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it’s amusing how some of you think Obama is going to take all our money away or give it to people “who don’t want to work”. Look at the 100’s of billions of dollars that corporate America gets in welfare. And this goes well beyond the scope of what is currently happening. There are many more US citizens that need some help and work very very hard than there are people sitting around asking for “hand outs” doing nothing. I would rather see my tax dollars go to help other US citizens than the billions a month going to fund a war in Iraq that is baseless. Remember the terrorists came from Saudi Arabia why didn’t Bush attack them? I don’t even want to start on this whole war thing because if you really think US soldiers and dollars belong in Iraq you are too delusional to reason with. For the record I work hard, earn much more than 5k a month and also “play by the rules”. I am also a business owner, entrepreneur that no one has given any hand outs to and believe me I bet I pay a lot more in taxes than many of you whiny Americas going to collapse and Obama is a socialist(please look up this term before applying it to Obama, you only look foolish) crowd. You make it sound like people are living high on the hog on welfare programs…look into it they are not. As of 2004 .08 cents per federal tax dollar paid went to food stamps, assistance to people with a disability, help the poor with utility bills and temporary housing assistance for needy families, .42 cents for every dollar paid in federal tax went to military spending, about .02 cents went toward environmental programs and energy conservation programs. There are complex social reasons why people, any people can fall into poverty and maybe one of those reason is “laziness”, but for the vast majority it is not. I don’t suggest just throwing money at the problem but initiating programs to help get people back on the right track. But first we have to be compassionate and try and understand the vast majority of the poor don’t want to be poor but they need some help up and out. I live in Washington Heights, in NYC not one of Manhattans more upscale neighborhoods and I can tell you first hand the poor and working poor don’t just want handouts. But the fact is if you are a minority that was born into a welfare family in the projects up here it is no easy ride out. So to just utter sound-bites about not wanting to have your tax dollars go to people who don’t want to work hard like you do is simply being ignorant of the big picture…by the the grace of god, this easily could be you. The problem of social in-equities and the reasons behind them are far to complex to address in this thread, and for one to truly have a real grasp on the subject would require many months of study. But just like Limbaugh on the radio this so called “right, conservative” thought is a shallow ideology created for a population with a very short attention span. Then again if you are a true anarcho-capitalist I won’t waste my breath, but the A.C.’s that I know back up there political/economic theories with long, detailed treatises-not whiny rants about” don’t give my tax dollars to the lazy poor”, the small portion of your “tax dollars” going to the poor is nothing compared to the over 50% that goes to running government(.16 cents as of 2004) and funding our war-chest. I see the psychology in this class divisiveness though, the real elites keep you thinking the “poor” are bleeding the middle class-makes you feel good about yourself that you are economically/morally “superior” to someone else…a new type of class war.
Also the tax policies and clamping down on the movement of US citizens money is a product of the Bush administration and so-called homeland security. ask Scott if he will manage your “off-shore” account or try and open one in Switzerland, unless you have say 1 million US most Swiss bankers will probably get a good laugh.
Well I haven’t dropped out, I have always been self employed(still am), not always the easiest path but I have no regrets. Mindfulness keeps me centered in and out of the rat-race.
Well I beat you there I’m 44-but started out young I have 2 children in college. I even have a few pics up on the site! Played Sunday-usually avoid the weekends but it’s quite now.
imx me thinks you sound like every other old man that thought things were better at sometime in the past, but the time is now. You can find them as far back in history as one cares to go…There is a great progressive movement going on in the “world” based on mindfulness and being…it transcends what happens on wall street- from the New Earth web cast that reached tens of millions to the good people of the US electing Obama and stepping outside of there safety zone…this was a paradigm shift. I’m in the moment my friend and life is wonderful, I won’t be running away to anywhere trying to “escape” anything…from right here everything is possible, what a great time to be alive! My point is I’m not “right” about anything because everything just is.
I was just referring to your apparent dislike of socialism. And the fact that Costa Rica and it’s people are very entrenched in socialism.
ps. If you were referring to me I’m not fleeing the US I like living here. I go to Costa Rica to surf and like to travel in general. I was in France because my wife is French. The world is not black and white, socialism in France or Costa Rica for instance is different than what they have in Venezuela. What I find irritating about you Imxploring is it seems to me you only have two colors of paint in your box…black and white. You may not be aware of it but you come off as what you state to detest..a know it all.I still don’t understand how someone that claims the “liberal left” is turning the US into a socialist hell, likes Costa Rica so much? Costa Rica is a socialist democracy and has a banking, government and business environment that is as inefficient as anyone could imagine. I lived in France for years and I am sure you would agree that it is a socialist nation…that’s what made it so appealing! The business environment may have been appalling but the quality of life afforded to the volk was what made it so appealing to live in. Long lunch breaks(with real food!), long vacations, great food and drink, life came first then business-is this what you call socialism? What you must like about Costa Rica is the cheap beer, cost of living and ticas and hanging out with other like minded expats. Because if socialism turns you off so much how the hell could you like Costa Rica so much? The US certainly also has the natural beauty and diverse climates etc…
I will echo what David said, something is better than nothing. I can tell you here in NYC if you walk into an emergency room at the wrong time of the day or night you can easily wait 3-6 hours and then spend time on a gurney in some hallway. Seems like both systems have there flaws, my argument has always been let’s get it right! If America really is “the greatest” country on the planet lets get health care for all our citizens. We pay taxes to support programs to make our country and our lives better…doesn’t affordable, quality health care have a place in there? In NYC it’s about $800 dollars a month for a family plan that is just decent.
That’s pretty good news regarding land prices in CR. You would assume if it was going to get really bad down there that would have happened by now?
The US dollar rises as demand for it around the world increases. The well heeled have to put there “money” somewhere and the US dollar and economy seem to be the safe haven of choice. Will we collapse under our own weight or live to fight another day?
wow! we have been talking about Paragon here for a long, long time-old Bill use to even join in and tell us what great projects he was doing. You would think with all the lots they sold and the money they received from selling them, they at least would get water, power and roads done. Having houses built out is another story but hey Paragon didn’t promise houses they were selling lots, houses were an option. Sending money site-unseen well that’s something I can’t get my head around, it took me a couple of trips to CR before I could fathom buying property and I’m a bit out there.
Back in the early 80’s they sold land in the northern Catskills the same way more or less. An investor would buy 100-200 acres of former dairy pasture divide it into lots of say 5-10 acres each. Run electric down the road(if you were lucky), and put in a shale road. they would also finance the purchase with 10% down for 5 years. Well these lots sold really well a lot of folks thought this will be a hot investment, or they will retire there someday? But 95% of the lots remained un-built on. We actually built our own little cabin ourselves one of only two out of about 30 lots. So when I bought our 5000m2 lot in a proposed gated community in the central pacific(just south of Jaco) I was really only concerned with one thing-that they finish what they said they would do, gated entrance, roads, water and electric I felt houses will come but that will take years. To the disbelief of many people they actually completed the development and did a damn good job! Now from my past experience in the US I thought that if 10-20% of the lot owners built that would be great….so far zero but I hear that there are some homes that will start being built in November-we’ll see. My point is I think people who bought in these big projects of Paragons probably assumed that there developments would look like the renderings on Paragons website and a whole community of large Spanish style homes would litter the rolling landscape…instead they can’t even get a road built or water and power to the lot! I thinks it’s mostly underfunded slightly naive dreamers who buy into these projects and purchase a lot in central America like they would buy some gizmo being sold on TV at 2am….now they are getting the wake up call. I feel like I got lucky as I now own a beautiful lot 1.5km’s from my favorite surf break in CR and I only paid US$6M2, but I did a lot of digging before I sent money(especially since the project was slammed on this site, (rightfully so I might add based on the information available and the track record of Gringo developers with NO projects under there belt…anywhere!). I just really wanted to pass on some of my experience buying a lot in the pre-construction faze, at least we received a very big discount for taking the risk, I don’t see that really happening in the Paragon projects. Also it seems to be much easier for the developer selling these lots with a massive advertising etc. Selling your own lot in a project not yet completed or void of any actual homes is no easy task. Well good luck with everything I hope you get your money back! In my case the deposit was placed with Stewart title and If I wanted my money back within the refund period I could call Stewart directly and they would wire it back into my bank account. Of course I verified this with Stewart as well. I think this is a reasonable escrow arrangement that any legit developer would agree to.
Edited on Oct 28, 2008 13:35
Wow! I got nervous for a second….I thought you were going to say you saw children exiting the school bus while rolling, lol.
I would agree civil unrest is certainly part of the history of the US. I don’t go in for the “armageddon” stuff but I would not be so arrogant to think the sh*t couldn’t hit the fan here. Mob mentality is quite a phenomenon and under the right(or should I say wrong) circumstances anything is possible…history tells us that.
