Why I Decided to Leave the U.S.

When I was younger the U.S. was a much different place. It was a country that much of the world looked up to . It was a country that was known for doing what was right. It was a country of opportunity where the  "American Dream"  was alive and one could rise from the poor to the wealthy.      It was a country where one could go to college, earn a degree and expect to earn a high wage with little student loan debt upon graduation. It was a country where the nuclear family was largely intact and one working spouse could support the other and multiple children. It was a country largely free of national debt. It was a country free of terrorism. It was a country that largely fought only defensive wars. It was a country that valued freedom and followed the Constitution. It was a country where elections were honest and much less influenced by large corporations and the extremely wealthy. It was a country where politicians worked in the interests of the people, or at least faked it a lot better. It was a country with a large middle class. It was a country where the media was diverse and not under the direct influence of the federal government. It was a country where the politicians put a positive spin on things.

What the U.S. has become is a shell of its former self. It is now a country that thinks torture is acceptable and murder of even U.S. Citizens is allowable under the law. It is a country with a million laws that are not applied to the wealthy or influential. It is a country where the American Dream is dead. A poor person can no longer expect to ever become wealthy. It is a country where college graduates, if they can find any work at all, are saddled with a lifetime of excessive student loans that are not discharge able in bankruptcy. It is a country where the nuclear family is no longer intact and many children are now being raised without the guidance of two parents.  It is a country with an unmanageable  national debt that is impossible to pay back that will result in long term economic destruction. It is a country where terrorism and fear and are spread nonstop. It is a country that has invaded one country after another based on lies in order to rape and pillage such countries. It is a country that values "safety" over freedom and the Constitution is nothing but a piece of paper. It is a country where elections can be managed by the extremely wealthy and corporations to deny the common man influence and if all else fails, the voting machines can be hacked into. It is a country where the politicians are only concerned about their own wealth and power and nothing else. It is a country where the middle class will soon be extinct that has caused a large portion of unhappy people that formerly had a higher income. It is a country where there is not an independent media but instead one run exclusively by the federal government. It is a country where the politicians continually talk of fear, war and terrorism. The U.S. is a hopeless country in danger of imminent financial collapse.

When Lori and I were witnesses to the underwear bomber fraud, all of the problems in the U.S. began to seem much closer to home. We realized that the U.S. Was no longer a place we wished to reside in any longer. Over the past several years, we have visited numerous countries in order to determine where we would like to live. We had a long list of things that we wanted in our new country. One country had most of the items we desired and moved to the top of our list. That country, Costa Rica, will be the subject of my next blog post on why it became our choice.