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Jeez, I;m just happy to see an effort, even if it is only legislative. But I do wonder what brought on this new focus. Is there some disturbing new data about drunk driving in Costa Rica?
Think about the total lack of logic here. We strictly control most drugs and make some absolutely illegal (marijuana for example), yet we do very little to control the sale of firearms.
You don’t see too many nuts running into a post office and slaughtering twenty innocent people with a bag of marijuana or a bottle of Vicodin. Maybe medications might put the idea into the head of a disturbed person, but he would absolutely need a gun and ammo to carry it out.
Kevy,
You said:
“It would be more accurate to say; It is the goal of a Marxist/Totalitarian governments to “manage society”. That is what the historical record confirms. “The dictionary defines the word similarly as “direction; control; management; rule:”
I would love to hear your succinct definition of what government is or ought to be as opposed to what the dictionary says it means. It is easy to see why you are so confused if you cannot grasp the concepts of government and business. They are two distinct functions. Like so many consumer capitalists, you have totally and thoroughly confused the two in an attempt to subjegate governments and the people to the will of markets.
I don’t need this particulart example of an economic crisis to back up my point. There have been many others over the last couple of centuries, many others. I repeat, nobody makes millions without exploiting others in some way. Either your fanaticism or your ignorance,or both blind you to this obvious truth.
Edited on Apr 08, 2009 05:35
If it is a combination of prescription drugs and guns, then we are in deep doo doo. The manufacturers of both of those “commodities” have deep pockets and active lobbyists and have purchased all the government they need to continue profiting off of the misery and ignorance of citizens.
GRB1063,
Are you suggesting that a government should be run like a business? Are you serious? Businesses are created for profit making. That is there ONLY reason for existence and no other. Governments, on the other hand, are created with a different goal which is to manage society.
When you confuse business and markets with governance, you get the current mess we are in, over and over. Fiscal responsibility is a great idea for business because it compliments the goal of business. But focusing on fiscal responsibility when passing out medicines in a epidemic or bandages after a battle is stupid.
Edited on Apr 07, 2009 11:09
The two factors in this to be considered are the tools and the people who use them. Whether or not the drugs are a contributor, it can’t be deinied that the main problem is the tool. How many single assasins have commited mass killings in one scenario without a gun?
We have seen killing sprees before these drugs existed.Edited on Apr 07, 2009 06:32
“The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”
The above statement is so true. It is also true that the wealthy could not have their wealth without taking it first from somebody else…many somebody elses.I don’t know what people you refer to when you say “half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them.” No country on earth has half of its population idle while depending on the other half.
That was the case during official slavery.Today we have a different kind of slavery where the task masters control vast wealth and thereby control the lives of vast populations. I see you agree with this modern slavery. Nobody garners great wealth without utilizing and exploiting the labor of others. If you can think of one example where great wealth is achieved without the labor and contributions of others and without an infrastructure, let’s hear it.
If your garden produces more food than your neighbor’s due to your hard labor and his laziness, you should keep the excess produce. He deserves none. However, a few extra bushels of potatoes is not great wealth. And no government is coming after your few bushels of potatoes. They are focusing on the land owner who employs many people from the village to work his huge farm. He does not labor except in the management of accumulated wealth taken from the labor of others. Look to the Israelis and thier Kibbutz system. The workers own the farm and share the wealth among themselves.
Nobody gets rich working on a kibbutz. To get rich, you need to be in a position to skim small bits of excess value from the labor of many other people. You can earn a living working on your own to produce services or goods for others, but if you are getting rich making widgets or managing other peoples’ money, then you are relying heavily on the prionciple referred to abvove; skimming excess from others.
Edited on Apr 06, 2009 06:16
The Haves and the Have-Nots are at odds these days. The governments, for the first time, are moving to the defense of the the Have-Nots and the infrastructure and now I read advice which recommends taking the money and running before you are forced to pay your fair shares for the salvaging of the economies from which the wealth was extracted. The light has been turned on and now the roaches scurry for the dark corners, complaining all the way that there are fewer places to hide their loot.
I am not sure what can be done about the powerful prescription drugs. But those drugs are present in Costa Rica along with the people for whom they are prescribed. Why don’t we see similar slaughters in Costa Rica? The big difference between Costa Rica and the States when it comes to mass killings seems to still be the quantity and ridiculously easy access of guns and ammo in the States. Add to that insanity a stressed out and fearful population and BINGO; you get a whole lot of violence.
How easy is it it get a gun legally in Costa Rica? I wonder what portion o the Costa Rican population owns guns compared to the United States. Whatever that number might be, I am pretty sure Costa Ricans are a whole lot less stressed out and fearful than all those gringos armed to the teeth.
All immigrants have their communities. There seem to be quite a few gated communities in the Central Valley which I assume are mostly populated by gringos. I know a wonderful little Israeli community near Bajo Rodriguez, north of San Ramon.
But I know that some immigrant cultures are particularly prone to isolating themselves a bit. The Chinese seem to be like that.
As far as I have read, the Chinese have not yet become a consumer society to match the wealth they have created….and as American buyers of their manufature economy disappear, so will a substantial portion of their wealth.
Another reason why I wouldn’t expect to see Chinese buyers replacing the volume that gringo buyers once created is that, besides the geographical distance, there is a cultural gulf much wider between the Chinese and the Ticos than exists between Ticos and gringos. Perhaps South America will represent a larger portion of the real estate market as Americans disappear from the scene but I think we all know that will not match what American buyers have represented.
On a brighter note, world stock markets are up sharply over the last few weeks. If this is a sustained bull run, it could mean an end the free fall in about 6 months time. Then, optimists might begin to hope to see a slow turn around. Perhaps ten years from today, anew cycle of the Costa Rican land boom will begin.
I simply use BCR’s web site to tranfer funds to the account of the party to whom I owe payment. The site is pretty standard for money management.
That is exactly what I am doing now. I only keep the minimum necessary in Costa Rica to pay bills in CR. The fact that we are losing two banks per week in the U.S. may not be enough to startle people. But if it is an increasing trend as indicated by the FDIC, there has to a tipping point after which time, the whole thing collapses in a panic. What to do between now and that possible point in time is the question I am contemplating here.
Edited on Mar 30, 2009 06:42
