My latest piece at Lew Rockwell, answers some questions readers had asked me about leaving the US:
“My last piece, “Time to Run,” provoked a lot of reaction, almost all of it positive, but some negative.
The readers who liked it wanted advice on where to run. That’s a tall order and I’ll come back to them in another piece.
Those who didn’t like it brandished a few arguments that ought to have a stake driven right through them immediately.
Here goes, point by point.
1. Running away doesn’t help
1. Actually, running away is often the best response to a bad situation.
Speaking practically, when a dump truck turns into your drive, mows down your rhododendrons and heads toward you, do you stand your ground yelling Sicilian imprecations at the driver until he rolls over you too? Or do you leap aside nimbly, take a photo, and call a lawyer? You have as much chance getting through to the poisonous shills in DC with constitutional arguments, as you have charming a rabid pit bull with Shakespeare.
Speaking theoretically, your body and brain are hardwired to either put up or shut up, a “fight or flight” response built into the structure of the autonomic nervous system. That is the physiological term for what you think of as your “lizard brain.” Fight or flight is the either/or response that helped your ancestors survive. It’s not the best way to tackle complex problems, but when it gets down to basic survival, it’s a handy guide.
And how do you know when your survival is at stake?
Check your gut response…..”
Read the rest at Lew Rockwell.
[I will be posting reader email on my blog and will respond there, since my email is often compromised]
Mark P. said, The only question left is how long?
I read a financial paper saying it’s just like a poker game, the hand of the US is two 2’s using a bluff. The hand of the BRIC is a straight or full-house and they are just deciding when to clean house.
If you’re BRIC, what advantage is there to waiting? Selling off or repositioning your holdings? Getting something more into the pot to be won? What is left that they want to win? Sorry, I’m going off into strategic planning.
Subject: where to go?
From: “Daniel P”
Date: Mon, June 15, 2009 8:03 am
To: lilarajiva@mindbodypolitic.com
Priority: Normal
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Hi Lila,
My husband and I tried to fight in our court system an eminent domain case and, big
surprise, we found out our constitution is indeed null and void. When my husband,
who acted as our attorney, told both the judge and the other attorney that both of
them were in violation of the state and federal constitution because we would
neither sign a contract nor take any money from the utility company planning to put
two high-power poles on our property, neither of them said a word but just continued
to talk about how and when they would take possession of our land. Now we are
facing living 45 feet away from a 138,000 kilovolt power line.
My question to you is where should we go? Do you plan to write an article VERY SOON
about where to flee? We were thinking about taking a vacation in July, but maybe we
need to visit South America instead – but where in South America (or anywhere else
for that matter)???
Please let us know as soon as possible. These poles are literally going up next
week and we have four young children living with us.
Thank you,
Dan and Kris P
That is terrible Dan and Kris P, but I’m not surprised. I agree, we have no constitution, if we ever really had one to begin with. Your situation is an example of how things here aren’t so different than in China? Some people would non-violently protest, but knowing how things work you’d just wind up in jail and made fun of on the news, eh?
I’ve been reading about Argentina, Belize, Costa Rica, Panama, The Philippines, Ecuador and Uruguay as my top considerations. Here is what I’ve found so far, I’m probably incorrect in many places, but it is a start? I used gun laws, because they are a good reflection on how they treat property rights.
If guns are important to you (they don’t allow rifles)and giving up a DNA sample is not something you want to do, Panama is out.
If you like to own a gun with high capacity clips like an AK-47, Ecuador is out too, their military is too involved in the decision process.
The Philippines will let citizens have guns and they have a dual citizenship program which is good, but I don’t think they let you have more than two guns (limited to 38 cal and under) and you cannot have AK-47’s, I think. Importing a gun into the Philippines is said to be a bad idea (high import tax, long salty humid storage times) better to buy one there. They basically don’t allow concealed carry, much like Thailand. Funny thing was The Philippines has rent-a-gun until you become a citizen.
Argentina requires a psychiatric evaluation prior to obtaining a gun. I suppose that is ok for many, but I have something against the whole idea, it’s too much government prying into a persons personal life and it‘s a bit like begging. I thought they would have less restrictions, to avoid more of that whole, “disappeared” thing.
Costa Rica has so many fees and time limits it’s crazy, no rifles there either.
Belize won’t even let you have a gun, I think. The online newspapers make Costa Rica and Belize seem like they are going in the opposite direction from freedom.
But Uruguay sounds great. You have to take a class maybe, and show you can shoot well. I forget if they have dual citizenship or not, dang it, that is important.
I’m sure I made lots of errors, but that is from my memory of last nights extensive reading, I wish I would have kept some notes as I went along.
Uruguay is my top choice. The rest of the seem to be embracing the worldwide popular socialistic push for world disarmament, which in my opinion leads to genocide and makes the individual easy prey for criminals when they take your property or your life. Hopefully this will be a good push for Lila to make an all encompassing article?
From what I’ve gathered second hand: It’s all about the money you have, it seems, in Uruguay. You have to be able to speak Spanish or be able to hire someone who can. There is no income tax but there is a 23% sales tax with an approximately 10% food tax, on top of high export taxes.
It’s not a great job market.
There is a lot of paperwork involved with moving there, one person claimed it takes four months to get fingerprints from the FBI to the Uruguayan Gov’t., in addition to having to provide sequential statements proving you have the income stream. The paper chase, as it’s called. But, you don’t need to be a resident to own land.
It is common to read that more people are leaving Uruguay looking for better job prospects than are entering. The wealthy retired people seem to be happy.
It does seem to be less regulated in many ways.
On the other hand,
While the people down there seem nice, pleasant, content and all,… all the world seems like a giant cesspool of socialist gone communist or some such.
These two statements I found by people who live there was discouraging:
“….You mentioned that “capitalism demands a remedy”…. people seem to forget that for 100 years UY was a country with a very developed soliciast system, and for the last 4 years it has finally got the socialist government to match….”
Argentina is now headed in the same direction. The result is that more and more industries are giving up on the country and relocating to Brazil.
.A major section of the economy is run along the basis of old-style socialist welfare-state command lines. When the government wants to “tackle inflation,” prices are reduced not by fiddling with interest rates but by Presidential decree. There is a vast army of funcionarios who see their job as preserving the status quo. Entrepreneurs are discouraged at every turn and employers treated as wicked exploiters of the common man. When it comes to state pensions, former workers get almost three times the pension of their former employers.
My final thought tonight is that Flight is for the rich.
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