“most of us can now agree that it’s a lot nicer to live outside of the U.S. than within it”.
Here is the lead page on MSN:
15 Places Expats Say Life Is Better, Safer, and Happier Than in America
Quoted image used under a claim of fair use for the purpose of critique.
Reminder:
- At any point in time, about 2-3% of Americans live abroad
- About 0.7% to 1.3% of Americans retire abroad (effectively close to zero) – and about half of them do so because they (a) already had dual citizenship and retired to their home country, or (b) had permanent residency owing to work, owning a home in the destination country, and desiring to stay put.
- Most Americans are unable to move abroad unless they have a unique right of descent ancestry privilege, prior dual citizenship, or they are an educated, attractive young American woman who marries a citizen of another country (See Parts 1, 3 and 3 of the Myth series in the right column, for the data). The other exception is you are relatively young and highly skilled (e.g. work in engineering or health care) and obtain a work visa.
The story is supposedly written by “Brad Lawson”: Home – countrygoing.com
The photo of the author on the about page does not appear to be present anywhere else on the Internet, nor does the individual’s name as a likely match to a writer. The founder and editor of the web site does not have a LinkedIn profile page (was unable to find one). These are traits of AI content mill generated services. These sites generate click-bait for distribution through MSN Start, Yahoo News page and other web services (anyone can submit their website to these services).
An earlier article – 15 Countries Where Expats Say Life Feels Easier, Safer, and Happier Than in the U.S. – The Finance Key – is remarkably similar, listing these countries in a different order.
Almost all the story titles on the underlying web site have a number in the headline – a classic click-bait technique. Research shows people are more likely to click on a title that has a number!
The article says nothing about the difficulties of immigrating to the countries they list – many of which are very difficult to move to for most everyone who does not have prior right of descent or dual citizenship options.
UPDATE
If you do not want to leave the US, you are obviously an evil bad person: ‘Everyone I know in the US who has a conscience wants to leave’: Why this American woman relocated to Bali | CNN
Another wealthy American who profited immensely from living in the U.S. now considers the U.S. to be the worst place in the world. With all her American earned money, she traveled all around the world before settling on Bali.
She was married only briefly, has no children and no strong connections to the United States. She admits to having loved Covid and living in lockdown conditions … but also notes there are no retirement homes in Bali and as she ages, she may have to return to the evil United States.