• @Wogi
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    122 hours ago

    Eh you’d be fine. Doesn’t really matter who’s in the white house if you’re just visiting. The president has very little actual impact on day to day life. Who’s in the white house is a symptom of the health of a country, not a cause of it. And, like herpes, one symptom may subside but the country is still infected.

    What I’m saying is, if you wouldn’t visit under trump, maybe reconsider visiting at all. Though I maintain that as a visitor you’d find the people you meet to be mostly polite and even kind, if maybe a little extra interested in you because you have an accent.

    Definitely don’t fucking move here though holy shit what an awful mistake that would be. In fact, if you ever do visit take me back with you. I’m cool, I’m handy, I make a mean chili. My wife loves to garden you’d basically have no chores!

    • Lord Wiggle
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      122 hours ago

      I’ve seen many places around the world. I would like to see certain places in the US too but there are too many reasons I’d rather go somewhere else.

      Why don’t you leave by yourself? Plenty of really good countries you can go to. The Netherlands is nice but we have the biggest housing crisis of the EU, so maybe check other places first :)

      • @Wogi
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        320 hours ago

        I went to American public School.

        I speak precisely one language, with maybe a passing interest in a few others. My wife doesn’t even have that. Her job requires her to be able to communicate effectively. So that limits us to English speaking countries, Canada, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. Of those, New Zealand and Ireland are tempting, though our careers aren’t in high demand in either location.

        Emigrating to a country we’d buy be interested in would be expensive and time consuming, and we have neither the time nor the money to accomplish that. Not to mention our families and friends are all here. We both have decent careers here.

        • Lord Wiggle
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          11 hours ago

          Nah, you’d be fine in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavian countries too. Poland, Portugal. Everyone speaks English, loads of jobs where just English is fine. There are maaaaany expats who only speak English. There’s no need to speak the local language at all. It’s nice if you learn, but I have friends who live here for 7 years and only speak English and their own language (French, Swedish, German, Spanish, Portuguese). They say it’s too hard to learn Dutch because everyone automatically switches to English when they hear you’re not Dutch, so it’s hard to practice. There are many Asian countries too where just English is fine as well. An American friend of mine is living out his pension on the Philippines with his wife. Doesn’t speak a word which isn’t English. My ex is from Mauritania, she’s slowly learning German now that she’s been living in Berlin for over 10 years, but it’s hard not to pick up some German when you live there for so long. But most conversations are still in English.

          So you’ve got loads of options! Most of them with better healthcare and no one owning guns. Many countries have special programs to help expats to settle. Help with taxes, finding a job and a house, etc. US citizens are very welcome in most countries in Europe, some even have special treats. Like in the Netherlands, there’s a tax cut for expats with specialized jobs (like in tech).

          Just avoid France and Southern Italy. In Northern Italy everyone speaks English, in the south they don’t. And in France most people don’t speak it or are to proud to speak it (unless in big cities but even there it’s not too great). But in most countries rural parts have a lower quality and quantity of English speakers (not in the Netherlands though, here a non-English speaker is a rarity, mostly boomers).