Episode Summary
In this episode, Johnny Mueller explores the cultural and educational landscape of Latin America through the lens of comic books and electric vehicles. He begins by reflecting on his childhood as a comic book collector in the 1970s, recalling how his mother threw out his collection when he went to college. He then transitions into a discussion about literacy challenges in Latin America, attributing them to low minimum wages and the lack of disposable income for books. He contrasts this with the prevalence of newspapers, which are often free and filled with classified ads. Johnny highlights the challenges of public libraries in the region, noting that they are often incomplete, difficult to access, and lack the infrastructure for book lending. He also mentions the historical use of comic books in Mexico during the 1960s and 1970s as an educational tool for children who otherwise wouldn't attend school. The segment ends with Johnny reflecting on the current state of libraries and the role of librarians, making a comment about the gender and racial dynamics within the profession.
Johnny then discusses the cultural and educational disparities between first-world countries and Latin America, highlighting the prevalence of illiteracy among certain populations, particularly indigenous communities. He contrasts this with the high level of education among many Latin Americans, such as engineers, architects, and physicians, whose families may lack basic literacy. He transitions into a story about his friend Gary Gibson, an eccentric electrical engineer who designed a suspension system for a Honda motorcycle and sold the patent. Gary's ability to learn Spanish quickly, aided by comic books, allowed him to teach at a university in Guadalajara. Johnny also mentions the influence of eccentric engineers and the impact of the Latin American comic book industry, including local superheroes and the translation of Marvel and DC comics into Spanish.
The episode continues with Johnny discussing how comic book companies have adapted superhero and villain names for Spanish-speaking audiences in Latin America. He explains that while the visual elements of comics remain the same, names are often changed to better suit the local language and culture. For example, Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne is known as Bruno Diaz in Latin American comics, and Wonder Woman's alias is Diana Perez. Johnny notes that this practice is not unique to comics, as seen in the translation of 'Don Quixote' into English without altering the title. He then shifts to a news segment about the first electric car recharging station in Panama, highlighting its free charging offer and the small number of electric cars currently in the country.
Johnny then discusses the challenges of owning an electric car in Latin America, emphasizing the lack of infrastructure and maintenance support. He suggests that while electric cars are efficient in cities, the lack of charging stations makes long-distance travel impractical. He highlights the limited number of electric vehicles in the region, with Mexico leading the market. Johnny expresses skepticism about government targets for electric vehicle adoption, citing the low sales figures and lack of solar power interest in countries like Colombia. He concludes by mentioning an email from a listener about a nostalgic reference to a song by Peter Frampton.
The episode also features a listener who credits Johnny Mueller's podcast for significantly altering his life. He bought Bitcoin at $1,200 and turned $12,000 into $120,000, leading him to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. He reflects on the stress of materialism, the concept of 'trend mills,' and the importance of lifestyle changes. He also discusses his health scare, lifestyle transformation, and how he now prioritizes minimalism and financial independence. He concludes by offering advice, including deleting social media, using encryption, and investing in Bitcoin and gold.
Topics
Comic book collecting in the 1970s, Literacy challenges in Latin America, Public libraries in Latin America, Historical use of comic books for education, Cultural and economic factors affecting education, Educational disparities between first-world and Latin American countries, Cultural and linguistic adaptation of comic books in Latin America, The eccentricity of engineers and their influence on Johnny Mueller, Comic book name adaptations for Spanish-speaking audiences, Cultural adaptation in media, Electric car infrastructure in Panama, Translation practices in popular culture
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:00:14 Introduction to the Expat Files and the Show's Focus 00:00:31 Johnny's Nostalgic Reflection on Comic Collecting 00:02:02 Discussion on Literacy Challenges in Latin America 00:04:54 Historical Use of Comic Books for Literacy in Mexico 00:05:56 The Illiteracy of Certain Populations in Latin America 00:06:39 The Story of Gary Gibson and His Suspension System 00:10:08 The Latin American Comic Book Industry and Its Superheroes 00:11:12 Comic Book Name Adaptations for Spanish-Speaking Audiences 00:14:55 Electric Car Recharging Station in Panama 00:17:12 Electric Car Ownership in Latin America 00:18:57 Waiting for Infrastructure Development 00:19:56 Electric Vehicle Sales in Latin America 00:22:26 Listener Credits Johnny for Bitcoin Investment and Life Change 00:25:54 Listener Reflects on Minimalist Lifestyle and Bitcoin's Role
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 out to play and now 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 Hey, were any of you guys and gals way back when into comic collecting? I know it's more of a guy thing Well, it seems if you were a boomer like me Oh you had back then cuz there was no internet or cell phones with comic books in the local library But that normally was no fun and back then before graphic novels or graphic comic books
[00:49] There were just two camps DC and Marvel. I was a DC guy myself, you know, Superman Batman Green Lantern Superboy action comics and my brother a big Marvel guy In fact, I remember once a week taking my stingray bike with the banana seat and angel bars I'm going down to this drug star called Park drug where they'd get the new shipment of comic books in about every Friday You know, my parents had six kids good Catholics that they were so I didn't get an allowance But I did odd jobs shoveled snow had a paper out So I did have enough at the end of the week to buy a couple comics back then they were only 15 to 25 cents Oh, yeah, my sister bought Disney Comics and Archie comics man was the artwork and those Archie comics lame and the storylines Pathetic so what's this got to do with Latin America? Well, I'm getting to that
[01:35] So anyway, I had this nice big stash of comics and when I went off to college my mom threw them all out Is that not the typical gone away to college clueless mom cleaning out the attic cliche? Yep, dear old mom How often have we heard that story throwing out the one future? collectible that would have allowed her to live out her retirement years in a condo on a golf course versus toughen it out in a Stanky Medicare nursing home, but I digress and we're only a minute and a half into the show now Here's the thing It's always been said that Latin America has a literacy problem Compared to the first world and it does one of the reasons it's always been that way is because minimum wage is so low There is no extra disposable income to pay for books magazines newspapers, etc Although newspapers really do thrive in Latin America because most big cities anyway I've got five or six newspapers and some of them that have a lot of classified ads in them are almost free
[02:25] but young kids aren't interested in newspapers they're bored by them and The public libraries throughout Latin America are pretty incomplete and spread out all over the place And if you go to one of them, it's kind of a fool's errand Unless you go to a private school or private university, they've got pretty good libraries, but those schools cost money They're not free like the government ones only about 5% of Latino students go to private schools And though you see public libraries here and there the fact is most public libraries in Latin America You cannot check a book out. You have to read them right there. Why well, you know how in the states They have a strict return policy or you get fined right that works in the states because big brother knows where you live They actually chase you down if you don't bring it back after a certain amount of time
[03:11] Well in Latin America that kind of system you might call it the honor system under pressure does not work Forget about it You have to read the books and periodicals in the library and who wants to do that And even if you could check out a book, they've got no library police and most people don't get mail So no one sends out past due cards. I mean really who gets any kind of important snail mail anymore Yep, many years ago when I was in the states before the Internet I remember getting past two notices from the library. I know they used to do that in the states They're using the Internet now for sure not that many people up in the states use libraries anymore either Technology's making them obsolete, too You know Sometimes I actually use the Chicago public library system online and believe it or not the Cleveland public library courtesy of captain mango's
[03:57] Password thanks for that cap. It's coming handy a few times Just a little shout out to the one and only captain mango. He's always there to help and next bet You thought I was gonna nah Anyway, you know, I wonder these days if even college kids use their libraries the physical library that is, you know with the internet It's really not necessary in today's age of the internet those big old redundant buildings the cost of heating air conditioning and those lard ass security guards Hmm. Is it really worth it though? You gotta love those librarians though I have to say in all the thousands of visits I've made to libraries in my day I've never seen a librarian wear makeup nor have I met a male librarian Looks like white female privilege to me Anyway in the 60s and 70s Mexico tried a strange social experiment because the literacy was so low and someone
[04:47] That is some bright educated somewhat non-corrupt politician. You don't find those off and they're as rare as hen's teeth He figured maybe they could try to solve the mexican literacy problem by giving away comic books Sounds crazy. But in the end it worked like gangbusters little kids Just ate those things up and on certain days when the comic books came out You'd see kids on street corners lining up as the trucks dropped them off the most famous comic book being a kind of mexican rodman who a detective folk hero called Fantomas and that's basically how street kids kids that didn't go to school much or just played hooky all the time learned to read You know south of the border. They've got no truant officers So kids can't get away with that most latin american countries to this day because so many parents
[05:32] Especially the ones out in the boonies would rather have their kids out working and contributing to the household income than going to school You know, the strange thing is I meet latinos all the time educated latinos engineers architects physicians teachers who have grandparents or even a parent or two in alphabetic zallows Try saying that after a couple of tequilas. Yes in alphabetic zallows. They can't read or write Imagine that really I don't think you can imagine that now suppose you were to find out your physician or dentist father or mother Didn't know how to read and write. How would that change your stereotypical idea of that guy's upbringing? That's something that's just unfathomable up in the first world I mean really do you know personally of any american citizen who can't read or write? Except of course those kids that went to chicago public school
[06:19] But down here you meet people like that all the time especially indigenous people Seems their parents are always taking them out of school early so they can work and contribute on top of that I know a few professionals with doctorate degrees whose mother or father can't read or write Although it rarely comes up in conversation. If it does, they're not embarrassed to admit it because it's so common But where were we? Oh, yeah talking about those free comic books Which brings me to the story of my good friend gary gibson who I lost track of a long time ago He's a brilliant electrical engineer eccentric as hell like most of the brilliant ones are And you know give you an idea just how brilliant this guy was and he didn't know it He thought everyone was like him. Oh and like most all brilliant engineers. He was not a chick magnet That is until he made his first million and hired a gay guy to show him how to dress
[07:05] Anyway, we'd both been out of engineering school about a year and he loved motorcycles and he had a honda 650 pretty big one But he didn't like the suspension on it He said it had too much play and rebound if you hit a pothole The springs weren't set up correctly and the damping was bad. Anyway, a lot of things he didn't like about it So he drew up a new and completely different kind of suspension system and honda bought the patent from him Thinking back. I think he made slightly less than a million bucks That was back in the late 70s now. Remember this was a guy who wasn't a mechanical engineer You'd think mechanics and gearhead stuff would be his thing. But you see he was an electrical engineer, you know circuits transmission lines computers So anyway, I don't know how this happened out of the blue He got an offer to teach at the university of guadalajara for a semester as a visiting professor
[07:52] He'd never been to mexico before he'd never been out of the midwest He was single so he decided that would be cool and he accepted by mail by correspondence Only problem being he signed the contract in july and was supposed to report to the engineering school in september Exactly two months from when he signed that contract, but he knew zero spanish I mean zero and the class was to be taught in spanish I said doesn't that worry you he said a little bit But I ordered some books in spanish and a box of comic books called phantomas And I thought what the hell is he thinking? But if anyone could pull it off gary could and guess what two months later? He was absolutely fluent even more difficult to believe is he was teaching a highly technical subject in spanish
[08:38] And I asked him if there was any trick to it or what helped him the most he said my hero phantomas Oh and just as an aside talk about the eccentricity of scientists and especially engineers gary who was a really wary guy We looked a lot like art garfunkel He could walk on his hands for blocks and blocks and blocks and converse right along with you like it was nothing But he was no show off. He just didn't like boredom We'd be walking along in a group and he'd say give me 10 bucks and i'll walk across that bridge on my hands Hey, that gets a crowd going right or he'd say for 10 bucks Jump off that bridge and he'd do it In fact, I remember I was having a backgammon party at my house in chicago We were sitting around the kitchen late at night kind of winding down and my dog's food bowl was on the floor filled Then gary said out loud give me 10 bucks and i'll eat that dog food. Someone said you're on and he did
[09:27] Luckily, it was dry dog food Then he said to me now. I know why I don't get dates. I got dog breath So all through my adult life guys like that were my influences and buddies Also had a really good engineering buddy. His last name was hyatt. Just like the hotel He'd get comped for hotel rooms and dinners practically everywhere. He went. Sometimes he'd even get the presidential suite gratis He found out early in his life that in the hospitality business the name hyatt is magic He was no relation, but he never denied it. I saw it happen myself twice Another case of dumb luck an accident of birth But back to this mexican and latin american comic book phenomena You know till about the 1980s. They had their own superhero comic books
[10:13] At the time the latin american comic book industry was based in mexico city. You still see these things around everywhere at newsstands They've got a comic called los super locos. That means the super crazies la familia boron Rolando el ravioso el paio Los super sabios zora y los inventsables las adventuras de capolina Los supermachos and many many more. Oh and my personal favorite. You're not gonna believe this. It's called el toit He's kind of a naughty villainous superhero spelled just like it sounds el Twat the literal translation the bastard. Yep the bastard, which is a little kinder than the chicago translation Now get this late in the 70s and into the 80s all the well-known marvel and dc comic superheroes
[11:02] We all know so well from up where we come from They got translated into spanish and became huge hits in latin america Sort of even killing the local homegrown comic industry But some of those superheroes and villains we all know so well could not be translated directly into spanish So in some cases they made up their own names Though the issues printed in english up in the states are exactly the same as far as the colors and panels Storylines the works However, in some cases the proper names just won't jive with what we're used to seeing on top of that The sales of dc and marvel comics in latin america got to be so huge That marvel and dc started to inject latin american superheroes and villains into some of the issues For example in dc comments if you look at the superman annual volume 2 number 12, that would be august 2000
[11:50] They have a latin american superhero named akrata and his alias identity andrea rojas For example in aquaman volume 7 number 16 in 2013 There's a latina villain named ronda pineda and in aquaman number 16 year 2004 they introduced aqua girl 2 She's a latina named lorena marquez, etc, etc Comic book companies have done this because in some cases latin american sales are bigger than the us sales Same with marvel comics. For example in x-men 198 number one There is a hero called antonio Dargente then you've got wolverine volume 2 number 19 a guy named la bandeira supposed to be an anti-castro guy from cuba And there's not just a handful of latino crossovers either. There are dozens and dozens of them
[12:38] Now here's the thing that really cracks me up I get the fact that some of the names of the superheroes and supervillains don't translate well into spanish So they just come up with another one But in many many cases, they also change the name of the guys or gals secret identity, too For example superman's alter ego is clark kent, right? Well that one they never changed in spanish because that was one of the earliest ones that came down They just didn't bother even though up till then the names clark and kent never appeared as given names in spanish So he's still clark kent in the latin american comic version, but when batman came along There was somehow no translation for bruce wayne In fact the way I heard it. It was difficult for latinos to pronounce correctly the word bruce They'd say bruvess like it was two words. So in latin american batman comics bruce wayne is known as
[13:28] Bruno Diaz and his trusty sidekick robin who's in english dick grayson the latino comic version He's ricardo tapia. How'd that happen? And wonder woman her alias is diana prince in english in spanish. It's diana Perez and aquaman his alias is arthur curry. I didn't know that in the spanish language comics He's arturo guri lowis lane. She's luisa lane jimmy. Olsen. Hi me. Olsen perry white pedro white That's perfect. Lana. Lang's good one. She's lina luna lana lang lina luna And you've got commissioner gordon as commissionado ferrio. Oh and as for spider-man, you know, he's peter parker, right? In spanish, he's pedro marquez Dr. Doom is dr. Morte, which means dr. Death really and on and on but should we suspect otherwise?
[14:20] I think so because when popular culture latino stuff makes it to the first world and gets translated We don't change people's names. Do we of course that doesn't happen much But one of the most famous hundred books of all time is don kyote It's the only one originally written in the spanish language But when it was translated to english title character in the name of the book don kyote Was left alone. It wasn't messed with it wasn't anglicized. I mean look we could have called it mr Kyote or captain windmill or windbag or something if you knew the storyline, you know, that would be more apropos But we didn't we left it alone Okay, enough said about that. All right. Here's a bit of news You're never gonna hear up in the first row media it says and this comes out of panama's biggest newspaper It says the company salisa has installed the very first electric car recharging station in panama
[15:07] It says it's compatible with any electric car model and delivers 7.2 kilowatts of power It says the company opened the electric station at the alta plaza mall aiming to meet the energy demands of more than a hundred electric vehicles Circulating in panama right now Wow, look out and they will recharge your car for free until february 2020 Hey, I like that though. Certainly you'll have to be sitting around for a couple hours because that's all it takes to recharge an electric car All right, then it says the opening of our first electric car recharging station reflects the interest for electric cars in our country You think then it says as of july 2019 in the country we have sold so far 13 bmw i3s two i8s 36 bmw x5
[15:56] Two electric 530es and 12 740s. Well, that's good news. I mean you have to start somewhere, right? But listen to this in el salvalor get this the very first charging station for electric vehicles will be put into operation in Plaza Malta located on the road to the port of la libertad. Hey, that's where we did our expat insider seminar last time Okay, the press release says and i'll translate here This will be the first electrolinear electric car power station in the country serving the general public So there has been one in operation since 2018 But it was on the university of central america jose semion cana's campus And thus difficult for the three electric cars in the country to gain access Then it says roberto gonzalez general manager of del sur the electric company in el salvalor
[16:42] Says free electricity for electric car owners will be available starting september 1st 2019 This inaugural station will be open to anyone who has an electric vehicle and we know there aren't many electric cars here He says but you can charge at no cost and this will be available for the foreseeable future All right. Here's the punch line. It says at the moment according to electric company estimates. There are four electric cars in el solvador All right. It's me johnny here again. I love electric cars I haven't got one yet myself, but I have the capacity to charge my own with my solar setup But the truth is i'd rather be next than first if you know what I mean You know what? They say the second mouse gets the cheese, right? In other words if you have an electric car in latin america right now You are pretty much going to be the lone ranger
[17:28] That means finding maintenance and repair are going to be real tough and for sure these electric cars rarely need repair They've got one quarter the moving parts of a regular gasoline car And they don't have gas tanks or fuel lines or fuel pumps or radiators. There's no carburetor. No oil changes No spark plug or fuel injector problems and realistically you should be able to drive those things 100,000 even 200 or 300,000 kilometers easily without any real repairs at all But this is latin america and you're gonna hit a lot of potholes big-ass Volkswagen-sized potholes and it's not a matter of if but when you're gonna get in a car accident Then you're gonna need some repairs, right? And the truth is if you're in a country that's only got a hundred electric vehicles of all different types or even like solvador Four for one thing where you're gonna charge that thing if you happen to be way out in the boonies
[18:15] And you're running short of power And there's only two charging stations in the whole freaking country now as for me I'm planning on getting electric car real soon, but i'll also have an internal combustion car as a second You've heard me say I like to live off the gringo tourist trail But close enough to a big city that I get there maybe in a half an hour for all the amenities Well, you know living in or near a city is perfect for electric car because it uses no energy at all when it's idling And when you're in the city, you'll be idling a lot whereas internal combustion engines continuously use fuel and continuously pump out exhaust fuel But as things stand right now and in the near future I wouldn't want to take my electric car when I get it on long distance journeys simply because of the lack of charging stations So bottom line if you're living in latin america i'd say wait five years
[19:00] That is unless you've got your own charging station at home and are going to stay within the relative vicinity But I do have some interesting stats on electric vehicle sales throughout latin america Listen to this And mexico accounts for over half of the latin american electric car market And as it turns out electric car sales have more than double year over year For example in 2015 the total sales in all 20 latin american countries is about 400 cars 2016 1270 cars 2017 around 2000 cars 2018 3600 cars. So what's the country breakdown? You heard that panama's got about 100 cars and el salvador for now Sales for the year 2018 in mexico were 1785 cars for columbia 663 electric cars costa rica
[19:49] 368 electric cars chile 197 electric cars brazil 193 electric cars now, I don't have an economic or demographic breakdown on who's buying those cars But that would be interesting to see you have to assume the new adopters The first ones in are creative technical types the one percenters in latin america by the way I have been in many countries in latin america just this year and i've never yet seen a tesla Or have I seen any type of electric car at all though? I've seen a few toyota priuses But I don't think they're a great investment for latin america for my money You go full throttle and go all electric or stick with a gas or diesel model Poop or get off the pot as they say. Oh, and by the way to show you just how delusional governments can be I've been in columbia just recently and saw a lot of billboards saying that the government has the target
[20:38] Of six hundred thousand electric vehicles in their country by the year 2030. Yeah, right insert laugh track here laughable if you consider in 2018 only 663 electric vehicles were sold in the whole country besides the fact that if you do a quick rooftop survey The columbians don't seem to have much interest at all in solar power Then there are other latin countries like panaman the dominican republic you get high up on a building and look down It's all you see our solar panels gotta love it. Then there's columbia. I don't get it. What's holding up the solar Is it about taxes and tariffs and government incentives? I don't know. There are a lot of things. I don't get about latin america Especially the columbians they along with the argentinos are probably the most educated of all latinos
[21:23] They should know better, but obviously they don't All right time to change course yank the wheel on our virtual tesla and read an email This one's from burt in louziana He says dear johnny does anyone feel like I do I was listening to that old peter franton song, you know the one do you feel like I do and it got me thinking All right, just one minute me johnny here again, you know, I gotta tell you I saw peter franton a couple of times Remember he was in a band called humble pie Before he was on his own and really hit the big time And when he played his hair was so long it would get tangled in the strings of his guitar No lie, then some years later probably around 1989 right before I moved to latin america I went to a double build concert stevie nyx and huey lewis in the news and about halfway through stevie nyx's set
[22:11] They broke into that franton song Do you feel like I do and she introduced the lead player was peter franton the original with his head Completely shaved something really weird about that All right burt. Sorry about that digression. Let's pick up where we left off He says johnny since knowing about bitcoin through your earlier shows and buying 10 of them when they were 1200 bucks It set me on a completely different path in my life Because of you I turned twelve thousand dollars into a hundred and twenty thousand dollars at today's prices At that point I started removing myself more and more from materialistic things I know I know that sounds ironic because bitcoin is a materialistic thing or virtual materialistic thing
[22:56] But hear me out Since then i've been thinking an awful lot about what you say about getting off the treadmill and realize we are all On a treadmill but running at different speeds And that's okay That's life as it's always been Since the caveman days if you remember even fred flintstone worked the day shift at the rock quarry Then he says johnny, you know, you're either on a treadmill, which is okay or a trend mill. That's t-r-e-n-d-m-i-l-l I said trend mill That's what you get when you artificially turn up the speed on your treadmill Because you tell yourself you have to work harder and longer to have those extras you don't really need that makes life Extra stressful and the effort we put in every day to accumulate those gadgets. We don't need the secondary effect is once we have them They stress us out too and here we thought they were supposed to make our lives easier
[23:46] Yet with every new gadget our lives get more complicated But we are pressured to stay on that trend mill to keep up with the joneses or the hoses or as you aptly put johnny The retired ashen my theory is the treadmill is what's killing us. Not the treadmill treadmills are okay I mean we pay our health club dues to jump on those don't we? But it's never easy or comfortable to knock down the velocity a notch, especially when the new iphone comes out So johnny there I was back in 2016 I think listening to your show Accumulating some bitcoin and bam. I had a scare. I thought I had a heart attack At 37 I guess like most guys with a high stress job and a high stress wife I was on blood pressure and anti-anxiety meds, too I went to the emergency room and it was not a heart attack But all the signs were there that things were going downhill
[24:32] Then I went to my overweight doc with his diet coke and mcdonald's bag on his desk. That's another thing I don't get johnny. Why do only overweight and out of shape people drink diet soda, but I digress I learned from the best so he prescribed me even more crap He said if I don't change my lifestyle i'll be looking at heart stents shortly bad news, huh? Actually, no I'm almost glad to have had that wake-up call at 37 because at least I was young enough to change course before I totally Damaged myself. So within six months after that I set off on my new course. I ditched sugar soda corn products Refined carbs cereals fast food beer and red bull within a year after that my blood pressure was normal I'd lost 30 pounds and back to my high school weight at 180 and i'm off all meds
[25:20] And my wish list has changed drastically, too Now besides friends and family the only things that are really important to me and that I want to possess Are one a powerful laptop for cpu intensive work good internet a good smartphone An acoustic guitar a ledger nano a nice water purifier and a little backup solar power setup as well as quick access to locally grown food And my goals for 2020 I want to have a little bit of land to plant my own fruit trees and grow tasty things money won't be able to buy Once the reset button gets pressed The reason johnny why i'm writing this emails is to tell you that my minimalistic lifestyle really only started because I had that scare And found your show learned about bitcoin, which led me to investigate more about bitcoin
[26:06] So I found a site called bitcoin reddit Redit which has an ongoing blog about bitcoin and cryptocurrencies That led me to learn about federal fiat reserve funny money and the whole system That's fatally flawed which led me to learn about unsustainable economics and the debt pyramid and The 20 trillion dollar debt clot so looking back over the last two years. I'm thinking wow It was like I went all the way through college and didn't learn shit about how the world really worked And how dysfunctional the whole thing is. Oh, but I got my useless degree in business admin What a waste of four years. So in the last two years i've been in preparation. My plan b is now underway Even better is that when I tell people about it They don't look at me like i'm nuts, but rather say things like man. I wish I could do that
[26:57] Then comes their litany of excuses as to why they just can't pull it off So in the end, I want to thank you once again i've been thinking about it johnny and here's my one simple sentence of advice delete facebook Instagram and twitter get a water filter use a vpn and encryption use aliases get a solar backup system Don't add sugar to anything don't eat processed carbs or anything out of a can Buy gold buy bitcoin get a hardware wallet like a treasure or a nano get a plan b and get back on that treadmill But only at the gym 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
[27:44] 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 No spamos