Which Country offers the greatest opportunity for a young person?

[ThomWV]

Let us say that you are a young person of reasonable intelligence with a college degree and willing to work. Let us also say that you can travel wherever you please and are looking for a place to settle. You have modest funds available to you, let us say enough to live for a year without working. Don't let language be a barrier, where would you go, or would you go elsewhere?

[Blue_Tires]

1. it will take a lot more than 'modest' funds to live a year without work

personally, i'd try any number of countries in Europe, or Canada, Brazil or Argentina...I'm also interested in seeing ideas from others...

it goes without saying different countries have different visa laws and standards, and someone can't just show up at the airport and expect to do whatever...

[Romulox]

2. As a young person, I'd want an EU passport. Which individual country doesn't really matter.

Just my opinion.

[ThomWV]

4. Interesting. I'd probably head to somewhere in South America or maybe India

[timeforpeace]

3. Are you also a certified divemaster? Then Roatan, Honduras, scuba diving capitol of the world.

Upscale, trendy, lots of beautiful women, and lots of rich touristas.

[TahitiNut]

8. If I were younger -- in my 20s or early 30s and single -- that'd be at the very top of my list.

When I was younger, I had no idea such jobs were available (even though far fewer were in those days). I remember seeing Jacques Cousteau's "aqualung" back in the 50s, when I was a teen. It was a dream to me that some people could actually do that as a job. All my life, I've loved anything to do with activities on, in, or under water ... warm weather and swimming, snorkeling, rafting, sailing, or whatever was my idea of the "good life."

It wasn't until 1990 that I decided, during a period of unemployment, to make lemonade our of lemons and take my first ever 'real' vacation. I had the money and the time ... so I let my imagination fly and asked myself what the 'ideal' vacation sport would be. 'Tahiti!' It was a place that always symbolized (in my imagination) the perfect paradise. I went with a backpack full of paperback novels to a Club Med (since I had no interest in the 'singles scene') and wound up not reading any ... because they had a 'resort course - 3 days of training and then scuba diving (accompanied by instructors) in the open ocean. Wow! I'll NEVER forget that first dive. After a stride entry, the bubbles cleared and I WAS FLYING OVER THE SURFACE OF A DIFFERENT PLANET!! Sixty feet below, I could see the sharks gathering for the shark feed. It was AWESOME! It didn't even occur to me to be nervous. It was so stunningly beautiful, fascinating, liberating, and enthralling that I was overwhelmed.

Discovering the dive instructors and the jobs they had was an instant case of envy. That's where I met Mike - another Viet Nam veteran who was a Chicago detective (special murder cases) - who accumulated enough overtime in 9 months on the job each year that he could take 3 months and be a dive instructor for Club Med. Other folks probably thought he was weird and bizarre -- he had the Viet Nam veteran persona underneath the Special Homicide specialty - but we were 'brothers' and I trusted him with my life without hesitation. He's STILL my 'hero' ... a role model I wish I could emulate.

[imdjh]

5. I'd probably pinpoint someplace in the US which I thought had potential.

A few years ago, I would have said Alabama, but I guess I would have been wrong. My reasoning was that Florida was quickly becoming too expensive, and that I had heard some folks with other objections to Florida. Trying to pinpoint an "up and coming" place is tough, even in a city though. Even in a city which is doing well, the timing of getting into the "up and coming" neighborhood at the right time is a gamble. Many people look at some of the more fashionable neighborhoods of major cities and think, "If I had only opened a business on Castro Street back in whatever year, then I would be rich now." But the chances are you wouldn't, because most if not all of the people who were the first wave, the first pioneers, the new idea, and the risk takers in any "up and coming" place lost their ass. The folks we see as the smart ones who "got in early" are often the second or third effort. It's actually pretty rare to see an "up and coming" area actually happen in less than 20 years and that can be a long 20 years.

As a rule, though, I would say someplace where it doesn't snow and close to recreational water.

[glinda]

6. If you have some good skills, Canada....

[Echo In Light]

7. Depends upon what the person wants out of life

[BlooInBloo]

9. San Francisco. Done.

[imdjh]

16. Yeah, but consider the daisy chain. It's like an IQ test, isn't it?

In the IQ test you look at three objects and then tell them what the next object is that would logically follow.

People were already leaving SF in 1980 (or before) to take ideas from SF and start their own Haight or Castro in the cheaper Seattle which had been abandoned a decade or so earlier. Feel free to correct the years , but I believe the concept is sound. And then they did it again in Portland.

Tampa and St Pete keep trying to have "a scene" but the problem is that deathly pale skin and bright sunshine don't work, and you can't wear leather in Florida. But slowly, even that's adapting. There is a kind of surfer Goth and surfer Kink what with Dolce and Gabanna operating out of Miami.

So if the given is SF -> Seattle -> Portland then what's the next city? Or do we pretty much have enough of that kind of thing? Maybe the chain is growing elsewhere.

[Brother Buzz]

10. Ecuador

[sinkingfeeling]

11. I'd take the Republic of Ireland. Your opportunities for employment are lower in an EU country

because they hire in country first, then other EU countries, and then others.

[mitchtv]

12. If you have a grandparent born there

citizenship. is easy, from what my friends say. If I were younger I would choose Uruguay or Costa Rica

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Not a single drop of Irish blood. All Welsh, Scottish, and German.

[elehhhhna]

14. My sis & her hubs are considering Australia. Their boy is 3.

The hubs is a dual citizen. They can both work form home. Good healthcare, university, etc. It'll save them a bundle.

[Laelth]

15. New Zealand.

Tough to get in, but if you make it ... lovely and liberal.

:dem:

-Laelth

[pipoman]

17. Shangri-La,

you'll spend your life looking for it, only to learn in your midlife that it is where you make it.