History repeats itself, is simply a way of saying the things go in cycles. We are coming to the end of a cycle. Socialism is peaking and freedom is troughing. The United States and the US dollar are leading this cycle. Socialism is unsustainable. That is why all democracies, without exception, fail. Globalism will end with the end of socialism. The only thing that I don't believe to be predetermined by existing facts is whether Republicans can rise to the occassion and end socialism in the United States thereby saving our Constitutional Republic or whether the socialists are going to destroy the credit and the currency of the United States. The world is going to suffer in the sewer of socialism and go down in the same bankruptcy with the United States or we are going to have another Republican Revolution and a Reagan Renaissance. FreeRepublic is going to play a key role as a catalyst in these events. If FreeRepublic fails in its primary mission to restore Constitutional law to the United States because it succeeds in the short sighted goal of defeating Democrats by electing misguided Republicans, only a battle will have been lost.
The Contract with Congress is only Plan A. Plan B is still in reserve and could be implemented within the same timeframe horizon. And yes there is a Plan C, but it is too painful for me to think about and is still only on the drawing board. It is neither functional nor completely outlined.
"Where would you go?"
I am not going anywhere unless it becomes necessary to move my capital beyond the reach of the plunderers. And I am not going any farther than necessary to preserve family and personal safety when socialism begins to unravel and the victims of socialism become rioters and looters. I will be here until after the 2008 election is over or until the hand-writing is on the wall. Depending on the outcomes of the next few elections, we all may want to do a little shopping. I still believe the hallowed words of a Patriot echoeing down through time, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
I am not naive enough to believe that the United States is the only place that liberty can exist. Nor do I believe that liberty is served by dying at the wrong place or the wrong time. When a crash of the United States is certain, better to get out of the way and come back to continue the fight for freedom on another day. When the enemies of freedom are crushed under the crash of their own making, it will be easier to convince the survivors that there is a better way to fight. The fight for freedom will never end. There will always be those who would enslave others. "From time to time the tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and that of tyrannts."
Where would you go, B.A.? I can't think of another country anywhere on the planet that I'd rather live in than the U.S. Perhaps some of the small, relatively isolated island nations might do, but every government is going to have its flaws.
As regards the question about where American expatriates settle, the answer is varied. Because of the marked increase in the number of US expats looking for places to settle and invest, in recent years, the number of countries that are considered favorable to expats has increased dramatically. Some countries try to attract the expats themselves. Others only try to attract their investments. Yet others, try to attract both. The following is only a partial list of some of the most favored countries for residency and/or investment. I have provided links to country info pages, where available.
Those are just a few. But, it demonstrates the type of mostly stable countries where most American expats are investing and/or living. Also, most of those countries, with one notable exception (Cuba), rate higher on the various freedom scales than the good ole US of A.
You will note that most (though not all) of those countries have quite stable governments. Several are major countries. Others are part of the British Commonwealth. Yet others are long-standing island paradises. When did you ever hear of a coup in Tahiti, the Caymans or Bermuda?
Trinidad and Tobago is very stable and English speaking. Even though they have a coup every 20 years or so, their coups have never resulted in a single death or significant change in policy. In fact, the people even have coup parties for a few days. The last time there was a coup, they didn't even stop the soccer playoff that was going on just across the Green from Red House (their congress), where the coup was taking place. I felt much safer walking alone on the streets of Port of Spain than on the streets of Los Angeles, Kansas City or Chicago. The economy is based on oil. Oh yes. It's out of the hurricane path, too.
Belize is a very stable, English speaking member of the Commonwealth, that has been independent from Britain since 1981. Property is still reasonably low priced, both on the mainland and beachfront island properties. You can buy your own island for only about a million dollars. The cost of living in Belize is about 20% to 25% of what it costs to live in the US. Their laws are based, as ours, on English common law, but unlike ours, they are very privacy oriented. For those who want to go back and forth to the US, there are several flights every day to the US and it's only 2 hours from Houston or Miami. It also offers the longest coral reef and the greatest variety of dive sites in this hemisphere. The natural beauty of Belize is unmatched anywhere. The people are wonderful and again, I felt safer there than in US cities.
I included Panama, because many wealthy Americans, who are still here, put a portion of their money in Panama, because of the extreme secrecy and security of Panamanian Private Interest Foundations and the fact that it will be very difficult for the US government to make such vehicles illegal, without adversely affecting other foundations that they want to protect. Panama also has a very large and wealthy expat community that helps fund the nation, so regardless of who is running the country, it behooves them to protect those expats.
I included Cuba, because there is tons of money being made there by Europeans, while US citizens are prohibited from such investments. It may be considered risky, but most investors in Cuba only invest a small portion of their wealth there. Most investors do believe, however, that whoever is invested there when Castro dies, will soon find themselves extremely wealthy. But, that will certainly not include any American citizens.
Nevis is primarily a banking center. It the smaller of the two islands that form the single nation of Nevis and St. Kitts. Nevis has very little commerce, other than banking. St. Kitts, on the other hand, has a small banking sector and more exports. Neither seems to offer enough to attract Americans to live there, although they do offer a very good economic citizenship program. Until recently, Nevis was one of the very best banking centers for privacy. But, last year, they did make some concessions to the totalitarian OECD. Even so, they still rank quite high as a banking center, especially for those who are not citizens of a major (G7) nation.
Notice also, that to US citizens, even high-tax jurisdictions like Canada and the United Kingdom are considered havens. That's because they don't tax the offshore income of their citizens, like the US does. But, the Inland Revenue of the UK is taking lessons from the IRS, so the UK may not last long as a haven for Americans. But, whether or not a country's taxes are punitive usually has little to do with where American expats land, since most wealthy expats are more concerned about privacy than taxes.
The best general advice seems to be to get a non-US passport and spread your wealth around, thus eliminating the possibility of losing everything due to a single event. But remember, that only works if you are not a US citizen. As a US citizen, your money isn't safe anywhere in the world, if the your government wants it.
Unlike a few years ago, there are now many places for disenchanted or disenfranchised Americans to escape (note that "escape" is the word most often used by expats to refer to leaving the USA). The number of haven nations grows even larger, when you consider that most expats are decidedly in the upper income groups and can easily afford whatever amenities their new country may not offer.
Almost 100,000 Americans "escaped" last year and as a result of the many anti-privacy, anti-4th Amendment laws that have been passed by both Democrats and Republicans since September 11, 2001, that number is expected to grow to well over 100,000 by the end of this year. In fact, anyone who thinks that there are no good places for disenchanted or disenfranchised Americans to flee, are about 20 years behind the times.
For more information on where disenchanted or disenfranchised Americans are going, check out Escape Artist and Sovereign Society as good starting places. Sovereign Society offers a great report on Second Passports. I just got the latest updated version a few months ago. It was $99 and well worth it, for anyone considering going offshore or just getting a second passport for safety reasons. To learn more about why they are leaving, check out the Tax and Economy section of Action America (also The Courts section).