We checked the list. We checked it twice. Nope. And still nope. Nowhere on the 2016 Forbes Richest Billionaires List could your editor find his name. Alas…
Yes, Truth & Plenty is a free publication (and we mean for it to be worth every penny!)…but we’re also a young publication, full of naïve hope and cheery aspiration.
We’ll have to wait until next year’s Forbes list to see how we’re getting on.

Today we begin a little foray into the subject of systemic, wide-scale collapse.
The currency…the economy…society at large…
Bank accounts freeze. Welfare systems stop paying out. Food distribution lines are cut. Emergency “services”(police, fire, ambulances) stop answering the phone.
The whole shebang. It could all go…poof!

We begin today’s yarn with a hard-won lesson from the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, East Africa. On a cloudy afternoon, late in the dry season, a plucky young mzungu (white man) arrived at the foot of Africa’s highest peak, ready for a leisurely afternoon hike with his wife. To save the hapless fool from embarrassment, we’ll call him “John Bauman” (with apologies to anyone of that particular name).

It’s another sunny summer’s day here in the “Paris of the South.” Lush Jacaranda trees line the streets around our neighborhood. Their gnarled branches stretch upward to catch the light. An impressive array of hanging plants dangle from apartment balconies. Vines creep along the walls.

Your editor is a sucker for a lost cause…especially when that cause is his own! We received a ton of encouraging reader mail over the weekend. (Thanks to everyone who wrote in!) It seems our theme of “back to basics” living is catching on…even if only at the margin. People sense something is not quite right with “the system”…but they are unsure as to what—if anything—they can do about it. They want a freer, more independent life…but where to start?

Why is the easy life so difficult to achieve? It should be simple enough, right? To have the freedom to live how and where you choose. To be your own boss. To spend your time doing the things you want to do…instead of the work you need to do, just to make ends meet.

If there is an idea too absurd for Modern Man to go in for…we have yet to hear about it. Wacky cults… Doomsday conspiracies… Elvis sightings…For every nut job theory and half-baked cause you come across, there are likely to be a dozen people standing in line, waiting to sign up for it.

It’s another fine day here in South America. Or at least, it looks that way from where we sit. Outside our office window—on the fifth floor of an old, French-style apartment building—we can see across the street to the neighboring balconies. They are stacked like little stages, one atop the other. Vignettes play out on each of them.

“Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” — Ibn Battuta, medieval explorer (1304-1369) We pause our regular program today to welcome some new readers, mostly from our sister publication over at International Living. We’re excited to have the opportunity to share our thoughts and ideas with you. And knowing you’re an International […]

It is a warm summer’s afternoon here in the “Paris of the South.” Locals are slowly returning to the city after their yearly pilgrimages to the seaside. Drifting back into the capital, they appear windswept and freshly scorched, testament to many hours spent tanning on beaches and by hotel pools, no doubt. They spill onto the footpath between cafés…gesticulate passionately when arguing over parking spaces…and talk at excited volumes about their vacations.

“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”—Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte (Though probably coined by French author Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle) Lies…treachery…deceit. So stand the crimes of which History is hereby accused…aided and abetted, no doubt, by those who wrote it! When we left off Monday, we were rambling about a dupe, a scam, […]

Our beat here is how to achieve a truer, more fulfilling existence…one that does not depend on the accumulation of trinkets and gizmos, but that stands alone as worthy and valuable in and of itself.