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ed hit the nail on the head. gringos spend money. i know people who didn’t exit for years so record stamp and no record in the computer, but they then flew out and then back in with no problem upon reentry.
enduro said: “Well said Aguirrewar and Lotus. I’m with both of you on your comments.”
i’m with them as well, very well said. just one little note about what Lotus said, i’m all for complaining, because without it, we get no where. all i’m against are those that live in a foreign land, where the internal problems are far greater than the USA, yet these people criticize the USA as if where they are is paradise. focus on where you are and be thankful that were you were provided you the opportunity to be where you are.
imxploring, oh me, oh my… my point wasn’t want you don’t SEE because of where you live, my point was that costa rica has these problems. sorry you have to isolate yourself so you don’t see the problems down there. i can go pretty much any place in SF and it isn’t a sight for sore eyes.
i didn’t say we didn’t have debt, i said we pay our debts.
my property tax is not 10,000 a year. but hey, our infrastructure is 1000 times better. like ed f said, can’t compare. we don’t have any wooden plank bridges with missing planks that large buses have to ride over anywhere in California either.
that smog is because we are a rich nation so EVERYONE has a car! how many cars per person in Costa Rican? i don’t know and you don’t know, but certainly not as many as here.
extra 100 on a TV or a computer, fair enough. but even so, you have to put up with the potholes, the litter…. on and on and on. it is only “beautiful” in costa rica from a balcony over looking the valley… you won’t say beautiful when you are on the street, at least i hope you don’t call that beautiful. besides security, what are all those gated communities with their pretty sidewalks and driveways for, to give you that back home feeling/standard because outside the gate is a mess? if it is so good outside the gate, why the gates? you get what you pay for, if that standard is good for you, that is your choice. i like what my taxes provide. i don’t have to isolate myself in a gated community and i’m glad i don’t have to.
Arnold is working overtime, that is called democracy. if the dems and arnold have it their way, more taxes! if the repubs have it their way, cuts in services. is there any surprise there?
on traffic, again, my point was that the same thing exists in costa rica. this isn’t about YOU and where YOU live.
Edited on Sep 06, 2008 21:56
ibarnon, i agree with you, the last eight have been awful. but i can’t be a dem, because i believe they are more about enabling people to do nothing. amazing that JFK said ‘ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” it seems the dems are all about the opposite of that. YMMV so don’t bite my head off, we are all different and do things for different reasons. also, i find little reason to get involved with one of those other minority parties. i don’t think it is a far stretch to think that GW and the dems had a back door deal going since 9/11… the dems complain about the war spending and GW doesn’t cry over what the dems put in the budget. since 9/11, they have complained about the budget, but mostly over war spending, nothing else in a major way that i can remember. since 9/11 it hasn’t been difficult to pass a budget… makes one wonder. i am not saying it is true, just an idea since one really never knows.
i don’t get upset over politics, because i never focus entirely on the short term. i think about the last 30 years and how we go too far to the left, then back to middle and then too far right… this happens over and over again…. zig zagging over the middle. over time we stay pretty much in the middle, but the middle does change. for example, 20 years ago, dems would have been the only party to support gay people, but today, even though the repub aren’t 100% on board, they are not completely negative either. 40 years ago neither party would have stuck their neck out for any gay people. don’t take my numbers as concrete, just an example.
about marv, didn’t you read! geeze! she could be living off a trust from europe. now, where is that ‘rolling-eyes’ icon?
marv said: europeans don’t typically toss their elder relatives into a nursing home to waste away and die, now, do they? in europe there are multi-generational families even today.
this is a lie. you are behind the times. and this is beside the point, you were not raised in europe. more likely your grandparents did want to throw your parents out. i guess your parents were too poor to live on their own… so sorry.
marv said: europeans don’t typically toss their elder relatives into a nursing home to waste away and die, now, do they? in europe there are multi-generational families even today.
this is a lie. you are behind the times. and this is beside the point, you were not raised in europe. more likely your grandparents did want to throw your parents out. i guess your parents were too poor to live on their own… so sorry.
enduro, i know i’m not comparing apples to apples so let’s just say that goes both ways. people who move to costa rica shouldn’t be slamming the USA as if they moved to paradise.
i read the 0.5% figure somewhere on the web in a news article. the article compared WWII to gdp and iraq to gdp. WWII was 10% of GDP. i’m a news junkie so with the amount of stuff i read, hard to tell where i read it. it did come from the mainstream press so take it for what it is worth.
about NOLA, the issue there is a lot deeper than you make it out to be. the place is sinking, it has sunk. i just listened to an NPR piece on NOLA. the local gov’t is letting people build at ground level, but if they do, insurance it very high. if they build above ground level, it is very costly. that cost should not the responsibility of the gov’t especially for house at ground level. FEMA went through neighborhoods in NOLA and painted lines on trees indicating at what level to build next, of the few who have rebuilt, some have built below, some above. it is all about what they can afford. the gov’t should be responsible for infrastructure only. at the moment, they really don’t need to be in a big hurry with infrastructure considering few who own the lots have the capital to rebuild. the lots aren’t easy to sell either. do you want to spend for starters $40,000 just so your house is above water when the next cane comes? do you want to spend so much money on a nice home when you have no idea what the home next to you is going to look like? like i said, the local gov’t is letting people build anything they like. do you want to live in a neighbor where some homes are 12 feet from the ground and the next door home is on the ground? far more complicated than your few sentences, with all due respect. i have no idea why anyone would build anything there. if it were me, i’d fill the low spots with water and then build casinos or whatever on the waterfront. some new thinking needs to be including in redevelopment, however it seems people just want to stick with old ideas. it makes no sense at all to build levies which need to be maintained year after year, with the fed’s money (our taxes) when all at the same time the tax base in NOLA is very very low. levies aren’t like toll bridges, they just keep eating federal dollars.
my house here in SF is valued at 1.6m, but i’ll leave out the financial details since you have no reason to believe anything i say. i will say this, i’m 46 and i’ve owned the home for 12 years and i’ve never put a second on the home. i’m a fiscal conservative and vote repub purely for that reason, not for any social reasons.
the mortgage mess is the feds fought, with the treasury’s back door okay. the fed could have stopped printing money since the fed doesn’t answer to any party. i dont’ know why greenspan allowed such a policy. most of this stuff is a result of greenspan initially – he provided the juice. after the juice was provided, bundling this crap into securities was the next mistake. it is complicated. i blame a lot of people and not GWB alone. all these other people have careers to attend to after a president leaves office so many of the players could have adopted a different policy for the sake of their integrity and career… i’m not sure why they didn’t…. maybe because they knew the mess would be too big to put on anyone in particular. like i said, i can’t blame GW alone… everyone talks about how dumb GW is, but they credit him as the mastermind of so much at the same time…. weird!
enduro said: “As far as I can determine real estate (built to NA standards) is not necessarily being lowered in price… just there are fewer buyers slowing the market in some regions.” i’m starting to believe this a little. if they aren’t mortgaged as much in CR and aren’t in any hurry to leave, it could be that people are just hanging onto their existing home and so only new develop is available so since few new homes are on the market, maybe it prevents any evidence of a downturn. that is just a guess. maybe there are vastly different forces at play in Costa Rica. even with that said, i’d still be scared to “invest” until the US market has stabilized.
costa rica is not a bad choice for retirement if that is the “experience” you want for yourself.
ed f…. nope, don’t enjoy being negative, however i can’t understand why Americans who live in Costa Rica or any other country think they can slander the USA when in fact they are living in a place with far greater problems.
i can imagine living there because it is different than the USA, but please, it surely isn’t better than the USA. people that run to a country that has far greater internal problems and then complain about the internal problems in the USA don’t make sense.
so, if someone wants to talk about the traffic in California, i will remind them of the grid lock in San Jose and a lot more. the list of internal problems in Costa Rica is long so i have plenty of ammo.
i can see people running to another country for 2 reasons, because it is different (culture, language) and because the cost of living is lower. trouble with costa rica and a lot of other places is that the cost of living isn’t really that much lower, because gringos/gringas often want to live the same standard of living as in the USA and that isn’t cheap anywhere. how many here are taking the bus EVERYWHERE? how many here live in a gated community? how many here living at the beach can turn on their AC? how many here surf the internet from an internet cafe? how many here have a car? all of this adds up.
as for wanting to live with the same standards back home, take this very website as an example. Scott isn’t profiling the average Tico home, he is profiling homes that few costa ricans can afford. if the majority wanted Tico style homes, Scott would have a lot of those homes on this website. actually, back in the early days, Scott profiled homes with far more reasonable price tags, but I guess he figured out that there was greater demand for homes that meet American standards. This brings me back to the profiting, why would Scott mess with Tico style homes or those slightly above average Tico style when the commission isn’t as great? hmmm! Scott is not only serving his “clients” well, but he is profiting from a higher commission (kick back) too.
costa rica is great when compared to other developing countries, but it isn’t paradise. you have to get used to seeing the stray dogs, the litter, the bars on windows and doors, the cracked up sidewalks, the potholes, the barbed wire on top of the walls and the smoke spewing buses and trucks. these things are things people have to accept for the experience of living abroad.
as for retiring with the american standard of living, it can be had in plenty of places in the USA without the above mentioned list of internal problems. people aren’t escaping any internal problems by going to a developing country to live, the are encountering more, however they just have to accept them.
haha Imxploring, what a JOKE.
Traffic? San Jose is grid locked.
Taxes in Costa Rica? Ever wondered why a TV or computer costs 4 times what it does in the USA?
Illegal aliens? Don’t make me find all the links about Illegal Nicaraguans being in Costa Rica.
Overflowing jails? At least we lock them up here.
A budget deficit? yeah, but unlike Costa Rica, we’ve always paid our debts, Costa Rica’s debt was forgiven by the USA!
Smog? At least I don’t have to run for cover when a buses or truck passes me.
You and Marv should get together, have a pow wow about how the USA sucks as if Costa Tica has no issues.
When I was in Costa Rica, all the litter and stray dogs and slutty hookers walking the streets were a real turn off. Costa Rica can’t even handle the elementary issues.
At least I can have chairs on my porch without someone taking them. At least I don’t have to have a 6 foot wall with barbed wire on top around my house.
Anything else you want to say Imxploring?
Lotus, that makes perfect sense!
Housing is a bargain in the USA right now whether you are buying to live in it or as an investment. I don’t like housing as an investment because of liquidity, but for those that like it, now is the time. The hassles involved with “investing” in CR can be avoided by buying close to home.
And you are right about gated communities, they are all about security. Of course, there are home robberies here in the states, but nothing on the scale of Costa Rica. You can’t have a front porch with chairs on it in Costa Rica or even a front yard with flower pots…. if it isn’t unreachable, it if isn’t nailed down, it will be stolen.
marv, marv, marv, you said that i am here to stir things up, but why do you keep feeding me? nothing else to do? bored? if you can’t resist feeding me, you are absolutely NO BETTER THAN ME!
marv, marv, marv, still harping on the war? the war cost aren’t even 0.5% of gdp. the bigger issue is the mortgage crisis and until recently the very weak dollar.
hey, if i was wrong about where you obtained your money, i’m sorry. what i assumed isn’t an outrageous assumption. an outrageous assumption would be for me to think that you are on social security disability payments for your survival.
if you still don’t understand my gripe with Scott, you’ve not been reading. i’ve stated it many times on this thread of posts. maybe you meant that you don’t “agree” with my gripe since understanding it is quite elementary.
and marv, there is a lot more multi-ethnic culture here in the bay area than colorado so surprised you don’t seem to know this…. you are not well traveled marv? actually, i bet you’ve been around the world 8 times and lived in 20 states. you’ve done it all. even an author, yeah i noticed, i’m impressed. wow!
hey marv, are you just an armchair activist or have you ever really taken action to change anything? certainly, if you’ve ever tried to change anything for the better, you should be able to provide us a few links to your life’s work as an agent of “change.” come on marv, tell us how you were a tree sitter before it was ever popular, tell us how you marched on washington against the Vietnam war, tell us how you’ve supported the minority community in colorado and protested against cuts in health care and social security and taxing the poor while reducing taxes for the wealthy…. i can see you out there now with your stick and placard walking the beat. ever written an editorial? link us to it.
funny how you live in a country where the gov’t is pretty much inept and the police are corrupt, yet you describe it as if it has no problems. i know you’ll have your lame reasons for not criticizing costa rica, but hey, why not, there is more than enough to criticize. how about that highway to the coast and all those smoke spewing buses and trucks on the highway down there? how about all those helpless young hookers being taken advantage of by gringos? have you helped any of those young girls? are you doing anything about any of this? how about the sewage running into the ocean, do you do anything in Costa Rica other than talking trash about the USA?
all those stray dogs in costa rica, you doing anything to help? all that litter in the streets and sidewalks and vacant lots, have you organized a ‘do not litter’ campaign yet? i’m sure you are doing something to make costa rica better marv since there is so so so much to make better, it is difficult for an activist such as you to sit idle no matter where you live.
Edited on Sep 06, 2008 11:55
marv, i love you!!! mmmwwwwwaaaaa!!!! really, i’d probably enjoy talking with you in person… so different than myself, i just might learn a lot from you. lots of your types here in the bay area… can’t avoid them… we agree to disagree but we have a good time at it.
Imxploring says: What is it you’re here for?
i was wondering if anyone were willing to admit any downturn in real estate in costa rica. some are willing to admit to it, other are not.
i didn’t intend to go at it with Scott about profiting, but that cover i’ve mentioned and then his words expressing basically that he is profiting just got to me. i never expected this to come up.
as for the attitude toward marv – just don’t like people who spit on the USA from afar and she does it all the time, every chance she gets. hardly ever a kind word for the country that provided her to means to be where she is today…. that ticks me off!
i am point blank, but give me credit for no name calling or threats to anyone and i don’t shout out any 4 letter words to anyone. i think i’m just point blank and in this Politically Correct world, many don’t appreciate it.
enduro, i don’t have a problem with Scott making money.
what i have a problem with is operating under the cover that he doesn’t sell real estate. he reminds everyone of this all the time. he uses that to imply that he can give unbiased information on this website and to his “clients.”
fact is, he is profiting and it is more difficult to be unbiased so i told people to beware.
i hammered on scott for this issue alone. he runs a public website so he should be able to take the heat, which he has very well. i commend him! he could have delete my ID. i also realize and i am sure Scott does as well that his dealings could come back to haunt him in this public space. i can only imagine that scott cautions his “clients” that he could actually be wrong and that they should seek more advice so that in the end, they only have themselves to blame.
truth is that even if someone follows his recommendations based on his recommendation, they still only have themselves to blame. i’m a real proponent of pointing a finger at “self” instead of others.
(“He states he lives in California,,, that could explain a lot… ” ….. so many people jealous of us Californians… the weather, the wealth, the beautiful women, the innovation, the beautiful coastline, the beautiful mountains…. so sorry you can’t afford to live here enduro.)
