Global economic situation for liveaboard cruising yachties

[masalai]

Here is my take on the "new world order"... Power bases (Nations/States), that survive and still have a "will" to exert some influence, will try to do so by "bluff strategies"... The small fry will hopefully remain under the radar, (Australia, NZ, Pacific Islands etc..), and generally do their own thing unhindered, so long as they do not threaten the powerful, their access to needs or projects (food and resources)...

Many 'once were powerful', will remain shadows of their former selves, as 'subservient slaves', or, stranded in the doldrums... I expect anarchy will reign supreme therein for many years... This anger will mainly be a citizen level revolt, at the deception and stupidity of their respective Governments (Which the citizens complacently allowed and accepted because they too were stupid and lazy to know better or figure it out...)

Most will be forced to live totally self-sustain-ably in various locations as opportunity avails.... - - For other baby-boomers, the prospect is bloody grim... Look to self sustainability in your home... NOW IS THE TIME TO PREPARE...
1) - PV panels to make your own electricity and - - store in car type batteries as the cheapest option and - - several inverters to convert that to run some of your appliances
2) - Reduce your dependence on appliances and - or - re-purchase for low consumption and to meet your need - JUST (you do not need to be able to cater for 20 guests)
3) - Collect all the rainwater you can as quality and reliability from municipal services may diminish
4) - Re use shower and other water for the garden and toilet flushing
4) - Recover some water by Reverse-Osmosis if necessary - a well maintained RO device will make the purest water you can find, for drinking / cooking purposes
5) - Grow your own fruit and vegetables - hydroponics is efficient and effective in small land areas
6) - Run some poultry and feed them outer vegetable leaves and other scraps (eat the eggs, and have a rooster, so your eggs will be fertile and you can breed more to replace the older roosters and hens, as they grow... The poultry will also help in insect control and fertilisation (by droppings) of the soil, in your ground based vegetable patch... Compost all bio-waste...
You are now approaching self sustainability... re-use and recycle... Not all that difficult...

PREPARATION NOW... Money and exchange for trade - - Gold owes no one - and is internationally accepted so long as it is 9999 pure, even coins (but you pay a premium for that) 5 or 10oz bars of 9999 pure bullion are also readily exchanged internationally (some buyers may demand a gas-chromatograph analysis) but still exchangeable and NOT subject to falling values in paper currencies - I foresaw the fall in the value of the US$ but not the artificiality of the US$ carry-trade inducing the AU$ to gain such strength, nor the degree of price fixing by the FED via Goldman Sachs and others with such intensity in short positions (as exposed by GATA, Bloomberg and others)...

Some with foresight or luck will escape to become almost stateless and be useful as technical-trainers & practical-advisors, - - - Useful stuff like agriculture, mechanical, electrical, structural-engineering at a PRACTICAL and SKILL-TRANSFER level - - - (not money-manipulation / accountants / book-keeper-managers etc..), for short term hire and live fairly well....

Some will escape and live quietly in foreign UNDEVELOPED lands discretely adding some comforts to the lives of their neighbours via their mechanical and other practical skills...

Life will certainly be vastly different in the future, more-so if Oil is depleted before an alternative is set in place.... Food will be a VERY BIG issue and one can expect plundering of successful food growers by bands of wandering opportunistic murderers and robbers... Future health care will be a great uncertainty as not many doctors have the skills and understanding of the old GP's - The Hi-tech doctors will be next to useless... Water for irrigation, Water for drinking, Water to flush away sewerage and the means to treat that toxic **** and render it harmless??? will be a SIGNIFICANT issue in disease control.... - All very pre-medieval with many relying and resorting to horses for mobility.... That is a worst case scenario, but still likely and plausible...

[Tcubed]

Food will be a VERY BIG issue and one can expect plundering of successful food growers by bands of wandering opportunistic murderers and robbers...

Absolutely right. And no use thinking that you're goin to keep 24/7 watch with the rifle over your wilting cabbage patch.....
So better get your neighbours on your side starting already.
Also most peoples gardens have soil that is pretty poor. Certainly too poor to support vegetables and other demanding plants . For starters houses get built with diggers, which destroy soil. Then in all too many cases people use pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers to keep that lawn nice. Those people will be in for a very rude shock when they finally realize they had better get planting food. It takes years to build decent soil. And without it you had better get used to eating weeds. This soil issue is no better out on the farms, which have been mechanically torn up, compressed, and saturated in soil killing chemicals for decades. When the chemicals start running out (read $+) the real fun is going to start. People will forget about politics , parties, stock markets, pretty much anything that is not firmly attached to the ground. (or the water )

The RO thing is no good i'm afraid unless you have a big windmill or equivalent, as they soak up an incredible amount of juice. I used a manually operated one that was part of a 'survival kit' . It was a joke- by the time i managed to get a cup's worth of water (drop by drop) i had sweated two. Solar distillation is very low tech and works a charm.

I do have my reservations about the usefulness of gold on a day to day basis also .
The amounts for mundane transactions are so small as to be totally impractical. It would get lost in the lint at the bottom of your pocket.
I'm thinking silver (maybe) is a lot less valuable so you can actually haggle at the markets without a magnifying glas. At least keep the gold stashed for those big deal purchases.

One other thing ;
One word- Humanure.

The more succesful ones will be those who most quickly adapt and shed all their old preconceptions.

[masalai]

TTT good to see your post, - - My "thing" for gold includes silver, but I still regard both as for external trade... Internal community trade will be by way of exchange of goods/services such as eggs for grain or vegetables or chopping wood or fixing a tool or whatever and "metal-cash" only for trade outside your "community"....

Septic tanks (not the rhyming slang for citizens of USA this time) are capable of effectively treating human waste -

RO is a guaranteed way of producing potable water and will be needed at some stage a "gurney" that can produce around 400psi and be adjusted around that and a flow of 6 to 10 litres/minute will yield 40 to 100 litres/hour of potable water IF THE DEVICE IS CARED FOR AND PROPERLY MAINTAINED... (I will have a 60litre/hour unit on my boat with 2 x 40" membranes as the final filter, pre-filtered by several 5 and 10micron filters... Around Au$4,500 ~ Au$7,500)

[Tcubed]

First line, i see. But barter is soo cumbersome! I'm sure people will find some generally accepted item for internal transactions.

Second line. what wattage does your 60 l/hr device require?

[masalai]

http://www.stihl.com.au/Products/pro...m?iModelID=617 Here it is fitted with a 240VAC electric motor of about 1800 Watts consumption but 12 and 24VDC ones use substantially less (15A?) only guessing here as I feel a bit too lazy to deg through all the stuff in Google... The Marine stuff is around Au$12000 for around 60 litres/hour... Search for SPECTRA as one of the top line (most expensive) models... http://www.spectrawatermakers.com/newport/index.html

http://www.spectrawatermakers.com/ne...ex700_1000.htm uses 750W on mains (240VAC here in OZ) for 109 litres/hour and is almost fully automatic...

http://www.echotecwatermakers.com/ac...ers_yachts.htm

[masalai]

TTT haven't you heard of the neighbour coming over to borrow a cup of sugar? - that sort of thing... Then of course there is the "community credit system" where the unit is called a "banana" of a "Koala" or a "(MyTown)" and every member had a book where you wrote in it what amount you owe for a particular transaction and a central facility reconciles your position whenever you bring the book in for updating and charges you a small fee for the recording process... Many towns/communities started this around the time GST was introduced (No sale was conducted so no tax or something like that...)

Besides you will now have the time to wander around your community and get to know people you did not realise existed... Like your forefathers did before the ******* dreaded auto-mobile and that talking thing the telephone... and the Wireless - what next, we will have wires coming out our ears and never talk to the person next to you unless it is by this "wireless" device that will fry your brain and give you cancer and other nasty diseases...

[Tcubed]

Hmmmm.... 12K AU$ ?
Bit out of my range.
I'll stick to catching water off the roof with a big tank. (very cheap method)
Hanging a clear plastic sheet over the lip of a pond in the sun will create a pretty decent drip of distilled water out of any water for , well the price of a clear plastic sheet.
Both these can be done on a boat too, albeit on a smaller scale. But then on a boat there usually isn't too much of a garden to keep moist either.

[Tcubed]

Crossed post.
That is indeed getting increasingly popular across the globe.
One in england is called the XAT. Check it out on the net. There are a lot of others in a similar vein. AND IT HAS THE BANKSTERS/GOVERNMENT VERY CONCERNED. So concerned that it is essentially illegal in the US. (Surprised? remember the magic words 'the land of the freeee!')
There is a guy serving life right now for just such a thing. Was trying to help his community, not getting rich from it, but there you go.

__________

If you want to get away with theft or murder, GO BIG. EXTRA BIG. Like the fed.
Not even Madoff - 50 000 000 000 $ - was big enough.

[Frosty]

[quote=masalai
Besides you will now have the time to wander around your community and get to know people you did not realise existed... Like your forefathers did before the ******* dreaded auto-mobile and that talking thing the telephone... and the Wireless - what next, we will have wires coming out our ears and never talk to the person next to you unless it is by this "wireless" device that will fry your brain and give you cancer and other nasty diseases...[/QUOTE]

Can you bring your launch date forward a bit.

[Boston]

I just don't see a way to recover from this. The usa is trillions in debt with no assets to cover the loan. The world is clamoring to get off the dollar standard and the usa is hemorrhaging jobs faster than the high school prom queen can get her cloths off. Third world countries are selling off there peoples labor to the lowest bidder and no amount of productivity will make up the disparity between a $45 an hour artist at his craft and a 25C a day hack who wouldn't recognize a mistake unless it cost him his arm.

In the end some few pencil pushing child molesting politicians have sold out the middle class, that and destroyed the worlds financial balance in the process. Any particular reason we dont have these bastards hanging from the ropes they imported from china or is it that we are just all talk and no walk. I say its time for an armed violent revolution, and I say anything less is to good for the jack asses in charge of this disaster.

alls love and happiness
B

[masalai]

Frosty, I wish - - - Why do you not venture southwards, and supply your own foil hats, as it seems to be getting quite conspiratorial... and I also need 2 coconut oil expellers (without the steamer unit on top) and 2 hammer mills that could break up copra so we could go into business producing cold pressed coconut oil... all to be driven by engines via a pair of V belts (I have the engines (one for each unit )...

B, May you be blessed...

[Frosty]

[quote=Boston; Third world countries are selling off there peoples labor to the lowest bidder and no amount of productivity will make up the disparity between a $45 an hour artist at his craft and a 25C a day hack who wouldn't recognize a mistake unless it cost him his arm. B[/QUOTE]

Where do you get your information from? because its way from accurate.

Is China 3rd world because they are building steel mills and factories with the highest of technology. They have no choice to go high tech because they are not upgrading or replacing, just new builds.

Staff earn less because it costs less to live, accommodation and food is cheap. They dont expect to eat out at expensive restaurant as do American citizens who seem to think it normal.

There are corporate taxes but personal income tax is difficult to track. People are paid cash in hand monthly or by direct to their banks.

This concept seemingly embraced by most Westerners that Eastern labor is children sleeping under the machinery of their work place is put about propaganda by Western politicians and over zealous camera men to cover up the spiraling cost of living and the dysfunctional family life of the affluent Westerner and blaming your spiraling out of control inflation on the East.

My water bill is free!!! due to ingenious water management, and my electricity bill is 25/30 dollar per month, thats a normal 3 bed house with air con plasma tv ,washing machines , micro waves etc etc etc.

Cheap poor quality electric? Im sure the Generators are Western built.

I catch a bus to the airport 3 dollar --its 120 km away. Cinema air con 3 dollar. Pint beer in supermarket 50cents.

Meal for1 buffet sea food 3 dollar per head.

You need 45 dollar per hour to pay for the bus home.

Its not the Easts fault. Shouting "un level playing" field is not becoming of an Industrial country that supposedly embraces competition and free trade and is another nail in the coffin of your failure to keep USA a functional and contributory member of the world.

USA is unable to manage itself, it is in denial at this horrible pill it has to swallow. I personally have lost many thousands of dollars last year and this year from the worlds banks being dragged down the gutters due to Americas lies and fraudulent behavior. I suppose I will have more losses next year too if I don't loose the lot.

Maybe you could export if you made something with 220 V,-- or a car that was useful to people that did'nt earn 45 dollars per hour.

[masalai]

Frosty, Immigration of long-term residency procedures for a retired live-aboard boatie?

[Boston]

the basic Chinese worker doesn't have the luxury of a safe working environment, nor does his employer have to pay for a health plan or workman's comp, proper disposal of hazardous waist, unemployment insurance, transportation or the employed need pay school tax, car insurance or road taxes . The EPA would die of a heart attack if they saw the industrial waist coming out of the average Chinese factory which, by the way, are falling down, burning up or exploding at an alarming rate.
collapse because of snow in Wuhan, because of explosion in Dongxi, cause unknown in Shijiazhuang, a massive factory fire in Shenzhen.

and this article which simply has to be read to be believed

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A piece of heavy equipment at a steel plant in Tieling (Liaoning) broke off while transporting molten steel, killing at least 32 workers and injuring two others on Wednesday. The accident occurred at the Qinghe Special Steel Corp when a steel ladle “suddenly dropped and 30 tonnes of the liquid spilled out into a workshop five meters (16 feet) away,” according to a statement on the website of the State Administration of Work Safety. All 32 workers in the room were killed—the two ladle operators were injured.

The official Xinhua News Agency said earlier that the ladle fell on workers below but it wasn't clear if they were crushed or burnt. Given the high temperatures involved rescuers had to wait before they could reach the victims.

Industrial accidents like this one are not uncommon in China; in many cases they also affect people living around industrial plants. For instance, a plant producing triple super phosphate in Xiaozhaiba (Guizhou) leaked "a huge amount" of sulphur dioxide on Monday morning. Exposure to this colourless gas can lead to death in severe cases. However, the alarm was not raised immediately and the public was left unawares for some time. Making matter worse, the gas could not disperse quickly because of a heavy fog at the time.

Five teachers and about 135 students from two primary schools and a middle school later reported respiratory problems. And more than 300 villagers were later hospitalised in Xifeng County with similar symptoms and complaints.

Also on Monday 47 coal miners were trapped in three mines. In the Changcheng mine in Zhuzhou (Hunan), 12 people were trapped after the pit was flooded. In Baofeng (Henan) an explosion trapped 33 miners. Two other men were trapped when the illegal mine in which they were working collapsed in the city of Jixi (Heilongjiang).

In the first three months of 2007, 661 miners died in industrial accidents according to official sources.

In 2005 127,000 people died in a variety of industrial accidents across China, but many experts believe the real figure to be much higher.

Last January, nearly 3,500 people in the south-western city of Chongqing were evacuated after a mixture of methane and sulphurated hydrogen leaked from an abandoned gas well.

In response to the situation Chinese authorities have announced tighter controls. In 2006 the government pledged US$ 60 billion over the following five years to reduce the high death toll in coal mines and other dangerous workplaces. However, it does not appear to have made much difference yet. (PB)

there is simply not a level playing field and until there is there should be immediate halt in all trade with countries that do not require similar worker safety and pay standards.

B

[Frosty]

Obtain a non immigrant Visa from outside of Thailand, usually very simple in your country of origin. 50 years Or over, 800,000 baht in a Thai bank savings account 3 months prior to the conversion of the non immigrant visa to a 1 year retirement visa at the local Thia immigration office.

A letter from your savings account bank ( 200 baht) verifying the 800,000 and a passport size photo along with the easy appropriate form.

cost of 1 year conversion 1900 baht.

33 baht to the US dollar.

Every 3 months report and sign the book. Every year report to office with same or top up 800,000 baht and 1900 fee and passport photo.

You can obtain a re entry permit allowing travel outside of Thailand or a multiple at 3900 baht like I have.