Neoliberalism Will Soon Force Americans to Leave the United States
Submitted by mimi on Sun, 06/19/2016 - 8:47pm
but where will the emigrate to?
I miss an evening open thread and don't know where to put this as a comment. But I wanted to point to this interview. Thus this short post:
Neoliberalism Will Soon Force Americans to Leave the United States
Neoliberal economic policy will eventually pressure U.S. citizens to emigrate just as it caused millions to leave Russia, the Baltic States and now Greece in search of a better life, economist Michael Hudson tells The Real News Network’s Sharmini Peries. - With transcript
Just listen.
[video:https://youtu.be/tfh6fk3XAQY]
Comments
Duolingo will be pleased.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
I might head to Panama
but would prefer Trinidad, for the steel drum bands.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
We are currently in the process of retiring
and will be retiring outside the US. There are many reasons but the insanity that has become this country is a contributing factor.
Grenada.
Have spent many, many happy days there. Love the people, love the feel of it. Just drop me off on Grand Anse. If I can pull it off, that's my destination.
On the other hand, *realistically*, I'll end up dying at my desk. But I can always dream. Just like Terry Gilliam's brilliant movie "Brazil"...
Where to?
Well, it's getting harder to emigrate to countries with a higher standard of living, so that leaves places where our corporations -- aided by neoliberals and conservatives together, as per this video -- have access to cheap labor at great profit to themselves, and great detriment to our planet and all her inhabitants.
In other words, I guess it's stating the obvious that we have nowhere to go, neither in the political nor in the literal sense. This was intentional. American Fascism's final blow to the 99 percent. I'm beginning to think "the wall", or "the fence" is as much to keep us IN as it is to keep foreigners and refugees out.
Typo edits.
Change is the end result of all true learning. ~ Leo Buscaglia
The iron curtain was not to keep people
out. It was to keep them in.
Countries for ex pats expect us to have enough $ so we do not take jobs from the locals.
If we get there, experience Social Security cuts, we starve there, instead of starve here.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Exactly.
I'm now convinced this has been the long game all along. We looked into leaving the country a couple of years ago. Not only would my ex not appreciate my taking the kids abroad indefinitely even though two of them are now grown (can't blame him there), but also he, like too many others, is blissfully unaware of the dire straits so many of us are in. He actually thinks a Sanders presidency would screw him out of his healthcare job. Don't ask me to explain that logic, because there is none. What it does demonstrate, though, is the effectiveness of the propaganda machine. It's as sad as it is maddening.
Anyway, we looked at other countries. Can't afford to move across the street, much less abroad. Ironically, we can't afford to be refugees. Huh, how about that?
And so it goes.
Change is the end result of all true learning. ~ Leo Buscaglia
There's always declaring a micronation in your backyard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronations:_The_Lonely_Planet_Guide_to_H...
It usually doesn't get you very much except maybe a tongue in cheek entry on Wikipedia and a reputation as "eccentric" (if you have money) or "nutty" (if you don't).
Still, people do it for whatever reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_micronations
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Awesome!
I'm claiming the interior of the apartment and the ersatz rock garden out front. The landlady can have the parking spot marked "Owner", which will save on spray paint (and reduce CFC's).
Free wine and education to all peace loving citizens. Cats allowed, frequent adoration required
Change is the end result of all true learning. ~ Leo Buscaglia
I like that idea actually.
My mom has 40 acres. She still owes a lot of money on it last I heard, but we could grow food and get solar panels. I'd be more than happy to take in any of my friends who wish to join us as well; plenty of room for all! (And lots of cats!)
This shit is bananas.
Where is your mom's 40 acres?
Is there a roof to put the solar panels on?
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Central Minnesota
And yes, a house and barns and shed roofs.
This shit is bananas.
Sounds like a farm to me.
Animals, crops, both?
I grew up age 6 to 13 on a 100-acre beef cattle farm in south Mississippi. Loads of fun - and work - as a child. But the work never seemed so much like "work", just chores that had to be done to keep things going along. Especially the care of the animals, from cows to lots of dogs and cats.
I think it's past time the 99% started hanging together before we each surely hang (or are hung) apart.
Get back to the land and self-sufficiency, because even tougher times than we're already having are about to rain down upon us all (even the damn elites who think they're somehow going to avoid a whole lot of disruption).
We should talk, brain-storm, see where it gets us.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
Nuland for SoS? Surely He's Misinformed. That Would Be Like
Obama putting Geithner as Treasury Secretary...
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Dual citizenship with Italy, and
A condo in Belize. Stripping us has been the agenda for quite some time.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
1 more year
And I'm outa here, as long as someone, somewhere pays. I'm literally, barely treading water. I guess I could sneak on to a cargo ship to gtfo and head to Germany. It's a bit cold for my taste, but at least it's not fascist U.S.! Irony, anyone?
Sigh. . . I wish I could afford to go to Germany (or warmer Greece), but I can't. So I'm stuck here.
Maybe Bill Gates can buy Greece
Offer 10 cents on the dollar for the outstanding debt and in return agree to host the Olympics in Athens every four years. That would solve the dinosaur problem of hosting the Olympics (yay!) only to spend billions of needed resources on insane stadiums that will get used only once . . . but I drift off topic. Still, the billionaires of the globe could give up half their wealth, lift the rest of the world out of poverty, and still have more money than they could ever spend in a lifetime.
The Emigration Won't Be Voluntary
When the sun never set on the British Empire, those with no other prospects could join the Army and be sent to some colony to keep the natives from retaking the power they once had as sovereign nations. Rank didn't matter - if you went, you basically spent your life there until you chose to leave His/Her Majesty's Service. Then, unless granted some kind of a meagre pension for exemplary meritorious service, you either died in the colony or starved to death back in the UK.
It is my opinion that one of the "benefits" the neocons enjoy from the destruction of the American economy is a ready pool of applicants for Uncle Scam's Club. The more Americans who can be sent to hell holes like Afghanistan for long periods of murdering the local inhabitants and claiming they were Taliban terrorists, the sooner corporatism can be imposed there. If you do enough "good" to inject corporatism into such a place, they might name a local school after you in your memory.
The sad part of this dystopian tale is that such a fate may well be the better option compared to what will happen here in the USA.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
Mars?
Elon Musk has his sights on colonizing it. Sometimes it takes a billionaire with a vision.
Here on Earth, you have Iceland, Scandinavia (except probably Denmark), and you folks up in Canada tossed your Harper out in the snow. Or here in the Pacific Northwest--if we can ever get a handle on insane housing inflation--what about the Cascadia project?
Also, we have Newt Gingrich's one good idea: the moon base. Easier to colonize than Mars (definitely closer) and a nice jumping off point for other planets.
I have 20A (acres, not angstroms) and 2-3 extra bedrooms
if central NY sounds interesting. I also have a place on the Seaway, currently not occupyable, and the Canadians will only let me stay there 6 months (to the day, if you pass in and out) and then kick you out. As a USAn I pay taxes and insurance there, I am marked Seasonal resident. Health care is not free, cash on the table. There is now a virtual wall across the border. Better off with a tour through Syria first. If you survive.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
My dad's family lived on île
My dad's family lived on île d'Orléans in the Seaway in the 1700's before moving south to Maine- i have always been intrigued to visit. I have also explored buying raw land in Canada for a quick escape.
I feel the deep shifting in our culture toward an impersonal and ruthless zeitgeist, gaining speed with alarming ferocity.
Those of us with bags of open pollinated seed (instead of bags of gold) and an enhanced facility for growing food will be able to provide some security.
I would very much like to be younger than 60-something to take on this issue but here we are, one step at a time, one day of aching back at a time.
I have become a seed-saver, too.
And missed one this spring, my neighbor had blooming yellow primula, wanted to go back for seed. Dang! I have Cardinal Vine, from bought seed, started in Feb, bloomed on my son's 30th birthday. Collecting seed so I need not buy them again. Red and white are differentiated by seed size first. I have obvious baggie method of germination testing and good luck with pricking out those that do.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
We already left. For all the reasons especially economic, but
quality of life, freedom from some common environmental toxins. Cost of living is lower, if you don't buy things, but most people live quite simply.
Retirement is not an option for us in the US. We had to go while the going was possible. We are not done yet, but on our way. Biggest problems are extracting from the US. They are not happy about us leaving and set obstacles in our way.
Miss the natural geography of the US most. I see films of National Parks or Western Canada, and I am sad I can't go. The Malheur, Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Redwoods, Mt. Rainier, Central Oregon and the Ochocos. mmmmm.
But we are better off, and more secure now than before. Excellent rail to take us where we might want to go. Taxis even in the boonies as we get older.
Always thought if we lived in the US we would be part of an intentional community. Maybe with friends, buy a big house with a large kitchen, each with a bedroom and bath, common rooms and gardens. Maybe a driver and cook as time goes on. It's an option.
Finding people to get on with is the hard part.
People here are very respectful of privacy unless invited in. Clear societal rules for not disturbing each other. Personal freedom in your own house. Quiet and helpful.
You may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again you did not know. ~ William Wiberforce
If you can donate, please! POP Money is available for bank-to-bank transfers. Email JtC to make a monthly donation.
I think many of us feel the same
and the big obstacle is finding like-minded people you can get along with. Not just tolerate. Make a new "family". There are books about this, and books and plans for elder arrangements like you discussed. Private areas, central food facility and meeting area, aka Living Room. There is a cooperative community near me, Ecovillage. I have toured it, visited it, and found it slightly creepy for me. Buy-in is not cheap. And maybe HOA charges for the common areas. I think that is too big, maybe 30 families. But that's me. And I am growing quills.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Right now, i live in HUD
Right now, i live in HUD subsidized senior housing, the institutional version of your vision.
I have known and tried to work toward the shared co-housing vision, with frustration at the general reticence of most to live that closely. Like a marriage, it must be inhabited by people willing to actively participate in such a social experiment. I achieved it with a great group when we were all young- 20 somethings with gardens, horses and alot of dogs and cats. The property was rented and soon reverted back to the wealthy owner.
I finally was forced to sell my small organic fruit and flower farm after the economy crashed in 2006- i could not find any folks who understood the seriousness of the financial situation or would share a space in a small house with one bathroom. This is New England and yankees are close-to-the-vest in so many ways but there are a few of us out here who get it. I make due with a 30x60 plot in the community garden 3 miles from my apt- this is a pain in the ass but better than not gardening.
Many of us have the blueprint, it is all just a matter of jumping in and taking action.
Thanks for bringing the subject to the surface, riverlover- a series of diaries exploring the various iteration of this idea might be just get this ball rolling.