The grass is greener elsewhere
Tired of living in a reality TV show? Maybe it's time to consider a move abroad
Growing up in the United States, I was fed this narrative that our country is the best.
We protected against the bad guys. We stood for what was right. We established international norms and rules. We made the dollar the global reserve currency.
What the hell happened?
When I first saw that photo of Elon in a WhatsApp group text, I thought: “ah it’s just silly social media overreacting again” - but after watching the video and seeing his clenched face with that precise movement so burned into our collective consciousness, it’s hard not to think: “Wow, did he just do a Nazi salute… twice?”
I think
said it well, America is ruled by gangsters now.The meeting at the Oval Office with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky was an absolute disaster, but at least it made for “great television”.
In case you didn’t catch the whole 50 minute discussion, this SNL skit paints an accurate picture of what went down (Mike Meyers as Elon is priceless):
The MAGA politicians are on social media claiming “the rest of the world needs to realize they are dealing with true world leaders now.”
Is this really what true world leadership looks like?
Even if it’s a “god-given right”, using your kids to promote the second amendment and gun advocacy is irresponsible and downright disgusting:
The vibe shift and societal collapse
It’s hard to deny the vibe shift post-pandemic. COVID tore the fabric of American society and the vaccine mandate ripped it in half.
As a result, this us-versus-them mentality has become so deeply engrained in our culture and cynicism seems like it’s reaching all times highs. There’s this combination of grumpy old “get-off-my-lawn” conservatives mixed together with new age “let’s-blow-everything-up” alt-right neo-nazis.
Meanwhile the gap between the working class and top 1% continues to grow. Jack Self describes how this divide is leading to societal collapse:
It feels like we are approaching the end of a specific social contract. We are living through the most dangerous phase of modernity, when those in power will do anything they can to preserve an increasingly fragile status quo.
It is especially worrying when the ultra-rich are so divorced from reality, so cocooned in their wealth that they barely perceive the violence they commit against the world as such.
Since removing myself from the North America bubble in 2018, I’ve noticed how much my day-to-day life has improved in a bunch of different categories. I had a six-figure salary working for a large engineering firm, yet I felt like something was missing. It’s hard for me to pinpoint it down to one single thing, it just seems easier to afford a better quality of life here in Spain.
I don’t earn as much money as I did working my engineering job, but I feel richer in the things that matter in life, like relationships and health. I also feel like I’m exposed to a lot less consumerism, racism, sexism, individualism, classism and xenophobia.
After experiencing these changes in my own life, I’ve become obsessed with places and understanding why certain countries thrive while others experience brain drain.
Things have changed a lot the past few decades. We live in a much more connected and open world. Fertility rates have plummeted and a large chunk of our population is not having kids or buying homes which leaves us with the largest mobile generation humankind has ever produced.
If you don’t agree with the way things are playing out in your native country, there are plenty of other places competing for your attention:
From Tulum, Mexico, to Athens, Greece, to Phuket, Thailand, entire colonies have sprung up catering to mobile youth in search of sunny, low-tax hubs. Digital nomads are geographically mercenary, using websites like Expatistan and nomad-themed message boards to calculate where to find the best balance between cost of living and quality of life. And those websites are steering them towards Berlin, Prague, Tbilisi, and Bali—not New York and Los Angeles.
It’s not just the digital nomads and remote workers who are leaving. Boomers and Gen Xers are retiring abroad in droves since the cost of living has skyrocketed.
I saw that bodegas in NYC are selling eggs as “loosies” to combat rising prices. It boggles my mind that people in the richest country in the world are struggling to purchase basic groceries such as eggs. There’s a fucking bird flu outbreak and DOGE is out here cutting funding to public health researchers.
None of it makes sense.
We’re even turning against our closest allies, slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Everyone knows the stereotype of how friendly Canadians are, now over a quarter of their population thinks we’re the enemy.
In the midst of all this, Trump announced he wants to sell a gold card visa to attract wealthy foreigners: “No other country can do this because people don’t want to go to other countries. They want to come here.”
Last I checked, hundreds of countries have golden visas1. And they cost a lot less.
With US debt rising to ridiculous levels, the plan is to sell these golden visas for $5 million a pop: “If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion dollars”.
Here’s the catch though, the total addressable market for people that can afford it is not even that big:
Worldwide, about a quarter-million individuals — 243,060, to be exact — qualify for Credit Suisse’s more exclusive “ultra-high-net-worth” status. These ultras each hold at least $50 million in personal wealth, and over half of them, 51 percent, hail from the United States.
Plus if they have the choice, what sane person wants to live in a country where the homicide rate is so high relative to other places in the world:
You’ll happily let your schools, neighborhoods, and public spaces turn into the Wild West because apparently, background checks and common-sense regulations are a bridge too far. “I’d rather live in a society where I have to dodge stray bullets at the grocery store than let those damn libs take my guns!” Cool, bro. Enjoy your weekly game of “Is it fireworks or gunfire?” while the rest of us just want to buy the eggs we saved a month’s pay for without having to wear body armor.
Pro-gun activists say it has nothing to do with guns, yet the US has had 57 times as many school shootings as the other major industrialized nations combined. I’m always confused as to why some people think it’s so important for the average citizen to have such easy access to military-grade weapons.
Then there’s the drug and opioid use. I’ve had multiple friends and acquaintances from my childhood lose their lives because of an overdose. I can’t help but wonder, would they still be alive today if they were living in a different country?
Studies show that a 29 year old in the US is four times more likely to die in the next 12 months than a 29 year old in another OECD country like Australia, France or Japan.
The hard truth is Americans that have shorter lives than almost every similarly rich nation. Our younger generations are growing up poorer, fatter, dumber, sicker and more addicted than previous generations. This concerns me. A lot.
I know the US can get it’s act together, but with the current political climate the next few years looks bleak.
If you also find this concerning, then maybe it’s time to consider moving somewhere else2. Even if it’s just temporarily, putting yourself in a foreign environment is one of the best and quickest ways to inject Serendipity into your life.
I’m not saying it will solve all your problems or “fix you”, but it could make your day-to-day life more enjoyable.
Until next time my friends,
<3 B
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The folks over at Expatsi are hosting Move Abroad Con 2025 in Texas
If I were young and single I would definitely spend time abroad. But it’s not as easy when you have aging/sick parents and kids with friends/lives in the US. Still, it’s worth considering. Any Substacks that you read focused on how to move abroad, ideally not as a digital nomad but someone setting down roots?
22% of ALL Americans voted for the orange man to make serious drastic changes for the other 80% ………and multi generational damage to our country. It’s your generation and younger that decided this election with their barely double digit voting percentage. Meanwhile lack of term limits will never change the congress since the same people win. Half the actual voters wanted this and half didn’t……..let’s see what happens next time. Hopefully the pendulum swings and your generation is heard if they choose. Good writing Bri!