First, let me give you the facts:

Just a few days ago, Internet law expert Larry Lessig revealed the details of a conversation he had with Richard A. Clarke, a long-time (and very high-level) counter terrorism official.

Lessig relates that the conversation began with some background about the Patriot Act; in specific, that it had been sitting in a drawer at the US Justice Department for twenty years before an event came along that allowed them to get it into law. It was pulled-out after 911, and signed into law a mere twenty days later. (None of the legislators actually read it, of course.)

Then Lessig asked Clarke if there was such a plan ready to be implemented upon the Internet, following some sort of cyber-attack. “Of course there is,” said Clarke.

So, there you have it, folks. The gang in Washington (and their friends elsewhere) have a plan to take full control of the Internet.

By the way, you can read the story here, and watch Lessig talk about the conversation here.

The next question is this: CAN these control freaks really take over the Internet? Well, maybe not completely, but in the Internet’s current form, they could probably do a fairly good job of it. Take a look at this map:

Can you see how powerful a position the US holds? And not only that, but the Patriot Act gives US enforcers power to grab the citizens of other countries (and certainly their own) all over the world.

New Internet links are desperately needed. Some are being built (ironically, a major one is being built by two of the worlds greatest evil thugs: Hugo Chavez and Castro, Jr.) but many more are necessary. If I-911 happens before then, we have a problem on our hands.

Sure, excellent privacy technologies exist, but the only permanent fix is millions of human beings deciding not to take it. And, following a disaster, they are likely to be just as cowardly as they were in 2001. Courage is more essential than fiber, and it is just as lacking.

This a serious threat, folks. The Internet is hyper-important, and for a lot more than chatting and email.

****

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
– Henry David Thoreau

The battle between government and commerce has been raging since the beginning of the agricultural revolution. It is a marathon struggle of Politics versus Market. Some happy day the market will win, but that day, alas, may be a long way off.

It in is the crossfire of this battle that the digital gold business finds itself. If we succeed, the market gains important territory from the state.

No, most of us didn’t particularly choose to be in this battle, we were merely trying to improve our lives. But, by reason of being at the forefront of commerce, we find ourselves at the forefront of this battle. God help us.

UNDERSTANDING THE BATTLE

The most basic reason for commerce-state animosity, of course, is that Politics and Market have completely different operating principles. Markets operate on the principle of choice: People are convinced to trade. States operate by coercion: People are forced to pay and to obey.

Of course, there are traders who bring coercion into the marketplace, and there are politicians who wish to minimize it. It is quite possible to have an individual market player who loves coercion or a politician who hates it. Nonetheless, there is no real argument to be made regarding the basic operating principles – they are what they are. And they are most definitely at odds.

The more interesting question is this: What goes on in the minds of individuals, to make them sanctify either market or state?

Politicians are programmed by both psychology and experience to believe in the need for control. Even when they privatize and deregulate, politicians want to be sure that the ability to “reign it back in” remains.

Small business people are just the opposite. They have learned to believe in spontaneous order. It works. It has always worked… and it always scares the hell out of control-biased people.

But try, for a moment, to see it the politician’s way: Statist types see commerce as an essentially amoral activity, and they see politics as a Heaven-ordained forge of morality. To them, markets are purely a trading center for quasi-thieves; necessary, perhaps, but morally inferior. Politics is, to them, the temple of higher morality; where Chosen Ones make decisions based upon the principles of righteousness: Equality, Sacrifice, and Unity.

Realize that we in the digital gold arena are the few who believe in the morality of the marketplace. For reasons too long to explain in this article, the virtuous image of commerce died in the popular mind a hundred years ago, and was replaced by statist images.

Never forget that the popular mind – currently committed to finding “the good” in politics – is a powerful enforcer. You’ve doubtless noticed this when discussing the digital gold business. The price of agreement – leaving the majority – is too high for people who seek comfort in normalcy. This precludes them from considering your arguments. They may nod their head and ask questions, but they’ve already decided that they will not agree with you.

COMMERCE VERSUS WAR

War is the health of the State.

– Randolph Bourne

The quote above is widely known, but is commonly taken to mean that evil government bosses purposefully stir up wars in order to have more power. This is true far less often than people suppose.

Most political leaders are no less confused than other people. They struggle to attain a place at the forefront of the masses, but once there, they soon realize that the office does not come with any magic wisdom. They look out upon a supremely complicated world and know that it is beyond their understanding. Why do you think so many of them act aloof? It’s a defense mechanism. And why else would so many of them run to fortune-tellers of various sorts? They know they are out of their depth. Politicians are overrun by great events far more often than willing them into existence.

So, what should Bourne’s statement mean? It means this: War is the health of the state because it makes the state necessary.

(I know that the above statement is not absolutely true: mankind could defend itself effectively without states. But, until men develop the courage to take responsibility for their own safety, the statement more or less stands.)

In times of peace, the state is commonly resented; after all, they do forcibly remove money from the people in their control, and that does engender bad feelings. In time of war, however, people are willing to forget about such matters: It is better to be a serf than to be a corpse.

In times of war, or of serious threat, the state will gain on commerce, often dramatically. But, even here, things have improved somewhat. Modern states have learned not to intrude too deeply upon commerce, since war materiel must be produced in abundance, and the state alone fails miserably in such attempts.

War economies are strange, mixed-up things, with twisted moralities. Commerce is challenged and abused at such times, but it is never extinguished.

RECENT MARKET SUCCESSES

As I’ve noted previously, the past few decades have been a wonderful time for economic education. Even ex-commies are buying in to the free-market philosophy! Keynes is dead and Hayek rules the roost… at least for now. Here are a few good signs (and this will be US-centric):

It used to be that offshore drugs were strictly forbidden by US law. I’m not sure if jail time was ever imposed, but it could easily have been. With the Internet as a catalyst, however, Americans began to see that the same drugs were available in Canada at a much reduced price.

A critical feature in this was that Canada is not a scary place. Less expensive drugs were also available from places like India, but Joe American was afraid of those places. Canada, on the other hand, is held to be almost the same as the US.

People without an understanding of markets can certainly understand cheaper prices, but they are also easy to intimidate. This time, contrary to what would have happened twenty or thirty years earlier, those who understood economics gave a boost of confidence to the others, and the market trumped the FDA.

A second good sign has been the lack of regulation for new utilities. The older utilities, such as electricity and gas, are all government-protected and government-regulated monopolies. Regulatory bodies are the size of small armies and require similar budgets.

The next utility to come along was cable TV, which is partly regulated. Cable TV monopolies are small, and are being broken by satellite television and Internet delivery anyway.

The newest utility, Internet access, is definitely not monopolistic and is lightly regulated, and as an after-thought at that.

WHERE TO NOW?

War and threats are now on the march and the gains of commerce are under threat. GW Bush and other Western leaders are endeavoring to build a Protector-State in response. “We’ll see everything and protect you from everything.” This may not long endure, but how much damage will be done along the way is anyone’s guess.

The next major battle between commerce and state could be currency. It’s still a bit early to tell, but with many fiat currencies headed toward what may be a terminus, it is a distinct possibility.

It seems that the digital gold market has absorbed the most serious blows of the Bush Protector-State. There has been pain aplenty and serious damage, but the market yet stands. Now that the G7’s currency and debt schemes are unraveling, it is likely that control types will have better things to do than harass us. That may give our industry some space to mature and grow in something that resembles a natural, healthy manner.

And, frighteningly enough, it is at times like these that the proud predators of the world see opportunities to grab territory here and there. The other nations being busy with internal troubles much reduces the chance of violent response to a quick, contained aggression.

The next few years look scary, but the more legitimate threats appear, the less attention is likely to be directed at us. (At our small size, however, we do remain vulnerable.)

So, the worst may be over for the digital gold marketplace. However, it will never really be over until we win the memetic war: We must make the case that honest money is both morally and practically superior to fiat, and we must make it widely and benevolently.

© Copyright 2008 by Paul A. Rosenberg

First, please read the article, then I’ll tell you why I’m not ringing alarm bells:

New Law Makes Escape
Tougher For Tax Exiles
By M. A. VAUGHAN

It’s been called “the ultimate estate plan”: Moving to a foreign locale to escape the clutches of the Internal Revenue Service. Indeed, hundreds of Americans do formally renounce their U.S. citizenship every year, many in order to protect their wealth from income, estate and gift taxes. But last week, Congress made life less rewarding for tax exiles.

Some exiles were born and raised in the U.S., such as John Dorrance III — grandson of the inventor and entrepreneur who helped found Campbell Soup Co. — He renounced his citizenship in 1994 and emigrated to Ireland, which has significantly lower tax rates.

Others have long lived outside the U.S. , always seeking to avoid the unique consequences of its unique tax system, which taxes USA citizens no matter where in the world they live and earn.

In 2007, 470 Americans “officially” renounced their citizenship to move abroad, according to a Wall Street Journal review of Federal Register notices. The list of those who relinquished U.S. citizenship in the past 12 months includes a London-based office-supplies magnate and the daughter of an Iraqi private-equity billionaire.

Now, after years of threatening to do so, Congress has passed a law that will tax the assets of those who leave for good on their way out the door, as if they were selling those assets. But tax experts say the more significant change may be a provision that taxes U.S. heirs on amounts given or left to them by ex-U.S. citizens. Taxing the recipient instead of the donor will make it harder to get around the tax rules.

The new rules say, “if you leave any of your property to a U.S. person, it will be taxed at the rates for U.S. gift tax,” which are currently 45%, says Henry Alden, a certified public accountant at Everest International Group, a Baltimore-based financial-planning firm.
The new taxes are included in legislation providing tax benefits for soldiers and military veterans and will apply only to those who renounce their citizenship after President Bush signs the bill into law, as he is widely expected to do.

Some of those permanently leaving the U.S. for tax reasons are private-equity deal makers, hedge-fund managers or entrepreneurs who have made fortunes here, whether born in the U.S. or elsewhere. Others are foreign-born, often academics, who have gained citizenship but are repatriating to their native countries after an extended stay.

One former citizen is Serra Nemir Kirdar, an advocate for Arab women in business and daughter of the Iraqi-born billionaire Nemir Kirdar, founder of private-equity powerhouse Investcorp. While born in the U.S., Serra Kirdar was educated at Oxford and now resides in the United Arab Emirates.

“I very much believe that it is the responsibility of people who hold citizenship where they reside to pay their taxes,” Ms. Kirdar said in a telephone interview. “In the event that someone doesn’t live there or make use of the protections that come from citizenship, they should not be liable for paying taxes to a country they just hold a passport from.”
Another former U.S. citizen is George Karibian, founder and chairman of U.K.-based online office supplier Euroffice. Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Karibian declined to comment for this article. His biography posted on a trade-group Web site indicates that since graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1993, he has lived and done business in various European locales.

Lawmakers have been struggling for years to change a tax system for expatriates that was cumbersome yet easy to circumvent. “The old law was very easy to manage, with the right advice,” says Evelyn Capassakis, an estate planner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York.

Under the old system, tax exiles were required to file annual U.S. returns for 10 years after they renounced their citizenship. For that time period, income tax was owed on all U.S.-source income. Estate and gift taxes also applied to U.S. assets transferred during that period.

The system encouraged people to hold onto their U.S. assets until after the 10-year period expired and then unload them. And while estate taxes still applied to intangible assets such as stock in U.S. companies, gifts of U.S.-based stock were not taxed after the 10-year period. “Patience was rewarded under the old regime,” says Mr. Alden.

Under the new law, the 10-year transition rule is abolished. U.S. citizens and long-term residents who are terminating their status will be taxed once on their unrealized gains, at current market rates. Stock portfolios, real estate, art and most other types of assets will be captured by this new “mark to market” tax. Some experts say the new law could deter some citizens or residents from leaving the U.S., since the benefits of doing so will be reduced. Yet the simplicity of the new one-time tax may appeal to others.

One aspect of the new law that has practitioners concerned is that it applies not only to U.S. citizens but long-term residents. That means it will capture foreign executives who have been permanent residents of the U.S. for more than eight years. “There are a bunch of green-card holders who may fall prey,” says Mr. Alden. They may now owe taxes to both their native country and the U.S., he says.

As in the old system, the new rules are triggered only for individuals with a net worth of $2 million or more, or who owed more than $124,000 in income taxes on average over the past five years, indexed for inflation. Even if one of those conditions is met, the first $600,000 in gains are not subject to the tax.

* * *

THE NUMBER of high-income taxpayers who owed no income tax more than doubled from 2004 to 2005, according to IRS data released last week.

Of the 3.6 million taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more in 2005, 7,389 did not owe U.S. income tax. That compares with 2,833 with no income tax liability in 2004. The IRS attributed the jump to two tax-law changes: a temporary window in 2005 in which charitable contribution caps did not apply to donations to help victims of Hurricane Katrina and an increase in the amount of foreign tax credits that can be applied to an alternative minimum tax liability.

Taxpayers may now offset 100% of their AMT liability with foreign tax credits, up from 90%.

NOW… From Grandpa, official release date: 1 July 2008:

I have been following these laws and this type of article for 30 years.

“Too late. Door shut.”

Door shut? No way!

For the time being, the easy way out is for a gringo resident in BB land to simply liquidate all his gringo based assets. Then he transfers all assets abroad. This is legal and triggers no immediate tax consequences. [Yes, there could be some capital gains taxes due the following year.] The assets once moved abroad, can then be placed into any form: Gold bars, diamonds, stamp collections, bank accounts, cash, foreign securities, yachts, condos. Commercial property like shopping malls can be held in bearer share corporations, foundations, or re-titled in many other ways — free of local taxes and any records of income in places like Monaco, Bermuda, Central America, etc.

OK, Our hero moves his assets abroad and then follows them with his physical corpus.Where to Go? . See PT Book or Bye Bye Big Brother for recommendations on best [tax haven] legal residences, playgrounds, places to invest, etc. [The 6 Flags]… Probably best if the expat gets a legal residence & a new 1^st class legal passport for travel and banking– as soon as possible. This is easily do-able. But not even necessary.

The BB land PP is not the worst for travel, and it can be renewed if the person involved has filed annual tax returns from abroad. Of course, much better PPs are available. Renouncing an earlier citizenship may be a bad idea because too often it calls attention to the person and his tax situation. Simply doing nothing, departing quietly, & leaving things as they are is IMO the better solution. If the gringo wishes to keep his original gringo PP forever (till he dies), or to go back for visits or otherwise, he keeps his PP & should file annual gringo tax returnswith the help of a good accountant who is based outside the home country.

Note: getting foreign spending money tax free, no matter how substantial the assets are, & for BB Land tax purposes, getting “income” down to zero taxable is do-able. How? Using Trusts, charitable foundations, companies, and above all generating the right kind of non-taxable spending money is no big trick.

For instance? There are infinite possibilities, but Mr X with 1 trillion in BB land assets buys 1 trillion in gold and other rare coins that he keeps in a safe deposit box in his new home town. He spends a few coins to cover living expenses, etc.. If done right, no theoretical income tax is generated because he is living on & spending capital, not income.

With no physical body in BB Land and no assets there, whether he renounces or not doesn’t matter. He is beyond the power of BB land to collect anything or to do anything nasty to him. Many places, like Switzerland, Monaco, for example, have protective policies: They will not extradite any resident for tax related avoidance activities because such activity is legal in their own country.

All these new BB laws presume that anyone who was ever a citizen or resident can’t bear the thought of never returning. The truth is that many expats who have substantial assets actually do enjoy spending their time and money in the infinite number of nicer, BB-free places to be found abroad. They have no desire to return, ever. There are millions of expats who feel this way. This goes for Germans, Russians, Swedes, and of course, Gringos. Besides that, investments are less regulated, and bureaucratic reporting requirements are infinitely less burdensome “offshore.” Besides this, thousands of innocent activities have been defined as “crimes” in BB Land, and these same things are permissible abroad. Bottom line is that most people who have experienced the freedom of living outside of BB Land are quite content to remain abroad. Not only that, it is easier to earn & keep money earned abroad when taxes are nil. As to proposed legislation taxing the estates of or inheritances going to heirs of deceased people who have renounced for tax purposes,

1) there is no point in considering all the “proposed ” stuff - 99% of which never becomes law. And if it does become law, it may be ruled unconstitutional discrimination.

2) For the sake of academic discussion, this proposed tax is easily beaten if the heirs simply leave BB land and collect & use their “inheritance” abroad. To be technically in compliance they may have to establish a legal residence abroad for a while — which is no great trick, but the fact is that transactions [such as inheritance matters] that take place abroad and are denominated in local currency, makes them beyond the capacity of BB to discover or track. Not to mention that collection is impossible for any creditor (governmental or private) if the whereabouts of the person’s ass & assets are unknown.

If an heir is dumb enough to want to live in very high-profile, headline grabbing style, this is always going to be risky. It is better that high profile living be abroad in places like Monaco where flaunting wealth is common. “Don’t stand out!” is a good rule. Envy & Jealousy have cause the downfall of many As a PT, low profile keeps one out of the cross hairs of any government. Of course any half-a-brain multi-millionaire will not allow his assets to go thru probate or inheritance procedures. Long before death assets are already in joint tenancy. Or, the transition is provided for by other generation-transfer arrangements like Liechtenstein or Panama Foundations. These can providing for automatic & informal transfer of assets without any public record thereof. Any persons who have lived [intelligently] abroad knows all about & can arrange these things . Foundations, for instance, cost only a few thousand a year to set up and run.

Alternatively there are a lot of ways to accomplish the same result spending nothing. So. the door to expatriation is certainly not shut.—& unless Soviet Style restrictions on Ass & Asset movements are instigated by BB, they won’t be shut for a while. As this sad event is a possibility, making some arrangements to move ass & assets now or in the near future would IMO be prudent.

While many in the world are either worrying about the impending collapse, or gloating about the “US Housing Crisis” here’s a new perspective (mostly the observations of a bright friend) who is doing what I suggest in the last paragraph.

There are about 75,000,000 single-family houses in the US today. A third of these are fully paid and free and clear. That leaves 50,000,000 mortgaged homes. Over half of these properties were been bought pre-2000 at a much lower cost that their current book values. The vast majorities of these owners have either not dipped into their ‘home equity’, or did so early in the housing boom. The vast majority have serviced their mortgages ever since. That Leaves 20,000,000 mortgages. About three quarters of these are owner-occupier mortgages in the heartland and small town America. The loans are being serviced just fine.

In other words, 5,000,000 houses MIGHT be the sub-prime crisis generators. Of these at least half are investment properties, or vacant properties that were to be “flipped” They will be foreclosed and resold at below market prices resulting in losses for the investors & lenders, but will not result anyone being homeless. That leaves a maximum of 2 million owner occupied homes purchased at grossly inflated prices and with little or nothing down. The buyers knew or should have known that if interest rates went up, or if they lost their jobs, they would have difficulties & would have to go back to where ever they were before they bought a home they couldn’t afford.

The vast majority of these troubled properties are in the areas where the housing market was the hottest. States like California, Nevada, Florida as well as a few cities that stood out in other states, such as Houston, Denver, Hot Springs, etc. Prices in many other cities (Redmont, Boston, New York, Washington, Dallas) are stable… Prices in many smaller cities in the Midwest are actually still rising.

In other words, the ‘banks are writing off’ bad loans to poor risks that should never have been made. The loans were based upon inflated values. They were NOT traditional “75% loan to value” on conservatively appraised properties. Further, the buyers were not qualified to buy. “Sub-prime” always really meant ” highly likely to default.”

So, whatever is really going on, a very small percentage [if any] qualified home buyers are involved. There is NO housing or mortgage crisis. Not any more than has happened in previous cyclical property market downturns. These happen with boring regularity every decade or two. Some “hotshot” banks are using the “crisis” as an excuse to write off nonsense securities & senseless loans that they have used for years to inflate their imaginary profits & share prices.

Some stockbrokers, insurers & other firms who securitized & sold these loans to the public & guaranteed them against losses [these are the derivatives people talk about but don’t understand!], are of course going bust. They should have known better! But of course anyone who bought or guaranteed “sub-prime” loans was always dealing in “junk” with a high risk of default. Why did they do it? Mostly in return for fabulous fees, commissions or if stupid “investors”, a very suspect, unsustainable, high rate of return. The people involved (on the profit making end) always operate through corporations and thus are immune from any personal liability.

In virtually all the USA foreclosures, the sub-prime home buyer was really stretching to get into a deal. They were people who bought grossly overpriced property, had no savings to cover a year or 2 or payments if things went sour; they were usually paying more than the 25% of income that should be allotted to rent or loan payments. Above all, they were in deals where unless interest rates stayed the same [which they were unlikely to do] and property values went up forever [also unlikely] they would be facing payments & charges they could not afford, i.e. foreclosures.

HOW TO PROFIT FROM THE SITUATION?

Cherry pick among the debris. Surely you’ll find a few a choice location properties at super bargain prices. If you [or your investment corporation] qualifies, you can even get a good fixed rate loan and rent the properties at more than enough to cover your payments. It probably takes sifting through 100+ deals to find one gem. You will need a bit of dough for a down-payment, & more for cosmetic refurbishment. In the background, a business or secure job giving you the income to qualify for any loan you might need. A friend of mine, Doug Casey, once told me that in Chinese, the printed character for “Crisis” was the same as for “Opportunity.” That’s the way to think! Of course, it’s always best to start a corporation to own your properties and thus, keep your name off the public records for privacy & insulate yourself from any personal liability. For PTs their corporation will probably be “Offshore.”

Yes, Grandpa has been doing this kind of thing for many years.

Our apologies. We’ll try to get rid of it faster next time, and to train our spam filter better.

What bastards.

If you want to be a highly paid, sought after consultant with more business than you can handle, there are several things to keep in mind:

1.) You must have (or you need to gain) some special knowledge [expertise]. People must want what you know - enough to be willing to pay you for imparting your information and guidance.

2.) You have to spread the word that what you have to sell is worthwhile and good value for money. This step, otherwise known as “marketing to your target market” is something you must get right. Without good marketing you will have no clients and no income. For some free marketing tips (and a pitch to take his advanced seminars,) google “Jay Abrahams.” He is a marketing consultant who gives advice to many businesses and also gives $20,000@ seminars. He reportedly makes well over $1 million per year. I met him personally the year he started with tiny classified advertisements offering his services in selling any product or service for a 50% contingent fee of new profits he brought in. Later I will mention other marketing idea sources.

3.) It is essential that you are both discrete & highly dependable. You must deliver the information and benefits as promised, on time. When your customers need you urgently, you must be there for them. No excuses. You must respect confidences. Your clients won’t want their private affairs broadcast to the World, nor to ANYONE!.

ATTRACTING CUSTOMERS

One of the best ways to attract customers is to write an attention-grabbing articles or better, a book about your subject. After all “The Man Who Wrote the Book” is always thought to be the expert. You can promote your book on radio and TV talk shows, via news articles in Magazines & newspapers, Internet Blogs, advertising and on Internet web sites like Google or YouTube. Simply listing your book on a site like Amazon.com won’t, in and of itself, sell any books or get you any clients.

Of all the marketing methods, I’ve found that TV interview shows are by far, the most effective. Radio talk shows are second, and a favorable buzz from reviews & word of mouth on the Internet are third. I’d put classified ads as 4th.The reason that a favorable recommendation is more important than advertising is this: With the endorsement of a trusted source, strangers will have more confidence in you. Anyone can advertise and say most anything. But if Oprah Winfrey says (on her popular TV show) that she believes in you, your place on the best seller list is almost assured. It is easier than you think to get on local radio talk shows –for instance. You just call the station, tell them what you want to talk about, and usually you get booked on a late night or early morning show. Be articulate and show enthusiasm. If the producers of the show like you, you will get referrals to many other shows with better time slots.

There are many good books on how to promote yourself. Read a few for ideas. See my “Resource List.” Try different techniques. Experiment & use what works. If you have more money than time, you can hire an effective “public relations consultant” to get your name and info about your services out to the public. Maybe they will work for you on a contingent fee. No results, no pay. Once you have some clients, your own customers (if you are any good) will also recommend you. Ultimately, customer satisfaction and word of mouth referrals are your best sales tool.

Whether (as a Consultant) you just advise or also “implement” is up to you. Implementation would involve interacting with others on behalf of your client. This can be immensely time consuming. Lawyers and accountants are consultants. I don’t like either of them much because their main object is usually to keep you on the hook, paying regular retainer fees. For defending yourself in a lawsuit, keeping your account books, or running an active business you may need lawyers and accountants. PTs of course don’t generally need either lawyers or accountants.

For some people, especially those who operate on the edge of the law, perhaps lawyers need to be employed to keep you out of trouble. Most of these “Licensed Professionals” want to keep you dependent — a “cash cow” paying them as long as you live. In my experience, most medical Doctors, CPAs and lawyers want you to believe you can’t live without them. But you can. Too often they can make you believe you must pay them regularly to keep you physically and financially healthy. They turn you into a supplicant. Sometimes medical doctors are necessary [to set a broken leg or settle a claim, for instance]. But too often they just make healthy people believe they need them for every minor complaint. They can [like lawyers and accountants] get in the way of a permanent solution because they want to be paid regularly. You don’t need them any more if they really solve your problems once and for all.

My personal view is that the sooner you can extricate yourself from the clutches of lawyers, accountants, bureaucrats, and most medical doctors, the better off you will be.

With my own personal consulting clients, I intend, after a couple of PT learning years with me, that they will end up confident, financially independent & able to take complete control of their lives. I teach them to be self-confident in their own abilities and hopefully, as competent as I am. (And hopefully MORE competent than I am!)

One PT goal should be having a Portable Trade or Profession that can be used to earn money anywhere –without any bureaucratic licensing worries. Becoming a consultant is ideal for this.

Most of the process of being a top-notch consultant involves giving the client confidence, passing on your experience and expertise, then, before you part company, explaining and teaching where to find further specialized information and advice.

Unlike many professionals, I don’t try to make anyone dependent on me. I want anyone who comes within my orbit to quickly be able to handle their own problems. Life, I feel, should be a do-it-yourself project. If my ex-clients choose to become a competitor-consultant on PT matters or otherwise, I am not jealous. I only hope that they will pass on the best of what they’ve learned from me to their own clients. There is enough business out there to satisfy everyone.

For me, social friendships with ex-clients and later, information sharing on the basis of equality and “no pay,” is what I and the best consultants should aim for and achieve.

DON’T GIVE THEM A FISH; TEACH THEM HOW TO FISH!

My approach (and what I recommend for you) is to reveal to your clients hidden options –moves they probably never considered. The most basic PT example is that by merely leaving any given jurisdiction and internationalizing, one gets rid of lawsuits, government problems, and a restricted outlook. Just like a good music teacher, I never resent it when my clients achieve competence and can be left on their own. There is in fact, a shortage of good advice and guidance.

In short order, my clients become their own Doctors, Lawyers and Accountants — plus just about everything else. The first step for most clients is to overcome their irrational fears; to jettison all past burdens, legal problems, debts, social obligations, and any unwarranted dread of the unknown.

A PORTABLE PROFESSION?

As a consultant, you can operate from anywhere (think tax havens) and give advice by E-mail or telephone. One of my best friends charges $3000 for a quarter hour telephone call or e-mail. Due to time restraints, he turns away more client inquiries than he accepts. Personal contact can be reserved for your high net worth, most interesting clients. Normally, clients will either come to you or pay for your first class travel to go and see them. Client contacts are usually very stimulating and can be great fun. Sometimes they result in very profitable business opportunities. Having a few consulting clients (plus another business) keeps you focused and on your toes. You never stop learning.

HOW TO BEGIN

Where do you start? Common sense! If you are not already an expert with a Ph. D. in your topic, become a self-made master. How? Read books on the subject you wish to be an expert on. Then, get practical experience. You must first do whatever it is you aim to be an expert on. Learn from your mistakes and later, from the mistakes of your clients. Make sure that your next client won’t make the same wrong turns that you [or they] did.

As time goes by, you will inevitably become better and better, just like the surgeon who does the same operation many times over.

YOUR FIRST PUBLICATION NEED NOT BE A BOOK

But get something in print that will serve as your calling card. Write a Book –or at least a Pamphlet. Call it “A Special Report on XYZ.” You might be able to convince an editor to write a regular column in a newspaper or magazine. One of my favorite columnists is Walt Mossberg. He writes about the internet, software and communication gadgets for the Wall Street Journal. If he were a consultant for hire, I’d certainly use him for any assistance needed in that area of expertise.

Advice columns or daily spots on radio programs are very successfully used as business builders. Another lady I knew, Ann Landers, along with her daughter Margo (see Slate.com), and her twin sister “Dear Abbey” all had “lovelorn” columns that started small and locally. They became very popular and widely syndicated. Their weekly columns made money. Public speaking engagements (speaking to groups) paid even better.

Result? Some consultants never give ‘one to one’ advice. It is only because they enjoy personal contact, like me, that they do personal consulting on a limited basis.

Later, by summarizing client’s problems and the resolutions that worked, you can revise and expand your special reports. One or more special reports can become a book or even a multi-volume set. Do as I did with Bye Bye Big Brother, a $500 three volume set that one reviewer described as “the millionaire’s favorite read.”

Virtually all of my new clients were/are BBBB readers. In fact, I insist they become familiar with BBBB so that we don’t waste any time re-iterating the PT basics.

Once you get into any field of endeavor, you will end up with more useful information than you can ever get into print. Your high net worth clients who read your books or reports will want your general information personally tailored to fit them. The same people who buy one-of-a-kind apparel and original art works expect to pay more for personal consulting with you. And of course, we can’t put some of our best tips into print for legal or other reasons.

HOW DID IT ALL START FOR ME?

At the risk of breaking your heart, here’s my story: I was heartbroken, lonely and almost broke — having been dumped and divorced by my movie starlet “trophy” wife. She had me evicted from our own home, then got a court order to keep all my bank accounts, the house, the cars, the horses and the kids. I couldn’t even see the kids without a man-hating lesbian social worker in attendance. My babies were brainwashed to cry and carry on –making any ‘joint custody’ visits intolerable. It was degrading — surely the lowest point in my life.

At the same time that my ex was grabbing all my assets, two other previous wives were also suing for support. As I wouldn’t (or couldn’t) pay, I was tossed into the hoosegow for “contempt.” There, confined in the “tank,” I thought long and hard: I knew I had to make a change. That is when I planned my Escape from America.

I thought up a primitive version of the PT life for myself. It was simple:

I simply got on a bus (untraceable) & exited. I was inspired by cowboy movies where the outlaws went “South of the Border, down Mexico Way.” In other words, I hit the road and got myself out of a jurisdiction where I had problems. It wasn’t easy to face the unknown because I didn’t have any guru [like I am now] to hold my hand. Yet this move to a new life was probably the best decision I ever made.

Without me as a defendant, the pending (alimony) cases evaporated. I got myself a new (foreign) identity and passport. It was easier then, pre 9-11, but a new identity is still legally do-able. The “old me” didn’t exist any more. For the first time in my life, I was debt-free, single again — and free of all social and moral obligations to anyone.

I soon found ways of legally making more money; tax free, than I had ever done before.

It seemed to me that similar, easy solutions to my problems could be sold to others. There had to be many individuals who were sick and tired of being harassed by the Government, or being a defendant in never ending litigation. I figured that for many reasons people wanted to break out of their rut and start a new life –maybe with a new identity. The late Harry Brown’s book, How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World was good inspiration. But ultimately, my main inspiration came from Harry Schultz & Bill Hill. Their writings and personal advice (that I paid for) helped me become a P.T.

I quickly realized that the 6 PT Flags (explained fully in BBBB) could be used by anyone who had similar problems to mine. Those who would break out of their rut and actually use the six PT flags (see Google) were almost always going to be people who had to escape from looming problems. Of course to enjoy the PT way of life, you don’t need to wait for a crisis. At a stroke, anyone can escape, make more money, enjoy unlimited great sex, pay no taxes, travel, be debt free, & even become incredibly healthy.

To make a fresh start , you just have to leave where you are.

Strange — how most people are afraid to make the first move! Many individuals are so desperate that they contemplate or commit suicide. They never realize that by hoisting even one of the 6 PT Flags they’ll instantly enjoy a far more pleasant, life-affirming way forward.

MY FIRST STOP

Early on, in the bars of Tijuana (Mexico) and later, Pattaya (Thailand), I met many happy PTs. A few were financial fugitives escaping, often from a criminal frame up or sting. Many were alimony evaders. They had no PT label for the life they were leading.

Theirs was kind of happy escape from their first world home country to the 2^nd or 3^rd world. This was a path many had discovered, yet prior to 1985 no one had ever written about it.

Soon, from Belize, an English speaking country below Mexico I was busy helping other men in a similar position (and a few women too) leave their home countries to start new lives abroad. As PTs they could avoid all contacts with courts, cops, bureaucrats, plaintiffs, stalkers, ex-spouses and other troublemakers.

Belize (at the time) offered an easy-to-get 2^nd passport that was good for travel all over the world and for getting residence almost anywhere. These Belize “investor passports,” priced retail at $50,000 were particularly saleable in Hong Kong and Taiwan. For those in the know, the Belize passport was available for a few hundred dollars by establishing a legitimate residence there and waiting the required couple of years.

MY FIRST LITERARY EFFORTS

I became a serious PT consultant by writing a few predecessors to the BBBB book. They were not books really, just short “Special Reports.” The first was about escaping from problems like alimony — getting rid of unwanted ex-spouses -the painless, cost free “PT”: way. In other words, picking up your chips, leaving the jurisdiction and disappearing.

A later report was about getting citizenship, a new name and passport in Portugal. That too was very easy to do in those days. Unfortunately, it’s no longer instant” nor as easy any more. But it still can be done.

Then came my nice little special report on how to make money by buying, and fixing up run down property in the Caribbean. That “portable trade” still works almost anywhere. Still another book was about “Instantly Finding the Illusion of Love in Thailand.” Even if you were seventy, in Bangkok or Manila it was (and still is) easy to get a gorgeous teen-age girlfriend or wife – if that is your thing.

Like all my “literary” works these were self published under different pen names. The books recounted things I actually did and told average people how they could do the same. I always changed names to protect my anonymity. And my books and reports always brought in consulting clients.

MY BRIEF CAREER AS A DON JUAN & HOW IT ENDED

Somewhere along the way, I decided to be a consultant to men in attracting beautiful women from poor countries. To jump-start my new chosen profession, I contacted the then master of helping people find a third world girlfriend or wife:

The late Paradise Shelton had developed a way to profit and have a good life himself by helping lonely guys latch on to better women than they could ever hope to snag in their home countries. He simply chartered a yacht to visit Pacific Islands, mostly in the Philippines. His boats were usually filled with plumbers and tradesmen types. These were often guys without too much charm.

Shelton visited Islands and Atolls where most of the local men had gone off to sea as sailors. There were 10 or more hot, often gorgeous young unmarried women for every man. A garbage collector from Berlin or Chicago was considered a good catch for these girls. They tried very hard to please their future husbands-to-be. Ahhh, the years spent recruiting those nubile, young barefoot beauties were a high point in my life. I will always remember the fringe benefits on those trips to Southeast Asia. Today such consulting can be, and is, done on the Internet.

Eventually I got snagged myself — by one of the best prospective 3rd World Brides I’d encountered. But settling in with a little brown girl in a little grass shack (for a while) is not the worst thing that could happen. I never regretted it. Moving on in our story.

WHAT ABOUT THE SIX FLAGS?

1-Residence, 2-Citizenship, 3-Playgrounds, 4-Offshore Asset Placement, 5-Physical business Locations & 6-An Internet Consulting Business.

For a complete summary of the six flags, see the BBBB book or go to Google or any search engine using the names/topics below.

Along my path to happiness, enlightenment and freedom, I came up with an idea I called “The 6 Flags For Freedom.” . Another guy I knew took my idea and wrote a great book about it he called “PT.” I had already realized that the 6 flags could be used by anyone. But at the time I didn’t think anyone could make a living by being a PT consultant.

Was I wrong! A gentleman named Harry Schultz, and his sidekick, W.G. Hill made it very big. Schultz was listed for 30 years in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid consultant in the world! PT consulting eventually became a huge industry with many topical books and newsletters. There are currently around 35,000 PT related adverts and products listed on the Net. Unfortunately, just like authors of the “Get Rich Quick” books, most of those advertisers know little or nothing about actually living the PT life. They are “All Hat & No Cattle” as the old boys in Texas used to say.

Unfortunately, most “How To” books are written by “know nothings” and/or plagiarized from others.

However, once you know what you are doing and have actually done it yourself, selling the PT Philosophy still is a good way to make money, enjoy forbidden pleasures, cheap booze, fantastic, uninhibited, unlimited love & sex, pay less taxes, and be paid to travel to very interesting places. As a PT, consultant or otherwise, you’ll have a much better life than ordinary mortals.

Most people are struggling along in an unpleasant, stressful rat race. It usually takes a crisis like a divorce, lawsuit or wrongful criminal indictment for them to even consider the delightful alternatives of the six flags. There’s a banquet going on and they don’t even know where the table is.

There are several very good consultants around these days, and enough biz to keep all of us very busy. Other good consultants do the same thing in their respective fields as I did for the PT world. They have specialties like Offshore Investing, Getting Foreign Residences, 2nd Passports, Noble Titles. Another big niche is Arranging For 3^rd World Marriages, etc.

CONSULTING IS GENERALLY UNREGULATED!

Anyone can be a consultant in almost any field without any permits or licenses. It can be done on the net or from any location — including tax havens like Andorra, Bermuda, or Campione.

Monaco [The Grace Kelly town] is where I hang out.

Managing money for others “Offshore” is a variation on the PT theme.

Some Hedge Fund Managers I helped to become PTs figured out how to raise money from investors and charge them upfront load fees, brokerage and trading fees, plus up to 40% of profits. I would never invest with some of them because they are like the ‘turf accountants’ or bookmakers who advise 10 different clients to invest the same amount in 10 different horses in the same race. Nine clients will lose. But if the Bookie gets 40% of the profits from the one client who wins, he makes a profit on every race. Offshore Money managers are not all bad of course, and many charge reasonable fees and do a very good job. “Investment Banking” is nice clean work. A good option. Any PT can be a “Financial Consultant.” Of course you can’t be anything to anybody in your home country without taxes, regulations, and a high probability of being sued!

CAN YOU BREAK AWAY, BECOME A PT, AND MAKE A LOT OF MONEY?

Of course you can. If the dumb guys I know can become multi-millionaires, anyone reading this can make it too. Why? Because to get this far (in reading my little report) you’ve already shown more intelligence than the average millionaire. Intelligence is an advantage. Goals, information, knowledge and judgment are the imperatives.

GETTING BACK TO THE SPECIFICS OF WRITING AN INFORMATIVE BOOK:

1) Write from experience, not ignorance.

2) Be completely honest with your readers and clients.

3) Never encourage any criminal or fraudulent actions. That can get you into serious hot water. Readers or clients will finger you as their “criminal mastermind.”

4) When you write, I suggest you never hold back any useful information. At the same time, be careful about sharing info that the reader might misuse or anything that might get a less than discerning reader into trouble. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Advice in one of my early books was to “get a legal second passport.” This was once misconstrued by a reader who bought a forged passport. Result was a disaster. That is why in my more recent books I always say “Don’t break any laws” and “get a competent second opinion before taking any of the steps that you think I have recommended.” I offer a free short e-mail consultation with the purchase of my books. This keeps my readers on the straight and narrow. This contact also brings me useful information and clients.

5) Show the reader how much you know and how sincere and honest you are.

No matter how much you tell them, some readers (if you invite further inquiries) will want you personally to apply your expertise to their personal situations. About 3-5% of book buyers will probably become consulting customers. To get me personally, the charge is Euros15,000 (around $20,000 US at 2008 current rates). This buys 2 yrs of unlimited (but reasonable) contact. That is a lot less than my friend charges — the guy who gets $3000 for just a few minutes!

When you start out, of course, you might consider a more competitive rate. The higher fees come only with experience and reputation.

When I like a new client, personal meetings are included at no extra charge aside from travel costs. Typically, we become social friends.

WHAT IF YOU CAN’T WRITE?

Hire somebody to edit or do it all for you!

I like writing and do it all myself. But anyone can hire a ghost writer if they don’t have the time or inclination for a do-it-yourself-project.

Your own route to becoming a PT Consultant ?

If you are fluent in a foreign language other than English, you might even buy the foreign rights to BBBB!

WHAT TO CHARGE FOR YOUR BOOKS OR CONSULTATIONS?

Experiment! Negotiate! Be flexible at first. Always offered an unconditional money back guaranty. This will overcome predictable resistance to relatively high prices.

Nobody ever asked me for a refund. Why?

Simply because I (as grandpa) do a good job.

WHAT ELSE DOES A CONSULTANT DO?

I give hope and confidence. I keep or get clients out of trouble. I help clients achieve their goals, and generally keep them happy. We often discover and explore options the client never knew existed — or was too scared to try.

A CURE FOR STUPIDITY?

John Wayne said “Life is tough, but it’s even tougher if you’re stupid.”

I often have to insist that my clients avoid really stupid actions. One American client “secretly” moved to Hawaii (a mistake to stay in the same country!) from where he regularly taunted his alimony drone ex-wife in New York on the telephone –He called her from his own home (an even bigger mistake). Of course she was able to trace him. Her lawyers attached his Hawaii property. His goose was cooked. Another guy bragged to his ex that he had an account in Liechtenstein, and she couldn’t touch it. Wrong! Once she knew where her husband’s money was on deposit, she was able to seize it with the help of the Liechtenstein courts. Bank secrecy only protects those who can keep a secret.

Many clients lack common sense. Some won’t take your good advice. But you must try your best to firmly, yet diplomatically put them on the right path. Never get angry at them. (Yes, I do get annoyed and even angry when they don’t take advice and do silly things that can get them into trouble. But I try to keep cool.)

HOW MUCH TO CHARGE

I charge (what seems to some clients) a high price because 1 to 1 consulting is labor intensive. It is very time consuming to provide personal services. But my fees are probably under 10% of what any hotshot lawyer would charge. And the client wouldn’t get nearly as good results (and as many options) Further, a domestic lawyer works for the government first, and you secondly. Experiment with fees and maybe even do some “pro bono” work to gain experience.

DANGER!

These days, reporting requirements make local lawyers, bankers and accountants into government informants. They can’t give the best advice without risking an indictment for “conspiracy.” They may have to return “Tainted Money” fees they accepted in good faith.

There is also a big risk that your first consulting client may get himself into trouble (or even be a criminal!). If you are not careful, your client, when caught, will then try to extricate himself by wrongly fingering/blaming you as the mastermind behind his blunders. There are ways to protect against this, but I will save that info for paying clients. Hint: Being in a different jurisdiction from your client helps . . .

CONSULTING FOR THE MASS MARKET

To attract a less affluent, much wider client base, I suggest this:

Put your ideas in print, on video DVD or audio disk. It only costs $2-$5 for a plastic DVD and an attractive cover. Then you can profit like Microsoft does. Your advice on plastic or in print can be sold for $100, $250 or whatever the traffic will bear. Yet the cost of replication is nominal. Instead of spending many hours with a client, you pay a shipper (like Mail Boxes Etc.) a small handling charge. Sell $100 home study refresher courses to people who are legally required to take them (i.e. most professions and trades) and you will make serious money –hand over fist.

Experiment and advertise. In the unlikely event that you sell too much too fast, your prices are probably too low. They should be raised. If you sell nothing, your price is too high. Or - maybe you are not promoting properly. Perhaps you just don’t have a product or service that people want. Create a niche to differentiate yourself from the competition. Target a market (i.e. people!) needing your products or services that is not currently being served.

TO AVOID DISAPPOINTED CUSTOMERS, ALWAYS OFFER AN UNCONDITIONAL REFUND. ASK THE CUSTOMER HOW YOU CAN KEEP THEM HAPPY. DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SERVICE ANY UNHAPPY CUSTOMER. GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT OR NEED.

If you get more than 5% refund requests, find out why. Then go back to the drawing boards. You are doing something wrong.

To learn about marketing from a master, look on the web for “Jay Abraham.” He has lots of free material. Jay may even partner with you to promote your products or services. There are many outfits telling you how to market things. Unfortunately most of them only sell bad advice and don’t know what they are talking about. On Google Internet search, look up “The Rich Jerk.” He’s another successful marketer.

REPLICATION of your knowledge in print, video, audio, etc. is yet another way to sell a tangible course or product. It will lead qualified customers to your personal consulting services –or other, related products or services. In our field, this is called, “The Back End.” You provide one product or service, and then offer related stuff.

DON’T SERVICE ALL POTENTIAL CLIENTS!

One of the nicer features of consulting is you can always reject contact with potential clients you don’t like – for instance, crooks — who might bring unwanted heat. If anyone causes you discomfort or trouble, just make a full refund and fire them. You are not dependent upon one “Boss.” Clients should be more like students. You are the respected professor.

YOU CAN DO IT FROM ANYWHERE!

Another plus is that consulting is a portable trade….

Using the Net or Skype free phones, you can be on a beach in a tax free Shangri La on the other side of the world from your clients. There are plenty of books and info you can get by Googling “How to Become a Consultant” and similar phrases.

WWW.EdenPress.com has a free online catalog and a lot of inexpensive info written by people who sell consulting services as a back end product to readers.

Many people will buy your books if they are in such a catalog. Another resource is EscapefromAmerica.com published by Roger Gallo. They have great free newsletters and ads for PTs. They will market your (good) books in print or as e-books. You might do a new revised version of an existing “how to” book that is long out of copyright and sell it to others. In that way you can become a consultant. I do emphasize you should know your stuff! Clients who discover you are incompetent or know less than they do will not be happy.

Don’t follow my exact modus operandi. Develop your own variant if you want to be successful. I describe my techniques here because they work for me. You will make it as a Consultant with your own niche products and your own original marketing variations.

If you want to be my consulting client, I might take you on if you tell me all about yourself: Start with what you are a “potential expert” in. What are your needs, problems, goals, and of course — tell me if you can afford my fee. In rare instances I will consider interesting trades for my services.

I am retired and these days. Thus, I only take on a very few selected clients. Consider my service a “luxury purchase.” I am there for the exclusive few who want and can afford me.

YOU REALLY DON’T NEED ME!

First, if you have not already done so, read my book: Bye Bye Big Brother. You will probably get most of the PT info you need — from that book. Then, do a discerning, diligent Internet search for the products or services that are of interest to you. Yes, separating the real thing from what you get from scammers and jerks takes time.

If you really know your stuff, you can be a consultant like me. I tell my readers “If you have 15,000 Euros to spare and want to buy a ‘friendly guidance & hand holding service’ for unlimited P.T. counseling for 2 years, contact me personally at Grandpa@secureix.com . If your questions are of a sensitive nature, I don’t have to know your real name. You won’t know mine either.”

I hope this little push helps you achieve your goals.

Grandpa

I’ve encountered several gurus who did in fact change my life.

One was the TV preacher “Reverend Ike” who said if you are unhappy with a situation or a relationship you could and should change it. He also said that making money was a very worthy goal and not at all “evil.” Thus inspired, I got out of my then boring dead end job, changed towns from an unpleasant climate to a warm & sunny place, changed girlfriends. Started my own biz. And yes, things got a lot better for me. Simple advice, but most people who are “stuck” and unhappy don’t realize they can — easily –get
out of their ruts.

Then there was Douglas Casey with The International Man. The whole PT idea seems to be “get out of the jurisdiction if they don’t treat you right” & be self-employed. Most people never have any idea of the
many options open to them! Life can be a banquet, but the average guy doesn’t know where the table is.

The single biggest secret for PTs to learn is this: If you never register for anything in the country where you live –no bank accounts, no cars, no home ownership, no voter registration, etc. — then they don’t know you exist and nobody bothers you or your family because you are out of the system. If you can’t figure out how to do it, read BBBB and check out this U-tube presentation about the Paskowitz family who, with 9 kids, lived outside the system for many decades: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmhxRVR9dqI

Harry Browne’s book How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World was a more detailed version of Reverend Ike’s ideas. Finally, Harry Schultz wrote an inspiring Newsletter called HSL. Harry lectured about the “Perpetual Traveller” or PT life under his “3 flags” of 1) Citizenship 2) Residence 3) Offshore Money Havens. This was around 1975, in the first incarnation of PT. His idea was that as far as any government was concerned, you were just “Passing Through.”

That in turn inspired Hill’s book “P.T.” around 1980, who in turn inspired Peter Trevellian with Invisible Investor, Gene Wonko of Expat World, Roger Gallo who published Escape from America & ultimately
me– Grandpa [Bye Bye Big Brother].–

Without all or some of those Gurus I suppose many of us would not be PTs today. Check them all out with a “google” search. You can get the best of these books from me on a c.d. for $50. postpaid with money back guaranty (as always).

If one calls advice givers & role models “gurus” I don’t know what/who else inspires people and changes their lives.

This chap is not a P.T., There was one professional Guru, motivator & public speaker with a very unlikely name: Zig Ziglar. He, like another marketing chap, Jay Abraham gave me ideas for relating to customers and friends that changed my life. Just for one example, Zig Ziglar told this story: He stayed in over 250 hotels per year. Very seldom did they offer to upgrade him to their best rooms or suite. He’d always go for an upgrade since his hosts picked up his hotel bills anyway. Moral of Zig’s story was that in any
business, no customer minds being told that “for a little more money you can get something a lot better.” Most customers will in fact upgrade. They will be glad & appreciate you gave them that option! I have used that concept for years. Jay Abraham’s big idea for me was “perceived value.” If your customer
feels that he is getting something worth more than he is paying for, and that he never has any risk (because he can return unwanted goods) he will more readily buy. If happy with your product or services, the customer or client will return again to see what other deals are available.

Anyway, depending on what you call a Guru, I have certainly been inspired in a life-changing ways by them. Some I paid to hear or consult with, some wrote books that I bought. Sure there Yes, there is a lot of dumb, worthless advice out there, but plenty of life changing Gems too. You need good common
sense or a “bullshit detector” to recognize and reject the trash.

Bottom Line? When stuck in a rut, you need good new ideas. Consider the source! Is it reliable and sensible? Just because they are trying to sell you something doesn’t mean they are bad –or good either. Try out new ideas & products too. If they work for you, embrace them, use them, and let them change your life for the better.
Grandpa@secureix.com & nadaaqui@googlemail.com

Don’t even think about paying some scammers for something you can get for free.
Expat World Magazine in Singapore (free subscription) put out a CD around 10 yrs ago that included our favorite book, PT , several others & another small manual(a book by WGH the same author ) called *how to become an honorary consul*…

It explains everything how to get the job and what it entails & is not out of date because the rules of the game have not changed.

You need to have a nice house & be able to entertain visiting diplomats. You need a decent car, to present a decent apperartance, and should know at least one of the languages of your adopted country. If your wife is from there, so much the better.

There is very limited diplomatic immunity and you have that only in the course of doing your diplomatic dutues… In a case close to me that involved getting my adopted countrymen out of jail for smoking marijuana on public streets. In NYC for instance–if you are Consul there, it happens at least once a month if your country happens to be Jamaica. You go to court, post bail the form of a personal note, and usually the rasta guys get acquitted if they agree to go home soon. They may also let you issue visas, but never passports.
I know the little book works and you can get the job for free…Because I did it.

But, it took a lot of letter writing & one interview with the ambassador. Eventually I got special “CD” License plates and invites to a lot of classy parties…Theonly obligation seems to be to give a party on your adopted particular country’s independence day & maybe doing a little public speaking typically at grammar schools, on behalf of your adopted country… After many years you might be able to parlay it into a passport from that country.

Dubai real estate values will fall far more in the next 3 years than USA values than USA or GB values have dropped in the current sub-prime crunch. Further, they stand far less of a chance of coming back to present levels in our lifetime.

Why?

Because around half of the homes and apartments in Dubai have been “sold” to speculators who would never dream of living in them, but expect to flip them for big profits. They were in fact able to flip deals they bought “off plan-pre-build” for the last few years. But when too may people buy to flip, there is no one left to flip to. Sales have virtually dried up in the past two weeks. Panics can arise out of nowhere and destroy seemingly healthy businesses overnight. Compare with Bear Stearns.

With no end users in sight for all those offices, homes and apartments, all it takes is a few negative rumors & scandals to dry up speculative buying …It has already started. So far the regular media is not mentioning it. When the speculators all rush for the exits at the same time, the “investors” follow . Then banks and lenders are left holding the bag. As Dubai & International Banks in Dubai have made far too many “sub-prime” & “equity release” loans of 100% and more on many properties, it will be a near empty bag. With half or more of all the properties expected by me to be in foreclosure, it is difficult to see any other outcome than an abrupt end to the present construction boom. Then what? A big depression, & a massive exodus from Dubai.

Is this 100% sure? No! Nothing is sure. Something unexpected could change things. The rulers of Dubai might be able to pull a cat out the hat. There is one bright spot: The local Dubai banks & stockbrokers have been doing well managing the money of wealthy Arabs and handling many financial transactions. But their bad bets on real estate and their need for new employees is a drop in the bucket compared to the looming defaults.

Dubai has gone from a population of a few thousand natives a few years ago. They now have infinitely more commercial and residential space under construction than they could conceivably fill. The city is mostly half vacant apartment buildings –housing for 2 million expats, but they are not coming so much any more.. They supposedly have 25% of all the building cranes in the world set in place for new projects. In a word, they are grossly overbuilt and are continuing to overbuild in the face of slackening demand. The grandiose projects, “attractions” and amusement parks built or under construction are doomed to failure. They will be as empty as similar projects built a few years back in Brunei. Why?

Dubai is one of the most unwelcoming, expensive, unpleasant, uncultured places in the world to live.

Dubai won’t grant citizenship & passports to expats no matter how long they live there, legally or otherwise. The climate is unpleasantly hot to put it mildly! It is always so hot you can fry eggs on the sidewalk.

Local “justice” is badly skewed against foreigners.

Cracks are appearing in the whole economic structure as it is revealed that some residential projects that have been partially sold “off plan” will never be built. Deposits can’t be returned because the money has “disappeared.” In a Muslim country it is very easy to see that Christians will be the scapegoats to blame for whatever goes wrong. Would you take a chance at having your right hand amputated? That would be the punishment for being involved in “misplacing” the money of the wealthy local speculators.

No one in their right mind would choose to really live in Dubai without the opportunity to make a fast buck. For PTs who could find ways to profit from all the frenetic activity but were/are ready to move on, it was a fine place for the last few years. But the building boom will probably unravel this year. Even with no income tax, there is not enough there to attract as many wealthy permanent residents, workers, retirees, and an ever growing new population they need to keep it dynamic.

Dubai won’t disappear, but this will be a setback for the country. A lot of investors will get burned. Opportunity for some may be in picking up distressed homes or buildings at a tiny % of building cost. Unfinished buildings may be acquired for a song. Hi-rise apartments are more dangerous at any price. Why? When other tenants [or vacant units] in a condo won’t pay their share for upkeep, the ones remaining will be stuck with the bill –or no maintenance will be done at all.

Well guys, I could write a book on the subject, but just remember you heard it here first.

Gramps

BONUS: A comment from a friend:

I have to agree with you on this … I’ve long thought that Dubai, and to a lesser extent some other rapidly developing Middle Eastern states, have been placing far too much reliance on property growth without
anything fundamental to underpin it. Once the global economic situation worsens, which it will inevitably do, many investors in overseas property will be forced to retrench, which will mean selling at a substantial loss because of the already massive over-supply you mentioned.

The countries which will be affected to a far lesser extent will be those which have been far-sighted enough to diversify their economies into many different fields, not just property and tourism.

Although I’ve not been for a while, from what I hear from several very recent visitors, Dubai is now one over-developed high-rise hell, with massive pollution, noise, traffic problems and no sense of
community. A friend who lives about 15 km from the airport missed his flight to London a couple of weeks ago because it took him almost 2 hours to make the trip. Traffic was that bad; far worse than driving from central London out to Heathrow — and that’s saying something!

I also hear rumours that sales of development plots in “The World” have completely stalled and that there are substantial discounts on offer for unsold or resale properties in all “The Palm” developments.

The property market here in the UK hasn’t (yet) been affected to anywhere near the extent to which many believe. On average prices have only dropped by a couple of percent, and given the 150%+ rises over the last few years, this is insignificant, however as in Dubai the buy to let market has been severely affected with something like 30% of all new builds in many cities still standing empty and forced sale values down by 30/40%. This doesn’t reflect the true residential housing market though as many of these
properties, largely apartments, were originally way over-priced for the investment potential they were supposed to reflect.

It’s going to be a major economic blow to many Brits who have jeopardized their own homes because of high borrowing levels. They “invested” in Dubai. Now, where their apartments could be rented at all, they are getting much lower than expected rental returns. Thus they can’t service the loans on their own homes in England.

http://www.cryonics.org/immortalist/january08/god%20wants%20you%20deadBR1pg.pdf

The review is a mixed one. I think he generally liked the book - found it interesting and amusing. However, he did think that there were some “technical errors.”

This is what he wrote be way of criticism:

The technical errors as I see them include flawed understanding of the problem of personal identity and criteria of survival, as well as the questions of intelligence, life, and Turing Tests, and the nature and centrality of qualia. They misinterpret the undecidability theorems. There is a bit of confusion in the discussion of free will. Their political opinions are of course arguable, and for some people will weaken the appeal of the book. They appear to use the “meme” concept uncritically. They define “identities” as “predictive models of behavior,” which doesn’t really fly.

So I went through the book again with these limited statements in mind, and tried to see Ettinger’s side of things. With just one notable exception, I did not find his criticisms to be very valid.

I think that some of what he labels as misunderstanding on our parts - for example Turing Tests and Godel’s proof - are actually situations where these ideas are being deliberately stretched or used as analogies. This does not indicate a lack of fundamental understanding of the base ideas, but rather an attempt to apply these ideas in new ways. I will be the first to admit that we might be wrong about how we are applying them (and would love to see more specific criticism on that score) but believe me, we understand the base concepts very well.

His issues with our definitions of personal identity and his concepts of survivability seem to originate with his attempt to constrain the definition of identity to one that will survive cryonic revival through molecular repair (the horse he has backed for immortality) but to specifically exclude a concept of identity that would survive uploading, or even rebuilding a body molecule by molecule from a recorded pattern - the later only because he is probably not comfortable with multiple copies of a single identity being possible. These complaints seem to me to be just a case of him wanting to defend his own ideas about how immortality might be achieved from competing ideas about paths to immortality, rahter than any well founded criticism for these posibilities.

He says that the political ideas expressed in the book are “debatable.” Well, of course they are, anything and everything is “debatable.” But I think what he really meant was that he found them to be extraneous - unnecessary to the theme of the book. On this I could not disagree more. The nature of collective idea organisms that we are trying to expose is manifest in the structures of all organizations, and the political views we express (that of the virtues of personal freedom over central control) strike directly to the nature of the types of systems perpetuated by collective ideas and the damage they do. While Ettinger may be more interested in the more specific theme of the nature of religious ideas battling newer ideas about possible immortality, the more general theme of the book concerning collective ideas is the greater truth the book is trying to shed light on. I believe that libertarian political theory helps make these more general points about the nature of collectivism more understandable.

I am not sure I even understand the complaint that we use the meme concept uncritically - perhaps because I have know way of knowing what his unvoiced criticism is. Does he not believe that the behavior of human beings is the result of two different types of information systems? Or does he want us to continually point out that memetic structures are not life in the same sense that biological structures are? Not sure what the gripe here is, except maybe again, that he may not like to think that electronic information systems might be capable of encoding intelligence, and giving too much credence to ideological replicators as a type of life might lead in that direction.

Identities being defined as predictive models of behavior is one of the core concepts of the book, so I wish his criticism had been more verbose than just “doesn’t really fly.” Having to guess, I think that he is considering the concept of his own identity - his self - and thinks that the phrase “predictive model of behavior” is too confining to put himself into. However, if he were to step one level back, and stop conceptualizing a specific identity, and consider what his brain is doing when thinking about any identity, I think he would see what we mean here. His concept of anyone else’s identity is a mental model of what that person is, and its express purpose is to consider how that person will react in various situations - it is a model for predicting the behavior of another. His own concept of self, is also simply an understanding of his own thoughts and behaviors - a predictive model about how he will think or feel in any given situation.

Perhaps what is going on here is that we are using identity to mean what he would refer to as the “idea of an identity” in much the same way as when we are talking about God we are talking about the “idea of God.” The self can be just as much an icon as any god

This becomes a very interesting distinction that points right at the nature of our thought processes. Is “the rose”, and the “idea of the rose,” the same thing? Since the rose that you perceive to be real and hold in your hands, is still only a model in your head, in some sense there is no difference. However, we still like to draw the distinction between the rose we hold in or hands and the one we imagine we will buy for our wife tomorrow - call one a real rose and the other just the idea of a rose.

Likewise, the concept of our personal identity seems more real than that of an imaginary character. However, the internal model we have of an imaginary character must be as real as our concept of the mind of another real person. In both cases we have no direct tangibility, but only an internal model to work with. We know we can be wrong about another persons mind and we point out in GWYD that we can also be wrong about our own mind. So how different is our sense of personal identity from that of our sense of another person or even an imaginary characters identity? Is there ever a real identity? or are all identities just “ideas of identities” - that is to say - predictive models concerning some person or thing - real or imaginary?

Finally, the criticism that there is “a bit of confusion in the discussion of free will” I must admit to as being entirely valid. I re-read that section, and it didn’t really catch the concept I was going for at all. So I intend to change it. I will go into this further in my next post, which will take the form of a rewrite of that particular section of GWYD.