Feedback Friday - August 24th, 2012

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Woah, what a week here at TDV. The brand new website is getting rave reviews, and we thank you, dear readers, for your patience as we got it up and running. This week on Feedback Friday we answer you questions about getting out of the USSA, even within the USSA, as well as the seemingly never ending controversy and commentary on Jim Karger’s post on guns, guns, and guns.

On to your feedback!

IF I’M GOING TO LEAVE, WHERE AM I GOING?

Dear TDV,

I'm a 33 year old chiropractor who has owned a small business for the past 8 years. My wife, four year old son, and I am looking for a safer and freer alternative to where we currently live.  Reading the Dollar Vigilante is like having someone putting words to my thoughts, so I figure I'll start here.  When I cash out, I will only walk away with about $400,000, here's my question:  with so little assets, are my possibilities abroad better than if I stay in the states, significantly down size and just start a new career?  I can not see the US a safe place during a monetary transition, but I also need to live in a place where I won't run out of funds while I wait this out.  Do you know of options that could be a possibility for my family and I?  Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated!

Shrugging!

Jacob H.

Jeff’s Response:

Hey Jacob 

First off, $400,000 ain't bad! I know people who have taken the vital first step and left on a lot less. Things will be a little different for those with family to help suport. But...

...$400,000 is a LOT outside of places like the US.  I was in Mexico City a few days ago and walked by a very nice looking medical clinic whose list of prices included consultation for 30 pesos. That'st $2.50 in American English. You can argue all you want that low priced stuff outside the US is "lower quality", but I have found it simply not to be so. The US government would love to have everyone - especially its human livestock - believe that American does everything bigger, better, cleaner, more efficiently than the rest of the world. That myth keeps the tax cows too scared to leave the farm. Things are different in the rest of the world. But they are just as good in terms of quality, and often much better in terms of cost. That's why medical tourism is such a huge industry. US medical care is outrageously expensive in the first place becuase the US government eliminates the market-driven pricing system. The same quality care is so much cheaper outside the US that it easily makes up for the cost of travel. 

Anyway, if you invest that $400,00 properly it can go up dramatically. Take a small portion and put it in the junior stocks (and make sure you bulletproof them). Also gold and silver should perform very well. Plus, we are always featuring other investments in these pages. In fact, I am in Paraguay right now where you can get as much as 10% annual interest on your US dollar bank account (but don't put too much there because the dollar won't be around too much longer...).

But don't think of it in terms of  "running out of funds"! When you find a place you want to live, open a small money-generating business... a restaurant...something!... whatever skills you have, do it!  Don't think of it as sitting somewhere hoping to get by. In fact, you'll see nothing but opportunities everywhere outside of the US. The US Govt, unfortunately, has all but made opportunities illegal thanks to all its regulations, taxes and economy destroying money printing. Try to open a restaruant or cut hair or give a massage without a license in the US! All things you can just immediately start doing in Mexico. The US prevents entrepreneurship and kills iniitiave. But the rest of the world is wide open for business. Just ask China. 

As for "waiting it out", you should also be aware that it could be decades before the crisis in the US is over. So don't go thinking this is just going to be a passing storm. The USSR had a 70 year long depression. It all depends what the government does. If the government gets out of the economy's way, you can all move back in 1-2 years and enjoy all the opporunity. If they keep getting more involved, then the Greater Depression could go decades or even centuries (cough-Rome-cough)

ESCAPING THE USSA WITHIN THE USSA?

Hi,

I'm a 21 year old college senior who's never had a paying job and lives with his parents. Over the past year, thanks to Ron Paul, I've discovered austro-libertarianism/anarcho-capitalism. My parents and I are planning to move to north Idaho from southern California within the next 1-3 years. My parents are upper-middle class and are beginning to struggle more and more financially. I've been in their ear with all of the things I have learned since my "awakening," so to speak. My dad watches Fox News religiously and has not really listened to what I have to say (he hates the turbaned boogeymen Fox tells us to fear).

So on to the purpose of this message -- owning gold and silver aren't really an option for me or even for my parents. Neither is expatriation. To us, the best option seems to be escaping California to north Idaho where there seems to be a better chance of getting along if and when things don't go so well. There's abundant water/game, lots of open space and "live and let live" types of people. This is all well and good, but I don't know if it's a smart thing for my parents to be buying a house up there with the way things are going. It sounds like they plan to survive off of their retirement money which is really dangerous to me since they're not really going to have that much of it coming in and the dollar is doomed besides. But on the other hand, at least we wont be trapped in socal, the ticking time-bomb of chaos, when things go bad.

I guess I'm just asking what TDV's thoughts are on this. Is there something we or I can do? My parents are fairly ignorant of many things having to do with true freedom. At the start of my conversion to sensible thinking, I tried to talk with my parents a lot but stopped trying to talk to my dad about it because he's been too indoctrinated and believes it when Fox tells him that there's a gigantic difference between Obomba and Mittins/Dems and Reps. My mom does listen, however, and has come much farther than my dad is capable of.

This has kind of turned into a ramble so I think you get the point (hopefully). I'm not a subscriber to TDV because I have no money to invest and no ability or willingness to leave the country at this point, but I do appreciate what you guys do and have read Jeff's articles on Lewrockwell.com. You guys seem to specialize in this sort of thing so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Kyle

Jeff’s Response:

Hi Kyle,

I have to say first that while gold is a little pricey, silver is not. You can buy an ounce for the cost of semi-decent dinner out. If that is truly beyond your means right now, that's fine. But in my experience saving is silver is both prudent (because silver has tremendous upside potential) and it allows the practice of a little discipline...the kind of discipline that exemplifies the old saying "mind the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves".  Redmond recently reminded us of this saying. Gary has been living it. He's been accumulating silver with some of his drinking money every week. 

As for the Fox news dad and open-minded mom, it's something we've seen quite a bit of. So don't feel alone. We here at TDV stand by our conviction that it is best to get out of the country and watch the unfolding chaos from your TV screen in your Latin American living room. But we also understand that not every single one of our readers is able or willing to leave. We'll be launching a service to address that segment, but we stil think the best option is the one that our entire team has taken. Get out while the getting's good. 

Kyle, without sounding completely cold and heartless, we all need to realize that what we are talking about here is very serious business.  Your parents are, for all intents and purposes, brainwashed and if you cannot get them to wake up, then you should consider simply saving yourself. You will be better able to help them when things go pear-shaped if you yourself are safe and thriving outside the US.  They are brainwashed people who believe in violence and theft. It is terribly sad that is the case, but how much of your life can you ruin trying to snap them out of it when they've shown they'll never wake up until all the insitutions they covet come collapsing down all around them?

In any case, trying to have daily conversations with people that basically live on a different, non-existant planet can be grating and tiring. We don't recommend it. All of us at TDV here in Acapulco have come to this conclusion and we've chosen to act and live accordingly. 

 
That's all for this week! If you have any questions, comments, feedback, or hatemail for us please direct it to TDV@dollarvigilante.com.

Managing Editor

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