Jeanetta Owens’ article

[sueandchris]

Jeanetta Owens’ most recent article at [ https://www.welovecostarica.com/public/3048.cfm ] was excellent. Should be required reading for anyone thinking of moving here to Costa Rica. Thanks, Scott, for the continuing good articles by expats “living the life”!

[Andrew]

“Con mucho gusto” Sue…. And when can we expect to see some articles from you about “living the life”?

Scott

[waggoner41]

Funny thing is very little of what she thinks are concerns motivated us to move here. For 6 1/2 years we researched all around the Pacific Rim but a Tico coworker kept whispering in my ear “Try Costa Rica, try Costa Rica.”

Living in California we wanted to get away from severe earthquakes and we had gotten tired of living with our nation at constant war. Costa Rica became the focus of my research for the next two years and I couldn’t find anything to dislike.

Commitment to the environment, lack of military and a history of many small earthquakes but none larger than 6.5 were attractions as was the variety of micro-climates.

We finally made a trip down here for ten days in September 2006 to get a feel for the country. No tour setup for us that’s no way to find out what it’s like…we scheduled the flight, the rental car, the meetings with various people here and our lodging.

We fell in love with the country, the people and the climate and by the time we left we had signed a contract to buy the “perfect property” to close at my retirement in December 2007.

After moving here we started discovering the benefits of national health care, low taxes, lower, but now rising, cost of living.

Are there downsides? Yes, at first there are. Frustration with the slow speed at which things are done, complete change in culture, new language.

Now we are three years down the road, no longer frustrated, living within the culture and learning the languge.

Would we change what we have done? Not on your life. this is truly “PURA VIDA”.

[maravilla]

i think jeanetta is a terrific woman, and has weathered a lot of hardships, espcially the recent loss of her husband, but i truly do not get the rant on socialism and how bad it is. isn’t costa rica basically socialist? how can anything be worse than living under capitalism?

[waggoner41]

[quote=”maravilla”] isn’t costa rica basically socialist? how can anything be worse than living under capitalism?[/quote]
Costa Rica is basically socialist in perspective. While I admit there are problems here it is better than living in the States.
The problems in the States aren’t due to the economic system. It’s what the government has become. Congress is becoming totally disfunctional and this Ryan Roadmap to economic recovery is basically handing the economy over to the wealthy.:cry:

[maravilla]

she mnade it sound as though living under socialism was akin to some evil empire when she didn{t have the protection or umbrella of the US gov{t over her head. so then she winds up in costa rica, which is basically socialist, so i still can’t connect the dots on that one. i’ve lived in other socialist countries — france, as one example — and i didn’t see anything so bad about that.

[DavidCMurray]

I have a little trouble following the thread of the argument, too, maravilla.

[maravilla]

thanks, David. i read the article twice to see if i missed some clue, but there were no clues. the message i got was “living in Germany as a civilian under socialism was the pits, so we moved to costa rica, which is also a socialist country.” i’m just a bit confused what socialism has to do with anything, although i have found that the people who complain the loudest about it are all too happy to have socialized medicine and get their medical treatment for free.

[sprite]

Since she offered no examples of what she disliked about German socialism, and made no reference to the fact that Costa Rica uses a socialist system, I assume she, like most people, may be confused about the issue and attach more relevance to this than it deserves as regards to life style.

She could have boiled it all down to “low taxes and somewhat lower cost of living means less infrastructure”. I think everybody understands that. What many people may not know is just how they might fare living in a place with less infrastructure. And she raises the important question which is why we decide to move to another country in the first place. Valid motive, I believe, in the end decides whether or not the move is successful and relatively long lasting.

[Author]

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