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Hello Scott,
Been watching the dollar sink continuously here although it appears to have become stronger lately in the world. I have also read a few articles that it will sink much lower to the colon. Costa Rica is getting more expensive everyday. Any comments?
We last looked at the the US dollar a few weeks ago at:
[ https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/US_Dollar_Buys_You_Less_In_Costa_Rica.cfm ]
You can see the “Tipo cambio de compra y de venta del dólar de los Estados Unidos de América” at the Banco central de Costa Rica website at:
Scott
The dollar only went up during the crash because people were buying US dollars as a crisis investment
Its not that Costa Rica is getting more expensive–its that the US is running trillion of dollars in deficits and inflating the hell out of the dollar
If you`d like to know how this works and why–watch this
[youtube][/youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JIl_HTxivU
Really do not want to make this a political discussion. Getting pretty tired of all the stuff that flies around this site anymore. Understand the mechanisms of the US government, etc. but just wondering about the future of the dollar here since many retirees like myself are on a fixed social security income. Is the goal here to devalue the dollar as much as possible and make it difficult on Americans. But I am not sure why Costa Rica would want to do this since I hope we are somewhat contributing to this country in a monetary way. I know I am. The baby boomers are just starting to retire and one would expect with the right posturing Costa Rica would look like a good choice for these people to spend their dollars.
“..and one would expect with the right posturing Costa Rica would look like a good choice for these people to spend their dollars.” may be begging the wrong question.
Perhaps the question isn’t whether Costa Rica might look good to American retirees but whether American retirees will continue to look good to Costa Rica. Perhaps we’re not the saviors of this country that we think we are.
That aside, if the dollar is weak against the colon due to whatever market forces, you’ll get fewer colones for your dollar. Does that come as a surprise?
Actually David, no surprise at all. Currencies do fluctuate. But watching the dollar get a little stronger against other currencies but getting weaker here just makes one think alittle.
The answer to your question is political
In order to understand why your dollars buy less, its probably important to understand what the Dollar actually is–a promise–thats it
Costa Rica doesnt ^decide^ on the value of the dollar–in fact the Costa Rica government has taken unprecdented steps to devalue their money–they lowered interest rates and now BCR is offering 100% financing. Remember how well that turned out in the states.
Nearly every country in the world is printing money like mad in an attempt to devalue their money–thats why gold is going so high–not just in dollars buy euros, pounds, yen etc
Or in other words–thats why you need more dollars to buy the same amount of gold. The gold has not changed–but there are more dollars chasing less goldIts still really cheap to live here though–$1000 a month gets you by nicely. And the governemnt has made it a priority to cater to the boomers
[u]One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato [/u]
[quote=”bbrunsca”]Really do not want to make this a political discussion. Getting pretty tired of all the stuff that flies around this site anymore. Understand the mechanisms of the US government, etc. but just wondering about the future of the dollar here since many retirees like myself are on a fixed social security income. Is the goal here to devalue the dollar as much as possible and make it difficult on Americans. But I am not sure why Costa Rica would want to do this since I hope we are somewhat contributing to this country in a monetary way. I know I am. The baby boomers are just starting to retire and one would expect with the right posturing Costa Rica would look like a good choice for these people to spend their dollars.[/quote]And by the way, I do not think we are anybody’s saviour. Gees we can’t save ourselves, can we? The simple point is that the baby boomers are retiring, they will look for places to retire and I just think it would be good business for Costa Rica to try and entice as many as it makes sense to retire here. Of course, I understand that one can over do it with not very good results but there is a big opportunity for this country. Maybe you don’t agree.
I agree with David’s quote: “Perhaps we’re not the saviors of this country that we think we are. ”
I have repeatedly said that we expats (from the US, Canada & Europe) are a lot LESS important to Costa Rica than we believe we are …
Scott
Just like we are saving Iraq!!!
It feels great to do good deeds[quote=”Scott”]I agree with David’s quote: “Perhaps we’re not the saviors of this country that we think we are. ”
I have repeatedly said that we expats (from the US, Canada & Europe) are a lot LESS important to Costa Rica than we believe we are …
Scott[/quote]
I hope none of us believe we are “saviours” of this country. Now we are mixing religion with politics. This is really getting scary. But my daddy use to teach me to have good business sense (wish I had listened to him more) and my gut tells me that maybe this country has a great opportunity here that it may not be taking full advantage of.
[b]Clarification:[/b] I never intended my use of the word “savior” to be taken in any religious context whatsoever. Rather, I meant to express some doubt that we expats represent a significant positive economic influence in Costa Rica.
If I’ve offended anyone, please accept my apology.
First of all I just liquidated my Colon account and bought dollars at 515 each.
Lets see what happens.
Second, if any of you have read Costa Rica Now you understand the authors point of view that we are tricking ourselves believing that we make things better here by throwing money at it. Isn’t that the American way? Hey just throw money at it and it will get better, like the education system and I could go on and on. Now, I am not just picking on N. American here. I intend to pick on anyone who does not follow Tico social norms. You do not have to follow the law at the expense of being human. Remember “A Few Good Men” where the marines that gave the code red were eventually found guilty for following an order because “They were supposed to know what order to follow and which not to follow.” Well you see this in Tico society every day. And that is a good thing that we foreigners should learn from. We do not owe our allegiance to those rules and the governments that do not earn our allegiance. So next time you blindly follow a rule without thinking it through, you just reinforced your US indoctrination and moved farther from Tico assimilation.
It takes courage to be a patriot. Tiocs exemplify their willingness to control government by participating with it as little as possible. You are not your government – you are a human that lives with other humans in a community. That should be first priority.
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