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[quote=”bogino”]
Hey Sprite–You seem so [b]Petrified[/b] about [b]The End of Days[/b] that I found a link I think you will enjoy and give you comfort:
http://www.terravivos.com/secure/prophecy.htm%5B/quote
Thanks, Bogino. Mystical musings are always entertaining. But I generally try to stick to science, logic and pattern recognition when I consider predictions.
Also, I am not “petrified” by the changes coming because that word means to be frozen into inaction. I am doing what I can to prepare so I am definitely not petrified. I am not inactive nor am I fearful. However, I am concerned. Fear hasn’t taken hold yet because I am still comfortable as I imagine most of you are and because it is not clear to me to what extremes we will be taken. It is hard to imagine the world we will soon see so it is hard to believe in.
But even as cognitive dissonance sets in, I find I am capable of making moves to lessen the consequences of the coming disaster.I believe Costa Rica may be uniquely suitable for weathering hard times. What I find amazing is that so many people are so completely unaware or unconcerned with the collapse and are still considering CR real estate as an investment opportunity rather than as a place for survival.
[quote=”Logsdon”]Frankly, I’m a little worried about the Costa Rican economy. The treasury is borrowing more money than the US and we all see where that borrowing has put the US economy. I hope I’m wrong, but I think there is a underlying reason that so many expats are selling.
Renting right now may be the best option. What do you lose? 6 to 12 months rent. If you buy, the coins still up in the air regarding whether you made the right choice to buy or you lose a lot of equity when you join the other folks trying to get out.
For me — I still going to give Costa Rica a good look-over as a possible retirement home.[/quote]
“other folks trying to get out?” Which folks are those and what are they getting out of? And where would they go? The moon?
Do you understand what is happening? Do you understand the comprehensive nature of the world collapse that has begun and what it will lead to ultimately? There is no coin in the air on this matter. There is no way a world wide collapse will NOT happen. The only thing you should be considering right now is whether or not you will be safer in a pastoral, peaceful country like Costa Rica with a comfortable climate or whether you would prefer to be at the violent vortex of a crumbling empire filled with starving citizens armed to the teeth and facing a brutal winter with no fuel oil.
U.S. banks promote credit card use over cash because each time a credit card is used, new money is created and, therefore, new debt. You are, in effect, helping the FED create more fake fiat currency with which to screw us over. I try to use cash whenever possible. I am waiting to see what people will do when the fiat paper totally fails.
Sorry for your troubles, Smekuly. Truly. But I think I’ll stick with my own more positive impressions of Costa Rica which are based on my experiences, none of which were gained in San Jose or Limon.
[quote=”maravilla”] I’ve been told that the park in San Ramon is a very very dangerous place not only at night, but in the daytime as well, but i still walk through there as i cut across town. it’s always teeming with police so i feel safe, but that is probably an illusion. glad you weren’t shot. i’m waiting for your Xmas party!![/quote]
I heard the same thing about the park in San Ramon. But it looks so populated all the time I always feel safe there. I don’t get it.
I am a 61 year old anglo-american. Over the decades I have walked around in Spanish Harlem in New York in 1969 and even spent the night in Central Park. I walked the back streets of Havana at 2 in the morning in 1981 and most of the downtown streets of Miami and London. I have never even been approached by a prostitute let alone an assaulting thief. I am starting to believe in luck.
A gated community is one which is relatively secured and segregated from the surrounding social structure. But I refer more to the gated mindset than the gated physical barrier. Segregation from the community is, by definition, a rejection and repudiation of that community. It marks the resident as an outsider.
A gated community is a statement by the residents to the surrounding, outside community. The essence of the social contract is based on trust and fair distribution of community wealth. This contract is broken by the gated statement “I have more than the rest of you and I do not trust the rest of you and I feel the need to be guarded and have my property protected from you.” Anyone who thinks about this for even a moment must see the insult.
A gated community is also physical evidence of an income gap within a society and that is never healthy. Gated communities are a sign of an infection in the society.
[quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”sprite”] I go my way.[/quote]
Please do![/quote]
You usually have something more substantial to offer than a personal attack. Is that the best you can come up with?
Maravilla and I agree on this one. I don’t seek expats or their hangouts. While I am sure there are many like Maravilla with whom I would ind much in common, there are many others who I would want to avoid.
I have a problem with the concept of gated communities and foreign money rearranging and redirecting rural economies away from a state of sustainability. I can see how great amounts of foreign money could even warp the culture and destroy small, tightly knit communities.
I am offended and even ashamed by the attitudes of some of the expats whose conversations I overhear on the flights back and forth between CR and Miami. Some of these these attitudes display a prurient and/or purely financial interest in Costa Rica. I would have nothing to discuss with these people. We are from the same culture but not the same world. I go my way.
rward, I am wondering where you see so much negative. Perhaps, like many, you are accustomed to being sold things so that when you come across critical assessments and differing opinions which deter you from what you desire, you are irritated.
Costa Rica is part of the real world which means it has qualities and conditions which may contradict commercial advertisements for retirement here. But even with all its defects, for me, Costa Rica is a paradise for a number of personal reasons. You will need your own reasons to be able to live here. Which kinds of people other expats are should not even enter into the calculations.
It is only a matter of minor interest to me what kind of expats settle here. I will make friends and acquaintances with people (or not) regardless of their country of origin. I do NOT seek out expats as we are an anomaly here. I seek to adapt and blend into this environment as much as I can.I am curious as to why anybody would seek out expats. You left the States for a new life and a new experience so learn Spanish, make new friends with the indigenous (if you need that) and move on with your life in your new home. Adapt.
As to whether or not there is a predominant political, emotional or philisophical mind set in expat population in CR, I tend to doubt it. Judging by the different responses I have read on this site, it appears there is a wide range.
Aren’t there any other areas at the hot and humid lower altitudes which have what you seek besides Jaco? If, after visiting and making your own assessments, you have any doubts about the area, just look elsewhere.
Jaco is a little too touristy for my tastes with a relatively high concentration of foreigners and I don’t care for active night life. Plus, after 30 years living in Miami with the crowds and the heat, I have had it so I chose the cooler, rural mountain elevations.
But obviously a lot of people like a place with a bit of a night life and think they will thrive in heat and humidity. They like Jaco…so far.
[quote=”kimball”]Maybe they earned the money.
Oh yeah, that would make them evil to actually make alot of money.[/quote]
How money is accumulated is as interesting a topic as how it is created. From what I have learned and experienced, large amounts of wealth are rarely “earned”. Large amounts of wealth are accumulated by playing the system which usually involves exploitation of people who actually DO earn wealth by their labor. I have done both.
This has little or nothing to do with the topic here as long as the amount of money involved is not great. If it was a relatively small amount, as it appears to be, then the real story here is the admirable decision made by the author to make an adventure for herself in exploring this part of the world on a shoestring. If, on the other hand, a good deal of wealth was at her disposal, the story would be mostly about an extended comfortable vacation in a beautiful place. So for me, the money situation defines the relative value of the story.
The Elites (banking cartel) have led the US and the rest of the world into a depression which will get much worse for average US citizens very soon. They anticipate a violent reaction from US citizens to austerity programs that they will soon impose, just as they have done elsewhere. However, they must think that the US violence will be worse than what was seen in Greece, Ireland, Spain and Egypt. And they may be right. Some of the American citizenry is armed to the teeth.
I get the impression that most people simply do not believe the problem is as severe as evidence shows. Ron Paul and others can shout out the truth about this matter and the average American citizen will brush it off and continue his daily routine without missing a beat. People are still putting their money into the stock market, for crying out loud! They do not have a clue!
Tell people that they need to make preparations by storing food, water, arms and some sort of real money like silver and you will get labeled a kook, a conspiracy theorist or a pessimist. Tell them their own government has removed their Bill of Rights and Constitutional protections, has created a domestic army of thugs called the TSA to enforce a tyranny, purposely destroyed their economy and has built concentration camps to hold them should they protest the above events, and they just will not believe it. Hell, I am watching this all come about and I can hardly believe myself.
The US has rounded up citizens in the past. Over one hundred thousand peaceful Japanese American citizens were rounded up and put into concentration camps. But that was just a Knee-jerk, stupid, anti-constitutional, fearful reaction to a temporary little problem we had back then called World War Two. Today’s “national emergency camps” are preparation for something far worse, more evil and much longer lasting.
When I read stories by young people about how they are enjoying living in Costa Rica, my first question is always : where do they get the income? Either they arrived with a good deal of money already in the bank, or they run some internet business or they are employed with a foreign company because they have some special ability not found among citizens here.
I watched a TV show about a young couple who sold their home and decided to take off a few years living in a Guanacaste beach house. They were care taking for the owner. Their decision to postpone career and family for this life adventure impressed me and this has the potential to make a huge, positive difference in their lives for the future.
But the financing of such adventures is still the most intriguing part from my perspective and I remain curious. I want to know the nuts and bolts of how it was accomplished. The decision to give up certain material things is relatively easy for young people compared to the task of accumulating enough wealth at that early stage of adulthood to finance a few years of living costs.
How did/do you finance your Costa Rican life?
