In which I advised the OP writer to go west...
All the way to New Zealand. Find out what skills they want in their workforce, what your prospects for acceptance into the country are if you match one or more of those skill sets, then get thee to university and become an expert in the field(s) you're most interested in and that they're looking for.
Here's the CIA world factbook breakdown of New Zealand.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factb...One thing of particular interest to me: They've only added about 1.2 million people since 1950, so they're obviously firm believers in maintaining a sustainable ratio between population and carrying capacity. That's huge, and will become more so as the world population doubles and redoubles into absolutely unsustainable numbers. And the inevitable massive environmental collapse triggered primarily by too many humans eating, drinking, excreting, polluting, driving, generating landfill, deforesting and so forth, will probably be far less catastrophic in New Zealand, with its relatively remote location blunting the effects that will devastate larger land masses.
Besides that, it's pretty temperate, particularly toward the north end of the South Island. Farther north, it becomes a bit tropical, while at the extreme southern tip of the South Island it can be pretty chilly. Also, the topography is highly varied, kind of like if you left San Francisco and drove east on I-80 to the Sierras. You can literally surf and ski on the same day in both CA and NZ.
So why aren't I typing this from Auckland rather than Oregon? After all, I'm completely incompatible with America v2.0 I certainly wouldn't immigrate here by choice. And I was just as alienated from US governmental, doctrinal and mass cultural institutions back in my 20s, although quite ignorant of the actual nature and function of those institutions. So why didn't I follow my instincts? I think it's two reasons: underestimating the sheer malevolence of the enemy, and overestimating my generation's impact on the values and assumptions that underlie the US.
I think we gave up too soon in the '60s - early '70s. We patted ourselves on the back for ending the Vietnam war (although how much our protests influenced the eventual end of the war is certainly debatable) and then we got rid of Nixon, or rather, he got rid of himself. So it was kind of like Mission Accomplished, and let's all go back to sleep.
We could have built on those accomplishments to create a movement for sustained peace and egalitarianism, and that shifted the country's economic motivators from sheer, unbridled greed and exploitation toward a more cooperative work model, with workers as owners and today's fucking bastard CEOs raping some other country.
I know that sounds ridiculously Utopian and unrealistic in today's dystopian state, but we had significant numbers, we were pretty well educated, we were raised on political activism, and we were battle-tested and ready for another good fight. We could have simply infiltrated the political system from the bottom up, winning places on school boards, city councils, planning commissions and the like, then leveraging those positions to climb the ladder toward Congressional seats -- which is exactly what the right wing has done over the past 30 years and is the ultimate cause of its dominance today (that and a ton of money, 24/7 wingnut demagoguery on the radio, media toadyism, and so forth). But instead, most of us just congratulated ourselves on a job well done and began emulating our parents -- kids, mortgages, jobs, suburbs, cars, commuting, layoffs, transfers, job uncertainty, recession, boom time, insane real estate prices, real estate bubble bursts, squirreling away our personal little IRAs and 401-Ks, creating the fiction of the possibility of carefree retirement, and so on... Given all that, had I had a clue what the last quarter of the 20th century would look like, I would have gotten out while I was still young, adaptable, strong and relatively unco-opted.
But you apparently still have choices and, sensibly enough, you're examining your options. IMO, here's what you're dealing with in the US:
You're living in the world champion of runaway capitalism, where the only thing that's valued in business anymore is the ability to extract more work from fewer people for less pay, all the while cutting or eliminating benefits, busting unions and generally creating a climate where the labor force is too scared and insecure to make much noise.
Where three out of 10 people around you at any given time are religiously insane and think the earth is about 6,000 years old. Where public education is just about extinct, and where there is no money for anything necessary or worthwhile, unless you like new nukes and aircraft carriers. Where the economy runs as a rigged zero-sum game, and where even rare and highly prized skill sets don't guarantee a job with decent pay. Where environmentalism is seen as subversive, and where intellect is viewed with suspicion. Where Constitutional guarantees are now optional, where celebrity worship trumps political awareness, and where the apex of mass culture is the Super Bowl halftime show. Where paper pushers make fortunes and caregivers make minimum wage, and where systemic racism and xenophobia create murderous monsters out of otherwise normal people. Where the second amendment -- the only one still respected by the feds -- has created a national free-fire zone. Where the distribution of wealth is so heavily concentrated in the greedy little fists of the upper five or so percent that they own about 60 percent of everything and even that's not enough for these parasites. Where the trappings of success go to the most devious or outright criminal, while the decent people get the dregs. Where a significant percentage of the country's infrastructure of roads, bridges, overpasses and underpasses is structurally compromised and in immediate need of reinforcement, but there's only federal money available if you're in the mass slaughter and genocide business.
I could go on, but if you've read this far you've probably gotten my point. I'd love to give you some pep talk about how the good old USA is on the rebound and good people are going to regain control next November, or how it's somehow immoral to leave the country of your birth in search of a better deal when there's so much to be done back home.
But I don't buy it. The next administration, no matter its intentions, will be hamstrung by BushCo's massive deficits, unable to find money to fund a progressive agenda, and will only manage to find the usual giant sums of money to feed the Pentagon, since Democrats are just as hooked into the campaign money supply as is the GOP and, worse yet, are terrified of being painted as "soft on terror" or "not supporting our troops" or some such idiocy.
Also, I just don't see this country getting past its quasi-religious faith in the gospel of the market economy, which guarantees that vital commodities and services like energy, health care and pharmaceuticals will remain in the hands of giant corporations whose only allegiance is to profitability and if that means you have to die because they can weasel out of approving a vital medical procedure, tough shit. The market doesn't give a damn about individuals; it only cares that there's enough of a cheap labor pool out there to keep feeding the machine.
Sorry to be so bleak, particularly first thing in the morning on what looks like a very pleasant day out here in Portland. But there are three recent times and places I would do anything in my power to avoid: 1930s Germany, 1940s to mid-'50s USSR, and 21st century America. Hopefully, you've had the incredible luck to have avoided the first two and stand a very decent chance of getting out of the third if that's how you choose to go. Good luck and very best wishes, whatever you decide.
wp
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