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What really bothers me is statements made by Obama about Preppers causing shortages. There are no shortages now and once the SHTF its too late to be a “prepper”. Shows a really bad understanding of what is going on today.
But just the fact that the President is worried about it means HE may know something the rest of us do not. Maybe he has a timeline on the drought and the end of irrigated agriculture in California (an economic and social disaster resulting in an exodus from the state.) OR the next economic crash. Otherwise why bother with a group of folks that is pretty fringe unless you are looking to pass laws that could be applied to the general populace. . .
Well, I don’t know how “fringe” they are. There are claims of 3 million preppers in the US. A small part of the populace but enough to be a major industry.
“Unfortunately there is nothing I could assist you at this point”
He may have been trying to politely say he was swamped right now. One can only do so much.
Quicksand. . . The constantly changing rules and tax rates in CR are like quicksand. Ever changing and with an unknown bottom. I’ve been watching friends who made a huge investment in a tree farm in CR over a decade ago and the failure to gain any official status due to changing rules. After meeting all the conditions set by the government they were abruptly told they would have to reside in CR for 6 months at a time. Their plan was not much different than being virtual tourists, they wanted to work in the US in good weather (spring and fall) and then spend their money and maintain their CR investment in the winter and summer. So they were forced into being virtual tourists as is suggested above.
As to taxing folks until they are forced out, that is not far fetched. The purpose for property taxes in the US was partially so that large family holdings could not be maintained forever. Redistribution by taxation. The problem is that it was intended for the super rich but today destroys small family farms and businesses rather than the super rich. . . The government gets taxes from whom they can.
Don’t be surprised by more negative rules and tax changes.
One more point – Besides the delays noted above the Costa Rica bureaucracy is notoriously slow and disjointed. In the time many of these processes take the rules can change.
It happened to friends of mine who thought they were months away from permanent residency (after years of doing what CR asked) and the rules were changed on them, CR wanting them to stay in country more than 50% of the year in a single block of time rather than the couple months at a time they planned on. Their plan was to work in the US in good weather and spend the winters and peak summer in Costa Rica. . . until they fully retired. But the plan fell apart and now they just come and go in 90 day cycles as “tourists” even after more than meeting the investor requirement. They will probably go on that way until the end. . .
In many US states it is illegal to keep wild animals as pets (including your racoon). You may want to start there as coming from an illegal position may be the end of it in a hurry.
Note that the Racoons in Costa Rica are different than US racoons and they may not want an animal that can interbreed with the local varieties.
The land crossing tax (stated in the quoted article) is about $5.
For the last decades or more there has been an exit tax at the airport that could be paid in cash only. It is roughly $20-$24. You may be able to pay it by credit card now but it used to be cash. So you had to be careful NOT to be broke when you got to the airport. . .
I managed to get home one time from a business trip with less than a dollar in my pocket – not even enough to make a phone call. The parking fee to get my car out of long term parking was $25. The woman at the booth didn’t even want to hold my driver’s license while I went to get cash. . . It was an embarrassing day. But missing my flight from a foreign port would be much worse.
I don’t think a knowledge of nature defines a Tico. Not when a third or more live in San Jose metro area. I’ve met Tico city dwellers that have the same willingness to share, the same friendly spirit and pura vida as the country folk.
The “honorary” Tico I know best is a Venezuelan but he has lived in Costa Rica many years and has adopted the culture. He has a business in San Jose and was an excellent guide when I was there. He took us on a tour of the city’s ironwork (the good stuff) and he introduced us to a number of Ticos in the same business. All were friendly as well as knowledgeable about their urban part of the world.
As to their driving I do not think it is much different than many third world countries. The less police and the laxer the enforcement of the traffic laws the more chaotic the traffic. What amazes me is the ability of the truck drivers to drive full sized and over-sized rigs on the narrow mountain roads. However, the Tico habit of stopping side by side on a narrow road blocking the traffic to have a leisurely chat is a bit maddening to my Gringo sensibilities. But it is the Tico way. . .
I was going to buy containers in the U.S., build storage racks and shelves into them, then move them to Costa Rica. . . then use them as part of a building.
NO CAN DO! Containers are highly regulated in the U.S. If you are not a licensed international shipper you cannot put a container on a ship to go anywhere on a truck to cross international boundaries. As a shipper you are required to maintain control of your registered containers. That means only leaving them with the customer for a very brief period (less than 24 hours I think) so that it can be loaded.
All this is for security and post 9/11 BS.
Within Costa Rica, the trucker must be licensed to move a container (registered or not from what I understand but I may be wrong).
So yes, absolutely buy your containers in CR. But check about moving them before making the deal.
WARNING: The following post discusses labels based on Racism, a fact of life but is not intended to belittle anyone.
To truly be a “Tico” or “Tica”:
1) You need to born in Costa Rica and have Costa Rican parents.
2) You need to have grown up in Costa Rica and be part of Costa Rican society.
3) You need to have a Costa Rican accent suitable to to your social status. The tern “tico” has to do with their accent and use of language.If you are from anywhere that Central Americans define you as Gringo you will always be a (rich) Gringo and your children will probably always be Gringos (unless you married a Tico and have “gone native” so that your children never knew the Gringo life. . .
Exiles from Nicaragua are labeled Nicas and looked down upon by many Ticos. While Tico society ranges racially from European Spaniards to Indio (natives) and every possible mix between the Ticos DO discriminate themselves from the Caribbean black population.
Racial and social stereotypes abound world wide and it is virtually impossible to change your stripes. In the US if you are black you are almost always defined as African-American.
If you are a Southern Red-Neck and fly the stars and bars you are a Cracker and always will be. Most of the US is defined as WASP even if they don’t align themselves with any church.
In the South if a person has a New England accent they are a Yankee (a damn Yankee at that). All are gringos including African Americans but I think they confuse the Ticos. . .
Like we North Americans are confused by many British blacks with perfectly British English. . . they never “ax” a question as do even some of the highest ranking African Americans.
It would not bother me to be called a Tico but I doubt that I could live long enough to pass for a native Costa Rican.
In a small office it may be everyone’s responsibility to clean up their work area and do “emergency” cleaning as necessary.
The way around the “not my job man. . ” routine is to put a responsibility list in the employee’s contract including specifics AND as many broad terms as possible such as “Any reasonable request of the employer.”
The specifics should be a list that the employee must check off each item and sign. There should also be a statement that the employee may be fired for refusing these reasonable requests.
Balancing this there may be a paragraph that states that the employer will not abuse these terms or use them for punishment, only for the efficient operation of the business.
With the proposed law as stated such wording will eventually become standard in all employee contracts.
In the US the law on such varies state by state. But in North Carolina you do not need to give any reason for firing an employee. If a smart-alec employee says, “aint my job” then the employer can simply reply, “You’re fired”. In places where the law requires a reason for dismissal a simple “insubordination” clause covers a lot of ground.
Forget the possible unproved problems of GMO’s.
The problem is MONSANTO. Most of their GMO’s are NOT designed for any particular improvement other than to be Roundup (weed killer) resistant. MONSANTO also sells the Roundup.
In Canada, US and other countries MONSANTO has sued innocent farmers who’s crops have been contaminated with pollen from their GMO’s claiming patent infringement. Organic farmers who’s seed stock has been ruined by GMO’s have insult added to injury by MONSANTO suing them. In Canada and the US the courts have stupidly supported MONSANTO in their patent claims. But even without the court’s backing the legal actions by the giant corporation year after year have put honest farmers out of business.
Mexico and Central America is the home of CORN. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of varieties. But allowing aggressive GMO’s into the region is an ecological disaster of major proportions.
Fight the problem with truth not imaginary unproven issues.
[quote=”VictoriaLST”]JCM, what scares me is that the USA is NOT building nuclear reactors. When is the US going to enter the 21st century?[/quote]
The problem is that the U.S. IS preparing to build new nuclear reactors and THAT scares ME.
I worked in the U.S. nuclear industry for a long time. There are very good safety reasons they shut down a lot of plants under construction, the biggest being the way the government regulated and the way plant owners managed. There was absolutely NO common sense applied to how plants were maintained AND lawyers and beencounters were in charge, NOT engineers who understood the problems at hand.
Secondly, the money going into nuclear research is a total waste. The problem in the 1970’s is still the problem of the 21st century. The U.S. has NO working plan to handle waste fuel. All the waste fuel generated in the last 50 years is sitting in “temporary” storage at every nuclear power plant in the country.
The problem is political and will not be solved.
Europe, who used to dump waste fuel in the ocean. . . also does not have a plan. They were relieved of responsibility by the Japanese who have long term plans to reprocess the fuel, making new fuel (plutonium) from the waste. The Japanese haul away much of Europe’s nuclear problem.
The place research and infrastructure dollars need to go is into bio-fuels and solar. There are systems that can efficiently make bio-diesel from plankton grown rapidly on solar farms. However, to be of significant value there needs to be a significant investment. The same with solar. Currently the problem with solar electric systems is efficiency of conversion and storage (batteries). Both are a materials “science” problem.
The problem with materials research is that it is still not much more advanced than alchemy. Its mostly trial and error (Just like Edison and the light bulb element). Big trial and error research projects cost big money but this is where technical advances comes from. Sadly for the U.S. much of this research is moving off shore (to China).
The reason Bio-Diesel is so important is that you cannot run trucks and heavy equipment (tracked earth moving machines, cranes. . .) on anything other than diesel fuel. No amount of nuclear, or hydrogen power cells will help power this machinery which is absolutely necessary for building and maintaining infrastructure.
Take those machines away from Costa Rica for 6 months and most of the country would become isolated due to washed out roads. Your mountain home would no longer be accessible other than by foot or horseback. . . Even in the U.S. with the best highway system in the world a year without maintenance would be a disaster. There would be pot holes big enough to eat your little electric or hybrid car. . .
In the U.S. our leaders have lost sight of the reality of the future economy. Instead they scramble around trying to squeeze more tax money out of a shrinking economy. It is pretty bleak. . . Fix the economy and all the rest (including taxes and social programs) take care of themselves.
The End of the World as we Know it.
As the operator of a blacksmithing site this subject comes up on a fairly regular schedule. Mostly it starts with guys thinking that making knives or swords will be necessary for survival. . .
If the economy breaks down then FOOD will be the most important thing you can produce or hold. During the great depression things were bad, BUT a vast number of people, even in cities, knew how to raise a garden and preserve their own food. A similar event could be much worse because the great majority know nothing about taking care of themselves AND cities are much larger than in the 1920’s.
If the social structures fail completely then no number of guns is going to help you unless you are willing to be one of the bullies at the top of the food chain.
Years ago I thought small common machine tools were a good investment. Even in bad times they have held their value. But things are so bad in the US economy that machinery is going for half what it was 20 years ago and good heavy machinery (stuff outside the range of small shops) is going to scrap.
While it is taxed, regulated and not a very fluid investment, LAND is still at the top of the investment list and they are not making any moire of it.
It is not hard to see a LOT of Costa Rica in a short time. However, it takes some getting used to the roads and navigation in CR. You can pass through a dozen little towns without seeing a sign to say where you are and the roads are rarely marked with route markers. Get a good map (the big on-line book guys currently have the National Geographic Adventure map of Costa Rica. It is as accurate as any and it is soft pliable waterproof material. N.Geo also has a travel guide that covers different things than the others.
We were lucky in that we have friends in Northern Costa Rica near CIUDAD QUESADA (San Carlos). From that remote point you can easily drive anywhere in CR in a day.
Many guidebooks recommend you do not drive at night. Its good advice. In CR parts of the road can be missing and there be no warning, no flares, not lights, just a big gaping hole. Then there are cows wandering down unlit curvy roads. . . So plan your travel time and be careful. After a few trips there you may feel at ease driving at night.
Probably the most underdeveloped popular beach town in CR is Cahuita. We were shocked when we got there at sundown that there were no sizable hotels or anything recognizable as a hotel/motel. Just as it turned dark we managed to find Hotel La Diosa as the manager was closing the gate. It is a wonderful little place with cabins very close to the beach. They have a web site, look then up. Note that while this is a little out of the way place they host international conferences and can be booked up for weeks.
We had a similar experience on the way to Cahuita in Orrosi (just South of Paraiso). We found the hotel Sanchiri just as they were closing the gates. This place had very nice large rooms with one of the most fantastic views of anywhere we visited in CR.
We were very lucky to find this place AND the fact that they were open and had rooms. We had left San Carlos early in the morning and took a road over the mountains that is barely on the maps. . (I can’t find it now) and arrived in San Jose at rush hour. It took us several hours to get through San Jose (where we had no intention of staying). In the morning we back tracked to see the old and new cathedrals in Cartago before setting off to Limon and Cahuita.
There are little out of the way places like these all over Costa Rica that are not in the guide books. Often we would find a place when driving through one week and stay there the next (or next trip). I made reservations one year for the bridal suite or Honeymoon Cottage on Valentines day at Linda Vista near Vol. Arenal for less than what you would pay for a common chessy motel room in the US.
Our difficulty in traveling as a turista is that we are used to covering up to 500 or 800 miles a day in the US with the goal of getting to a specific place. On our trip to Cahuita and back we had no specific plan, no reservations. The trip itself was the goal, not getting “there”. While we only spent 3 days “on the road” we could have spent a week or more on the same trip. We managed without any Spanish but would have probably enjoyed it more if we could speak the language. Take your time, have fun!
Just my opinion. You have two choices.
1) Just try to leave and hope that the inefficiencies of the Costa Rica systems let you get by. The point above about the possibly missing or redated entry stamp on the replacement passport might just be an opening to bluff your way through immigration. But be ready for the consequences. May luck be with you.
2) Contact an immigration lawyer and let them handle it. This will avoid the embarrassment of being arrested at the airport. Someone here may have a reference.
Since you own property in CR the fine may be preferable to a period without returning. And since you own property and spend money in CR you might be able to negotiate the fine.
I run a fairly active public (unregistered users) forum on different subject matter. Generally I do not need to moderate very often (we have a good group that likes polite discussion). However, in just the past couple years we have had to add various filters to keep out the riff-raff.
As a “family friendly forum” we have word filters for the worst cases and these include spam words for certain “enhancement” products. The list is not all inclusive but you cannot get away with the f word or common racial slurs.
We also use an anti forum spam service (stopforumspam.com) to check every poster. Known forum spammers (its a business) are sent scooting.
There are other proprietary filters and a banning system (only had to permanently ban ONE person in 15 years)
NOW. . . these systems being cold dumb machine programs have zero flexibility and zero tolerance (except for what little is built in). They do not edit, they just popup a warning on posting that you cannot use that language OR you are not welcome here. The messages are polite but terse. If you give too much information then people (most often spammers) will work around the filter.
SO, you can have moderators who may take your word choices in context (perhaps removing the one word) OR you can have a machine that is VERY strict and tosses your entire post.
LANGUAGE: On a related issue I had a forum operator recently write to me and wanted my opinion on a dirty jokes page that the previous operator had setup. The forum’s sponsoring group’s Board of Directors had voted to remove the page as it was not something they wanted and many felt uncomfortable about. I agreed that it had no place on that particular (metal craft) forum.
A few very vocal users complained saying that “every successful forum” has a page like this. I disagreed with this statement as well (there is none here). I pointed out that there are forums for EVERYTHING on the internet and every point of view. IF people wanted to post dirty jokes then they should go to a forum where that is the theme.
Part of my problem with a dirty jokes page/area is that there is often spillover on other pages. Someone forgets which page they are on OR thinks they are on the “dirty” page and posts something inappropriate. Jokes and stories of this type also tend to become racist (most are sexist to start with), some attack religion, other political labels. THEN someone feels this is a personal attack and you end up with a flame war.
When a flame war breaks out all a moderator can do is trash the entire thread and then nobody is happy. There is always some statement that illicit a response of “you dumb [party name, racial, sexual or ethnic slur]” and everything goes down hill from there.
There is an old saying that in business you should never talk about religion or politics as it will come to no good end. This should also be followed with “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen (discussion)”.
I have some VERY definite political opinions that many do not agree with so I try to avoid discussing them except with friends of like mind. I can also generally skewer someone’s bad logic thus making it SEEM like a personal attack when in fact it is just an attack on their intelligence. . . Well, there you have it . . you might THINK that is a personal attack. So, it is best to stay out of public political or religious discussions. But its tough to do.
Play nice – no personal attacks.
