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Fabulous historical article and eloquent summarization of what many “educated” people realize intuitively, just not the history behind it. It will be sent to many of my skeptical friends operating with blinders on.
Thanks,
grb Seattle/MontezumaWould appreciate the locations of the asian grocery stores. It is the only place we will by the specialty oils, soy, Yoshida’s, spices are a fraction of regular stores, seaweed wraps, pot stickers. With plenty of tamarind around, it is relative easy to find or make paste.
As Thai food lover’s and my wife’s Korean mother, this would be a bonus find. Ant asian stores in Escazu/Sanat Ana Scott?Vancouver is one of the most pristine cities in all of North America and one of the cleanest in the world. It is simply not a valid comparison to San Jose. In fact, Vancouver is rated the #1 cleanest city outside of northern Europe. There is very little poverty in Vancouver as a percentage of the total population. The same is true with Seattle (my resdidence for now) as far as large cities go in North America. The poverty in San Jose is fractional compared to the poverty in Honduras or Haiti,virtually every country in Africa, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru, Equador, Mexico City, Sao Paolo, Manila, Jakarta, North Vietnam, North Korea or even Moscow. There is no denying poverty is present, but you will note over time that the people are generally happy. I have seen much worse squalor in in Cairo, Detroit, Miami or any major city in the “southern” U.S. Intersting note that Costa Rica has virtually the same social services structure as Canada.
I have accounts at BN in Cobano, which unfortunately is the only bank in town and they obviously know it. Customer service is not on their top 10 list of prioriies and most of my friends in the area will move their accounts as soon as another bank is opened. Did not realize there were credit unions in CR. Boeing Employess Credit Union in the Seattle area is the best financial institution in the Pacific Northwest. As a non-profit corporation, it’s 600,000 members can get a home equity line of credit for 4.24%!!!
I for one am removing any sensitive information, including any CR business related items and simply e-mailing the information to my work VPN where I can access it from anywhere in the world. My time line for moving has gone from 10-15 years to 5 years within the last year.
How long until the US bars its citizens from leaving the country without applying for “permission”? Imagine the day (soon), when you purchase non-refundable tickets for your entire family only to be denied boarding at the airport because permission was not granted.
I consider myself a good swimmer and have swam in the ocean since I lived near the Med. Sea my first 9 years of life. However, every so often I get a reminder of how powerful and unpredictable the ocean can be. Earlier this year in Mal Pais, I got caught in a rip tide and if it was not for remembering my training (swimming parallel to the tide), I surely would have drowned. My advice is never swim when the tide is going out, if you are hesitant or have a fear, never wade past your waist. This is especially true on the Pacific side where the waves are much larger. Also, tides on the Atlantic do not very more than 2′, but they vary up to 12′ on the Pacific. Know your tide tables and all children should have some sort of flotation device. Even a Boogie Board can save your life.
Pleased to see that CR has its priorities in order. In the US, the woman would have ben subject to our family court system, which is biased toward who can afford the best lawyer. The cost of a typical middle class, homeowner, family divorce (for whatever reason)is typically equal to the annual family income. The kids are always the losers and the vast majority of state run social services are completely inept. In the US you will likely serve more jail time for having over an ounce of marijuana than for molesting or harming a child or beating your spouse. And we think we are a model country!
The US baby boomer bail out is definitely part of the rise in tourism. Many people go home and rave about how beuatiful the place and people are, where some of us keep the secret to ourselves. Costa Rica is/has become much more global. The high cost of living and higher unemployment than US in the EU, in addition with the decline in the quality of life for the middle, upper middle and wealthy from the more developed South American countries such as Venzuela (the weaalthy are gone), Argentina and recently Chile, has also added tourism and residents. Next will be the asian invasion.
Universal health care in a corporate, capitalistic environment is a long shot at best. In addition, the government has a horrendously disgusting track record of spending our tax money on entitlement programs.
One of the biggest issues in the US is we are a highly litigious society with incredible malpractice insurance premiums. In Texas, they are feeling the positve results of capping punitive damages in medical malparctice cases. The result has been a 7,000 + influx of doctors from other states and now even the smallest towns have an Ob/Gyn. Premiums have dropped 54% in 2 years. A very small percentage (5-7%) of every dollar spent goes to actual patient care.
In order for health care to be affordable, tort reform on a national scale is imperative. Japan does not have these issues, because there are so few lawyers in Japan…the losing side pays all the costs. Tort reform in the US will not happen unless the composition of our congress changes from the current 75% with Law degrees. A congress full of lawyers feeds the self-perpetuating legal machine.
It would be ideal to have a system like Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Netherlands, but keep in mind the compact geographic scale and population of those countries vs. the US with 5 time zones. There are many clinics in the US that are going to a cash only basis for services with a 20%-30% discount by bypassing insurance & administration.I would much rather ditch all insurance premiums and contribute to the CAJA when I retire before I am 55 (10 years OR LESS). Family insurance premiums in US for couples in their 40’s with three or more children is approximately $1,200/month. A typical salaried employer will only cover the employee’s portion or approx. $400/mo. I am an owner in a corp. in US and insurance premiums go up 7-10%/year. Project that out to 62, combined with a different age risk bracket and you are looking at $3,000 – $4,000 +/- per month at age 62 or whenever the collection age will be set at that point in time. That is an issue so serious, it will break many small businesses, the back bone of USA and only help create a Grand Canyon of the already accelerating socioeconomic abyss.
Since we can’t afford Medicare as a country right now and it is only going to get much worse in the future without drastic changes, why would the US government incur more debt to further extend services to citizens in foreign countries with no legal recourse in the US court system?
Need to narrow down the region. CR does have topographic maps and I have purchased them in Montezuma. There is a web site http://costa-rica-guide.com/Topo.html. Go to detail maps and you can zoom in on a specific region, which shows the river systems.
