Common Misconceptions & Making a Living in a Foreign Country
Politics / Social Issues Apr 26, 2012 - 02:07 AM GMTBy: Jeff_Berwick
It's one of the top questions we get. If I expatriate, how can I make a living in a foreign country? After all, not all of us have sizable amounts of savings that we can nestle upon. In fact, most in the western world don't after they've had most of it siphoned off by the state. And even those who think they do, and have a bank account flush full of green pieces of paper or who receive large government pension cheques backed by those same Federal Reserve Notes will soon find out that their "wealth" was illusionary.
In this article we will discuss first some common misconceptions of the opportunities in the world today and then get into more specifics about the opportuntities we see outside of the western world and some ideas on how to take advantage of them.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS
The west is fraught with misconceptions. The majority of what almost everyone believes is just not true - it's what makes living there next to impossible for free-thinkers. But here are a few common misconceptions that relate to the topic we are discussing today:
- We are rich, they are poor. This is, on a generalized basis, simply not true. The perception is that the west is quite rich and the rest of the world is destitute. This was true for a period... about 40 years ago... but humans have a tough time adjusting to paradigm shifts so many continue to believe this. When the US Government went bankrupt for the second time in 1971 it denoted the change of the world as we knew it. By that point, the Chinese had nearly finished with their disastrous communist experiment. The great criminal Mao finally shed his mortal coil in 1976 and soon ushered in the new age of Deng Xiaoping and "being rich is glorious". By that point the USSR was already circling the drain and, unbeknownest to most, the US began its decline as well for all the same reason as the USSR... too much government involvement in the economy (for the record the perfect amount is 0%). When total government and personal debt is added to the average net worth in the west, almost everyone is indebted... whereas developing and "third world" countries and the people who live there have no debt. Almost everyone in places like Latin America and Asia all have cell phones, most have cars, most have computers, many have homes... the only difference is that all of it is paid for, not on their credit cards or mortgages.
- There is more opportunity in the West. This used to be absolutely true. But things change and if you get stuck in the old paradigm you'll find yourself wasting time and money and more. The days of moving to the US, getting your kids into a good school and them building a life for themselves is mostly over. Now it is more likely to end up with them getting indoctrinated in socialist culture, pepper sprayed, heavily indebted with student loans to learn things which are all available for free on the internet and then, if our predictions are correct, forced into the military or Homeland Security to pay off their debts. The real opportunities today are mostly in Asia, Latin America and former Soviet Bloc countries as we will talk further about below.
- My kids need a good job. This is another anachronistic mindset. All the slaves on TV drone on about how they need jobs... but this is a direct result of placing young children in socialist child prison camps for 12 of their most formative years. Anyone remember their "Introduction to Entrepreneurship" class from elementary school? Of course not, it does not exist in public schools. That is because the entire system is designed to produce worker slaves who are conditioned to show up at 9am and not leave until at least 5pm, sit in a cubicle for the entire day and not ask questions. Once you get outside of that mindset the world is your oyster. You don't need someone to create a job for you... you just need to see an opportunity to add value to someone or something and seize it. This makes expatriating to a foreign country infinitely easier as we'll talk more about below.
- If I stay where I am I'll get a good company pension and Socialist Security cheques as well in 10 or 15 years. You can forget all about that right now. We've shown countless times how the western nation-states socialist security systems are a bankrupt ponzi scheme. But, even corporate pensions won't be worth much in a few years time. There are a few reasons why. For one, most corporate pensions are invested in the stock market - yes, that same stock market that has made no nominal gains for the last 10 years... or the bond market which will soon evaporate.. And, even if they do manage to grow their funds, the payments will be made in fiat currencies that simply won't exist 5-10 years from now. Just consider them gone right now and save yourself a few years of fearful anticipation.
ESCAPE FROM AMERICA
Again, if you are stuck in old paradigms, you will not see the massive changes going on all around you. Lou Dobbs is a perfect example of this. Every night on Fox he'll decry foreign workers from sneaking into "our" country and stealing "our" jobs. There's just one problem. Everyone's leaving. In fact, Lou should move his schtick to Mexico and decry the influx of Americans into Mexico as a recent Pew Research Report states, "In the five-year period from 2005 to 2010, about 1.4 million Mexicans immigrated to the United States and about 1.4 million Mexican immigrants and their U.S.-born children moved from the United States to Mexico."
For first time since Depression, more Mexicans leave U.S. than enter
Many of them are Mexicans who are returning to Mexico. This snippet from a Washington Post article shows why:
It is better to be unemployed in Mexico than to be unemployed in the United States, he said, because most migrant workers leave their families in Mexico. “They miss the warmth of being in a welcoming community,” he said, adding that with tougher border control and more deportations, Mexicans would rather be in a “precarious situation than in a situation of fear.”
That's not the only reason, either. There are simply more opportunities in Mexico than in many parts of the US now despite all the propaganda about there being a deadly drug war and the Obama administration running guns into the country. It would come as a big surprise to most Americans to hear that the Mexican stock exchange has gone up nearly 1,000% percent in the last ten years.
Now, as with all stock markets today, you have to take the numbers with a large grain of salt as they don't account for inflation and the Mexican peso money supply likely plays a significant role in the rise... but certainly prices have not risen four fold in Mexico since 2005... but the Mexican stock exchange has.
A net rise in Mexican immigration vis-a-vis the US and a booming stock market? Maybe the government and the media aren't telling you the whole story!
SEEING IT FOR YOURSELF
This is why "seeing it for yourself" is the only way to go. The governments and media is so full of propaganda and skewed world-views that it is actually dangerous to your mental health to pay attention to them.
Even listening to friends or trusted sources can't possibly give you the big picture about any one location. Even if you were able to clone yourself and send a different clone off to the same location every week for a year, they would all have different perspectives on the area. That is because our views are formed by our experiences and it is impossible for two different people to have the exact same experiences. All it takes to ruin a location for many people is one pickpocket... and all it takes to make a place the most wonderful paradise on Earth is for you to cross paths with one beautiful girl who you fall in love with.
For this reason it is imperative to visit any location in which you are considering living and spend a significant amount of time there first. Of course, you can listen to like-minded people are publications you feel you can trust, like TDV, but that just gives you the big brush picture. You'll never know if a place is right for your until you actually go there.
Now, once you get there, here are some thoughts on making a living in a foreign country...
To read the rest of this article and find out the opportunities that the rest of the world has to offer, including a detailed way to start up a hotel in a foreign country with no money down, subscribe to the Dollar Vigilante today
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© 2012 Copyright Jeff Berwick - All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.
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