Is It Time to Leave the United States?

Let's talk about some of the questions and considerations that arise when contemplating such a radical decision

A year ago I wrote an essay about how I had reached a conclusion that was somewhat shocking to me: I no longer wanted to live in the United States.

It turned out I wasn’t the only one who was contemplating such a massive change.

I was surprised when “The Way We Live in America is Not Normal” went viral and continued to attract readers all year. It’s probably what brought many of you here. Since Donald Trump won the election, there has been a noticeable uptick in people discovering and sharing the piece.

Obviously, when I wrote the essay, it was before the election. If Kamala Harris had won, I would have stuck with my decision to live outside of the U.S. because the problems I outlined had nothing to do with the specter of another Trump presidency, as stressful as that is for some of us. What has driven me from the U.S. are systemic problems that have been festering for decades, which neither party has clearly identified as the hair-on-fire crisis that it is.¹

These issues include out-of-control health care costs, university price tags that lead to a lifetime of debt for graduates, mass shootings, private equity companies hoovering up industries and jacking up prices, and a third of Americans trapped in medical debt. We are bombarded with messages celebrating overwork and the constant search for more, more, more.

What I sense in the zeitgeist in the U.S., particularly among younger people, is that they have had enough. They are searching for simplicity and connection.