Everything seems so stagnant and the costs of living are rising while the salaries do not increase whatsoever.
What's worse is that due to its economic decline politicians and leaders try to persuade the populace that a lot of things that we enjoy and contribute to our quality of life are now considered luxury or outright sinful. The same kind of rhetoric that is used to sin tax tobacco, alcohol, gambling is now used on things like:
- car ownership - Air Conditioning - Travel - meat and dairy
Live near the beach. Lots of people speak English, Dutch, Spanish. Lower cost of living, decent internet speed. Sin tax can't go too high because of freedom of religion. If you can work remote, the conversion rate is really sweet. If not, the pay is not bad by EU standards and some places are willing to match.
Perhaps lookup a digital nomad website as they list requirements for countries around the world to get visa.
WeChat - China (nearly $3B) is probably the world's most dominant messaging company.
Plus China funds games and social media very well too.
In the EU the compensation difference between top 1% and bottom 1% performers is generally absurdly small.
I am meticulous about tracking finance and so far (my daughter is 11) I have spent $374k which if I lived in Europe would now be in my pocket. This isn’t total expenses, this is only expenses that I have to pay for here that I would not otherwise. I also have another decade+ of raising and schooling etc to pay for
Roughly another $50k per year on average I spend currently on other things that I would not be if I lived in Europe…
But even for my kid, who lives a very middle class lifestyle, I don't see how I'm dump even half that into her and she's half your kid's age. I know for a fact that I have not spent that much. My healthcare spend has gone up 3K/year. everything involved in pregnancy up to birth was 8K. I pay for a private school which is than the daycare. I pay for extra activities. Even then I'm not at 100K and most of it is the privage school, I don't have to pay for, but wanted to to better accommodate my special needs kid when she was young. I'm not even doing that next year. I'm struggling to consider where I'd find another 150K+ to spend on her beyond mandated things like clothing. Are you talking college? I guess I'm lucky my state has a state scholarship and community college is free regardless. It's how I only paid 20K to get a bachelor's. I assume my kid will do the same whatever she picks.
Also ... where are you getting the "sin tax for travel ownership" rhetoric from? Like, I follow several eu green parties, and anytime one of them starts with something on banning air-trafic, they get shuffles to the fringe.
I actually like the EU, and if you have specific gripes, you probably will be able to find a country that is more pareto-optimal than one you currently reside in.
If you are after money, USA is still the place to be. Just look at levels.fyi
But I think you are looking at it wrong.
If you are vaguely depressed about the current situation, running away will not help you. Figure out what you want to run towards.
Look for countries whith good track of records of entreprenurship, successful non government initiatives etc. i.e. non communist and non totalitarian ones. There are only few of them on this planet.
Forget the US people ther are only slightly less depressed than the EU
Thanks!
And most importantly those are places where the roulette is still spinning . You want to be where the roulette is still spinning as opposed to places like US; EU; Japan where it has basically almost stopped.
For example a non small amount of people in Nigeria still become rich because of a clerk at the bank credited money to the wrong account by error (and those who reeive the money they go fast to withdraw them and disappear). If you are an incumbent on the scene you want to be where chaos and randomness is.
Also remember not to get fooled by the money indicator such as GDP , median wage etc... the important stuff such as housing, food, staples, utilities, vehicles etc they adjust based on the locality and thus are measured via PPP not absolute terms .
Also remember what Roman Emperor Augustus used to say :"Better to be #1 in a peripheric area of the Empire than #2 in Rome"
It’s not the current situation which matters, it’s how people look at the future