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Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

news.gallup.com

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Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#51

Post by umvi »

rootusrootus wrote: post #31
skh wrote: post #16

Ultimately this indicates that people aren’t satisfied with the returns on taxation. I’m all for supporting a government that supports the people. From my perspective we don’t have this and haven’t had it for some time. Other developed nations have better infrastructure, better social support system, near free higher education, free at point of contact healthcare systems. What we get in the U.S. is the most advanced…

I would say it is dissatisfaction with the government's contract with the citizenry, combined with recent evidence suggesting that a good chunk, say half, of the population has no interest in progressing. So people who can leave for somewhere that more closely aligns with their values are doing just that. I have family here and I love the United States, I'm staying, and I hope we can make some more progress, but I to…

> combined with recent evidence suggesting that a good chunk, say half, of the population has no interest in progressing

Different people have different definitions of "progress". Your definition of progress might not align with mine. That doesn't mean I am not interested in progress, just that I believe we should be progressing in a different (possibly even diametrical) direction than you believe we should be progressing.

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#52

Post by IncRnd »

wil421 wrote: post #29

>These results are based on telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 adults per year, aged 15 and older, conducted in the U.S. They only asked 1,000 adults via phone calls? Pretty small survey but I’m not a statistician. Edit: Downvoters. Please comment. Was the survey larger? Is 1,000 a large enough sample size to make conclusions about the whole US? This is HN please engage.

There also is low quality of respondents in addition to low quantity. I don't really think that 15 is adult...

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#53

Post by Consultant32452 »

rootusrootus wrote: post #31
skh wrote: post #16

Ultimately this indicates that people aren’t satisfied with the returns on taxation. I’m all for supporting a government that supports the people. From my perspective we don’t have this and haven’t had it for some time. Other developed nations have better infrastructure, better social support system, near free higher education, free at point of contact healthcare systems. What we get in the U.S. is the most advanced…

I would say it is dissatisfaction with the government's contract with the citizenry, combined with recent evidence suggesting that a good chunk, say half, of the population has no interest in progressing. So people who can leave for somewhere that more closely aligns with their values are doing just that. I have family here and I love the United States, I'm staying, and I hope we can make some more progress, but I to…

Everyone wants progress. Just not everyone agrees with you on what progress looks like.

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#54

Post by expathacker »

uncoder0 wrote: post #43
sgjohnson wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel’s warfare system is far more advanced than the US. Paid for by the US taxpayer of course.

When is the last time Israel was able to project power thousands of miles from it's border for nearly two decades? They have cool toys no doubt but, not really compares to our arsenal in human history.

Considering Israel is increasingly succeeding in making it illegal for Americans to protest them, I would answer your question with, "A minute ago?"

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#55

Post by zumu »

qbz wrote: post #28
whatshisface wrote: post #15

I see that people are assuming that the ones who want to leave do so because they feel the government is insufficiently liberal. The truth is, I have met some people who wish they could leave to go somewhere more conservative. I think that everyone would want to leave the US if somewhere out there was a utopia that exactly implemented their political and social views. The main thing that tamps down that desire is the…

>The truth is, I have met some people who wish they could leave to go somewhere more conservative. That sounds weird. Where are they going to move to? There are only a few select places in the world with freedom of speech, which seems like a very necessary value to be a conservative in the current times.

My first thought was Asia.

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#56

Post by daenz »

cowpig wrote: post #38
skh wrote: post #16

Ultimately this indicates that people aren’t satisfied with the returns on taxation. I’m all for supporting a government that supports the people. From my perspective we don’t have this and haven’t had it for some time. Other developed nations have better infrastructure, better social support system, near free higher education, free at point of contact healthcare systems. What we get in the U.S. is the most advanced…

Somehow I doubt that most people are thinking of where they want to live in terms of "returns on taxation"

Maybe not directly, but that's the cause. Most people want to live somewhere clean, with low crime, good infrastructure, and jobs. Most cities have tax-funded programs for all of those things. If they aren't on par, then there's two culprits: a) not enough tax dollars, b) taxes aren't being used effectively. Personally, I think it's almost always the latter. You can look at the historical effectiveness of most programs, and coincidentally, they seem to get less effective as more money becomes available.

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#57

Post by tristor »

I find it interesting how many comments here and on other sites that linked the same article talk about this being tied to concerns around how their tax dollars are spent. It seems many people are not aware that the US is one of only two countries which taxes it's citizens no matter where they reside. Leaving the US is not enough if you wish to avoid taxation, you must also acquire citizenship in another country, and then renounce your US citizenship. Both of those things are much more difficult than they appear at first glance, and renouncing US citizenship has extremely broad and far-reaching consequences.

Someone who has renounced their US citizenship is forever barred from ever getting citizenship, and their children are typically also barred from getting citizenship. In addition, they will pretty much always be denied a visa for entry, and they are ineligible for visa at arrival, and may have difficulty to get even pre-applied visas for visiting such as B-1/B-2.

If you decide to emigrate elsewhere and renounce your US citizenship to avoid paying taxes, you basically give up on ever coming back to the US ever, and you'll be watched like a hawk by every single US ally. Denouncing your citizenship is a pretty radical move and is something that hallmarks you as the type of person who might go join ISIS or something.

This is one reason why it doesn't matter how many people say they want to leave the US, almost none of them actually do it permanently. No matter what, you'll be paying taxes to build bombers, so you might as well enjoy the much higher quality of life on offer in the US while doing so. As someone who has traveled around the world extensively, staying in each place for very extended (months/years) periods of time, I can honestly say that despite all of its flaws, the US is still probably the best place one could possibly live inclusive of all factors. There is a reason we're a net importer of people rather than a net exporter.

Re: Record Numbers of Americans Want to Leave the U.S

#59

Post by ssnistfajen »

lkrubner wrote: post #14

A truly incredible statistic: “ 40% of women younger than 30 would like to leave the U.S. ” That says a lot about the extent to which Trump has alienated young women.

40% is just ridiculous. As we've seen in past US presidential elections, the vast majority of Americans who claim they want to move out of the country will not actually do it. Moving to a major metropolitan area within the US that aligns with their values is much easier.
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