#902 – The Expat Files: Political Canvassing, Cryptocurrencies, and Generational Tensions

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now that I wonder Hello there all you ex-pat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great And it's all right here, so let's get started all right today We start with an email from Bob in response to the show I did while back about buying votes here in Latin America. I believe he's in upstate, New York He says Johnny, so I answered a knock at the door this morning, and I found Republicans on my doorstep again

[00:48] Me Johnny here now by the way Bob's talking about his neighborhood in the boonies in upstate, New York Anyway, so Bob says Frank Hermanence is running for a supervisor of highways in Lexington again Apparently he was down with a bum knee and sent out his wife and daughter to do the canvassing The daughter gave me a ziplock bag with a postcard vote for Frank something something Yada-yada an official Republican pen and as usual a Hershey bar now. I don't care for Frank He's a cranky pain in the ass more importantly they keep plowing the snow up against my garage door all the time and if you want to buy my vote you're gonna have to Do a little better than a fucking Hershey bar It's easy a pint of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream would probably do the trick well, okay. Thanks for that Bob

[01:36] Now if you listened a couple of shows ago you heard me say that in the Dominican Republic I was right there Johnny on the spot watching political canvassers passing out 2,000 peso notes which is about 20 bucks in US funny money Hey, you could buy a lot of Hershey bars with 20 bucks probably 20 or at least 10 and of course I mentioned in a past show I was Johnny on the spot in Guatemala Many times when political organizers were handing out sex rice with the candidates ugly mug on him And I watched as political jerk-offs in Guatemala Were standing at big chicken bus stations handing out pre-boxed happy meals So how much are those things three four bucks seems like according to Bob up in New York anyway American votes can be bought for a lot less like Bob says a Hershey bar though

[02:23] It's true in the US even Hershey bars ain't what they used to be just check out the ingredients on the label Then tell me if you really feel like eating one even if it's free By the way Bob's an expat insider seminar alumni, or is that alumnus? I have to look that up someday and his email is followed by another expat insider alumni in fact the repeat offender Steve he's up in the states right now with his better half who also came to the seminar He says Johnny. We really need to get the hell out of here. He's talking about the US of course Then he says here's my latest story So Johnny, I'm at Wally world And there's a little boy and a little girl in the cart ahead of me at the checkout stand The little girl drops her doll and starts to fuss the little boy picks it up and gives it to his sister me

[03:11] Being the nice guy am I talked to the boy and tell him he's a good brother at which point his mother says Does it look like a boy to you? Well, I figured she was correcting me and it was a girl and I've blown it But I couldn't keep my mouth shut so I said yes He does look like a boy at that point the mother informed me that it hasn't decided its gender yet And I looked at her and said and you lady are the problem with society today Johnny you can't make this stuff up. I can't wait to get back to Guatemala permanently then Steve asks What VPN do you use on your computer? I was looking at Nord VPN and it looks like they still collect data on you even if you're using the paid service

[03:57] Now I know protonmail has a VPN just trying to figure out what would work best Thanks, Johnny and be careful Steve. All right, Steve. Thanks for that Yes, Steve. I actually use that proton VPN myself. I think it costs something like 25 bucks a year I use it all the time and it works great So Steve that little wally world story pretty much says it all and I guess that's reason 4264 why anyone with a half a brain really has to consider getting out of dodge soon And you know the best way to get a two to five year head start on your plan B is to come down to my Exped insider seminar. My next one kicks off January 10th and runs through January 16th 2020 just go to www.theexpedfiles.com and click on the seminar link or

[04:44] www.theexpedfiles.com Seminar there you'll find a full seminar explanation sign-up sheet and the itinerary Plus what you need to know if you're planning on killing two birds with one stone that is coming to the seminar at the same Time applying for Guatemala residency. Oh and by the way, I'm getting some inquiry from people asking if I can hook them up with a roommate so they can save 750 bucks off the fee because you see there's a pretty big discount if you come down as a double that is two people Sharing double occupancy versus coming down as a single So for any of you guys and gals out there who are looking to come to the seminar and need a roommate just to save the dough Just shoot me an email the expat files at gmail.com Explain your situation and we can usually work it out Now as far as finding you a roommate, you might be wondering how I set that up

[05:33] Normally, I hook up the people and they talk by email or Skype or whatever So they can shoot the breeze and find out if they're compatible and it usually works out just fine Now as far as roommates with my seminars, anyway, I will set up guys with guys and ladies with ladies No Heinz 57 gender varieties here So anyway at this seminar will be spending a lot of time in the Altiplano of Guatemala You know where the temperatures spring like all year round It's around 5,000 feet above sea level and then we'll be spending a few days on the Pacific Beach coast of El Salvador But you knew that already, right? Anyway, speaking of reasons to get that plan B going. I got this very interesting email from a millennial I think you'll find rather eye-opening. He brings up a lot of things including Millennials looking to get a plan B and you know till I read this email myself

[06:20] I didn't realize well, let me read it to you and I'll paraphrase where necessary He says Johnny Johnny Johnny. I'm a longtime listener in one of those Millennials. You always make fun of I Don't live in my mom's basement though I have a real girlfriend and I'm not addicted to porn or social media or my iPhone Well, maybe two out of three then he says Johnny I've heard you speak many times about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as the new form of currency I remember that stuff coming into existence After the huge real estate crash of 2008 and 9 when my own boomer parents got screwed in their house dropped a hundred grand Invaluation and now suddenly they were upside down in their mortgage Then he says personally. I love cryptos. It's a technology. That's so intriguing

[07:12] Of course, if you invested in Bitcoin way back when in 2008, I think that's when it first started I never heard of it back then it seemed like there was no publicity But I was born in 1996, which would have made me 12 years old Though I do have a nerdy cousin who's a gamer who talked about it. I think in 2010 I remember back then one Thanksgiving. He was talking about it and everybody looked at him like he was a fool some fool Now he's 30 years old owns four apartment houses outright in a Camaro courtesy of Bitcoin. Yeah quite the fool, huh? I even remember my boomer dad saying only criminals use and invest in cryptocurrency He said Bitcoin will only be good for dodgy activities drugs money laundering human trafficking porno and you know for years I

[08:01] Sort of thought that was true until finally I realized one day Every time they show a drug bust at an airport or a capture a fishing launch that's loaded with drugs It's also loaded with cash US dollars It's obvious the currency of choice for criminals and bad boys is the US dollar But that's not what the media wanted you to believe and regarding the news It seems like they love to print when Bitcoin has a crash They almost never talk about it when it zooms up In fact, my home page is Yahoo news on my computer and my iPhone and it never fails every single day There's at least one negative story about Bitcoin and cryptos Then he says even last week when Bitcoin shot up 40% the biggest rise it's ever had in history Yet never even hit Yahoo news

[08:48] But the week before when it dropped 10% there were seven or eight articles that kept scrolling on and off the Yahoo page All of them predicting dire consequences for the cryptos It's so obvious that the mass media owned and controlled by governments huge corporations and banks Absolutely want to see cryptos crash-burn and fade away They've been 11 years in the making now and haven't been snuffed out yet But us Millennials in a generation coming up on our heels We love technology and we love cryptos even though most of us don't have any we will soon on top of that Only people with an above-average IQ can fully understand how to buy it sell it and hold it That means at least 50% of humans will always be in the dark and ignorant about it

[09:36] No matter how they try to understand it It's kind of like how people think of derivatives No one knows exactly what they are what they do how they were made how to control them Cash them in buy them or practically anything about them at all But they're out there. They've been around a long time and it's a 20 trillion dollar market At least no one I ever talked to understands any of it I bet only a thousand people on the whole planet know what a derivative is and can explain it in any kind of satisfactory detail I think that's as good a comparison to bitcoin and crypto as any Derivatives have a 20 trillion dollar market that no one understands At least when it comes to cryptocurrencies gamers and nerds know what they're talking about But ask them about derivatives and they'll shrug and say I don't know

[10:21] But the whole thing seems fishy and that's one of the big differences between crypto and derivatives There's nothing fishy about the blockchain or crypto And as I mentioned before us millennials love technology We love crypto, but most of us don't even have one single bitcoin But thankfully new and better platforms to use it are coming along weekly Very cool safe and useful platforms, too Allowing us to get in and out convert between cryptos and make purchases in the real world We can do things with our crypto now that we didn't even dream about just a year ago Problem is 95% of us millennials are cash poor and 30% of us are living in our mother's basements. You see Technology is the key though

[11:07] If you believe in technology and we grew up on it Then you'll invest in technology You'll want to make a quick buck and there's no easier way to make a quick buck or a buck in the long term Then with cryptocurrencies, but just like people who take a quick course in the stock market or options You know the type they're everywhere ones with a short attention spans who suck in little bits of knowledge in youtube and soundbites Then greed kicks in that'll be the 90 percent of people out there who always seem to lose any cards in games Relationships the stock market real estate and life in general I found when i'm with a bunch of people especially millennials and we talk about real estate Investing stock saving money earning money the worth of bitcoin or crypto

[11:56] We all have diverse opinions about that stuff, but there's one thing we all believe in 100 That's technology Even the stock market for us is part of the old boomer world our parents world Then he says, you know johnny It's my belief that future generations are going to hate us millennials because we got bitcoins and crypto on the cheap Just like we hate or at least dislike or are jealous of boomers Why because they got houses on the cheap and real estate on the cheap and college education on the cheap And then somehow put the wheels in motion to ruin it for us Because whether you realize it or not for us millennials housing and real estate are markets We've been cut out of completely None of us, but the very lucky can even scrape up a down payment on a house these days

[12:44] And oddly enough have you thought about this? We can easily build more houses at a cost of course, but we can't create any more crypto They've got limits like for example bitcoin 21 million That's it And housing prices keep going up and up and up because ever more money is printed In real or digital form and it's the same reason university tuition is totally unmanageable And it's true johnny most of my millennial buddies dislike boomers for first and foremost Up the housing market for us. They had their day They had their opportunity to buy cheap housing, but they took that all away from us. Those days are gone It's depressing. Can you think of any other american generation that left their children worse off than they were?

[13:32] Aside from outside factors like depression or war and even after wars in the great depression immediately after there were boomers times like no other Then he says thank god for the internet johnny Imagine if the internet did not exist after the great oil crisis in the 1970s in the us Then came the regan days and what they call stagflation Boomers remember that when all of a sudden the japanese and the germans were making much better cars than the americans ever could According to my boomer debt, that's when the us started swirling down the toilet only to be revived completely by the internet Think of it johnny. If not for the internet right now. We'd be living in a third world country the third world states of america

[14:19] But the internet and high tech saved us from all that At least it kicked the can down the road and gave us a big shot of adrenaline And the next phase is ai virtual reality and cryptocurrency most of which boomers like my parents will never understand and as millennials and the generation following us whatever you call them We definitely are all in It's true. If we can't call it up search it or swap qc codes on our smartphones. We're just not interested Then i've got my boomer dad saying put that smartphone down and talk to real live people He says you should listen to your boomer elders. They're the wise men of the forgotten age He says you think you guys got issues with the establishment? He says we were the ones that originally went to the streets for peace love ecology women's lib human rights and other crazy issues

[15:11] At least we were organized and you guys you millennials can't get your crap together Meanwhile some millennials protest on the streets though. Most of them are protesting through social media But then my boomer dad says out of the other side of his mouth You guys protesting on social media just sound like a bunch of whiners Your hogs being led to the slaughter by the likes of fake corrupt gurus like suckerberg And the corporate guys in bed with government behind amazon and google But I keep telling my boomer dad we're millennials and that's the world. We were born into You guys had email and snail mail to communicate For us, it's social media. It's the only thing we know Then he writes another thing the boomers screwed up royally the education system

[16:00] We can thank our wise elder boomers for the whiny problem children with useless degrees Universities are pumping out at a hundred grand a crack So the boomer generation screwed up housing and education for us No wonder so many of us millennials are beginning to think about a plan b and how to get out of dodge Johnny have you thought of this when you boomers were young in your 20s and 30s When housing was cheap and college educations were cheap and good What percentage of boomers would have even have dreamed of leaving the good old us safe for a so-called latin poop hole? I bet close to zero Because in the 60s 70s and 80s pretty much every boomer had the means to buy a house live freely and comfortably Even if you were a janitor you could buy a house in a decent area

[16:47] In fact today a lot of elderly boomers who were postmen teachers Garbage men and janitors are sitting on properties worth well over a million dollars that they paid Less than a hundred grand for when they were my age. It's a different world for us millennials Unless you live in a small town two hours away from some city center You're almost forced to spend your life single and or with roommates or in your parents basement This system is not acceptable and why a lot of us are starting to think about a plan b Then he says I was reading one study that suggested a fair price for a house or apartment Needs to be no higher than three years of an average annual salary using that logic. Everything is way out of whack

[17:32] today most cities in the u.s Europe or asia We're seeing people earning 25 to 30 grand a year where the average house or flat Costs anywhere from a half million to a million dollars Which makes it impossible for 95 percent of millennials to even come up with a down payment unless they tap their boomer parents many of whom who've already been heavily tapped for expensive college degrees that don't mean And prepare you for Nothing. All of this is not normal at least post world war ii normal in baby boomer terms However, since bitcoin and cryptos came along just 10 short years ago A good many of us millennials who are in or who are getting in are on track to get our piece the real estate pie

[18:18] Yes, I for one i'm sure there's going to be some big upcoming financial crisis Though most of my millennial friends don't want to think about that And when it comes you can bet we'll be blaming it on the boomers because it can be laid right at their doorstep Then he says that many experts believe during the upcoming financial crisis The current middle class may simply disappear or be displaced by a new class of successful people That is cryptocurrency holders that never even existed before 10 years ago I don't think it's far out to believe at all That masses of wealth will shift when this crisis comes towards new emerging assets like bitcoin and cryptos And as for gold to us millennials cryptocurrencies are our gold although boomers like the heavy yellow stuff and everyone loves gold jewelry and trinkets

[19:11] But to us millennials gold as a source of value or investment that all comes from the boomer world, too I mean look whoever heard of carrying around a chunk of gold in your pocket to be used someday to buy things As for us millennials give us a treasure or nano ledger crypto wallet any day of the week You can have your gold try explaining your chunks of gold to immigration and tsa When you're walking or flying through borders with crypto All you need is a password and your 12 or 24 word seed And you can carry your entire bank account in net worth with you On a tiny piece of paper or in your head as for paper money s millennials don't use much of that either He says everywhere we go anything we pay for we swipe our cards or our smartphones transfer qr codes

[19:59] When it comes to paper money many of us millennials never use the stuff Besides that at the moment paper money is whatever governments say it is They literally print new money or add more zeros to the fed balance sheet. Give it straight to preferential government contractors lobbyists big political contributors Connected friends and family, etc, etc With cryptocurrencies, for example bitcoin, they're only 21 million bitcoin and no one can ever dilute your share That's one big reason why governments and banks hate this stuff Bottom line johnny me as a millennial and when I talk to my friends We're all pretty much for a plan b too when we get together Some of us do mention that we believe the us is going down Everyone with a brain seems to know that but if you have cryptocurrency like bitcoin

[20:48] And you can get out of dodge or relocate They may be the only solution that'll cushion the blow And if you choose to stay and tough it out in the good old us of a Cryptocurrencies may be the only way for us millennials to afford a nice house with a decent yard Instead of living with roommates in a 500 square foot apartment in an asphalt jungle In fact, if you read the things and watch the youtubes i've been seeing lately people are saying people in the know that is If you have just one bitcoin today in a few years you'll be set for life because you see most cryptos are like land There's a finite limit and they're not making any more of it Anyway johnny. Thanks for hearing me out a disgruntled millennial with a few of my disjointed digressions and ideas

[21:34] A millennial by the way Who's not waiting 30 or 40 years for his boomer parents to croak and pass on some kind of inheritance? Which will most certainly be heavily taxed in my case There won't be much of an inheritance anyway because the house is double mortgage due to the fact that my parents three kids Went to out of state colleges and that sort of tapped my parents dry Then he says johnny you can read any all or none of this on your show be my guest signed millennial mike Hey, mike me johnny great letter See there. I go again thinking like a boomer. I said letter, right? Hey, even emails going out of style, you know I agree with mike on most of what he has to say though I always thought it was a huge mistake for parents to pay for their kids university unless

[22:24] Maybe and this is a big maybe the kid chooses a career that's actually in demand The fact is i've got nothing to say to parents who say they're tapped out or broke Because of the heavy price tag on that out of state college and the kids generally select a major not based on what's in demand But they followed their heart Yeah, they follow it right to a waitress job at starbucks Yep, that's typical even with the millennials in my family 90 of them take such useful career paths like journalism psychology poli-sci drama or african-american or native american studies Please if a parent's willing to pick up the tab for such useless careers in today's job market I just have no tolerance or sympathy when they whine and complain about it And man when you're hanging with boomers that seems to come up all the time

[23:12] The other thing is why do boomers have to send their kids out of state then you have to get them a car an apartment Or dorm whatever Is that necessary or even desirable? Well, it is if your kid gets a scholarship or a partial scholarship then why not? But the fact is out-of-state tuition is always a lot more expensive than in-state But no your little genius kid whined and said he wants to go to an out-of-state university for that life experience Hey, you know what as for me? I was just glad to be able to go to a university I never went out of state. My parents couldn't pay for a dorm or apartment I lived in my parents basement and headed off for university every day at least for my undergrad But then again, that's the boomer and me talking, right? And as far as millennials go that kind of talk doesn't apply

[23:57] When they want something when they whine their parents give it to them though I have to admit when I was young and still living at home if I whine for something I didn't get it because my parents didn't have money, but they would have given it to me If they did have the dough So actually today i'm thankful for the fact that my parents did not have the dough to buy me things that I wanted I had to go out and work for them I'll never forget when I was 16 and got my driver's license. I said to my dad dad. Can I get a car? He said, you know what son? Sure You can get a car and get any car you want and get a corvette. You can get a Ferrari Get two only catch is you gotta get a job So the question is how many millennials when they were in university actually worked a job? I'm looking at some numbers on the internet says less than 10 Whereas boomers when polled with the same question, how many of you worked while you were going to university?

[24:49] The numbers are in the 80th percentile. You think maybe that's the key? Maybe tell your kids to go to university but get a job too Oh, but no a job in school at the same time No, that's just too much for my little genius to take on The crazy thing is these are the same successful boomer parents Who went to college and worked at the same time and now have the lawn service and the sprinklers But they wouldn't want their kids to go through that It's just too tough on their delicate sensibilities And of course for millennials themselves having a job and going to university would really cut into the party time Oh and precisely on that note I'll never forget the phone call I got two or three years ago from my sister up in chicago She asked me if I could lend her 5 000 bucks now She knows my views on things and it must have been hard for her to ask me

[25:35] Because when I said what's it for she said i'd rather not say then I said well does it have to do with a health problem? Is it an emergency? She said Not health, but it's kind of an emergency. I said maybe i'll give it to you But you got to tell me what it's for it turns out her little millennial daughter was going to the university of wisconsin Madison a huge campus that has free public transportation For all the students to campus buildings and such so you never really have to walk But as it turns out my little niece was in with a special little clique of girls who all had their own scooters motor scooters And my little niece begged my sister for her own scooter so she could be part of the group You know, so she wouldn't be ostracized by the group or on social media. You know how girls can be mean Anyway, I said to my sister, you know, that's absolutely ridiculous

[26:22] And I know for a fact scooters don't cost five thousand bucks. You probably pick one up for a grand Brand-new then there was a pause and she said reluctantly It's not just any scooter. They all have those italian Vespa scooters They come in custom and candy colors. Don't you know? I'll send you the downloads and the links if you want she said And you know what I said to my own sister pretty much what they have said to the lady in the supermarket whose kid Hadn't decided its gender yet You my dear sister are part of what's wrong with society today Oh and note that my sister went to university She worked her way through university and neither of her two kids who went to private universities Actually held down a job while they were going to school. That's just not part of the millennial game plan

[27:10] Oh and as a side note both of those kids got absolutely useless degrees though Some might say even the most ridiculous degree has some use Well, i'd say if you spent four years going to debt 75 or 100 grand to get a degree that pays less than a garbage Man's salary. Well, you do the math though. Don't use the new math use baby boomer math You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america If you need some help with your own plan b we can schedule a one-on-one phone or skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week long expat insider seminar in central america Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan b Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com