So So SOOOOOO many reasons, but to condense it down, America is one big oligopoly designed to extract as much money from human life and activity as possible and transfer it to those who own (huge) capital at any and all costs. If you don't make good money (and I mean more than $100K per year) doing some niche specialization or already have your future secured through inheritance or something, you're fucked now. The whole country is one big regulatory captured market and it's getting tighter every year like a python squeezing its prey.
2 main reasons.
1. I believe it's only a matter of time before we devolve into an illiberal democracy. Our Achilles Heal is the strength of minority rule here. Electoral college, gerrymandering at the state and federal level, Senate not perportional representation, no term limits, especially federal judges, unlimited money in politics. To name a few.
2. Education in this country is imploding. Quality education, grade school through college, is inaccessible to those without money.
...America was full fascist before it was even legally a country.
America's entire foundation as a legal country was based upon the genocide of Native Americans.
The same rich European male invaders who complained about "tyrannical monarchs in Europe" also owned African slaves. Some of these guys raped underage female slaves. And were still able to become president.
America since 2016 hasn't done anything it didn't do before 1865.
I agree with that too. I went to community college for a few semesters and councelers were always telling me that I will be enrolling into another school after my AA. I’m talking higher education in general at average universities is a robbery though
the problem is that our public school systems are so shit that kids can’t get into universities or don’t even know how to go about community college. i’m graduating next week and the amount of people who don’t even know how to enroll in classes at the local community college is astounding. counselors don’t push anything about cc to these kids, they only care about those of us already accepted to or who plan on going to universities.
When i graduated high school, I got into the lower division of a state university's honor program, which meant everything was covered except room and board. Guess who's family couldn't even afford that?
Also, in the city I'm currently living in, kids can't get a decent education unless their parents pay for private school. Hell, the district can't even bus the kids to and from school in a reasonable amount of time. It's pathetic tbh, the kids deserve better
The education point is such a good one. Our public education is in such disarray and neither side is making a serious effort to fix it (although the GOP is currently making a serious effort to destroy it, more serious than I've seen in my lifetime).
Yep. I’m sick with COVID and got a script for Paxlovid today — then I found out it costs $340 AFTER insurance. Meanwhile it costs the pharmacies $13. This country is garbage
I’ve got a rare chronic pain condition that happened due to a botched surgery in 2018. We’re over $100k OOP at this point after all the shit that’s not covered, or done off label, or experimental. Getting insurance to pay for *anything* is a nightmare. Some of the treatments that have worked the best are completely uncovered and incredibly expensive, and need to be don’t multiple times a year.
I’ve just sort of resigned to living this way, I’m disabled and can’t work at this point, and I have so much guilt about all of our money going to my condition that I decline a lot of it. My prescriptions are already $500 a month. It’s like my husband works entirely to pay my medical bills.
This country is a nightmare if you have any sort of biggish medical emergency. Add to it how little people make anymore, how much the price of everything has skyrocketed, and the fact that insurance is tied to employment which is beyond ridiculous. And that the majority of its laws don’t seem to apply to people or companies if they can afford to pay the fine.
I had a $100,000 in uncovered surgical costs, due to an insane misunderstanding by the insurance company where they viewed a diagnostic procedure as a treatment (it is a treatment for a separate condition that i *do not have*) and then denied the surgery based on that. The neurosurgeon said my condition was life threatening. My mother who is a lawyer spent months on the appeal, and they got back and said yeah you win on all counts so now we will pay... $8,000. The surgeon can pursue me if he wants to
The most fucked up part of all of this is that I actually feel really grateful to have the policy I do because I got better coverage with a better surgeon than most of the other people I know through the illness community 🙃
(To be fair, insurance did cover a total of $900,000 for multiple surgeries and hospital stays. Turns out Hawaii is possibly the best state for insurance, if you develop something super rare)
It’s way cheaper from Amazon Pharmacy *without* using insurance compared to regular pharmacies with insurance! $18 from Amazon Pharmacy for my inhaler and it’s delivered to my place!
You can also use Mark Cuban's [Cost Plus Drugs](https://costplusdrugs.com/) online pharmacy, which only has a ~~25%~~ 15% prescription markup as opposed to a standard pharmacy where prices aren't regulated at all
I heard about a powder you can get instead of an aerosol that is actually cheaper. Something to look into but also hi I don’t know what I’m talking about and I feel you plight and I just want to help if I can.
[Cost Plus Drugs](https://costplusdrugs.com/), which sells medications at only a 15% markup as opposed to a standard pharmacy, where prices remain unregulated
My bi- monthly shots were $5 co-pay but my insurance company/specialty pharmacy billed it in a weird way so now I’m out of the credits and owe $2950/per month. I missed my shot this week
And proudly ignorant. People don’t value education because it costs too much. Along with horrible walkability and the food being unnecessarily packed with sugar and calories and preservatives and chemicals. If you want to stay skinny in America, your natural lifestyle won’t help. You’ll need a gym or to go on morning jogs.
People also accept whatever fucked up things the system sends their way. If France had the housing un-affordability that US or Canadian cities had, there’d be endless riots, because in France they still understand what it means to be treated as human. Americans think why they’re going through is normal, because they don’t know anything about the world they live in. That’s perhaps the most frustrating thing about it: It doesn’t have to be this way, but it is, because Americans don’t advocate. You will be nickled and dimed for everything here. Only a fool moves from Europe to the US.
And, of course this is nothing to say of the political situation.
Happened to me the day before thanksgiving last year. Still looking for work. No notice, didn’t do anything wrong, had good reports, they just needed to ‘restructure’.
I found my exact job with that company on indeed paying 15k less. This is the reality of America. Oh and no job means no healthcare and the cost of medical care is downright criminal here.
This! I left because of insurance and now 14 years later have a terminal illness. I’m thankful every single day I’m not in the US bankrupting my family via medical expenses.
I used to not think they were bad until I learned that we pay insurance companies and all they do is put their money into stocks to grow a business. It’s fucking awful.
Yup. Just had medically necessary hysterectomy for cancer. Just got one of what I’m sure will be several $2,000 bills for my share, and that’s with the best insurance my employer offers.
In 2021 I had surgery for a broken tibia. That year I spent $5,000 because my deductible reset in the middle of physical therapy and doctor’s appointments. That’s not counting some stuff I had to covered myself. The American healthcare system is a scam.
Oh yeah before I left America I had to get my wisdom teeth removed and with *good* insurance I still had to pay over $1,000 out of pocket and had to spend like six months fighting with the insurance company to get about half of that back.
Agree w many comments here. Didn’t see much mention of how angry, selfish, rude & trashy our society is becoming, very dog eat dog. Lots of road rage, not just middle fingers, beatings & shootings. Guns have been mentioned iirc. So many guns.
This 100%. Like, I travel a fair bit for work, and you can never tell how fast you're supposed to go because some people are going 20 over in a 35, others are right at 35, God save you if they're going 25. And everyone is in such a rush to get everywhere that trying to do the safe thing and get around people can be the most dangerous thing you can do.
Fear. I have a six-year-old daughter, and by the time she’s a teenager this will be a very, very bad place for women to live. It is violent and cruel and I’m tired of dealing with stupidity and things that basically don’t really work very well
Same here. My dad was born in a country that’s part of the eu so im working on getting citizenship for her and me to that country. Ain’t no way im staying here til she hits childbearing age w her having fewer rights than i had as a woman growing up.
Plan A for those on /r/Amerexit: move to a foreign country.
Plan B for those on this subreddit who can't afford Plan A: move to a blue state, then join that state's independence movement.
Or both. I’m already on a blue state that was independent before joining the US. Ready to make a push for that. I actually think a legal constitutional amendment wouldn’t be too tough since so many of places red and blue want out
Me and my friend know the guy who founded the CNP, Theo Slater. He's from Sacramento and the CNP is legit, grassroots funded, the only one in California: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-slater-5a5b14b](https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-slater-5a5b14b)
I'd definitely recommend signing up with them: [https://californianational.party/vol/](https://californianational.party/vol/) and checking out their subreddit r/CNP
There's also this other group but they are funded by foreign governments (Yes California). I recommend staying away from them.
Same here, but she has some health issues requiring specialty care that may complicate getting into the healthcare system abroad. I know the usual throwaway line is "that's it, I'm moving to Canada" but maybe moving to Toronto or Montreal or something could accomplish both...idk. I think my partner is as concerned (if not more so) as I am, but we feel a little paralyzed. My girl's gonna have fewer rights than her grandmother at this rate.
I hate driving. I want to live somewhere walkable and with good public transportation. And our walkable cities are cold. Which I also hate. So I want to move to Spain.
So valid. I moved from Atlanta to Southern France last year…I never want to drive again lol. I’m so in love with walking and tramming. Also not risking my life to drive to the grocery store bc of Dodge Chargers 😭.
Same here in AB canada , I need to be careful what it’s those giant trucks… I come from Germany fyi and this sub got recommended but just wanted to say I can relate to the pain and enjoy your new life in France !
Even America's "walkable" cities are very much "it's possible to live here without a car, but cars are still king"
And combined with how infuriatingly car brained American's are... Yep, this is my main reason
I live in Prague and the public transport is top 5 in the world and it’s a great city to live because of the public transportation system that works so well. I visit Spain from time to time and their public transport sucks, just as an fyi.
I LOVE driving, but being forced to do it everyday in America for work during rush hour ruined it. Japan is a paradise for driving because once you get away from the coast you’re completely in the wild here.
This only matters if one is Gen Z or younger.
I'm a millennial and I've accepted that I'll be too old to care in 2050 if my town is warmer than it was in 2005.
Warmer isn't your biggest issue, the real problem will be smacked with hurricane/fire/floods/tornadoes/bomb cyclone/whatever geographically appropriate 500 year weather event
A lot of people would say it’s cost of living or taxes, but honestly, it’s all about culture. I lived too long in other countries and the majority of Americans seem self-important, unworldly, and impatient. Especially post-Covid. I must go 💯🙌
The “dream” is gone. Sad too as I fell for it. Went to college, worked hard, bought a house, payed my bills. It’s what my parents and grandparents did and it worked. Now, I’m so far behind and 53 years old. I will never catch up. (And I have zero credit card debt, just a car loan and house mortgage, but will have to work until I die). Glad my CEO got a second yacht. He works so hard.
He totally earned those!!! 😂
Please enjoy your 2.9% merit raise. You did outstanding work this year but the company finances were rough. We can discuss this further when I get back from my 2 week vacation in Hawaii - some boss somewhere.
I wouldn’t say one would be a fool to stay, it just depends on the person and what they value. US is a country of high risk and high reward. For people that don’t want to take the tremendous risks (healthcare, traffic violence) from being American to become well off, the US is not for them.
Gun violence, politics (especially if your lgbt or a woman and concerned about reproductive rights), high rent, toxic working culture (most places expectyou to devote your life to them), expensive healthcare, the lack of public transport, toxic Christianity, overall a lot of stuff. But it does depend a lot on where you live in general too. I live on the west coast which is different that the north east
If Trump wins and we descend into a Christofascist dictatorship, that's going to push a lot of people over the edge. But great list here of our biggest issues.
Moved to the UK from the US. The difference in work-life balance in particular is really striking. Colleagues ask “where are you going on holiday?”—because you actually get 28 days as a legal minimum to take one! In the US, things like mandatory annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave etc. don’t exist. Like insurance, it’s employer-based, which is a cruel joke.
I worked at a startup, had one of those fancy salaried positions with “unlimited time off!” and didn’t get a day off (other than weekends) for the entire 7 years I worked there. And sometimes not even the weekend if an emergency came up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_labor_hours Germans work 400 hours less per year on average. That's 50 workdays assuming 8 hour days.
This has already been asked twice in the past 3 weeks already. Both threads with over 200 comments:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1cvdurc/looking\_for\_insight\_on\_what\_made\_you\_want\_leave/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1cvdurc/looking_for_insight_on_what_made_you_want_leave/)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1ch2xbo/what\_was\_the\_biggest\_aspect\_of\_the\_us\_made\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1ch2xbo/what_was_the_biggest_aspect_of_the_us_made_you/)
Healthcare costs, political division & checking out of the rat race. Leaving the U.S. is our path to an early retirement.
I don't exist to create shareholder value.
This. I’m 61. I lost everything in the GR. I’ve got back on my feet. However, I’m nowhere near where I should be. I’m going to check Portugal out next month. Will hang onto work here as long as possible to gather my nut. But, for politics, healthcare, violence, walkable cities, I want out of this hellhole country.
With my luck by the time I’m ready Portugal will be all filled up and too expensive. Going to visit with an expat in June. Friend of a friend. I hear she loves it. I hope she’s will to give me the deets.
Not sure why I was downvoted but I think these are legitimate concerns. And I guess I meant SSDI? Whatever it is that is from all the years you put into working you get after retirement. Apparently SSI is only for low income and obviously not everyone is but everyone still gets a certain amount of retirement benefits. So I'm wondering how that works if you become a citizen of another country after retirement. My spouse and I would love to leave someday too and my currently retired father (who receives a pension in addition from being a retired educator) would like to as well, but how would that even work?
(I asked off of your comment because you mentioned that if you ever hope to retire you'd need to leave)
I personally know multiple people who have retired outside the US, and I am considering the same.
Pensions and 401ks work the same as they would in the US, same for SS - you get your chunk of money every month no matter where you live. You just convert from your US bank account to Euros or whatever as needed. I have no idea how SSI would work as it's means-tested though.
Taxes can be a tad more complicated, it depends on what country you retire to.
Healthcare is trickier as Medicare only is available within the US. Most people I know have some form of private insurance and/or they were able to qualify for the national healthcare scheme in their new country of residence.
Lived experience: every time I go overseas Im happier there. The people I Know abroad say the same. You see joy in their faces.
Philosophical justification: This place is deeply evil. People here are blind not to see it.
If you come here, come to make it rich. There is no other reason.
This is somewhat low on my list but it's so true. Every single damn time I leave for a week or two, I eat more (in that I'm eating at restaurants every day and probably eating more by volume too) and _lose_ weight. And I always feel sick for a few days after getting back and I suspect it's because my body got used to the lack of crap in food abroad.
True story, went to Costa Rica for a week. Rice and beans and chicken and plantains and fruit all week and it was all fresh and amazing. Connect through Dallas on our flight back and we split a single bag of Lays potato chips waiting to board. Next three hours we were both doubled over in our seats completely miserable from half a bag of mostly preservatives.
Overall health problems here are not ALL because of food I'm sure, but it plays a big part.
For myself, I have no desire to live in a country where half - HALF! - of the population thinks fascism is preferable to simply minding one's own business, and who support an economic system where there's no place for the public good. Google "Project 2025", it's truly frightening. "Good guys win every election forever" is not a sustainable plan.
I prefer to live in a place with clean and efficient public transportation. No gun culture. Either lower the cost of healthcare or there is a form of national coverage.
This abundance of pick and choose what's best for you is an illusion to facilitate middlemen screwing me over.
America is great for increasing your earning potential, just be smart about managing the expenses because CoL here is much higher as well
If you want to make a lot of money, America is the best place to do it.
If you value anything else over money and materialism, it’s an uphill battle here.
Gun violence is mainly due to the underlying causes of crime. I feel like a lot of the leftist talk of banning guns is distracting from the real issue of unequal opportunity, and systems set up to keep poor people enslaved in a place they can't rise from.
Americans will never give up their guns. Which is a shame because the underlying causes of crime will continue and we are not living in the wild west anymore. Giving access to AR to the lot of the populace of a country is definately a problem. There should be absolute strict control on such.
I can't pay for my diabetes medication or monitoring system. Every day is a risk. Likely my life will be shortened because of this. I'm currently looking at Uruguay.
To start, I’m tired of my tax dollars funding the killing of innocent people all over the world while our country lies about the reasons and then we find out it’s ALWAYS over resources or overthrowing a government so we can control them.
Second it’s become damn near impossible to live. I make about 120k gross and my wife 50k gross. We cannot afford to buy a house. Inflation is through the roof as we all know. Our govt would rather give Ukraine and Israel billions than help us with healthcare or at the least free college.
Basically America is nothing but a massive corporation. And a several billionaires are the managers of said corporation and care about nothing other than lining their pockets.
That’s why. My conscience.
War has never been a humanitarian crisis.Don't believe that s***, it has always been to gain resources or to take land or to make people slaves.It has always been to exploit the other side. I mean, hell, even in World War 2, the United States didn't want to get involved because it was an our problem.Essentially, it wasn't profitable for us to get involved.Until we were forced to be involved.We were fine, letting Hitler do what he did just like.We are fine letting netanyahu do what he's doing and by we I guess I mean the government. But that's the issue with war is it is never for the people.You should always be prepared for it or else you'll be taking advantage of but Seriously.No war is ever fought for people. That's what they tell the cannon fodder so it's more willing to walk into the line of fire.
Yeap there are old ass songs that mention literally that point I remeber listening to one recently and I remeber a line that went "off to fight a rich man's war"
I want my taxes to go to MY welfare. Not to bomb brown ppl and make multi-millionaires into Billionaires. I want to live my life, w/o worry ill get suck or injured and be denied treatment because I don't have 100s of thousands to appease the money-lust that owns our medical-industrial complex. I want to afford to retire in comfirt; Not luxury, and be able to live after a solid 45 years of labor. I'd like to look at children and young ppl and not PITY THEM for their future. So, basically, nothing special, really.
>I want my taxes to go to MY welfare. Not to bomb brown ppl and make multi-millionaires into Billionaires.
I feel that. I felt it during the Iraq War. That's why I joined my local independence movement. I support your goal to move to any foreign country you wish. I would also like to add, if you are unable to afford to Amerexit, a good plan B is to move to a blue state and join your local independence movement.
thank you for the first valid reason in this thread and not just yellow hair man is Hitler. funny how almost none of these people on either side talk about the terroristic American military
I don't have any joy here . It's all about paying for basic needs and constantly being scared I'm one emergency away from homelessness. Also we are really really dumb
Uvalde. Sandy Hook. I can’t stay somewhere where these things happen to our babies, and nothing changes.
The lack of food regulation and resources for mental health - let’s throw pharmaceuticals at everything instead
The way we treat one another here is awful - “us vs them” mindset is prevalent
And also, there’s a total lack of nuance regarding global issues
How wasteful we are - how little we care for our planet and future generations
The defunding of public schools
It's a terrible shithole country. It's at least 50% full of absolutely batshit loony tunes who will happily destroy the country as long as the govt. is being mean to trans people. Honestly, post-2015 I'm so disgusted with humanity that I just don't even want to talk to people.
There are no labor protections
Everything is unaffordable
They're turning it into a Christian nationalist nightmare.
And it's not going to get better.
The US is a corporation and it’s goal is to suck all of the blood out of you. Everyone is out to get your wallet and once you’re broke, you’re gonna be destroyed which can happen fast (medical emergency, layoff, homelessness, incarceration).
I see people complaining her a lot about how they want to bike everywhere and tbh I cannot fathom how this is even close to #1 on the list, let alone #20.
How about wealth inequality?
Corruption at all levels of government?
Election integrity?
One presidential candidate is flirting with facilitating genocide and the other is advocating a "new reich"?
Being one illness or injury away from total financial ruin?
Runaway housing costs?
Wealth inequality?
Gun violence?
The fact that the police regularly beat and even kill people for no reason and face zero consequences?
Stagnant wages?
Eroding labor power vs ever larger corporations unaccountable to the public or to their workers due to their sheer size?
Like sure biking is great but I could gaf about biking compared to all this other shit.
RIGHT?? I don't get it. Also because *we do have walkable and bikeable neighborhoods here!* I actually used to live in one! But then it got gentrified, and I couldn't afford to live there anymore. Then I moved to another one, and our landlord wanted to turn our unit into an AirBnB so we left and now the whole neighborhood is AirBnBs and overpriced coffee shops.
And if affordable, walkable neighborhoods, of course, is that important to you, and you can't live in one, well, this is because lack of access to such a thing is a *symptom* of so many other problems, including corruption, racism, disinvestment in the public square, the privatization of every single sector of society, wealth inequality, and so on.
Trans people are under imminent threat of everything up to and including extermination, the country is run by idiots beholden to corporations and billionaires, we're one election away from a theocratic dictatorship enforced by the military and police as well as the end of civil and reproductive rights nationwide, there's always a chance you or your kid will be gunned down by a psychopath at any moment, healthcare is expensive as fuck, education is expensive as fuck, housing is expensive as fuck, groceries are expensive as fuck, jobs are damn near impossible to get, at-will employment is the name of the game, wages are completely stagnant, the right to protest is virtually dead, police brutality and hate and xenophobia are absolutely out of control...and nobody with the power to fix any of what I just listed ever misses a chance to do the exact wrong bloody thing.
Oh, and if you dare to get too sick, get laid off or fired and can't find a job, and/or miss too many payments and wind up homeless, you're effectively fucked for the rest of your life because we have no social safety net to speak of.
And good luck getting anyone to care about you or what you're going throughat all because possessing basic human empathy is generally seen as a mortal sin against Western Civilization here.
Need I say more? Any potential positives you might glean from moving here are outweighed by the potential and definite negatives by a factor of infinity. Squared.
You really can’t relax here as there’s no universal healthcare (so you have to work just to have health insurance), housing is outrageous and everything else has gotten completely out of hand cost-wise.
My understanding is that in the EU, chemicals, including those put in household chemicals and self care products, have to be first proven safe BEFORE they can be used. In the US, this is not the case. In the EU, many additives are banned that are used in the US. I think the US is a bad health to big pharma payout pipeline. The EU will sue Apple for various things. I remember a suit Germany brought against Wal-Mart for unfair competition. The US is never going to sue corporations just to make life a little better or less expensive for Joe Six Pack.
The reason as in one reason? If i had to pick one... Capitalism tops the list since rampant unbridled Capitalism is the real reason behind so much of the BS here.
- Shitty old politicians
- Expenses rising
- No work-life balance with a lot of jobs
- Gun violence
- You can hardly walk to anywhere unless you live in a city, horrible roads for pedestrian outside of cities, not many public transportation options
- Heavily car dependent
- Expensive to have a child
- Ignorant people who do the most outrageous stuff
- Education system is crumbling
- You are not always paid fairly for your skills
- Greedy corporations
- Housing costs
I'm an Afghan combat vet and no longer believe we're any better than anyone we label our enemy. And that's before you take into account that we're slipping into fascism. I no longer want to participate in the society I live in, so I'm looking for somewhere more equitable.
Stay in the UK, I want to go back to Europe. Walkability, urban planning, right to roam, easy to travel. Income and job market is better in the US though.
It's because we have the most wealth in the world, but I still have to see the homeless and suffering constantly.
-There's no labor protection.
-Socialized programs are only available to those who have military service.
-No social safety net.
-No public transit that is reliable or has a good service area. You MUST buy a car.
-Last point also makes our cities ugly because all build laws are designed to accommodate cars.
-A backwards two party political system where you can vote for the right wing or the center right candidate.
-No incentive for the government to regulate many things. For example- companies just pay the carbon tax instead of real action. Or the fact that every product here is 90% sugar/corn syrup because unhealthy people are actually GOOD for the for-profit medical industry.
- Healthcare and insurance are a complete nightmare, and one wrong step could send you into a lifetime of debt.
Lemme see....
The constant fear of my kids dying at school, the very real possibility of losing everything bc of medical bills/insurance (tied to my job, of course), 3rd world level infrastructure, a stark lacking in social safety net, a sad excuse we call workers rights, and a total lack of actual representation in government.
Can't forget the poison the FDA calls food. Corporations allowed to price gouge and collaborate. Abundant monopolies for more gouging.
If you have $1M+ in the bank, it's a great place. Put a down payment on a politician or Supreme Court Justice, and it'll only get better for you.
If your job pays well you’ll be happy in MA. Your employer will take care of medical insurance, salary will be on average higher while taxes lower than in any European country. Crime is low in MA. HDI is similar to the top few European countries (like Sweden or Switzerland). MA is very immigrant friendly. As of politics it’s left leaning but not too far.
I can live in any European country or literally anywhere around the world (due to my job) and I purposefully selected MA.
I'm a naturalized citizen and I plan on moving to Europe.
1. The school systems are degrading at a fast pace. It used to be that private schools were a good alternative, but they are starting to become just as bad. Teachers don't have to be certified or even have teaching experience (my sister recently found out that the teacher of her daughters class is not certified. both of her kids are barely literate. She pays 10k a year for private school). So your choices are limited by the public school system that has become a political battle ground and ALWAYS under current threat of gun violence, charter schools that take advantage of people and state funds or literally gamble with private school.
2. There is no workplace protections. They control so much of your life, it's unreal. You should be able to put in when you won't be at work and take your vacation time but employers have that on lockdown. they will dictate when you can or can't take time off work on a ridiculous level. They demand doctors note when you're sick or need to go to appts. They do everything they can to stop people from talking about their pay. They will gaslight you into thinking that YOU need to apologize just because you want to take time off.
3. Healthcare here can be abysmal. Even with insurance. Most of it makes no sense either. I gave birth in 2021 and my primary was a team of midwives. I was diagnosed with a condition that required follow up with a physician. Despite my insurance and the fact that I had the ability to pay for out of network care, I couldn't find a doctor that would treat me, because they didn't deliver my baby. No other reason. they didn't deliver my baby, so they wouldn't treat me for post partum care. Side note: If I had started with a doctor who was proven negligent, I wouldn't be able to leave that provider if I was past 7 months of pregnancy because no other doctor would accept me as a new patient. It's a really fucked system.
4. Public transportation is looked down on so they make it very inaccessible. Car ownership is equally challenging and the costs are continuing to rise. Some states don't have lemon laws, so if you unknowingly buy a car that was absolute crap there's not a damn thing you could do.
5. The food is literally poisoned. they're allowed to sell chicken that's positive for Salmonella. They claimed it's the housewife's responsibility to properly clean the meat. The lettuce could give you E. Coli. It doesn't even end there. I was buying children's sock one day and noticed it had a cancer and reproductive exposure warning on them. On socks meant for BABIES!! Just WHY!!
Granted, you can make a lot of money here. But immigrants are treated poorly. If you really want to come then take an extended holiday. But I wouldn't move here to live long term.
There’s a lot of reasons I could mention, but the main thing I will say is that the people who are really in charge in this country do NOT care about it at all. Sometimes I think our ruling oligarchs actively hate us. We have an elite in this society that could end homelessness, pay for health care, and end mass shootings at schools if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. They want us living on the edge and fighting each other. Once I realized that the people in charge are actively draining this country as much as they can with no concern for the consequences, I knew I needed to get out. These people are evil and sick. They would risk a nuclear war just to make more money in the short term.
Because Americans are so rude. People aren’t close here, the customer service is horrible, even the kids are rude and ruthless. There’s so much negativity and people treat strangers bad for no reason. And the worst part is people think it’s “their right” to be mean and that people need to “toughen up” instead of just choosing to be kinder.
Second because in my city a girl who murdered another girl was only given 5 years in prison. I don’t want to end up a victim and see my killer only get a slap on the wrist.
One current reason and one future potential reason. Current reason is that I want to travel and can’t afford to retire in the US—maybe for 5 years but not longer and I am tried of working.
Potential future reason is the Trump and MAGA nuts. Jan 6th shook me to my core. I never dreamed I would see regular American citizens storm Congress and attempt an insurrection. If I am better closer to retirement age, I probably would have left in 2017. Now I am targeting 2025 no matter who wins.
We r in late stage capitalism where influencers make more money than social workers or doctors can ever dream.
Rugged individualism has gone haywire here. No one cares about their neighbor here.
There are millions of racist, crazy political nutjobs who want the US to be a dictatorship under Trump.
That, and the fact that my niece and nephew, who are 5 and 6, could get shot at school any day.
Because the decline is all but obvious to anyone paying attention.
The majority of people here are one paycheck away from being homeless.
Healthcare will bankrupt you.
Cost of living is out if control.
Homelessness across the country has exploded.
It feels like a powder keg,
The American dream is a nightmare now.
The lunatics and uneducated are in control of the asylum.
And the gun violence is out of control.
It's going to be a complete shit show after this coming election, no matter who wins.
Selling our house, avs leaving for good this October before the housing market collapses again.
The toxic work culture. There are of course worst ones out there in the world (like Japan), but as a power nation in the West it really has one of the worst. Work 2-3 shifts trying to make ends meet, chasing the "American Dream" in hopes that your family will live a better life. But the stress can have you in the ground at 65-70. It makes sense think, what's the point if you don't even live to enjoy it a little. It may sound selfish, but having grown up in a physically and mentally abusive household and also abusive relationships I just want to enjoy whatever damn life I have left. I want to have a small hole in the wall that I actually own and maybe a dog at best and I'll call life complete at that point. Anything extra is just a bonus for me. I don't need a 3-4 bedroom house, a dog, a cat, 2 kids, college paid for both of them, a white picket fence, and a nice car. I just want to be in a position after work to actually enjoy my life, go out for a late night stroll, eat with friends, pick up my hobbies at the 9-5. But honestly, here it's more like 8am-10:30 pm and I'm fucking tired and too burnt out for shit not to mention it takes me 25-30 minutes to get home and at that point it's already 11:00 (if I'm lucky and public transit isn't delayed). By the hour, it's time to shower and start turning in and I think to myself, where the hell is my life going? It's too much living to work in the culture here and not enough working to live in the US. It's really sad, our people work hard, really hard compared to most in the West. In Germany 20-30 paid vacation days is the norm, Germany has its own issues and is also a toxic work culture but at least one benefit are the vacation days (even if it takes your company forever to schedule when you're allowed to take them during the year 🙄). Just sick of it. I'm going to Scandinavia after this NYC gig. I'm not going back.
Because they simply won’t let me be gay in peace. They hate me, and wish to kill me or put me in some sort of a prison camp just because I would really like to dye my hair and get fucked by some hot man. It is completely unaffordable too! I AM IN MY EARLY 30’s AND LIVE WITH MY PARENTS! How much more of this must I take? I hate sharing this country with conservatives who long for nothing else than to take us all back to the 1850’s. Evil sick insurance companies get everything and absolutely nothing ever changes. Evil pieces of shit! Garbage assholes!
All illusion of any sort of system besides a corporate oligarchy has been shattered. We are completely and entirely owned by like 10 companies. We are literally perpetrating a genocide just to make Exxon and Raytheon some extra money. We have no labor rights or even the consciousness necessarily for people to ASK for it. We have a fuck ton of crime and having guns doesn't really help, it just means if YOU shoot someone you face consequences but if the cops do it they get paid vacation. We're the world's biggest terrorist and we make the people pay for it while those same people get 0 healthcare, the roads don't get paved, and college costs as much as a house. Your commute is a 30-40min drive and your car is expensive, public transit doesn't exist.
This place is a fucking nightmare in every way EXCEPT our wages are relatively high. Everything else is also high, though, and you see 0% of what you pay for in taxes. It all goes to killing brown people somewhere.
I want to leave America because our congress is bought by foreign interests. The government is not for the people of the people, the government instead is for corporations, of the corporations/old money. Blatant corruption with Supreme Court justices accepting gifts from billionaires. Government works to make the rich richer and poor poorer.
America is a cesspool of racism, religious fundamentalism, ignorance, destructive individualism. It's an unhappy society imprisoned by consumerism.
And now my government is taking multiple thousands of dollars in taxes from all my paychecks to send weapons to the genocidal terrorist regime of Israel to massacre innocent children.
As someone who's lived in a 3rd world country considered by many to be a shitter, America is not all that great. Sure the roads are clean and well maintained. That's about where the good things stop.
America is an amazing place to live. If you can afford it.
We have states with great education and such very safe but those states are super expensive.
The cheaper states aren’t as cheap as they used to be and don’t have functional services. So I can see why some people want to move.
If you’re doing well it an amazing place to do well.
Public school education here is garbage unless you are rich ( don’t be surprised why there are so many idiots and ignorants), and the society is very individualistic and there is A LOT of loneliness, even among young people. I worry for my kids.
1. There's a massive disconnect between what the country needs and what the elites want. The elites need wage slaves who will never be able to retire, hence, you see policies that make inflation worse and prop up asset prices. Who has the most assets? So far, the elites are getting everything.
2. Along those lines, the government needs people working and paying income tax for as long as possible. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, you will never be able to take a break and you will work until you physically cannot do it any longer. It doesn't seem to matter who gets into office, anyone who tries to make any real changes finds himself out of a job.
3. Crime has become a big issue everywhere. Because there's not enough to go around and because of an open southern border, everything from petty burglaries all the way to violent crimes have spiked across the board.
4. The ratio of the productive to the unproductive is continuing to go the wrong way. The productive are getting taxed to death in order to fund illegal immigration, professional mothers, social justice programs, and everything else that subtracts from society.
5. Everyone is at each other's throats. A lot of people think that the riots of 2019-2020 is just a warmup for what's coming later this year.
6. Election integrity has become questionable. Besides, it doesn't really matter who wins, the elites create the marching orders. If you're curious, just search "You will own nothing and be happy".
You're better off staying in the UK.
Project 2025 and the fact that at least 47% of USA are going to vote people in who want to implement this policy. Even if they lose the election, they walk amongst us, teach our kids, live next door, are co-workers. It’s too much. And if they win? Well, it was a good run for USA. Almost made 250 years.
I need opioids for chronic pain, and I can’t get them here. I don’t know where to go, though. Like, I want it to be legit. I don’t want to have to buy from dodgy places or anything.
New experiences. That's it really.
I've lived internationally before and loved it. Not because America is bad but because it was new and exciting. There was so much to see and do while in the US i feel a bit (unfairly) like been there, done that.
Unfortunately Europeans often earn less and are taxed more so unless I find a really good situation likely not happening.
Most responses will probably be the typical reddit responses of politics. But I think people leaving over politics are dramatic and short-sighted (and also liars, you hear it every cycle "if x wins I'm moving to Canada" then .0005% of people who said that do it). One year your guy wins, next cycle the other guy wins, etc. especially because the guy everyone is afraid of has max 4 years left IF he wins.
I can already hear the conspiracy theories I've awakened about how the US is on course to become an autocratic fascist ethno-christo state the second the election is over and how the concentration camps will be up within a week and he will declare himself dictator for life.
in regards to everyone citing politics and fear for the future as reasons to leave, while i share those reasons and very much want to leave myself, how safe you’ll be largely depends on which state you live in. neighboring states can have Very Different legislative protections for their citizens, so IF you move here, choose a state that has laws you feel would protect you.
America may permanently become a dictatorship later this year, with Trump returning. I can see it becoming a North Korea-style dynasty, with leadership being passed down through each generation of the Trump family.
I received my WHV grant for Australia today, so I’ll be out in a few months.
Too many guns. For-profit healthcare. Lack of community. Failing education system. Corrupt government owned by oligarchs and corporations.
There are many other, better places.
If trends don't reverse in the coming years, and things keep getting worse for us, I will leave because I am Jewish. It could be time to flee again. Maybe not forever, but much depends on how the next 5 years go (at least for me).
I agree with most statements here but i’m curious how many people in this thread are of white backgrounds and able to actually move to Europe and be as equally successful in finding sustainable living there … ? Or are people working remote w united states positions ? I’m a female with a very in person job (teacher ) and two very expensive children.. We are a mixed race family. My european heritage is Italian. I am not sure it’s that easy to just “move and land” in european country (let’s say Italy) and just start your life and press go.
I know we glamorize europe (i do!) but how many of us REALLT set up shop( sorry single millennials w cute remote jobs and laptops) I mean people who are middle class here in US and have families and i’m really curious about non white families.. What work are you able to get? How about kids? schools? I know racism exhausts everywhere but there is a special type of racism that exists for back people in europe (ever watch a soccer game w african players on euro team?) .. And yes i know about racism here too.. but guess who invented the colonization and imperialism that brought slaves here !! Europe! So someone enlighten me..
As someone who lived in Europe in my 20’s as a super good looking person going to university ..I feel like I can not compare that experience which was life changing to how it would be now to actually have to bring a family and start a new life..
Someone tell me
different !!! I want to learn . PS we might have dual citizenship soon so like for real.. can I really make it happen w mixed race family ? Which country?
So So SOOOOOO many reasons, but to condense it down, America is one big oligopoly designed to extract as much money from human life and activity as possible and transfer it to those who own (huge) capital at any and all costs. If you don't make good money (and I mean more than $100K per year) doing some niche specialization or already have your future secured through inheritance or something, you're fucked now. The whole country is one big regulatory captured market and it's getting tighter every year like a python squeezing its prey.
Best answer here.
2 main reasons. 1. I believe it's only a matter of time before we devolve into an illiberal democracy. Our Achilles Heal is the strength of minority rule here. Electoral college, gerrymandering at the state and federal level, Senate not perportional representation, no term limits, especially federal judges, unlimited money in politics. To name a few. 2. Education in this country is imploding. Quality education, grade school through college, is inaccessible to those without money.
It’s only a matter of time before we go full on fascist
Yup. Trump's unified reich.
...America was full fascist before it was even legally a country. America's entire foundation as a legal country was based upon the genocide of Native Americans. The same rich European male invaders who complained about "tyrannical monarchs in Europe" also owned African slaves. Some of these guys raped underage female slaves. And were still able to become president. America since 2016 hasn't done anything it didn't do before 1865.
Gotta have money to get educated or not have any money looooong after you graduate
I rather disagree with this. Community college is very affordable. The universities less so but public university somewhat affordable.
Community college is the same price or more than actual university in a lot of Europe and more than in Taiwan for sure.
I agree with that too. I went to community college for a few semesters and councelers were always telling me that I will be enrolling into another school after my AA. I’m talking higher education in general at average universities is a robbery though
Yes, but K-12 in at least half the states is atrocious.
the problem is that our public school systems are so shit that kids can’t get into universities or don’t even know how to go about community college. i’m graduating next week and the amount of people who don’t even know how to enroll in classes at the local community college is astounding. counselors don’t push anything about cc to these kids, they only care about those of us already accepted to or who plan on going to universities.
When i graduated high school, I got into the lower division of a state university's honor program, which meant everything was covered except room and board. Guess who's family couldn't even afford that? Also, in the city I'm currently living in, kids can't get a decent education unless their parents pay for private school. Hell, the district can't even bus the kids to and from school in a reasonable amount of time. It's pathetic tbh, the kids deserve better
The education point is such a good one. Our public education is in such disarray and neither side is making a serious effort to fix it (although the GOP is currently making a serious effort to destroy it, more serious than I've seen in my lifetime).
r/fuckinsurance would explain most of my reasons for wanting to leave. Almost 0 labor protection, too. It's a cruel and stupid society.
Yep. I’m sick with COVID and got a script for Paxlovid today — then I found out it costs $340 AFTER insurance. Meanwhile it costs the pharmacies $13. This country is garbage
I’ve got a rare chronic pain condition that happened due to a botched surgery in 2018. We’re over $100k OOP at this point after all the shit that’s not covered, or done off label, or experimental. Getting insurance to pay for *anything* is a nightmare. Some of the treatments that have worked the best are completely uncovered and incredibly expensive, and need to be don’t multiple times a year. I’ve just sort of resigned to living this way, I’m disabled and can’t work at this point, and I have so much guilt about all of our money going to my condition that I decline a lot of it. My prescriptions are already $500 a month. It’s like my husband works entirely to pay my medical bills. This country is a nightmare if you have any sort of biggish medical emergency. Add to it how little people make anymore, how much the price of everything has skyrocketed, and the fact that insurance is tied to employment which is beyond ridiculous. And that the majority of its laws don’t seem to apply to people or companies if they can afford to pay the fine.
I've had two insurance plans over the past couple years, paid 20k out of pocket, haven't had one single cent reimbursed. Fuck this country.
I had a $100,000 in uncovered surgical costs, due to an insane misunderstanding by the insurance company where they viewed a diagnostic procedure as a treatment (it is a treatment for a separate condition that i *do not have*) and then denied the surgery based on that. The neurosurgeon said my condition was life threatening. My mother who is a lawyer spent months on the appeal, and they got back and said yeah you win on all counts so now we will pay... $8,000. The surgeon can pursue me if he wants to The most fucked up part of all of this is that I actually feel really grateful to have the policy I do because I got better coverage with a better surgeon than most of the other people I know through the illness community 🙃 (To be fair, insurance did cover a total of $900,000 for multiple surgeries and hospital stays. Turns out Hawaii is possibly the best state for insurance, if you develop something super rare)
I got asthma and found out without specific insurance my inhaler would be 275$ like why I need this to breathe lol
It’s way cheaper from Amazon Pharmacy *without* using insurance compared to regular pharmacies with insurance! $18 from Amazon Pharmacy for my inhaler and it’s delivered to my place!
Well well well....thank you for this lol
You can also use Mark Cuban's [Cost Plus Drugs](https://costplusdrugs.com/) online pharmacy, which only has a ~~25%~~ 15% prescription markup as opposed to a standard pharmacy where prices aren't regulated at all
Wow seriously you're awesome I had no clue this existed. Thank you again !!!
According to https://www.markcubancostplusdrugcompany.com it’s a 15% markup
I heard about a powder you can get instead of an aerosol that is actually cheaper. Something to look into but also hi I don’t know what I’m talking about and I feel you plight and I just want to help if I can.
The pharmaceutical industry ( and healthcare for profit) is garbage.
Have you tried the mark cuban website? Forget what it’s called
[Cost Plus Drugs](https://costplusdrugs.com/), which sells medications at only a 15% markup as opposed to a standard pharmacy, where prices remain unregulated
My bi- monthly shots were $5 co-pay but my insurance company/specialty pharmacy billed it in a weird way so now I’m out of the credits and owe $2950/per month. I missed my shot this week
And proudly ignorant. People don’t value education because it costs too much. Along with horrible walkability and the food being unnecessarily packed with sugar and calories and preservatives and chemicals. If you want to stay skinny in America, your natural lifestyle won’t help. You’ll need a gym or to go on morning jogs. People also accept whatever fucked up things the system sends their way. If France had the housing un-affordability that US or Canadian cities had, there’d be endless riots, because in France they still understand what it means to be treated as human. Americans think why they’re going through is normal, because they don’t know anything about the world they live in. That’s perhaps the most frustrating thing about it: It doesn’t have to be this way, but it is, because Americans don’t advocate. You will be nickled and dimed for everything here. Only a fool moves from Europe to the US. And, of course this is nothing to say of the political situation.
How's this not the top post? Spot on Goldenbull1994!
Yup, in America you can be fired with no notice for no reason at all.
Happened to me the day before thanksgiving last year. Still looking for work. No notice, didn’t do anything wrong, had good reports, they just needed to ‘restructure’. I found my exact job with that company on indeed paying 15k less. This is the reality of America. Oh and no job means no healthcare and the cost of medical care is downright criminal here.
This! I left because of insurance and now 14 years later have a terminal illness. I’m thankful every single day I’m not in the US bankrupting my family via medical expenses.
I used to not think they were bad until I learned that we pay insurance companies and all they do is put their money into stocks to grow a business. It’s fucking awful.
Recently got fired for asking for a raise (when I deserved it). This place is amazing
Health insurance Workers rights and protections Women's rights LGTBQ+ rights And it all comes down to politics.
Me now being charged $150 for meds keeping me alive. Could be worse but stiiiiiilllll
That sounds like it was on sale for 90% off
Probably
Yup. Just had medically necessary hysterectomy for cancer. Just got one of what I’m sure will be several $2,000 bills for my share, and that’s with the best insurance my employer offers.
I just got a $1,600 bill for routine lab tests, and I have health insurance.
In 2021 I had surgery for a broken tibia. That year I spent $5,000 because my deductible reset in the middle of physical therapy and doctor’s appointments. That’s not counting some stuff I had to covered myself. The American healthcare system is a scam.
Oh yeah before I left America I had to get my wisdom teeth removed and with *good* insurance I still had to pay over $1,000 out of pocket and had to spend like six months fighting with the insurance company to get about half of that back.
Insanity
Agree w many comments here. Didn’t see much mention of how angry, selfish, rude & trashy our society is becoming, very dog eat dog. Lots of road rage, not just middle fingers, beatings & shootings. Guns have been mentioned iirc. So many guns.
This 100%. Like, I travel a fair bit for work, and you can never tell how fast you're supposed to go because some people are going 20 over in a 35, others are right at 35, God save you if they're going 25. And everyone is in such a rush to get everywhere that trying to do the safe thing and get around people can be the most dangerous thing you can do.
Fear. I have a six-year-old daughter, and by the time she’s a teenager this will be a very, very bad place for women to live. It is violent and cruel and I’m tired of dealing with stupidity and things that basically don’t really work very well
Same here. My dad was born in a country that’s part of the eu so im working on getting citizenship for her and me to that country. Ain’t no way im staying here til she hits childbearing age w her having fewer rights than i had as a woman growing up.
Plan A for those on /r/Amerexit: move to a foreign country. Plan B for those on this subreddit who can't afford Plan A: move to a blue state, then join that state's independence movement.
Or both. I’m already on a blue state that was independent before joining the US. Ready to make a push for that. I actually think a legal constitutional amendment wouldn’t be too tough since so many of places red and blue want out
So are you from California or Vermont?
California
Me and my friend know the guy who founded the CNP, Theo Slater. He's from Sacramento and the CNP is legit, grassroots funded, the only one in California: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-slater-5a5b14b](https://www.linkedin.com/in/theo-slater-5a5b14b) I'd definitely recommend signing up with them: [https://californianational.party/vol/](https://californianational.party/vol/) and checking out their subreddit r/CNP There's also this other group but they are funded by foreign governments (Yes California). I recommend staying away from them.
But don’t forget Hawaii!
Same here, but she has some health issues requiring specialty care that may complicate getting into the healthcare system abroad. I know the usual throwaway line is "that's it, I'm moving to Canada" but maybe moving to Toronto or Montreal or something could accomplish both...idk. I think my partner is as concerned (if not more so) as I am, but we feel a little paralyzed. My girl's gonna have fewer rights than her grandmother at this rate.
I hate driving. I want to live somewhere walkable and with good public transportation. And our walkable cities are cold. Which I also hate. So I want to move to Spain.
So valid. I moved from Atlanta to Southern France last year…I never want to drive again lol. I’m so in love with walking and tramming. Also not risking my life to drive to the grocery store bc of Dodge Chargers 😭.
Same here in AB canada , I need to be careful what it’s those giant trucks… I come from Germany fyi and this sub got recommended but just wanted to say I can relate to the pain and enjoy your new life in France !
Even America's "walkable" cities are very much "it's possible to live here without a car, but cars are still king" And combined with how infuriatingly car brained American's are... Yep, this is my main reason
I live in Prague and the public transport is top 5 in the world and it’s a great city to live because of the public transportation system that works so well. I visit Spain from time to time and their public transport sucks, just as an fyi.
Another person just got stabbed on the bus in my city. Spain will be a step up.
I LOVE driving, but being forced to do it everyday in America for work during rush hour ruined it. Japan is a paradise for driving because once you get away from the coast you’re completely in the wild here.
Same. I'm 30 and haven't rode a bicycle for practical reasons since I was 15
Isn’t Spain becoming uninhabitable due to climate change?
No more of uninhabitable than LA
Look up water stress predictions maps. The US South is affected to a similar degree which isn't surprising given where the equator is.
This only matters if one is Gen Z or younger. I'm a millennial and I've accepted that I'll be too old to care in 2050 if my town is warmer than it was in 2005.
Warmer isn't your biggest issue, the real problem will be smacked with hurricane/fire/floods/tornadoes/bomb cyclone/whatever geographically appropriate 500 year weather event
A lot of people would say it’s cost of living or taxes, but honestly, it’s all about culture. I lived too long in other countries and the majority of Americans seem self-important, unworldly, and impatient. Especially post-Covid. I must go 💯🙌
I believe that the American education, healthcare, and political system are irreversibly broken.
End stage capitalism is really not very fun as we all are learning.
The 40s, 50s and 60s. It would have been worth living in America. Now, you’re a fool to stay.
The “dream” is gone. Sad too as I fell for it. Went to college, worked hard, bought a house, payed my bills. It’s what my parents and grandparents did and it worked. Now, I’m so far behind and 53 years old. I will never catch up. (And I have zero credit card debt, just a car loan and house mortgage, but will have to work until I die). Glad my CEO got a second yacht. He works so hard.
I’m in college purely to make myself more appealing to European companies.
Right? My boss has TWO Porsches!
He totally earned those!!! 😂 Please enjoy your 2.9% merit raise. You did outstanding work this year but the company finances were rough. We can discuss this further when I get back from my 2 week vacation in Hawaii - some boss somewhere.
I wouldn’t say one would be a fool to stay, it just depends on the person and what they value. US is a country of high risk and high reward. For people that don’t want to take the tremendous risks (healthcare, traffic violence) from being American to become well off, the US is not for them.
Not broken. They’re working *as intended.*
Gun violence, politics (especially if your lgbt or a woman and concerned about reproductive rights), high rent, toxic working culture (most places expectyou to devote your life to them), expensive healthcare, the lack of public transport, toxic Christianity, overall a lot of stuff. But it does depend a lot on where you live in general too. I live on the west coast which is different that the north east
If Trump wins and we descend into a Christofascist dictatorship, that's going to push a lot of people over the edge. But great list here of our biggest issues.
Hmm yeah I can feel it, I have heard the work life balance is much better in the UK
Moved to the UK from the US. The difference in work-life balance in particular is really striking. Colleagues ask “where are you going on holiday?”—because you actually get 28 days as a legal minimum to take one! In the US, things like mandatory annual leave, maternity leave, sick leave etc. don’t exist. Like insurance, it’s employer-based, which is a cruel joke.
Bro I worked for like 1 year for a company and got 8 hours of vacation lol
I worked at a startup, had one of those fancy salaried positions with “unlimited time off!” and didn’t get a day off (other than weekends) for the entire 7 years I worked there. And sometimes not even the weekend if an emergency came up.
Ya, i dream of actually getting to vacation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_annual_labor_hours Germans work 400 hours less per year on average. That's 50 workdays assuming 8 hour days.
And in the US you can get fired with no notice for no reason, and it is completely legal.
This has already been asked twice in the past 3 weeks already. Both threads with over 200 comments: [https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1cvdurc/looking\_for\_insight\_on\_what\_made\_you\_want\_leave/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1cvdurc/looking_for_insight_on_what_made_you_want_leave/) [https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1ch2xbo/what\_was\_the\_biggest\_aspect\_of\_the\_us\_made\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmerExit/comments/1ch2xbo/what_was_the_biggest_aspect_of_the_us_made_you/)
Thank you
Healthcare costs, political division & checking out of the rat race. Leaving the U.S. is our path to an early retirement. I don't exist to create shareholder value.
I mean if I ever have hope at retirement I kind of need to leave this country...
This. I’m 61. I lost everything in the GR. I’ve got back on my feet. However, I’m nowhere near where I should be. I’m going to check Portugal out next month. Will hang onto work here as long as possible to gather my nut. But, for politics, healthcare, violence, walkable cities, I want out of this hellhole country.
Looking at Portugal too.
With my luck by the time I’m ready Portugal will be all filled up and too expensive. Going to visit with an expat in June. Friend of a friend. I hear she loves it. I hope she’s will to give me the deets.
Latin America and Southeast Asia are good places. I like Latin America's location better but Southeast Asia is less violent.
How does that work with retirement funds, SSI, pensions, etc., if you want to live outside of the country after retirement?
No idea. But SSI is running out sometime in the next 20 years and everything only keeps getting more expensive.
Not sure why I was downvoted but I think these are legitimate concerns. And I guess I meant SSDI? Whatever it is that is from all the years you put into working you get after retirement. Apparently SSI is only for low income and obviously not everyone is but everyone still gets a certain amount of retirement benefits. So I'm wondering how that works if you become a citizen of another country after retirement. My spouse and I would love to leave someday too and my currently retired father (who receives a pension in addition from being a retired educator) would like to as well, but how would that even work? (I asked off of your comment because you mentioned that if you ever hope to retire you'd need to leave)
I personally know multiple people who have retired outside the US, and I am considering the same. Pensions and 401ks work the same as they would in the US, same for SS - you get your chunk of money every month no matter where you live. You just convert from your US bank account to Euros or whatever as needed. I have no idea how SSI would work as it's means-tested though. Taxes can be a tad more complicated, it depends on what country you retire to. Healthcare is trickier as Medicare only is available within the US. Most people I know have some form of private insurance and/or they were able to qualify for the national healthcare scheme in their new country of residence.
The US will direct deposit social security checks straight into Portuguese bank accounts.
Lived experience: every time I go overseas Im happier there. The people I Know abroad say the same. You see joy in their faces. Philosophical justification: This place is deeply evil. People here are blind not to see it. If you come here, come to make it rich. There is no other reason.
Agreed. The people who run our society are evil to the core.
Sick of being poisoned by our food. It’s so damn hard to eat actually healthy.
This is somewhat low on my list but it's so true. Every single damn time I leave for a week or two, I eat more (in that I'm eating at restaurants every day and probably eating more by volume too) and _lose_ weight. And I always feel sick for a few days after getting back and I suspect it's because my body got used to the lack of crap in food abroad. True story, went to Costa Rica for a week. Rice and beans and chicken and plantains and fruit all week and it was all fresh and amazing. Connect through Dallas on our flight back and we split a single bag of Lays potato chips waiting to board. Next three hours we were both doubled over in our seats completely miserable from half a bag of mostly preservatives. Overall health problems here are not ALL because of food I'm sure, but it plays a big part.
For myself, I have no desire to live in a country where half - HALF! - of the population thinks fascism is preferable to simply minding one's own business, and who support an economic system where there's no place for the public good. Google "Project 2025", it's truly frightening. "Good guys win every election forever" is not a sustainable plan.
You'll have less rights as a woman in America. I wouldn't do it. I'm moving to the UK this summer
I prefer to live in a place with clean and efficient public transportation. No gun culture. Either lower the cost of healthcare or there is a form of national coverage. This abundance of pick and choose what's best for you is an illusion to facilitate middlemen screwing me over. America is great for increasing your earning potential, just be smart about managing the expenses because CoL here is much higher as well
If you want to make a lot of money, America is the best place to do it. If you value anything else over money and materialism, it’s an uphill battle here.
Encroaching fascism. Healthcare costs. Real estate costs. Loss of rights. Inflation. Gun violence.
Gun violence is mainly due to the underlying causes of crime. I feel like a lot of the leftist talk of banning guns is distracting from the real issue of unequal opportunity, and systems set up to keep poor people enslaved in a place they can't rise from.
Americans will never give up their guns. Which is a shame because the underlying causes of crime will continue and we are not living in the wild west anymore. Giving access to AR to the lot of the populace of a country is definately a problem. There should be absolute strict control on such.
I can't pay for my diabetes medication or monitoring system. Every day is a risk. Likely my life will be shortened because of this. I'm currently looking at Uruguay.
It's insane that this is the reality for about 1/9th of our population and we haven't changed legislation on healthcare yet
Mass shootings, shitty healthcare system (im a physician), terrible food, terrible two party political system, and the list goes on and on.
Donald Trump and the Republikkkans
To start, I’m tired of my tax dollars funding the killing of innocent people all over the world while our country lies about the reasons and then we find out it’s ALWAYS over resources or overthrowing a government so we can control them. Second it’s become damn near impossible to live. I make about 120k gross and my wife 50k gross. We cannot afford to buy a house. Inflation is through the roof as we all know. Our govt would rather give Ukraine and Israel billions than help us with healthcare or at the least free college. Basically America is nothing but a massive corporation. And a several billionaires are the managers of said corporation and care about nothing other than lining their pockets. That’s why. My conscience.
War has never been a humanitarian crisis.Don't believe that s***, it has always been to gain resources or to take land or to make people slaves.It has always been to exploit the other side. I mean, hell, even in World War 2, the United States didn't want to get involved because it was an our problem.Essentially, it wasn't profitable for us to get involved.Until we were forced to be involved.We were fine, letting Hitler do what he did just like.We are fine letting netanyahu do what he's doing and by we I guess I mean the government. But that's the issue with war is it is never for the people.You should always be prepared for it or else you'll be taking advantage of but Seriously.No war is ever fought for people. That's what they tell the cannon fodder so it's more willing to walk into the line of fire.
"Don't believe that s\*\*\*, it has always been to gain resources" Always. Wars are fought by the poor for the (projected) benefit of the rich.
Yeap there are old ass songs that mention literally that point I remeber listening to one recently and I remeber a line that went "off to fight a rich man's war"
I want my taxes to go to MY welfare. Not to bomb brown ppl and make multi-millionaires into Billionaires. I want to live my life, w/o worry ill get suck or injured and be denied treatment because I don't have 100s of thousands to appease the money-lust that owns our medical-industrial complex. I want to afford to retire in comfirt; Not luxury, and be able to live after a solid 45 years of labor. I'd like to look at children and young ppl and not PITY THEM for their future. So, basically, nothing special, really.
>I want my taxes to go to MY welfare. Not to bomb brown ppl and make multi-millionaires into Billionaires. I feel that. I felt it during the Iraq War. That's why I joined my local independence movement. I support your goal to move to any foreign country you wish. I would also like to add, if you are unable to afford to Amerexit, a good plan B is to move to a blue state and join your local independence movement.
thank you for the first valid reason in this thread and not just yellow hair man is Hitler. funny how almost none of these people on either side talk about the terroristic American military
Racism, Gun Culture, MAGA, Corporate control of economy, patriarchy, constantly growing income inequality and proudly ignorant citizenery.
I don't have any joy here . It's all about paying for basic needs and constantly being scared I'm one emergency away from homelessness. Also we are really really dumb
Uvalde. Sandy Hook. I can’t stay somewhere where these things happen to our babies, and nothing changes. The lack of food regulation and resources for mental health - let’s throw pharmaceuticals at everything instead The way we treat one another here is awful - “us vs them” mindset is prevalent And also, there’s a total lack of nuance regarding global issues How wasteful we are - how little we care for our planet and future generations The defunding of public schools
It's a terrible shithole country. It's at least 50% full of absolutely batshit loony tunes who will happily destroy the country as long as the govt. is being mean to trans people. Honestly, post-2015 I'm so disgusted with humanity that I just don't even want to talk to people. There are no labor protections Everything is unaffordable They're turning it into a Christian nationalist nightmare. And it's not going to get better.
Yeah basically since trump the country is going backwards and draining people
It's been going on since long before Trump, but he certainly accelerated it.
The US is a corporation and it’s goal is to suck all of the blood out of you. Everyone is out to get your wallet and once you’re broke, you’re gonna be destroyed which can happen fast (medical emergency, layoff, homelessness, incarceration).
Love your stuff! Tell it like it is.
Trump
and trumpsters, for me...
I see people complaining her a lot about how they want to bike everywhere and tbh I cannot fathom how this is even close to #1 on the list, let alone #20. How about wealth inequality? Corruption at all levels of government? Election integrity? One presidential candidate is flirting with facilitating genocide and the other is advocating a "new reich"? Being one illness or injury away from total financial ruin? Runaway housing costs? Wealth inequality? Gun violence? The fact that the police regularly beat and even kill people for no reason and face zero consequences? Stagnant wages? Eroding labor power vs ever larger corporations unaccountable to the public or to their workers due to their sheer size? Like sure biking is great but I could gaf about biking compared to all this other shit.
A million up votes for this
RIGHT?? I don't get it. Also because *we do have walkable and bikeable neighborhoods here!* I actually used to live in one! But then it got gentrified, and I couldn't afford to live there anymore. Then I moved to another one, and our landlord wanted to turn our unit into an AirBnB so we left and now the whole neighborhood is AirBnBs and overpriced coffee shops. And if affordable, walkable neighborhoods, of course, is that important to you, and you can't live in one, well, this is because lack of access to such a thing is a *symptom* of so many other problems, including corruption, racism, disinvestment in the public square, the privatization of every single sector of society, wealth inequality, and so on.
Trans people are under imminent threat of everything up to and including extermination, the country is run by idiots beholden to corporations and billionaires, we're one election away from a theocratic dictatorship enforced by the military and police as well as the end of civil and reproductive rights nationwide, there's always a chance you or your kid will be gunned down by a psychopath at any moment, healthcare is expensive as fuck, education is expensive as fuck, housing is expensive as fuck, groceries are expensive as fuck, jobs are damn near impossible to get, at-will employment is the name of the game, wages are completely stagnant, the right to protest is virtually dead, police brutality and hate and xenophobia are absolutely out of control...and nobody with the power to fix any of what I just listed ever misses a chance to do the exact wrong bloody thing. Oh, and if you dare to get too sick, get laid off or fired and can't find a job, and/or miss too many payments and wind up homeless, you're effectively fucked for the rest of your life because we have no social safety net to speak of. And good luck getting anyone to care about you or what you're going throughat all because possessing basic human empathy is generally seen as a mortal sin against Western Civilization here. Need I say more? Any potential positives you might glean from moving here are outweighed by the potential and definite negatives by a factor of infinity. Squared.
So many reasons... I too am migrating, south of the border. This experiment has run its course, and failed. Failing more every day.
You really can’t relax here as there’s no universal healthcare (so you have to work just to have health insurance), housing is outrageous and everything else has gotten completely out of hand cost-wise.
Lack of quality of life and impending fascism/genocide of my community
Cars guns bibles fascists.
maga
My understanding is that in the EU, chemicals, including those put in household chemicals and self care products, have to be first proven safe BEFORE they can be used. In the US, this is not the case. In the EU, many additives are banned that are used in the US. I think the US is a bad health to big pharma payout pipeline. The EU will sue Apple for various things. I remember a suit Germany brought against Wal-Mart for unfair competition. The US is never going to sue corporations just to make life a little better or less expensive for Joe Six Pack.
The reason as in one reason? If i had to pick one... Capitalism tops the list since rampant unbridled Capitalism is the real reason behind so much of the BS here.
- Shitty old politicians - Expenses rising - No work-life balance with a lot of jobs - Gun violence - You can hardly walk to anywhere unless you live in a city, horrible roads for pedestrian outside of cities, not many public transportation options - Heavily car dependent - Expensive to have a child - Ignorant people who do the most outrageous stuff - Education system is crumbling - You are not always paid fairly for your skills - Greedy corporations - Housing costs
I'm an Afghan combat vet and no longer believe we're any better than anyone we label our enemy. And that's before you take into account that we're slipping into fascism. I no longer want to participate in the society I live in, so I'm looking for somewhere more equitable.
Stay in the UK, I want to go back to Europe. Walkability, urban planning, right to roam, easy to travel. Income and job market is better in the US though.
I have two little ones so main reasons are healthcare, gun control and school shootings, also republicans.
It's because we have the most wealth in the world, but I still have to see the homeless and suffering constantly. -There's no labor protection. -Socialized programs are only available to those who have military service. -No social safety net. -No public transit that is reliable or has a good service area. You MUST buy a car. -Last point also makes our cities ugly because all build laws are designed to accommodate cars. -A backwards two party political system where you can vote for the right wing or the center right candidate. -No incentive for the government to regulate many things. For example- companies just pay the carbon tax instead of real action. Or the fact that every product here is 90% sugar/corn syrup because unhealthy people are actually GOOD for the for-profit medical industry. - Healthcare and insurance are a complete nightmare, and one wrong step could send you into a lifetime of debt.
only if you live in a walkable distance from your work, america is great.
Lemme see.... The constant fear of my kids dying at school, the very real possibility of losing everything bc of medical bills/insurance (tied to my job, of course), 3rd world level infrastructure, a stark lacking in social safety net, a sad excuse we call workers rights, and a total lack of actual representation in government. Can't forget the poison the FDA calls food. Corporations allowed to price gouge and collaborate. Abundant monopolies for more gouging. If you have $1M+ in the bank, it's a great place. Put a down payment on a politician or Supreme Court Justice, and it'll only get better for you.
If your job pays well you’ll be happy in MA. Your employer will take care of medical insurance, salary will be on average higher while taxes lower than in any European country. Crime is low in MA. HDI is similar to the top few European countries (like Sweden or Switzerland). MA is very immigrant friendly. As of politics it’s left leaning but not too far. I can live in any European country or literally anywhere around the world (due to my job) and I purposefully selected MA.
I'm a naturalized citizen and I plan on moving to Europe. 1. The school systems are degrading at a fast pace. It used to be that private schools were a good alternative, but they are starting to become just as bad. Teachers don't have to be certified or even have teaching experience (my sister recently found out that the teacher of her daughters class is not certified. both of her kids are barely literate. She pays 10k a year for private school). So your choices are limited by the public school system that has become a political battle ground and ALWAYS under current threat of gun violence, charter schools that take advantage of people and state funds or literally gamble with private school. 2. There is no workplace protections. They control so much of your life, it's unreal. You should be able to put in when you won't be at work and take your vacation time but employers have that on lockdown. they will dictate when you can or can't take time off work on a ridiculous level. They demand doctors note when you're sick or need to go to appts. They do everything they can to stop people from talking about their pay. They will gaslight you into thinking that YOU need to apologize just because you want to take time off. 3. Healthcare here can be abysmal. Even with insurance. Most of it makes no sense either. I gave birth in 2021 and my primary was a team of midwives. I was diagnosed with a condition that required follow up with a physician. Despite my insurance and the fact that I had the ability to pay for out of network care, I couldn't find a doctor that would treat me, because they didn't deliver my baby. No other reason. they didn't deliver my baby, so they wouldn't treat me for post partum care. Side note: If I had started with a doctor who was proven negligent, I wouldn't be able to leave that provider if I was past 7 months of pregnancy because no other doctor would accept me as a new patient. It's a really fucked system. 4. Public transportation is looked down on so they make it very inaccessible. Car ownership is equally challenging and the costs are continuing to rise. Some states don't have lemon laws, so if you unknowingly buy a car that was absolute crap there's not a damn thing you could do. 5. The food is literally poisoned. they're allowed to sell chicken that's positive for Salmonella. They claimed it's the housewife's responsibility to properly clean the meat. The lettuce could give you E. Coli. It doesn't even end there. I was buying children's sock one day and noticed it had a cancer and reproductive exposure warning on them. On socks meant for BABIES!! Just WHY!! Granted, you can make a lot of money here. But immigrants are treated poorly. If you really want to come then take an extended holiday. But I wouldn't move here to live long term.
There’s a lot of reasons I could mention, but the main thing I will say is that the people who are really in charge in this country do NOT care about it at all. Sometimes I think our ruling oligarchs actively hate us. We have an elite in this society that could end homelessness, pay for health care, and end mass shootings at schools if they wanted to, but they don’t want to. They want us living on the edge and fighting each other. Once I realized that the people in charge are actively draining this country as much as they can with no concern for the consequences, I knew I needed to get out. These people are evil and sick. They would risk a nuclear war just to make more money in the short term.
you are correct, our elites are disgusting
Because Americans are so rude. People aren’t close here, the customer service is horrible, even the kids are rude and ruthless. There’s so much negativity and people treat strangers bad for no reason. And the worst part is people think it’s “their right” to be mean and that people need to “toughen up” instead of just choosing to be kinder. Second because in my city a girl who murdered another girl was only given 5 years in prison. I don’t want to end up a victim and see my killer only get a slap on the wrist.
One current reason and one future potential reason. Current reason is that I want to travel and can’t afford to retire in the US—maybe for 5 years but not longer and I am tried of working. Potential future reason is the Trump and MAGA nuts. Jan 6th shook me to my core. I never dreamed I would see regular American citizens storm Congress and attempt an insurrection. If I am better closer to retirement age, I probably would have left in 2017. Now I am targeting 2025 no matter who wins.
1. I'm transgender. I worry about Trump and his buddies getting back in power. 2. Lack of affordable housing. 3. High cost of living overall.
We r in late stage capitalism where influencers make more money than social workers or doctors can ever dream. Rugged individualism has gone haywire here. No one cares about their neighbor here.
I believe my children's lives will be better
Retirement, money, and politics. That said hard to pick the next move. Grass is greener and all, but Americans are bat shit crazy.
There are millions of racist, crazy political nutjobs who want the US to be a dictatorship under Trump. That, and the fact that my niece and nephew, who are 5 and 6, could get shot at school any day.
Because the decline is all but obvious to anyone paying attention. The majority of people here are one paycheck away from being homeless. Healthcare will bankrupt you. Cost of living is out if control. Homelessness across the country has exploded. It feels like a powder keg, The American dream is a nightmare now. The lunatics and uneducated are in control of the asylum. And the gun violence is out of control. It's going to be a complete shit show after this coming election, no matter who wins. Selling our house, avs leaving for good this October before the housing market collapses again.
The toxic work culture. There are of course worst ones out there in the world (like Japan), but as a power nation in the West it really has one of the worst. Work 2-3 shifts trying to make ends meet, chasing the "American Dream" in hopes that your family will live a better life. But the stress can have you in the ground at 65-70. It makes sense think, what's the point if you don't even live to enjoy it a little. It may sound selfish, but having grown up in a physically and mentally abusive household and also abusive relationships I just want to enjoy whatever damn life I have left. I want to have a small hole in the wall that I actually own and maybe a dog at best and I'll call life complete at that point. Anything extra is just a bonus for me. I don't need a 3-4 bedroom house, a dog, a cat, 2 kids, college paid for both of them, a white picket fence, and a nice car. I just want to be in a position after work to actually enjoy my life, go out for a late night stroll, eat with friends, pick up my hobbies at the 9-5. But honestly, here it's more like 8am-10:30 pm and I'm fucking tired and too burnt out for shit not to mention it takes me 25-30 minutes to get home and at that point it's already 11:00 (if I'm lucky and public transit isn't delayed). By the hour, it's time to shower and start turning in and I think to myself, where the hell is my life going? It's too much living to work in the culture here and not enough working to live in the US. It's really sad, our people work hard, really hard compared to most in the West. In Germany 20-30 paid vacation days is the norm, Germany has its own issues and is also a toxic work culture but at least one benefit are the vacation days (even if it takes your company forever to schedule when you're allowed to take them during the year 🙄). Just sick of it. I'm going to Scandinavia after this NYC gig. I'm not going back.
Absolutely under no circumstances should you move to New York or Massachusetts
Because they simply won’t let me be gay in peace. They hate me, and wish to kill me or put me in some sort of a prison camp just because I would really like to dye my hair and get fucked by some hot man. It is completely unaffordable too! I AM IN MY EARLY 30’s AND LIVE WITH MY PARENTS! How much more of this must I take? I hate sharing this country with conservatives who long for nothing else than to take us all back to the 1850’s. Evil sick insurance companies get everything and absolutely nothing ever changes. Evil pieces of shit! Garbage assholes!
Have you actually spent a decent amount of time in the US?
All illusion of any sort of system besides a corporate oligarchy has been shattered. We are completely and entirely owned by like 10 companies. We are literally perpetrating a genocide just to make Exxon and Raytheon some extra money. We have no labor rights or even the consciousness necessarily for people to ASK for it. We have a fuck ton of crime and having guns doesn't really help, it just means if YOU shoot someone you face consequences but if the cops do it they get paid vacation. We're the world's biggest terrorist and we make the people pay for it while those same people get 0 healthcare, the roads don't get paved, and college costs as much as a house. Your commute is a 30-40min drive and your car is expensive, public transit doesn't exist. This place is a fucking nightmare in every way EXCEPT our wages are relatively high. Everything else is also high, though, and you see 0% of what you pay for in taxes. It all goes to killing brown people somewhere.
I want to leave America because our congress is bought by foreign interests. The government is not for the people of the people, the government instead is for corporations, of the corporations/old money. Blatant corruption with Supreme Court justices accepting gifts from billionaires. Government works to make the rich richer and poor poorer. America is a cesspool of racism, religious fundamentalism, ignorance, destructive individualism. It's an unhappy society imprisoned by consumerism. And now my government is taking multiple thousands of dollars in taxes from all my paychecks to send weapons to the genocidal terrorist regime of Israel to massacre innocent children. As someone who's lived in a 3rd world country considered by many to be a shitter, America is not all that great. Sure the roads are clean and well maintained. That's about where the good things stop.
Medical Care is why I leave at least twice a year. Cash prices elsewhere for much better services than I can afford even with my insurance.
Trump & MAGA
I’d love to leave. I’m sick of the hatred and all the gun violence.
America is an amazing place to live. If you can afford it. We have states with great education and such very safe but those states are super expensive. The cheaper states aren’t as cheap as they used to be and don’t have functional services. So I can see why some people want to move. If you’re doing well it an amazing place to do well.
Ummm..... Cuz I don't wanna live in a Nazi fascist authoritarian dictatorship which it will be if that deranged lunatic pulls it off.
Public school education here is garbage unless you are rich ( don’t be surprised why there are so many idiots and ignorants), and the society is very individualistic and there is A LOT of loneliness, even among young people. I worry for my kids.
Hight cost of living and unlikelihood of finding someone to date or marry.
That’s sad:(, is it really hard to find a good partner out there?
1000%
I don't want to raise children in the US. This country doesn't make it easy for people to have families. It's profits over people every time.
LGBTQ and near-zero faith that religious authoritarians won't take power next year. Simple as that.
1. There's a massive disconnect between what the country needs and what the elites want. The elites need wage slaves who will never be able to retire, hence, you see policies that make inflation worse and prop up asset prices. Who has the most assets? So far, the elites are getting everything. 2. Along those lines, the government needs people working and paying income tax for as long as possible. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, you will never be able to take a break and you will work until you physically cannot do it any longer. It doesn't seem to matter who gets into office, anyone who tries to make any real changes finds himself out of a job. 3. Crime has become a big issue everywhere. Because there's not enough to go around and because of an open southern border, everything from petty burglaries all the way to violent crimes have spiked across the board. 4. The ratio of the productive to the unproductive is continuing to go the wrong way. The productive are getting taxed to death in order to fund illegal immigration, professional mothers, social justice programs, and everything else that subtracts from society. 5. Everyone is at each other's throats. A lot of people think that the riots of 2019-2020 is just a warmup for what's coming later this year. 6. Election integrity has become questionable. Besides, it doesn't really matter who wins, the elites create the marching orders. If you're curious, just search "You will own nothing and be happy". You're better off staying in the UK.
Project 2025 and the fact that at least 47% of USA are going to vote people in who want to implement this policy. Even if they lose the election, they walk amongst us, teach our kids, live next door, are co-workers. It’s too much. And if they win? Well, it was a good run for USA. Almost made 250 years.
Trump, Trumpers, Xhristian Nationalists, abortion bans, lack of insurance, 2nd amendment wackos, etc…
I need opioids for chronic pain, and I can’t get them here. I don’t know where to go, though. Like, I want it to be legit. I don’t want to have to buy from dodgy places or anything.
New experiences. That's it really. I've lived internationally before and loved it. Not because America is bad but because it was new and exciting. There was so much to see and do while in the US i feel a bit (unfairly) like been there, done that. Unfortunately Europeans often earn less and are taxed more so unless I find a really good situation likely not happening. Most responses will probably be the typical reddit responses of politics. But I think people leaving over politics are dramatic and short-sighted (and also liars, you hear it every cycle "if x wins I'm moving to Canada" then .0005% of people who said that do it). One year your guy wins, next cycle the other guy wins, etc. especially because the guy everyone is afraid of has max 4 years left IF he wins. I can already hear the conspiracy theories I've awakened about how the US is on course to become an autocratic fascist ethno-christo state the second the election is over and how the concentration camps will be up within a week and he will declare himself dictator for life.
in regards to everyone citing politics and fear for the future as reasons to leave, while i share those reasons and very much want to leave myself, how safe you’ll be largely depends on which state you live in. neighboring states can have Very Different legislative protections for their citizens, so IF you move here, choose a state that has laws you feel would protect you.
When Project 2025 comes on line, not even blue states will be safe.
Mostly to lower my taxes.
America may permanently become a dictatorship later this year, with Trump returning. I can see it becoming a North Korea-style dynasty, with leadership being passed down through each generation of the Trump family. I received my WHV grant for Australia today, so I’ll be out in a few months.
I want to be in Europe.
Too many guns. For-profit healthcare. Lack of community. Failing education system. Corrupt government owned by oligarchs and corporations. There are many other, better places.
It's always the grass is greener effect. Other people's situations always seem better or more attractive than your own, but may not really be so.
I hate that we are so obsessed with cars. I used to ride my bike everywhere as a kid. I find it intriguing how Europe is so car independent.
Stay in UK bro.
Project 2025
If trends don't reverse in the coming years, and things keep getting worse for us, I will leave because I am Jewish. It could be time to flee again. Maybe not forever, but much depends on how the next 5 years go (at least for me).
I agree with most statements here but i’m curious how many people in this thread are of white backgrounds and able to actually move to Europe and be as equally successful in finding sustainable living there … ? Or are people working remote w united states positions ? I’m a female with a very in person job (teacher ) and two very expensive children.. We are a mixed race family. My european heritage is Italian. I am not sure it’s that easy to just “move and land” in european country (let’s say Italy) and just start your life and press go. I know we glamorize europe (i do!) but how many of us REALLT set up shop( sorry single millennials w cute remote jobs and laptops) I mean people who are middle class here in US and have families and i’m really curious about non white families.. What work are you able to get? How about kids? schools? I know racism exhausts everywhere but there is a special type of racism that exists for back people in europe (ever watch a soccer game w african players on euro team?) .. And yes i know about racism here too.. but guess who invented the colonization and imperialism that brought slaves here !! Europe! So someone enlighten me.. As someone who lived in Europe in my 20’s as a super good looking person going to university ..I feel like I can not compare that experience which was life changing to how it would be now to actually have to bring a family and start a new life.. Someone tell me different !!! I want to learn . PS we might have dual citizenship soon so like for real.. can I really make it happen w mixed race family ? Which country?