Would you leave the US if you had the opportunity to assuming you have a basic knowledge of the language/culture and a job to support yourself. Where would you go and why or why would you stay?
I would go to (urban) China just to see what the fuss is about. As long as I could have a basic continuity of lifestyle. As in be able to have good internet, pirate stuff in english, have access to a little bit of US comfort food, dress how I want. And the last two aren’t dealbreakers. I’m pretty open to immersing in the culture. I thought about seeing how hard it is to get one of those English teaching gigs but they tend to require a degree and even if they didn’t, I don’t speak/write well grammatically. I thought about learning Mandarin should the opportunity to go every came up, but eh. The only downside is I think China’s healthcare is largely privatized (I could be wrong), so if it’s just like the US where you have to be practically wealthy to get good consistent care, then what’s the point?
I’d really take anywhere with a good social safety net that I could actually qualify for. I work, but to have the ability to not worry about a job or healthcare is pretty important. I think a lot of places will let you get emergency care, but probably not chronic care if you’re a non-citizen. I think a lot of people say Dublin but it weirds me out a little because it’s such a tax haven. I guess if they were to declare independence and show some real move towards socialism I would go there. Ireland would probably be pretty easy for me to adapt to outside the strong accents.
It’d be so nice having a functioning safety net, I just feel that most countries that have them are apart of the global north/post industrial. Who have their lifestyle built off the exploitation of the global south. I think I’d feel a bit guilty about that but might actually have time/energy to organize since I wouldn’t need to slave away 24/7
Japan or Europe since they have dope train systems.
Japan is sweet to be a guest in, ie tourist or exchange student. If you’re gonna live there it depends very much on you specific situation though. Can be a bit of a hellhole if you become a salaryman and are no longer excused from societal expectations, or so I’ve heard. They got nice trains though, can’t argue with that.
Ireland because I like the accents, i think it would be hella cool to live on an island, i want affordable healthcare, and I’ve always wanted to go there ever since I was a kid and learned part of my family originally came from ireland (another part of my family originally came from Poland but i don’t want to live there lol).
Spain because there’s really good universal healthcare, I like spanish wine, I’ve been working on learning the Spanish language, and again I’ve just always thought it would be cool to live there.
i know they both have problems, and there’s problems with Europe in general, but i feel like there’s less problems than here. i want to live somewhere where I can actually get healthcare without relying on my job or going bankrupt, and somewhere with actual public transportation. i really just want to get the hell away from north america and the US. earlier this year i was going to start planning a trip to Europe but with the pandemic idk if I’ll ever be able to leave this hellhole country :(
