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I have no clue about that. It would have to be a pretty dramatic descent into chaotic civil unrest for the government to close borders. I say that because there are whole bunch of fat cats who would lose fortunes if international commerce and travel were restricted and we all know that money rules here.
Also, it looks like we are about to finally get a liberal president so we might expect a turn around from the fascist heading we have been following for the last 8 years.Once upon a time a man appeared in a small pueblo in Guanacaste and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He next announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.’
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.
They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!
Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WILL WORK !!!!
the cost for keeping a caretaker for your property is minimal, especially if you take into account the money you are saving in taxes and what you coud lose IF squatters showed up. If there is no structure and just land, it shouldn’t cost too much at all.
Edited on Oct 23, 2008 10:11
I learned Spanish 40 years ago in Ohio, of all places. There was a small expat Cuban community there. There may well be a number of Spanish speakers where you live now.
Speaking daily with friends is the quickest way. A few weeks or even months of immersion inCosta Rica will help but not nearly as much as making Spanish a daily part of your life.I am still amazed that there are so many non Spanish speakers who emigrate to Costa Rica and are able to make a life for themselves there. I would never attempt that. Language is the very essence of humanity and culture and without it, so much is denied to you.
If anybody here really believes that the American public will magically wake up and over throw their inept, pro-rich, pro-power government for a progressive, responsive government FOR THE PEOPLE, then show me where and when that has ever happened in our past. Maravilla, don’t be so reluctant to place the blame squarely on the masses. We always had the power to change our government. We just never had the will.
Something like 90% of the wealth of the U.S. is and has been in the hands of 1% of the U.S. population. It has always been thus with some minor variations in the percentages. Why are we just now thinking about complaining? Those with the wealth and power have always been able to fool the workers into believing the fantasy of the American dream and to condemn democratic socialism such as exists in Europe as evil. Americans have always stupidly believed in the fantasy….and they got the government and the shaft they deserved.
Credit is hard to get these days here and debt is being viewed differently now. People who have taken second mortgages which are now worth more than the collateral are just walking away from their homes either because of forclosure or voluntary abandoment of an untenable position…keeping the cash from the refinance.
In the stock market, one would experience a margin call if this happened and the account and positions would be closed until the leveraged amount could be paid back. In the real estate market, the banks got stuck with these deficits and now it appears the tax payer will get stuck with some of it as well.
The range of the fall in living standards between the average American in the US and the average Tico in Costa Rica is what should be examined. The American is going to fall further and so fall much, much harder. The Tico living standard starts its fall from an already lower level and cannot fall too much more. The level of suffering has to be much less in Costa Rica.
I liquidated all my stocks 5 months ago and with the exception of a property in Costa Rica, I am all cash now. For some, those who went to cash in time, these hard times will be an opportunity. I am eager to see what the Costa Rican real estate market looks like one year from today.
I stayed at the Paraiso as well a few years ago and enjoyed the place….Arenal was active at that time and our cabin gave an excellent view of the show.
The best view of the volcano is from a place called Linda Vista Del Norte. There is a horrible stretch of road with holes and gravel at the foot of the west side of Arenal volcano but the view is simply superb and worth watever discomforts encountered. They bus in guests from other hotels just to have dinner at the steak house so they can get the best view of the fire works.
http://www.costaricabureau.com/lindav/If you can afford it, nothing beats a Toyota FJ Cruiser. Not much back seat space but it’ll go anywhere.
VB,
I am not intrested in co-operation with any society with a bottom line mentality. They can flush the whole economy down the toilet and I won’t shed a tear. I am not on their side. Like most sane people, I want what is best for me and my family. That is not what our leaders are interested in and the voting public is too stupid to see that.Like most Americans, I found myself growing up and working in a country that was touted to be the best place in the world. By the time I traveled and found my political compass, I had a family to take care of. That trumped my politics and I stayed like a good little tax payer because it seemed to me that endless shopping malls and newer cars and money were good things and because it was easier to stay than to leave. After 40 years of working and doing what was expected of me as a citizen, it is now looking like it may be wiser to leave than to stay.
Say what you like about the life style in Costa Rica, that it is backwards, filled with thieves and relaxed work ethics. It still feels more comfortable to me than living in this circus where the clowns crowd into the malls and pour onto the roads in their huge SUV’s and ring master is the most ridiculous clown of all.I have had it with
the consumer/worker treadmill and being pick pocketed by corporations and government. I wonder what they are going to come with now for this big mess. I hope to watch from afar.I am not a naive, non-Spanish speaking, pushy gringo with high expectations. I am very familiar with life in rural Spanish speaking cultures. It is not new to me. I make my choice with some experience.
I think it is a bit more complicated. The experts cannot agree and I am so far down on the food chain that it doesn’t really matter to me what the many causes are except as a casual object of amusement. I have a personal bias to believe that a weak, criminally ineffective president, a morally bankrupt Republican governing philosophy and the evil excesses of capitalism run amok are mostly to blame. Go ahead and blame Clinton if you like.He left office with a huge budget surplus which Bush immediatle began spending on a war and on ways to enrich his oil buddies.
It has been 8 years since that gruesome boob was elected and look what has happened. People get the government and economy they deserve.
It just may be the whole truth. Jim Cramer, an MSNBC TV personality who does a show on investing in stock equities and is usually one of the more hopeful commentators, made an amusing but chilling comment this morning.
“If this bail out doesn’t work, a lot of people will have to get used to living in their pajamas.”
