[SeaGypsy]

Since most people here seem to think the USA and Europe are headed down the road to the third world; I thought to writ a little essay about it. I will draw from personal experience mostly gained in SE Asia over the last 20 years.

One of the biggest differences is what people mean when they say "Law and Order". Both are for sale to the highest bidder. Your connections make or break you and sometimes one after the other. It is much easier to get away with murder than shoplifting, partly because a watchfull teenage shop assistant can catch a thief, but good detectives make better criminals and crime pays.

Can you imagine having to give the cops gas money to go check something out? Normal, everyday stuff here. How about paying $10 for an all clear at a roadblock? Normal. Being locked up for failure to pay a hotel bill. Yep normal

When you buy a new vehicle they let you drive away uninsured and unregistered then you wait a few months for them to send you a plate. If you hit anyone it's 100% on your back, out of your pocket. If someone hits you, best they kill you because the insurance maximum is the cost of a funeral.

When you build a house or a business, that's exactly what you do; before even mentioning it to the government. Then you pay backdated planning approval fees. Try doing it the other way around it will cost you 3 times more and take 10 times longer.

If you are nice to your neighbours and local authorities you can become untouchable to national authorities. It is not at all uncommon to see police in uniform providing security for wanted criminals at public speaking rallies. People the police have sought for years appear on television doing interviews from their mountain hideouts.

People get killed over all kinds of things, mostly what comes out of their mouths. Making threats of violence is suicidal. If someone is seen by the locals as 'needing to be killed' and it happens, the death certificate is written up as heart failure with no mention of the bullet hole in the head.

Local politicians die if they don't tow the line, no waiting around for an election. Standing in politics means you and yours require 24 hour heavily armed gaurds. These and the police are the most likely source of your assasination or your loved ones kidnapping. This means you have to be brutal to survive.The same can happen just because you are too successful and have forgotten an expected generosity.

Relationships are very different to those in rich countries. People are naturally interdependent, there is generally no starvation until most people are staving. This is not to say life is not harsh, it can be, but it is not heartless. Relationship, how you relate to people is how your life goes. With most people scratching for enough to eat, very few rise to the top. Those born to money, with charisma to boot, are treated like gods. Other rich folks are either criminals or dependent on foreign income.
Nobody but nobody just looks after themself. Try that and it's game over pretty quick. Getting used to looking after a group of people is manatory if you have any means. The reciprococity is difficult to appreciate until you surrender to the situation.

People laugh and cry very easily, emotions are far less restrained. Yet domestic violence is much rarer than in the 1st world. Drugs and alcohol are available and dirt cheap by western standards, but are still seen as a mostly unnecessary luxury by most folks. Obvious druggies are dealt with abruptly most places, it's quite rare to see real droogies on the street. To be a drunk you have to work, there is no welfare to buy the next bottle and unless you have a mentally incompetent relative with too much money, you will have to stop drinking.

All of this adds up to a very different way of life. Some ways good, some ways bad.
I very much enjoy living in the 3rd world. I am not a rich guy here, but I am treated very nicely and feel very safe here. My children can play around the neighborhood, traffic speeds are based around bicycle speeds. Everyone watches out for their neighbour and each other's children especially. Authorities have always been courteous to me in a humourfull way even at times. I feel a great degree of spontanaeity and freedom to life here, a vibrancy missing in my home countries.

I wonder how community life is going now some pressure is coming to bear in the USA?
Is there some good coming out of the financial malaise?
What do people think third world America will be like?
Could such a slide be possible without utter chaos and blood on the streets?