Life as a Spectator Sport

Just plonk down $25,000 on a prime piece of Costa Rican real estate, brought to you by an increasing number of fly-by-night operators, and some genuine real estate brokers (franchises of Century 21, for example).

I've wondered for a couple of years now why the folk in power, and their corporate buddies, have behaved in such an inexplicable way. Why cut the financial legs out from under the middle class when it provides your primary customer base? Why emasculate the environmental laws and allow air and water quality to become even worse? Why exempt increasing amounts of income from taxation when our educational system is in such poor condition? Why allow increasing numbers of people to move their income out of the United States and avoid paying taxes at all? Those taxes don't just pay for the welfare system and the war in Iraq. They maintain the infrastructure of this country, the electrical grid and the interstate highways that our transportation system (and our consumer goods) depend on. You may buy your clothes in designer salons, but the raw materials for them still arrive mostly by truck. No matter how much money you have yourself, you still have to use the same roads and bridges as the rest of the population. You still breathe the same air.

Well, maybe not.

One answer to those questions is that the super-rich don't plan to be here to suffer the consequences of their actions. I balked at that conclusion when it first occurred to me. It just seemed too far-fetched. Where would they go, for one thing? Americans, even mega-rich Americans, aren't overly popular in a lot of places any more. Europe, the traditional playground of the rich, seemed less likely than it would have been in an earlier day. If nothing else, its large urban populations and dwindling rural areas make it as risky a place to live as the US when the oil stops flowing freely. Asia is just too culturally different for most Americans to feel comfortable there, except for countries such as Australia and New Zealand (and New Zealand does indeed have many American immigrants). Africa was clearly out—the people are the wrong color and the governments too unstable. That left Central and South America.

The countries south of Mexico bring one thing to most Americans' minds, I suspect: drugs. But the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Americans fleeing the US would be tempted to look south. Much of the geography is still not just rural but completely wild. There is "elbow room," as Daniel Boone would have put it. There is a tradition of domestic service as well, something that I imagine well-off Americans would find attractive. Property taxes—indeed, taxes of all kinds—would be low compared to the US. Best of all, those countries seem to be relatively indifferent to what goes on in the rest of the world. American money is just money, with no political taint. And the countries are nominally Christian, the religion that has proven itself most amenable to corporate management. You may have missionaries from every imaginable Christian denomination in Central and South America, but Islam has apparently avoided it.

But it still seemed like too wild and paranoid a notion, even after I learned that much of America's solar panel production is going overseas, and that it is consequently difficult for Americans still living here to purchase large solar panels.

Then I heard of someone who was moving his family to Costa Rica. He tossed off a list of what he would buy to power their new home: generator, solar panels, batteries, controllers, inverters, etc. I don't know the dollar value of all this, but it sure ain't pocket change. What's more, Costa Rican real estate sites stress the importance of paying cash for your investment, or at least getting your financing somewhere else, as limited mortgage money is available and interest rates are high. So moving to Costa Rica takes a chunk of ready cash, not something the average bill-stressed American family can put its hands on.

These real estate sites (just google 'Costa Rica real estate' for a very long list of them) say that American corporations are moving to Costa Rica in large numbers, and that over one hundred thousand Americans have already purchased property there—an American colony in the making.

Costa Rica isn't the only haven for Americans fleeing the US, but it has the most stable government in the area, and it is actively courting American emigres. Other destinations include the Caribbean islands of Belize, Bermuda and the Barbados, those offshore tax havens where people "protect their assets" (to quote some of the numerous "offshore account" websites) from US tax laws. The IRS has estimated that 70 billion dollars of US income has avoided taxation by going out of the country. leaving the rest of us with the burden of maintaining roads and bridges, educating our children, and providing for our elderly on a much smaller tax base than would be available otherwise. Think that isn't a problem? Just look at the inner cities. Suburban flight left very much less income to tax, resulting in less money for street maintenance, garbage collection, police and fire department coverage, and all the issues we've come to associate with living in large cities.

So if your income falls in that rarified stratum protected by Mr. Bush's tax changes, and you're smart enough to get out while you can, consider Costa Rica. You'll be associating with people in your own moneyed class, and it probably doesn't cost much to hire a maid, cook and gardener. And if you're lucky enough to work for one of the corporations relocating there, you won't even have to change jobs.

But you know what? This is nation-looting on a scale never imagined by Ferdinand and Imelda.

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RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email to liz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002