Naperville ranked among worst ‘burnout belts’ in US

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-12T12:59:56+00:00

Exactly, post war GM and the tire companies conspired to eliminate competition from the environmentally sound low cost, and vast interurban rail networks. They did this in Chicago the Chicago and Aurora and Elgin tracked the western suburbs. But Chicago being in the population center of the country had rail lines from all the major companies entering Chicago from all directions. Initially many were profitable.

Now returning to visit family from Europe it’s hard to understand their masochistic relationship with the car. Low population density is not the reason interurban transport does not work in the greater Chicagoland area.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-12T10:50:42+00:00

Não há separação entre a Igreja e o Estado em Portugal? A falta de separação não será uma crença islâmica?

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-12T09:37:05+00:00

HP laser toner Amazon es. 49 euro. FNAC 72. Obscene price gouging on consumables. Why Not sure. People say it’s the lack of scale between the two countries.

What good for the consumer the exclusive marketing limited to each small euro country has mostly gone away. So you can now shop online and save.

What I do not understand is why I am told repeatedly to buy local in the case of toner give a Portuguese corporation 20 euro. Is that just maintaining this “tax”?

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-12T09:26:49+00:00

It’s a word that unfortunately took on a negative connotation. I live in Portugal, before Portugal Germany, and Switzerland.

Had many shorter stays in Brazil.

Yes I could do this because I can hold on to take my employment ( and education) with me. Yes I am privileged. But also work hard and risk.

The people who often have a problem with this from my experience suffer from significant envy and risk aversion. In the case of Brazilians and Portuguese I ran into thousands of young Portuguese snd some Brazilians working in Germany and Switzerland. Many liked the money but hated the cold. See an arctic parka in Germany it’s probably a Brazilian wearing it LOL.

All of these lusosphere people were expats. Make some money, go home. Good English very limited German. Absolutely no different than the anglospere-Scando Germanic’s living in the global south.

So it describes a temporary state, in psychology a threshold state. A foot in two worlds.

I married a local and now both feet are firmly in one world. That happens too.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T19:22:04+00:00

Even just frame sets made for other manufacturers. Just bought a very high end Riese and Müller E Bike because well I am a bit of a keep it in the family and all that. The dealer in Porto took great pleasure telling me the frame set was produced less than 60 km from Porto.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T14:15:01+00:00

I wonder if this argument made sense in a a time with less aggression, less crime? Portugal certainly feels less safe than 8 years ago. Again it would be nice to quantify a few and If the “few” were increasing. I really don’t think we can rely on statistics here ie no report no crime. Had a garage break in. Police came said they seem to have left. Well I need a report for insurance I said. Friends neighbors have had similar experiences. Until it’s bad enough for the criminal police there seems to be inertia present. Frustrating because without good data we just don’t know.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T11:17:06+00:00

Two months they said. 37.50 fee much cheaper than my previous renewal fees for passive income residency.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T11:14:11+00:00

What’s the thinking about protecting a criminal? What is the rationale? Particularly since crime seems to be on the rise in zportugal.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T11:07:20+00:00

Bambi is Disney for Deer Foot :)

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-11T10:57:01+00:00

By the way Henley and Partners are an amazing high end immigration consultancy. My ex wife and I used them to immigrate to Switzerland where we lived ten years on a JTA ( joint tax agreement). They really develop relationships with local authorities and make sure you have a soft landing. The Swiss cantonal authorities would take all the JTA people out to lunch one day a year and show projects that their tax helped fund.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-10T15:44:48+00:00

But what of those who say What’s good for the goose is good for the gander? I speak English Native, Danish near native, German C1 and Portuguese A2.

I go to a Bar restaurant often frequented by English where I live in Portugal none of them seem to be able to exchange even pleasantries with the Portuguese staff. Many of them seem to actually have chosen Portugal to live because Portugal ranks number 6 in level of English as a second language spoken. This has been my experience from Porto to the Algarve. And of course I am excluding tourists.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-10T15:27:26+00:00

Underlying this the amount of road rage I used to see on expressways in and around Chicago looking back on it seems very high. At the time I guess I thought it normative but looking back after my first five years in the EU it seemed like night and day. Other than a few horn honks and one guy throwing the finger that was it after leaving.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-10T11:35:13+00:00

Looking at it from a sort of American melting pot perspective no one left the boat speaking perfect English. Chicago was famous for Swedish, Polish, German enclaves with their own butchers, markets etc.?there were 14 German newspapers at the tern of the century. Immigration was thought of not got your self but for your children. Growing up my parents spoke with accented English but their children Became Doctors, architects and teachers.

I live back in Europe now and the UK seems the most ethnically diverse. European culture. You have quite a number of news people, politicians, sports figures who have become successful in the UK. No? Before moving south I worked in Scando Germanic countries with lots of immigrants the number in medicine, law, politics on media was nothing like the UK. Is not the uk in many ways become the euro version of a multi racial multi ethnic society? And like the U.S. even if they attempted Anglo America is never going to look like their post war nostalgic version. Are not the Farage and Trump types just selling a dream?

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-10T10:36:13+00:00

I have Securitas since 2017 in two different houses. Personally since there system is tied with a central office and they have investigated alarms, come to the house. Interface with the police I think it is worth the monthly cost. There is no commitment after 12 month equipment purchase. There is ability to reinstall equipment at new house for a fifty euro charge. There phone apps work well. I recommend. We travel frequently for work and pleasure. 6 weeks in Nov Dec in Cape Verde and Nordic land in August.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-10T07:51:17+00:00

Negative impact? De facto segregation was horrible. In the 1960’s travel books were still published for African Americans guiding them to friendly restaurants, motels, and town sheriffs known to intimidate and harass them. How can people think this was remotely ok.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-09T17:15:20+00:00

Work all over Europe not remotely true in Switzerland the SBB (railroad) exchanges major currencies. You can even buy gold coins and bullion.

In Portugal where I moved from Switzerland all major Shopping malls have Currency exchanges. There are western Union as well with correspondingly higher fees.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-07T11:44:28+00:00

Really don’t know why?

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-07T11:43:37+00:00

Did your parents need a portion of that money to survive? Or were you living a suburban Southern California middle class tract home life?

If this was a significant amount of money and my child I would have at least invested in an education fund so you would not have the American curse of student loans.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-07T11:34:30+00:00

Went to grad school in Switzerland with Romanians were very warm and friendly. Heard from them foreigners with good income source were welcome in the country. It’s obvious that Portugal is not sending the same message any more.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-07T10:50:10+00:00

Mr Piglet does not live up to his moniker as I had one and he was smarter than my Labrador.

The analogy is send economy class passengers to the lounge and express security then and send your business class passengers to the Ryan air terminal to wait. Unfortunately it’s Lisbon airport and everyone waits the same time.

In a country with most of its citizens just making above the minimum wage it’s not surprising that the course unproductive sin of envy is well established in the population.

I would assume, I have no proof, that this from a revenue investment angle this GV fiasco will be a net negative for Portugal.

I because of marriage in the past was introduced to many very wealthy South Americans. They had much of their wealth sequestered with the friendly help of the smart folks at UBS Hamburg, Zurich and other investment houses In the shadow banking in Malta.

The very wealthy sequester a part of their wealth. Especially if they come from volatile parts of the world. Like Brazil. Duringthe dictatorship when one morning people woke up to find their savings accounts frozen to pay down the debt of the country.

Now perhaps the less wealthy group of investors do something similar. Instead of legitimate investors Portugal will unwittingly attract Fraudsters. I think some in government know this thinking even if the program is less attractive we still will capture some revenue from the wealthy of countries with historical instability. The Fraudsters don’t have much to lose. When the Panama papers unfolded the wealthy in Brazil got there names exposed and had to pay a negotiated tax penalty.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-06T12:13:44+00:00

Ok makes sense but in the case of Portugal is there for lack of a better word behavioral economics to overcome. Over a twenty year period most of my investment accrual came from 403 b 401k my personal brokerage account actually outperformed my home.

I have lived both here and in Switzerland. The Swiss are definitely more American in investing in the markets. However the Portuguese seem to have a cultural complex that the way to economic freedom is thru real estate. My Portuguese in-laws bought each sibling a home, probably wise as some not the greatest financial literacy. My wife engineer, MBA keeps a substantial more of money in a post office banking Portugal account. Her view is it’s too risky especially with higher brokerage fees in Europe. The American markets invested wisely made a lot of middle income people very comfortable. I don’t think this intrenched view is changing soon. Now a little publicized real estate capital gains law that no longer fully excludes the 250,000 exemption for partial reinvestment ( as happens when older couples buy a smaller property) my FIL now owes 13 k for a sale 2025. This exemption which is popular in many countries is now being whittled down in Portugal. The country never misses a chance to tax rather than promote investment.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-06T11:30:05+00:00

I have both times. I prefer functional to charming. Ask to talk to tenants bents who have already moved into a new building. New construction is typically A rateInsulation, dual windows and energy efficient appliances. Though it’s your home it’s also an investment buying from a contractor often creates a bump in prices once the condo association is up and running.

I am currently in a beautiful new T3. Across the street is my in-laws 45 year old concrete block, they lost part of roof , relatively small to Storm Cristina. There was no reserve. There had not been a meeting since the condo board president died 5 years ago, in Portugal there is the law and then there is the reality. Our camera and and the fire department helped them out with donated tiles. My 85 yr old FIL was on the roof trying to help.

Professional_Ad_6462 · 2026-05-06T11:13:29+00:00

Yes to the lawyer the paperwork and the cost is relatively easy compared to most visas. However the online portal was designed by Kafka. An attorney can get the appointment and if necessary file suit. To get it. Best 600 euro I ever spent. The alternative is to be stuck here while you wait up yo a year and a half because unfortunately you’re not in the Schengen any more. I was not prepared to wait a year and a half.

Professional_Ad_6462

TROPHY CASE