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I was just interested I seeing how many of us are really here. I have noticed Scott’s choice of properties and how he presents them change in the last year to aim more at us. Some of us have moved here years ago, predicting the economic downturn and realizing the dangers faced to advanced civilization. Resource depletion, pollution, toxicafication of living environments, unsustainable debt in our economy, chance of war, nuclear war and global warming. For one reason of another, some of us have some wild ideas in our heads of a new life, in a new country, in a place that gives us more hope for the future. We are here to ride out the storm and have chosen this country for many reasons: its peaceful, beautiful, affordable and has a great climate.
I can see in Scott’s writing that he may be on the same page.. I get the feeling he “gets it” and I think many of you out there do too.. There are a lot of unfixable problems out there. Lets take it in our own hands to do something about it, for ourselves and for our families. Lets start growing our own food. Lets use less electricity, lets build our homes in a (more) sustainable manner, and join the community and take part in the local economy. Lets prepare for a life that may not be the same as it is today.. a life less demanding, less dependent on polluting habits and the quest for limitless growth (and destruction) on this planet.
How many of us are here for that reason? What are your plans, preparations or changes you made (or plan to make) living here?
I am guessing that in their own way, everyone thinks that they get it but as long as we’re doing what we feel is best for ourselves and our families, there’s really not much else we can do …
In building my vacation home where we did I am hoping that if the sh.. really hits the fan, we have a safe, secure place to escape to. The home is completely paid for, there is no debt and if someone wants to take it away from me, they will have to be prepared for a helluva firefight before hand.
We do have electricity but if that were to be cut off for whatever reason then we have enough propane for at least 18 months (we use propane for our water heater and cooking). We are also carefully storing long lasting foodstuffs and other necessary items.
We have a couple of fuel tanks stashed which would allow us to make emergency trips and where we are located, we do have a great, natural source of water but if something were to happen to that, then we would have problems. But that would happen MONTHS after the general population…
I’m sure that we all hope that our worst case scenarios do not become reality but as responsible people with families, surely it’s our duty to always try to be prepared.
Would love to hear from others as to how they are preparing for tougher times?
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comHaving lived in rural Alaska for the last 30 years, we are ready for a change to a different “new frontier”. We have lived off the grid. We have grown our own food. We raised our kids to respect nature, each other and themselves. We have endured cold dark winters and the harshness of Alaska’s interior. We have worked, saved, invested and bought a place in Costa Rica. We will be moving there in January to begin our new WARM adventure! Upon returning to the states from our last trip to Costa Rica, it took only 10 minutes in the airport to realize we are indeed making the right decision to move south. People in Costa Rica smile, shake your hand, pat your back, and act as if they have known you for a lifetime, even having just met. That is the kind of people I want to be surrounded by, not the snobbish, rude, frowning, stressed out, pushy folks we encounter so much in the states. Thanks!
Well if you can survive Alaskan winters ‘leahkay’, Costa Rica is going to be a piece of cake for you guys…
As a Royal Marines Commando we did quite a bit of M&AW training (Mountain & Arctic Warfare) and at one time the cold didn’t bother me at all but today? No thank you.
Give me my mountain home where it ‘might’ plummet down to 58 degrees during a really, really cold spell…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comSince I asked the question, I might as well share what we have done too.. I have felt (since discovering shocking facts about the future production and supply of oil while writing a paper for college 5 years ago) that the world economy would be winding down to a halt right about now. I feel that all the actions by governments – war, bailout’s, debt – are all just to buy time. How much time.. nobody knows. But its all doomed for failure long term. So knowing that we are being bought time, for the price of billions of dollars per day, you might as well use that time wisely. Pick your location, where you want to be, find a property in your budget (while taking a lot of things into account if you plan to build and live a sustainable, or a more sustainable lifestyle). Read books about permaculture, organic gardening, sustainable building, and put that into effect on your own property. Or hire someone who knows how to create those systems which work together to produce food, energy and to enhance your property productivity.
What we did.. is bought a 2.5 acre property in Guanacaste. First year we planted all the fruit trees we could think of. We built our house with two rentals to provide some income. We are stock piling as much food as we can. We are starting our ogranic garden this next year, getting some chickens, maybe a goat or two. We hope to produce enough fruits from out trees, vegetables from our garden, eggs and meat from the chickens, and milk from the goats. We feel we can produce what we need.. but we know it will take time to get the hang of it. We are focusing on security with dogs and guns. We hope to build a big enough water tank for 3 months worth of backup water. We too live in the mountains, a decent distance away from others in a very peaceful setting. Yet we know we would be found once things got really bad.. we hope to find some like minded people near us, but haven’t had much luck. There are people who agree on lots of issues, but none that take it seriously to do something about it.
Thank you for sharing caliskatari
We’re a little different in that I genuinely believe that ridiculously cheap and efficient alternative energy sources have already been invented, tested and proven to work, they are of course being ruthlessly SUPPRESSED!
The oil wars are a way to try and maintain control, to ‘try’ and make sure that other nations do NOT progress to a stage where they could become a military or economic threat to the current superpower and of course, all wars – primarily fought by young, fertile men – are supremely effective depopulation measures.
Only massive and deadly epidemics kill more people and there’s no doubt in my mind that our lunatic “leaders” and are working hard at that …
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.com ‘I don’t think our opinions are different at all regarding energy and corporate powers wanting to maintain current energy sources for many reasons. Yes many options are on the table regarding renewable energy.. why hasn’t any powerful corporation taken them and made them into a economically viable alternative is the real question. Before going into Civil engineering and construction management in college I was thinking very much about Engineering in Renewable Energy development. I still kind of regret the decision of not pursuing that, but still think I can make an effect on how people build their homes, effect the landscape and their surroundings and helping others to design their property in a way that works best for them and the earth.
I am enrolling in the CFIA here in Costa Rica to finish my Civil engineering degree.. I am 22 and think still a lot of difference can be made by just guiding people of a similar mindset into designing their property in a sustainable way. I run a small construction company here in Guanacaste but hope to get more into Green building and Solar/Renewable energy system installations in the whole country. I think that would be a great way to help others, and to use my knowledge and studies in this field in helping others implement their plans if they don’t know where to start..
So besides my personal plans, I have bigger plans I hope I can put into place too. Permaculture design, property use/management, sustainable development, green building, renewable energy, organic gardens/fishponds, etc. I think offering services like that to others here can give a lot of people who are unsure how to get started, a way to do things here. I have yet to find any sort of business that offers those services, have you?
So many people just jump into things without thinking it through when doing their own projects – when working with limited space and money its best to do things right the first time. The placement and design of systems is the most important aspect of developing a property in a sustainable matter. Just consulting with others to aid in the design can make a huge difference with minimal cost.
Edited on Oct 23, 2009 21:15
Edited on Oct 23, 2009 21:16
Also a note regarding energy. As you of course know Oil is the lifeblood of the US economy presently. It does not just account for the transportation sector, and a quarter of electrcity generation, but also plastics (huge), pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc. etc. There is nothing that can complete with the wide range of products oil produces. Sure, you could use alternative energy to produce electricity, change all cars to electric or hydrogen cars, change all farming to organic (impossible.. given the shape of industrial farmland now), etc. It would just be a huge undertaking on a massive scale. And why do that when theres still oil left to pump, buy, take over (steal) and sell.. and keep things going on that system as long as possible, as long as its profitable.
Now there are also economic systems at play that depend on oil for the current model of economic growth, developement and the flow of money. Oil is priced only in dollars (at least, for today), playing a huge part of its status as “The” reserve currency. It also maintains a huge flow of money, and thus a demand, for the dollar. After the peg to gold was taken out in the early 70’s, the dollar was then tied to Oil and thus world trade in general. To take out oil, is to ween away from the dominance of the dollar. So im sure its a US economic policy to maintain the worlds reliance on oil, since the US is dependant on its sales.
Of course, the US dollar domiance as the sole currency for Oil trading worldwide will soon end anyways, and has been in the process of such transition for a long time. However any action by other world governments of such will be consitered economic warfare. By the time that happends, will be the time you will want to be on your own in Costa Rica – growing your own food, having your own water, etc. because thats stuff starts getting ugly.
First of all, oil is the lifeblood of all of the developed world economy including the up and comers like China and India (those cherished bastions of human rights). It is incredibly naive to think that the dominance of the USD as a trade reserve currency will “end soon”. If it does occur in an exclusive sense it will become part of a hybrid of currencies and not flipped or optioned to say the yuan or euro. So it begs the question whose currency will contribute most greatly to the strength of the hybrid benchmark? Seriously,does anyone sincerely believe that China’s recently reported growth isnt as fabricated as the real estate recovery as reported by the NAR in the US? Really! Yes China your factories are closing by the tens of thousands there is no market for your exports your goodwill for the quality of your output is in the crapper (love that stinky drywall)but you grew 9 percent…ummm ok.
There are plenty of new technologies in Alt energy that are emerging or have emerged, the REAL problem is that they rapidly become proprietary through purchase or theft to the same corporate interests in short order and the US goverment is complicit in that activity. The problem isnt ingenuity, there is still more of that in the US than anywhere, the problem is keeping that ingenuity in the public domain. Fix the patent and monopoly law in the US and in Costa Rica for that matter since they honor US patent law and lot of the rest will fix itself. Dont hold your breath on that either.
So what triggers this “crash” that is referred to? What are the elements of this “economic warfare”? What is also not being considered is the effect of market manipulation of commodities in general, not just oil. I am surprised Scott does not weigh in on this. I am personally still waiting for someone to convince me that there is a shortage of oil. There only appears to be a shortage of MARKETABLE techological alternatives on both the supply and demand side. Why? There is no shortage of exploratory technologies…ask Petrobas.
Let’s not kid ourselves, altough like the sign says, we love Costa Rica, the economic warfare that is spoken of, will most likely inflict most of its damage in the urban sector where in Costa Rica as elsewhere most of the population dwells. Moreover, it would be merely a prerequisite to be prepared without respect to location, as it has been proven in this thread that success is possible in remote locations anywhere. Heck I can take you through a populated area in NY where four interstate highways converge on a ten mile trip to Pennsylvania and you will never see a paved road.
Cheers.
Well I think you agree with me on many points. Economic warfare may not be the best term to describe it, I just feel thats how the US would look at any attempt to replace the complete domiance of the dollar in International oil trades. When in reality its just an attempt by other nations to prepare for the eventual decline of the value of the dollar and the US economy.
The fact is the US is Bankrupt. The current policies by the “Federal” Reserve amounts to Quantitive Easing – and when that happends and the economy does not grow to meet the amount of money being printed, inflation will follow. So the why would the rest of the world want to depend on using a currency that could rapidly loose its value at any time..to buy its most critical resource?
Of course a basket of currencies, including backing by gold/silver would be the most stable option. Seems fair to me at least. But the US doesn’t look at it that way. Many feel that the US is willing to do anything (including the use of force) to maintain the dollars dominance in the trade of Oil. It does keep trillions of dollars a year flowing through the economy, it creates demand for the dollar and a reason to buy bonds. It doesn’t matter if a single currency like the Euro for instance, or a basket of currencies replaced the dollar – what matters is any action to do so, and would mean a dramatic change on how the dollars looks to the rest of the world. After all, the currency is only backed by its faith in the world markets. The loss of that faith alone could trigger collapse.
About Oil, its production has declined since 2008. We may look back at 2008 as the peak of oil production, we may not. It could be that supressed economic growth means less demand. It could also mean less supply is supressing economic growth. Its anyones guess.
Now about preparing.. you can do that anywhere you want… Costa Rica or not. Costa rica however has many advantages and I would not pick any other places. I mentioned in my first post why I chose Costa Rica. I could afford to buy the land I needed, build a house and do projects without a loan. The climate allows easy planting, no hardships of heating/cooling, and a comfortable living environment. Its a beautiful place to live and enjoy life. Its a stable democracy and has no army. 80%+ of its electric is produced sustainably. There are intact local economies and trade. Where else in the world can you find all of that??
So it is better to be a coward and run than to stay and fight to keep the freedoms, life and liberty that allowed you this opportunity? Remember democracy is not the historical form of government and it would do you good to examine the basis upon which democracy was founded.
I hope your not writing from the US because if you think your in a free, democratic country its not worth arguing this with you. If your not in Iraq fighting in the war for your so called freedom you have no right to call anyone a coward.
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war” – Abraham Lincoln
I hate to break it to you.. but the Republic has been destoryed. Democracy is just a illusion. Your freedom is what you make it.
Although I feel compelled to argue some of your points you make caliskatari, I will address one issue, OIL. The US is oil dependant… no-one will argue that, however, what I have a problem with is the “raping” the US does of world resources, whilst they sit on HUGE pockets of oil within their own boundries. One reserve discovered late 2008 was in Colorado, and there is sufficient oil to supply ALL the US needs for over 50 years. Politics prevents it’s extraction, firstly because they don’t need it yet and secondly, it pays to leave it alone and let the environmentalists believe they have “won”.
As for my own plans… they are coming along slowly… however, I too, intend to relocate to Costa Rica, build my own “piece of heaven” and live out my life in paradise. Sustainability, eco-friendly design and build will be incorporated. Self sufficiency will be a paramount consideration. Having somewhere safe is also high on my list.
I have been to Costa Rica many times, and having lived in Britain and Canada, can find no other place I would rather be when I retire.
Like Scott said, anyone that wants to “take” what I will build, will have to be prepared for a fight, as I’ve never been intimidated by anyone, not even under fire…
Best of luck in your endeavours and Pura Vida
Brian
I have my 12000 sq mtrs of mountain property in the Central Valley but a crash like the one being contempleted here would be violent and deadly for most city dwellers no matter what country they are in. (Imagine Los Angeles and New York with all the privately held fire power)
San Jose, although less well armed, would not be an exception and, in fact, any concentration of people with basic needs not being met would be an extremely violent place. Think machetes instead of hand guns. That violence would have to spread outward as desperate people search for food and water. Anyone with supplies would also have to be armed to the teeth and prepared to kill to protect a field of beans and fight to the death just to keep a few liters of water. As you make your plans for armageddon, how do you prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for actions you may well have to take for survival? I donlt thinkanyone knows how they will react under such circumstances until the time arrives.
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