for large multinationals, while we waste the blood, treasure, and lives of our soldiers for oil and pipelines. I also have to mention the hundreds of thousands of foreign civilians killed, wounded, and maimed for life by military aggression, drone attacks, and our destruction of nations throughout Africa and the Middle East. Finally, I must mention drug laws aimed mostly at minorities and the poor and a prison lobby that has turned the US into the world’s largest prison state with the highest per-capita prison population on the entire planet.
Frankly, I grew up in the greatest country the world has ever known, and it is no longer that country. It has been taken over and destroyed by an elite and special interests, and I’m sad when I spend too much time there. This is why I live in Canada.
Jeff: Was your original intention to acquire a second passport, or to move entirely?
Ron: I just wanted to live and work in Canada. We enjoyed living in Switzerland years ago and wanted to give our youngest daughter an opportunity to live and go to school in another country. I wasn’t specifically seeking a second passport at the time.
I was just bored of being retired and living on the beach in South Carolina. I don’t plan on ever retiring again… I will work until I drop, although I’m not so driven as I was when I was younger.
Jeff: What were the primary positives you were seeking—monetary, governmental, social, etc.?
Ron: We desired all of the above. I wanted to live in a country where my taxes go to benefit me and help others, instead of pillaging the world. A government friendly toward business with low corporate taxes as well as a kinder, gentler state like the United States was when I was younger.
Jeff: What destinations did you research as possibilities, and what made you reject each one?
Ron: I’ve traveled a lot and spent quite a bit of time in Europe and South America, and for us and our daughter, Canada did not present any language barriers to her time in high school. She graduates this coming June, and we may spend part of the year when she is in university living and working in South or Central America—we’re still undecided at this time.
Jeff: What made you choose Canada in the end?
Ron: Actually, nothing exciting or earth-shattering—just a job offer and a great private school opportunity for our daughter. Canada is a wonderful country, and I even get a little emotional singing O Canada at sports events.
I’m especially attracted to Doug Casey’s La Estancia de Cafayate, and I urge all readers interested in a second home or relocating offshore to take a look at this unique community. I’m also leading a due-diligence effort with Anthony Wile, looking into the feasibility of an exciting new lifestyle community in Colombia near an international airport, shopping, and hospital. It’s located at an elevation over 6,000 feet, where neither air conditioning nor heat is required and there are very few insects.
Most people think of me as an alternative financial consultant, but after selling my investment firm and retiring for the first time back in 2000, I sold resort real estate and was marketing VP for a 5,000-acre mountain resort. My passion is actually real estate development and marketing second homes.
Jeff: What problems did you experience in your new country that you didn’t anticipate?
Ron: Absolutely none, as Canada is just like the United States used to be before the American Dream turned into an absolute nightmare. Here the cops are nicer and more professional, the bureaucrats are friendly and usually helpful, and even the government health insurance works far better than what you have in the United States. It is like the US 40 years ago and a wonderful place.
Jeff: What pleasant surprises have you experienced as a result of your internationalization?
Ron: I’ve learned that most people everywhere just want a good life for themselves and an opportunity to raise children and be left alone. I’m especially excited about Asia and somewhat worried about the US foreign policy that has pushed China and Russia together—this will probably rush the decline and fall of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
Jeff: Have you changed the way in which you make a living?
Ron: I’m partially retired now, but I do like to write and promote ideas and products I believe in. As you know, once you are self-employed, it’s pretty easy to never look back at the conventional corporate world. The future is entrepreneurship, as countries, corporations, and foundations too large and bureaucratic will be eclipsed by new competitive alternatives.
Jeff: People sometimes say that they can’t afford to internationalize themselves, as they assume it’s only for the rich. Has that been your experience?
Ron: Well, Canada is not that expensive, but living in a big city like Toronto is expensive and on par with living in Zurich or Geneva. However, there are countries in Central and South America where you can retire and live on less than $2,000 a month. So yes, maybe the rich have more need to internationalize, but it is definitely doable for the middle class as well.
I think the biggest difficulty to moving or living outside of the country of your birth are family considerations. What about your aging parents, kids, or grandchildren? These are the things you need to think through.
Jeff: If you had it to do over again, are there things you’d do differently?
Ron: If I had it to do all over again, I would have retired earlier from investments and finance and been a history or political science teacher. But I have always searched for truth in history, and all history and current event news is just pure crowd control and propaganda supporting those in power. So I guess that would have been a short-lived and dead-end career after all. All I really want for my family and myself is freedom and liberty from those who rule over and oppress productive people around the world.
I also have to say that I also wish I had worked and lived earlier offshore and spent even more time living in more places internationally. Even with global cable news shows, it is so enlightening to watch TV news outside the United States. Sadly there is such a different view watching Canadian TV than back home in the US, and I find the channels like FOX News (the fake conservative channel) even worse than the acknowledged democrat socialist channels like CNN, MSNBC, and of course, financial news on CNBC.
I urge your readers to start watching offshore English channels like the BBC, RT—the first Russian 24/7 English-language news—France 24, and Aljazeera if they want to get a more international outlook on the world and the US. Now this is not to say that each of these channels do not have their own bias for or against certain countries and ideas, but please educate yourself by reviewing alternative news sites in the US as well as informative global options outside the narrow establishment propaganda outlets in the US.
So yes, I am glad I now live and work predominantly outside the US, but I still love my country. But I wish I had left sooner, and I fear many of your readers will live to regret staying in the US with so much at risk.
The world is an interesting place, and the American Dream still lives—just not so much in the United States any longer. But countries can change for the better; tyrannies are overthrown, and the Internet reformation is a big advantage for people desiring freedom and honest information around the world.
Don’t fence yourself in. Be willing to move and safeguard your assets to build life again for your children and grandchildren in a better environment. America was built as the land of opportunity at a time when the American Dream actually existed. Should we not create our own opportunity as well?
»
- 22449 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
If you don't live in the USSA, don't bitch.
Socialist Canada is better???? Really???
It's more consistent and the Canucks are at least honest about their screwing you.
This was a garbage article.
Which part? The article itself, or the part where he interviews a guy who headed a trust company, moved around the world more easily than his untermensch bretheren, retired, lived on the beach, got bored, then became the CEO of another company, only to find easy/safe passage to another country so that he can protect what most people will never attain.
"We recently spoke with Ron Holland, an American expatriate living in Canada. Ron has had a successful and varied career in finance and is a prolific writer. He also supports global marijuana legalization and has served as a director of two cannabis startup companies."
Has someone found our very own Radical Marijuana?
I bet he's involved in the marijuana biz because he thinks people have the right to, if they want to.
I bet money has nothing to do with it!
damn you noticed
This guy is spot on about the US, but he's not being honest about Canada as much of what plagues the US is now coming to Canada. I live in the US but own a business in Canada, and they have serious bureaucratic issues as well.
Not only was this a garbage article, but this fellow pumps Casey's moronic delusional resort in Argentina. If you ever thought you might want to move there consider that you will be raped by the import duties on anything of value you might like to move with you down there and the rediculously overpriced cost of his little fifedom. Totally so Casey can play important person to a clutch of retards.
Canada always ranks higher than the USA in published rankings of economic freedom, economic prosperity, etc.
Note how he refuses to give up his U.S. citizenship. If it's that bad (and yes, it is getting very bad with the socialists taking over people's lives and businesses, crushing the economy) then stay and help fight or get out - for real.
....and if he ever needs to get back he just needs to learn Spanish and cross the Mexican border. He'll be given that citizenship back for free
Its easy as all hell to "get back in" to the US. Just stay for 180 days - the IRS will rescind your surrender of your passport and send you a bill. Staying OUT is the problem if you have family or other ties.
Canada...where the bible is hate speech and the kids of the indigenous are taken to death schools. Not saying it is worse than the ussa, but run by the same globalist jerks.they are not next up for war and disarmament,and their economy is export based but i think those are the key distinctions.
Canada's got the PR guys on thier side, for sure.
One day...this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap, and then stalk from office to office with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into colleagues and co-workers. This might be someone you've known for years. Someone very, very close to you.
If you are the addled, phone-distracted self-absorbed asshole that most seem to be these days, yes, that could happen. Those of us who leave the phone in our pockets and watch what is going on around us would probably have an idea something had changed.
Those of us that don't have a dumb phone are not distracted.
We're not cooking the family jewels either.
Well you cant beat criminal Putin oligarch regime who is taking away private business by force
Russia Delivers a New Shock to Crimean Business: Forced Nationalization
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-18/crimea-gets-renationa...
Supplementing his meager income as the village honeydipper, viedorklis earns 4 santimu for another delivery of Kievan Yatzi 'latvian' propaganda.
As usual, it is of the cheapest quality and easily debunked:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2014/11/bloomberg-sensational...
When you post a link and say that it debunks something that it should actually debunk. But article you posted didnt debunked anything. didnt deny or proove that private companies are not nationalized. Simply some fantasy letters between two dudes.
But what else one should expect from ruskie troll like you?
It's VERY simple.
Government is a bad thing.
@ viedoklis
Bwaah Bwaah a Russian pissed in my cabbage patch.
Get over it , the Crimean's will stay warm this winter and Kiev not so much.
With numbnuts like you spouting Soros's puke you deserve everything that's coming to yooz.
CUNT
Well said WTFUD.
viedoklis_lv
Here is the reply and reality you refuse to consider
"... several trillion dollars worth of public property in every sector of the Russian economy was illegally transferred or violently seized by gangster-oligarchs acting through armed gangs, especially during its ‘transition to capitalism’."
...
"For the US, the EU and the oligarchs it was the era of ‘easy pickings’: economic, cultural and intellectual pillage, billion dollar fortunes, political impunity, unbridled criminality and subservience to Western dictates."
...
"President Putin’s first and foremost task was to end Russia’s collapse into nothingness. Over time, the state and economy recovered some semblance of order and legality. The economy began to recover and grow; employment, wages and living standards, and mortality rates improved. Trade, investment and financial transactions with the West were normalized – unadulterated pillage was prosecuted. Russia’s recovery was viewed by the West with ambiguity: Many legitimate business people and MNCs welcomed the re-establishment of law and order and the end of gangsterism; in contrast, policymakers in Washington and Brussels as well as the vulture capitalists of Wall Street and the City of London quickly condemned what they termed Putin’s ‘rising authoritarianism’ and ‘statism’, as Russian authorities began to investigate the oligarchs for tax evasion, large-scale money laundering, the corruption of public officials and even murder."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/russias-vulnerability-to-eu-us-sanctions-an...
Take a look at this.
Not saying it is correct, but the arguments are compelling.
http://cruft.de/Collateral_Damage_911.pdf
Stick with the Islands .. at least you have the weather and solid supply of party supplies..
http://www.hedge.bz
Those who look closely understand that it is not the 1% at the top stealing the icing off the cake, but the much smaller .1% or .01% that are skewing the numbers and overreaching.
I contend the biggest problem with America is the massive growth in crony capitalism and corruption in Washington. Europe suffers from the same sickness. Much of this can be attributed to the ability of those in control "changing the rules" and positioning themselves to benefit at every corner. In our busy and complex world we have found it impossible to watch all the moving parts. More on how this incestuous mess leads to collapse in the article below. What happens after is hard to say.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-empires-collapse.html
I'm done reading what the offense is up to. How do I outkick the coverage?
A "whale shark" is a type of shark. What you call "crony capitalism" is not capitalism at all - it's pure cronyism. Call it capital cronyism if you must. As in "that cronyist says he's all for capitalism, so long as the businesses pay him a share to keep the govt away - he's a capital cronyist".
Rich enough to deal with FATCA, I suppose.
The rest of us middle incomers expect to loose 40% of (non foreign realestate) NAV trying to exit the US.
Why? Unless you cannot account for the sorce of foreign income or funds transferred abroad...
I guess my only question is why are so many Chinese trying to get into the USA if this is actually true?
You have more free space, Chinese live like 10 guys in one flat=)
Location, location and location.
Better off owning the shittiest house in a good neighborhood than the best house in the shttiest neighborhood.
There has never better been a better time to buy...just ask your local realtor.
Money laundering.
China is horridly polluted. Everyone has the App reporting air quality, most days just breathing the air is hazardous.
You can bet that the US policy of "worldwide taxation" does not apply to the typical Asian businessman in exactly the same way as it applies to the typical US grunt who's been wrorking on The Man's plantation, and books, for decades.
To be concise, a few of the Asians moving to the US don't know what they're doing, and regret their choice, but the majority know exactly what they're getting into, and have structured their financial holdings appropriately.
Most Asians are lied to by US real estate sales people and others that "America is where it's at." We fell for that garbage and spend 20 years in that ca-ca hole. We are now in Singapore. Asia has problems but still is far better than USA. We have friends (Indias) in Japan. They are also happier than when they were in USA. Problems in Asia are over-hyped in USA media. Asia will survive. USA? They are bound to survive but will be much pooer. Notice that NO ASIAN NATION taxes their citizens abroad, has anything like FATCA, etc. Only USA. Further, USA is getting ready for debt confisction, I am sure. Get out now while you still can!
"I guess my only question is why are so many Chinese trying to get into the USA if this is actually true?"
Since the Chinese are foriegners that are not subject to FATCA or other capital controls the US emposes on only their citizens. I believe I recall seeing a headline that Canada was closing its doors to Wealthly Chinese who got into Canada by buying homes (aka the 10 Million Dollar shacks in Vancover). The Wealthly in China are likely fleeing to the West to avoid the Toxic enviroment (pollution) and perhaps mass civil disobedience that will occur if the Chinese debt bubble pops.
The only value left for investors in hard assets in the US is real estate, something that cannot be replaced nor will there be more made, in one of the most developed nations on the planet... That is why Asians are buying up everything they can lay their hands on and they are paying a premium + all cash deals... We are already seeing Chinese influence in US political policies... Asians play the long game, while US politicians can't think beyond the end of their dicks... The future of the US as an autonomous nation is fucked, period, the end...
So what happens if you put all your eggs in that one basket and someone (maybe even the US government) drops a biobomb on your region?
Exactly. I think the "Asia Rising" meme has been overhyped to a ridiculous degree.
Consider:
1. Japan is in Asia. Nuff said
2. I've been to China--and what an eye opener that was! It may well be the Potemkin Village of economic growth. Their new buildings start falling apart as soon as they are finished. Their young university graduates cannot find jobs. Ghost cities. Lot's of people yearning to come here. They have Pollution^N. Their traffic epitomizes the word "chaotic". And the absolute fuking horror of public restrooms with squat toilets and no toilet paper. Unbelievably, this is made even worse by their rude habit of cutting in line. Unlike their reputation, the Chinese are NOT at all orderly.
3. South Korea. Probably a real success story. However, they are very two faced and lie through their teeth. Much of the time you can't understand a word they say (this is intentional) and they pretend not to understand you (even though they know exactly what you're saying). Also, for some reason, armies of hot Korean women are coming here to work in masssage parlors. Hmmmm......
4. India. A shithole if there ever was one, exceeded only by Pakistan and Bangladesh (both of which were once part of India). They crank out armies of engineering and IT graduates, most of whom speak English reasonably well. However, only maybe 10% are competent. The rest apparantely cheat their way through school. And, despite their polite exterior (they apologize profusely when they are caught red-handed or fuck up), they are the most arrogant people on Earth. Really.
The thing to remember is that most of the Asian wealth came from us....and we are about sucked dry.
Japan is a lot better off than USA media makes it out to be. I was just there. Their recession is like USA boom. Most of Asian is doing fairly well. Don't buy the hype.
Maybe the politicians are cheaper to buy?
China is a fascist dictatorship. That is the main reason.
Voted for obama...I can tell.
Yep, likes HIS money and don't want to share it with his brethren, stuffed it inside a revocable trust and then inside a irrrevocable trust inside a offshore Jew attorney inside a Matzo Ball. It's all safe to run his mouth now.
What, you pissed off because you didn't do it too? Don't hate the player, hate the game...
If you won't stay and fight for what America once was then I say good riddance, we don't need you.
Virginity does not come back. Once it is gone...you have to change the sheets. Just the way it is.
Sure it does, for a price...
http://www.mynippon.com/women/restore-virginity.htm
im fighting by leaving. zero of my income goes to pay US taxes to feed the welfare and warfare state. how are you "fighting"?
I like working and being productive, but I'm sure as hell not going to "work" and be productive in the USA.
If I retire in the USA, I will be the biggest damn leech on the federal treasury that I can possibly be.
But work in the States? Pay my "fair share"? It's like choosing to stay in an abusive relationship. No fucking way. Ever. It's the least I can do, and it really is for the children.
I personally have grown weary of working 5 months out of the year just to pay my taxes... Fuck 'em, I'm done...
Says the guy that would prefer to get trampled by the machine because of his "principles" as opposed to doing what's best for himself and his family... Which in case you missed it, is the message of this article... Fine, have at it dude... I'll watch from 12 timezones away..
I wish I had the foresight to start up a cannabis company and travel the world at my leisure. No, I did it the dumbass way, got a degree, became a professional and therefore a perpetual wage slave of the State. Without serious capital, one can't simply pull up stakes and leave on a whim.
Miffed
Leave? As a farmer, I can't go anywhere. I am limited to a 100 mile radius of the ranch. Why? Who's gonna feed the critters? But I am as far away from anywhere as i can get in the Lower 48. That helps.
Need a ranch hand? I can run that sickle bar all day long and bale all night.
Oh, Tylers ... ZH has fallen so far.
Now it's a sort of Craigslist for Argentinian ranch hands...
Don't worry, once your farms gets nationalized you'll be free to go. And completly broke. Maybe they'll let you work there as a ranch hand for a bundle of food coupons per month.
Miffed my pal,
There are ways to "pull up stakes" on a whim. Actually, I was forced to do it several times on other peoples whims. When I rid myself from the bankster nation it was scary at first. It can be done if you are willing to change EVERYTHING in your life. Only YOU will be accountable for your actions at that point. No safety nets, no nothing. Somehow I managed to do it and I have no family or other fallback positions. So I will leave you with a rant...
"JFC... I do business every-fucking-day without consulting, begging, or asking PERMISSION TO LIVE AND EXIST from anyone else, especially from a bunch of worldwide bankster thieves and their .gov cocksuckers.
Humans are the ONLY inhabitants of this planet that are somehow brainwashed into paying RENT to another scumbag human or group thereof to exist here. Tell ya what banksters, go collect your worthless pennies from a fucking grizzly bear!
If you aren't a producer of useful things, you get nothing from me. That includes .gov in ANY so-called jurisdiction and the useless fucking humans that support such horseshit.
My dear friend Angus,
I can always count on you to tell it like it is. This is a good thing and I will always savor it.
I was fortunate that in many times in my life I was forced to make life changing decisions without a safety net and I showed myself I could be tenacious and resilient. Then I succumbed to pressures and plugged myself in like a fool. Now I'm in extrication mode, something you have done all along! I've always admired this in you. You are one of the few I know as a truly free man. And in this day and age that is a marvelous feat.
Thanks for the encouragement. Believe me I hear it. I think of you often and hope you are well. I still need to retrieve my gold from you someday! ;-)
Your pal always,
Miffed;-)
Miffed, don't beat yourself up. When the wife left, I sold the sailboat and went to work for one of the big banks. Why oh why didn't I loose the condo, jump on that boat, and sail off? I beat myself unmercifully over this for 20 years and finally realized that we always have choices. I may like some of them less in my 50's than in my 30's, but they are still there. After realizing this I have opened myself up to some of them. It isn't easy, but look at the possibilities. An MBA from Cambridge? A ranch in the jungle? It's all simply how much you are committed to the goal.
It is huge amount of work at a time when you may not be interested in taking on more. But that is where personal growth lies.
Oysters take their dinner from the tides. Wahoo have to stalk and kill theirs. People have more social mobility than fish. Just depends on what you crave for dinner.
zhandax: Don't worry about your age. A man named Dick Proenneke moved to remote Alaska at the age of 51 and built his cabin from scratch. He remained there for about 35 more years, living alone, until he returned to civilization at the age of 85 if memory serves me. He video taped much of his adventure over the years using old camera technology at the time. He was surprisingly good at video recording and it was turned into a movie about his life (I have a copy of it - Alone in the Wilderness).
He's been dead a few years now but I think his son runs his website: www.dickproenneke.com
Fascinating stuff what a lone individual can do at any age in extreme environments. It's not something to fear, it's something to embrace.
Miffed: Your gold awaits you in your own personal 50 acre underground storage vault. I will name those 50 acres "Miffed Mining".
Me and a few other crazy bastards are currently working on buying another 7.5 HECTARES of claims. And it ain't just gold in them-thar-hills...
Almost forgot, you'll need a shitload of mosquito spray, lol.
I did it wrong out of the gate myself. And it's too late in life to go back and do it again. Fuck.
I'm growing a wee bit tired of articles like these. Hell yes, just get some passports for yourself, the missus and the kids, wire all your capital to a faraway place where you can still speak your mind and discover what a really free market is. Let me tell you, Ronnie boy, it doesn't work that way for most of us, the serfs who struggle to make a monthly paycheck.
And for all I know, Cafayate is located in Argentina, not exactly the coming promising economic epicentre of the world, what with the wicked witch of the East at the helm, seconded by pretty boy Kicillof.
Colombia he says. Free market he says. Ha! FARC I say!
Which Asian country is he talking about?
How... 1980s.
CUBA looking better every day.
better medical
safer food
tastier rum
Actually look at Colombia today as opposed to Colombia 10 years ago and you will be surprised.
Only goes to show your ignorance of Colombia... The FARC moved to Venezuela years ago when Chavez took over... Please do try to keep up...
Oh, well I guess I stand corrected. They finally found the right socialist to run the place evidentally. Good for them.
we all know a global depression and possibly war is coming. for the past 5 years have you been the ant or grasshopper? Have you been planning and preparing for hard times or have you been going home and watching tv, drinking cheap beer, and falling asleep to Desperate Housewives? Nothing in your post to tell us more than belly aching. Are you telling us to bend over and take it raw? Repost and tell us what you have done to protect yourself and your family. Best of luck in the coming inferno that is the US.
This reminds me of that Mayan guy, you know, the one who made clay pots. He looked around one day while working and thought, "God Damn! This is the boss! My civilization is going to rule the world forever!"
Wonder if he was an ant or grasshopper? Cause there's dust on his alter.
Fair enough, I'll repost. I've started paying attention to all things economic in 2008. I was an ant before that time, I've been even more of an ant since then. I have a job, nothing fancy (like so many others here, I guess) so does my wife. Three kids, all debts paid off, so we own our house, my car for daily use is 13 years old, the second one - a Lada Samara, no less - 21 years. I service our vehicles myself. Right now, I have approximately 35 chickens in my backyard and I'm up each morning at 6.30 to muck out my two very large hen houses. I butcher them myself for the meat. I occasionally grow potatoes (I have a second hand Yanmar 1401d with a plough and cultivator - 35 years old).
Do I need to continue or do you get the picture of who I am?
I advise you to go to the Cafayate link in the article. It'd really be the place to be when things fall apart for us, the little people.
O, and for the record: I'm Belgian (Flemish to be precise), not American. But I'm sure we'll get to deal with a very nice economic implosion of of our own over here too.
Mon dieu!
These may be times to try men's (and women's) souls -
But I'll stand shoulder to shoulder with any Belgian who fights for freedom and wavers not.
I have planned for the worst and hope for the best. I am 27 years old from Vancouver islamd. I can feel humanity is in a global awakening and on the verge of a reset.
I have many years of food storage packed away.
I have taken permaculture courses to learn to sustainably farm
I have and am currently taken bushcraft courses to learn to live off the land.
I now have the skills to walk out into the bush with just a knife and survive. I can preserve meat. Make rope, make snares and traps, track animal, make fire from bow drill or flint, Make clothes from animals, knowledge on wild edibles and medicinals.
I have hedged for deflation and inflation holding cash and metals.
It really is empowering to have these skills. I now don't need to feel at of ever losing my job or feeding myself or others. You won't see me standing in line for a gov handout. To be unprepared is foolish. It wasn't long ago my grandparents were canning food and sustaining themselves, life happens, financial crashes. Hurricanes, epic snow storms, earthquakes, solar flares. To this that because yesterday was nice and sunny does not mean tomorrow will be. Call it hedging for life. I live with no fear and thus am very happy. These skills also come in handy for camping, which is most Canadians past time. :) best of luck to all. And if anyone nearby wishes to learn I will point you in the right direction. Cheers.
I love Vancouver Island and the sunshine coast. Good gardening, mild temperatures, good rain, gorgeous scenery, and room to stretch. Don't tell anyone about it! I don't live there (just visited) but have thought about it. One of my favorite places is the restaurant at the Wickinnish Inn during a wild winter storm. Are you still there?
oh yes! i am always in Tofino surfing. it is my "other home" i would say. such a paradise. if you ever go back to Tofino agian, it is a must to go to the natural hot spring on Meares island. but go during the week no one will be there.
Hey. That was wonderful.'
It read like the opening of a great short story or novella.
"Lord Jim of the Yukon"
You should change your moniker to "Right Stuff".
not sarc/
I live in Canada - originally a Brit.
Somewhat further east than you but doing a lot of similar things.
Spend a lot of time out in nature, observing and understanding. Getting to know local edible plants, learning to make fire.
I keep fit, which is very important.
I've learned a fair amount about archery - make my own bows, arrows & strings.
Slingshots are very underrated!
See a lot of deer when out and about. I don't need one for food, at the moment, but often see how close I can get to them. You never know when that might come in very handy.
Water treatment and some colloidal silver seems like a good thing too.
He didn't move to some distant, foreign place. He moved to Canada. BFD. He is vaguely thinking about distant places, and flogging them; this article was an ad: read what he wrote: "My passion is actually real estate development and marketing second homes." You were just marketed to by this pompous asshat.
Once a finance and marketing dude, always a finance and marketing dude.
you can take the dude out of the marketing....
All dreams end, when you wake up. All empires end. To save the world or your country is a fantasy. Take what you can while you can. Your life is what you live, not what you imagine.
Very Lennonesque. Nice.
Japan and China are not heavily indebted?
What really matters is the amount of bad debt, which China has a boatload of.
yes, they created about 27 trillion of it in a weekend a while back(not really but pretty close). Even the US media would have been up in arms had the fed done something like that
I urge everyone NOT to watch the BBC. It is Zionist/statist agenda propaganda, mouthpiece of the Rottenchildes ,MI5/6 ,besides being infested with pedophiles. If you live in the UK and are still dumb enough to be watching TV ,at least dont be a complete sheep and pay these criminals the "licence" fee. You do not have to beg permission from anyone to use an electrical appliance (TV) (your property presumably)in the privacy of your own home . These people were complicit in 9/11 (they got the building 7 script wrong tho), they are war and taxation propagandists, and their lying and spin has reached laughable levels. Avoid for the sake of your sovereignty and soul !
BBC is CNN with a funny accent (but of somewhat higher quality content).
FUCK Cameron, Abbott, Harper, and the ziopuppet Obama (although in fairness, all of the preceding are ziopuppets)
BBC has to be run by some twisted fucks. Been working a night time part time gig to help pay for my daily consumption of rice noodles, and dating expenses with Mary Jane. Will hit the BBC radio station for worldnews updates and invariably, I will catch the last of stories on Trannies, Lezies, Rangers, and then of coarse, endless stories about Muslims, and poor minorities worldwide. This crap is pumped out like sewage everynight. Unbelievable!
The worldwide content from the BBC is different from the programming that British serfs get. The international version, while still very left-leaning, is sort of bland like the news you get on aeroplanes. In contrast, the BBC news and programming in Britain is incredibly patronising and exists mostly to promote the state in general and British politics in particular, desparately tying to keep people engaged with the thieves that run the UK. That is its mandate, and yes, it is pumped out like sewerage.
Sometimes I dream of escaping from New York...It's possible but not likely any time soon given my particular circumstances. I try to console myself that at least we should be starting from scratch after we run out of other peoples' money here...kind of like Detroit.
Oh wait a minute...nevermind
Listen.
Ah, pity the poor American banker. He's not happy. Boo hoo!
No FUCK YOU!
Logged in just to down arrow you.
Yes Canada is better. Have you been there?
Canada WAS better until 1983 when Mulroney sucked up to Reagan and allowed him to annex Canada as another USAIPAC puppet state. Harper continues the downward tradition of turning Canada into a total US likspittle sewage pit.
Esquizito guy, weird interview ....
:-?
Bravo! but we have to get the insanity and endless paranoid indulgences out of the way, and then show that Alterations from a 2600 year old foundation can be the Ultimate advancements for our future, and clogging our freedoms aint gonna give anybody the wanted results, but i dont think your friend is ,by himself entirely correct, but The USA as put the world on its shoulders and is now failling absolutely everyone trying to please everybody and get paid for it.
But we need counter mesures non the less, dismissive rightousness dosn`t solve anything..
Its still based on the primitive notion of who has the better God! and its about time to realise Noboby has a claim on him.
Empires aren't collpsing for the elites.....only for the slaves
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/1945-british-national-archives-document-reveals-prime-minister-clement-attlee-desire-for-new-world-order-with-russia-u-k-and-u-s/
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/2277-order-out-of-chaos-the-doctrine-that-runs-the-world
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/china-not-an-enemy-chinas-richest-billionaires-are-buying-american/
http://newworldorderg20.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/chuck-hagel-predicts-endless-wars-to-define-the-new-world-order/
Wait a second. I read the blurb for this article and thought he was going to say "move to Asia." Since the blurb is all about Asia:
"I believe aggressive empires with bloated bureaucracies, unsustainable debt loads, and chronic military overreach cannot compete against the now capitalist, relatively free-market Asia. The truth is Asia is rising and the debt-ridden Western democracies are failing."
Then it turns out he moved to Canada. Big fucking deal; that is hardly a life-transforming escape for an American. And what a pompous and self-pleased tone: "oh, I always thought I should have been a high school teacher and taught the next generation, but never got around to it; oh, and I got so bored of being retired and living on the beach in South Carolina."
What a waste of five minutes reading. Just a financial industry parasite, trying to give meaning to his pointless life. If he went out and picked up litter on the beach it would be an infinitely greater contribution than his musings.
Oh, and this: "My passion is actually real estate development and marketing second homes." ZH posts this guy's garbage, and fonzannoon is banned. Great, just great. I need to find a new blog to read.
>>>ZH posts this guy's garbage, and fonzannoon is banned. Great, just great. I need to find a new blog to read.
Please share any new blog discoveries here before you move on.
I'm basically just a lurker, but I've been around here long enough to lament the depths to which ZH is falling.
PS Don't put any money into Cafayate that you can't afford to lose. Capisce?
Unfortunately I haven't found anything better, that's the problem.
How about we just start one. Like a chat service, with moderators. Chumbawamba can moderate the shit outta that.
He lost me when he said "I graduated from the University of South Carolina in banking and finance."
i vomited in my mouth as well
Dupe.
First time. Popped my cherry.
Philippines FTW
"I believe aggressive empires with bloated bureaucracies"
yes, Putin oligarch regime is collapsing under its international crimes as occupation of Ukraine continues
Up your nose with a rubber hose pal!
I bet you lost all your Hryvnia investing in bacon stretchers and you're looking for someone to blame.
You write one sentence containing two statements. Both are untrue.
tch tch
"a kinder, gentler state like the United States was when I was younger"
How old is this guy??? 125
LOL! Good one!
BBC!? Are you fucking kidding! Lost all credibility there.
And most credie and objective source is Russia Today or Russia Tomorrow or Russia for Russians AKA Horrey for Putin TV?
You sick ruskie troll.
Put this in your pipe and smoke it, you paid-up Latvian troll:
Ron Holland: "I urge your readers to start watching offshore English channels like the BBC, RT—the first Russian 24/7 English-language news—France 24, and Aljazeera if they want to get a more international outlook on the world and the US."
Although I have to point out that the BBC domestically is wall-to-wall State propaganda only outdone by its rival: Sky News, who's journalists were mostly scooped up from the "School of Failed Journalism".
Made me laugh. One has to be a Kievan Yatzi Junta personality cultist not to see through 'latvian' poor propaganda.
Everytime I read this guys posts now Latka Gravas' face from Taxi pops in my head.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latka_Gravas#/image/File:Akaufman1.jpg
Under Trudeau and before, Canada had earned reputation and enormous respect as a noble and neutralNation.
This all changed in 1983 when Brian Mulroney got elected and jumped into bed with Reagan, who fucked Canada royally.
Today, Canada is just another slimy dirtball puppet of the USAIPAC Empire.
if money was only money
.
we could see the empires fade
here you are jeff. go f*ck yourself
"Information On The Catawba Indian Nation In South Carolina"
http://www.essortment.com/information-catawba-indian-nation-south-caroli...
That's a very fine interview with Ron Holland who is obviously a very wise and thoughtful guy. I'm sure his comments will touch base with huge numbers of people - not only Americans - but those of us elsewhere who have realised that Western governments have become too big, too powerful, too aggressive, too totalitarian and frankly, completely out of control.
These political and financial/corporate and dual passport holder criminal sewage slimeballs are collectively destroying the very thing that they cynically claim to support and are elected to do: to protect the best interests of their own people. In truth, "the people" are the last thing on their minds and they are turning the US and its allies into banana republics.
Their reign of power must be brought to an end the sooner the better. The longer it's left and the longer people stay in denial about the unfolding crises, the more damage there will be to clear up.
There are many here who agree with you and Ron, but don't see the US and the West relinquishing it's position as 'king of the mountain' without a very ugly struggle.
Right now the US is honing its use of its military, its technology, its false flagery, its agents provocateur, its propaganda machine, its use of entrapment, bribery, and blackmail.
Make no mistake. To overthrow the US militarily or economically can not be done by a disgruntled population. It needs the help of other powerful nations.
The US knows that and has tailored its foreign policy to prevent Russia and China from offering that help.
Well, civil unrest leading to insurgency or civil war has been quite successful in history in overthrowing despotic governments which are out of control. What often determines success is that there needs to be a catalyst or tipping point which gets enough people involved. ZH aside, I'm not sure that point has been reached or is even close among the population at large.
I won't argue with you. Perhaps you're right.
It seems to me that high technology will decide the game and the government is exponential in technology.
And you may be right too bts. What with the militarisation of law enforcement and the DHS an' all. I just wonder how far down the sewer people have to be pushed before they say enough is enough.
Sad to say, but there is no sewer long enough to push people down before they say e i e. As long as all of humankind has an overarching fear of death, they will take what ever is dished out.
The concetration camp survivors at the end of WWII prove that point.
Why do Eastern consumers save so much?
There is almost no safety net.
Removing the safety net from all consumers can only reduce demand further.
"Removing the safety net from all consumers can only reduce demand further"
I guess there's some truth in that. But the higher levels of savings are used to invest in productive activities. And the consequential lower level of demand is at levels that are supported by the money available without creating a debt-laden bubble society where people live beyond their means, which is what has happened in the West but is unsustainable because it has a practical ceiling as we have seen since 2008 when the debt bubble burst.
Where is the dead money in the system?
87 people own as much as the bottom half of the world's population.
If there were a supply problem, then those 87 could invest their money to cure the problem.
When lack of demand is the problem, their wealth is stifling demand.
The new Capitalism that only really benefits the 0.1% kills demand.
If you redistribute wealth and spread it more evenly among people, that would probably increase demand in the economy. But it wouldn't change the social model existent in Asia where people save a lot and their savings go into investment.
terminate the vermin hyper-over-populated bottom half = problem solved
Come on.....invisible hands will sort this out. To think it is one or two items is very simple minded and not worthy of ZH or the fight club.
Obama isn't even strong enough to control his smoking. He has to chew nicotine gum, otherwise he goes out in the White house courtyard and smoke.
He is Wrong ! there is no reason why the states cannot return to " the american dream " !!!!
People have to clean up the corruption and follow the laws on the books !!
- and most of all... Make a fucking example of Obama the traitor and put him in jail for life ! with his FED BANK buddies
He never told us the real reason he moved to Canada......it's the beer
And all the tree hugging angry lesbians living in vancouver who have pubic hair down to their knees and refuse to shave. So hot!!!
You all cant go out of your educational selfmade prison of "Canda,sochialism,europe,communist blablaba.
Real indoctrinatet Mericans never leave the Glory Land.
Better for the rest of the World.
" an exciting new lifestyle community in Colombia near an international airport, shopping, and hospital "
Ron, puleeze ---------