A lot of people are leaving the United States and even more are thinking about it. What is going on? The U.S state Department estimates that 9 million Americans live abroad and their rate has been increasing substantially over the last several years. The old American dream was about prosperity and opportunity, maybe home ownership or providing a better life for your kids, but for a lot of people that dream is dead. It’s just not an option anymore, now the new American dream is leaving. Still the prosperity, just not in the United States anymore.
So in this Article we’re going to take a look at the top seven reasons why people are leaving the United States starting with the High Cost of Living.
High Cost Of Living
It’s a major reason especially why retirees are thinking about leaving, they can’t afford to live in the United States after working their entire life, saving for retirement, counting on Social Security, now they’ve reached retirement and realized that the amount of money they have to live on each month is just not enough. Well an inflation is just driving the prices up even more, it’s so much more expensive to buy a house, to rent, only 21% of the homes that were available for sale last year in 2022 was actually at an affordable price point for most U.S households. I mean, only 21! That is the ultimate American dream and most people cannot achieve that. It’s crazy how expensive home ownership has become that and that doesn’t even include taxes and insurance, which I’ve also really increased so, even retirees who own their home every year the cost of that is going up because the cost of their insurance, the replacement value of the home it continues to increase, because material costs are going up and the taxes are going up because of the value of the homes going up every year they get reassessed and those property taxes increase and those states that have to pay that which is most of them.
Americans had seen their utility bills go up and up, for some people that is a deal breaker that they have to choose between getting food to eat or paying their electric bill, or having heating for the winter because the winters have been so harsh. I have paid my electric bill it was 35 for an entire month, that’s pretty typical for me in the mid-season, autumn, spring, but in the summer, it gets way lower here in Portugal.
I pay 30 euros a month for my internet access with calls in the entire Portugal, and some friend of mine or even my sister that lives in St Petersburg, Florida, paying 120 a month for a fraction of the speed and reliability that 1 get here in Portugal. Cell phone bill is only 20 euros a month for the most basic plan. It’s just ridiculous, i told bills now are running hundreds of dollars and what are you going to do? You have to have electricity and heat.
I’ve made some researches in facebook groups, checking the comments of the people and their electric bill is 400 or 600 dollars just for their utility bills in a month that is more than i pay for an entire year here in Portugal. that High Cost of Living is probably the main reason why most Americans are looking to leave or have left already and tied in with that as the next reason.
Expensive Health Care System
Number six which is the unaffordable health care, a lot of people have to leave because they could not afford health insurance and health care in the United States. In Portugal i.e, you could be paying up to 90 percent less compared to the prices in the United States, which is insanity. Prescriptions are about 90 percent lower here, at least some of them, the healthcare 70 to 90 percent lower than the United States and if you go to other parts of the world, it really is 90 percent less for the same procedures and it’s not like a dirty and disgusting Hospital. These are like nice hospitals too, it’s the same kind of care that you get in the U.S, it’s just a lot more affordable and actually the health outcomes are higher despite having the most expensive Health Care system in the world the United States just has average Quality Health Care.
Compared to the US, Portugal rates are a lot higher and so do so many other countries for Quality Healthcare Plus you get incredible service, you can get in to see your doctor right away.
Low Quality of Life
Number five is the low quality of life and this happens when you can’t afford the basic necessities of life like food, housing. One of the things many people really improve after leaving the United States and moving to another country is their quality of life, because they don’t spend every day worrying about how we’re going to make ends meet, how are going to take the little amount of money, they are making and spread it across all of the giant expenses that they have, that is just massive quality of life Improvement just by getting out of that imbalance system. Improving your work-life balance for some is a must, it really decreases your stress level as well and you also get better quality relationships, so your whole life isn’t all about getting your kids to school, then getting yourself to work, or your friends aren’t just work friends, it’s a completely different environment once you remove yourself from that toxicity. Also for Americans they are not used to having any vacation time, for Americans when you have a job you’re lucky to get 2 weeks a year. You have to beg for that time off and you can’t take it the same time as other people do, but you know, if you can transition your work to online, you can call your own shots and leave the U.S, then you don’t have to worry about the vacation time anymore because, you kind of feel like you’re living on vacation.
If you can create your own schedule. Just leaving and working online is really dramatically increased the quality of life of many Americans.
Adventure and Exploration
The number four reason why people are leaving the US is for adventure and exploration. This is so exciting, my friend American love to explore Portugal, where we live. One of the great things though about being able to live to another countries and explore is that it’s made you feel a lot more comfortable to go out anywhere you want. The feeling of freedom to go explore all of the different areas in this world is so amazing and beautiful that it is just life-changing to see it.
The best part is that is still affordable for Americans, so many places that you want to go and check out are very affordable.
Escape Mother Nature
The number three reason people are leaving the U.S is to escape Mother Nature; she has been really meant to many lately. Had flooding, earthquakes, tsunami, tornadoes, you can run of most of these things to more peaceful places. EL Nino i.e, where all kinds of water along the coast the coastal region from Colombia down to Peru, reaching Brazil as well and other countries, Tornadoes in the U.S, earthquakes in Turkey, severe winter of Europe and north of U.S, you can choose where you go anytime and go if you have this possibility, and that is what many Americans are doing. It’s another reason why people want to get out, especially from the winter, because it’s really brutal and they’ve been even worse first lately in the United States, especially in the northern United States. When you live on the near the equator line and it’s really not as hot as people think, everybody thinks that because you’re on the equator it’s going to be like the Congo and Africa, where it’s like jungle and it’s hot and humid, or the Amazon rainforest. It’s not like that when you live in the mountains, when you’re above 5000 feet in elevation as Ecuador, or Portugal where you have good weather most of the time.
Social Injustice
The number two reason why people are leaving in the U.S and that is social injustice. Black site is a new term that I just learned, it means black people are leaving the United States, they’re moving out because they feel like they’re going to get better treatment and eat more equal opportunity, same applies for the LGBTQ community, they feel like, if they leave the U.S that they have better opportunities, they’re treated better and they have a lot less stress in their life. Obviously i don’t have first-hand experience with this type of issue, however, i’ve heard from a lot of people that have moved to Portugal and other countries in Europe that they do feel much more welcome and that it just totally much more inclusive for them in their given lifestyle. They also tell us they just feel safer, there are a lot of families moving abroad because they don’t want their children raised in that environment and they feel like their children are getting more a better experience by living abroad, it’s a safer experience for them too and they’re getting exposed to new cultures, new ways of doing things and seeing what life is like outside the U.S.
Political Climate
The number one reason people are leaving the United States is because of the political climate, which let’s face, it is pretty ugly at times. I hear this all the time, it doesn’t matter which political ideology you ascribe to, Americans are not happy with the things, the way things are going in the U.S right now, a lot of people talk about it and that’s why they’re leaving.
It doesn’t matter, where they fall on the political spectrum, they’re ready to get out because they’re just sick of the toxic politics. I don’t talk about politics because it is so divisive, but if you’re thinking about leaving this is probably one of your reasons.
The world is even more accessible now because, so many people are able to work online, push your retirement dollars, go a lot further in other countries where the cost of living is a lot lower.
The Strong American Passport
The US has a powerful passport which makes the dream of leaving very easy. A lot of countries allow U.S citizens to stay for 90 days on a tourist visa, you don’t even have to go through the hassle of getting a long-term Visa, however, a lot of countries have long-term visas available too. It’s really unfortunate but homeownership, education and a better life for your kids it’s just not attainable, it’s just not the American dream anymore and that’s why the new American Dream for a lot of people is leaving.
If you are thinking about moving to Portugal like my friend and a lot of other Americans, I covered in another articles about Portugal, a very seek place for Americans to live, because of its life quality, safety, good and cheap health care system and some agreements with the U.S that makes this process of moving more essay.
