For many the question of “why expatriate” will run the gamut of the usual reasons:
- higher quality of life
- escape political leanings you disagree with
- economic opportunity
- conflict in your home country
- wanderlust
- escaping taxation
- persecution etc.
For this little entry I’d like to focus on those that currently reside in the US and who are NOT of typical retirement age.
For them, the economic opportunity afforded them in the US (not to mention their social and economic safety nets) are a powerful incentive to stay put. However, I believe that events are unfolding and have been unfolding in such a manner that will make the US of tomorrow look vastly different than the US of today.
While the reasons would take up vastly more space, time and patience than i can get into in this one single entry, I would summarize it as a reliance on growth.
For better or worse, large parts of the entire social and economic model that the US is based on rely on growth. The retirement system, and entire system of money in fact rely on consistent and never ending growth. The “stresses” we perceive in many areas of life in the US are built on the fallacy that never ending growth is a “good” and that it is indeed achievable. This fallacy is reinforced by the fact that the systems and way of life are built around growth — and when growth stops, that system starts to break apart and create some very uncomfortable consequences.