In a nutshell, a PT merely
arranges his or her paperwork in such a way that all governments consider
him a tourist. A person who is just “Passing Through”.
The advantage is that being thought of by government officials as a person
who is merely “Parked Temporarily”,
a PT is not subjected to taxes, military service, lawsuits, or persecution
for partaking in innocent but forbidden pursuits or pleasures. Unlike most
citizens or subjects, the PT will not be persecuted for his beliefs or
lack of them. PT stands for many things: a PT can be a “Prior
Taxpayer”, “Permanent Tourist”,
‘Practically Transparent’, “Privacy
Trained”, “Party Thrower”, “Priority Thinker”, “Positive Thinker”, “Prepared Totally”, “Paranoid Together”
or “Permanent Traveler”

Read history and you’ll find
human society is much like a river. At first it flows straight. A torrent
of water breaks through seeking the shortest route to the sea. It goes
in more or less straight line downhill. Then, every river or creek gradually
bends like a snake. The great mathematician, Albert Einstein once wrote
a paper explaining the mathematical reasons why water can’t help winding
and turning in every greater complexity. Depending on river flow and terrain,
there will be many variations; shallows, rapids, eddies, branches, even
dead-end ponds or lakes. Life forms grow and adapt to the changing river.
Usually changes are imperceptible. Every once in a while there is a big
flood. Then for a time, the river flows relatively straight again. For
a little while.

In society, groups of human
beings start off with simple rules which gradually develop into even more
complex systems. Some members of the group benefit at the expense of others.
Sooner or later, bends and kinks are eliminated by a major change in the
government form. This can be the result of war, epidemic, or simply exhaustion.
But surely as a river develops bends, a new bureaucracy will eventually
grow.

What is perceived as an onerous
burden to one person (a tax?) is perceived as a career opportunity to the
tax collector. Thus, a good number of people at any time believe they are
living in the best of all possible worlds at the best of all possible times.
Simultaneously, others feel oppressed. Someone with the PT mentality who
isn’t living the PT life will perceive this situation as intolerable. “Everything
is going to hell. Nothing is as good as it used to be.”

Simply that some people in
any society (or fish in a river) will have it good (or bad) some of the
time. Most of the people will have it good (or bad) most of the time. A
few people will seem to have it very good all of the time. As I said in
PT, happiness is a state of mind, a perception. Your reality is not necessarily
my reality.

In Joseph Stalin’s time,
nobody could deny that from a personal freedom and material point of view,
Joe himself (materially at least ) had it pretty good — even though no
one else in the Soviet Union lived as well as he did. But I venture to
say that if we asked Joe in 1950 if he was happy, he’d disregard the material
aspect to focus on the fact that is life and the political system he ran
was in constant danger. He survived only by deporting, jailing and murdering
a few million of his (perceived) enemies every year.

Today in Russia, there is
a new system offering vastly more economic opportunity and personal freedom.
There are lots of newly rich Russians who for the first time in 75 years
have the legal right to engage in commerce, travel and communications with
foreigners. At the same time, in modern Russia, there is also more personal
danger to the non-political guy on the street from violent criminals, and
from economic circumstance. Would you be happy there?

Achieving stability, security
and prosperity (or whatever social goals of a large group of people in
general agree upon) plus encouraging individual freedom always involves
a balancing act. Sometimes the main goal of a large group of people is
enforcing certain religious beliefs. You can never please all the people
and so, there is constant tinkering.

One way to read current events
in trend settings countries like the U.S.A., where more and more people
are being jailed for less and less (in the way of offences), is a decline
in personal freedom. But a decline in freedom for those in jail can be
interpreted as an increase in freedomfor those outside. Those not incarcerated
are free from disturbance by those offenders sent away. Few people complain
about the incarceration of categories of bad people that they themselves
do not feel they fit into.

A PT by definition is a non-conformist
in a highly regulated, highly taxed, first world society. Thus a PT must
adapt in a special way. “How do I cope?” you ask. “How do I get myself
and my family a material lifestyle better than anyone else or at least
better than average?”

Merely asking this question
would be offensive to a socialist who wants all people to be ‘equal’. “How
do I avoid conscription, confrontation, imprisonment and perhaps even death
at the hands of my own government?” (This question is possibly treason
in certain locations).

The answer for a PT is not
difficult. Figure out what kind of behaviour is being rewarded in the town
(or country) where you live, and what kind of behaviour is being punished.
Then take the obvious path to make more money, sex, power, immortality,
glory or whatever it is that you think you need. Obviously you must avoid
activities or behaviour that gets you into trouble locally. If you can’t
exist comfortably where you are, or can’t get what you want where you live;
then look for opportunities (and restrictions) elsewhere in the world.
Consider a physical move to where greater opportunities exist. Your particular
river may have too many bends for your taste, but for the foreseeable future
there will always be plenty of over rivers. Most fish are attached to a
particular river, but you can choose to move to the environment that suits
you best.

In some countries, entrepreneurs
are richly rewarded. In the USA this is still true, but more so in unregulated,
new fields of endeavour like say, computers. It is hard (but not impossible)
to go to jail for coming up with the best selling original innovation in
software or hardware. Try to be innovative in American or Swiss banking
and you will be breaking a million and one rules.

In countries like the Philippines
and Thailand, it pays better to be a politician or army officer than a
businessman. In Iran or anyplace where religious know nothings are in control,
being a traditional community religious leader is less dangerous. It leads
to respectability power and a good standard of living. You must match your
personality and talents to a community that appreciates (or at least tolerates)
you. Thus, the question to be concerned with is not “Where is the world
heading?” but rather, “Where in the world should I be heading?”

The world’s communities are
heading in a myriad of different directions — all at the same time. This
is where the PT concept comes into play. By identifying several countries
or communities where your favourite diversions or perversions are socially
acceptable, you will avoid going to jail. If you like to smoke grass, do
it in the Netherlands where it is legal. Obviously if you enjoy booze, don’t
go to the Muslim world. The key is to go to those locations where you can
legally and openly do what you love most. If you want to earn a lot of
money, or have power over other people, there are places in the world where
you are far more likely to succeed than other’s.

Having more than one passport,
and an open mind is all that you need to make that vital difference to
the amount of ‘quality’ you get out of life. You can be a Bad Guy! It doesn’t
really matter that ecologists make life difficult for real estate developers
in your particular suburb. There are plenty of nice places in the world
to develop (or depending one one’s point of view, despoil).

Ecology isn’t fashionable
in Africa. Even if you are a homicidal maniac, you can always find some
place in the world to be hired as a mercenary and hack away at innocent
victims. And if you don’t want to be an innocent victim, as a PT you can
always go and live somewhere that is relatively safe from violent crime
(like Monaco, New Zealand, Japan or
Liechtenstein).

It is silly (in my opinion)
to say thing like ‘individual freedom is being eroded all over the world,’
It simply isn’t true. There are different sorts of freedom and different
sorts of slavery going on in hundreds of different places.

One can have a Swiss Family
Robinson sort of freedom by becoming hermits on an uninhabited island.
Living with or near other people always involves some compromises and some
advantages. My idea of an ideal place to live is where I pay little or
no taxes, don’t have to risk getting my head shot off in any wars and I
have a first class Chinese take-away nearby. We can get what we want by
living in any one of a dozen prosperous tax havens.

As a PT, you can expand your
place of living options to virtually any locality. Unless you are an American,
you needn’t renounce and you don’t even need two passports. Australian
PTs live invisibly in New Zealand and Kiwis live in Oz. Any European can
live indefinitely and invisibly in any other European country. The PT,
being perceived by local cops and bureaucrats (if perceived at all) as
a Passing Through Tourist who minds
his own business, keeps a low profile, and avoids trouble. It is inconceivable
that any other member of my family could ever be conscripted into any military
service, jailed for any offence, or sent a bill for income tax. In any
of the places I have lived as a PT over the dozen years, if there was the
merest whiff of trouble, I was off like Bambi. The only time I had to move
was when I made the mistake of confiding my PT status to my mail-drop operator.

To be a successful PT, your
status and PT life should be your most closely guarded secret. But that’s
my point of view. General Colin Powell would no doubt say that he found
freedom and a satisfying career in the military when other doors of opportunity
were shut to him because of his race or background. General Powell is not
a PT and surely wouldn’t want to join our ranks any more than we would
want to join the US army.

Fact to remember; most people
in the world are not PT material. Over half are directly or indirectly
employed or supported by the government! They wouldn’t go for a PT style
existence even if they could. If they thought about us, which we hope they
won’t, it would be to classify PTs as Penitentiary Targets.

Not even all millionaires
are potential PTs. An individual (one of my consulting clients) became
a PT and bitterly regrets it. He cashed out of a multi-million dollar business,
obtained another passport, picked up all his chips and moved to another
country where he took up residence with one of the world’s most beautiful
and pleasant women. Yet he complains that his kick in life was having the
prestige (and problems) that came with a lot of employees, a huge income,
and a big, visible lifestyle. His old life included recognition he misses.
Stuff like giving parties for the local lights, photos and a mention in
the town’s society pages. ‘Now,’ he says, ‘I am a rich nobody!’. He finds
the PT life boring. How about you?

Unlike this client, once
I had enough money to live well, I found more satisfying things to do than
running a business. My business career was a stepping stone, not something
I wanted to do until I croaked in my office swivel chair. It was no thrill
or satisfaction to spend most of my time defending inevitable private lawsuits
and fighting public regulatory agencies. I found being a recognised local
celebrity was a royal pain in the butt. Obviously there are different strokes
for different folks. It’s also a function of age. At 20-35 maybe you need
to make your mark on the world. At 55 maybe you love and read more.

Princess Di (who is younger
than the typical age at which people decide to become PTs) apparently most
of all, fears being sidelined out of the public eye. This writer feels
the other way ‘around’. Why? For lots of reasons. One is that people in
the public eye are envied. There are and always have been non-entities
lurking around. They want to harm those they envy. Little punks with lethal
weapons stalk the rich and famous. Other threats are litigants, bureaucrats
or journalists who can and will cut you down with lethal paperwork.

Notoriety, display or anything
that attracts envy (or the other side of the coin, admiration) is to be
avoided, at least by myself. Look at what happened to John Lennon. He never
hurt anyone! The guy who shot him had no connection with him at all.

My personal experience is
that when I drove a ten year old sturdy and reliable rustbucket, I never
once had a problem. But, upon trading it for a shiny new red Mazda sports
car, the perceived glamour of this car, attracted vandals, even in Monaco.
As a result of my own personal experiences, my PT rule is to no longer
partake of any conspicuous (i.e. visible) consumption. No flaunting of
wealth or possessions, period.

That doesn’t mean that I
don’t go to Joel Robushon’s, the world’s best restaurant in Paris, or get
a high price massage. You can, and maybe you should, rent a high priced
apartment in a high security building.

Going out for a long walk
with my lady-love, my rule is she doesn’t drip diamonds (not even fake
ones) nor gold chains. Neither of us wears an expensive watch. Nor does
she wear form fitting sexy clothes. We make a big effort to look like poverty
personified: Mr and Mrs Dumpy, stumbling out for their evening shuffle.
Result? No unwelcome attention!

One clear requirement for
PT freedom and mobility is either a net worth that enables you to live
off your assets, or a portable occupation that allows you to earn money
without licenses, permits or a permanent place of business. In my travels
I’ve met street musicians, computer programmers and English teachers who
are PTs though they may not no it. My report “PT”, identifies a lot of
portable jobs.

The outlook for PTs is good.
Even if places like the U.S.A. attempt to impose an exit tax on assets,
there will always be ways for people, who make an effort, to move themselves
and most of their assets to another country. In the old South Africa, rich
people who wanted to expatriate assets and themselves often build yachts.
They bought art works, jewellery, stamp collections and other portable
wealth. Then they simply sailed off into the stars.

A small percentage but large
number of Germans and Italians (Jewish and otherwise) were able to exit
Europe for the U.S.A. and South America. They saw (as almost anyone could
see ) that war was in the air and things were going to get worse before
they got better. People killed or imprisoned by governments usually have
years of warning and plenty of signals that it is time to leave.

A good friend of mine who
was in the midst of a crisis didn’t leave. Why? Because his wife insisted
on staying with her old friends, furniture and crockery. He will loose
is freedom if he allows this foolishness. Another friend said he’d rather
go to jail for twenty years than be separated forever from his old gang.
Their is an old French saying ‘Chaque un à son gout’. Each
to his own taste. Indeed, I prefer to be “Prepared
Thoroughly”.

Some people (probably the
vast majority) think that the centre of the universe is their home town.
They actually think that they couldn’t make it, or be happy anywhere else.
Generations of people stay in hell holes or refugee camps where life itself
is a terrible struggle. It is clear to them (from other who do escape),
that a little effort and initiative would make a new life possible. But
the majority don’t make the move. They don’t seek to better themselves.
Why? The vast majority prefer the certainty of misery to the uncertainty
of change.

For people living in relatively
prosperous countries like today’s U.S.A. or Scandinavia, some of the most
wealthy and privileged will perceive that they are slaves living in gulags,
birds in guilded cages. It is clearly a question of perception. But by
becoming a PT and taking advantage of the opportunities available, any
person can physically live wherever they want and escape most of the perceived
negatives in their life. Finding freedom in an unfree world is possible
if you simply decide what it is that you want to avoid, and what is important
to you. Then, you take the steps to go where you want and do the things
you want to do.

A very wealthy American guy
named Dart who made his billions from foam coffee cups must have read ‘PT’.
But for all his billions he didn’t get any intelligent advice on his PT
transition. He moved to Belize.

Had he spoken to me, I’d
have told him that Belize was a dump. It would be one of the last places
a wealthy PT would invest or deal with government officials. Dart apparently
wanted to emulate one of the characters in the ‘Passport Report’ who ultimately
returned (as a tax free diplomat) to his original U.S.A. place of residence.
So Dart got his Consul General appointment from Belize. Then the U.S.A.
wouldn’t recognise him in his new role. His main problem? He didn’t do
his programme in a quiet and low profile way. Whilst I never met Mr Dart,
I imagine he used high priced big lawyers and accountants. This modus operandi
almost guarantees litigation and problems.

A future PT doesn’t disclose
his PT intentions to anyone in his home country, especially lawyers, accountants,
politicians, journalists, or potentially hostile ex-wives. We won’t go
over the motivations of all of these categories but a lawyer’s interest
is in making continuing fees and getting publicity to generate new future
clients. This is exactly what a PT needs to avoid.

The big move, when it comes,
is essentially a divorce from the system. It’s an annulment from the old
country’s bureaucrats (government employees), lawyers (officers of the
court) and accountants (IRS collection agents). It should cut you off physically
from any potential litigants, especially alimony seeking women.

Dart could have quietly moved
his money to safe havens so that Big Brother couldn’t ever figure out what
was where. His expatriation would have been handled with name changes in
such a way as to make him invisible. He apparently has no backup passports
besides Belize and no respectable countries where he could live. Although
he can still do it, as part of the process, he should have made deals with
desirable first rate countries for passports. His new home country, Belize,
is a place where politicians milk a beached billionaire dry. The easily
purchased Belize passport might have been alright as one of several PT
flags, but Belize is not a country where you actually wish to live or have
any assets. Dart needs better advice.

It is relatively easy to
get a passport, by investment, ancestry or marriage in several countries
of the European Union. The same is true of Canada, Singapore, Australia,
or New Zealand. If a chap like Dart knew this, why should he chose a bung-hole
like Belize, and why would he handle his affairs in such a way that muck-raking
journalists could expose him and point fingers to louse up his PT plans.
It is probable that he could still change course.

Don’t waste time on meaningless
speculations by trying to figure out what will happen in the world over
the next 2000 years. Fine if you want to write a book of predictions for
which there is always a market. But for your own personal use there is
no point in trying to figure out where the world his going politically,
socially or economically. There is not even the hope of getting any useful
answers.

The only answer is that everything
will change. A ‘PT’ is Pragmatic. The PT mentality merely asks “Am I happy
with what I am? Do I enjoy who I’m with and doing what I do?” If the answer
is “No” (to any question), the next step is to make changes. Start by reading,
or re-reading my ‘PT’ Reports.

The answer to your future
lies in asking yourself, the right question. Making predictions for the
long term future is not necessary. The very essence of being a PT is staying
prepared for the unexpected and unpredictable changes. It is only necessary
to ‘see’ the options and choose. The way forward is in your control, so
stay in control and have a happy and fruitful life.

In 1964, Harry
D. Schultz – the world�s highest paid financial consultant,
according to “Guinness Book of World Records”,
and author of a number of books on investing that were bestsellers in the
1970s – published a book entitled “How to Keep
Your Money and Your Freedom“. He espoused his Three
Flags concept that described the need to have a second
passport, a safe location for your assets outside your own country
and a legal address in a tax haven.
The concept later expanded to Five Flags to include
a conventional place of business and a place to play.

W.G. Hill
– Bill Hill among PTs – former American citizen, entrepreneur, self-made millionaire,
author and inveterate traveler, was influenced by the concepts of Harry
Schultz. He had found a winning formula on which to base his future. In
1989, after years of living a PT lifestyle and fine tuning many new ideas,
Hill wrote the first definitive book on the subject,
entitled PT/1.
You can order Bill Hill’s book by clicking on the title of the book, or visit our PT BOOKS page, or buy the W.G. Hill Classics on CD-Rom.
These valuable works discusses the essence of the philosophy and is definitely
recommended reading for anyone who aspires to a free and uncompromising
way of life.