Reply #62: Family ties are the most difficult part of our plan

[Goldstein1984]

My wife and I want to expatriate when we retire. We're researching several countries right now, but a friend has un convinced that the non-tourist parts of Thailand are the best options. My particular skill sets(science/engineering/environmental/safety/languages) lend themselves to business opportunities in those parts, so semi-retirement might be more interesting. I'm learning Thai right now in preparation for a one-month visit to their this December.

But we will be leaving three children and four grandchildren behind. We plan to maintain a "residence" in Alaska for tax and pension purposes. We'll come back each year to spend May-July with family.

American industry will continue to suffer until free trade is abolished. The list of products and companies my wife and I boycott because they've closed U.S. manufacturing plants and sent the jobs outside is becoming huge. It's getting harder and harder to find American-made goods, so we resort to Internet sites to get them, only to be condemned by friends who work in local retailers. It's a very tangled web, and that is by design.

The only way to strike at corporations is through economic boycotts of products and services, which will hurt the working poor on the front lines of delivering those goods and services. We have been assimilated, but all Borg are not created equal.

The green jobs are already going overseas. I was recently offered a position as Director of Safety with one of the larger solar companies in the U.S. There current Director, a friend of mine, was taking a project manager position for their India operations. I was advised that I would probably be asked to relocate myself within two years. I told them India isn't of interest, but call me the moment you need someone in Thailand or Central/South America.

The entire political-social-economic system is being managed by the Few at the expense of the Many for the benefit of the Few. U.S. citizens are being incorporated into a global peasant class to be exploited. In my opinion, only a fool would hope for improvement as long as business controls both parties of a two-party system. Our political and economic elite have more loyalty to each other, and to the elite around the globe, than they have to their own citizens.