Is the GOP led class warfare under the aegis of the Tea Party killing progressive family values therein creating a new wave of immigrants, not moving to the US but moving from the US!
As an American living in the European Union I am part of a trend of Americans who are leaving the United States as a brand of new American pioneers. We no longer just move West, we now move in all directions of the compass, but the US government doesn't want you to know about us. If you don't believe that write to your member of Congress and ask them why doesn't the US government include American expats in their official census statistics, but the federal government doesn't want to spend any money to count us as part of the myth that America is a country that you immigrate to for the past 200 years instead of emigrating from. Or so goes the myth. While there has always been some Americans abroad, now the numbers of Americans abroad have become well into the millions, the trend has become too large to ignore. Yet the plutocrat owned corporate for-profit media in bed with American politicians doesn't want to report on us, doesn't want to talk about the issue of taxation without representation for expat Americans. Hell they don't even want to give Washington DC statehood because they know they will vote progressive.
So it is that taxation without representation is alive and well in America. But that's not what this diary is about. This diary is about what is driving the exodus from America, even non-US citizens who are residents of the United States are leaving America by the millions, yet the so called mainstream press fails to report or do any serious regular reporting on this issue. In short they don't want you to know about them either, but mostly they don't want you to know about what's driving Americans to leave America, because what is revealed there is the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't provide universal medical access as a human right to all of its citizens. Because what is revealed there is an America which is the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't provide for job protected paid maternity leave by right of law to be shared by new parents in support of real American family values.
While the plutocrat owned for profit media is happy to tell you to lawfully purchase guns to protect yourself from crime, because America has become the most crime ridden major industrialized nation on the planet earth, wherein we have incarcerated over 2 million Americans, that is a number that is larger than what we have on active duty in all 4 branches of the American military combined. This staggering loss of human potential is so costly that it has become a major unreported factor by the mainstream media's failure to report this as seriously contributing to the economic decline of the United States in the geo-global economic condition by pulling that many people out of the workforce. Though I'm not a professor of economics, I can tell you even though I am just a working stiff with an MBA degree even I know when you pull over 2 million working age people out of the workforce and they produce nothing for themselves or their families, and pay no taxes and instead they and their families become a draw on taxpayer funds, that this is a factor that does significantly contribute to the crippling of the American economy.
It is scaring the hell out of so many Americans who no longer feel safe in America, despite the availability of guns that can be legally purchased anywhere and everywhere, that the only way for them to feel safe is to leave America. The only way they can feel safe that their pensions aren't being stolen by Wall St banksters is to leave America. The only way they can avoid living in bankster driven underwater mortgages is to leave America. The only way that they can save themselves from medical bankruptcy is to leave America. The only way they can ensure that they will receive by law paid annual leave no matter what job they do, is to leave America. The only way they can guarantee that they will receive job protected paid sick leave by right of law is to leave America. The only way they can be guaranteed to receive job protected paid maternity leave by right of law is to leave America. Statistically the best way for them to ensure that their children will be able to graduate from high school and be literate is to leave America. The only way for them to escape the crushing state and federal deficit to be repaid by them and their children in order to pay for the tax cuts of America's ultra rich is to leave America for any other major industrialized country in the world. Because they have come to believe that any so called progressive politicians that they elect will be bought by the K Street lobbyists as soon as they move into their new office space on Capitol Hill. This leaves millions of working Americans with the sense that the only way out for them and their families in the true spirit of American pioneers is to settle outside of America permanently. Because many don't feel they've left America, many feel America has left them as it is no longer recognizable to them as the nation that they love and grew up in, especially given the rise of the Tea Party.
While we can all be proud of being Americans surely we don't have to be proud of the broken American social safety net. To be clear while this diary does not advocate that Americans should leave America. Instead this diary merely reports on the trend of Americans leaving the United States, and as such this diary is one of the few published sources available on this subject, and therefore you are invited to read on.
Quote: A Growing Trend of Leaving America
But if the government is not counting, others are. Estimates made by organizations such as the Association of Americans Resident Overseas put the number of non government-employed Americans living abroad anywhere between 4 million and 7 million, a range whose low end is based loosely on the government's trial count in 1999. Focusing on households rather than individuals (and excluding households in which any member has been sent overseas either by the government or private companies), a series of recent Zogby polls commissioned by New Global Initiatives, a consulting firm, yielded surprising results:
1.6 million U.S. households had already determined to relocate abroad;
an additional 1.8 million households were seriously considering such a move, while 7.7 million more were "somewhat seriously" contemplating it. If the data collected in the seven polls conducted between 2005 and 2007 are fairly representative of the current decade, then, by a modest estimate, at least 3 million U.S. citizens a year are venturing abroad.
More interesting, the biggest number of relocating households is not those with people
in or approaching retirement but those with adults ranging from 25 to 34 years old.
http://www.usnews.com/...
_________________________-End of Quote.
The new economic reality is forcing working class people to make a choice between leaving America and medical bankruptcy and other types of economic devastation. Some people feel that leaving America is surrendering, others feel it is a matter of economic survival. Still can we ask what is America? Is America merely defined by geography with the Rio Grande River to the South and the 49th Parallel to the North. Or is America defined by its people, and as millions of American expat pioneers abroad, aren't we also America? Shouldn't we all support America's progressive agenda, irrespective of whether we are living back home on Main Street, or in expat America abroad. Aren't we fully engaged in the American working class struggle together.
(A reader's note) This diary was written in support of working people, unions and the Class Warfare group at the Daily Kos which invites you to join and/or follow our group in support of the working class struggle. Thank you.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I too am leaving
Quote: 2011, you would think since 2008 things would have changed some. It hasn't. I too am leaving the US. I work within the stem cell field. Grant money is continuously cut and with the debt ceiling issue now it just seems like more is going to be cut. I received a few offers overseas and am taking one in Europe. I look forward to the adventure, will still call America my home, and maybe some day I can return to it with ideally the republican party next to failed ideologies such as communism.
Joe @ Jun 01, 2011 00:44:51 AMhttp://www.usnews.com/...
(End of quote)
Are working class living in a debtor's prison? From which there is no escape from student loan debt, from debt in underwater mortgages, from medical cost related debts, from a crushing national debt used to pay for tax breaks for the ultra rich.
Is leaving America the only hope for working class Americans to escape the crushing debtors prison?
____________________-
Quote:
America – The Grim Truth
By Lance Freeman / Jun 10 • Categorized as Living Overseas
....escape from the prison you call home Americans, I have some bad news for you:
You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.....
You should leave the United States of America.
If you’re young, you’ve got plenty of choices. You can teach English in the Middle East,
Asia or Europe. Or you can go to university or graduate school abroad and start
building skills that will qualify you for a work visa. If you’ve already got some real work skills, you can apply to emigrate to any number of countries as a skilled immigrant. If you are older and you’ve got some savings, you can retire to a place like Costa Rica or the Philippines. If you can’t qualify for a work, student or retirement visa, don’t let that stop you – travel on a tourist visa to a country that appeals to you and talk to the expats you meet there. Whatever you do, go speak to an immigration lawyer as soon as you can. Find out exactly how to get on a path that will lead to permanent residence and eventually citizenship in the country of your choice.
You will not be alone. There are millions of Americans just like me living outside the
United States. Living lives much more fulfilling, peaceful, free and abundant than we
ever could have attained back home. Some of us happened upon these lives by accident –we tried a year abroad and found that we liked it – others made a conscious decision to pack up and leave for good. You’ll find us in Canada, all over Europe, in many partsof Asia, in Australia and New Zealand, and in most other countries of the globe.
http://www.escapefromamerica.com/...
(End of quote)
____________________-
As an American expat living abroad I note that the chart below which shows the United States ranking dead last out of the 22 nations listed for paid sick leave, is in fact correct. As an MBA I was educated to understand the paradigm that it is not employers who pay salaries, but rather it is sold manufactured products and services that pay wages, and that even pay the owners. So how is it that demoralized American workers have allowed the corporate plutocracy to swindle them out of paid benefits, which they have earned through their own hard labor. When in fact this type of legalized theft of benefits is not tolerated in any other major industrialized nation, as in evidence with the chart below. Where to reiterate of the 22 nations listed, America for paid sick leave ranks dead last.
Doesn't that ironically give new meaning to the phrase only in America! In the face of it shouldn't we start thinking of it as America not only as a country to immigrate to but also as a country to emigrate from. Or have we been so completely brainwashed by the plutocrat owned media, that not only have we handed our lives over to the plutocracy, but we have also sold our children and their children into low wage, no benefit of a lifetime of working poverty. Is the working class American dream that we all grew up with, or has the time come for us to finally speak out.
Source: http://www.cepr.net/...
Are you afraid of being one of the 44 million Americans who are living under the
poverty line, is this a reason to leave America?
Quote:
44 million people living under the poverty line
the largest figure in the 51 years for which poverty estimates are available
— the Census Bureau said
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
End of quote:
_______________---
This quote asks is leaving America a legitimate form of protest for an American Patriot!!!
Quote:
Okay, So How Do I Protest As a “Patriot”?
1. Leave.
Leave now. Cash out your chips like you’re leaving the casino. Sell your home, your securities (funds, stocks, options) and cash out your pensions. Take the money and run. Run like the wind.
2. Reinvest.
Decide on a new place that more suits you and your patriotic needs. When you (and your cash) land in a safer, freer, more stable country, then the patriotic thing to do is reinvest in that country, for yourself. Purchase property and/or a business there. A new life requires new equity and new income.
http://www.expatyourself.com/...
____________________-
(End of quote)
As 59 million Americans have no medical insurance, is this a legitimate reason to leave America? Well is it? Are you afraid of what can happen to you without medical insurance in America? Is this a legitimate fear?!?!
Quote:
Mike Stankavich April 14, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Jeff, health care was one of my primary reasons for leaving the US. I also didn’t see how the housing problem would turn around any time soon, and I didn’t see any significant opportunities for advancement within my career.
I’ve been in Manila for 8 months now. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly been a
good step forward. My health insurance costs me about $700 per year, and I’ve
managed to keep my living expenses around 50% of my take home salary. No way I
could have done that in Oregon. I don’t think that we’ll return to the US any time soon.
In fact we are already starting to plan our next move to Spain.
I’m starting up http://familyonthemove.com to tell that story.
It should be a great adventure
http://www.expatyourself.com/...
(End of quote)
___________________-
How many more million of Americans will have to leave America in order for the mainstream press to report on the issue? Should we have a national discussion on this issue of what is making so many millions of Americans vote with their feet? Because progressive politicians once voted in are bought by K-street just as quick as they move in to their new office spaces they are bought. Is the only way out left for working class Americans is to leave America in support of their working class American dream?!?!
Quote:
Leaving America: The New Expatriate Generation
by John R. Wennersten
Today more than ever, large numbers of Americans are leaving the United States. It is estimated that by the end of the decade, some 10 million of the brightest and most talented Americans, representing an estimated $136 billion in wages, will be living and working overseas. This emigration trend contradicts the internalized myth of America as the land of affluence, opportunity, and freedom. What is behind this trend?
http://www.goodreads.com/...
(End of quote)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's not just Americans but also immigrants who are leaving America. Now why is that?
Quote:
Why Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs are leaving America
My team at Duke, UC-Berkeley, and Harvard just completed a research project for which we surveyed 153 skilled immigrants who had returned to India to start companies and 111 who went back to China. The title of the paper, which Kauffman Foundation released today, tells the story: The Grass is Indeed Greener in India and China for Returnee Entrepreneurs. Here is what we learned:
Why did they return?
The most significant factors drawing both Indians and Chinese entrepreneurs home were economic opportunities, access to local markets, and family ties. More than 60% of Indian and 90% of Chinese returnees said the availability of economic opportunities
in their countries was a major factor in their return. Seventy-eight percent of Chinese entrepreneurs were lured by the attraction of local markets as were 53% of Indian entrepreneurs.
http://venturebeat.com/...
(End of quote)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why should America continue to be the only major industrialized nation in the world that doesn't provide for job protected paid maternity leave by right of law? Is America the only country which is doing this right? Are all other major industrialized nations in the world doing this wrong? As an MBA I was trained to spout off the old adage in shifting all collective responsibility to the individual with the following mechanism, which is to say why should we collectively as taxpayers or as share holders in a private company pay for people to have children if they can't afford them. This notion seeks to escape all collective responsibility by pushing individual responsibility.
When the truth is that in the European Union which has an economy that is larger than that of the United States, essentially every EU country therein provides for some type of paid maternity leave through a higher tax burden, because these people do not believe in a free lunch. They believe that if you want good infrastructure, clean streets, good schools and a good health care system and yes real family values, you have to be prepared to pay for them. That means the rich have to pay their fair share of taxes as well, because there is no such thing as a free lunch for the rich! In support of real family values isn't job protected paid maternity leave by right of law an idea whose time has come in America, in support of real progressive family values?
Quote:
America & the Question of Parental Leave
Listen
Comments (4)
Order a CD
Transcript
Share
Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 at 1:32 p.m. in Business, Economy, Society
They're wrenching questions every new parent must face: Should I take time off from work? How long? Will I get paid? Just 11 percent of American workers have paid family leave benefits, leaving millions to grapple with the long-term fallout of taking time off. We look at the impact of paid leave on families, and how the lack of paid leave laws in the U.S. -– and the abundance of them abroad -- affect families and careers.
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/...
(End of quote)