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I always wondered why more jews didn’t leave Germany before 1939 when they saw what was coming at them. I don’t believe anything resembling that will happen here but now I see how difficult it is to make major life changes quickly after a certain age. My plans to move to CR have been made and then broken and then re-made. The world is moving at a faster pace now and is more uncertain than ever before.
Perhaps the domestic military deployment is nothing to be concerned about from my perspective. Perhaps an epic depression will not come to pass and happy days will return in several years. I am looking hard for stories and evidence that back up that rosey future but so far, I haven’t found anything credible.
I am betting an agriculture economy like Costa Rica will fare a bit better than the United States in an extreme economic melt down. However, I am not sure just how well gringo interlopers will be tolerated in a Costa Rica which is suffering from harsher deprivation than it has ever experienced. Planning is confounded by so many variables and unknowns. Which is the larger risk in an extreme world situation; trying to make a stand as a foreigner in Costa Rica or in the United States where, no matter how bad things get, they have to accept you?
I haven’t got a clue as to the Costa Rican economic situation. It may be less complicated than other economies but it is still beyond my level of comprehension. Stick to what you know because doing otherwise is nothing more than a crap shoot. Let’s ask Scott what he is doing right now. I’ll bet you he is not putting all his eggs in any one spot, least of all Costa Rica.
I am playing three scenarios. Number one; We come out of this deep recession sometime between 2010 and 2015. In that event, keeping one third of your wealth in stocks or some other instrument, one third in real estate and one third in cash might work.
Number two; the recession becomes a depression which lasts another ten years. Even with inflation, cash would still be king and stocks, real estate or any other refuge for wealth would be extremely risky.
Number three: The depression becomes epic. Even cash is useless. Here is where you want to have that cabin on at least three acres of farm land way up in the mountains of the Osa Peninsula or the Central Valley. Hopefully, before this happens, you have turned your cash in for arms and ammo and some big dogs and a tall cement block wall with concertina wire.
One definition of liquid is “clear, transparent or bright.” Cash is the most liquid mode of storing assets and the most convenient. And while it may not be the most profitable place to store your wealth, currently it seems to the the least risky.
Players who have a goal of increasing or preserving wealth will look to all the many financial instruments available. They have to be thoroughly understanding of what the risk to reward ratios are with these things. I am NOT a player. I just want to survive this current mess and I fear it may be quite a while until the skies are “liquid” again. And then, of course, there is the possibility that things get very ugly and even cash will not do.
Google Earth has pretty detailed images of the San Ramon, Palmares area. The roads and structures are identifiable.
I am watching as Americans move in and out of Costa Rica. Some stay and make it home. Others do not. As far as I can tell, which group you end up in has a lot to do with the expectations you bring with you. Perhaps even more important than learning Spanish, keeping your expectations in tune with the reality of living among Costa Ricans seems to be essential.
On the one hand, I am completely sympathetic with Costa Rica’s socialistic political flavor, which is decidedly liberal. On the other hand, I am mindful of all the Latin idiosyncracies which are present in the Costa Rican culture. There are some very striking differences between us and them which have been discussed here many times. Visit the country as often as possible before committing and make sure you can modify yourself to fit in because it doesn’t work the other way around.
I was sorely tempted a few times to go with the”secondary” rental companies in order to save a few bucks. But I resisted. I firmly believe you get what you pay for 99% of the time.
Under development is part of the cause of crime? Over population, a sub set of poor planning and the continued proliferation of religion, is THE problem. We are promoting religions which mandate making more babies to populate a planet increasingly unable to support the ones we already have. How about throwing out the baby (over population) with the dirty bath water (religion) and begin thinking about what to do with the mess we already have?
Edited on Dec 23, 2008 02:45
It is a generalization but I still believe Canadians are different in some respects to Americans when it comes to violence and guns. I speak as an American trying his best to be objective.
I forgot to point out that the Federal Reserve is an independent CORPORATION. It is not your government. I am one of those people who believe it SHOULD belong to the government and had that been the case, we might have avoided some of what is happening now.
I am also a little bothered by your suggestion that the computer should never have been invented. I hope you are joking there.
Gold is just another form of currency that we have used in the past and is just as dependent upon the confidence factor as is paper or electronic currencies. You cannot eat gold. At best, gold may serve as a last and temporary defense against a crashing world economy. If the economy recovers, and you have been in gold during that period, you still need to get out of gold to preserve your investment. You are still playing the “time the market” game. If the economy does not recover……ooops.
“Stuff that when you drop on your foot, hurts are the only real investments?”
Really? Tell that to all the commodity investors who recently lost a lot of money..including gold investors.I think if it gets to the point that you are tempted to bury cash or gold in your yard, you might be better off using that shovel to plant a survival garden. And DO put up that wall with concertina wire, load up on ammo and dogs.
Edited on Dec 15, 2008 05:42
It’s such a complicated issue that individuals need to look at a lot of data before taking a position. It has been suggested that the Candadian personality is less violent than the American personality. Give them both guns, and you have different results.
My own take is that you can’t hand a drink to someone with an alcohol problem and expect him to behave as responsibly as someone without such a problem. Alcoholismn is a medical state. Gun abuse is not. But the analogy holds because gun abuse may be linked to cultural conditions. In the States, we have negative conditions, for a lot of hsitoricazl reasons, that makes supporting wide spread gun ownership a questionable position.
Move into the hinterlands of any central american country, and gun ownership might make more sense than it would in an urban center inthe States.
I am no expert. I wonder if there can be experts in this new situation. According to what is being reported, this world economic melt down is new. It has never been seen before and nobody can say for sure that it won’t become a very severe depression, or worse.
If the banking sector fails completely, could it not mean that money itself becomes useless at that point? And by money, I mean anything used to barter other than actual consumable goods. Instead of worrying about where to park useless cash, wouldn;t it be more useful to think about how you could guarantee enough food and energy to survive?
“Could the FDIC freeze every account in all US banks and take all the insured deposits to create a national welfare program that would distribute monthly pensions for every citizen to live from?”
That’s pretty funny. It sounds like the kind of nightmare a rabid libertarian or neo con might have. The exact opposite so far has happened. The government is currently being run by the moneyed old boys network and has handed out bail out money to their rich thieving friends on Wall Street.
I believe that how people deal with the dark side of life is part of the decsion making process that determines whether they live happily ever after or not. It appears you are still struggling with that dark side. I wish you the best in resolving this personal challenge. It;s something we all have to do sooner or later.
I also believe that good decision making has to do with paying attention to probablitlity rather than possibility. I don’t care about anecdotal evidence of the rare robbery committed against people who live in the country and who lead simple, honest lives. Until those crimes become a major statistic, it is not useful as far as making a decision about living in CR.
