[mekrob]

So is anyone else here considering leaving America soon? It just seems like America doesn't have the will to change it's lifestyle anytime soon and Congress doesn't have the balls to do anything drastic until it's too late and by then they'll just play the blame game. Companies are only looking for a profit and probably won't help out. After Katrina, I became very worried about the prospect of people living with little authority coming from the government and with a shortage of supplies. A well coordinated attack on our oil infrastructure could easily cause cities from coast to coast to plunge into caos that was experienced in NO. I'm in college now so I don't really have a chance to leave yet, no money or prospect for a job, but will be looking soon. Anyone else?

[NTBKtrader]

Yes, I plan on fleeing to Cambodia next year. I hear they love young western men too.

[alyosha]

Everyone's situation is different. I cannot leave soon because I am taking care of my aging mother. And I don't have a lot of cash. But I am making plans.

I have looked into emigrating to Canada and Australia. They have different types of visas. A technical visa is one where you have a skill that they want. They score you via a point system, but both countries have a cut off age, usually around 45 or so (beyond that, you're too much of a drain on their health care system). Canada gives you points for knowing French. My take is that the most stable, westernized countries are the most difficult to get into.

My advice is that if you are thinking of leaving, and if you have no obligations here, the time to get out is NOW or better, yesterday. Don't wait for them to close the border, or for when thousands or millions of others are trying to flee.

I have heard that New Zealand is wonderful, and had contact with someone who successfully moved himself and his family there. They never looked back.

The point can't be stressed enough, get working on this NOW.

[MicroHydro]

I emigrated to New Zealand as a skilled migrant on a work visa. My only regret is not doing it years ago. Peace, freedom, civil rights, rule of law, honest elections with paper ballots, universal accident medical insurance - a huge upgrade from the US in many respects.

The power blackouts will probably set in here in about 18 months. Petrol is already expensive. But Kiwis are not going to be whining as much about the PO hardships as people in the US.

If you are aged 18-30, have no criminal record, and NZ$4200 to live on, you can very easily get a one year young adult visa which allows you to travel to seek work. If you are older, then you have to have one of the specific skills that are needed here.

US fundamentalists wouldn't like the same sex civil unions. US handgun enthusiasts wouldn't like leaving their phallic symbols behind. US racists wouldn't like the Maoris. But those sorts of folks are in heaven under Bush and have no reason to leave the US.

[Princess]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('alyosha', 'I') cannot leave soon because I am taking care of my aging mother. And I don't have a lot of cash. But I am making plans.

[Heineken]

I am saddened by what the US has turned into, but I've learned that the quality of one's life has less to do with the country one lives in than with what goes on inside one's cranium. You take your thought patterns, personality, and problems with you. That isn't to say that I haven't fantasized about emigrating.

I lived in Austria for five years as a child and spent time in Israel as a teenager, and I was always glad to get back to the US and familiar ways.

I too have elderly parents dependent on me (although they have all the money!). We live on a farm, in separate houses. My dad is on 100% VA disability from WWII. I can't go anywhere until they're gone, and by then I'll be far too old to leave the US (I'm 50 now as it is).

It's nice to know that others out there are also taking care of their parents and not consigning them to the dustbin of a nursing home.

[mekrob]

I'm not saying that going to another country is going to be smooth sailing for the rest of your life. I just mean that it would be nice (for me anyway) to know that food is not going to be in short supply and people aren't going to go haywire over a gallon of gasoline. Getting away from this kind of lifestyle will hopefully for me be a stress reliever, thus allowing my cranium to enjoy life (well, more so than if I live in the US).
I've thought about Canada, I've heard it's a great country. I don't care too much for Australia, probably because I haven't looked into it too much, and NZ, ha. Where's that? (Go US public education). I'll most likely look into the Middle East, depending on how things shape up. I'm in Arabic right now and have a pretty good ear for it so far.

[Heineken]

Interesting comments, tinosorb. I too have always felt like a stranger in a strange land. My solution has been to surround myself with as much private land as I can afford here in Virginia---25 acres---and thereby to create my own little country, where I live with a very small clan. (This is something along the lines of what pstarr advised, I guess.)

Rest assured, BushCo. has many of those "certain freedoms" you refer to in its gunsights.

It's true, though, that many of the countries we think of as liberated and superior to the US can be very restrictive and flawed. Austria, where I lived from 1963 to 1968, was a very conservative, repressive place in many ways (and the birthplace of Adolf Hitler!). I once spent some time with Dutch people and found them surprisingly abrasive, even selfish. And although we tend to think of Canadians and New Zealanders as friendly, I've encountered some nasty ones on the PO website---as well as nice ones. The bottom line is that people are pretty much people, everywhere. Moving to another country probably isn't going to change that.

At a practical level, one of the most serious problems with living in America is its lack of national health insurance. I have, at times, considered emigrating because of that factor alone. I am leaving my job in a few days, after 17 years in it (and 28 years of work overall), and will have no health insurance. Although I am by some standards financially independent, there is no way I can afford to pay the premium for any decent health insurance plan, and it will be 15 years until I qualify for Medicare! Although I can pay out-of-pocket if I break a finger or something like that, if I ever get seriously ill I will have to travel to Mexico or Thailand for treatment. The reason: Most of my tax dollars were siphoned off to pay for $400 screwdrivers for the Pentagon and various imperialistic adventures.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'I')'m not saying that going to another country is going to be smooth sailing for the rest of your life. I just mean that it would be nice (for me anyway) to know that food is not going to be in short supply and people aren't going to go haywire over a gallon of gasoline. Getting away from this kind of lifestyle will hopefully for me be a stress reliever, thus allowing my cranium to enjoy life (well, more so than if I live in the US).
I've thought about Canada, I've heard it's a great country. I don't care too much for Australia, probably because I haven't looked into it too much, and NZ, ha. Where's that? (Go US public education). I'll most likely look into the Middle East, depending on how things shape up. I'm in Arabic right now and have a pretty good ear for it so far.