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Guest Post: So Where In The World Is Safe?
From Simon Black of Sovereign Man
So Where In The World Is Safe?
Yesterday’s letter about social upheaval received a lot of comments, and I want to address the major themes today.
First, ‘Simon the White’ wrote: “You imply that it’s not just the USA, but that all Western countries are screwed. Where will the contagion end? You appear to be arguing ‘expatriate at all costs,’ but if things are bad enough that there is rioting in the USA, where on earth will be safe?”
To summarize yesterday’s letter, I view social upheaval as a foregone conclusion– it’s already happening around the world, and is a direct consequence of deteriorating economic conditions. In the developed world, social upheaval is a gigantic pyre desperately seeking a spark.
I recommend having a place outside of your home country as an escape pad, but I recognize that many people either cannot or do not want to leave– at least, not yet. Even those who are aware of the problems are still comfortable at home.
I think this is fine… as long as you HAVE A PLAN.
The funny thing about the boiling frog is that every day, the pot gets a little bit warmer. First they start by fondling 5-year old girls at the airports, then it’s train stations. Train stations become bus stations, bus stations become shopping malls, etc.
This erosion of civil liberty and economic opportunity is a slippery slope, and only YOU know your breaking point. Having a plan ensures that, when you reach your breaking point and/or social upheaval hits, you’ll at least know exactly where to go and what to do when you get there.
This is not a decision you’ll want to make while packing your suitcase.
To Simon the White’s point, where will it be safe if there’s rioting in the streets of the United States? To be perfectly frank, it’s not the rioting that I’m concerned about. It’s the government response to the rioting.
Certain countries (and the US is near the top of the list) will have a Mubarak-style response to social upheaval. When you see wide-scale riots in the streets of Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, you’d better believe that all available police forces will show up in full combat gear to squash the protestors.
Politicians will denounce participants as a ‘fringe minority of criminals’ and laud the police for their courage and professionalism. That’s when the real fun will begin… ‘cuz if you think you’re living in a police state now, just wait until they tighten the screws in response to mass riots. It’ll be an all-out war.
I acknowledge that some countries which are ‘stable’ today will probably experience their own problems in the future. There are four key differences to bear in mind, though-
First, what is the level of dependence that the country (or specific location) has on the outside world? Is it like the tiny nation of Palau that has to import everything, or is it like Chile, which is largely self-sufficient? The more dependent, the more potential for nasty upheaval. The US is OK here.
Second, are there existing tensions within society, particularly among race or class? Countries with an expansive gap between rich and poor are going to be the first to break. With the erosion of the middle class in North America and Western Europe, this is becoming a great concern.
Third, what is the level of violence and criminality in the culture? Is it a society that deals with turmoil in a calm, stoic way (Japan), or do people go postal? In the US, there is certainly historical evidence (Hurricane Katrina, LA riots) which suggests that pockets of the country could become unglued.
Fourth, what is the expected government response? Does the government have a massive military or paramilitary force that will violently crush protestors or impose some state of martial law? Again, this is what I view as the greatest threat in the US.
Bottom line– I’m not suggesting that everyone simply pick up and go, damn the consequences; thinking people need to weigh the options carefully against their own situation and craft a very deliberate action plan, including a clear idea of where to go in case you reach your breaking point.
Chile is one place that I recommend, and I’ll address the ridiculous coverage of the protests there next week. Andorra is another great example.
Next, Hamsterdreams writes, “A lot of us reading your articles are already too poor to have a second home in another country! What can we do?”
Here’s the deal. The traditional recipe for success is pretty much dead. ‘Working your way up the ladder’ just isn’t an option anymore. The best way to improve your cash position is to learn a skill that’s valuable to other people– so valuable, in fact, that they’re willing to pay you for it.
This could be anything, ranging from learning a foreign language to certifying rare coins to growing organic vegetables in people’s backyards. Think about how you see the future and then consider what services will be in demand based on that vision. Learn how to provide those services.
Also, if you don’t have much money, you’ll find that the opportunities to provide valuable services and create wealth are often greater overseas where the economy is growing and the market is not already saturated with competitors.
To give you an example, in July’s Sovereign Man: Confidential I wrote about some great opportunities in Kosovo. I even offered to co-finance them if a highly qualified person demonstrated interest. No one has taken me up on the offer.
Last thing to bear in mind: if you’re low on cash, remember that your living costs can be reduced dramatically overseas. If you’re barely surviving on $2,000 per month, you can live quite well in places like Ecuador on $1,000 per month.
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Hi Mariposa - sounds like you're in a great position to plan for the future. One suggestion - while there are lots of jobs teaching English in school situations, many foreign companies hire English teachers/tutors with specific knowledge of their industry to teach/tutor their key people in English. With your electronics background this would potentially open a lot of doors for you with electronics companies. I also know several people in various countries who make a very good living translating/editing business literature for indigenous companies - ever read a tech manual in English written by, say, a Chinese company, for example?
Also think about what there might be a high demand for given your electronics skills - alarm installation for example. Also as you know things wear out and in a true post-apocalyptic world there's going to be a lot of critical electronics needing maintenance and a corresponding shortage of parts. With your English language skills you might be able to help source parts/equipment in the English-speaking parts of the world for companies with the need but without the language skills in their purchasing/sourcing departments.
Just a few thoughts - good luck!
Thanks again! I'm in Micronesia. I don't know if you're familiar with this part of the world. You'rsuggestions are good ones and I'll keep those in mind. I could go to New Zealand but am concerned about not being able to stay there if I remain unemployed too long. Since I have limited savings, I have to use them carefully. The last thing I'll want is to be returned to the US without a cent to my name. If I'm going to be broke, I might as well stay on one of these pretty little islands. :o)
edit: I wasn't able to download the expat security ebook. I don't have a kindlethingy. Do you know where I can buy a PDF or something??
Someone with £400k could own these islands - allodial title so they really are yours. With a ferry and tenants thrown in to keep you company. Not many riots in the north sea:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27947278.html
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Out+Skerries&hl=en&ll=60.421988,-0.76629...
Ferry terminal, airport and people with houses are included????
two words..
global warming..
and for those of you that dnt believe?
or those of you that do not have an island that you have known your entire life..
keep telling yourself the sea is not rising..
but for those of us that know.. not becuase Al Gore told us... but becuase we had to move the houses away from the ocean becuase of the tides..
never mind.. you cant fix stupid.. I really dont know why I still try too.
There is no global warming caused by man that can be proven ! The sea isn't rising.......but that limestone and coral spongecake peninsula you live on may be sinking into the Everglades ! Monedas 2011 "A man can't live in the Everglades !".....Kingston Trio
or.. there could be so many mexicans / spics breeding like cock roaches that the extra weight of all those illegals could be causing the earth to give way?
But you can fix Stupid. You could look up the fact that global sea level, measured accurately via satelites, has decreased a half inch in the last twenty years. You could find out that various land masses are "sinking" ie. the surface of the planet is slowly changing shape; Venice, England, Holland, and the infamous Islands in the Pacific are all examples of this. Also measured by Satelite, to exquisite accuracy. The monthly mean temperature in the United States in April 2008 was exactly the same as it was in April 1908; exactlty-to a tenth of degree. All these are facts; and not opinions. You see, "Stupid" can be fixed, it merely requires education.
I have already schooled you stupid.. hence the "I cant fix stupid" comment.
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Parts of England are sinking ... most of the Scottish coast is rising, not as fast as sea level though.
>> keep telling yourself the sea is not rising..
Keep telling yourself that the sea IS rising.
>> never mind.. you cant fix stupid.. I really dont know why I still try too.
Obviously not, if you're still sitting behind your computer complaining about a non-issue like "global warming".
hence the "I cant fix stupid" comment.
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Spring Weather for the Olympic Winter Games. A map of Canada indicating where warm ... the XXI Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games would be the ... of heavy rain and warm winds eat away at the fruits of their efforts. ...
Vancouver - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Location of Vancouver within Metro Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada ... The 2010 Winter Olympics and 2010 Winter Paralympics were held in Vancouver and .... The vegetation in the Vancouver area was originally temperate rain forest, ...
No snow? No surprise. Vancouver is warmest city to ... - Canada.com
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Feb 9, 2010 – With the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics just days away, ... They won't be coming with rain jackets, because they won't have been informed ...
Behind the scenes: Winter Olympics | Photographers
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Mar 5, 2010 – The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver presented some rarely seen challenges for ... on assignment at the winter games. Rain! Rain! And more rain! ... Highlights included Alexandre Bilodeau, winning Canada's first ever gold ...
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?
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Its cold out there ...and only female company is goats and lambs...Once sheared of their wool they don't keep you warm at night. As for bunga-bunga nights, you are in for a drought.
Forget the Far-off places. I'll take Alaska. We have enough Coal and Oil and Gold and Fresh Water and Game and arable farm land to be an export country for a century - and the secessionist movement will rear its head in a big way when TSHTF.
The nice thing here is that I genuinely don't think roving gangs and crap like that will be a problem.
Every neighbor I have, as do I, have enough full auto and banana-rama to do MAJOR damage if anyone came a wassaling onto our land. That's the motto up here, be polite, you never know who's had a shitty day and is packin' heat.
Plus, we have tremendous military strategic value, as you can be in Europe (or anywhere in the northern hemisphere) in 6 hours by flying over the pole.
If you have CASH, now is an unbelievable time to buy property up here too. I just saw a 4000' house built in 2007 with a 5-car garage and a Hangar, with 350' of float-plane size lakefront facing south, on the market for $297k.
Go to Chile or Uruguay or New Guinea - who cares. But how much sympathy do you think the local gangs will actually give you if they're starving - or just in a crappy mood.
No thanks.
Jake I agree with Alaska as being a top choice,
My family and I moved up here (to Alaska) from Chicago last December and we could not be happier. There are NO state income taxes, NO sales taxes, a can-do attitude of the people, and no permits required for concealed carry; compared to Chicago, this is a different planet and a much better one too. For us, this choice was as close as we could get to moving to another country.
The whole roving gang thing is kind of comical up here, considering most people are indeed heavily armed, the thugs (and few of them that I have seen) won’t last for long.
If only every state had oil :/
Right. The only Roving Gang you'll have to worry about is Putin and his boyz. Coming to take Alaska back.
I gotta agree with you on this one. I just bought a house in the valley. Winters aren't too cold and my neighbors all have gardens, goats, chickens, and horses. Nice to see fellow Alaskans on ZH.
Holcomb, Kansas # 1 ! Plenty of grain and meat, access to Ogallala aquifer, natural gas bubbles up free from your private well, disdain for violence after Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood", Colorado & New Mexico ski slopes nearby, not as cold as Fargo, not as warm as Waco, what few Gays are "Log Cabin" Republicans, firearm and capital punishment friendly, proximity to APMEX, patriotic and God respectin' (sounds better than fearing) people, religious tolerance, low voter fraud, level bicycle byways, wind and solar possibilities, Canadian whisky friendly all around nice people ! Monedas 2011 I am a quintuple threat to fur seals with my spiked Kaiser Wilhelm Prussian helmet, an aluminum baseball bat in each hand and my pointy, steel toed Mukluks !
It's a cultural thing. You can walk anywhere, anything in Japan...China...and not worry....no robbery, murders....rapes. In the USA each major city now has over 1 murder a day.....add in the assualts....it's crazy. You can't even go to the State Fair safely anymore:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-black-mobs-attack-white-patrons-o...
I think that would change quickly especially in cities if supply chains are interrupted and power outages happen. I'd want to be in a rural area.
Get a hazmat suit, my buddy has one. that will be a nice little psyops to keep people off your rural property LOL. What gang is going to approach if you are wearing a suit and a mask. Hollyweird movies would have them scared shitless!
I like the way you think ! Monedas 2011 Comedy Jihad Kiss of Death Praise from Monedas World Tour
>> Get a hazmat suit, my buddy has one.
That's fucking genius.
I put my bet on New Zealand when we moved here over 2 years ago. Everything we have learned and seen here while experiencing it first hand has reinforced that this 100% the best decision we could have made and that this nation will weather the coming storm much better than the vast majority of locations in the western world.
Good for you for now ! Don't forget that white liberals are the most contentious, envious, meddlesome, self-righteous, bigoted, prejudiced, hand out demanding, share the wealth shitheaded, government hole lickin', turn your neighbor in assholes around ! Monedas 2011 Watch out for the Chinese Navy, too ! I went to a fight and a Chinese basket ball game broke out in Biden's face !
Yes. And you know this instantly. The paranoia and the distress go away as soon as you arrive. Living in the Military Empire that has officially decided to "empower" sub-normal tribesman", is very stressful; and dangerous.
The paranoia factor is definitely lower here. I have been back to the US once since moving to NZ and you could sense the fear, desperation, and paranoia of the people back there. It is hard to quantitatively describe but you could feel it.
Where are you at? I'm an American in Auckland (see post above for email).
Palmy. I sent you an e-mail.
This is a rather confused article. Expressed is, "The best way to improve your cash position is to learn a skill that’s valuable to other people– so valuable, in fact, that they’re willing to pay you for it." Presuppoed is the existence of a functioning monetary system, while the article expresses what appears a collapse in the general society. Assuming the latter, more likely is a barter system. Additionally assumed by the article is humans are largely self-sufficient asocial beings. Thus, to be fostered is only, "a skill that's valuable to other people--so valuable, in fact, that they're willing to pay you for it." Apparently, most skills are not of this sort, which implies humans are solitary creatures who need little from one another. This is an odd assumption given the hive-like character of contemporary human life. Most of humanity lives in cities, with the countryside dying. Few seem to desire moving to northern Idaho to live the life of an armed libertarian recluse, as the assertion almost seems to presume. Alternatively, the assertion might be interpreted as presuming people are more disposed to steal from one another than pay, only paying when theft will not achieve the desired good. Being so, expected can be a "war of all against all," humanity not long for existence. Additionally, having "a skill that's valuable to people--so valuable, in fact, that they're willing to pay you for it," then extortion would seem the rational response of the skilled individual. Stripping others of the ability to "pay," demand must quickly decline, accelerating disappearance of the species. Having all the money in the world serves one little when there is no one else with whom to exchange for goods, either because they have not "a skill that's valuable to other people," or they are dead because of your extortion. Simon Black needs a lesson both in logic and human nature.
You have gone to great lengths to pretend there is a problem where there is none. You are afraid. Rural areas are good; skills are good; people like to get along with each other, in general. "A war of all against all"; I was the mechanic in a rural community as a young hippy; I fixed Pickup trucks for chicken dinners, and ate wild plants and got paid in home made bread for doing tune-ups. People like to get a along. There are exceptions; there are problematical people, but they are a minority. Economics just happens, it's very easy.
IQ 145, you appear confused or unclear on certain points. My commentary on rural areas was to show humans increasingly are gravitating to heavily concentrated urban areas, nothing more. This is a factual matter, not a nominal matter. As to "people like to get along with each other, in general," I heartily agree, which is what I desired to express. The article often times seems to assume the opposite. That people concentrate, as well as get along in rural areas, illustrates how false the economic assumption of rational self-interest is. As for "Economics just happens, it's very easy," I know not what you mean. Requiring clarification is what for you constitutes "Economics." In what way is "Economics" distinguished from other social activities? What distinguishes it from sociology, anthropology, and politics? Until this is clarified, I know not how to respond to your assertion as to the ease of happening of economics. Thus it is, I "have [not] gone to great lengths to pretend there is a problem where there is none." Indeed, I would assert the article does so, to which I was responding. In this respect, we seem not far apart.
That's a great question, "what's your plan?" Problem is, timing is everything. If you're in an urban environment, the time to "bug out" is obviously before everyone else makes that decision thus rendering transportation to your hideaway impossible.
And if you bug out too early, you've likely forfeited whatever is left behind in terms of property...kiss it goodbye.
If you're concerned with societal collapse, don't despair, prepare! http://www.collapsenet.com/262.html
Stick it out in the good ol USA'
Social Disorder here will not even come close to level of despair and violence the rest of the world has the potential to experience.
The folks in charge here already keep half the population under manageable control. The bottom half get by on $23,000 a year to support 4 people. This is the most powerful and richest nation on the planet and in all these years of opportunity the bottom half didn't do anything about the fact the they have been left out. You don't have restless masses here, just frogs in the pot. 40 years worth of chances to vote for what you want and you end up not getting squat for it. I think rich have this place in the bag. Bread and circuses.
How much harder is it for them to keep control by subsidizing more than two thirds of the population.
The following is how the vast majority of the people in the US will live like for the next x amount of years.
You live rent free or mortgage free. No one is showing up with an eviction notice. Vacant housing is nationalized into a gigantic section 8 program. You live rent free, but subject to random police searches for contriband and eviction for dereliction. If you behave you can stay in a nice suburb. If you act up, they cast you down with the sodomites.
You get an EBT card, good at any fast food place. Most of the country is in walking distance to at least 2 fast food places. The vast majority have at least 5 to choose from in a 6 block radius.
You don't' need to fix your car, you won't need to buy gas. You just sit at home. Cable TV has been nationalized like GM. Just $5 a month, automatically deducted from the Section 8 rent. No more buses, no movement allowed. Sit home and shut up. 70% of GDP consisted of people driving around buying stuff they don't need. Don't need useless stuff no more don't need to drive to get it. Now all of a sudden the size of the strategic oil reserve is enough to keep the US functional, coincidence? There is a huge gap in the delta of how much oil you CAN waste making GDP and how little you need to survive. Wow, if we really succeeded in sedentary population controls and reduced demand that low number could work out to be just the output from Canada and the Ruskies for us to "keep the lights on". We could not bother with keeping secure access to other sources of oil in the more hostile climates. Let the rest of the world burn for a while. After they kill themselves off we could just walk in and "rescue" the survivors. It would be the humanitarian thing to do.
You sit there eating your $0.99 cent value meals and watch the free Cable TV. You see "news" about all the riots and civil wars ravaging all of the other parts of the planet. You sit there grateful for what little you have. You don't complain, you don't riot, you just sit there in fear. Your kids are in their rooms going to "on line" school because they closed the public schools to save "money". You pray they pass the random on-line standard tests, you even help them a little because your level and quality of assistance is tied to the kids ability to sit in front of the computer all day long learning nothing of consequence. The folks in charge don't want the youth milling around with idle hands, kids can facebook their angst to their harts content, just sit there at home and type quite. They want you and the kids to sit at home while Officials demonstrate confidence that they will manage to somehow ride out the global chaos for your safety.
Everyone else left earning a paycheck will be keeping a "lid" on things. Keep the water running, the lights on, the garbage picked up and the civil order firmly in check. And everyone will keep one eye on the TV, watching billions of people fight for the scraps left behind on the global trade table. You don't rock the boat. You do as your told because the only alternative is getting down graded to the FreeShitArmy assistance. Your going to feel alright about enforcing social order in the good ol' US of A. If you don't do it someone else will take your place. If no one does it, we end up in flames like the rest of the planet. You will do it if your a "Patriot" the poster will remind you.
The folks in charge will succeed because they have spent the last 40 years breeding frogs. The outliers who read stuff like ZEROHEDGE will be marginalized and ostracized. People who "get it" add up to maybe 2% of the population. A 2% problem is manageable. They just have to make sure it doesn't grow to 10% rabble rousers levels. Your are going to suspend your Zerohedge account and live well or you won't. Chose wisely. Pack off and head for destination unknown if you like, it was nice knowing ya. Andorra will take you in with open arms, they have room to spare.
How will they manage to do this? You might wonder. Seems impractical.
Simple, they will have every rich person from the rest of the planet clamoring to get in here. The treasury will be chock full of foreign capital, fleeing the chaos abroad. Oil CONSUMPTION/DEMAND in the rest of the world will fall off to a trickle. The Federal Reserve will be issuing new notes with bar codes and RFID's, anyone with old notes has x amount of time to come here and swap them out. New policy is you get 25% back in new valid cash and 75% in long dated treasury notes for money that comes from outside the borders (and boy is there a lot of it out there, PS the more funny money we pull out from the pile the longer the length of the note will we give you for what is left that is genuine), inside would be a ratio commensurate with the amount of fear necessary for compliance (I figure if you all comply and go along, they will split the deal 50 cash/50 short term, you keep up with the teaparty crap and it will be worse). Fiat currency in any other form won't be worth printing. Yen, Yuan, Francs, Euros and all the others will shit the bed. What good is it to be filthy rich elsewhere when the poor people around you resort to violence and discord. Fiat money is only worth what the government that issued it can promise you for it tomorrow. "Look here rich of the world, sit among the passive sheep of America, it is THE SAFE place to ride out the conflagration."
We will be the only reliable paying customers on the planet. We will pay with soldiers and protection. We will have a big big army. A lot of kids will sign up because their families will be supported by the DoD. The pentagon will convert all of Las Vegas into an army base with fabulous housing accommodations for the brave warriors serving on that oil platforms. Officers families get all those empty McMansions to stay in, while the enlisted mans kids line up at the Palms Buffet for lunch, after a swim in the pool before they go to school in the convention hall downstairs. Every night they will pray for the warriors sent out around the world keeping watch on the places we deem strategic enough to warrant unmolested preservation.
Health care, you ask. Solved when every doctor or nurse in a war ravaged part of the globe has to choose to stay there and help with no medicine or take up the US on the offer that you and your immediate family can come here and be safe. The Doctor has to work at our hospital for free but we will send some medical supplies and "NEW" US cash money back to your home town hospital in your name as appreciation for your hard work. We can offer this to any profession we need to shore up domestically. Engineers, Scientists, etc, etc. Drain the brainpower from the rest of the planet. It will make the chaos end faster and quicker if there are no smart people left capable of doing the right things elsewhere.
Eventually the global population falls far enough and fast enough that there is no one left to fight with for what little is left behind, and the rich and powerful can start the cycle all over again. Almost everyone on this planet is aware of and exposed to the "American way of life" all of them want to live like us. A lot of them have been given the privilege of living like us. But the USofA fitters away more than a third of the planets resources to sustain only 330 million people. If you run the numbers out that only leaves room for a billion or so people. What will the other 6 billion have to say about that fact? The most honest words uttered by any politician were from the lips of Dick Cheney, "The "American" way-of-life is NON NEGOTIABLE". My advice to you is to plan accordingly.
It is all about managing your level of fear. If the folks in charge can keep you more scared of not doing things their way, they will win out. The FreeShit Army will grow. you will participate willingly. It will be too easy to acquiesce. The alternative will be to risk the same fate as the rest of the world. It will be your "Patriotic" duty to shut up and put up with the Police State. You don't want the US to end up like the rest of the world spiraling out of control do you?
Do you see any other government out there that can pull this level of control off. Anyone, Anyone. I think not.
OK, maybe the Russians, but only because that is how they have been running things all along.
"May God bless you and keep you safe, and may God bless these United States of America."
POTUS Seacrest, OUT!
Horseshit. Not everyone has attained your level of cowardice.
It's still an interesting post, for those of us who like to assess alternatives and weigh the probabilities. I agree that this scenario is unlikely, however, due to the remarkable fact that amedments 1 and 2, though on life support, are somehow still breathing. I'm doing my part to support them both.
and lol at Potus Seacrest. I bet he'd get more votes than Ron Paul (sadly).
Living through a currency devaluation and how to cope
I was managing an American subsidiary of a successful large US Company in Mexico. It had been a financial turnaround for our team. Cash flow had accumulated in our bank in Mexico and corporate didn’t want the money repatriated to the US. Although we had already paid a 35% income tax to the Mexican government, we would have to pay an additional 30% exit tax to repatriate the money. In addition, we would have to pay high fees for the peso/dollar exchange, in order to make the transfer. The company wanted to expand our successful business and so we decided to keep the money in Mexican pesos to be used for further expansion.
One morning, as my wife and I were on a trip driving on the highway, we heard a national message from the President of Mexico in 1976, Luis Echevarria, one of the most corrupt presidents in Mexican history. “It is a lie that we are going to devalue the peso,” he said.
Read more
http://lonerangersilver.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/living-through-a-curren...
If you americans wanna get stolen, shot, kidnapped, hit by a bike or a car come to Brazil... You complain too much of too little.
Don't worry, we'll be just like Brazil in about 10-15 years. I hope I can afford my new armored car!
It is going to be bad in any big city, even in the safe countries. Expect the authorities to use "containment" strategies where possible to keep the population in the metropolis when the SHTF. They will do things like dynamiting the bridges and roads so the population cannot stream out into the countryside and create havoc. The PTB will offer food rationing - sorry, food stamps - to keep the populus quiet while they figure out what to do with us. You can use your imagination and your knowledge of your government to get an idea of what that might be.
Use your wits and pick a place that is beyond the choke points that can be cut off. You will find that these points are usually comfortably close to the city's periphery. If your city does not have these choke points then it is either a paradise or soon to become a part of Hell. Your call.
If you established a corporation in Estonia 10 years ago, you'd have now compounded your principal and earnings tax free for 10 years - only withdrawals are taxed, at 21%.
Only geopolitical risk is a big russian bear in the east, but Estonia is now a member of both NATO and EU. With a population of 1.5 million, it's outright homely.
Like most peoples in northern hemisphere, estonians know how to survive over winter and tough times. Younger generation speaks more or less english.
Cost of living is affordable, like all of East Europe.
Hint: Only buy newly constructed real estate, not russian communist era refurbished, even if it would look nice on the outside (after refurbish). If buying a historical property, you have very limited choices for renovation, using antique materials and methods is a must.
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1. Who the fuck wants to live in Kosovo?
2. If you can't live on $2,000 in the US, but you can live on $1,000 in Ecuador, that means you'll only make half of what you make in the US in Ecuador.
Simon Black, you're, ah...yeah.
I am Chumbawamba.
Thought provoking but unable to seriously address the total uncertainty is approaching. I have said for years now that what we all needs is now "a plan". What we all need are options. Because plans don't account for Fukushimas or catastrophic weather events which cannot be foreseen. And the fastest way to increase your options now is to have a place to go outside of the big cities. -- MCR
http://goo.gl/M2lu7
If you live in New England you can have both worlds. Northern Vermont is fairly 'remote', has internet and great highways to La Nouvelle France: Quebec, the land of great restaurants and graceful women.