There is a first time for everything, I guess

[PTmowerMech]

My wife and I actually had a couple of very serious conversations about moving to one of the Central American countries that allow dual citizenship. There are a few that allow dual citizenship where you can live like a king for $1500 to $2000 a month, and that includes a full time, live in housekeeper/maid. We kind of just let go of the idea. We never made a decision NOT to do it. We just stopped talking about it. If things keep on the way they have been going the last few years, we may very well be discussing it again.

Living abroad is a major change. The culture shock alone is tough to get over. And if you don't learn the language, like 80% of it before you make the move, the chance of giving up quadruples.

 

[PTmowerMech]

A very popular misconception
Th problem is management will not invest in high volume modern production equipment
If the machine is pumping out 10,000 widgets a day it makes no difference to the price of the widgets if the single worker operating the machine is paid $ 1 /day $ 100/ day or $ 1000/day.

Now MBS'a invent all sorts of economic markers for efficient running of a business.
One of these is the profit to equity ratio and the screen jockies on Wall st live & die by PE ratios.
The highest PE ratio you will ever make is by importing something and directly selling it on the WWW so it can be dropped shipped from the supplier.
Thus no CEO wants to have anything to do with making anything unless the company can get BIG & I MEAN REALLY BIG subsidies from the governments for doing it
If you ever go to Brazil, have a look at the VW factory
An airconditioned glass walled building inside and outer shell
Inside are hundered of robots & automated assembly machines and not 1 single human being
AFAICT things are ever worse n the USA
Untill some one shoots all of those over educated idiot accountants with MBA's who can not understand the difference between
"All profits originate in the board room "
&
"All profits are made in the board room"

If you really want to see what is happening, look at the % increase in renumeration of executives & directors ( including bonuses ) and those on the shop floor for the past 20 years

In OZ executives had increased their pay packets by 3500% or 35 times if you like
Workers have increaed 42%or slightly less than 1.5 times
CPI increases were 57%
So yes workers down here are going backwards

Reduce overhead, increase profit. The guys at the top have it all. And all they want is more. They sack their blue collars with a 1% rate increase (instead of the 5% they were planning) just to give themselves bigger bonuses.

 

[smhardesty]

Living abroad is a major change. The culture shock alone is tough to get over. And if you don't learn the language, like 80% of it before you make the move, the chance of giving up quadruples.

Yeah, I can see that. If we ever do get serious about making a move like that, we'd have a lot to do in preparation for it. The honest truth is that we'll more than likely never do it. That's a whole lot of change for a couple of 65 to 70 year olds. LOL!

 

[PTmowerMech]

Yeah, I can see that. If we ever do get serious about making a move like that, we'd have a lot to do in preparation for it. The honest truth is that we'll more than likely never do it. That's a whole lot of change for a couple of 65 to 70 year olds. LOL!

But here's the thing. The friends I've made who are Mexican expats, wished so much they would've done it years ago. I lot of folks give up. But some just fall in love with it.
One couple, the wife wanted to try it so much. But the hubby was pretty much against it. So they decided to try it for 3 months. They've been there for 6 years now and both of them wouldn't even think about moving back to the states.

 

[bertsmobile1]

We all think the country we were born into is the bees knees till we spend some good time some where else.
In this last year I have run into a lot of USA citizens who have fled the USA out of fear that President Trump could be the catalyst for a massive outbreak of violence if not an actual civil war .
All of them said they were frightened about all of the "killer " wildlife that was supposed to roam around OZ looking for humans to wipe out .
Then they got here & found that the streets are not curb to curb venemous snakes and they don't wake up every morning to find the sheets awash with deadly spiders .
On chap came here before the last election by himself and has now brought out his entire extended family of over 30 people and they would have brought out more but that was all of the visas they were allowed . And the only thing they missed was their fire arms but they were starting to realize that down here guns are not needed to live a normal life .

 

[PTmowerMech]

Decent gun owners out number the bad 1000 to 1. Problem is, the bad ones are sneaky. That "trans-thing" that just killed those people in TN, had first planned to shoot up the mall. But found it was too guarded by armed security.

I was shocked to find that almost all of the expat destinations in MX were very safe. The news here is that there's no safe place in MX. The US news is something most expats don't miss.

 

[bertsmobile1]

The problem is people are not rational beings and tend to react immediatly to emotions.
A chap from my school year ( during those years ) got stood up by his girlfriend because she was entertaining her cousin, which was absolutely true.
Problem was he was an extreamly good looking cousin .
Terry went to the club for a beer & play pool, saw them together assumed he was lied to went home got his rifle went back to the club , shot her & him dead on the dance floor, shot a third person not fatally who stepped in to affer first aid, shot the security guard dead and then when fleeing shot one of the police who had arrived .
An over emotional 17 year old kid got 25 years , no parole 3 people died and 3 more were forever traumatised .
The big willers are the depressive farmers as rural suiside went down by over 80% once fire arms were restricted and in the case of farmers who are all allowed to own single shot firearms it is just the amount of time it takes to retrieve the fire arm from a locked cabinet then get the ammo which has to be in a locked container in a different room .
People see way too much US TV and think a bullet makes a cute little hole which gets a bit of blood around it .
In reality the 303 service rifle blew their heads apart at close range and splattered all the bystanders with blood & brain material
I was there but outside having a smoke at the time and many of the patrons never actually recovered from jst seeing what happened, including my then girlfrien who would never go the that club or any dance venuse ever again.
I went to her wedding and even then there was no dancing and that was near 20 years latter

 

[PTmowerMech]

The problem is people are not rational beings and tend to react immediatly to emotions.
A chap from my school year ( during those years ) got stood up by his girlfriend because she was entertaining her cousin, which was absolutely true.
Problem was he was an extreamly good looking cousin .
Terry went to the club for a beer & play pool, saw them together assumed he was lied to went home got his rifle went back to the club , shot her & him dead on the dance floor, shot a third person not fatally who stepped in to affer first aid, shot the security guard dead and then when fleeing shot one of the police who had arrived .
An over emotional 17 year old kid got 25 years , no parole 3 people died and 3 more were forever traumatised .
The big willers are the depressive farmers as rural suiside went down by over 80% once fire arms were restricted and in the case of farmers who are all allowed to own single shot firearms it is just the amount of time it takes to retrieve the fire arm from a locked cabinet then get the ammo which has to be in a locked container in a different room .
People see way too much US TV and think a bullet makes a cute little hole which gets a bit of blood around it .
In reality the 303 service rifle blew their heads apart at close range and splattered all the bystanders with blood & brain material
I was there but outside having a smoke at the time and many of the patrons never actually recovered from jst seeing what happened, including my then girlfrien who would never go the that club or any dance venuse ever again.
I went to her wedding and even then there was no dancing and that was near 20 years latter

In you're country, if someone would've shot him as he was raising his gun to fire on the couple, that person would've went to jail. Seems OZ will send people to jail for saving lives.

All it takes is one decent person with a gun, to end some lunatics rampage.