Best Countries to Escape To?

[daggahead]

I'm not giving up on the USA yet, but if you could move to any country to get away from our shitty, self-serving corporate-owned lawmakers, where would you go?

I'd thought of Canada, but you need to be either gainfully employed or have $250K ready to bring into the country.

Spain might be good, but unemployment there is high, and I'm not keen on the brutality of bull fighting.

Maybe Australia?

[HopeHoops]

1. Australia is fine if you don't mind poisonous snakes and insects.

I hear the beer is good.

[gateley]

4. And melanoma. nt

[canetoad]

7. You forgot

the sharks and drop bears. :)

Shame about the health cover, few guns...oh wait...

[JackintheGreen]

19. Also forgot Russel Crowe n/t

[canetoad]

23. Oh yeah, Big Russ

A national treasure.

[depakid]

52. Drop bear in action:

Shame about the high unemployment rate, low minimum wage and lack of paid vacation time, too.

[Oregone]

16. And young people

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-beaten-in-wheelchair-in-australia-recovering/article1497304/

Like those kids in that Russel Crowe movie

[depakid]

45. Lot of 'em out lately: (and don't forget the spiders)

Experts are warning that warm weather combined with the recent rain across large parts of Australia has increased the prevalence of snake sightings and attacks. Two people have sustained dangerous snake bites in New South Wales in the past 24 hours, while six people in Queensland were taken to hospital today after being bitten.

A woman in her 40s is in a serious condition in hospital after being bitten on the foot by a snake in the Blue Mountains, making her the eighth victim in six days in NSW. She was taken by ambulance from her house in Winmalee to Nepean Hospital.

Among those treated in Queensland was a 15-month-old boy who was taken to Bundaberg Hospital with puncture wounds to his stomach. Meanwhile a 26-year-old man was taken to Ipswich Hospital with a suspected brown snake bite.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/09/2841149.htm?section=justin

And don't forget the spiders:


--------



DEADLY funnel-web spiders and some other nasties have been invading Hills homes in what is being described as one of the most serious spider infestations in years.

Spider expert Rex Gilroy said both Sydney and Blue Mountains funnel-web spiders had been found in Hills backyards and homes, while some dangerous white-tailed spiders had been found on curtains, walls and clothing.

Mr Gilroy said they were driven out of their burrows by recent rain.

http://hills-shire-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/spiders-head-for-the-hills/

[lonestarnot]

50. and fires.

[Cetacea]

57. Overly aggressive funnel spiders are good reason enough

for me not to go there. I'm not to keen on extremely deadly spiders that actually attack...

[Confusious]

67. Requires a bachleor degree and enough money

to live on for a few years to become a citizen. I looked it up when shrub got into office.

[LakeSamish706]

2. There is also New Zealand, mighty nice country and the $$$ is good there. The only

thing with New Zealand is that I heard they have serious restrictions on how long you can stay.

[gateley]

3. I met a man the other day who was going to Costa Rica -- sounded pretty

good (except that Limbaugh threatened to go there, too). Also met someone who'd just returned from New Zealand and said he hoped to move there someday.

[Oregone]

5. Canada is great for families

Universal health care, universal child tax benefit, childcare benefit, 1 year of paid maternity leave...

These things have helped us so much since living here in the last year and a half

[daggahead]

6. For me, getting used to the weather in Canada wouldn't be a problem.

I'm already from Michigan.

[Oregone]

8. Im here on Vancouver Island and its nicer than home in states all winter

Ive lived on the east and west coast of the US and the summers/winters were much tougher than here.

With that, I will not speak for the rest of Canada! :)

[glinda]

9. How did you get health care in just a year and a half?

[Oregone]

12. BC MSP. You get it after 4 to 6 weeks living here

If you are here legally that is.

Thats right....unforts BC has a premium (waived for the poor). You pay your first $108 and you are covered for basic medical instantly. We had a child about 10 months after immigrating (everything was completely covered)

[Echo In Light]

10. We're not far from the boarder...it's where we'd head, quickly, if things take a sudden RIGHT turn..

[Oregone]

13. If things turn any further to the right, youll likely go in a complete circle

[Echo In Light]

15. Mmm...well, I suspect things could take a much more violent RIGHT turn than what's happened so far

[Spike from MN]

26. Could you help me streamline the immigration process by

just adopting me? I'd really appreciate it. ;)

[Oregone]

28. Sure...pay my rent!

:)

[Spike from MN]

31. Bookmarking for future reference.

You just might have a deal. ;)

[glinda]

43. Get some acreage with two homes on it and we will chip in!

[Spike from MN]

62. Hey, if we get a few more people in on this we can

get a full-blown DU refugee commune going. None of that Jim Jones or David Koresh type of stuff though. ;)

[glinda]

66. DU Refugee commune! LOL! No, more like a "pooling resources thing". No communes for me.

[glinda]

42. Me too! Spike is good people and so are my husband and I!

[treestar]

11. Why are you so sure the other countries aren't owned by self-serving

corporations or whatever? Every country has its faults.

You may not qualify to immigrate to any of them either.

The only country that has to take you is the good old USA.

[laughingliberal]

55. The first clue might be the above post stating the poster got

basic medical coverage in Canada after a few weeks. Then there was that year's maternity leave thing.

No, the poster may not qualify. But I encourage anyone young enough to find out what occupations are in demand and get trained and start applying. I kept thinking we would turn things around here. When Bush made off with the 2000 election, I realized it was probably too late to reverse the course much in my lifetime. I am trained in an occupation which would have gotten me in almost any country. Problem was I had just crossed over 45 years old which put me unable to go anywhere else. I hope those who are worried and thinking about it will start getting things in order and not wait. For goodness' sake, they can always come back if things turn around here.

[MicaelS]

14. Asutralia is great, if you approve of internet censorhip

Internet censorship in Australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Australia

[canetoad]

17. It won't happen

"While the policy has not yet come into force, it has generated substantial opposition, with only a few groups in support. The Labor Party does not have enough votes in the Senate to enact any legislation to support the filter, so that the filter has "effectively been scuttled" unless the government is able to implement the filter by other means.<1><2>"

This is from the article in your link. This is an election year, and this crap will die a quiet death.

[depakid]

46. The Greens will block it- and the opposition's already making hay

but that won't stop some Americans from blathering about it- particularly if one criticizes their crazy gun policies.

[LuvNewcastle]

18. I'd like to go to Buenos Aires.

They have a good nightlife there and they're multi-cultural. Argentina's economy is a kind of shaky, but it's a beautiful country. I would have chosen Chile as well before the quake happened.

[slackmaster]

20. Costa Rica

For the win!

[proteus_lives]

21. Really?

"shitty, self-serving corporate-owned lawmakers"

You think that's different anywhere else?

[daggahead]

35. I don't know ... I guess any country run by humans ...

... has that potential flaw.

[treestar]

44. Exactly, and I doubt Australia or Canada wants to be inundated

with dissatisfied Americans.

And they will soon be dissatisfied with those countries, too.

[laughingliberal]

58. Depends on the skills the person has

I posted up thread if I had not waited til I was past the cutoff age wise I could have gone anywhere

I know of many people who left here and live ex-pat and are damned glad they did it. I don't think you can assume people will soon be dissatisfied with another country, too.

[treestar]

70. Why - they abandoned their own, why would they not do the same

with the new country if it dissatisfied them?

[librechik]

22. Australia needs skilled workers of all sorts

just google immigrate Australia, there's an official page. New Zealand has one too. They need computer workers, and bakers, and cooks and plumbers and electricians and just everybody like that. There's a list of jobs where they need people. Unemployment is less than 5%. They are really needing people.

Don't worry about the snakes and spiders. You'll probably live in the city, where they are scarce.

My son found there was way too much competition in his field here in the US,(graphic design) but he got hired right away in Australia, once he was legal. (he married an Oz girl, so it was easier for him to get a working card)They are supportive of those with necessary and rare skills and/or education.

[Edweird]

36. Wow. Thank you.

It's a bit further than I was looking to go - I was hoping for Canada, but my trade is on the Australian short list but not the Canadian.

[librechik]

39. Oz is awesome--I just got back from a visit to my son in Melbourne

I'd love to go permanently, but my hubby loves Colorado skiing too much...

[laughingliberal]

59. And RN's find it easy to go most places. nt

[theoldman]

24. How about China?

They have a shortage of English and Music teachers. I am sure that if you have experience in weapons and aeronautics you would also find a job.

[Hekate]

47. If you don't mind a totalitarian government, PRC is no doubt fine. I thought the OP wanted freedoms

... old-US style. You're not going to find that in China.

Hekate

[sinkingfeeling]

25. Republic of Ireland is first choice for me.

[The_Commonist]

27. I'm interested in Ireland...

...my wife and I both being of Irish descent and having very Irish names.

They speak something similar to English, and they've been known to enjoy a tipple or three.
Other than that, I don't know much about the requirements.

[monmouth]

32. If you had a grandparent born in Ireland I believe this makes life

much easier. Read that somewhere. Google might help.

[The_Commonist]

41. Both sides of my family...

...and my wife's family are Potato Famine immigrants.
Long before grandparents.
So I know we don't qualify that way.

[Goldstein1984]

29. A good friend is trying to sell us on Thailand

Very inexpensive outside the tourist areas like Bangkok and Phuket. Medical care by US-trained physicians for less than the deductible payment with a good insurance plan in the US. He already moved his family there, learned the language, and travels there for all his medical and dental needs.

We're going to take a trip to visit him this December to check things out.

Good scuba diving.

An occasional military coup, but our friend says nobody even notices because the people they throw out are exactly the same kind of people we in the US elect--corrupt.

[3324SS]

30. Netherlands or Canda or

France or Germany

I so bored with the USA.....

[Hekate]

49. Bored? Why post here then? Just curious, and btw, welcome to DU

[daggahead]

33. I speak German, so ...

I might consider Germany, Austria or Switzerland, too.

[Duer 157099]

34. I know this will sound crazy, but I'm thinking Chile

I'm from CA so I've grown up with earthquakes.

And if I'm going to be poor, then I want to live somewhere where poor people can still survive somewhere other than a freeway underpass.

[laughingliberal]

60. I hear you. nt

[damntexdem]

37. Costa Rica and Panama.

[HereSince1628]

38. I really don't get it.

How does this survive GD, when an Ahhh Fuck IT! Thread doesn't?

It's enough to make a person paranoid about the moderators.

[closeupready]

40. France, but I don't know how immigration there has changed since Schengen, so

assuming they haven't changed much.

[datasuspect]

48. A NEW LIFE IN THE OFFWORLD COLONIES AWAITS YOU

[MrMickeysMom]

51. Australia is about to undergo what the US did in housing bubble...

Watch where you live!

[depakid]

53. errr... no.

There's this little deal called supply and demand (which is why the country needs skilled tradesmen).

[MrMickeysMom]

56. So be it... they're still gonna pop a big bubble, I'm saying..,

So, while you're filling the market's call for skilled trade, watch where you decide to live, okay?

[depakid]

61. Basic economic rules don't suddenly get suspended because much of the western world's had a crash

Fact is that there's a housing shortage that's not going to be remedied in the short term. Prices will rise until there's either more housing available, or people are unable or wiulling to pay higher prices.

Location matters a great deal, of course. A smaller home near the beach will run at a premium, whereas further out you'll pay considerably less. Then again, in choice areas of wine country- a house can run close to what coastal homes do.

Then of course, there are fire and flood risks to take into account.

[MrMickeysMom]

65. Well, I'll be...

There's a housing shortage in Austrialia.

Good luck. Sounds like money is no object anyway.

[depakid]

71. Some things may be more expensive

but people are also paid a lot more for comparable jobs than in the states.

Doesn't mean they can necessarily afford higher and higher housing costs, though- but in terms of an inflationary bubble as we've seen in the states or places like Spain, the dynamic is completely different.

[Emit]

54. I heard New Zealand

but that was a few years ago.

[ThomWV]

63. The USA - its no accident that the yahoos want to put a fence up around the border.

[Vinca]

64. Canada. My husband is a Canadian American so I've got an "in."

We're so distressed about the end result of health care "reform," we're thinking about moving again. I'm so tired of worrying from one day to the next whether I'll die a slow, agonizing death, bankrupt on the street or if I'll be lucky and make it to Medicare. When we were first married, 37+ years ago, we actually chose this country over Canada to live . . . now I wish I was settled there.

[warm regards]

68. Escape...? That's what people do to get here.

[Swamp Rat]

69. You cannot escape.

The Electronic Eye can see everywhere now.

[Blue_Tires]

72. Wyoming...