Astronauts often speak of their perspective on Planet Earth being transformed by being on the outside of it – looking in:
“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed.”
I think a similar perspective shift occurs when one leaves the country of one’s birth – to take up residence in another.
Orbiting that country – as opposed to living in it.
Such a shift in thinking has occurred for me.
I exited the United States to live in Belize a little over fifteen months ago.
I was born in the US. Prior to the move, I had spent a grand total of about three weeks outside the US.
My leaving, of course, demonstrates my dark, diminished perspective on the US’s prospects.
I got out – to get out from under.
Some of my reasons for leaving – were based upon glaringly obvious facts.
But some of my reasons were mere feelings – or theories. I had a sense of some things – more gut reaction than hard data.
Living outside the US – allows you to test so many of these theories. All of mine have borne out.
My move has been a revealer – of so many different things.
One such thing – has been the reaction to my departure of so many political conservatives.
Who are…angry at me. For “giving up on the country” – by leaving it.
Their response makes me think of a Ronald Reagan paraphrase:
“I didn’t leave the country – the country left me.”
Their response also makes me think of this….
You Don’t Love Him – You Just Love the Idea of Him
I love the IDEA of the United States of America. What the Founding Fathers created – was a brilliance perhaps unmatched in human history.
What the US is now? Bears nigh ZERO resemblance to their creation.
So many freedoms and opportunities lost – to the creeping collectivism to which the US is now fully succumbing.
Moving to a freer country – which Belize absolutely is? Only more fully informs you of the losses the US has suffered.
But fish don’t know they’re wet – because they’re swimming in it. Most Americans don’t realize how far gone America is – because they’re swimming in it.
Moving to a country with, conservatively, 10,000 less taxing and regulating entities than the US? Is like getting out of prison.
Orbiters of America get it – in a way most US fish do not.
I am not a people person – at all. I am basically a monk – in a waterfront monastery for one.
But it has been fun interacting with native Belizeans. Who are a remarkable, intelligent, informed – and exceptionally good, decent and nice – people.
So too has it been fun interacting with the Belizean expats – from all over the planet.
If you are so fed up with your country – that you leave it? That is a base level of commonality you share – greater than is shared by just about any other group of people on the planet.
Most Belizean expats are from the US, Canada, western Europe – and Caucasians from Africa. Obviously, most of these people have been orbiting the US their entire lives. And have never – or only briefly – swum in those fetid, festering waters.
So when I posit the US is imminently destined for economic ruin? Nigh no one disagrees – even a little. Not Belizeans. Not the expats.
The nigh universal reaction is – “Well, duh.”
The white Africans are particularly well informed – because they have actually lived through their countries actually collapsing.
My realtor is an amazing woman – who was born in Rhodesia. That’s what Zimbabwe was – before it was Zimbabwe.
The Rhodesia in which she was born and raised – was the bread basket of Africa. It exported food all over the planet.
Then it became Zimbabwe. Then it became a basket case.
Zimbabwe’s financial and fiscal idiocies – are the stuff of legend:
“Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe is an ongoing period of currency instability in Zimbabwe which, using Cagan’s definition of hyperinflation, began in February 2007.
“During the height of inflation from 2008 to 2009, it was difficult to measure Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation because the government of Zimbabwe stopped filing official inflation statistics.
“However, Zimbabwe’s peak month of inflation is estimated at 79.6 billion percent month-on-month, 89.7 sextillion percent year-on-year in mid-November 2008.
“In April 2009, Zimbabwe stopped printing its currency, and currencies from other countries were used….
“A monetarist view is that a general increase in the prices of things is less a commentary on the worth of those things than on the worth of the money. This has objective and subjective components:
“Objectively, that the money has no firm basis to give it a value.
“Subjectively, that the people holding the money lack confidence in its ability to retain its value.
“Crucial to both components is discipline over the creation of additional money.
“However, the Mugabe government was printing money to finance military involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, in 2000, in the Second Congo War, including higher salaries for army and government officials….
“Another motive for excessive money creation has been self-dealing. Transparency International ranks Zimbabwe’s government 157th of 177 in terms of institutionalized corruption.
“The resulting lack of confidence in government undermines confidence in the future and faith in the currency.”
Starting to sound familiar? It should be….
Bank Failures in Zimbabwe: Lessons from the 2003-2004 Bank-Wide Liquidity Crisis:
“Ironically, the events that led to the bank-wide liquidity crisis are repeating again.
“History, as we are told, has this uncanny habit of repeating itself. Thus, there is an engrossed need for depositors, regulators, bank managers, bank shareholders and the government among other players to know the factors that caused banks to fail after the MPS and perhaps predict which bank is likely to fail next.
“The issue is particularly also important for policy formulation because failing banks may prove costly for the taxpayer….”
All of that sounds so familiar….
The US Banking Collapse of 2008: Three Weeks That Changed the World
Except it changed NOTHING. The US watched Zimbabwe happen in 2003 – and changed NOTHING prior to 2008.
And that nothing – was incredibly expensive.
The Size of the Bank Bailout: $29 Trillion
And the US – changed NOTHING after 2008.
Just like Zimbabwe, the US is doing it all – all over again….
Ten Years Later, World’s Biggest Banks Keep Getting Bigger
Big Banks Find a Back Door to Finance Subprime Loans
And when you don’t change what you’re doing – you don’t change the results you’re getting….
2023 Banking Crisis Eclipsed Scale of 2008 Bank Failures
Death Spiral: Gov’s Inflation-Interest Rate Hike Whipsaw
So is it any wonder that people orbiting the US – are unfazed by my dire predictions for the US?
ESPECIALLY the ex-Zimbabweans?
When they see the US doing EXACTLY what they experienced Zimbabwe doing? Over and over and over again?
For all of the exact same reasons? Wars – and self-dealing corruption?
Can anyone be surprised? When the US is perpetually engaging in the exact same idiocies that have brought all civilizations everywhere – throughout human history – to a crashing halt?
The Orbiters aren’t surprised. At all.
You shouldn’t be either.