Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into his experiences living in Latin America, focusing on Antigua Guatemala and other regions. He discusses the dynamics of expat and tourist interactions, the economic impact of tourism, and the challenges of bartering with local vendors. Johnny also shares personal anecdotes about indigenous communities, cultural differences, and the unique aspects of living off the tourist trail. This episode blends personal stories with broader observations about expat life and cultural interactions in Latin America.
Johnny begins by discussing his experiences in Antigua Guatemala, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular destination for Spanish learners and tourists. He highlights the unique dynamics of expat and tourist interactions in the town, noting the presence of Spanish learners, naturalists, and NGO volunteers. Johnny also shares observations about the local indigenous communities, including how they use children as marketing tools and the challenges of bartering with local vendors. He critiques the economic impact of tourism on the region and prefers living off the tourist trail.
In another segment, Johnny recounts an anecdote about his experience in a touristy area of Guatemala, where he witnessed a bartering situation between gringo tourists and indigenous sellers. He describes how the indigenous sellers would quote prices in local currency, and the gringo tourists would often pay more than the actual value. Johnny also discusses how to identify areas on the gringo tourist trail, such as the presence of English-language tourist magazines and craft beer bars. He highlights the cultural differences and the often exploitative nature of interactions between tourists and locals, while also noting the humor and irony in the situation.
Johnny then discusses his experiences with shoeshine guys and indigenous vendors in Central American cities like Antigua Guatemala and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. He highlights the cultural dynamics of interactions with locals, the pricing strategies of vendors, and the social pressures on indigenous people to sell goods to tourists. Johnny also shares a story about an indigenous girl with braces, raising questions about how she could afford such an expensive dental treatment in a region where income is low.
In another segment, Johnny describes the contrast between the high-end, off-the-gringo-tourist-trail areas and the typical tourist spots in Guatemala City. He highlights the unique cultural and social dynamics of these areas. Johnny also shares a humorous anecdote about a traffic jam caused by a Krispy Kreme donut shop, which is popular among the wealthy and politically connected. He reflects on the success of gringo franchises in Latin America and mentions an upcoming expat seminar.
Finally, Johnny discusses upcoming events and encourages listeners to sign up for his expat seminar and course. He responds to an email from Fred about the challenges of living in Latin America with tile and concrete floors, offering solutions like wood or cork floors. Additionally, he addresses a political email from a listener who disagrees with Johnny's views on government-run utilities and renewable energy, defending private industry and criticizing government inefficiency. The segment ends with a call to action for listeners to download a free questionnaire and enroll in his course.
Topics
Expat Life in Latin America, Tourism and Cultural Interactions, Economic Impact of Tourism, Bartering and Local Commerce, Indigenous Communities and Cultural Practices, Tourist interactions in Latin America, Cultural differences between tourists and locals, Identifying tourist areas through cultural indicators, Cultural interactions in Latin America, Economic dynamics of tourism and local vendors, Social pressures on indigenous communities, Dental care accessibility in low-income regions
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:32 Gringo Prices and Tourist Dynamics in Antigua Guatemala 00:00:59 The Diversity of Expat and Tourist Groups in Antigua Guatemala 00:02:08 Observations on People-Watching and Local Commerce in Antigua Guatemala 00:06:03 The Fake Silver Pendant and the Bartering Process 00:08:10 The Exploitation of Tourists and the Role of Bartering 00:09:19 Identifying Tourist Areas Through Cultural Indicators 00:12:00 Shoeshine Encounter in Antigua Guatemala 00:13:57 Gringos and Indigenous Vendors 00:15:45 The Indigenous Girl with Braces 00:17:11 Off-the-Gringo-Tourist-Trail Experience in Guatemala City 00:18:48 Krispy Kreme Donut Shop Causes Traffic Jam in Guatemala City 00:20:42 Gringo Franchises Flourishing in Latin America 00:22:33 Upcoming Event Information and Call to Action 00:23:23 Email Response on Tile and Concrete Floors 00:24:13 Political Views on Government and Private Industry
Transcript
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 up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat 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, a couple of things about gringo prices, you know the other day I was in a little town called Antigua Guatemala one of those rare UNESCO World Heritage sites So naturally you're gonna get gringo tourists through there all the time And you know, I don't like rubbing elbows with tourists much
[00:47] But luckily this little town of about maybe twenty or twenty five thousand people is visited most exclusively By people who want to learn their Spanish They've got a ton of Spanish schools there and the rest well They fall into two categories the tree hugging kind of naturalist types who I call grown-up Gentrified hippies who now have some dough to travel mostly nice free-spirited adventurous types and thankfully they don't bring their kids So you rarely see entitled whiny first-world kids glued to their devices though You do often see well-behaved Latin school kids in their school uniform That's a shocker in itself kind of like a blast from the past You know and the other maybe 10 even 20 percent of gringo and expat tourists Well, they're that do-gooder NGO types coming in for a couple of feel-good weeks building solar outhouses for Jesus
[01:38] You'll probably see them on your plane when you fly into these countries They're easy to spot. They're pale and pasty white and have identical church group t-shirts Sometimes and I've witnessed this myself They'll spontaneously break into a kumbaya sing-along. I have to admit. It's contagious I've helped Michael row the boat ashore a few times myself Yep, all it takes is an autotuned guitar in a Bible and you've got airplane karaoke You know, I poke fun at these guys, but they do have noble and lofty goals So anyway, I was hanging around Antigua Guatemala for a day sitting in the Central Park. They've got a very cool Central Park That's the best place to people watch, you know Except for the fact that now that the gringos have arrived the locals with all their trinkets put on the hard sell
[02:24] So there I was sitting on a park bench and two lovely middle-aged gringo ladies sat down Maybe four feet away on the adjacent bench and in no time were surrounded by a group of indigenous ladies trying to sell them junk Oh and the gringo ladies you could tell they were first timers or Commenting how cute they all looked in their little indigenous clothes Especially interested in the tiny infant kid strapped to one of the ladies backs looking wide-eyed at everyone But not making a sound and she had two more quiet little kids at her side They couldn't have been much more than three years old So you'll see a lot of these indigenous ladies are dragging their kids with them Some have found out by hook and crook their kids can be marketing tools. How cute You know, it tugs on the old gringo heartstrings, right?
[03:09] However, if there's one thing I have to give those ladies credit for these kids are happy and you rarely hear them cry or make A fuss their moms really have them under control. They don't interrupt blurred out things or demand stuff They're nice and calm hanging with their mom while she's working and that work Of course is to sell trinkets and junk to tourists and gringos So anyway, these two nice gringo ladies I didn't know him from Adam sat down on a bench next to me to take a load off and suddenly they're surrounded By indigenous ladies and their kids shoving all kinds of textiles and jewelry in their faces Alright now for a quick lesson in bartering with the natives I must say that if you show the slightest bit of interest in anything these ladies shove at you if you don't make a deal Right then in there You'll never get rid of her as soon as you get up and start walking around
[03:56] Going to a restaurant check out a spectacular ruin or a church She'll turn around and there she'll be shoving that thing in your face again throwing a new and lower price at you So it is best if you're interested in something to buy it right away However, if you do that it's a signal for all the other indigenous ladies standing around that they have a chance to get in a piece of your pocketbook to of course where there are gringos there are dollars and they'll learn those specific few English phrases necessary to keep the sales game going and once you've bought something from a competitor another lady nearby or You're just not interested in try to nix the deal. They'll use the two old standbys I've heard over and over again number one you bought something from her now you have to buy something from me Well, you know life ain't fair and above all they should know that I mean look they see the wealthy gringos rolling into town
[04:46] Wealthy in their eyes. Anyway, dropping a $5 tip on a tuk-tuk driver Just for bringing the bags to the hotel desk. We do that in a town where five bucks could be a half a day's wages So really we're to blame for screwing up the economic order another reason why I vastly prefer living off the tourist trail Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that gringos have ruined Antigua Guatemala But they're on their way to doing it still it's nothing compared to places like Costa Rica and Panama In fact, I say it's more like Costa Rica was 25 years ago So there's really no danger of it turning into present-day Costa Rica not in my lifetime. Anyway, alright So I mentioned you don't want to get too excited about any trinket They're trying to sell you and if you do you better buy it right away
[05:31] Or you'll be permanently shadowed until you buy something and then after that all her friends gathered around trying to sell stuff We'll try to get a piece of your wallet, too Now I'm not even talking about a lot of dough here as opposed to Costa Rica where things are much more expensive and priced in dollars So I was there watching what was going on with those gringo ladies, and I thought I'd help him out of it Soon enough one of the little indigenous ladies with a papoose on her back Pulled out some jewelry and one of the gringo ladies just fell in love with a pendant, you know to me It was just a necklace made of fake plated silver. They called that Fanta Sia in Spanish Fanta Sia spelled in English like the word fantasy because that's what it is a fantasy fake Oh, yeah with a colored rock hanging from it sure
[06:18] It was a nice colored rock highly polished and such and when the gringo lady said how much the lady said 120 quetzales that would be around 15 bucks such a deal, huh and man These gringo ladies must have been fresh off the plane because the lady dug right into her wallet and started flipping through her funny money Counting it real slow by the way You really know you're on the gringo tourist trail when the little ladies selling a junk give you two prices one in the local funny Money had wanted dollars anyway that little necklace with Iraq was quoted in the local funny money So, you know the place isn't truly contaminated yet Anyway, I turned to the lady and said you know any Spanish you said no I said well, you know, you're supposed to barter with them a little bit They expect some of that then she said yeah, but 15 bucks. I could never get anything like that up in the States for 15 bucks
[07:05] Look, it's handmade. I said you really like that thing, huh? How would you like four of them for 15 bucks? And she said what I said watch this I turned to the little indigenous lady and said four for 15 bucks And she acted like I stabbed her in the heart then the haggling started went on for a few minutes I wouldn't budge and guess what? She ended up getting two of them because she didn't want four for eight bucks Of course, I did the dealing for her and funny enough by this time There were a couple of other gringo standing around watching the whole thing go down along with a couple of college days Latina girls, you know with backpacks smartphones and stuff looking on and after the whole thing was done And the gringo ladies patted me on the back for cutting such a good deal One of those college girls came up to me and said, you know what you're good
[07:52] But not that good in Pana Huchel, which is by that famous Lake Aitlan region in Guatemala She said she bought the exact or nearly the exact necklace for get this two bucks So that's right. These little indigenous ladies will gouge you why because gringos don't barter It's just nickels and dimes to him Anyway, plus these poor little indigenous ladies are hauling their little kids around with them and it looks well So sad so that feel-good moment when the lady got two for eight bucks It was kind of overshadowed by the Latino who said she could get one for two bucks meaning two for four bucks And obviously the indigenous ladies selling those things are still making money at two bucks Or why would they sell them for that? But that's not all when you're sitting in the Central Park in a place like Antigua, Guatemala
[08:40] Or in any Central Park in any town in Latin America There are plenty of shoeshine boys that will come up to you and say hey Lustre lustre and when you look at that word lustre It looks almost exactly like the word luster in English as in a brilliant polish or shine now, you know you're in a gringoized or kind of touristy area when the shoeshine guy walks up to you and says shine or Shine meester off the tourist trail man. There's no gringo So you'll never hear those guys say that by the way people often ask me Johnny Is there a quick and easy way to tell if? Destination you're going to is on or off or kind of on the gringo tourist trail without actually going there and seeing it for yourself Well, there's two easy ways. Number one go on the internet and see if they've got any English language tourist rag
[09:25] I'm talking about some very nicely done monthly glossy ones as opposed to a kind of a rough ragged cheapy Tourist rag in English. That's a different story signifying a place. That's pretty much off the tourist trail Then there's a second way to find out if a place is on or kind of on the tourist trail again Just go on the internet check out your destination city town Whatever and if they've got a bar or two or ten selling craft beer man You're on the gringo tourist trail because you know what the average latin even the above average latin Living off the gringo tourist trail has no idea what craft beer is and when you tell them it's homemade Especially beer that cost two or three times as much as their local brand They think it's a bit nuts because you know latins have extreme loyalty to their local beer
[10:12] Their national football slash soccer team and their choice of highly unsanitary street food In fact, it always makes me laugh when I'm driving through certain Latin American countries And they've got food carts everywhere with big signs on them. That's a shoot goes the specialty of the house greasy ass mystery meat sandwiches Absolutely slathered with margarine mayonnaise and a lot of other artery choking ingredients Of course, I wouldn't touch those things with a 10-foot pole But every single group of latins I've ever been out with late at night Anyway, get a kind of craving for that garbage as some people get for midnight pizza I guess but the part that makes me laugh is the name of those food carts Shuko, which in Spanish is a well-known slang term for dirty unsanitary and disgusting
[10:59] Basically the sign says it all step right up and get your disgusting food here, which is why it's nice to know a little Spanish So when your midnight crowd hones in on a food cart like that, you can say no. Thanks think I'll pass But where was I? Oh, yeah talking about shoeshine guys all over the place in the Central Parks throughout Latin America So there I was in the Central Park and Antigua Guatemala really nice and excellent people watching area by the way Oh, and another thing since I mentioned it's kind of getting gringo wise I should point out that there are more European tourists and Antigua Guatemala than gringos by far which is a good thing as a little touch of class and Eclecticity, you know, hmm Is that a word? Well, it is now. Hmm. Sounds like a newly coined childhood psychiatric disorder
[11:46] Anyway, because you know as harsh as the sounds Europeans tend to be more educated quieter more introspective and well Just funnier looking and more tattooed up than most Americans, but I digress man. Did I digress anyway back in the Antigua Guatemala Central Park as soon as I sat on the bench a little guy ran up to me saying shine mister You know what that means right or on or somewhat on the tourist trail So get ready for gringo prices. I said how much he said about 50 I said, oh is that right then again cuz I can dick her with these guys in Spanish I said look in Guatemala City in the Central Park a park That's ten times bigger than this Central Park because that's the capital you can sit there all day watching people go by great people watching too and Probably never see a single gringo and you know how much the lustre guys charge for a shine 30 cents
[12:36] So I'll tell you what I'll give you a 30 cents and you know what he did He shrugged his shoulders and said sure and did a great job. You get it? I hope so So that's how it happens drip by drip little by little as gringos trickle in the locals Through no fault of their own just charge what the traffic will bear and they see that gringos don't ticker They think it's a great deal to get a shoe shine for a buck 50 Why because I know for a fact even 30 years ago back in downtown Chicago on Lakeshore Drive There were little shoeshine chair setups in hotel districts and L train stations And even back then it costs anywhere from three to five bucks to get your shoeshine That was 30 years ago. So when a gringo hears a buck 20, man, that's a hell of a deal Oh and back to that little group of indigenous ladies that kind of surrounded the gringas sitting in a bench next to me
[13:26] I mentioned they've got two fallback positions when you buy something from them And there's a bunch of other ones sitting around who didn't get the sale the first being that one or more of them will say Well, you bought something from her now. You got to buy something from me. Yeah, right that makes sense Well that second fallback position. I hear this all the time, too Is that it'll be late afternoon and one of the ladies will say mister. I didn't sell anything today My family's got to eat buy something now That's the hook that really grabs a gringo then they give you a sad look It's enough to get even a tight-ass gringo to open his wallet And that's why you'll often see gringos treating an indigenous lady or kids or a family to a free meal Nothing wrong with that either, but let me tell you a little story a few months ago I was sitting in a Central Park in San Pedro Sula Honduras kind of hot ugly and dry there
[14:14] Second biggest city in Honduras almost a million people not a lot to like about the place But there's a lot of ways for gringos to make money and find niches there anyway I was in the Central Park always a great people watching place again And since it's way off the gringo tourist trail no gringos to be found anyway a young teenage indigenous girl Decked out in typical clothing with her very well-behaved little sister and brother in tow They tried to sell me some trinkets and stuff and you know since I'm living here in Latin America. I'm not a tourist I'm not buying trinkets for the folks back home anyway She wouldn't take no for an answer and she kept following me around and as predicted she hit me with the fallback position It was late afternoon. She said in Spanish of course because believe me few people in San Pedro Sula speak English
[15:00] She said it's been a bad day I didn't sell anything and my family's got to eat now I noticed something unusual about her when she first walked up to me She was wearing braces on her teeth and you know here in Latin America only upper middle class and wealthy people Can ever afford to have braces even though I priced them out down here with dentists and orthodontic Specialists and the price is anywhere from around eight hundred dollars to two thousand bucks for a full complicated case That could take two or three years, but generally braces for kids run around eight hundred to a thousand bucks Whereas up in the States the average cost is from five to ten grand Depending if you want the traditional metal ones the clear plastic ones or even the tricked out Hollywood convertible colors and designs But either way I was wondering how this indigenous girl come up with eight hundred bucks minimum
[15:50] Which is big money down here for people who used to making two or three hundred bucks a month So I quizzed her I said you mean to say you didn't sell anything today So you and your family are gonna be hungry tonight then tell me how is it that you have braces on your teeth? I caught her off guard. She got embarrassed a bit She was in the moment speechless and never did give me an answer Was it some do-gooder gringo or European who came through and decided she was the one to win the braces lottery? Is there a benevolent NGO out there whose mission is to fix the teeth of snaggle-toothed locals? I kind of doubt it since orthodontic treatment takes years You have to have many appointments a lot of adjustments and those do-gooders and NGOs They blow in for a few weeks build some outhouses hand out some flashlights and water filters
[16:37] Then after a heavy sunburn and a few dozen mosquito bites It's back to the four-star hotel massage jacuzzi Sunday brunch in the next day Hello, Cleveland and the ladies garden club where you'll be given that talk on the construction of solar outhouses in Latin America milk and cookies provided by Girl Scout troop 416 but I digress sorry about that anyway in the end a little indigenous girl with the braces had me stumped How do you think she got those things any ideas? Oh and speaking about the differences and being on and off the gringo tourist trail How about this for a story the other day? I was driving through Guatemala City it's a place well off the gringo tourist trail and Contrary to what you might think they have some very high-end first-class subdivisions and neighborhoods
[17:23] It's a city that's broken down into 25 neighborhoods zones or districts That's how most Latin cities are structured and all you have to do is mention any particular zone in a Latin city to any Locals and he or she will give you a very good rundown on what it's like to live in that area. Is it safe? Is it dangerous good shopping bad shopping dirty clean nicely or poorly manicured crowded quiet noisy? Whatever turns out every district or zone in any Latin American city has its own personality now the other day I was driving through zone 15 a very nice zone in Guatemala City a lot of it pretty much high-end a few first world style malls Some nice high-rise residential towers lots of gated guarded subdivisions some of them very high-end
[18:10] Along with a few first world hospitals clinics and doctors offices too. No gangs. No graffiti. No slums none of that anyway I'm driving down a nice big tree-lined Boulevard in zone 15 and suddenly I'm in a huge traffic jam It's never like this. It's about two in the afternoon So it's not noon or rush hour traffic and I'm thinking well There's got to be some big road construction up ahead or some kind of bad accident So I'm inching along getting closer and closer to the bottleneck And I notice everyone's taking a right turn onto an auxiliary highway, but that's not the way I'm going I'm going straight. So finally when I get to the source of the bottleneck I realize all those cars turning right causing that big jam are high-end cars SUVs Mercedes
[18:55] Jaguars big black towels and Suburbans that you know are filled with scumbag politicians Possibly a few upscale narcos and their bodyguards same difference, right? Then suddenly I was confronted with the source of the problem every one of these mostly high-end cars were in line at get this Latin America's very first drumroll, please Krispy Kreme donut shop talk about making money hand over fist And the funny thing is the average Latin American has no idea what Krispy Kreme stands for or is Never knowing that everyone you eat gets you that much closer to a triple bypass though some say it's worth it So then you just have to ask why in the hell is it so popular? I mean, it's so popular
[19:41] It's caused a huge traffic jam. Not just the day. I was there I understand it's been going on ever since to place open two weeks ago. Well, wouldn't you know it? It's only the upper middle class wealthy and scumbag Politicians who have the dough to travel back and forth to my jammy a couple times a year to go shopping The ones that watch us cable TV because they want to be part of all that that's all the marketing Krispy Kreme needs so the kind of Latinos you'll find in that line are Extreme gringo wannabes with the money to have visited the states and know what Krispy Kreme's are now remember I'm talking about Guatemala City one of the places in Latin America That's so far off the gringo tourist trail that you could walk around it in a very busy area all day long and never see a gringo and even if you're hanging around the international airport or in zone 10 where most of the four star first world hotels are the only gringos
[20:33] You're gonna see will be do-gooders yet Krispy Kreme's are making a killing down here So what does that say about finding your business niche? And just to give you an idea of how gringo franchises flourish here in Latin America beyond anything you can imagine Did you know that in Guatemala City alone? They've got over 100 subway franchises Of course, they've got all the usual suspects to McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Taco Bell TGIF I hop not to mention all the well-known pizza franchises even Dairy Queen and Chucky cheese Man, if I'm not being too retro, I just have to say gag me with a spoon So you might ask was the guy that brought down this very first Krispy Kreme franchise to Latin America a brilliant business guy
[21:20] Or perhaps a sugar-and-grease addict that needs a constant fix. Did he have inside info? Was it dumb luck? Well, he was definitely a chance taker first guy in always is in any event He should be able to retire in about six months provided those coronary arteries hold out. Oh, and by the way I've never tasted a Krispy Kreme donut myself. Although all the while I've been down here I've heard gringles and expats mention them a few times. However, I do remember back in the States There were no Krispy Kreme franchises in the Chicagoland area Oh, and by the way, I heard Krispy Kreme talk on the gringo grapevine the other day You've heard me say you get about 95% of more of all the things you can get up in the States and what you can't Get you can order through Amazon
[22:05] Well, I guess I failed to mention that one or two percent of things that are very hard to get include the perishables like Krispy Kreme's which is why I guess there's such a big gringo grapevine buzz going on right now to tell you the truth I don't get it. All right, we're gonna change gears and go in reverse just for a second here Inquiries have been coming in asking me whether or not I'm gonna give another expat insider seminar in Latin America Well, I'm setting up the dates right now. It'll be early in July 2018 We'll know the dates for sure and probably about a week So if you're thinking about coming I want to get the latest information as it rolls out Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and I'll put you on my early bird list and you'll start getting the info Right away. So just shoot me an email the expat files at gmail.com and put the words expat seminar in the subject line
[22:54] Oh and don't forget if you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty details of setting up your plan B Don't forget to sign up for my expat essentials course To get my free intro video just go to the expat files comm slash Academy. All right last but not least let's dip into that very big email bag Just deleted something like five thousand of them the other day, man, you know, you can't keep in there forever But believe it or not, I do read them all. All right, I'll skip to the good parts It says dear Johnny and one of your recent shows you talked again about your favorite stealth money belt Could you send me some info on that and I did then he says my wife and I are still living up north in California rather than Detroit so it's not that bad But however, one of my wife's bugaboos about Latin living is the seemingly ubiquitous use of tile and concrete floors
[23:44] It just kills her feet and hips and once she was sick and fainted to the floor and I was so glad she didn't Whack her head our last vacation her laptop slid and fell and got damaged something that would probably never happen with wood or carpet So I was wondering if you hear this problem from other people you meet and what might be done about it Is it very expensive to replace tile with other materials cork wood, etc Must the old stuff be removed or can you cover right over it signed Fred PS Johnny? I don't always agree with your political and economic viewpoints One case in point is your recent reading of an op-ed in La Nación Just because renewable power sources may be more expensive than non renewables That does not necessarily mean they shouldn't be used and besides the advantage to the ecology more solar and wind are used
[24:31] The lower the cost and although public ownership of utilities often results in graft and corruption The same is the case with private ownership, but you know, it's true I always feel more free the minute I cross into Latin America even Mexico Suddenly it feels there's no big brother on your back at all. Anyway, Johnny, I have my libertarian streak, too Maybe just not as solid as yours. All right. Thanks for that Fred my response Yes You can definitely have a real wood or cork floors put in and it goes right on top of the tile or concrete floor Don't have to rip anything up a lot easier on the hips and legs than tile and concrete I'll grant you that and only a little more expensive than tile But why not do like so many older expats do the ones who rent don't own? So they don't have the option to do that kind of remodeling and install wood
[25:19] Just get some really high quality walking shoes like Nike new balance Whatever you really can't do better than that, but forget about getting carpet First of all, Latins don't know how to deal with water So you're always gonna have leaks moisture and mildew believe me if you have carpets You'll have big troubles plus all the bugs and critters absolutely love the warmth of carpets and who needs that? Oh, and by the way about utilities and power companies, etc or anything being owned by the government They're just always disasters twice as expensive as it should be and well, you know You have to realize it's the private individual and private companies that invented the technology of power distribution and power generation Governments only try to control it to feed off of you like a parasite The fact is governments hate it when you go off the grid because then they can't text you every little step along the way
[26:10] Just have a look at your power bill meaning as every engineer will tell you if you turn things over to the government There'll be no innovation at all. Sure. There's a lot of private industries that are corrupt But mostly when there's no competition and how that happened Well, they got in bed with ass wipes like the Obama's Clinton's and Bush's the fact is when there's free and open competition in technology the corrupt and inefficient companies go bankrupt or fall along the wayside You know when corruption and graft are uncovered in private industry You almost always find there's some political payoffs some government subsidies or sweetheart deals involved somewhere How do you think private companies get no-bid government contracts? Some government slug is getting a contribution or a kickback doesn't matter if it's the first or the third world
[26:56] The problem is in business and industry. There are just no level playing fields anymore Government slugs bureaucracies and politicians infect everything they touch That's my opinion, of course, but it seems only people who work in government and other Associated magnetist enterprises want less capitalism more government and more taxes Well, then why don't we just have the government run everything like in Venezuela Cuba and the former Soviet states Let's make sure we level the playing field and make everyone equally miserable Except of course if you're in the higher ranks of government You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com
[27:45] Better yet if you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the states Just sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files.com Academy most famous