#969 – The Expat Files: Plan B, Politics, and the Future of Expat Life

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 All right. First. I want to mention again that my August 2020 expat insider seminar has been canceled actually rescheduled for January 2021 And why is that? Well, you probably could guess but the truth is when selecting those August dates a few months ago

[00:46] I was assured by people in the know, you know legal egos government bureaucrats airport administrators and such that by then the corona Related lockdowns and the secondary effects and such would have been normalized But sadly since a so-called second wave seems to be in the work, so it very well could be BS I've been advised to postpone the seminar do of course to the ever-changing Inconsistent rules and norms regarding the openings and closings of both the US and Latin American airports So in the end I made the decision to cancel the seminar that was supposed to launch in something like a month and a half now Because I prefer to delay it other than risk even the small Probability that an attendee might get caught at an airport or border in a bureaucratic snafu bottom line

[01:32] I'd hate to see someone get stopped and then stuck in some kind of quarantine That said the new seminar dates will be Friday January 8th through Thursday, January 14th, 2021 I'm certain by then things will have calmed down and normalized considerably and by then fake news and fake science talking heads and clowns Will have been unmasked That's right. You know who you are You know, what really kills me We've got all these shit for brain bureaucrats and politicians who never read a science book in their lives with no experience in medicine or biology Changing the rules day by day and disturbing our lives and damaging our freedoms and in the process destroying the economy But then again, we all knew some kind of blowout was coming. Didn't we? We just didn't know what the pin was gonna look like that would finally burst a bubble

[02:20] Not that this should be a surprise to anyone who listens to this show Remember in all those past shows I talked about those tipping points that were ready to drop Been talking about that here on the expat files ever since this show got started around ten years ago now Which begs the question. So now that the coronavirus has popped the everything bubble Getting out of Dodge is looking pretty good, isn't it? Hmm. So how's your plan be coming? Now regarding my upcoming January 2021 seminar, which very well could be my last I know it's quite a few months from now and I expect it to be a very big turnout Why because not only have I had lots of signups for the seminar I just cancelled since the corona thing I've been getting an unprecedented amount of emails from people who've been on the fence for a Long long time and now suddenly they want to get on with their plan B surprise surprise people are finally waking up

[03:11] So anyway, I got to sign up sheet at expat plan B comm With the early bird discounts, of course, so it's first come first surf and I'm gonna limit the seminar to 20 or 25 So get in while you can enough said about that. All right, let's start off with an email from Emmy She says hello, Johnny. Love the show have a question. I'm planning to have my plan B in Nicaragua I was listening to your podcast saying that you don't quite recommend the place Please give me your reasons why you're not recommending it I thought it'd be a nice place for a plan B. Everything. There's cheap safe people are friendly I did some research on the Internet Haven't been there yet. I've got no boots on the ground, but it looks good Thanks, Johnny signed Emmy. All right, Emmy. Thanks for that

[03:58] Yep, Emmy in most ways you got it, right? It is a very nice place to live It's cheap safe. The people are friendly. They grow almost all their own produce And for you cheapskates backpackers and old-timers out there You could live very nicely on a thousand to fifteen hundred a month That is if you didn't have a house or car payment. In other words a measly Social Security check Except and this is a big problem. It's being run by a heavy-handed Socialistic dictator who doesn't allow dissenting opinion. We're talking about one of the slimiest dirt bags in government Daniel Ortega He's a guy who sixes army and special police on peaceful protesters In fact his cops and his army have killed quite a few dozen unarmed student protesters, too

[04:43] And you can't vote the guy out I mean he rigs the elections or I should say he rigs elections beyond what's normally tolerated And it's not so much that he steals from the government coffers all Latin American bureaucrats and politicians are crooks Take American politicians like old vomit. He walked into the office middle class and walked out a mega millionaire What did his Martha's Vineyard mansion cost eleven point seven million dollars and his net worth now look it up 40 million how'd that happen yet? No one I mean no one ever calls him out on it. Yep, st Old vomit. Yes, we can a change we can believe in though. We're not talking pocket change here Tell you the truth. I don't know why people bother to vote at all

[05:29] You know when you pull that lever you're giving a vote of confidence to the system that you really believe The system works though. Even an idiot can see it doesn't and you know like Einstein said the definition of insanity Is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result? That's the perfect definition of voting. You know you can't deny the fact that they're all stinking lying power-hungry Sociopathic crooks and I mean that in the most Christian kind of way It's just that the president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega is in a class by himself In fact, you can usually tell how screwed up and dictatorial a country's leader or president is by asking people that you meet on the Street for a few comments about their leader

[06:15] Fact of the matter is if you go to Guatemala Honduras Panama or practically any other Latin American country except Cuba and Venezuela 90% of the locals will answer by saying the guy's a piece of a corrupt a-hole who says he comes from poverty a man of the people but once he's been in a while all his friends relatives and cronies are Suddenly millionaires jaunting back and forth to their condos in my jammy. How'd that happen? Well, we all know how that happened Yep, you'll find in most Latin countries 90% of the people on the street will say their elected leader sucks But if you ask that same question to people on the street in Cuba Venezuela or Nicaragua Normally, they won't say much at all and if they say anything derogatory or drop any negative hints at all, they'll speak softly and look over their shoulder and

[07:05] Certainly, they won't diss the guy in mixed company Not unless it's behind closed doors and they know you quite well Because you see in places like Cuba Venezuela and Nicaragua if you speak up against your government the repercussions can't be heavy Not only might you and your family be blocked forever from getting a government job or a contract or government benefits Really outspoken people have been known to disappear Now, of course I understand some people might say when I mention this stuff that I'm just spouting the same Propaganda the US government dishes out on the guy because Ortega has always been an enemy of the US any sides with the usual suspects Cuba Venezuela and Russia, but man, I'm here to tell you this guy's really a psychopath Now you and I know most all high-level politicians are sociopaths, but this guy Ortega surpasses all that he's a psychopath

[07:57] Unfortunately with almost every big organization the sociopaths and psychopaths rise to the top You know the old saying at least it's my old saying governments are like plugged up toilets Only the biggest chunks float to the top but Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega is in a class of his own In fact many Nicaraguans including prominent former Sandinista leaders, and he was one of them He was the head such as Daniel Ortega's own brother Umberto Ortega have accused him of being a quote bloody dictator Saying his own brother is an autocrat who created monopolies, but that's nothing compared to what happened in 1998 where his adopted stepdaughter Zola America Narves released a 48-page report in minute excruciating detail

[08:46] Describing how her stepfather Daniel Ortega systematically raped and sexually molested her since 1979 when she was just 12 all the way up till 1990 that's 11 years of sexual abuse Now the case couldn't go to Nicaraguan courts the judges having been appointed by Ortega In other words the court was stacked so naturally they wouldn't hear the case They just threw it out not to mention as president. He had immunity from prosecution With get this his lawyers saying five-year statute of limitations for sexual abuse and rape charges in Nicaragua had already run its course But that wasn't the end of it for his stepdaughter She took her complaints to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission who ruled her case was admissible in 2001

[09:35] In other words, she'd get her day in the international court and get this in 2002 the Nicaraguan government made an undisclosed settlement to her hmm With part of the deal being she withdrew her complaints You know it smacks of that early Michael Jackson case where that underage dentist kid got a 10 million dollar settlement Remember that of course Michael wasn't guilty. He just felt like giving the guy 10 million So anyway, according to reports Ortega's stepdaughter got paid off But after that the subject just wouldn't go away and when reporters would bring it up to him He'd deny everything which pissed her off So she renewed her battles against her stepfather once again, of course She's been living out of the country and now she continually blows the whistle on the guy

[10:24] So there you have it em a little character profile of a guy running the country So then em as a future lady expat Would you want to live in a country that lets the president a known pedophile rapist get away with that? I? Wouldn't but that's just me. Oh And by the way, did you know his government censors all the newspapers and media outlets though again? The place is beautiful cheap. The people are friendly and nice and it's pretty safe So you say alright, so when the guy croaks things will calm down and be alright, correct Well, you'd be wrong because you know who the vice president is his wife who will then succeed him The woman who let him repeatedly rape and molest her daughter Not to mention if you dig into her life, you'll find she has a history of alcoholism and drug abuse though again

[11:14] I've got friends and family in the same boat doesn't everyone though They're not exactly next in line to be president of a country. Oh and get this the other day I was reading what Benjamin Franklin had to say about alcohol abuse in the United States Man who'd have known alcoholism was that bad when they were putting together the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution He said to the best of his calculation remember he ran a bunch of newspapers He was the head of the US Post Office and the census taker He said that in 1780 that each American drank on average about seven gallons of pure alcohol a year That's about a quart of pure booze every two weeks And that meant he said the average male probably drank four times as much in other words two quarts of straight liquor a week

[12:02] He figured that since the stats included women and children He also said and this is funny that if someone said they were on the wagon or were anti alcohol and non-drinker Therefore temperate that just meant for most of the year You didn't touch a drop, but we're given a pass to get shit faced on holidays and birthdays That was understood and Franklin intended that statement to be serious. It was no joke, but I digress as usual Where were we? Oh, yeah bottom line when Ortega dies or finally gets booted out as long as she's around It'll be more of the same So I mean that's my take on it you can look up all the Ortega sorted family details on the net Or you can go back into my archives and find two or three podcasts on Nicaragua and why I wouldn't want to live there In fact you longtime listeners probably remember when I did a show on the canal that was supposed to go through Nicaragua

[12:54] I kept saying it was never gonna happen. It was never gonna happen Even though they had the funds all lined up one of China's richest guys put up 50 billion dollars and was in the driver's seat and if you recall at the time the Chinese made a huge payoff to Ortega to get the Congressional go-ahead because they had to get eminent domain to buy up thousands of properties to have the right-of-way for the canal Of course the whole thing collapsed. It never got off the ground But still the Ortega clan friends and family all became millionaires and some even billionaires And you know human nature at a certain point when you have enough money The only thing left a reason to get out of bed in the morning is to have power and the Ortega's are not gonna Relinquish any of that soon. It's really too bad

[13:40] You know because without the Ortega's Nicaragua would be a great place for your plan B Destination except for one small thing and it's a big thing for me. They've got no wealthy plan Oh, so it's dead hot now speaking of having a plan B and getting the hell out of dodge You know I've been talking about that ever since this show started some ten years ago now And you know if you haven't put much time or effort into getting that plan B going What with all that's been happening recently up in the states and in your own neighborhood. I just don't know what to tell you Now as for me when I first came down to Latin America some 30 years ago now Every time I'd make a call to the folks back home and back then they didn't even have Skype No internet service at all in fact it was all landline I was always prepared to hear criticism from my friends and family back home in any conversation

[14:26] I could always count on them for throwing in some kind of dig for example Why would you ever want to leave the states everybody's trying to get in and you're leaving? They'd say Johnny. Why are you doing this? What are you running from you got AIDS or something? Hey? I'm not kidding remember 30 years ago people were deathly afraid of AIDS I remember back then they thought you could get it from silverware or doorknobs or dish towels and one of my brother's friends asked him What's he leaving for does he have AIDS? Oh? And most all of them predicted I'd be back in Chicago within a year or so with my tail between my legs But now in fact for the last couple of years Every single phone call with my friends and family back in the states has a completely different ring to it

[15:12] All I get is sad stories and complaints in fact just the other day I was talking to one of my brothers who I know is smarter than I am he said Johnny You know what's happening up here in the Midwest? I would describe it as being insane, but that would be an insult to insane people so I guess now I'm kind of the family hero by default and to think it all started with me some three decades ago When I got an in-house audit from the IRS three years in a row And you know for me the critical moment when I made that decision to get the hell out of Dodge Was when I was standing in my office next to my account and the IRS agent she said to me mr. Mueller You know it's not over. We're gonna keep coming back cuz you make too much money for what you do And I said what did my account looked at me with big wide eyes?

[16:00] And he moved his mouth silently saying I can't believe she said that and you know back Then that was when a lot of people still thought America was great And no one including my accountant would ever think of having a hidden recorder to tape that conversation Because as my accountant said right after she left man if we just had that on tape He said we'd have had her by the balls because she was quite the husky Masculine type that was my hallelujah moment it pushed me over the edge to get the hell out of that After all she promised to keep nicking away at me year after year and for three years running it cost me ten grand or so Not including the three or four days I'd have to shut the office down for them to go through the files oh and just to set the record straight I never had any tax problems, but somehow in those three years running

[16:47] She never let me write off my out-of-town engineering and technical seminars the seminars themselves Yes, but never the travel expenses So I lost those deductions and ended up kicking back about ten grand each year even though my CPA Insisted they were legit write-offs, however that doesn't matter because the IRS is like the Gestapo They always hit the last word which poses another very good question If the Fed can create three or four trillion dollars in just a couple of weeks That's money out of thin air with absolutely nothing backing it. Why do we have to pay taxes at all? Why doesn't the Fed just create the money now? I do know the answer to that question Maybe I'll bring it up on the next show don't have time to go through it right now Speaking of hallelujah moments unless you've been living under a rock a great big hallelujah moment has arrived

[17:36] Now you have to start somewhere you listen to YouTube's Podcasts you read blogs trying to decide on how to pick your own plan be country or destination believe me. It's not easy There's that's a bad incomplete and even dead wrong information out there All you have to do is look at the case of Mexico There are all kinds of YouTube's blogs media reports, etc Even books out there talking about the joys and wonders of living in Mexico And you know, the truth is if you've got tons of money, you could live anywhere Hell you could live in Zimbabwe or Baghdad. Just go to the big city find the nicest high-rent subdivision You know where all of millionaires and corrupt politicians live Every country has its big wigs and millionaires who end up living in the same safe wealthy protected gated guarded areas

[18:22] But really who's got the millions or the desire to create your own little island of security who needs it So on this show we try to offer solutions for smart astute regular people to get the hell out of Dodge to go to a place Where one can continue to live a first world lifestyle in safety comfort and freedom Even if you're only living on a crappy Social Security check The question is when you're getting started on your plan B, how do you pick that country? Of course the key to it is to get boots on the ground But what if you haven't got boots on the ground yet? You're just gathering information surfing the net, etc Well, if you really want to do it, right and get organized about it You start with a checklist and as you move through that list you start narrowing things down so you might want to grab a pencil and paper and

[19:09] As you go through the checkpoints on this list rank each one from one to ten and you do this For each city or area you're thinking about for your plan B Anyway number one on the checklist does your prospective country have a long record of political stability In other words, when was the last revolution? And how much or how little unrest is there with the population right now number two? Does the country you're looking at have currency restrictions? We know Cuba and Venezuela have them But we'd never recommend those two countries for a plan B But then you've got places like Argentina where you can only take out a hundred to two hundred bucks a month From your bank account not good very restrictive number three can foreigners own property outright? Now I mentioned that because in every Latin American country if you're a citizen or a permanent resident you can own property

[20:00] But in most all Latin American countries, it can take a year even two to get your residency So what if you want to buy a property and you're not a resident yet? You have to find out if the country permits that number four Do you have friends relatives or connections that live in your perspective plan B country people you can lean on number five? Does your prospective country have decent shopping and at least a few inexpensive careers for occasional snail mail and parcels back and forth to the states? For easy access to online sites like Amazon eBay, etc Number six can residents own guns? Number seven is it easy to get residency and once you've got it How long does it take to get your passport and nationality number eight does the country you're looking at?

[20:45] grow most of its own food and produce and As a corollary to that you might want to find out if the country allows GMO foods and the presence of Monsanto Number nine is there abundant freshwater number ten is their first world health care clinics doctors and hospitals close by number 11 Is it substantially cheaper to live there than in the US or Canada number 12? Is it basically on the tourist track is it loaded with tourists or not? Now you might think that's a good thing because then most people will speak English and certainly the prices will be higher wherever there's going Goes the prices go up But the main problem I see beyond that is that wherever there are lots of tourists The locals become very jaded the more tourists the more US dollars the more the locals become jaded socially

[21:33] economically and culturally Perfect example Costa Rica number 13 does your prospective country have a good record of economic stability? In other words, what's its debt to GDP ratio? Is it deeply in hot to the US or the IMF has it had bouts of runaway inflation? Does it have a stable currency or does it occasionally collapse again? Venezuela Argentina even Ecuador have had recent bouts with hyperinflation number 14 does your prospective country? Respect basic rights and freedoms for all residents. In other words, does it welcome foreign nationals socially and are they equal under the law? Number 15 do the police authorities and the government in general leave you alone number 16 Do they have a small medium large or outsized army presence?

[22:21] And as for their visibility, do you see army trucks and soldiers on corners everywhere? Or are they pretty much non-existent or very low profile number 17? How strong is your gringo advantage do the people like and admire gringos? Or do they look at us as intruders interlopers or stuck-up a-holes? Number 18 do the dickheads in power claim to be or lean toward free markets? Or are they basically socialists which leads us to number 19 is the government small medium or large? In other words, what percentage of the adult working population is employed by the government? For example in USA It's a ridiculously large percentage according to Pew Research about 130 million people work full-time in the US

[23:07] That was before corona with 24 million of them working for state federal or local government That's about 18% of adults in the workforce employed by government But that's totally misleading because there are about an equal number of people working as government contractors and suppliers So for example, if you're the company supplying uniforms to the military, you're technically not a government employee But the salary you make the business the infrastructure of your clothing manufacturing plant It's not producing a desired product at all for the actual working masses and thus that's a negative Parasitic drain on the economy why because it's all being funded by taxpayer money or more precisely by the feds printing machine Whereas in another more fair and logical universe that same company would be making uniforms for doctors nurses

[23:58] FedEx and UPS guys people who actually create wealth and GDP for the country unlike the parasites in government You get the idea. So when you hear that 18% of the adult workforce in the states works for government That's very misleading because of the contractors and support people behind that number which would push it up to 30% or more though to simplify things for this discussion, let's just say 18% of working adults in the states are employed by the government as opposed to a country like Guatemala for example If you work the numbers you'll find it's more like six to eight percent of the workforce employed by government a big big difference number 20 with your perspective plan B country How are the taxes compared to the USA or Canada now?

[24:44] Remember if you're living in the US you're paying at least 50% of your income in taxes And if you don't believe that send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and I'll give you a list of a hundred Taxes, you didn't even know you were paying or you never viewed them as taxes before just expenses because they're called conveniently Something other than taxes though. That's what they really are now if you live in Canada, it's even worse the average Canadian pays 60% or more in taxes even worse if you happen to live in one of those socialist Utopian Scandinavian countries you really get hammered, you know, I have listeners all over the world I've got some in Sweden and one guy sent me his tax breakdown. He said Johnny I make the equivalent of around $65,000 a year that puts me in the 49 percent tax bracket Then everything I buy with my remaining 51 percent has a 25 percent vat tax on top of it

[25:35] So that puts me in the sixty one point seven percent tax bracket He says that's before I fill up my car with six dollar a gallon gas That's actually worth about a dollar a gallon when it's refined So five out of six dollars I pay for gas is tax But it's sort of a hidden tax and nobody really thinks about it. We're just so used to paying those prices Speaking of hidden taxes. He also tells me they've got about a hundred hidden taxes, too So anyway, there you have it my checklist for checking out a prospective country for your plan B escape my suggestion Write that list down or send me an email to expat files at gmail.com and I'll send you the list Then you pick your country or maybe you want to pick a couple of different countries Do some online research rank those points from one to ten

[26:21] Narrow your choices down to one or two cities within your favorite country get some boots on the ground and attend my seminar Of course. Oh and before we close out today's program. Just one more thing You've heard me say many times the Chinese are moving into certain countries It all started out years ago with the canal that was supposed to go through Nicaragua Chinese funded, of course Oh, and when you go to the Panama Airport, you see Chinese people all over the place But the question is just how representative is that of the Chinese moving into Panama? Well, thanks to one of our astute long-time listeners, Richard He just sent me a link to the official Panama immigration website And if you click on the upper right hand corner, you can see they offer all the forms articles and registration information in Spanish, of course and

[27:08] Mandarin Mandarin, but not English that pretty much says it all and finally on last week's show I told you how you could get a fast-track Passport from a Caribbean country in just 60 days without ever having to go there except of course to pick it up All due to the side effect of covid wiping out tourism If you're interested, send me an email the expat files at gmail.com You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, we can schedule a one-on-one phone or Skype consult Just send me an email the expat files at gmail.com And if you want to get on the waiting list for my next week-long expat insider seminar in Central America Where you're guaranteed to get a two to five year head start on your plan B

[27:54] Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com