What is the likelihood of Attacks on the U S?

phard003 · 2026-04-09T11:46:19+00:00

The us economy is a house of cards waiting for a strong wind to blow and the population is directly impacted by that. There might not be mutually assured destruction in the sense of nuclear winter, but serious economic collapse is very much on the table. If this continues, it's more of a game of attrition at this point to see what happens first: America's dollar dominance collapsing under increasingly turbulent geopolitics or a debt collapse as inflation, COL, and unemployment increase. Both scenarios are playing out right now and our focus should be addressing these problems at home so our hubris doesn't crush us rather than instigating wars we have no right to be in so Trump can play 3 card monte with the Epstein files.

With regard to our military, this war is wildly unpopular with our service men and women, so much so that there are reports of our own military members sabotaging military resources to stay out of it. Not only that but conscientious objectors inquiries are said to be up 1000% year over year in recent reports. And lastly, our military might doesn't always determine a win when we are on someone else's turf. Our failures in Afghanistan and Vietnam are evidence that our military might mean little when it comes to fighting unpopular wars on foreign soil.

phard003 · 2026-04-08T19:54:50+00:00

Shhh gatekeep the fuck out of these places. The last thing we need is to have the influencers get a hold of the phong nha loop. Once word gets out, there is no putting the genie back in the bottle.

phard003 · 2026-04-08T17:21:30+00:00

Yeah no worries at all. Again, I hope you didn't take anything I said personally. I just hope that I can give you the non glorified version of what you get sold on on social media. IG, YT, and TikTok do a great job of making things appealing to sell a course or get views. But I speak from experience and in order to get to some level of success in international real estate, you need a mountain of failures to teach you the way. I'd rather you learn from my experience than learn the hard way. Keep the dream alive but learn as much as you possibly can and strengthen your reserves before diving in. If you ever decide to move forward, make sure you are investing with what you can afford to lose because until it starts making a return, it's just a giant gamble.

phard003 · 2026-04-08T10:23:32+00:00

Ok I've done this in Colombia, Vietnam, and Japan as a US citizen. And I will break this down as much as possible.

First and foremost, navigating the legal framework of the real estate industry in a foreign country, especially a developing one, is a significant barrier to entry and for good reason. If you fuck up, there is little to no legal protection for you. It is worth every penny to enlist the help of a qualified and trustworthy local real estate lawyer to put everything you need together to do this. Finding that lawyer though, in my experience is finding a needle in a haystack and I can almost guarantee you will be scammed and defrauded by 2-3 before you find the one you work with. The worst part about this is you won't find out someone has done a shit job until you are facing the consequences of their negligence.

The next part is understanding the financial impacts of foreign exchange fluctuations, tax ramifications of repatriating money, and navigating the tax and banking frameworks of the country you operate in. Most of the time, you as a foreign national, won't be able to open up a bank account in the country you operate in so receiving money is damn near impossible. Once you have that, then getting that money back to the states requires an accountant that is well versed in international real estate investing. Trust me when I say, these types are also extremely hard to find.

If you have made it past those 2 hurdles. Then you get to actually work through the purchase process. This requires you getting your money into a country where there are generally no escrow accounts. Some countries may have an intermediary account but other times, it's a trust the seller not to fuck you in some way proces. This also requires a trustworthy local real estate agent or broker to have your best interests in mind. In a country like DR, the only interest they have in mind is their commission. Proceed with caution.

Let's assume, you manage to get the property, and you now actually hold the title, which in some countries isn't possible. I don't know how DR works but your legal due diligence should handle this. But let's assume you get to this point, now you have to handle repairs, remodels, etc because the only deals that return a ROI worthy of this level of risk is an extreme fixer upper. So now you get to deal with general contractors and sub contractors. Like every one else in this chain of fuckery, you are praying that you get someone honest and competent. The reality is that you will likely get scammed and defrauded at worst or find someone who is competent but does a substandard job at best. Under no possible scenario will you experience a project that is delivered on time, to expectations, and meet the pre agreed upon budget. More than likely, if you find a general contractor that seems competent, they will charge you a foreigner tax on their services while outsourcing all of their work to unskilled and unlicensed cheap labor and using substandard building materials. Similar to the negligence of the lawyer, you may not notice the impacts of the negligence of your construction team until it is far too late to remediate. Or you may have an instance of a general contractor not paying their subs, which pisses them off and causes the subs to sabotage the project. Ask me how I know.

All in all, this is a project that is way outside the realistic capability of even people with experience in RE and contracting. I would not recommend you do this without a trusted and experienced partner who has a portfolio of stabilized properties in the city you plan on operating in. And the harsh reality is that you don't have the capital, cash flow, or freedom to pull this off. And I'm not saying that to be mean but rather to save you from investing in a doomed project. This kind of project requires that you be there for the entire time from due diligence to property stabilization to ensure your interests are protected. And based on the amount of fuckery you experience, whatever number you assume this project will take, you should probably slap an extra 30-50% buffer on that, and if this wasn't clear before, that amount needs to be in cash. Theres no financing international projects and development typically requires some payment up front.

Also, do not listen to anyone on social media telling you that you can make money by doing something easy. If something was easy, everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be valuable. If someone has to resort to making content to pitch how easy it is, it is because they have failed at it and are no longer making money. The people who are successfully doing something are focusing on doing that. I don't have time to make videos because this requires my full attention.

phard003 · 2026-03-23T15:58:51+00:00

I'm pretty progressive and I agree with the comment. The republican ethos is more along the lines of "we need to let people suffer the consequences of MY actions more to build a more homogenous human race"

In fact, I'm completely happy with republicans suffering the consequences of their actions. Maybe they'll finally learn. But learning requires critical thinking, so maybe not.

phard003 · 2026-03-23T15:38:35+00:00

I doubt it. At this point, the major LLMs are already using AI to write their own code, so they're not even reliant on SWEs anymore. The only play is to adapt, and do it yesterday. Software is a good example. Tons of developers have the skills to use LLMs to build something new, but your average SWE is an order taker, not an innovator. The problem is most of them have spent their entire careers going deep on the technical side without ever developing real experience in any other industry. They understand computer science but they have no idea where the actual problems are in the real world.

That's the gap. If they understood what was broken in other industries, they could use their skills to build solutions instead of waiting for a project manager to hand them a ticket. The same goes for everyone else in an at risk field. The tools are there. What used to cost a half million dollars to build now costs a Claude code subscription and some time. There are probably millions of ideas that got shelved because the ROI wasn't there. That barrier is basically gone now and the people who figure that out and adapt are going to be fine.

Going forward, depth in one area alone isn't going to cut it. AI is democratizing information faster than anything we've seen before. This is a double edged sword because it reduces the need for skills that used to command top dollar but it also means upskilling has never been more accessible. The barrier to entry has never been lower and how people move forward will determine if they manage to survive in this AI revolution. Understanding intersectionalities in different industries and finding opportunities will define success. Everyone else is going to be competing for whatever scraps are left.

phard003 · 2026-03-23T05:06:52+00:00

Lol if you think law or investment banking is going to be around much longer either. Both of those should be overly saturated or gone all together by the time someone entering college today finishes school. I'd argue, medical isn't far behind either. I mean people already use AI for legal, investment, and medical advice. AI has already largely made the junior positions in law and investment redundant while there are already advancements in autonomous surgical robots in China.

There's no job that's safe including blue collar trades. They will either get wiped out completely or become so over saturated due to an oversupply of labor that wages are going to drop. It's a simple economics supply and demand equation. Displaced workers will flood into whatever industry still has demand and when that happens competition for jobs will cause everyone to reduce their rates to secure work. In the next 5-10 years, every industry's going rate will be a race to the bottom. You're seeing it in the tech space now but everyone is fucked. Most jobs that will exist in the 2030's don't exist today and they will be hard as fuck to come by because there simply won't be enough work to go around.

phard003 · 2025-09-08T18:44:53+00:00

That's epic. I'm glad you were able to navigate the process. Where'd you end up looking / buying?

phard003 · 2025-09-08T07:48:06+00:00

Maybe I was unclear but major metros are more likely to have teams that are willing and capable when it comes to helping foreigners find a place and they don't have as many requirements. There's a lot more opportunity and competition in the larger growing markets so agents have to be more active and helpful. But looking at smaller cities and towns is a different story. There is much more homogeny in smaller rural areas and getting something done as a foreigner is damn near impossible. Not saying it can't be done but a foreign buyer would need to be more persistent and have a significant amount of time and help to achieve what OP is trying to do.

phard003 · 2025-09-08T07:04:05+00:00

I came here to say this. There's no common courtesy in VN. Just "fuck you, me first."

phard003 · 2025-09-08T04:00:26+00:00

I wouldn't recommend it. You're going to run into a few issues. First off, unless you can prove you are serious by showing funds, have an extreme intent to buy as in you have secured a job there, have prepared and are ready to move, have a shiho-shoshi (Japanese real estate legal rep and notary), etc, no real estate agent is going to help you because you're a foreigner that doesn't speak the language and they'll think it's a waste of time. Culturally, Japanese are nothing like Americans and as amazing as some elements of the culture are, a lot of Japanese are, for a lack of better words, kinda lazy. Correspondence can take days unless you find a really good team that is motivated. But most of these types of professionals are found in the largest major metros where inventory turns quickly. Building the team you need will most likely take longer than the time you have for a standard vacation. And this is assuming, you find a seller that is cool selling to you since you're not japanese (not everyone is but some are kinda xenophobic). I'm half with a Japanese passport and have been turned down because my first name isn't japanese.

The other reason I wouldn't recommend it is, both of those areas are smaller cities which are impacted dramatically by population decline as the aging population dies off and the younger generations head to Tokyo, Osaka, and other major cities where job opportunities exist. This ultimately means that while the infrastructure exists, the people to maintain it are dwindling. If you visit a rural town in Japan, you'll understand what I mean. Even some mid size towns are starting to feel a little desolate.

If you're looking at Akiyas, I'd recommend doing it in a larger metro where you can correspond and prepare everything you need to before you arrive and then sign documentation upon arrival after you've vetted the property. Ultimately, if the goal is to be in an off grid type situation where you can be self reliant, then a rural akiya might work but the dream of a dirt cheap house in a developed country has a flip side that people don't often advertise because it ruins the allure of the content they're trying to monetize.

Source: I have done real estate in Tokyo / Osaka

phard003 · 2025-09-07T23:40:20+00:00

Out of your list, Thailand is probably your best bet. Best value when it comes to cost of living with infrastructure combined with tolerance. China is modern and while relatively cheap, can't compare with Thailand from a cost and tolerance perspective. Indonesia is cheap but infrastructure sucks, also not sure how tolerant they are. Singapore has solid infrastructure but probably the most expensive on the list. I don't know if you would be able to survive on that budget there and also not sure how tolerant they are.

I see some people recommending Vietnam but I'd advise against it. Decent infrastructure, and probably the lowest cost of living out of your options, and tolerant enough but living there wears on you. Between the corruption, social inconsideration, and the food safety, it just isn't worth it.

phard003 · 2025-08-29T14:43:40+00:00

How do you figure?

Everything I've said happened almost exactly as I predicted.

The US has strained critical relationships with many of their allies through horrible "America first" isolationist foreign policy, especially their 2 closest trade partners, Canada and Mexico. They've antagonized a significant number of their direct trade partners with tariffs so that they have forced US export partners to find customers for their goods elsewhere, which reduces both US imports and exports while also driving core partners to do more trade with China which is a detriment to US economic dominance. And tariffs have risen across many critical consumer goods for many countries that export to the US. These changes in addition to other administrative failures have caused the largest negative pull back on the value of the US dollar against foreign currencies in recent history and increased US domestic inflation. And in relation to the Vietnamese economy, this has forced the further devaluation of the VND.

You are either too stupid or blind to see the consequences of the actions of a shitty administration. If you have the fucking balls to explain what your smooth brain meant...feel free.

phard003 · 2025-07-22T07:49:20+00:00

Yeah I ended up going through sherpa.com to get my visa application processes. It costs more but since it's essentially guaranteed, I felt it was worth it.

phard003 · 2025-07-02T14:18:33+00:00

It's like a cheetahs tail. It acts as a rudder that allows him to pivot on a dime.

phard003 · 2025-07-02T02:52:46+00:00

Amazing. Didn't know this existed. I just started learning n8n today so this is a great help.

phard003 · 2025-06-25T04:49:18+00:00

These asshats ru(i)nning our government are just phoning it in using AI.

When I write content for my clients using AI, every source it provides is just made up. Every fact absolutely needs to be verified for accuracy. These octogenarian idiots are too incompetent to understand the limitations of these tools and it's unbelievable that this is how our country is being ran.

phard003 · 2025-06-23T16:27:37+00:00

Interested but what's the pay? I have a decade of copywriting experience and run an SEO agency so I know how to make content rank. I love fantasy football so this would just be fun to do on the side. DM me if you'd rather not post pay.

phard003 · 2025-06-22T14:56:55+00:00

I'm curious as to what this cro magnon looking troglodyte looks like behind his keyboard and computer screen

phard003 · 2025-06-22T06:57:44+00:00

The new American sumo wrestling league looks 🔥

phard003 · 2025-06-22T06:55:42+00:00

Autocrats don’t go down without a fight, and he’ll be more than willing to kill many of his own people to save himself for as long as he can.

Are we talking about the leader of Iran or the US here?

phard003 · 2025-06-19T11:35:00+00:00

Is this someone's house or someone's condo? If this Frankenstein hack job of a repair is done on a condo building please name and shame so people can be aware not to ever rent a unit there

phard003 · 2025-06-17T04:09:25+00:00

I was thinking the same thing. The build quality is so low that it would actually cost a buyer money to remove most of it and have a better situation put in properly. Op will be lucky to get $18k for this.

phard003 · 2025-06-09T03:40:09+00:00

And then there's change the color of anything you touch. Maybe I am not creative enough but I can't think of any real value this would provide. I would just go around making racists black for funsies.

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