What country/ies are not in the condition you ascribe to America?
While I was stationed in the Mediterranean, I spent time in 18 European countries, 3 Near East (Asian) countries, and Morocco in Africa. At my current older age would not consider moving out of the USA.
In earlier times, I would have considered Gibraltar or England, or France, or maybe Malta for extensive visitation, but not for permanent change of residence.
Please pardon the double post.
Yeah, I always wonder which country people think is the great economic utopia outside of the USA.
Word.
I have never been outside NY in my whole life and I very much doubt I ever will.
I’ve lived in Italy (a few months), the UK, and now Canada, and travelled widely. I now have the trouble that nowhere is a perfect fit: there are a lot of things I miss about the US, but when I’m there, there are a lot of things I miss about the other countries. I’m always an American abroad but I come across as slightly foreign in the US (I get asked “are you from England?” a lot, even in my hometown).
That said, add me to the people who probably won’t return to the US to live, especially as I get older—healthcare that’s free at the point of service is nothing to sneeze at.
Answering the question under the question, Engineers are one of the professions most likely to spend some years abroad as part of their career. I’ve worked for several companies which had teams of “flying engineers”, who would be sent to different factories in order to manage improvement projects. My current customer, a small Swedish chemical company, manages the building of the reactors that will use their product in their customers’ locations: we have projects in the BRICs, Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, Japan, several Middle Eastern countries… Other engineers I’ve known who worked abroad include construction managers (waterworks, electricals, roads), consultants, or people whose everyday work was in a specific factory but who got picked to help build a new one abroad.
So from where this Spanish Engineer with tons of international experience* is sitting, going into EE can actually be a good way to end up traveling “more than an airplane pilot”.
i lived 20+ years in China, HK, Taiwan and Japan. It was great. Went for an adventure and stayed. Kids tend to throw in a monkey wrench. When they get to school age, you really have to decide where you want them to grow up. My eldest did 2 years in Chinese public schools, and that was at least 1 year too much.
I also have a special needs child, which at least for me translated into moving to a country where I can get her the maximum help possible. In my case, that is the US.
That was a pretty childish response, so you evidently haven’t outgrown that.
Yes, but mostly we eat food-like substances these days, and most of the women (and men) seem to have eaten way too much of it. This is not unique to the US, sadly. NAFTA has flooded Mexico with processed cheap US crap, and the results are dreadful.
The crisis that the US has walked into is affecting most places around the world, but it seems like Canada and portions of Western and Northern Europe are handling it slightly better. Even so, neoliberalism is a global problem. But leaving that aside, wouldn’t it be refreshing to wake up in a country where denying evolution or climate change or the efficacy of comprehensive sex education or progressive taxation is no longer respectable? I would love to live in a society where religion is a thing of the past. It would brighten my day (actually, it would brighten my entire life) to live somewhere where the defense budget is actually about defense, rather than offense.
But that’s no reason to run. It’s a reason to stand and fight.
That’s a strawman. There’s no such thing as a great economic utopia, but there are places with much less inequality, and places that score better on many levels of human well-being.
The word is “ignorant.”
I have lived outside the USA. Singapore, Jakarta, Sydney, Kwajalein. Fascinating while I was there, but each and every time, I was really happy to come back home.
I don’t prefer the UK because I ‘hate America.’ I have a number of reasons why I prefer not to live in the US anymore, but nope, because I hate it isn’t one of them.* In fact, except for those times when I come across a discussion like this or when someone at school asks me if I miss the US, I don’t think about it. I travel back out to the States about once a year for conferences, and am always glad to be back at Heathrow at the end of it.
I’ve also not encountered the cold and standoffish foreigners as yet, and in fact most people who find out that I’ve emigrated here with the intention of staying (I have my permanent residency and will be applying for citizenship later this year), have been quite warm and happy for me about it.
Everyone’s experience is different, &c.
*It irks the heck out of me when I do still have to deal with companies and people back in the US who seem to think I’ve betrayed the country for leaving – I get more attitude from people back home from living over here than I do from the natives.
I’m not sure where you got ‘hate the US’ from my post. Also, I was painting with a very broad brush and intentionally used modifiers like “can” to point out that life isn’t necessarily all roses somewhere else. The greener grass may turn out to be just painted concrete.
I spent the majority of my 20s abroad (over five years in Hungary, and about nine months combined in Scotland, England, Croatia, and Slovenia) and I would not trade that experience for the world. If you have the opportunity and it interests you, now is the time to do it. Overall, yes I would live outside the US happily again, but I would happily live in the US as well (as I have for the last ten years.) So I wouldn’t say I’d “rather” live abroad, but it is a perfectly fine scenario for me.
I have been lucky enough to work all over the world. Some of the countries include:
Italy
Japan
Vietnam
Turkey
Malaysia
Switzerland
Nigeria
Angola
I guess being so well travelled now defines me personally. However, there are some issues you must consider when taking the expat road as follows:
This year marks 20 years that I’ve been in the UK. I’ve lived in the same 10 mile radius here far longer than in any 10 mile radius location during the 30 years I spent in the US. This is home now, I have no desire to go back to the US.
I’ve had a few moments where I thought about whether I would prefer moving back to the States, but so far I’m happy living abroad. With one caveat.
After about 8 or so years abroad I was re-entering the States at the Miami airport just to catch a connecting flight to Colombia. The Immigration officer said, “Welcome home!” And I paused. It didn’t feel like home, just some place I was passing through.
And when talking with colleagues one day I realized I had spent more time living in my house in Cayman than at any other address in my lifetime. Did this make Cayman home? More home to me than the States?
But immigration laws are what they are. And that’s why resumes are going out again the States. Mrs Iggy and I can live together in Colombia or the States, but not here in Cayman. Sigh. I don’t want to leave home.
I’d write the exact same response. 
I have lived literally decades in Thailand due mainly to the wife’s career but not necessarily. Could live in the US again, and in fact we’re thinking of retiring back to Honolulu some day in the near future, where we met.
I think living outside the US, standing outside it and looking in, gives one a unique perspective. But even going years between visits back to the Homeland, I’ve never felt culture shock upon returning, not the least bit.
I encounter so many farangs (Westerners), especially Americans, over here who did just that and do indeed seem to have so many new problems totally befuddling them.
The key word in the OP is “anywhere.”
Yes, there are places outside the US that I’d rather live.
But would I rather live anywhere than the US? Uh, no. It’s a big bad world and while there are some places that to my mind are clearly a tier above the US (Germany, for example) there are many more places that are corrupt, dirty, repressive, backwards, and make the US look pretty good.
Go check those places out, by all means - it’s interesting to experience them, and there are good things about them. But other than for short term stints, no, I wouldn’t rather live in those places.
If you’re anything like me, I think the culture shock comes when you come back to live here, rather than visit. The first time I lived abroad it was for three quarters of a year. The second time was for over five years. Both times I had very little culture shock moving away from the US. Both times it took me awhile to really adjust back to the US, so much so that my first few months back just felt “surreal,” for lack of better word. The first time it took me only a month or two to really adjust back, but I hadn’t been gone for that long. The second time, I would say it took me about two to three years to real feel readjusted.
I’m good where I am, but I keep an open mind. I’m sure there are a lot of great places to live. As long as it’s not Trinidad…