The Real Lifonomics of Sailing / Cruising

[seahag]

Lot of good info here. Its too bad thatt the u.s. lets every country walk all over them and anyone can work here since the other countries still protect their workforce from us scabs. I wouldliketo work in countries I visit for the experience, and to share my talents too, Along with making some money. Its a shame we gave away our own economy but there's no reciprocal in the countries who benefitted from the corporations greed.

[theway]

The real shame is that our world is so divided. All this us against them mentality. That's the main reason I have a boat, so I can get away some day and make my world a smaller place. I get exhausted by the endless efforts of separation. It just eats away at my soul.

[Pelagic]

At age 5, I decided to stop competing because I did not want to follow the person I was chasing.

At age 10, I understood the importance of being selfish in the sense that I need never attempt to justify my actions or look for approval.

The concept of “Entitlement” was as foreign to my formative Scottish Presbyterian roots, as my early appreciation of good cuisine.

I understood that real security was developed from within, not from social promises, so my form of self-insurance came from self-assurance.

Living aboard has never been seen as a compromise and my mantra became… if it is not coming easy, you are doing something basically wrong.

I never expected the world to treat me fairly and recognized the value of flying under its jealous radar.

My footprint has been kept purposely very small.

I always felt the study of Economics was meant for those who wanted to justify the spending of other people’s dreams (and they have the statistics to prove it!!)

[micah719]

I'd rather see us take a page from Germany and attempt to redevelop our manufacturing toward sophistication and specialized quality

This is a bubble we are maintaining with difficulty: we desperately need to import qualified people because the gravy train of free education has left the station, and the Bologna train has pulled in with inferior degrees. The underpinnings of manufacturing are being eroded by the shoddy education which is not as wonderful as you believe. Look at your national science and mathematics skills for instance. The west is going to service and info based economy, with tiny highly specialised manufacturing that will also be exported to China/India once they are capable enough. Manufacturing is dying (being killed) in the west through stupid regulations, inflated costs of doing business and treasonous trade agreements....and in our case in Germany, additionally, the loss of cheap abundant electrical power. Panels and propellers cannot replace nuclear, coal and oil. The same is happening over in the US. We're on the downgrade but the crash will be sudden and spectacular. Hence the tanks.

Federal troops can't even be used in the US in such instances (Posse Cometatis). It's one of the reasons we had such a hard time getting the assistance we needed here in New Orleans after Katrina. Only non-federalized national guard (which are actually state troops and not part of the regular military) can legally operate on American soil.

Posse Comitatus is on its way out. Not by being openly repealed, but by being circumvented. The WoT is the wedge in the door, and Executive Orders, amalgamation of powers and appointed czars are the methods to do this. The troops are being trained in "civil disturbance" already, have been for some time. All that is needed is the correct crisis and you'll wake up to a different kind of America. That Katrina thing is weird. Thowe Louisiana troops were under the governor's authority and did not require Dubya's approval for state business. A huge blind designed to create justifcation for dumping Posse Comitatus.

In Germany you have a system of fines and very active police around and a population that to an American seems like a bunch of tattle tales who are generally more than pleased to turn in any law breakers for the slightest infraction.

Now this is astute....you really have lived here! It is called divide and conquer. Keep the population suspicious of each other, and puffed up with self-righteousness, and they can be milked and duped and distracted from turning their attention to the real crooks and bandits. This is the ideal, a police state that is self-policing. Inmates that like their bars and polish them and take pride in their cells and uniforms.

one thing I definitely caught onto early on living in Germany was that as children people were coddled and their actions rarely had repercussions.

Corporal punishment is illegal here. So is homeschooling. You can't pull your children out of a school event because you disagree. Such as pornographic theatre plays. You can't smack them when they insist on doing what they want to their own hurt and yours, and everyone else's. The guarantee of times past if someone were to be a jerk and reaped a punch on the conk was great....people behaved, mostly, and that was it. Over here it's dog eat dog with the size of the dog determined by status and income and inheritance, not inherent strength or perish the thought, righteousness. It ties in with the previous quote and topic above.

You guys do have a few things about your society that we lose on hands down. You are GREAT consumers! I mean this in a very positive way because the one thing that the Germans have come to realize is that they have the ultimate power within their government and their economy.

I wouldn't see it positively. That sort of thing is a smokescreen to make us think we have the power, when in fact the reality is different. The one who controls public opinion steers the course...and that is the media, on a short and firm leash just like the government, the judiciary, academia, and business.

Drew, I'm still worried. Your debt since 2008 is more than all the debt accrued from G Washington to GW Bush all inclusive. The GM bailout was an award of cash to the unions, and a transfer of GM to China. One can't blame all this on one party or figurehead and pretend to be blind on the other. Both sides are rotten to the core. It does not matter which one is steering, the result is the same. The false dichotomy of left and right is a farce. A very successful one.

It's an interesting thread, but I'm hoping to see some more useful info on how to survive in the current farce, and prepare to escape the coming calamity. This means achieving a measure of independence on a globally mobile boat. At the least, one will be off-grid and not participating in the whole mess. At worst, the trouble will eventually seep across the water to wherever you are and punish you for daring to not conform to the wise elders and betters making a world in their image. I'm not going to Auschwitz or Mogadan; I'll die fighting rather than run the ramp naked. If more were resolved for this, it would not have to come to it...but it will.

[Katiusha]

Originally Posted by drew.ward

Well perhaps you guys just lost some of the labor and visa benefits other commonwealth countries get. Unless you've got a UK/Irish grandparent, it's been my understanding that Canadians are equal to US citizens in Europe and the UK these days.

It's been my experience that Canadian citizens do get preferential treatment over US for work visas in other Commonwealth countries and East Asia, most notably China. But that was for short term work.

[micah719]

Some links and quotes from them, to show I'm not talking out of my hat. Something's up.



Report: Soros Unloads All Investments in Major Financial Stocks; Invests Over $130 Million In Gold


George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War - Newsweek and The Daily Beast

“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.”

As anger rises, riots on the streets of American cities are inevitable. “Yes, yes, yes,” he says, almost gleefully. The response to the unrest could be more damaging than the violence itself. “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States.”

John Paulson Making Big New Bet on Gold - WSJ.com

One of the biggest investors is placing a huge new bet on gold.

John Paulson, who scored about $20 billion of profits between 2007 and early 2009 wagering against the housing market and financial companies, is launching a hedge fund dedicated to buying up shares of gold miners and other bullion-related investments, according to investors.

Mr. Paulson told his investors he personally would invest between $200 million and $250 million in the new fund, which he said will begin on Jan. 1, according to an investor at the meeting.

Paulson & Co. already is a major holder of gold shares ...

Billionaires Soros, Paulson Bet Big on Gold | ABC News Blogs - Yahoo!

According to Bloomberg News, Paulson & Co. and Soros Fund Management bumped up exposure to SPDR Gold Trust to 21.8 million shares and 884,000 shares, respectively. Paulson & Co. now has 44 percent of its $24 billion fund exposed to bullion.

Peter Sorrentino, a senior portfolio manager at Huntington Funds, which manages more than $13 billion in assets, said consumers should not rush out and buy gold.

But, despite big bets by two of the nation's billionaires, he continued, "…There is an old saying among Wall Street trader; 'It's said with a whisper and not with a shout, when the widows and orphans get in, it's time to get out.'"

Gold Demand Trends Q2 2012 > Download "GDT_Q2_2012.pdf" > World Gold Council

World Gold Council: Central Bank Gold Demand Doubles in Second Quarter | Fox Business

Insiders are selling. Should you? -- The Buzz - Apr. 24, 2012

James Holmes Is Not Alone – 20 More Examples Of The Sickos That Are Overrunning America

American Kabuki: BANKER RESIGNATIONS

611 RESIGNATIONS FROM WORLD BANKS, INVESTMENT HOUSES, MONEY FUNDS
I don't mind if you re-blog this listing. Save yourself the wear and tear on your karma and do me the favor of including American Kabuki in your reposting. Thanks to all who have caught minor errors.

[atoll]

living on fish,rice and beans in the south pacific sounds quite appealing after reading this thread.................

[Jaxxiam]

What I have come to realize is the US system is built to keep people in. Instead of teaching people to fish they’re handing them out (to coin a phrase). I got rid of cable TV because I’m so sick of seeing advertizing for everything under the sun trying suck every last dollar you have and go into debt, once that cycle of debt gets started the hook is set. I have worked my way out debt except for my house, now I can focus my future of cruising.
Thanks for all the inspiration, my soul is full once again!!

[micah719]

Congrats, Jaxx; how much longer before the last hook is out?

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by david7

Really good post. This is what I spend half my day at a mindless job thinking about. I'm 24 now and just bought my boat last week. When I was 17 I started college in the hopes of finally being around intelligent people, finding some direction, and earning the right to do work I enjoyed. Threes years later I realized if I was going to get any of those things I needed to go to a much more expensive school but getting 200k in debt didn't even seem like an option. So I started hunting for alternative ways to live the life I wanted. Now I'm a month or two away from moving aboard. Then maybe a couple years to make her seaworthy and I'm bound for the South Pacific to see what happens. I guess I fall into the 'poor bastard' category mentioned above since there has never been a security net under me. In the meantime I just need to make enough money to live and fix up my boat.

David - I hope that you finished your degree. There are many paths in life. It is good to keep as many options open as possible.

Not making any political statement here but in my line of work 30 years ago you could get hired with a HS diploma and good mechanical aptitude. Today you won't get a look without an engineering degree. I actually went back to night school and finished an engineering degree mid-career.

I can tell you it was not fun sitting in classes and getting straight As because I already new that stuff. Like the Wizard of Oz told the Scarecrow - you don't need a brain, you need a diploma...

It is much more competitive these days. The degree hardly makes you smarter but it provides a few things to the person selecting.

- I know you can stick to it and finish
- I know if you got this degree you had to pass these courses
- I will look at the school you graduated from and will differentiate but not as much as you think

Anyway - It sounds like you are on a path and I wish you great success...

[laforge24]

As for how this thread started; finding work abroad, and I have experience, it has to do with willingness and experience and nothing with your nationality, I am sure ,when aboard, to be able to find the odd job here and there(too many probably when they find out your capacaties, ok you shouldn't be a bookkeeper,(however taxevasion)) just by looking how many things go wrong on boats. Making a living worldwide is not what scares me,
it's admistrative jungle that I flee to sea for, who follows?

[Jaxxiam]

I'm still a few years out unfortunately, I'm thinking about buying an almost ready blue water boat we use that time to get her right. The house will very close to being paid off and I can either sell it and cruise for a really long time or keep it for home base.
For me, it's all about the right opportunity at the right time, doing due diligence on the options and going from there.

[Katiusha]

Originally Posted by atoll

living on fish,rice and beans in the south pacific sounds quite appealing after reading this thread.................

Bananas and coconuts are out?

[micah719]

Laforge24:

it's admistrative jungle that I flee to sea for, who follows?

Spot on!

[laforge24]

Originally Posted by micah719

Laforge24:



Spot on!

Why so many arguments ?????
we should join forces and help eachother if at least with (the right) info