Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller explores a range of topics that reflect both the challenges and opportunities of expat life and the broader cultural and financial landscapes. The episode begins with a discussion on recent security concerns surrounding Ledger hardware wallets. Johnny explains that a group of individuals, likely based in China, tampered with Ledger wallets purchased through third-party retailers by implanting a device that captures the 24-word recovery phrase. He emphasizes that Ledger itself is not compromised, and users who purchased directly from Ledger are safe. He also criticizes Ledger's marketing strategies, such as the design of their products, which make users easily identifiable as crypto enthusiasts, increasing their vulnerability to attacks.
Next, Johnny critiques a marketing approach for a cryptocurrency phone, suggesting it's ill-advised and potentially dangerous. He then shifts to discussing the high costs and poor conditions of nursing homes in the U.S., contrasting them with more affordable and better-quality options in Latin America. He highlights the financial burden on retirees, especially those relying on Social Security, and discusses property tax exemptions for older expats in several Latin American countries.
The episode continues with a discussion on property taxes in Latin America, highlighting that many older properties are undervalued and that governments are starting to reassess them. Johnny warns that expats who buy new properties may face higher taxes based on the government's assessed value, which can be significantly lower than the actual market value. He provides examples of different countries, noting that Panama has some of the highest property tax rates in the region, while others like Venezuela and Ecuador have much lower rates. Johnny also touches on the financial realities of expat life in Latin America, suggesting that with a combined pension and Social Security, expats can live comfortably, but the cost of living in tourist areas can be high.
The segment then shifts to an email from John Gregory, a black American man, who shares his experience of being treated well by Latin American women and discusses the challenges of relationships with black women in the U.S., attributing some of these issues to cultural attitudes and expectations.
Finally, Johnny discusses the dynamics between black men and black women, highlighting the perception that black women are often seen as bossy, argumentative, and dominant in relationships. He attributes this behavior to cultural conditioning, stemming from growing up with single mothers who exhibited similar traits. He argues that this dynamic makes relationships with black women challenging, leading many black men to seek relationships with Latin American women, who are perceived as more submissive and accommodating. The segment also includes a listener's account of moving to San Salvador, where he finds a different cultural environment compared to his hometown in California, which has undergone significant changes over time.
Topics
Expat experiences in Latin America, Crypto security and hardware wallets, Ledger wallet tampering incident, Marketing strategies and user vulnerability, Marketing strategies for cryptocurrency products, Cost and conditions of nursing homes in the U.S. vs. Latin America, Financial challenges for retirees in the U.S., Property tax exemptions for older expats in Latin America, Property taxes in Latin America, Expatriate life in Latin America, Cultural attitudes towards black men and women in the U.S., Cultural dynamics between black men and women
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:04 Introduction and Purpose of the Show 00:01:22 Security Concerns with Ledger Wallets 00:04:22 Criticism of Ledger's Marketing Strategies 00:05:54 Critique of Cryptocurrency Phone Marketing Strategy 00:06:35 Statistics on U.S. Nursing Home Costs and Conditions 00:10:31 Property Tax Exemptions for Retirees in Latin America 00:11:43 Undervalued Properties in Latin America 00:12:10 Property Taxes and Exonerations 00:13:27 Property Taxes in Panama 00:14:32 Financial Realities of Expat Life 00:15:18 Black Men and Latin American Women 00:17:53 The Need for Dominance in Black Women's Relationships 00:18:23 The Rise of the Passport Bro Movement Among Black Men 00:20:53 A Listener's Experience of Moving to San Salvador 00:23:05 Nostalgia and Loss in the Old Neighborhood 00:23:45 America as You Know It is Dead 00:24:09 San Salvador vs. the Deteriorating U.S. 00:25:00 Chicago's Cost of Living and Safety Issues 00:28:22 Property Taxes and the Cost of Living in Chicago 00:28:36 Introduction to Silicon Valley's Diversity and Safety 00:29:14 Transition to the Topic of Columbus and Colonialism 00:30:46 Conclusion on the Long-Term Impact of Indigenous Influence
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border Down Mexico way Hello all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller, and I've been living continuously here in Latin America for over 30 years And I'm here to give you the good the bad the ugly and the great from the gringo perspective Yep, I talk about the real-life experiences and the things nobody believes until you come down and see it for yourself You'll get it all here at expat plan B.com that includes my full show archives over 1500 shows So just relax and take a breath because here comes today's show South of the border Down Mexico way. I think we're gonna hit the email pile today. There's some really good stuff in there, but first a heads up I know a lot of you guys probably the majority of you guys listening to this show have some crypto Bitcoin
[00:50] Whatever and I also know lots of you guys and gals out there have contacted Captain mango in the last couple of years because he offers a really nice hands-on fast-track crypto Bitcoin and self-storage Course now most of my nerdy friends who have crypto use a Trezor wallet hard wallet. Yeah I know it's a little complicated to get started at first That's why Captain mango's course is so valuable now of course the other well-known hard wallet besides Trezor is called a ledger And lots of my gringo buddies and nerd buddies are using ledger But something terrifying happened recently with the ledger stuff millions of dollars in crypto got hacked From ledger wallets in just the last month or so and that scares the shit out of people
[01:35] So what do you do if you got a ledger wallet and you hear that well? Let me ease your mind a little bit about that It's not that ledger got hacked the actual ledger software and firmware system No, that didn't get hacked, but here's what happened, and it is scary About two years ago a company or a group of people and most people think it's Chinese guys They bought up a couple of retail outfits that were stocking ledger wallets You know like for example you know you could buy a ledger on Amazon or a Trezor well this little tail I'm telling right now will certainly warn you against that Never buy a hardware wallet from a third party always directly from the company so anyway a couple of years ago And who knew this back then we're just finding this out now some no-good Nick tech guy Bought out some retail outlets that had stocked a whole bunch of ledgers Chinese guys
[02:24] they took all those ledgers thousands of them implanted a little device inside of them a Tiny little circuit a device that would read and transmit all your keystrokes Then they reassemble them repackaged them like new in ledger boxes etc put them out for sale in various outlets So it's those ledger devices with the implant that are getting hacked bottom line You're safe if you bought your ledger two years ago or more and even if you bought one last week if you bought it direct from Ledger from their website you got no problem at all It's if you bought it from a third party like for example Amazon or eBay or any of a hundred other retail outlets I'd immediately be kind of worried by the way so far the only Reported ledger hacks came from people buying from a Southeast Asian reseller called crypto billis
[03:13] And it's not been disclosed how many devices were modified or what percentage of ledger wallets they represent But the attack is real hidden chips were found in some devices designed to capture the 24 word recovery phrase during setup and transmitted over a cellular network to a group of Hacking no-good nicks so again. I repeat This is a physical tampering attack not any evidence at all that ledger devices or ledger software are compromised They're not so how worried should you be well if you bought directly from ledger? You're all right, but if you bought from crypto billis forget it or from another third party retailer Well, it's unknown if there's any contamination beyond the crypto billis linked incident So again your hard wallet is completely safe if you bought two or more years ago or directly from ledger
[03:59] So buy your treasures and ledgers direct from the company by the way a crypto nerd friend of mine or acquaintance I have lots of them he walked me through that kind of hack a year ago It said it's very possible that resellers could tamper with a treasure ledger But they have to open the device up and slip an implant in there He said don't worry. They're working on it. It's gonna happen someday and man. He was right a year ago Actually, he told me that probably a year and a half ago. Oh, and by the way, I was never a big ledger fan I'll tell you why if you're a crypto guy or gal. It's one thing. You don't want to do You don't want to advertise that you're into crypto So when I see someone with a Bitcoin t-shirt or Bitcoin hat, I'm thinking man. You're an idiot What do you think you're telling the world in fact? You're screaming to the world that you're a crypto guy that you're rich or wealthy probably or maybe and what does that signal?
[04:49] It's like driving a Ferrari through the slums And who do you think bad guys would love to go after and all those idiots the hundreds even thousands of idiots who do crypto YouTube videos well the whole world knows who you are and where you live Again, one of the reasons I'm not a ledger guy is because as they started coming out with crypto based products Like for example, you could buy a chain where you hook your ledger around your neck like a pendant So it's just hanging there staring at you in the face Dangling your ledger off your neck like those ghetto gangsters and their fat ass gold chains. You can't help but notice them Oh and worse yet Ledger sells a telephone. Yes. There's a ledger smartphone, which of course has a ledger hard wallet built into it It's a smartphone called the ledger Adam at om
[05:38] But guess what? It's got the letters ledger engraved into it So every time you pull it out and use that thing who's ever standing within 10 feet of you knows you're a crypto guy and It has a really distinctive look much different than other cell phones another bold advertisement for all the bad guys out there Dumb dumb dumb. I mean, come on ledger. That's one of the dumbest marketing approaches I've ever seen I mean, look if you want to scream to the world, I've got crypto You definitely want to ledger atom phone or a ledger necklace Though I think especially with the necklace if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and people are yelling Allah Akbar You might lose that necklace and your head So do keep that in mind if you're traveling with your hard wallet Oh and just one more thing before we hit the email pile just saw some alarming statistics about old age and nursing care in the States according to a study of
[06:28] 1,817 nursing homes here are the stats for Americans who reach the ripe old age of 65 That's a lot of you expats out there About 70% of you will end up in a long-term care home You know nursing home and amongst Americans who reach 65 about 48% Will receive some kind of government-paid assistant living or a nursing home care In other words, you'll probably end up in a government-run and sponsored low-end nursing home that smells of piss pee and vomit But here's the kicker 40% of people in nursing homes up in the States are younger than 75 and you get this 53% of people who enter a nursing home die within six months and the average stay in a nursing home before a person dies
[07:17] 13.7 months, of course some old timers in nursing homes wither away in their wheelchairs for years But those guys are the outliers. Meanwhile, the average nursing home stay before death is 13.7 months. So why am I bringing up all these depressing statistics? Well, because this survey also points out that in the US the 20 25 national median cost of a nursing home is 115,000 to 130,000 per year shared room 115,000 private room 130,000. Oh and for those who don't go to a nursing home and have an assisted living nurse come in that averages about 75 grand per year that's for a nurse or caregiver coming to your home 44 hours a week. Meanwhile here in Latin America the average cost for a nursing home per year is 12 to
[08:07] 20,000 bucks 12,000 for a shared room 20,000 for a private room about one seventh to one eighth the cost of a nursing home up in the states Oh, and there's twice or three times as many nurses per patient here in Latin American nursing homes, too And the food is not hospital or prison grade slop It's infinitely better But why even consider a nursing home here in Latin America when you can hire a full-time live-in nurse or basic caregiver for five or six grand a year and she'll clean and cook and go shopping for you, too Though I know if you've been a longtime listener to the show you've heard me say that before I've also mentioned in past shows Exactly how to find such a living nurse or caregiver Anyway, just thought I'd give you some reason stats on how it'll break you if you end up in a nursing home up in the
[08:53] States Oh and can you believe if you have a caregiver come in 44 hours a week up in the states It'll cost you 80 grand Man won't that drain your wallet in a hurry. Can you think of a better reason to get to hell out of Dodge? I'm saying all this because most expats come down here to retire and the average age of a retired expat is Generally over 62 because that's the minimum age you qualify to collect Social Security That's why there are so many older people here in Latin America They penned almost exclusively on their Social Security check Which would basically allow them to live lower middle-class life in a trailer court and in the big city much worse than that Luckily though most Social Security recipients are boomers who have their houses paid off Unfortunately though like my mother in Illinois, she's got a paid-off house. By the way, she bought it for
[09:41] $18,000 in 1960 now you might say that's cool. She doesn't have a house payment Well, her property taxes are almost five grand a year her Social Security check 1700 a month. So her property taxes are a third of her Social Security check Oh, and she's got a combined gas electric and water bill of around three grand a year So that with her property taxes covers half of her Social Security check you get the idea the system's failing Speaking of property taxes here in Latin America Did you know and you probably didn't there are a number of Latin American countries that give you a property tax Exemption that means no property taxes Which up in the states can be anywhere from one to two percent of the valuation of your property per year Anyway, I can tell you for sure that the following list of Latin American countries will exonerate the property taxes of a person
[10:31] Who's over 65 if he's a legal permanent resident and has bought a property intended to be his personal residence So again, it only applies to the property you buy as your personal residence So then which Latin American countries give you that property tax exoneration the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Chile Peru Panama and Mexico There are other Latin American countries that have similar property tax Exonerations for foreign permanent residents over 65, but there are different rules depending on income pension status property values and local municipal rules But just know that most Latin American countries have an aged base property tax exemption for first time foreign Homeowners who are permanent residents?
[11:18] 65 or older by the way the property tax Assessment for average Latin Americans is like in the u.s It averages about one percent of a property's assessed value per year and that like in the states could be a Substantial hit the thing is though here in Latin America existing used properties I'm talking used properties not new are valued way under market in the property registry So 1% of an extremely undervalued property isn't much for example take Guatemala or Salvador many properties In fact, most older properties are on the books for less than a half Maybe even a quarter of their assessed value problem is a Latin American governments are catching on fast And they're starting slowly, but surely to reevaluate and reassess certain properties starting
[12:03] Of course, and this is not fair in upscale tourist and gringoized areas because they know we won't buck We're good for it, and we'll ante up so do know this if you buy a property a new property or any property That's under construction anywhere in Latin America when you do that wire Transfer to the bank to buy that property that will be the value of the property on the government books And you'll pay your annual property taxes on that amount unless of course you get one of those tax Exonerations as previously mentioned again the average property taxes in Latin America work out to about 1% of assessed value per year So if you buy a new condo, that's worth 250 grand you'll pay $2,500 a year in property tax unless of course you've got that over 65 year old tax exoneration
[12:49] Oh, and by the way, I mentioned it's an average of 1% here in Latin America. Well. It's really all over the place That's just the average between the 20 countries for example if you have a property in Venezuela Which is not recommended their annual tax rate property tax rate is the lowest of all 20 countries in Latin America It's only 0.2 percent and for example in Ecuador. It's 0.26 percent, Mexico a half a percent, Colombia 0.75 percent, Guatemala 0.8 percent, Argentina and the DR 0.9 percent But get this all you guys and girls who think Panama is such a great deal Sorry folks your annual property taxes are 1.86 percent that means if you buy a condo or house that's worth 250,000 bucks your yearly property tax bill in Panama is
[13:36] 4,000 bucks Wow there goes that Social Security check again and the worst Latin American country at all for Assessing property taxes Uruguay yep admittedly one of Doug Casey's favorite places But it's also listed as get this the most expensive country in Latin America now their property taxes 2.25% of the assessed value per year so a $250,000 condo there yearly property taxes for the locals and if you don't have that old age exoneration yourself as an expat would run around 5600 bucks a year who says Uruguay is cheap not me so file that away when you're thinking on places for your plan B Of course as mentioned so many times on this show if you're getting Social Security on average
[14:21] Let's say 15 to 1700 a month and you're getting another pension from some kind of treadmill job you had back in the states Let's say another 1,500 a month. That's around 3 grand a month and with that kind of dough You can live very well practically anywhere in Latin America in fact It's a rare Latino that makes that kind of dough and you'd be considered wealthy a rich guy of course with that kind of dough If you lived on the gringo tourist trail Cancun Porta Vallarta Punta Cana Costa Rica you would not be able to stretch that pension all that far in fact Just rent on the gringo tourist trail would take a third to a half for that three grand a month But you knew that already right all right on to those emails this one comes from John Gregory from New York City He says Johnny not my real name you may remember me. I came to one of your seminars right before that cold video crap
[15:10] John says on the topic of do black American men have the gringo advantage as well I've got some personal experience on that front You have mentioned that single black men do like coming or vacationing to Latin America because of the Latin American women Accept them don't view them as gangsters or bullshit artists that part is true I've been to Panama the DER Columbia etc and found that Latin American women treat me very very well So I asked myself why do latinas like and appreciate black American men even though you Johnny have said many times that Latin America is very racist sexist and classes from my point of view And I'm sort of a nerdy black guy as you might remember I guess we do have a gringo advantage, too And that racist classes thing doesn't apply to any American guy of any race who comes down as long as he doesn't act like an
[16:01] Entitled jerk or throw his money around he says Johnny the reason I've been visiting Latin America Recently and since I came to your seminar He said I personally have given up on American black women and every single black friend I know has always told me the same thing they love black women to party with they love them Why not all of our mothers are black and we love our mothers But to settle down with an American black woman permanently or marry one no way Then mr. Gregory goes on to say there's this prevailing toxic black woman attitude that all my friends have felt and we just can't live with Black men just can't handle that they can't handle the attitude And I think this is the number one reason there are so many black baby mamas black women, especially black single mothers That's eighty percent of adult black women. They've somehow been given this narrative over the years that she's strong. She's independent
[16:52] She don't take shit from no man because she's been burned and that's why she's a baby mama because her man has made no commitment to Her that's the attitude that tells a man that this is not a woman. He's gonna have a good soft life with She's loud aggressive and has a chip on her shoulder that will never go away It tells him strictly that this woman is just gonna push back on everything Push back on everything he has going on in his life to just for the sake of pushing back She's gonna try to wear the pants rule a ruse and get the last word in no man wants to deal with that No, man wants to walk on eggshell as soon as he gets through the door not to mention Johnny And this is a sore subject eighty percent of adult black women are overweight or obese I just looked it up So if you don't like fat women eighty percent of black women are out of the running and even if she's lucky to be one
[17:40] Of the thin and hot-looking contingent. She's got the black woman temperament and attitude and she's gonna be bossy argumentative and no man wants that so she's conditioned to think that in any Conversation if she doesn't get the last word in and she's not the boss It's time to raise her voice to show her dominance and assertiveness and put her foot down Johnny That narrative is so deeply ingrained in the black female psyche that she needs to be loud and the dominating force in the relationship Well that attitude just makes living with her a chore Makes having a real united family very frustrating and very difficult too But it's a question they fail to understand and that's why so many of us black men have thrown in the towel And that's why passport bro movement among black men has been gaining so much steam More and more black men are going to Latin America and shopping for their mates there. You know me John
[18:29] Yeah, I'm an educated guy sort of a nerdy guy But I like to lead too and if you're a man who wants to lead when you're with a woman like that You have to follow her at all costs let her take the lead because the second you take charge your beautiful black woman will resist and say Wait a damn minute buster. I'm in an independent woman I ain't following no man or she'll insinuate it through her actions and gestures So as a black man unless you are prepared to take a backseat to your woman It won't end well and why so many black guys have a black girlfriend or a stable of black girlfriends, but never actually commit Don't misunderstand me though Johnny most all of us black men grew up with single mothers So we saw all those above-mentioned black female traits at home from our mothers as we grew up We saw our mothers as both victims and heroes who told us kids that our daddies and most men were shift list pieces of shit
[19:20] And I repeated sure we all love our mothers But that doesn't mean we'd ever want to marry a woman like that So in my case after being bossed around belittled and yelled at one too many times. I just said nope It's not worth it. I'm going to Latin America So I came to your seminar and witnessed with my own eyes that Latin American girls are a whole different breed of kind happy Soft and feminine women and they do seem to like black men, too Many of them have mixed black blood as well So if you treat them nice from the get-go, they will go out of their way to be so nice to you, too I've found they don't test or confront you They don't put up walls try to wear the pants or take charge and they would never think to embarrass you in front of others And they'll never let you see them in their houserobe and their hair up and rollers
[20:05] They always want you to see them looking at their best So when my people in New York at home asked me why I threw in the towel and why the passport bro Movement is alive and well I can only advise them to try Latin America themselves and see what a different world it is But don't come down all blinked out in your gangsta finest flash in a wad of cash Or you will attract the wrong kind of Latinas and there are plenty of those two Signed John Gregory. Well, mr. Gregory all I can say to that is ouch Really? I have nothing more to add though. You ladies out there listening if his little rant pissed you off Send me a rebuttal. I'd be happy to air your side of the story and now an email from California Kevin His subject title says why getting out of Dodge was the best thing I ever did
[20:53] he says Johnny I moved to San Salvador about five years ago right after buccal a was elected and Clean the place up and I love it The climate though is a little too hot I thought I'd get used to it, but I never did so I have AC all over my place and it's on most of the time Yes, and it's weird going back to my hometown, California Have to go back about twice a year for various things family things stuff like that and each time I go back It's changed even more for the worse. It's sad when you go back to your old neighborhood It's where you did your grocery shopping all your life. It's where you and your kids went to school It's your little microcosm of the world as it used to be your past life It's where all your childhood memories are and so you don't really notice how drastically it's changed till you've been away for a few years
[21:41] And then you go back and it's like oh This cashier doesn't speak English This uber guy is Hindu and kind of doesn't really understand my version of America His uber smells like an Asian restaurant. You see Latino guys walking down the street with sleeve tattoos Driving around like maniacs to on the expressway and oh there are all these bums lounging around in my once clean neighborhood park that never had trash strewn around before Because our parents would have scolded us and kicked our asses if we were that careless Now that formerly very safe neighborhood park is trashy and even dangerous the same park where years ago my kids and I used to play for hours at a time and all seasons too and When I was a kid unsupervised I might add and when I drive by the local grade school
[22:30] Half the kids aren't white anymore and most are from another country and you're seeing business signs menus even street signs Popping up in Spanish and you're thinking wow what happened here? This doesn't feel like my hometown anymore It's very uncomforting, and it doesn't mean you have to hate these people, but it is alienating Don't we all want to feel comfortable and connected on the same mental plane with our neighbors on equal footing with the people of The same values and experiences in our neighborhoods. Well, that's gone You want to feel you have a similar world view with people and have a solid connection with the past in your old neighborhood Your old neighborhood is supposed to be an anchor for you a nostalgic place of great memories some bad and mediocre ones, too But memories nevertheless, so Johnny I repeat
[23:16] It's very sad when I travel back to the states and see my old neighborhoods Fragmenting and deteriorating and being infiltrated by third-world people and their third-word values Making me feel like the outsider the guy who's out of place the one that doesn't belong in my own former stomping grounds It gives me a hollow feeling in my stomach, and I'm thinking oh, that's my home. They're trashing. That's where I grew up That's where I learned the lessons of life and all that is going away normally I'm an optimist Johnny, but sorry to say America as you know it is dead. There's no bringing it back I've seen it for myself, and now I'm back in my home in San Salvador Trying not to think about California because it just makes me sad signed Kevin Okay, Kevin. Thanks for that by the way. He said San Salvador. That means he's in the capital of El Salvador
[24:06] San Salvador is the capital Buchlais really cleaned it up. It's really nice now anyway while I was reading his rant I couldn't help but think about my old hometown, Chicago, which I have not been back to since 1999 and then only for two weeks to pick up some music equipment and have it shipped back to Costa Rica Remember that was the very very early days of the internet, and there was no Amazon So I hauled back corg keyboard and a Mesa boogie amp man. I wish I had that amp now Anyway as you longtime listeners have heard me say my brother who lives in Chicago He buys houses that have been returned to the bank through bankruptcy whatever sometimes at auction and usually at that point They're trashed because the owner knows he's losing the house. He doesn't give a shit so my brother He buys a house
[24:51] That's not up to par in the neighborhood remodels it and sells it or rents it out. That's how he makes his money He's also an electrical engineer, but he'd rather do the real estate thing Oh, and even though I haven't been back to Chicago since 1999 my brother and I talk every week So he fills me in on the changes anyway He's telling me that one bedroom apartments are going for like 1500 bucks a month in the burbs even more in the city And the cost of living for everyone in the states is out of sight You all know that especially since and because of kovat and my brother tells me in Chicago to live in a safe area is basically unaffordable for the average middle-class guy Galer family because two-thirds of the city is basically uninhabitable and unless you want to pay 1500 or more for rent and that's just for a one-bedroom two-bedroom two grand and up
[25:37] That's if you want to live in a safe area where you can walk around at least during a day without a problem So three-quarters of Chicagoans have a real problem meaning he says anywhere else It's basically dangerous to walk around day and night especially for women He says you can't live on the Chicago south side at all You can't live on the west side not if you're a white person, especially a woman You can't even use the public transit because it's too dangerous Except on Chicago's north side So the only place you can live safely where you've got safe places to walk the day anyway Even at night are places where you have super high property taxes That means super high rents where it's mostly all white people or 90% or more white people believe me My brother's not racist He had a black girlfriend for two years who by the way my German mother completely objected to not at first
[26:26] But when she found out she came from three generations of welfare queens because you know when the girlfriend comes to dinner What's the first question mother asks? Where do you work? Well, I don't but I go to school cosmetology school My brother tells me that's a catch-all phrase for deadbeat women in Chicago So anyway, the only places in Chicago you can live that are safe places to walk are places where you have super high property taxes I mean super high and those are the burbs and neighborhoods that are almost completely white. So it's actually Increased diversity that's pricing white people out of living a lifestyle They had while they were living with their parents as kids years ago I remember as diversity crept in they used to call it white flight and that's not being racist
[27:13] That's just people moving out of a neighborhood. That's becoming less and less safe Sad to say but in America now more diversity in the neighborhood means a neighborhood that's less safe Ironic, huh? That's why it's the rich white people that live on the North Shore of Chicago or what's called the near north side like Evanston Rogers Park Island Park, Winnetka, Kenilworth Glencoe, Lake Florist, Northfield, Deerfield, Northbrook, Glenview, Wilmette, Lake Bluff those are the Chicago burbs that are at least 90% white where Apartments go for a half million or more and houses go for a million or more and a decent two-bedroom apartment rents for 2,500 bucks and up and those are the places you can walk day and night with no fear of assault or mugging But here's the real shocker property taxes if you own a house or condo in an all-white burb or neighborhood in Chicago as mentioned your
[28:03] annual property tax bill if you live in one of those high-end suburbs like Glencoe, Winnetka, Deerfield Can range from about 13,000 to 27,000 bucks a year That's the annual property tax if you live in the average house in one of those completely white burbs and man You can live a nice super nice middle-class life in Latin America on what you pay in property taxes If you live in one of those nice safe Chicago neighborhoods or burbs now I know I'm gonna get some shit for what I said about the word diversity the more diverse the less safe your neighborhood Yeah, I know there's always exceptions to the rule like for example if you're in Silicon Valley Perhaps the highest per capita income area in all the United States that is besides those ass white Political thieves living in Washington DC anyway Silicon Valley is super diversified
[28:52] The difference is it's diversified with nerds of all cultures blacks Indians seeks Chinese Japanese Pakistanis Indonesians all pulling down huge salaries cuz they're in the tech business and from what I hear from my nerd buddies Silicon Valley is super safe You can walk day and night through the place, but don't step one block outside the designated perimeter or your boundary get mugged All right, we're getting towards the end of the show now, and finally we'll tackle the age-old question Was Columbus a hero or a dick hero or dick? What do you think? Well, here's my take your answer all depends on where you live how light or dark your skin happens to be and your socioeconomic status And if you ask me the indigenous people of Latin America got the last laugh
[29:39] I'm sure you've heard the Spanish brought all kinds of diseases over and wiped out maybe three-quarters of the indigenous population But I say the indigenous got the last laugh Even though if you look it up right now You'll find the estimated deaths of indigenous people in the Americas in the first 100 years after European Contact its claim there have been approximately 50 million indigenous dead from European sicknesses disease and outright murder But there's a case to be made in the long run the indigenous people got their revenge though better late than never Why because they introduced white people to tobacco which white people got super addicted to pipes cigarette cigars chew and snuff Which the indigenous people use very infrequently only for ceremonial purposes the peace pipe etc
[30:25] Meanwhile for Westerners it became their number one addiction now according to the WHO the corrupt world health organization But they are good at collecting facts and data They say that tobacco habit has killed more than 1 billion that with a B people worldwide That's about 20 times the number of indigenous people killed through European colonialism So what do you think did the Europeans get there come up and swell in the long run? It's hard to argue otherwise You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America Thanks for tuning in you know there's a whole community of people out there like you thinking enough to get in the hell out Of dodge if you go to expat plan B comm you'll see the full show archive
[31:10] It's the home base for the show by the way if you need to do a one-on-one Consultation with me just send me an email the expat files at gmail dot-com Oh and for another uncensored take on life down here in Latin America from business to relationships and everything in between Including the scheduling of my kind of hand-holding Unconventional tours through Latin America just check out Rico unchained Dot-com see you next time and stay sharp