A Growing Trend of Leaving America
July 31st, 2008Via: U.S. News and World Report:
These Yankees, it turns out, are part of a larger American phenomenon: a wave of native-born citizens who are going abroad in search of new challenges, opportunities, and more congenial ways of life.
In his recent book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips warns that an unprecedented number of citizens, fed up with failed politics and a souring economy, have already departed for other countries, with even larger numbers planning to do so soon. But that may be putting too negative a reading on this little-noticed trend. In fact, most of today’s expats are not part of a new Lost Generation, moving to Paris or other European haunts to nurse their disillusionment and write their novels. Some may be artists and bohemians, but many more are entrepreneurs, teachers, or skilled knowledge workers in the globalized high-tech economy. Others are members of a retirement bulge that is stretching pensions and IRAs by living abroad. And while a high percentage of expats are unhappy with the rightward tilt of George Bush’s America, most don’t see their decision to move overseas as a political statement.
Research Credit: Samadhisoft
hey, that’s me!
just remember – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave… ex-pats pay US tax no matter where they live. make sure you live in a country that has a tax treaty with the US so you don’t end up paying double (but you will file twice every year).
What I’ll bet this article doesn’t mention is the cultural factors that make people want to live elsewhere. The USA really is choking to fucking death on its own collective narcissism.