Over on my travel blog, I summarized a years’ worth of web news stories about Americans who moved abroad. I originally set out to read stories about people who moved abroad, and to find stories about solo travel, especially by guys. Unfortunately, there are almost zero stories about guys doing solo travel. First the overwhelming majority of travelers today are women by a 2:1 ratio (see Recreational travel is dominated by women: why? – Coldstreams Travel and Global Thinking). And the overwhelming majority of travel writers are women. Thus, there are no stories about guys traveling.

As I read these “move abroad” stories I saw they all had the same format:

• America is awful
• Crime is awful, life is stressful, everything costs too much, everything is awful in the U.S.
• So, we moved to country X where life is idyllic

You can read my summaries of these stories over on my Travel blog: Part 1 and Part 2.

Left out of these stories (but I tracked them down), about 2 in 3 of those who did these moves had pre-existing dual citizenship, a right of descent ancestry immigration privilege, or married someone in the country (90% of these are educated, attractive young American women who moved abroad and married – seems to be an option not available so much to American guys). Many may not have been that American – many were born in other countries and have dual or even triple-citizenship.

Most Americans cannot easily pack and move to another country except for

• Young, with the right high-skilled, in demand work skills (usually STEM or healthcare)
• A right of descent ancestry privilege (for some countries, if you have a grandparent or great grandparent who was a citizen you can qualify for residency or citizenship)
• You married a citizen of the country (and generally this is limited to educated, attractive young American women)
• You already have pre-existing/prior dual citizenship by virtue of being born in another country, or born to parents from a country that grants citizenship based on parentage, regardless of where born. (Most of North, Central and South America grants citizenship based on being born there, regardless of parents’ citizenship, while the rest of the world grants citizenship based on your parents’ citizenship. The effect is that, say, Europeans, Asians, etc, can travel to N, C or S America, give birth – and their child will have dual citizenship. Americans cannot move to Germany, have a kid, and then have the kid take both German and US citizenship – because in Germany, citizenship is based on your parents’ citizenship, not where you were born.)
• You are wealthy and were able to purchase an investment/residency visa (ranging from $100k to $10 million typically, with $500k and up being typical).
• Of the 150+ stories I sampled, about 2 in 3 of those who moved abroad were young women who married a foreigner and/or had pre-existing dual citizenship, or a unique right of descent ancestry giving them a privilege of moving to another country (where they also had family living). 2 out of 3 had a unique immigration privilege. Almost 50 of the stories were of young women who moved abroad and obtained residency through marriage; just 2 stories involved guys who moved abroad and obtained residency via marriage. There seemed to be a LOT of well educated, attractive young women who did this – to the point that it appears to be another “privilege” issue. Most Americans cannot readily move abroad.

If you are not on that list, you cannot move abroad.

The main point is that in most of these stories we learn that these individuals think America is the worst country in the world. Ironically, many of those saying this grew up with American wealth, attended private schools, private universities and did both study and travel abroad – due to the wealth their American privilege provided them. Now, they say America is awful.

These stories – I summarized 150 of these last year – greatly changed my perspective. I was just as down on the U.S. as anyone. Then I realized we are bombarded with propaganda from media reporters, who had the privilege of attending elite schools and study or work abroad – but now find that producing Down With America stories is an effective form of click-bait content mill trash. It makes no sense for those who have benefited from their American privilege to spend their days trashing the U.S.

We are inundated with propaganda from media – because controversy and emotion sell ads – that America is the worst country in the world. In the real world, America is the #1 desired destination of foreigners who wish to move to other countries. We are the wealthiest country in the world. By virtually all measures, over time, life has gotten better and most people are doing well – especially compared to the rest of the world.

So why do we Americans hate our country?

It seems that many of us are inundated with negativity, doomerism news, and a constant barrage of “everything is awful” reports.

I was prompted to write this post after reading a “news” story that said flying the American flag is an act of oppression, a symbol of hate, and a symbol of white supremacy. The new meme, I guess, is that we must repudiate our citizenship and hate America – because that will make something better?

I’ve never flown an American flag in my life. I’ve never even waved one at an event.

But this year, I am going to fly an American flag on my house on the 4th of July. Because I am tired of non-stop doomerism and negativity from the “I hate America” crowd. If they didn’t hate America, they’d have to find something else to hate. It’s about being caught up in the “Culture of perpetual outrage”.

Update: I bought a flag and put up the mount today. The flag goes up on July 3d and will fly through the holidays.