Economic Totalitarianism

[username18333]

Please point out to the senile Noam Chomsky that he is describing democracy, where the 0.001% (the unaccountable private owners of the governments) convince the 99% to tax the 1%, which is really a tax on the 99.999%.

democracy
1  b :  a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

plutocracy
1  :  government by the wealthy

You write as if plutocracy were republican democracy.

[username18333]

The socialists love to tout that 1% of the world’s population will own more wealth than the other 99%. From the socialists’ viewpoint, this justifies stealing from one group to give to another, despite this model failing in the past. It is also in clear violation of the Ten Commandments. But why does this trend even happen? Is it that the 1% suppress the 99%? Or could it be that government suppresses the 99%?

The 99% cannot get richer because government robs them every day. What should have been put into savings and investments, was squandered as usual by politicians. So is it the fault of those who actually invest on their own? The socialists want to blame the rich and rob them, handing more and more assets to the political class who waste it on themselves.

The 99% need to wake up. It ain’t the 1% – It is those who pretend to be on your side who deprive you of your real right to economic freedom.

(Grey and red colorization mine.)

Thou shalt take no interest of thy brother, interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of anything that can be lent upon interest: of a foreigner thou mayest take interest, but of thy brother thou shalt not take interest; that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in all the business of thy hand in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

(Red colorization mine.)

Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren are standing without, seeking to speak to thee. But he answering said to him that spoke to him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And, stretching out his hand to his disciples, he said, Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in [the] heavens, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.

(Blue and red colorization mine. All additions original to Darby text.)

For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall do that which I please, and it shall accomplish that for which I send it.

(Blue colorization mine. All additions original to Darby text.)

Hark, “the pious or holy” (Plato) “the capital or money” (qtd. in username18333) is “a yoke” (Jer. 28.14).

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also.

(Blue and green colorization added.)

What it is, is proof by contradiction.

Proof only exists in purely axiomatic systems (e.g., mathematics). Empirical systems have but evidence, since observation must be assumed to be veridical (should one aim to avoid solipsism). Therefore, you have not proven  anything (that genuinely corresponds to the observable universe). Furthermore, your hypothetical is so far abstracted from reality that its meaningful connections to reality, if any, are not at all apparent (which, according to your criticism of my use of language, is entirely the fault of yourself).

Regardless, I have shown that - at least, within the context of your hypotheticals - reality has to be framed around money (perhaps, via a plutocratic hyperreality) for it to be anything but an instrument of augmenting the abuse of scarcity to one's (perhaps, a plutocrat's) advantage.

(Green colorization added.)


(P.s. Feel welcome to confer hyperlinks to this post unto others.)

[generalizethis]

www.freedawn.co.uk/scientia/2015/07/31/researchers-attack-the-tor-anonymity-network/

[TPTB_need_war]

I urge someone to email this to Martin Armstrong and ask him to get a grip on reality. He still thinks the USA and Russia are enemies, lol.

This is actually reasonably well done and somewhat realistic assessment of possibilities in the post-2017 timeframe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8rYaPfFLgo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z85nci7AI2s

I found this because my gf wanted me to give her a movie to watch which would give her some understanding of what we are worried about.

That movie/documentary (is there a vocabulary word?) is accurate to some extent as to the difficulties one can face during an economic collapse and especially in war, but it is not exactly the reality we face, primarily because we must grasp that TPTB (the core most people behind the curtain of those 147 transnational corporations that own and run the world) do not want to lose control of their ownership.

Catherine Austin Fitts' "slow burn" is a more apt abstraction of the reality of the crisis we face.

Rather the goal of TPTB is to eliminate their competition and threats to their economies-of-scale and profits, i.e. those pesky smaller sovereigns (nations, local governments, upstart millionaires, etc) that get in the way of their monopolies. They use the crisis they create in order to grab more power, as you can see they are doing in both Ukraine and Greece now.

Btw, as an aside, one of the programmer/mathematicians I thought I had hired was a 26 year Ukrainian. After I explained to him the computer security procedures I needed him to follow, he went silent and then a few days later he replied he had taken a job with Barclays (for eur3500 monthly) designing high frequency trading algorithms. You see most people are sheep and will willingly work for the enemy doing work that is harmful to humanity.

So one of TPTB's first priorities is to disarm the public. They will use a ratcheted crisis (not a sudden uncontrolled pandemic as in the quoted movie) to send the police and military (and national guard as they did after Hurricane Katrina in my birthplace New Orleans) to confiscate all the guns (both registered and of course unregistered). If you have a registered gun, then they know you have it and the gun control databases will be computerized. I was told in 2006 in Corpus Christi, Texas by a former captain in the police force, that all local police had been deputized by the Feds since 9/11 (meaning the Feds can take over command & control of the local police in a declaration of martial law and instruct them to do what they want).

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/amy-schumer-joins-senator-call-tighter-gun-background-check-system-n403206

TPTB know they have a big problem with the militias, so their goal will be to isolate them away from the majority of the population and then divide-and-conquer them. They have to be very careful that they don't allow self-sufficient communities to form due to this isolation. They will label these militias terrorists and this is why they will need the ability to censor the internet. That is why they've been accelerating moves such as the FCC taking control of the internet via executive policy directives such as Net Neutrality. If the militias are too strong, TPTB may have to move to allowing a foreign army on USA soil in order to neutralize the militias. I believe the faux conflict between the USA vs. Russia/China is setup as a plan C for this possible scenario (definitely not the preferred scenario of TPTB because it is very risky).

I believe TPTB are profiling and counting how many truly "take it from my cold dead hand" militia there are, and they will isolate the most extremists ones first and exterminate them as terrorists. They need some excuse to do this action. The problem they realize at Bundy Ranch is the militia will embed themselves amongst women and children, thus the need for control over the internet so the mass murder can be carried out without the eye of the public watching. It may come down to "blue hats" on USA soil as Kissinger promised some decades ago, i.e. that international war can be used to slaughter the militias if necessary (which is also essentially is being done in Ukraine as a preliminary test case, just as they used Katrina a test bed).

Simultaneously they can take out the weaker gun rights advocates by sending the IRS after them, Civil Asset Forfeiture and numerous others means of picking off the weak from the herd to weaken the herd.

So if you talk about one of the most powerful weapons one can give to the local militias, that is an anonymous internet which can't be filtered nor controlled. Not an easy thing to accomplish. First you need the anonymity protocols (and Tor and I2P are broken designs). Then you need HAM radio backup for the internet infrastructure so the internet will always stay on regardless what the Feds do to the internet backbones.

Note according to MA's computer models of repeating cycles, we may see a pandemic starting in 2017 and peaking 2018, and this is a wild card because TPTB may not be able to entirely control the effects of a rapid spread. The severity, death rate, speed of death, and mode of transmission are unknown, so we can't yet estimate the effects. However, maybe we can look to the Spanish Flu epidemic in the early 1900s for clues. The government did not lose control. People became more dependent on the government to enforce quarantines and isolation wards (warehouses filled with sick). You see the government has been building detention camps all over the USA, so maybe they are prepared.

P.S. username18333, yes democracy is a plutocracy and usury is symbiotic with the Industrial Age economics. Both are what I believe will be eliminated by the Knowledge Age, as I have already explained ad nauseum in this thread and in the Economics Devastation thread. This thread is supposed to be about practical solutions to the coming totalitarianism, not a redundant spamming of a pet theory for an anti-money (non-)solution. You can choose to live in your fantasy world of theology and existential philosopy (not to say that isn't interesting or relevant but you are inserting it into the wrong thread). My understanding is that the creator of this thread and many readers would prefer to talk about how to live in this tangible world?

[TPTB_need_war]

www.freedawn.co.uk/scientia/2015/07/31/researchers-attack-the-tor-anonymity-network/

That research is already cited in my white paper on the correct way to design an anonymity network. Fingerprinting and also internet routing subversion are two of the recent ways discovered to unmask anonymity networks.

The bandaids that are proposed will never entirely solve the underlying problem. I do a paradigm shift on command & control to fix that problem (and any other attack that can be devised) at the fundamental basis. It is similar in a high-level abstraction to how I fixed proof-of-work networks and separately found a complete solution to the expression problem of modularity in software. I am on a roll recently in terms of discovery. The conceptual discoveries are pouring out of me at such a rapid rate, that I can't even keep up with writing them down in white papers.

There are three white papers under construction thus far:

• improving upon on chain anonymity math
• scalable, uncensorable proof-of-work network design (with plugin interface for transaction protocol, i.e. use what ever you like, Cryptonote, Confidential Transactions, or my new on chain anonymity design)
• fixed design for anonymity networks and hidden services (to fix or replace Tor, I2P, and Bitmessage). Perhaps this will be integrated with someone else's work.

Yet no one can work with me   Nevermind!  

Here follows a little spanking for those who think I am not an expert...

It may be very important for you to share those insights with us.

Angel investors (even $3000 is enough) who implement the required computer security procedures will receive copies of all the white papers and code ongoing so they can take over if something happens to me where I can't continue. Obviously conflicts of interest prevent me from recruiting certain coveted angel investors who I'd benefit to have advising me and checking my work, e.g. smooth. I offered angel investors (of which there is only one so far who I took funding from and few others who are ready to give funding) a deal where they get more coins per $ invested than later investors.

The required security procedures include to minimally to build a correctly configured air gapped computer.

This means purchasing a 2nd computer that you build yourself and install Linux so that you can be sure it was never connected to the internet nor never plugged into any peripheral that had ever been plugged into any other device. Even one violation of this policy and the air gapped computer is no longer provably secure! A $75 Rasberry Pi 2 can satisfy this requirement and it even ships with the preload N00bs Linux operating system on a microSD card. I suppose a millionaire could afford $75 for an air gapped computer which they should already be using for their crypto wallet! You'd probably want to let someone else order this for you, so some adversary isn't trying to intercept it during shipment and infect it with spyware.

Due to the programmable USB controller firmware (and not being able to reliably determine which USB devices are reprogrammable), then no USB pluggable peripheral (e.g. USB keyboards, mice, flash drives, webcams, etc) can be safely plugged into one computer and then another. For example, your USB flash drive can be reprogrammed to masquerade as both a drive and an undetectable keyboard. The firmware can't even be scanned for malware (spyware) because the firmware controls the scanning of itself! Thus you can not use a USB flash drive to do the sneakernet for transfering files between your internet facing computer and the air gapped computer. I have a solution to this but I will not type it here, because it is covered in one of my white papers and that would surely identify me as the author of the white paper. Mircea Popescu (alias MPEX/MPOE-PR who provided that upthread photo of a naked brown skinned female touching her vagina) recommends an optical scanner solution, but that is highly impractical. I have an elegant solution which I realized by researching the nature of the threat.

Then employing 7zip encrypt/decryption and base64 encode/decode utilities so all data is encrypted/decrypted and encoded/decoded to text files on the air gapped computer and then transferred via the secure method to the internet facing computer and then sent by copy+paste into Bitmessage on the internet facing computer. This is essentially NSA proof, for as long as you always carry the air-gapped computer with you every where you go. Remember the government has secret agents in every city on earth and can't break into your office or home and plant spyware on your computer without you ever noticing. If you are a public figure of interest, you can assume they've already done it.

Never transfer virus capable files to your air gapped computer such as PDF files. No more white papers in PDF formats! Grrr. Any altcoin publishing white papers in PDF format has already admitted they are clueless, inept, or not that serious!

The point herein is we'd like to fall through the cracks and be basically unnoticed.

To that end, it would be much better to replace Bitmessage with an improvement asap (which would also be easier to use and deploy thus more popular and thus a larger anonymity set to fall into the cracks of). With the Bitmessage decrypting from your Bitmessage address key on the internet facing computer, then if the spyware isn't in your air gapped computer but is in your internet facing computer, then your anonymity is gone even though the adversary can't read your 7zip encrypted data. Well then you might as well just use email and 7zip then! So to retain anonymity with certainty, we need to take extra measures.

The first step would be to construct a new internet facing computer which you will not use for any activity except the very focused and limited activity required, e.g. a dedicated, home built, Linux computer with all unnecessary ports turned off, the firewall turned on, and only used for Bitmessage.

The next step beyond that level, would be to build an app that is better than Bitmessage which knows how to interopt with an air gapped computer.

And then other things we can do beyond that in terms of secure hardware and operating systems, c.f. Skycoin's thread as he writes about this frequently...

Edit: I just noticed this strange post from gmaxwell on MPOE-PR's reputation:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=52741

MPOE-PR is a strange shill account for Mircea Popescu; Some people believe that MPOE-PR _is_ MP, constant use of third person pronouns not withstanding, others believe that MPOE-PR is a "representative" (the woman pictured), who just seems to strangely talk like Mircea and know everything he knows. It doesn't matter; for all intents and purposes MPOE-PR is Mircea's face on BCT and this review is over his entire enterprise.

After years of exposure I believe MP is categorically unsafe to do business with. He will reliably act in a manner which causes gain for him at the expense of others and he believes that he is right and proper in doing so because he believes he is inherently superior to the people he rips off.

I've never personally been ripped off from him, as I steered clear of him since he refused to stop posting apparently child porn in #bitcoin-otc but I've seen many cases where other people have been:

Some concrete examples,

Here is a thread about MP* stealing 10 BTC outright from a user https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=339544.0

Here is a thread about MP* naked shorting GIGA mining bonds and then escaping by declaring them worthless: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=244716.0

So I checked out the alleged $7000 theft and clearly it is some attempt to blame the ineptness of the "victim" to use a wallet of his choosing on someone other than himself.

Thus I conclude again that Gregory Maxwell is a closet socialist, control freak who believes the world should operate according to some consumer protection laws.

Individual responsibility is only motivated by not providing a nanny state.

[TPTB_need_war]

...

Why do people love to convince themselves that they are okay? Is it because most people can't deal with the painful realities?

You are not okay. You are not prepared. You are a sitting duck waiting to be harvested.

Rights are bullshit. You have no rights.

Your only insurance that you can travel is your preparations to be sure you can travel even without a passport.

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is
wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts
they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions,
it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ...
And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as
to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost
in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
It is its natural manure."— Thomas Jefferson

[trollercoaster]

http://m.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/australian-taxation-office-uses-voiceprint-technology-to-speed-up-calls-20140909-10edli.html

[TPTB_need_war]

People who are fooled by the illusion of law & order, aren't going to be buying crypto-currency for disruptive reasoning any way, rather only because they are jealous of gains others made.

And those who are buying crypto for disruptive reasoning, aren't concerned about the free market process because that is what they want.

Your thesis is fundamentally irrelevant.

You are just another worry wort control freak like your philosophical cohort Gregory Maxwell.

Pleeaaase don't try to assert that Bitcoin is going to replace legal tender in the minds of your cohort. Delusion is all you know.

[username18333]

P.S. username18333, yes democracy is a plutocracy and usury is symbiotic with the Industrial Age economics. Both are what I believe will be eliminated by the Knowledge Age, as I have already explained ad nauseum in this thread and in the Economics Devastation thread. This thread is supposed to be about practical solutions to the coming totalitarianism, not a redundant spamming of a pet theory for an anti-money (non-)solution. You can choose to live in your fantasy world of theology and existential philosopy (not to say that isn't interesting or relevant but you are inserting it into the wrong thread). My understanding is that the creator of this thread and many readers would prefer to talk about how to live in this tangible world?

(Red and blue colorization mine.)


A "rugged ascent" (Plato) immunizes one against the Plutocrat's Kyōka Suigetsu.

“Next,” said I, “compare our nature in respect of education and its lack to such an experience as this. Picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cavern with a long entrance open to the light on its entire width. Conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only, and prevented by the fetters from turning their heads. Picture further the light from a fire burning higher up and at a distance behind them, and between the fire and the prisoners and above them a road along which a low wall has been built, as the exhibitors of puppet-shows have partitions before the men themselves, above which they show the puppets.” “All that I see,” he said. “See also, then, men carrying past the wall implements of all kinds that rise above the wall, and human images and shapes of animals as well, wrought in stone and wood and every material, some of these bearers presumably speaking and others silent.” “A strange image you speak of,” he said, “and strange prisoners.” “Like to us,” I said; “for, to begin with, tell me do you think that these men would have seen anything of themselves or of one another except the shadows cast from the fire on the wall of the cave that fronted them?” “How could they,” he said, “if they were compelled to hold their heads unmoved through life?” “And again, would not the same be true of the objects carried past them?” “Surely.” “If then they were able to talk to one another, do you not think that they would suppose that in naming the things that they saw they were naming the passing objects?” “Necessarily.” “And if their prison had an echo from the wall opposite them, when one of the passersby uttered a sound, do you think that they would suppose anything else than the passing shadow to be the speaker?” “By Zeus, I do not,” said he. “Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects.” “Quite inevitably,” he said. “Consider, then, what would be the manner of the release and healing from these bonds and this folly if in the course of nature something of this sort should happen to them: When one was freed from his fetters and compelled to stand up suddenly and turn his head around and walk and to lift up his eyes to the light, and in doing all this felt pain and, because of the dazzle and glitter of the light, was unable to discern the objects whose shadows he formerly saw, what do you suppose would be his answer if someone told him that what he had seen before was all a cheat and an illusion, but that now, being nearer to reality and turned toward more real things, he saw more truly? And if also one should point out to him each of the passing objects and constrain him by questions to say what it is, do you not think that he would be at a loss and that he would regard what he formerly saw as more real than the things now pointed out to him?” “Far more real,” he said.

[TPTB_need_war]

(non-)solution

That you decline to acknowledge a "solution" as being such does not render it a "(non-)solution".

That is why I placed the "non-" in parenthesis to acknowledge it is my opinion.

[username18333]

That you decline to acknowledge a "solution" as being such does not render it a "(non-)solution".

That is why I placed the "non-" in parenthesis to acknowledge it is my opinion.

(Your quote is now a misquote.)

[TPTB_need_war]

(Your quote is now a misquote.)

You are noisy. Filters applied.

[generalizethis]

(Your quote is now a misquote.)

You are noisy. Filters applied.

Wish you'd stop quoting him; i applied my filters a week ago. 

[TPTB_need_war]

OROBTC asked me a serious question in MA thread about how to plan and I gave a serious answer perhaps a bit flippant.

I am seriously considering moving to a more sparsely populated area of the world. I can always travel to Asia as a tourist, but I think being in a very populated area is going to be risky as the downturn accelerates. I see police and checkpoints every 1 km here. New police academy recruits by dozens seen walking along the road. As the economy turns down here in Philippines, one will be squeezed between increasing regulations (the dumb asses here want to be like you in the West), the Asian top-down disrespect for minorities (e.g. where I live they have banned driving at night for handicapped people blind in one eye!), increased corruption and kidnappings as the economy turns down, increase petty theft and the filipino attitude of "bahala ka" (meaning it is your problem, I don't care) when they cut you off in the road, throw an object that hits you in the head, run you off the road while you are walking on the side of the road, etc.. I was here before and then during the Asian Crisis, so I saw how the place descended into a hell hole. It was during the peak of the Asian Crisis when everyone was so pissed off, that they attacked me and took my eye. Now I am handicapped because of them, and they want to take away my license to drive!

If anyone is serious about pooling resources in order to purchase and provide security for a safe haven ranch in a low population area that does not tax foreign residents on foreign income, then I am interested to talk with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_taxation#Individuals

https://web.archive.org/web/20130503074339/http://www.byronlutz.com/antolopez.htm (recently increased to $75,000 for 12 acres)

http://www.bestranches.com.ar/ranches.html
  * 4500 acres with river, trouts, private natural sand beach in the ranch, cascades, streams for $1.4 million

I think who ever is serious about this needs to be thinking about making this a reality in 2016 or 2017 at the latest. I am thinking it may be better to rent and wait for clarity and the best deals (other than trophy pieces, real estate should decline in price, or at least relative to crypto price appreciation for next several years at least). Also a way to familiarize with new places before committing.

I can't speak to those who have family in a Western country that they can not leave. My mother refuses to leave the USA and I love her, but I can't allow that to rule my life. Long ago I realized that my life is my life, and my mother is very independent any way. If you've got kids and you've raised them to be very close to you, and they are too tied down in their jobs, then all I can suggest if you may decide you need to have a bugout plan B. At some point, they may lose their jobs and be ready to get-out-of-Dodge too. Diversification.

As for the role of the Knowledge Age and anonymous crypto-currency, this will affect each of differently depending on our skills and vocation. In my opinion, owning anonymous crypto-currency is going to be vital.

The anonymity and scaling issues I've basically solved. It is just a matter of implementation and then people following the instructions. As much as possible those procedures need to be automated and made dummy-proof. This will take some time, but not too long.

The main unsolved problem is how we can assure that the peer network of the crypto-currency can always function. I haven't started to tackle this problem yet. I think first one needs to have a lot of capital and then start to work on solutions, such a HAM and shortwave radio as backup for the existing internet infrastructure. These low bandwidth backups are why we will need a new design for the peer network such that all the transactions don't have to be relayed to the block chain in order to be confirmed. That is what my design accomplishes, so we'd already be ready for those communications improvements.

My plea is we need to stop competing over who was on first base and just accept that we need to implement what we need to implement. And get 'er done. We'll all benefit according to our contribution to the solutions we need. May the chips fall where they may according to a meritocracy.

[trollercoaster]

I am considering Tasmania or New Zealand, both places do get bitterly cold in winter though & I couldn't find any data from these areas for the previous mini ice age.

How low do you think real estate value will plummet from the current prices?

[TPTB_need_war]

Articles of interest on South America:

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/12/practical-shooter-released-from-jail.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/11/bugging-out-ar15-vs-lever-action-rifle.html

Regarding which gun is more politically correct, dont bother with it. Those who’s opinion does matter, military, police, rescue teams, they wont care what type of gun it is, they’ll just see a gun and react based on that. If you ever end up shooting someone and end in court, it wont matter what gun you used, you’ll go to jail or not depending on you shooting within what’s considered self-defense or not. Shoot someone the wrong way for the wrong reasons with a 30-30 and you’ll go to jail just as if you had shot him with a single shot 22LR pipe gun.

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2015/07/in-argentina-crime-does-pay-no-joke-it.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2015/01/life-after-economic-collapse-same-only.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-scarecrow-police-car.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/11/rural-crime-keeps-getting-worse-what-do.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/11/life-after-economic-collapse-same-only.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/why-didnt-i-move-to-estancia-cafayate.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/09/being-careful-of-scams-charlatans-and.html

http://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/contrarian-view-argentina

I say "interesting" because a cursory glance into the background of this particular Argentine expat, a 30-year-old with apparently very little foreign travel experience, reveals that until recently he lived in one of the tougher barrios of Buenos Aires and made some meager income by writing a run-of-the-mill survivalist book and publishing a back-end blog designed to promote that book. While I have no question that the man's experiences are authentic, accepting his dim view – and it's a very dim view – of living in Argentina is exactly the same as reading a blog written by somebody living in a bombed-out slum in Chicago and accepting at face value that his experience is representative of what it is like to live in the United States.

In the case of Argentina, dealing with the bureaucracy can be incredibly frustrating. Not so much in terms of daily interactions; for example, the odds of your being pulled over for a traffic offense are barely above zero, and transiting through airports for local flights involves minimal interference (and yes, you get to keep your shoes on).

The dealings with the government become cumbersome when trying to do business or get an official stamp on some document related to what should otherwise be a mundane activity. For example, buying a car. There are, of course, ways that you can circumvent much of this if you have a few dollars – and I'm not talking about paying a bribe, because I've never been asked for a bribe in any of my dealings in Argentina – but rather by hiring a good local attorney (or an inexpensive gofer) and letting them deal with the nuisance issues.

Doug’s comments

1. It’s one thing being a citizen of a country, whereby the government considers you its property, and totally something else to be a visitor, who has to be courted to invest and spend. An Argentine (especially if he has no money) is much better off moving to another country. Whereas an American (especially if he has a few bucks) is much better off in Argentina.

2.  Argentines have learned to dislike and distrust the army and the police; that’s a very good thing – unlike Chile where they love them. Most Argentineans reflect their Italian background and don’t believe in taxes. Nobody really takes the government seriously.

3.  The government is very inefficient. The last thing you want is an efficient government. Especially now that the whole world is following the example of the US and is “locking down.”

4. Only poorly traveled, unsophisticated people equate the travails of the government with the standard of living for a resident non-citizen.

5. You don’t want to move to any new country and become a citizen. It’s a moving target – acting like a plant and making permanent roots in any one place is a stupid error. Don’t act like a plant – you’ll be eaten. But you must diversify your assets internationally and have a pleasant foreign crib in case the going gets tough at home.

6. Argentina has the advantage of not being involved in NATO or any foreign wars. It’s off the beaten path and out of harm’s way.

7. The fact the government has stumbled from one financial disaster to another (which has never bothered foreigners living here) just means the country is used to dealing with tough times. It’s likely to do much better than most during the Greater Depression.

8. The place is more like Europe than Europe itself at this point – ethnically and demographically. And there’s no looming religious war with Islam to be dealt with.

David again. If you want to understand Argentina (or any country, for that matter), buy a ticket, and by all means don't spend your entire holiday in Buenos Aires, unless you enjoy hanging out in big cities. Getting slanted, questionable views on the Internet about any country is no way to form an opinion about the place.

Notice how Ferfal doesn't point out that Australia taxes all your income if you become a resident and contrast that with Doug Casey advice above, and note that Australia wants to own you:

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/2014/10/australia-should-you-bug-out-from-first.html

http://ferfal.blogspot.com/search/label/gauchos

I know of a story of a foreigner in I believe Argentina who was jailed for 10 years for killing a local when it was the local's fault for running a red light:

http://wikioverland.org/Peru#Driving_in_Peru

Also, given the fact that Peruvian drivers are probably the craziest in South America (my own experience), you really want to have an insurance. Beyond that, people in Peru cross roads and even motorways without properly watching out for vehicles (also my own experience), and if you hit somebody, you're in even bigger and very serious trouble.

[TPTB_need_war]

I am considering Tasmania or New Zealand, both places do get bitterly cold in winter though & I couldn't find any data from these areas for the previous mini ice age.

How low do you think real estate value will plummet from the current prices?

Australia (Tasmania) and NZ are both 5 Eyes countries. They tax residents foreigners all on their foreign income. You can expect them to be very proficient at implementing enslavement policies such as national biometric identification, fines for even a crack on your taillight, gun control, etc.. NZ is slightly better than Australia, but as you say not a warm climate if we do enter a Little Ice Age. I am very willing to go live in those countries for less than 6 months a year as a tourist, but why would you want to become a permanent resident? See the comments from Doug Casey in my prior post.

Australia and NZ are at the peak of their real estate booms, especially with the Chinese have been pouring money in to get it out of China. If had to wager a guess, then compared to buying BTC at the coming bottom $150 or less, then I would say real estate in those two countries will decline by a factor of no less than 3 as measured in BTC and I'd put good odds on a factor of 10 times. Meaning if you'd instead hold BTC (or even gold after the coming $700 low) for the next few years and rent, you'd be 3 - 10 times richer.

That is my guess. Anyone else want to share their guess or reasoning?

Someone had shared with me a link on hot NZ has these episodes of hot air North-westerlies, that make the local population miserable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor%27west_arch

This turbulent weather can apparently mess with the human mood.

I am thinking I'd rather live in a place where the government is as corrupt as possible, because as Doug Casey says they are inefficient at messing with you. He says you have a near zero chance of a traffic stop in Argentina for example. On the downside, you have to protect yourself. I am not a weakling or a pussie who needs a nanny state to protect me. As I said, I could still travel any where I prefer, but I think here we are talking where to settle down a residence and tax jurisdiction. And where to bugout if the world goes F.U.B.A.R..

For example, in Argentina I've read that if you overstay your visa even for 10 years, you pay a fine and are not deported. Try that in any Asian country! Actually I did overstay a few years in the Philippines in the 1990s and I had to talk to the immigration commissioner for the entire country to get out of that trouble. And the Philippines is changing now and becoming more and more a police state. I'm ready to leave perhaps by 2016.

[trollercoaster]

I did consider the Philippines because I qualify for Balikbayan status, I would never have imagined the place turning into a police state (I was last there 6 years ago)
But I suppose these things can change rapidly.

I have no problem looking after myself, my only concern is the safety of my young kids, who become targets of kidnappings in turd world countries.

[TPTB_need_war]

I did consider the Philippines because I qualify for Balikbayan status, I would never have imagined the place turning into a police state (I was last there 6 years ago)
But I suppose these things can change rapidly.

I have no problem looking after myself, my only concern is the safety of my young kids, who become targets of kidnappings in turd world countries.

The changes accelerated as of 2010. It was as if someone flipped a switch and suddenly there was construction every where. I think it was the QE was ending up over here as foreign investment in corporate bond issues. It has made them overconfident and wanting to turn Philippines into a copy of America (I even see an occasional strip mall now).

I am exaggerating a bit and consider the Mayor of Davao is really the most extreme of all Mayors as far as putting more police on the streets. So perhaps other cities in the Philippines are less so. But I do literally see police every 500 - 1000 meters in the city. And checkpoints are becoming more frequent and random. And it is ridiculous that they have banned people with vision in only one eye from driving at night. That is an extreme overreaction to one car accident where a filipino without vision in one eye killed 3 kids in a car accident. That to me is indicative of totalitarian attitudes. "We can make a safer world if we violate the lives of innocent people". I walk in to renew my DL and suddenly I am told I can't drive at night (which for example I always need to do because that is the time when there is no traffic so I can quickly travel to my other location where Bitmessage runs because it doesn't function on the ISP at my nice rental house). I was told I could hire a filipino driver. Fuck that! I see the writing on the wall and I don't like the change. I'll still be visiting (and driving at night with the "international driver's license" I will obtain tomorrow hopefully) but not residing here too much longer.

Hey welcome to the Philippines. First we gouge your eye out, then after your 25 years of residence in our country, we take away your priviledge to drive because of the eye we took from you, so you can be forced to hire a filipino driver (who might be the one who conveniently drives you to the kidnappers one night).

Kidnappings were severe in the Philippines before the economy turned up and many laborers were exported overseas to work. With the global downturn, we might see that revert at least until 2020 when MA predicts Asia will bottom.

Education is horrendous in the Philippines. Don't subject your kids to it. I made that mistake.

If safety of your kids is a greater concern than their indoctrination by State education and socialism, then I'd agree Australia and NZ are better choices than any of the turd countries.

Home schooling in those countries is regulated.

For me, I'd want my kids to grow up with dangeradventure/rustic/rural and not be overly sheltered. I want them to be strong and understand the real world and receive a real world education. But that is just me. I am different than most people.

The Balikbayan 1 year visa is no big deal any more. You can get 6 months extensions now and up to 3 years before you need to travel out. And then you are not forced to travel with your filipina wife.

And why raise kids in the Philippines? Philippines is a hell hole. It is good for single men for obvious reasons. But for your children, why subject them to that. Maybe there is something positive to be said about the repressed conservative values here, yet then they will be watching all that sexy dancing and other inane TV shows. And indoctrinating them with lots of other nonsense at the schools which the kids rebel against. My kids went crazy when they hit the USA after being held back by the Philippines values.

And your wife's relatives will dominate you here. You need some separation to feel like you are still not just a "kano" white ivory trophy on the wall in the home.

[trollercoaster]

Yeah all of this I agree with, it was only a consideration to escape the western style totalitarianism, but that appears to be spreading there too.

Rural Australian areas have mostly escaped this for now, but Fabian style socialism has hijacked all sides of politics here, so a full fledged land grab by the state is a very real possibility in a crisis situation.

I need to think about this more carefully, because I do not want to stay here (in the city) or be stuck in a socialist, agenda 21 version of hell (herded out of a rural area like the chinese farmers)

I will look into South America, but staying here is not an option.