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Pour a few rounds into the back of an unarmed burglar and see about who gets to write the history.
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Whatever. It’s you delusion.
[quote=”imxploring”]
Another thing to remember is that if you’re the only one left breathing after an encounter with someone looking to do you or your loved ones harm….. YOUR version of the event is the ONLY one that gets heard.
Two people can keep a secret. As long as one of them is dead.[/quote]
. . . and no one investigates the physical evidence.
In some cases, medical care providers, firefighters, police, prison guards and others do, in fact, jeopardize their own safety, their lives, to protect and to serve us. And while air traffic controllers may not be at quite the same level of risk, certainly they DO protect and serve. Try flying without their service.
Since legal self-protection (gun possession) in Costa Rica is so nearly impossible, the advice to anyone not here already would be not to come, which would, of course, pull the rug out from under anyone in the real estate business. Is that what you’re really advocating? And those already here should depart posthaste, right? Otherwise, everyone, including our hired and heavily armed personal bodyguards, should hire their own bodyguards.
Your contempt and disdain for all things and all people governmental is readily apparent, Scott, but if you’re going to wear it on your sleeve, you need to formulate less embarassing ad hominem attacks.
Now, shall we open up the discussion to include those whose sole purpose in life is to whore after money?
barbara ann, there’s something wrong with the picture you paint. If you’re using 800 to 900 kwh per month and NOT using air conditioning, something on your side of the meter seems terribly wrong.
For comparison, we have neither heat nor a/c and we consume about half what you use. We never use our ceiling fans. When we leave a room, we turn off the lights, but the iMac and the two iPads are plugged in and running 24/7, we have one large refrigerator, and we use the electric dryer for every load. We bake only rarely, but Marcia uses the electric stovetop every day for lunch.
I wonder if a local electrician might find something amiss in your wiring, or maybe you should catalog all the electricity-using devices (add up the draws) and see what you get.
We have solar water heating. That is probably the simplest and most cost-effective means of offsetting your electricity consumption. It has a backup electrical element for when there isn’t sufficient solar energy.
About three years ago, we invested in a six-panel grid-tied photovoltaic system that produces about 190kwh per month on average year round. By “grid-tied” I mean that we’re connected to ICE’s electricity system.
These panels, which are wired into our main electrical panel, provide electricity when the sun is out. When their output exceeds our demands, it sends electricity back into ICE’s system and our meter runs backward which reduces our bills. When the panels are not producing enough energy but our devices are consuming it, we get the electricity we need from ICE.
The initial installation cost about $8,500 but prices have come down since then and the efficiency of the panels has improved.
A month or so ago, we installed six more panels as an extension of the existing system. Whereas the first six panels are rated at 200 watts, the new ones are 250 watts — a 25% increase in productivity, and they were cheaper.
I’m very confident in the work of the gent who installed our system and I’d be happy to share his contact information. I have no business interest in his company.
ICE has a two-tier rate structure. The the first 200kwh per month are billed at a very low rate. It would not be cost-efficient to try to offset that energy consumption with photovoltaic panels at today’s costs. But above 200kwh, the rate goes way up. That is the energy you would want to offset with a photovoltaic installation.
If it has been three years or longer since you were granted pensionado status, you are eligible to apply for permanent residency. The process is simpler than your pensionado application since you do not have to provide new birth and marriage certificates, etc. It’s merely a status conversion.
We went back to our ARCR-affiliated attorney and had him do the deed. He had whatever documents were required, etc, so we paid our money and sent him into the fray. Seems like it took about a year to get our permanente cedulas during which time we renewed our pensionado ones.
[quote=”imxploring”] But what’s to say we can’t return to a system that worked for 1000s of years and had meaning.[/quote]
I’m curious (your turn for the history lesson). Can you cite an example of a system (monetary, health or otherwise) that “. . . worked for 1,000s of years . . . ” and which any significantly large group of human beings abandoned and subsequently has returned to successfully?
To be sure, there was a “back to the earth” movement in the 1960s and 1970s, but few were really involved and fewer still remain involved today. Likewise, while organic food production could be cited, it has hardly become ubiquitous. And the ancient practice of using leeches and maggots in medicine has come back into fashion in some instances, but we’ve hardly returned to the Galenic model.
Too, the very fact of widespread usage of precious metal coins is a question. From what little I’ve read, most humans throughout history have lived and died without having had more than a very few coins. What commerce existed for most of human history consisted of goods-for-goods or goods-for-services barter.
I dunno . . . I’m trying to think of something that has actually occurred that would have the worldwide implications of a universal return to the gold standard. Help me out, please.
[quote=”davidd”]8 to 10 million??? wow I didnt speculate that high [/quote]
“Speculate”?? So you just pulled your $5,000,000.00 out of some body orifice? What was the point?
Attorneys who handle residency matters are specialists with better contacts and more experience that the run-of-the-mill attorneys who populate all of Costa Rica’s towns and cities. Go to a specialist for residency. Send me a private message and I’ll give you a referral.
Otherwise, general practice attorneys can handle most other legal matters. Don’t necessarily opt for the cheapest guy, and if the matter is really important, get a second attorney to check the work of the first. It’s relatively cheap and can prevent many, many headaches.
The exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Costa Rican colon (the “buy” rate) has hovered right around $1.00US = c495 for around two and a half or three years. The currency value of my dollars has varied almost not at all. That is not to suggest that some prices (energy, in particular) have not gone up here, but that’s true everywhere. Can you point to reliable numbers (actual data, not just assertions) that the inflation rate in Costa Rica is so dramatically higher than the inflation rate in the U.S?
And, I elect to live in Costa Rica for the experience of daily living here. My decision had nothing to do with the cost of living here. In my estimation, looking for someplace cheap to live is probably the worst reason to move here.
(BTW, I have never suggested that there are not far, far too many unemployed people in the U.S. nor that far, far too many of them cannot earn a living wage. I don’t know where you dredged that up. Please don’t impute to me things I have never said.(Goes for others, too.))
[quote=”imxploring”] Remember 100 years ago communicating by any other means than a letter which was then posted in the mail for delivery was the only form of long distance communication for most people. [/quote]
Uh, your understanding of the historical facts is a little off, imx. The first long distance telegraph line (Baltimore to Washington) was funded by Congress in 1844. It proliferated very quickly such that the telegraph was the central component of the Union’s command system during the Civil War which was waged between 1861 and 1865. Samuel Morse improved on designs which had their origins as far back as 1809.
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a U.S. patent for the telephone. It, too, proliferated very quickly.
Now as for the silver coins, all johnnyh and others need to figure out is a medium in which to make change and a way to determine relative values. Just how many nights can you stay at (insert the name of your favorite hotel) for a 1913 Liberty Head V nickel? How about a 1944 steel wheat penny? And what will johnnyh be offered in change, or will he have to make up the difference in corn?
So where can you point to for proof that the U.S. inflation rate is so great? Not here . . .
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
As has been convincingly reported elsewhere in this Forum, the world economy runs on fiat currency which is, indeed, real money. Why would one lone hotel desk clerk want to buck that tide? If you have it in mind to unbrainwash the world’s clerks and their bosses, who give them their guidance, you will never run out of work.
As for the Canadian gold coin, if it is really gold and not just gold-colored, what does its marketability tell you about the interest in precious metals?
I’m not sure what qualifies as a “good” security company, but ADT is represented here. Try
There are sure to be others scattered about. It would help to know where you’re located.
