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Forget about rights. That is a myth, like god, carefully crafted and applied to keep you off balance. How could anyone guarantee rights? Could they guarantee it with printed words on a piece of paper? How many historic examples do you need to read where wealth and power trump any written set of laws or so-called rights?
There has never been a democracy. Money permeates and spoils everything. People have always gravitated to slavery in one form or another, to following dictatorial leaders, kings and queens and most recently, systems of economic slavery.
National borders, religions, and racial loyalties are used to keep us separated and contentious with each other so that the powerful few can continue to consolidate their control and keep the advantage.Drop the brainwashed attitude and you will be less angry and unhappy. Once you see the game, even if you are trapped into playing one of the billions of losing roles, you can take some consolation in knowing you are at least not blind any longer. In my view, most people are not only slaves, they are blind slaves.
[quote=”Scott”]I certainly feel sorry for your own personal experience orcas0606 and your loss of income because of “illegal” immigrants but, we must also remember most Mexican believe that their North American neighbours robbed Texas, New Mexico, and California from Mexico – that’s 525,000 square miles of territory…
That’s an an area 26 times larger than Costa Rica!
If you include other lands “lost” by Mexico to the USA in Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma then you’re talking about Mexico losing 55% of its territory…
If you were a Mexican, how would you feel about that?
Scott[/quote]
I also sympathize with loss of income to cheaper labor, either imported or exported. I prefer to place the blame on an inherently unfair and destructive monetary system and an economy of scarcity rather than on nationalism. As long as we are forced to compete with each other for scarce currency, we will never focus on the true destructive tool used against us; the banks.
The Mexican laborer should be your colleague and not your enemy. But the Owners want to keep us at each others’ throats and off balance.
I think you are reading into what I wrote what you want to see. I clearly said I am only GUESSING that Costa Rica might be a better place to weather the storm. It may very well not matter where I go.
It’s just that the odds are that the U.S. will be a less safe and more uncomfortable place during a societal melt down. Do you know how many guns there are in private hands in the States? Are you aware of how fearful Americans are by nature and by design? That is a bad combination in the best of times.
And there is really nothing anyone can do to change the economic model we have been using for millennium or stop the inevitable destructive outcome. What would you do? Armed revolution? (Like that hasn’t been tried before)
As far as I can tell, the best thing to do is to sit back and let the whole shebang come tumbling down and hope there is enough left of human culture to pick up and start fresh.
[quote=”2bncr”]OK – so now its the osterich complex eh? Denial and doubt has sunk in so you are putting your head in the sand and hoping for the best.[/quote].
What am I denying?
I mean to get away from the masses. I imagine larger cities will be particularly dangerous and uncomfortable. The more dependence upon the monetary system currently in place and all the infrastructure that goes with it, the more pain involved when it disappears, right? I may be wrong and the Costa Rica country side may be no better. I am just guessing here. I don’t know anything beyond what we all read about but there seems to be enough bad news right now to make me at least seriously consider plans to escape the worst of what seems likely to happen.
I try to stay clear of patriots and revolutionaries as they tend to be at the epicenter of violence. I am not young any longer and I just want to be as comfortable as I can under the circumstances, hence, Costa Rica. Besides, I can’t imagine how using traditional methods of opposition would do any good. The real revolutionaries are getting completely off the grid but they will always be considered wackos and malcontents by society….until there is no more society. And that possible eventuality is what really disturbs me.
I am curious as to your reason(s) for taking an interest in this obviously troubled deal when there is so much real estate out there with no problems attached. To the extent that motive has much to do with outcome sometimes, it is a pertinent question.
[quote=”DavidCMurray”]We are legal permanent residents. The question of seeking Costa Rican citizenship remains open. Regardless, we will always consider ourselves to be guests in this country and will try to conduct ourselves as if we are. We understand that we have neither any right to be here nor any right to expect special treatment.
And, unlike some, we do not have a sense of ever having been taken advantage of financially. Yes, people talk about “Tico” and “Gringo” prices, but how do they know?
The prices in the supermarkets are clearly marked. The prices loaded into the computers at the fereterias and what they are. If you’re negotiating the price of a car, real estate, etc, then like everyone else you must watch out for your own self-interest, but how do you know you’re being singled out due to your nationality?[/quote]
David, I value your opinions here. This time, as usual, it is right on the money as far as my own observations and I agree with you. I read a lot of negative views about crime and “gringo prices” and I suspect that these are mostly anecdotal experiences and not general, widespread realities.
[quote=”2bncr”]I’ve been thinking about the issue of paying taxes. Well Sprite claimed that he did not pay taxes, rather they were confiscated from him. I am starting to think he has a point here. What do you all think about the way in which taxes are “collected?”[/quote]
The banks and government also confiscate money (energy) from us via other taxes. Every time the Federal Reserve creates new money out of thin air and does not destroy an equal amount old existing money, inflation is the result. (Also, how do they destroy electronically created money once it is put out into the public sector?) The Federal reserve is not part of the government, it is a private bank. Do we vote on currency issues? We do not. That decision is made by private individuals who answer to nobody.
This has happened so frequently over the last 8 decades that in my lifetime, I have seen the dollar devalued to a tenth of its worth since 1968 when I entered the work force when quarter would buy a gallon of gasoline. And wages have not kept pace with inflation. No news here. Everyone knows this.
What everyone may not know is that there is a more lucrative way in which banks separate us from our wealth….credit with interest. The Federal Reserve creates currency sufficient to the demand for loans but it does not create enough currency to cover the interest.
This means working people remain in perpetual debt chasing after dollars sufficient only in quantities to pay the principal but not the interest.
It is a game with the rules fixed so that all money ends up back in the bank where it originated as well as a substantial percentage of the property obtained with the money by so called “borrowers” as loans are defaulted and homes are foreclosed.
This is supposed to be by design and I believe it is. It works in the following way:
When you buy a house, you sign your promissory note to the bank and you are given in return another note, a bank draft, for equal value. Bingo! The house is yours at that moment. There was no loan. All you did was an exchange of equally valued notes. There is no loan contract. If you don’t believe this, look at what the bank does with your promissory note; they sell it as a security on the market. They monetized your signature and received money of exchange for it. They were paid. You no longer owe the bank a penny (you owe it to the investors who bought your note, whoever they are) yet the bank continues to pretend they made a loan to you and they collect your money of exchange on top of what they already received…plus interest!
Further evidence that there was NO loan contract is that the bank offered nothing of its own since the bank draft (note) created by the bank was based on your promissory note and not on any deposit or wealth of its own. It merely made an electronic deposit entry, it pulled money out of thin air. Contract law requires that BOTH parties offer a consideration of enough value to support the contract. You offered the value of your labor for 20 to 30 years. What did the bank offer?
War, taxes, inflation and contract fraud are ways in which the Owners use banks and government to enslave all of us. This is not just the ranting of a few malcontents. It is fact to which more people are awakening and which is substantiated and documented historically.
Power and wealth have been consolidated in this manner over the last 80 years at a cautious pace until we are currently looking at a situation where 20% of the population possess 85% of the wealth. …and it is getting more concentrated each day.
If you think the word “slavery” is an exaggeration, consider how we are all captives within this monetary system. What would be required of you should you decided to leave the system? You would have to give up the use of money, credit and banks.
When you consider how difficult it would be to live your day to day life that way, how ready are you to escape?
[quote=”Scott”]Here’s the response from our Costa Rica tax expert Randall Zamora …
“I totally disagree with the article and the idea of dollarize Costa Rica, the reason is simple: The country just does not have enough reserves for doing that and that means that the Banco Central should borrow money from guess who?
The World Bank or International Monetary Fund and that will kill us, just look what happened in Argentina.”[/quote]
Mr. Zamora has figured it out. Although I wonder why the IMF would want to force the issue with Costa Rica right now. The Costa Rican economy is hardly a threat to their plans for a one world monetary system at this time but they apparently do not like any small nations to set examples of resistance.
Cuba was a former member of the IMF. Fidel Castro made a comment ten years ago about the IMF.“HAVANA, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Socialist Cuba has survived U.S. pressure and recession because it stands apart from “chaotic” global capitalism and thus escaped the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “executioner,” President Fidel Castro said.
Castro said that Cuba’s freedom from the IMF meant that it could endure 40 years of hostility from the United States, including a trade embargo and a severe economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet bloc after 1990.”
It is now ten years after that remark and this latest and greatest of recessions has taken its toll even on the fiercely independent Cuban state. No nation economy seems to be able to withstand the forces that the IMF has turned against all of the world. It will be interesting to see if the gentle Ticos have the stones the of the Cubans in standing up to the IMF.
[quote=”guru”]An historical chart starting in 2000 shows the Colon steadily gaining against the dollar starting at 232 per dollar and now at about 511. A few years ago it was an even 500 per dollar which made it easy to calculate in one’s head.
While the dollar IS dropping globally there are reasons each currency is exchanged at different rates. The Costa Rican economy relies heavily on the U.S. for commerce including, tourism, realestate and agriculture (you find Costa Rican Pineapples and Bananas in almost EVERY grocery store in the U.S.). If the Costa Rican economy is stronger today than decades ago it is based largely on the flow of U.S. dollars.
As far as investments go there are many places to put your money that is better than cash in the bank or money market funds. Realestate, antiques. . . I have tools and machinery that have gained steadily in value against the dollar. With manufacturing down it HAD been a buyers market but the selloffs are slowing. The problem with all investments of this type is liquidity. Just how fast do you need to be able to convert to cash? Days, weeks, months. You might take a year or more to convert realestate to cash at the highest value.
I have a friend that published a special interest book that is now in its 5th printing of 1000. Its a big book and a printing is over $40,000. He says it earns him just a little more than bank interest so he keeps printing and selling them. Very meager gains and slow to cash out but also low risk.
The problem with “market” investments, including holding any currency or investing in stocks is that it is a power players’ market. Small investors can easily get run over in a big fish’s profit taking. For many it would be better to play the lottery.[/quote]
If it takes more colones to buy a dollar, the colon is NOT gaining against the dollar, it is losing.
The dollar’s value is steadily decreased in value the more the FED prints them and the colon follows suit. Since the FED began in 1913, the dollar has lost 95% of its value. This was supposed to be planned and so is what is happening right now. I don’t know for sure but from what I am reading, it doesn’t matter which fiat currency you are holding, over the long run, you lose value. It is better to own concrete things which will always be useful for survival, like land, food, etc. Some so-called financial experts see such a bleak future that they are advising buying farm land, seed and guns. I can’t think of a better place to be for armageddon than Costa Rica.
[quote=”grb1063″]Well said Sprite, but there are too many other countries tied to our debt and hence the dollar. There will be more bailouts to come, but on a more international scale. The Chinese own trillions of our debt and they won’t go down without an ugly fight. Good reason to sell out here, pay for something 100% elsewhere and have $0 debt.[/quote]
I agree entirely. This is what I am working on right now as fast as I can. My guess (just a guess) is that things will be less harsh in the coming period of unraveling world economies for those of us in the country side with farm land, a potable water source and some form of power off the grid. No guarantees, though.
Some people talk about holding precious metal. That might work in the short term but things may happen so fast that there would be no time to convert useless metals into useful survival material so why not just go straight to the ultimate game and set?
[quote=”grb1063″]I knew you two would come through.
If your stuck with a fiat currency regardless, would you not stick with the one that holds its value better? You would have made a killing on USD vs. Euro in the last 6-8 months. Your scenario Sprite, which is completely within the realm of reality, will not happen in the 1/2 live’s most of us have left. Physical holdings of precious metals is not an option from a transport perspective, unless you just own paper on it, but it has been a very good bet in the last year. I myself have capitalized on it, but need a safe to store it. Most savier people will make the best of barter; it is how I am getting my house resided, stone installed and painted + equipment. Anything “under the radar” pays big dividends if you are consistent with it.
As of late, maybe it would be more appropriate for CR to switch to the Yuan???[/quote]I have no idea when the harsher aspects of the collapse will set in. Not this year or next but after that, who knows. The situation may be more fragile than you think and is certainly more precarious than the population is led to believe by authorities.
As for which currency will hold up better in the meantime, I also have no way of knowing. The smaller currency is going to be tied to the larger one as we move along so the differences may be marginal. This would be important for holders of very large amounts of one currency or the other, or for those on the edge of survival with no margin for loss, but for most expats, i canlt see how it would matter that much.Whether you are slaving away in a Chinese factory, or in a US prison or office, you are slaving away. The quality of life in your enslavement is just a matter of degree.
I find it astonishing that the US has jailed so many people. I don’t believe that Americans are any more misbehaved than any other people so the reason must be that we have a lot of scared citizens out there with a government only too happy to oblige their fears by locking up as many of their fellow citizens as possible..and perhaps causing a lot of that fear to begin with. This ties in with my point on gated communities. Americans will jail THEMSELVES out of fear.
Fiat currency is a confiscatory tool, as are banks and governments. Fiat currency is used by the Owners to gain ownership of property and control the of the population. And since this monetary system in a wasteful economy of scarcity is unsustainable, it doesn’t matter what currency is being used. The economic system is doomed and so are all of us with it.
We already have the Euro and are supposed to be getting the Amero soon for an American Economic Union. I understand there is a plan for an Asian Economic Union as well. The logical move for the Owners after that is to merge it all into a One World Economic Union with one currency. What does it matter whether little Costa Rica gives up its Colon right now or a bit later? The end result will be the same.
