Preply did a national survey of Gen Zers that was published last month & found that more than half of them were seriously interested in or actively considering permanently moving out of America..
"Boomers" as a cohort are being blamed for what corporations are doing to the young. Meanwhile, the people most harmed by conservative/Republican policy reliably pull the lever for "R" faithfully. We can combat just about anything but rank stupidity.
Boomers are what has enabled the corporations to expoloit America and divide us among ourselves.
I attended the last open air performance of Peter, Paul and Mary. I sat on the ground next to another grey hair (their audience was almost totally sentimental boomers, and I watched the drive up in Caddies, BMW's, Mercedes and even Ferrari's (one Lambo in the parking lot as well)
I asked the gent sitting next to me. "What happened to us", His reply was succinct and to the point "We now own things".
That is a very, very small minority of boomers who own all those expensive vehicles. The average boomer does not. No boomer I personally know has any of those cars. You can't draw conclusions from a sample of those visiting PP&M concert, William. First off, often people who can afford to go to geezer rock concerts are the ones with money. You won't find boomers getting by on small social security checks whooping it up at those concerts. Have you seen any of those who followed Grateful Dead for years - they're the worst. After basically being beggars, thieves, and lazy druggies, they got with the program and brought the same selfishness to industry that they did to their concert-going.
Meanwhile, the boomers I knew were working their butts off long hours at jobs that were soul-sucking, raising their kids and caring for their parents. It wasn't boomers who enabled the corporations, but Republican lawmakers and SCOTUS. Boomers can, however, be accused of being asleep at the wheel, particularly in their support of Reagan and now Trump. Too many Westerns when they were kids. Too much faith in that fantasy ideology.
At the same time, young people are infamous for not voting, so who is at fault for bad election results? They have the numbers to outvote the boomer conservatives (and almost half of us boomers are liberal - (44%).) According to PEW Research, 52% of voters are over 50 and 56% of those voters lean Republican. So 56% of 52% is a little more than 29%. "Another way to consider the aging of the electorate is to look at median age. The median age among all registered voters increased from 44 in 1996 to 50 in 2019. It rose from 43 to 52 among Republican registered voters and from 45 to 49 among Democratic registered voters."
I suppose it is easier to simply blam boomers for everything than go vote. IMO, demonizing people for the year in which they were born is no less odious than demonizing people for their skin color.
Maybe you are a boomer Suziee and my assessment touched a nerve, but frankly the boomers I know are fairly well to do, they have sufficient incomes to live comfortably.
As regards the Peter Paul and Mary concert it was in Marymoor Park, Redmond and it was free, no seats we sat on the grass.
I agree young people haven't been voting, except in the last election (this year) it was young people that voted and created a blue wave.
The salient point is, and I stand by it, is that the older generation (and I am of the Silent Generation, born during the depression before WWII) are intrinsically conservative, just look at the crowds of ferverent Trump humpers, sure do have a lot of gray hairs.
So you are an exception, I am an exception, Thom and most readers of Thom's are exceptions, that doesn't mean that boomers per se, aren't conservative and Republican.. Before I relocated back to my present location I lived in a 55+ community and couldn't contain myself with all of the Trumpers and their signs in their windows (displaying signs on the lawn were a violation of the CCR we all had to sign.
Damn substack and it's algorithm. I responded to Suzie but the way it appears is that I responded to Jennie. Sucks real time.
I am a boomer; but you didn't hit a nerve. I am tired, though, of hearing about how the boomers are responsible for everything wrong with the USA, based on opinion and not fact. We boomers don't "own everything." The oligarchs of all ages (and their spawn) own everything. Jeff Bezos is GenX; so is Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jack Dorsey, Mark Cuban and a host of others - all oligarch billionaires. Trump is one of them. If you want to find the villains, they aren't in retirement apartments, wondering if they should buy medicine or food this month. They are in the C-suites.
Boomers ARE as a cohort, likely financially better off than the youngest generations, but that isn't because boomers have been intent on screwing them over, but because corporate capitalism is screwing them. I'm not a member of the 1%. Are you? The boomers, because there are so many of us, are a perfect deflection target for that 1%
As you said, as one gets older, one gets more conservative; I certainly have, especially now the progressives seem to have adopted Hamas as their new love interest.
Suzie I understand your position. I really do, and I know that the boomers are a mixed breed, I am of the generation that preceded yours.. the Silents, kids of the Depression and WWII.
My generation went off the rails, it embraced Nixon and Reagan, as did many of yours.
A piece of unwanted advice, resist from personalizing the impersonal, so many people do it (notice I didn't say all or just people but inserted a qualifier.
You are the exception, so are others, but I lived in a 55+ community and the majority were Trump Humpers, one even violated the CCR's with impunity (the managers were Trump humpers as well) by placing a sign on the lawn.
As regards you personally. I have often upvoted your comments, and generally agree with them, just that this time you personalized the impersonal. Please, speaking as a friend, resist.
We can agree to disagree and still be friends. Yes, we often vote up one another's comments and mostly, we are on the same page about things. Every generation has its good and bad, but I balk at labeling an entire generation as bad for the actions of a minority and though they are loud, obnoxious, and in our faces, they are still a minority. If I came on this forum and painted any other group of people with the worst behaviors of a minority within that group, I would be flamed all the way to the doors of Hades, and rightfully so.
For example, if I labeled all Muslims as terrorists because a small minority of Muslims ARE terrorists, my comment would be met with disapproval and flagged. But it seems boomers are fair game., so we do need to speak up and challenge the disinformation.
This not "personalizing" the matter, though as a boomer, I am a target and that IS personal. Remember the adage: "the political IS the personal?" But, as I said, we can agree to disagree and still be friends who are 95% on the same page! Have a great evening.
Full disclosure Bob After the 1964 election I stopped voting because the veil came off my eyes and realized that Democrats and Republicans were two sides of the same coin, Humpty and Dumpty.
I didn't feel compelled to vote until 2016, when I held my nose and voted for Hillary, as I could clearly see the real threat of Donald J Trump. Before 1964 I was voting for, now I am voting against.
I have to remember to name the person to whom I am responding because of the problem with substack ordering of comments.
True that Jenny, but I didn't vote from 64 to 2016 because I was disgusted, not happy, and didn't see the diff between a Republicrat and a Demopub., then Trump rode down his elevator and that changed everything.
I am curious as to where you live & vote. You have said elsewhere that you’re not an American, but if you were you would vote for Cornel West. It seems you currently live in France, but at the same time I’ve read that your brother “was going to apply for an Irish passport like you were planning on doing, but married a Frenchwoman & applied for a French passport”, so it sounds as if you’re not French either although you’ve posted comments about the French government/elections.
I have an Irish Passport so that I can vote in Municipal elections here in France. I did this after Brexit (had an English Passport). Ireland is in the EU. I cannot vote in the Presidential election.
My brother was married for years to his wife who is French. They left England and Germany and came to live in France. Like me he had a British Passport. He changed his and went for the French passport.
I never ever wanted a British Passport. I was born in Sri Lanka.
My sister also had a British Passport, now has a Swiss Passport as well as my niece. They have lived in Switzerland for about 30yrs.
Brexit did a huge amount of damage which is still going on.
I take the time to watch political things in France I live here..now 23 yrs.
"We" don't have to keep Gen Zers from fleeing America: the countries they want to flee to will mostly take care of that, unless they have valuable skills, money, and/or perhaps a parent or grandparent from the country they want to flee to. Or they could maybe find a citizen of the target country willing to marry them.
Once we take care of our own people, then we can let in the sane immigrants. You know, the ones that practice birth control and believe in reality and truth and limited greed if we are to survive as a species.
We are the only country in the world designed as a "melting pot." It's not like we have a draft, and have a morbid fear that they will be sent to defend themselves and their country in harm's way thousands of miles from their families.
4.6% of the nation’s wealth. If I were king, I'd sent them to Wyoming or the Dakotas, outvote the locals and help them set up a utopia. The Dakotas were "Farm/Labor" states not so long ago. N. Dakota has a state bank. Their capitol is named for the German chancellor who introduced social welfare. https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-05-22/socialism-in-north-dakota
At the same time they can elect 6 senators and about 5 house members who can establish Puerto Rican and DC statehood. In one election can had Biden's child tax credit. Medicare for all.
So true, I checked out Canada and New Zealand, Forget it if you can't bring in a quarter of a million dollars and a job that will employ people. They don't want foreigners who haven't paid into their system, sucking off and draining their treasury..
New Zealand if you meet their stringent requirements, will give you a 2 year resident visa, which you can renew if you meet their requirements of bringing a job that employs people.
There is always Costa Rica and Panama, but you will need a substantial nest, as there are virtually no opportunities for gringo's to find employment, unless as menial labor, and even then you are competing with the locals, and the government frowns up that.
When I was in Panama, sugar cane was cut by men with machetes, the government forbid mechanical harvesting as it left Panamanians unemployed. I would watch men sweep a cane field with machetes, braying like donkeys. The noise was self defense letting others know you were there so that would slice off an arm or kill you with their machete.
Canada accepts political refugees from Africa, the Mideast and Central and south America.
So if Trump launches his 2025 plan, there is a chance, but I would not be surprised if Trump closed the Canadian Border.
I certainly don’t want to see Trump in office again, nor do I want to see such a wretched, dysfunctional and ill-conceived project like the 2025 plan become reality. Government employees often do their jobs conscientiously and well, it’s only the ones who don’t perform conscientiously that we hear about.
Apparently it hasn’t dawned on Trump that he is not and never was the government, and the electoral college that gave him the vote didn’t confer on him personal ownership and dictatorship over the government and its employees. Trump is subject to the Constitution, laws and statutes of the United States, and he has to obey them. Unfortunately, from the beginning, he never honored his oath to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, and the Republicans who voted for him and with him had no problem with that. Most of us do have a big problem with an incompetent, amoral liar who wants to use the executive branch to enrich himself and to become a dictator doing it.
Know WHY it didn't dawn on Trump "that he is not and never was the government," etc.? Because the system did a piss-poor job of communicating this to him. I'd go so far as to say that Trump WAS the government de facto, though not de jure. What we've learned -- I hope -- from the Trump administration, its aftermath, and the current Republican Party is that at present there's no enforcement mechanism that can deal with the president whose response to "you have to obey the Constitution, laws, and statutes" is "MAKE ME."
Thanks to the corruption of the GOP, the impeachment process didn't work -- twice. Thanks to that Nixon-era Office of Legal Counsel memo that sitting presidents can't be indicted or prosecuted, no one took that possibility seriously. (Either that memo needs to be revisited or we need to get better about choosing presidents.) Trump thumbed his nose at the Constitution, the Republican Party was fine with that, the SCOTUS can't be depended on -- and the rest of us are having a hard time coming to terms with the reality of it.
You don't believe that Trump will launch his plan of revenge? Is that wishful thinking per chance? Hope manifested?
You don't really know Trump or how the system works.
Day one he hires sycophants to head up all of the cabinets, he already has his people buried into strategic civil service positions. He did it in his closing days, with EO 13975 in which he replaced real civil servants with his cult.
Civil servants and the military are top down. They follow orders or else. As a retired military officer, I commanded troops and also commanded a division (not the type of division as in the Army) that was entirely staffed by civilians.
Trump has announced he has plans, and his staff is already selecting and vetting, the personnel, including military officers, that will head these cabinets, even down to lower levels.
He will do it, and as regards civil service, Trump calls them the Deep State. and they are number 1 on his hit list.
The Republicans are not at all interested in governing, governing is not necessary when you have loyal cronies acting as functionaries of the dictator, like Putin's Russia.
You are hoping that things continue as they are.
Why does a person climb into a 55 gallon drum, or dig his own grave? Hope is the answer
Actually, I do believe Trump has every intention of carrying out his plan of revenge, and I believe he will do everything he can to implement it if he’s re-elected. He will destroy the civil service, governmental and regulatory systems and appoint sycophants to carry out his plan. I take Trump at his word that he would do everything he plans to do. What I described in my last paragraph is the difference for how the system is supposed to work in contrast to how it actually would work if Trump wins the election. He and his party have decided to ditch constitutional government for fascism.
I don’t take a Democratic Party win for granted at all. My dad and I recently discussed our concern that Trump may never be held civilly or criminally accountable for his various illegal actions and frauds, especially if he games the election. He tried to do that before in Georgia.
If Trump is re-elected, I believe that Trump will carry out the revenge he wants, and it’s up to us to stop being cerebral about it and to appeal to feelings and concerns as to what actually plans to do. It should frighten us all.
My brother is married to a French woman. He was going to apply for an Irish passport like me but he decided to become French. Took him 2 years and he had to recite 3 pages of Laws/constitution and then was asked questions. You have to speak pretty good French to do this.
Unfortunately the NHS has been suffering a death of a thousand cuts under the Tories - underfunding and partial privatisation. And they used COVID as an excuse to toss a lot of money at their friends that would have been spent far better on the NHS. Peter Thiel and Palantir are heavenly involved.
Reagan was governor of California, before Thatcher became PM., He was then bought and paid for by multinational corporations and international finance.
Thatcher did not have any effect on National policy, until she became PM.
Reagan had an effect on the 7th Largest economy in the world, California, as governor, and what happens in California effects the nation.
Our congress will not pay laws that positively effect pollution or global warming, but California does. and in order to comply with California laws, corporations must redesign and retool, because they can't afford to conform to the laws of the largest economy in the US, to service the rest of America with old technology
For instance: . California is only requiring that all NEW cars sold in 2035 and beyond are zero-emission vehicles which includes battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles. Gasoline cars can still be driven in California, registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and sold as a used car to a new owner
Car manufacturers are bracing and racing to retool, and to the chagrin of unions and workers, electric vehicles will result in fewer automotive jobs, not to mention the supporting industries like those that make gasoline tanks, engine parts and even engines.
Reaganism does predate Thatcherism, and it all started in California.
It has been for some years. Boris Johnson managed to carry out Brexit, and as any reasonably intelligent person could have seen, it’s a disaster. At one blow, Britain seriously hobbled its economy by breaking ties with its biggest trading partner. The damage may well be permanent.
It's interesting because they are half-heartedly been making waves to re-enter but only in some areas. I am gobsmacked that they think they still have a 'right' to make conditions.
My daughter is going to uni in the EU. I am currently living in the EU because even though I am not a G-Zer, I feel everything that the survey says are reasons for Gen-Zers to leave. In fact, after looking at the WaPo discussion of the deaths from military weapons sold casually to any Tom, Dick and Harry that wants them in the USA, I find the level of violence, and gun violence specifically to be unacceptable. In fact, in many ways the USA is like living in a third world country. The great disparity between the top incomes and bottom is a criteria of this. My daughter has so many friends in the USA who draw her back for holidays that I just have to hope that nothing happens during that time. A level of stress that many EU parents do not have when their children go out, or even on NYE when people like to shoot guns. Stray bullets can go through walls. So, her former teacher's daughter and her husband just up and moved to Portugal this fall. I know others who are doing that too.
I am a citizen of Germany as well as the USA as is my daughter. So as a dual citizen I am living in the EU. My daughter is in class with a lot of people who are not part of the EU because she is in Studienkolleg, the program Germany requires people who do not have an Abitur to take for a year as their Abitur equivalent. It is done at universities. It is a combo of University things and language. While I did not obtain a permanent resident visa I know how to do it, because I have been reading up on it for the past 5 years as all of my one passport US friends tell me that even though there are people who have walked barefoot from South, Central and North America to get to the USA with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a little money, they cannot afford to go elsewhere to live. What they mean is they cannot go elsewhere and immediately have the lifestyle they left behind, sans stress at the thought of being shot, or being afraid to go out at night. I walk down dark streets in my city neighborhood in Germany which are much darker than the streets at home if they are side streets, and I do not feel worried walking. It is worth it for the challenges of getting the numerous insurances one has to have to live legally in Germany. My daughter's education is not free. We have to pay her semester fees. That is 319€ twice a year. For that fee she gets a free transportation pass for the year to all of the public transportation in her city, one can pay an additional fee to upgrade it to the Germany ticket, which will allow her to use any transportation in all of Germany that is not a fast or flex train. We also have to pay her living expenses. We are applying for TK health insurance in Germany. It is harder to get into if you do not grow up with it than you would think. I missed a phone call two days ago. I might have to reapply, but I will try calling them. A friend whose husband is a diplomat here, so a government tenured employee uses the Government employee's insurance for many things, but not everything, and people who do not work for the government can get it too. One typically goes to an insurance broker here, so that one makes sure to get the best insurance one can get if it is not provided by your employment. Most of our family and friends have TK. Also, people commonly have personal liability insurance and other sorts of liability insurances. This is what I am working on right now. A friend's first grade son threw a rock at a tree at school, and it bounced off and hit a car window and broke it. My friend's personal liability insurance, which covers his children as well, payed the 400€ since it was an accident. This personal liability insurance is not tied to your home or car, but just to anything that happens that costs money that is not you intentionally breaking the law, or taking unnecessary risks. A scratch on someone's car as you bike by, or your tree falling on someone, or a ball going through a window. So, a good way to become a German citizen is to go to University here first, then once you graduate you are entitled to live for 5 years and work. That is the length of time it takes to be eligible to apply for citizenship, although due to employment shortages, they are discussing making it 3 years. Then, you apply and become a German citizen.
Thanks. Counts me out 100 dollars is worth 92 Euro's. If I could sell my property I might have enough to pay a house in Portugal that meets their requirements.
I know what you mean about safety. I've been to Europe, but not so sure that with the influx of migrants that it is safe anymore.
I just checked, My sources of income are Social Security and Military Retirement, both of which I can keep,so long as I don't become a citizen of another country.
I thank you for the information. It seems moving to another country is not an option, unless you have deep pockets and can produce jobs for the host country.
638€ a year for an education (which comes with a transportation pass) is cheap, compared to the tens of thousands Americans pay.
I really appreciate the time you spent providing this info. I hope others appreciate it as well.
Not true. One can live anywhere that accepts you supporting yourself. So, if you have enough money to support yourself here, or a job that is flexible, you can consider Germany and many other countries. That is you can live here and in Portugal as long as you have the money to support yourself. I discussed collecting social security and one can collect it here, or just have a bank account in the USA, and have it sent to a bank here.
My friend's daughter and her husband, who seems to be able to work from anywhere is able to live in Portugal. They do not have citizenship in the EU. He is from India with US green card or citizenship. Not sure which. The tricky part is paying for health insurance. I am not collecting Social Security yet, or medicare because my husband is still working. However, this is what is says about Medicare if you live abroad. In Germany you are required to have health insurance and long term care insurance.
I don't know what Portugal requires but might be similar because it is an EU country. What I can tell you about Germany is that rent can be fairly reasonable if you do not move to Hamburg of Munich. Also, food is much cheaper here. It is better subsidized. So, not just for the farmer, but the consumer too. I live in a city that has a huge influx of migrants, and so far, I have not heard of shootings. When I lived in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune would publish the number of people shot over the weekend. This would include who was under 18, and who died, and where people were being treated and what condition they were in. One weekend there were 60 people shot. At dinner some time not long after that my daughter's Viennese exchange student partner was asking why I would let them go to a thrift store on their own using public but wanted them picked up in the evening when it got dark. I explained that the thrift store was between 2 gang territories, and if someone was driving around on a Saturday night out of their territory and saw another gang person or people in a vehicle there might be shooting and if they were waiting at a bus stop they could be in a crossfire. While her parents had thought we were really strict since she could go out in 11th grade and before then on her own at night in Vienna and decide when to come home, but once they found out the situation in Chicago, she told her her mother was glad that I made the decisions where they could go on their own and where not. While she was visiting us that fall, there were several people shot and killed, including a University of Chicago school graduate who was gunned down by an 18-year old who wanted his laptop, and a surgeon who lived right where this happened and is friends with a friend, went out to try to help. He said he had never seen so much blood in his life and there was nothing he could do. That fall there was also a school shooting in Michigan, and when my daughter went to Vienna that January and spent half a year there, I was relieved. I had been waiting for her to go. Each time she is in the USA I worry about her getting shot, and I do not worry about that here. Both she and I lived in cities in the top 10 of crime in Germany for a city of over 500,000 people, and we live in areas where we feel safe, even being out at night. There are areas where I don't feel safe, and I don't go there. In Chicago, in an affluent community (the one where Barack Obama has his Chicago house), I take the car to the parking lot across the street to go to Walgreens one block away in the night, to pick up a prescription because it is just not safe to walk.
GenZ leaving the country is just what the right wants. Since they are more progressive than their parents, and threaten the national paradigm, which like it or not is reflected in MAGA.
The country has passed the tipping point, as evidenced in the fact that not even the so called “liberal” media questions, the lies and motivations, especially the motivations of the fascists among us.
Unlike their parents and grandparents GenZ does not own homes, or anything that they can’t walk away from. They are as free as free came be, quoting from Me and Bobby McGee and as Thom points out, no health care, education is too expensive and who wants to go into life time debt, and replay a loan from wages of an intern or a burger flipper.
Get an education and the best you can hope for is to get a low or no paying job as an intern, teacher, or keyboard operator, failing that a great career at KFC, Mackie D’s, or Popeyes. However I doubt that any country with a social safety net, will take them in., and they will soon find out that other countries are as xenophobic as ours., and frankly hostile to Americans, knowing that America has done to them for the benefit of big business, like Coke, United Fruit (Chiquita Banana), Exxon Mobil, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Vulture Funds.
The horrible possibility is that many of us, those marked for retribution, revenge or simply extermination, by dying for lack of health care and income, like senior citizens, LGBT and POC
Are doomed if MAGA attains power again. This time Trump and his cult will finish the job that they started in 2016
There are few places left where they won't have to put up with our toxic foreign policies. So they may find their kids picking up the fight by returning to attack this supposed shining city. Once again we'd be leaving the hard work up to the kids.
As a war baby married to a depression baby who now have visas to live in Portugal, I can empathize with young people. We don't want to live here anymore either due to Republican politics, gun violence, and the general malaise that has settled over the population due to the violence and malevolence of so much of the country especially what oozes out of their ilk in DC , TX and FL.
I can’t blame the GEN Zers for fleeing this nonsense. For everything that President Biden and Vice President Harris accomplished in their first two years after taking ivermectin this nation that was at the lowest point of its existence, and having to rebuild every single department of the government after it was totally dismantled by the previous administration, and the lunatic that was in charge.
Personally, I highly approve of Vice President Harris. I think she’s done an exceptional job working with President Biden, heading up all the different projects he has had her working on. We must remember, this man has been involved in politics over 50 years, and is about as honest as the day is long. His training Vice President Harris has been going on since before they took office three years ago.
The economy is better than it’s ever been. The prices are higher because of the crap done by the former administration. The trade embargo, and throwing everything we had with other nations out the window where we received nothing from anyone, and we shipped nothing to shunned. All this had had to be re-established with every nation. Try his includes the oil industry, agriculture, everything. So, the extravagant high prices we are paying right now are the blame of Trump. Not Biden.
Something else, President Obama and Vice President Biden had worked on the student loan situation where a lot of college students were actually able to go to college. Trump stopped all of that. Trump stopped the free education, reduced tuitions, everything. Student debt went through the roof. Now, this Republican House of Representatives refuses to do anything needing to be addressed to help the American people.
No mention of Biden appointing Garland and not prosecuting the government GOP traitors that supported the coup. I would be Joe Biden's biggest fan if I knew he was on the side of the working American instead I get the feeling he's keeping the economy going for the oligarchs. The Dems should control the house and supreme Court by now!!!!!!
The Dems are going to lose, because the voters have a short memory, and worse the Republicans have done a good job of agitating the Lizard brain, and the lizard brain doesn't listen to reason.
The Republicans have tapped into the fears, hatreds, bigotry of America, and the Democrats are trying to tout virtue and "look what Biden has done". It doesn't work and hasn't worked. If so then Trump would not be leading Biden. (Yes I don't believe the polls, but polls also influence opinions and Americans always go for the winner)
Don’t forget the power of Republican gerrymandering. It allows them to select their voters for both state and federal legislatures, and makes their policies appear to have greater support than they actually do.
Not just Jerrymandering but the hundreds of voter suppression, voter nullification laws, and extra legal maneuvers, like limiting the number and placement of drop boxes.
It is finally acknowledged, albeit too late that the emotions (lizard brain) is not swayed by reason. The Republican party, has since Nixon, worked steadily and successfully at commanding the emotions (lizard brain), while the Democrats, like fools, keep trying to appeal to reason and self interest (economics) and it fails, because as in Germany (we haven't learned any lessons from history) that people react emotionally.
It is as fruitless as an atheist trying to reconvert a believer.
Emotion vs Reason. Emotion wins every time. That is why they have cheer leaders, pep squads and if you follow the Seattle Seahawks. The 12th man. (fans in the stadium)
I've been trying to convince people of the immutable fact that emotions, the lizard brain rules, and finally it seems that the idea is catching on, I heard a guest on the Reidout mention just that yesterday. The Trump cult and dare I say many an independent and even some who register Democratic believe that foreigners, people of color, self validating wom
What you say about the lizard brain and emotional thinking is so true. It is possible to raise a baby with a lizard brain for life. Lizard brains can't raise rational thinkers. Hopefully some children will see the errors in their parents logic but few of them will in my opinion. There are three ways to raise a child, the right way, the wrong way and not at all. We need to raise all the children the right way especially during the first five years of their life as a society it would be a great investment. The religious are very eager to groom the children before they have any chance to think rationally, also. I don't think in my opinion that lizard brains would like rational thinking children and vice versa. I also hope that anyone who reads anything I write will take it and run with it because it will do me no good when I die. The lizard brains want to wipe out humanity!
Bob, I was raised a conservative. We lived in a project, which was run by a Republican administration, and my mom was a canvasser, she was kissing ass, to get a better home in the project and win favor with the administration. It worked. Her godmother gave me a yearly subscription to Readers Digest, so I was effectively brainwashed. I joined the service as a virulent anti communist, that was the extent of my conservatism, I was not a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe. In fact I was so unaffected,or oblivious, and acceptance of queers, that My first job out of basic training was that of a clerk, and I was assigned the job of processing lesbians an gays for discharge. The authorities thought that I was gay, and those were the days, before even Don't ask don't tell, that there is a crusade to sniff out and discharge lesbians and gays. I got married to get them off my back. I wasn't gay, just not sufficiently homophobic. I never cared about extraneous bullshit, only who you were, not what you were
There was a dude two desks down, a 2nd cousin, who was gay, but managed to keep it on the down low.
I voted for Nixon in 1960, Goldwater in 64, but not because of the cultural war, which was not even on the horizon then. That started with the ERA , and Phyliss Schafly
My awakening came in 1989, when by a series of circumstances I found myself in California and in the company of old hippies, SDS, even Weather Underground, and became a shop foreman and sat down for lunch with Angela Davis and other officers of the union.
What I learned from them, not the media, caused a 180 degree shift in my opinions.
Norway isn't accepting applications, unless you are wealthy and can bring jobs. It is the same the world over, developed countries with a social safety net, doesn't want foreigners, like Americans, leeching off them. Their governments have to protect their economy.
If Trump gets elected, I fully expect that he will shut down international travel, save for Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, China, No Korea and other countries that will kiss his butt. and I am afraid they are legion, like Macron, money rules the world, and as long as America is a cornucopia, nations will kiss our ass, even Trumps, but if Trump carries through on his 2025 plan of retribution, he will get his revenge and the country will collapse. It is the old dog catches the car, and dies under its wheels.
I can tell you right now from France. Macron is not going to allow more Americans here. We have so many applications for residence and we cannot even house our own people.
Hmmm. Think back to what you were like at 18 to 26---full of possibilities and with a brain still developing. Gen Z have the tools to form foreign relationships before they even get overseas, so that's something newish.
What isn't new is the desire to go to the countries listed on this poll. It's the Grand Tour all over again. It looks to me that only a third of them are thinking on a permanent basis. Still this is an interesting poll, and I hope everyone hits that link you gave us. I enjoyed seeing the variation from city to city and state to state. They concluded: "However, the main reason for wanting to move abroad was a desire to have new cultural experiences."
I noticed "do you believe in American exceptionalism" was a question being asked in Congressional hearings recently. Damned if you do, damned if you don't is the answer to that question. We have a lot of work to do. Sadly, the intelligent and curious youth are the ones we need to stay. They will be the ones that will help the others to become exceptional too.
Here in France we are seeing huge numbers of Americans trying to come here...it's a long immigration process.
Portugal is now cutting down on immigrants especially Americans who are buying up properties and renting them for exhorbitant amounts of money which locals cannot pay.
We actually don't want more Americans. We have hundreds of S. Americans/Algerians/Moroccans etc..
Please submit this to the editorial board of any major newspaper. I know many Gen Zers who have been discussing this for years and they are now starting to move.
I am not being querulous or facetious. I honestly want to know. Where is GenZ moving, as far as I can ascertain no country wants Americans unless they bring lots of money and a job.
The ones I know have moved to Spain, Portugal, France and one to Sweden, and another has lived in the Czech Republic for 18 years. They were all college graduates and had careers, except one who decided to travel before settling down. Mitt Romney is leaving the Republican party rather than reforming it. I fear the best of America's young people may decide to do the same because it is just so hard to fight the constant threats from right wing extremists.
Thom: Nobody, not even smart folk like you, connect dots that IF connected properly illuminate for the sake of gaining political advantage. That is, if the Democrats want to shine this light, because they don't really think of things this way. The "dots" are these:
1.) What Senator Sheldon Whitehouse refers to as "The Scheme"....
2.) ....and how powerful Leo Leonard is and what he controls
3.) Citizen's United
4.) Lobbying paybacks at millionaire levels after a politician leaves office and corporations writing bills for the politician that champions that bill
5.) PAC loopholes
6.) The ignoring of AntiTrust law
7.) The Panama Papers syndrome
8.) Off-shoring with no repercussions
9.) Yes, Reaganomics
This his list could go on for a spell. Point being that if these things were made to be seen as one big problem with elements that make clear how America went off the rails on purpose, by design, perhaps fewer people would regard everything left of the centerline as "radical", and more people would come to understand how devasting all these combined things are to all of us, including everyone that sees the likes of you and me as radical.
Peter I am going to critique the way you started your comment "Thom,Nobody even smart folk you can connect the dots.
Just saying that and then hitting as talking points, all of the things that Thom has talked about in his show and Reports, indicates that you don't know what you are talking about, and I find your comment a disgusting attack on Thom, obliguely you say that he isn't smart, but you are.
What crass narcissism in essence stating that you are smarter than Thom.
Thom has never said he was smart, but he is, without bloviating, well read, well traveled, and has well developed reasoning and analytical skills.
Geez, wow. Not intended to be insulting or snide or an attack at all. I admire this resource and Thom in particular, and truly rely on it for intelligent observations and perspectives. I can't emphasize that enough. I say smart folk because I see Thom as being MUCH smarter than me. I take your message to heart, truly surprised that I could be interpreted the way you saw it. I would appreciate hearing from you one more time to tell me if, having read my sentiments here, you still think what I wrote was disgusting. I mean, if you knew me you wouldn't think that. I obviously caused you grief, and I apologize. I also take note to be more cautious in the way I express myself. I find solace in this column, and perhaps grow too familiar in my demeanor. I am certainly not the enemy of you or any of the readers of Mr. Hartman's words. Even after writing this response, I am still startled by your response.
Did i say disgusting? I think not. My problem with this mode of communication, especially on Thom's page is that people or some folk, don't know how to interject into a conversation started by Thom without using him as a spring board, which is what you did. And when they do, it invariably sounds insulting either veiled or overt.
Maybe if you could state your own opinion without using him as a spring board.
If I recall correctly, you said that People smarter than he and that was demeaning, even unintentionally..
There are a few minor, and irrelevant in light of the present, issues in which I differ with Thom, and have stated my case, without demeaning Thom, whom frankly I much admire and whom I envy. I have lived a life of much interest, and could write a book, but doubt that it would sell.
Thom has lived a rich and rewarding life. Me not so much.
So pardon my reflexive attempts at defending him, he doesn't need me and he doesn't need defenses.
Thank you, William, for clarifying and explaing your overly sharp reply. Without this correction/addition, others would be left thinking you were... well, a dxck! Just saying! 😁
I am a dick, an angry old man, and any other epithet thrown my way.
I really don't care. I know who and what I am, I have opinions and voice them, sometimes I am wrong, if so then I will admit it
If I irate, wound and anger then so be it. I "calls it as I see it". I am not dependent upon the opinions of others, for my opinion of self. Strange huh, quite unlike the rest of the herd, who are preoccupied with what others think. Which incidentally they have no way of knowing, except when the other is angry and spouts what has really been on their mind.
Hello again! I appreciate your time to reply. One point I wish to clarify. Like you, I don't really care what others think. My opinions are formed by my life experiences and relative only to me. That being said, I DO comment in a way that is acceptable to me, not others. Admittedly, I believe my point is much more likely to be received when it's served on fine China vs a trash can lid; however, I also recognize this is my approach and what works best for me. I hold myself accountable for my words and actions. I am quick to call out my own errors and have no problems apologizing when I'm wrong. I do this for me and no one else. It's the person I want to be and who I put forth in the world. It has nothing to do with what others think. Just wanted to share this with you.
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and wish you a wonderful holiday season. Be well, Frances
I wouldn't say brilliant, but he has done a good job so far, at least better than a Trump presidency. The problem for him and the DNC is that they lack the cajones to face Trump and his humpers, square on and fight them with their own weapons. They aren't even bringing a knife to a gun fight, more like fighting with Marquis of Queensbury rules in an MMA ring.
I finally heard a guest on the Reidout (I think it was Joy Reids show) castigate the Democrats for trying to reason with the Lizard brain which is all emotion. The Lizard brain could care less about a nebulous and etheral economy. Yes he got his Inflation Reduction act, but how many pay check earning Americans have saw any benefit? Damn few, but contractors, especially those that are ruled by the mafia, and private equity funds sure have.
The Mideast is not analogous to a political battle in the US. Not one bit.
And yes, unless Biden and the DNC fight on the same grounds they will lose.
I am not asking the Ship of State to turn on a dime, That statement was irrelevant.
I am saying that unless the Democratic party fights the Republican party with the same tools, they will lose,and it will be the fault of people with y our mentality.
This tactic of trying to remind the people of Biden's accomplishments is not making headway, but reminding them of the loss of choice, and Trumps plan to reward the rich, punish the poor and take revenge on liberals and democrats will help the Democrats.
Are you some kind of libertarian, seems so in quoting Ron Paul, you might as well quote Ayn Rand.
I agree that we Democrats need to be prepared to fight Republican fire with am equal quantity of Democratic fire, and to be ready to go roll in the mud with the GQP.
"Boomers" as a cohort are being blamed for what corporations are doing to the young. Meanwhile, the people most harmed by conservative/Republican policy reliably pull the lever for "R" faithfully. We can combat just about anything but rank stupidity.
Boomers are what has enabled the corporations to expoloit America and divide us among ourselves.
I attended the last open air performance of Peter, Paul and Mary. I sat on the ground next to another grey hair (their audience was almost totally sentimental boomers, and I watched the drive up in Caddies, BMW's, Mercedes and even Ferrari's (one Lambo in the parking lot as well)
I asked the gent sitting next to me. "What happened to us", His reply was succinct and to the point "We now own things".
That is a very, very small minority of boomers who own all those expensive vehicles. The average boomer does not. No boomer I personally know has any of those cars. You can't draw conclusions from a sample of those visiting PP&M concert, William. First off, often people who can afford to go to geezer rock concerts are the ones with money. You won't find boomers getting by on small social security checks whooping it up at those concerts. Have you seen any of those who followed Grateful Dead for years - they're the worst. After basically being beggars, thieves, and lazy druggies, they got with the program and brought the same selfishness to industry that they did to their concert-going.
Meanwhile, the boomers I knew were working their butts off long hours at jobs that were soul-sucking, raising their kids and caring for their parents. It wasn't boomers who enabled the corporations, but Republican lawmakers and SCOTUS. Boomers can, however, be accused of being asleep at the wheel, particularly in their support of Reagan and now Trump. Too many Westerns when they were kids. Too much faith in that fantasy ideology.
At the same time, young people are infamous for not voting, so who is at fault for bad election results? They have the numbers to outvote the boomer conservatives (and almost half of us boomers are liberal - (44%).) According to PEW Research, 52% of voters are over 50 and 56% of those voters lean Republican. So 56% of 52% is a little more than 29%. "Another way to consider the aging of the electorate is to look at median age. The median age among all registered voters increased from 44 in 1996 to 50 in 2019. It rose from 43 to 52 among Republican registered voters and from 45 to 49 among Democratic registered voters."
I suppose it is easier to simply blam boomers for everything than go vote. IMO, demonizing people for the year in which they were born is no less odious than demonizing people for their skin color.
Maybe you are a boomer Suziee and my assessment touched a nerve, but frankly the boomers I know are fairly well to do, they have sufficient incomes to live comfortably.
As regards the Peter Paul and Mary concert it was in Marymoor Park, Redmond and it was free, no seats we sat on the grass.
I agree young people haven't been voting, except in the last election (this year) it was young people that voted and created a blue wave.
The salient point is, and I stand by it, is that the older generation (and I am of the Silent Generation, born during the depression before WWII) are intrinsically conservative, just look at the crowds of ferverent Trump humpers, sure do have a lot of gray hairs.
So you are an exception, I am an exception, Thom and most readers of Thom's are exceptions, that doesn't mean that boomers per se, aren't conservative and Republican.. Before I relocated back to my present location I lived in a 55+ community and couldn't contain myself with all of the Trumpers and their signs in their windows (displaying signs on the lawn were a violation of the CCR we all had to sign.
Damn substack and it's algorithm. I responded to Suzie but the way it appears is that I responded to Jennie. Sucks real time.
I am a boomer; but you didn't hit a nerve. I am tired, though, of hearing about how the boomers are responsible for everything wrong with the USA, based on opinion and not fact. We boomers don't "own everything." The oligarchs of all ages (and their spawn) own everything. Jeff Bezos is GenX; so is Elon Musk, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Jack Dorsey, Mark Cuban and a host of others - all oligarch billionaires. Trump is one of them. If you want to find the villains, they aren't in retirement apartments, wondering if they should buy medicine or food this month. They are in the C-suites.
Boomers ARE as a cohort, likely financially better off than the youngest generations, but that isn't because boomers have been intent on screwing them over, but because corporate capitalism is screwing them. I'm not a member of the 1%. Are you? The boomers, because there are so many of us, are a perfect deflection target for that 1%
As you said, as one gets older, one gets more conservative; I certainly have, especially now the progressives seem to have adopted Hamas as their new love interest.
Suzie I understand your position. I really do, and I know that the boomers are a mixed breed, I am of the generation that preceded yours.. the Silents, kids of the Depression and WWII.
My generation went off the rails, it embraced Nixon and Reagan, as did many of yours.
A piece of unwanted advice, resist from personalizing the impersonal, so many people do it (notice I didn't say all or just people but inserted a qualifier.
You are the exception, so are others, but I lived in a 55+ community and the majority were Trump Humpers, one even violated the CCR's with impunity (the managers were Trump humpers as well) by placing a sign on the lawn.
As regards you personally. I have often upvoted your comments, and generally agree with them, just that this time you personalized the impersonal. Please, speaking as a friend, resist.
We can agree to disagree and still be friends. Yes, we often vote up one another's comments and mostly, we are on the same page about things. Every generation has its good and bad, but I balk at labeling an entire generation as bad for the actions of a minority and though they are loud, obnoxious, and in our faces, they are still a minority. If I came on this forum and painted any other group of people with the worst behaviors of a minority within that group, I would be flamed all the way to the doors of Hades, and rightfully so.
For example, if I labeled all Muslims as terrorists because a small minority of Muslims ARE terrorists, my comment would be met with disapproval and flagged. But it seems boomers are fair game., so we do need to speak up and challenge the disinformation.
This not "personalizing" the matter, though as a boomer, I am a target and that IS personal. Remember the adage: "the political IS the personal?" But, as I said, we can agree to disagree and still be friends who are 95% on the same page! Have a great evening.
And don't event get me started on "the greatest" generation.
Not to mention that people didn't vote for years because they were happy.
Only people responsible for this is the people.
Always voting for the lesser of two evil we haven't really had a choice have we?
Full disclosure Bob After the 1964 election I stopped voting because the veil came off my eyes and realized that Democrats and Republicans were two sides of the same coin, Humpty and Dumpty.
I didn't feel compelled to vote until 2016, when I held my nose and voted for Hillary, as I could clearly see the real threat of Donald J Trump. Before 1964 I was voting for, now I am voting against.
I have to remember to name the person to whom I am responding because of the problem with substack ordering of comments.
Education!
You had Bernie Sanders.
True that Jenny, but I didn't vote from 64 to 2016 because I was disgusted, not happy, and didn't see the diff between a Republicrat and a Demopub., then Trump rode down his elevator and that changed everything.
I am curious as to where you live & vote. You have said elsewhere that you’re not an American, but if you were you would vote for Cornel West. It seems you currently live in France, but at the same time I’ve read that your brother “was going to apply for an Irish passport like you were planning on doing, but married a Frenchwoman & applied for a French passport”, so it sounds as if you’re not French either although you’ve posted comments about the French government/elections.
Ha.I live in France.
I have an Irish Passport so that I can vote in Municipal elections here in France. I did this after Brexit (had an English Passport). Ireland is in the EU. I cannot vote in the Presidential election.
My brother was married for years to his wife who is French. They left England and Germany and came to live in France. Like me he had a British Passport. He changed his and went for the French passport.
I never ever wanted a British Passport. I was born in Sri Lanka.
My sister also had a British Passport, now has a Swiss Passport as well as my niece. They have lived in Switzerland for about 30yrs.
Brexit did a huge amount of damage which is still going on.
I take the time to watch political things in France I live here..now 23 yrs.
"We" don't have to keep Gen Zers from fleeing America: the countries they want to flee to will mostly take care of that, unless they have valuable skills, money, and/or perhaps a parent or grandparent from the country they want to flee to. Or they could maybe find a citizen of the target country willing to marry them.
Nobody wants us. I can't imagine why?
BUT you don't want people who are fleeing from wars the US started.
Once we take care of our own people, then we can let in the sane immigrants. You know, the ones that practice birth control and believe in reality and truth and limited greed if we are to survive as a species.
We are the only country in the world designed as a "melting pot." It's not like we have a draft, and have a morbid fear that they will be sent to defend themselves and their country in harm's way thousands of miles from their families.
4.6% of the nation’s wealth. If I were king, I'd sent them to Wyoming or the Dakotas, outvote the locals and help them set up a utopia. The Dakotas were "Farm/Labor" states not so long ago. N. Dakota has a state bank. Their capitol is named for the German chancellor who introduced social welfare. https://news.prairiepublic.org/show/dakota-datebook-archive/2022-05-22/socialism-in-north-dakota
At the same time they can elect 6 senators and about 5 house members who can establish Puerto Rican and DC statehood. In one election can had Biden's child tax credit. Medicare for all.
So true, I checked out Canada and New Zealand, Forget it if you can't bring in a quarter of a million dollars and a job that will employ people. They don't want foreigners who haven't paid into their system, sucking off and draining their treasury..
New Zealand if you meet their stringent requirements, will give you a 2 year resident visa, which you can renew if you meet their requirements of bringing a job that employs people.
There is always Costa Rica and Panama, but you will need a substantial nest, as there are virtually no opportunities for gringo's to find employment, unless as menial labor, and even then you are competing with the locals, and the government frowns up that.
When I was in Panama, sugar cane was cut by men with machetes, the government forbid mechanical harvesting as it left Panamanians unemployed. I would watch men sweep a cane field with machetes, braying like donkeys. The noise was self defense letting others know you were there so that would slice off an arm or kill you with their machete.
Canada accepts political refugees from Africa, the Mideast and Central and south America.
So if Trump launches his 2025 plan, there is a chance, but I would not be surprised if Trump closed the Canadian Border.
I certainly don’t want to see Trump in office again, nor do I want to see such a wretched, dysfunctional and ill-conceived project like the 2025 plan become reality. Government employees often do their jobs conscientiously and well, it’s only the ones who don’t perform conscientiously that we hear about.
Apparently it hasn’t dawned on Trump that he is not and never was the government, and the electoral college that gave him the vote didn’t confer on him personal ownership and dictatorship over the government and its employees. Trump is subject to the Constitution, laws and statutes of the United States, and he has to obey them. Unfortunately, from the beginning, he never honored his oath to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, and the Republicans who voted for him and with him had no problem with that. Most of us do have a big problem with an incompetent, amoral liar who wants to use the executive branch to enrich himself and to become a dictator doing it.
Know WHY it didn't dawn on Trump "that he is not and never was the government," etc.? Because the system did a piss-poor job of communicating this to him. I'd go so far as to say that Trump WAS the government de facto, though not de jure. What we've learned -- I hope -- from the Trump administration, its aftermath, and the current Republican Party is that at present there's no enforcement mechanism that can deal with the president whose response to "you have to obey the Constitution, laws, and statutes" is "MAKE ME."
Thanks to the corruption of the GOP, the impeachment process didn't work -- twice. Thanks to that Nixon-era Office of Legal Counsel memo that sitting presidents can't be indicted or prosecuted, no one took that possibility seriously. (Either that memo needs to be revisited or we need to get better about choosing presidents.) Trump thumbed his nose at the Constitution, the Republican Party was fine with that, the SCOTUS can't be depended on -- and the rest of us are having a hard time coming to terms with the reality of it.
Very succinct.
You don't believe that Trump will launch his plan of revenge? Is that wishful thinking per chance? Hope manifested?
You don't really know Trump or how the system works.
Day one he hires sycophants to head up all of the cabinets, he already has his people buried into strategic civil service positions. He did it in his closing days, with EO 13975 in which he replaced real civil servants with his cult.
Civil servants and the military are top down. They follow orders or else. As a retired military officer, I commanded troops and also commanded a division (not the type of division as in the Army) that was entirely staffed by civilians.
Trump has announced he has plans, and his staff is already selecting and vetting, the personnel, including military officers, that will head these cabinets, even down to lower levels.
He will do it, and as regards civil service, Trump calls them the Deep State. and they are number 1 on his hit list.
The Republicans are not at all interested in governing, governing is not necessary when you have loyal cronies acting as functionaries of the dictator, like Putin's Russia.
You are hoping that things continue as they are.
Why does a person climb into a 55 gallon drum, or dig his own grave? Hope is the answer
Actually, I do believe Trump has every intention of carrying out his plan of revenge, and I believe he will do everything he can to implement it if he’s re-elected. He will destroy the civil service, governmental and regulatory systems and appoint sycophants to carry out his plan. I take Trump at his word that he would do everything he plans to do. What I described in my last paragraph is the difference for how the system is supposed to work in contrast to how it actually would work if Trump wins the election. He and his party have decided to ditch constitutional government for fascism.
I don’t take a Democratic Party win for granted at all. My dad and I recently discussed our concern that Trump may never be held civilly or criminally accountable for his various illegal actions and frauds, especially if he games the election. He tried to do that before in Georgia.
If Trump is re-elected, I believe that Trump will carry out the revenge he wants, and it’s up to us to stop being cerebral about it and to appeal to feelings and concerns as to what actually plans to do. It should frighten us all.
Hang on Suzanne.
My brother is married to a French woman. He was going to apply for an Irish passport like me but he decided to become French. Took him 2 years and he had to recite 3 pages of Laws/constitution and then was asked questions. You have to speak pretty good French to do this.
I bet the Académie Française made the rules! ;-)
Unfortunately the NHS has been suffering a death of a thousand cuts under the Tories - underfunding and partial privatisation. And they used COVID as an excuse to toss a lot of money at their friends that would have been spent far better on the NHS. Peter Thiel and Palantir are heavenly involved.
Also, higher education is no longer free here and the Tories are hostile to foreign students. Student loan debt is very high. https://www.lendingtree.com/student/student-debt-by-country/
I'd wait and see what the new government does after the Tories are kicked out in a year or so.
So England is in the grip of the Reaganite clone, Thatcherism.
Thatcher took power before Reagan, so it's the other way around.
Reagan was governor of California, before Thatcher became PM., He was then bought and paid for by multinational corporations and international finance.
Where to begin? How high a role?
She was an MP from 1959, promoted to the front bench in 1961, became education secretary in 1970, party leader in 1975, PM in 1979.
Reagan became governor in 1967, president in 1981.
Thatcher did not have any effect on National policy, until she became PM.
Reagan had an effect on the 7th Largest economy in the world, California, as governor, and what happens in California effects the nation.
Our congress will not pay laws that positively effect pollution or global warming, but California does. and in order to comply with California laws, corporations must redesign and retool, because they can't afford to conform to the laws of the largest economy in the US, to service the rest of America with old technology
For instance: . California is only requiring that all NEW cars sold in 2035 and beyond are zero-emission vehicles which includes battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles. Gasoline cars can still be driven in California, registered with the California Department of Motor Vehicles and sold as a used car to a new owner
Car manufacturers are bracing and racing to retool, and to the chagrin of unions and workers, electric vehicles will result in fewer automotive jobs, not to mention the supporting industries like those that make gasoline tanks, engine parts and even engines.
Reaganism does predate Thatcherism, and it all started in California.
It has been for some years. Boris Johnson managed to carry out Brexit, and as any reasonably intelligent person could have seen, it’s a disaster. At one blow, Britain seriously hobbled its economy by breaking ties with its biggest trading partner. The damage may well be permanent.
It's interesting because they are half-heartedly been making waves to re-enter but only in some areas. I am gobsmacked that they think they still have a 'right' to make conditions.
They are just a 'satellite' of the USA
My daughter is going to uni in the EU. I am currently living in the EU because even though I am not a G-Zer, I feel everything that the survey says are reasons for Gen-Zers to leave. In fact, after looking at the WaPo discussion of the deaths from military weapons sold casually to any Tom, Dick and Harry that wants them in the USA, I find the level of violence, and gun violence specifically to be unacceptable. In fact, in many ways the USA is like living in a third world country. The great disparity between the top incomes and bottom is a criteria of this. My daughter has so many friends in the USA who draw her back for holidays that I just have to hope that nothing happens during that time. A level of stress that many EU parents do not have when their children go out, or even on NYE when people like to shoot guns. Stray bullets can go through walls. So, her former teacher's daughter and her husband just up and moved to Portugal this fall. I know others who are doing that too.
Are you a permanent resident of Portugal, are you able to avail yourself of their health care, is your daughters education free, or low cost.?
If so how did you obtain a permanent resident visa?
Does Portugal have financial requirements for American emigrees?
Yes. If you want to become a permanent you need to buy a house there or start a business there. Here is the amount it needs to be.
https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/eu-golden-visas/portugal-golden-visa/
You can do this in other countries as well. Each has their "investment requirement." Here is a list of countries with Golden Visas.
https://immigrantinvest.com/golden-visa-en/#goldenvisa-other
I am a citizen of Germany as well as the USA as is my daughter. So as a dual citizen I am living in the EU. My daughter is in class with a lot of people who are not part of the EU because she is in Studienkolleg, the program Germany requires people who do not have an Abitur to take for a year as their Abitur equivalent. It is done at universities. It is a combo of University things and language. While I did not obtain a permanent resident visa I know how to do it, because I have been reading up on it for the past 5 years as all of my one passport US friends tell me that even though there are people who have walked barefoot from South, Central and North America to get to the USA with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a little money, they cannot afford to go elsewhere to live. What they mean is they cannot go elsewhere and immediately have the lifestyle they left behind, sans stress at the thought of being shot, or being afraid to go out at night. I walk down dark streets in my city neighborhood in Germany which are much darker than the streets at home if they are side streets, and I do not feel worried walking. It is worth it for the challenges of getting the numerous insurances one has to have to live legally in Germany. My daughter's education is not free. We have to pay her semester fees. That is 319€ twice a year. For that fee she gets a free transportation pass for the year to all of the public transportation in her city, one can pay an additional fee to upgrade it to the Germany ticket, which will allow her to use any transportation in all of Germany that is not a fast or flex train. We also have to pay her living expenses. We are applying for TK health insurance in Germany. It is harder to get into if you do not grow up with it than you would think. I missed a phone call two days ago. I might have to reapply, but I will try calling them. A friend whose husband is a diplomat here, so a government tenured employee uses the Government employee's insurance for many things, but not everything, and people who do not work for the government can get it too. One typically goes to an insurance broker here, so that one makes sure to get the best insurance one can get if it is not provided by your employment. Most of our family and friends have TK. Also, people commonly have personal liability insurance and other sorts of liability insurances. This is what I am working on right now. A friend's first grade son threw a rock at a tree at school, and it bounced off and hit a car window and broke it. My friend's personal liability insurance, which covers his children as well, payed the 400€ since it was an accident. This personal liability insurance is not tied to your home or car, but just to anything that happens that costs money that is not you intentionally breaking the law, or taking unnecessary risks. A scratch on someone's car as you bike by, or your tree falling on someone, or a ball going through a window. So, a good way to become a German citizen is to go to University here first, then once you graduate you are entitled to live for 5 years and work. That is the length of time it takes to be eligible to apply for citizenship, although due to employment shortages, they are discussing making it 3 years. Then, you apply and become a German citizen.
Thanks. Counts me out 100 dollars is worth 92 Euro's. If I could sell my property I might have enough to pay a house in Portugal that meets their requirements.
I know what you mean about safety. I've been to Europe, but not so sure that with the influx of migrants that it is safe anymore.
I just checked, My sources of income are Social Security and Military Retirement, both of which I can keep,so long as I don't become a citizen of another country.
I thank you for the information. It seems moving to another country is not an option, unless you have deep pockets and can produce jobs for the host country.
638€ a year for an education (which comes with a transportation pass) is cheap, compared to the tens of thousands Americans pay.
I really appreciate the time you spent providing this info. I hope others appreciate it as well.
Not true. One can live anywhere that accepts you supporting yourself. So, if you have enough money to support yourself here, or a job that is flexible, you can consider Germany and many other countries. That is you can live here and in Portugal as long as you have the money to support yourself. I discussed collecting social security and one can collect it here, or just have a bank account in the USA, and have it sent to a bank here.
https://www.supportadventure.com/working-remotely-for-a-us-company-while-living-abroad/#:~:text=To%20stay%20longer%2C%20one%20must,Germany%2C%20Portugal%20and%20some%20others.
My friend's daughter and her husband, who seems to be able to work from anywhere is able to live in Portugal. They do not have citizenship in the EU. He is from India with US green card or citizenship. Not sure which. The tricky part is paying for health insurance. I am not collecting Social Security yet, or medicare because my husband is still working. However, this is what is says about Medicare if you live abroad. In Germany you are required to have health insurance and long term care insurance.
https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-answers/medicare-health-coverage-options/medicare-and-living-abroad/medicare-coverage-for-those-who-live-permanently-outside-the-united-states
I don't know what Portugal requires but might be similar because it is an EU country. What I can tell you about Germany is that rent can be fairly reasonable if you do not move to Hamburg of Munich. Also, food is much cheaper here. It is better subsidized. So, not just for the farmer, but the consumer too. I live in a city that has a huge influx of migrants, and so far, I have not heard of shootings. When I lived in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune would publish the number of people shot over the weekend. This would include who was under 18, and who died, and where people were being treated and what condition they were in. One weekend there were 60 people shot. At dinner some time not long after that my daughter's Viennese exchange student partner was asking why I would let them go to a thrift store on their own using public but wanted them picked up in the evening when it got dark. I explained that the thrift store was between 2 gang territories, and if someone was driving around on a Saturday night out of their territory and saw another gang person or people in a vehicle there might be shooting and if they were waiting at a bus stop they could be in a crossfire. While her parents had thought we were really strict since she could go out in 11th grade and before then on her own at night in Vienna and decide when to come home, but once they found out the situation in Chicago, she told her her mother was glad that I made the decisions where they could go on their own and where not. While she was visiting us that fall, there were several people shot and killed, including a University of Chicago school graduate who was gunned down by an 18-year old who wanted his laptop, and a surgeon who lived right where this happened and is friends with a friend, went out to try to help. He said he had never seen so much blood in his life and there was nothing he could do. That fall there was also a school shooting in Michigan, and when my daughter went to Vienna that January and spent half a year there, I was relieved. I had been waiting for her to go. Each time she is in the USA I worry about her getting shot, and I do not worry about that here. Both she and I lived in cities in the top 10 of crime in Germany for a city of over 500,000 people, and we live in areas where we feel safe, even being out at night. There are areas where I don't feel safe, and I don't go there. In Chicago, in an affluent community (the one where Barack Obama has his Chicago house), I take the car to the parking lot across the street to go to Walgreens one block away in the night, to pick up a prescription because it is just not safe to walk.
Portugal is closing the gates.
Darn!
GenZ leaving the country is just what the right wants. Since they are more progressive than their parents, and threaten the national paradigm, which like it or not is reflected in MAGA.
The country has passed the tipping point, as evidenced in the fact that not even the so called “liberal” media questions, the lies and motivations, especially the motivations of the fascists among us.
Unlike their parents and grandparents GenZ does not own homes, or anything that they can’t walk away from. They are as free as free came be, quoting from Me and Bobby McGee and as Thom points out, no health care, education is too expensive and who wants to go into life time debt, and replay a loan from wages of an intern or a burger flipper.
Get an education and the best you can hope for is to get a low or no paying job as an intern, teacher, or keyboard operator, failing that a great career at KFC, Mackie D’s, or Popeyes. However I doubt that any country with a social safety net, will take them in., and they will soon find out that other countries are as xenophobic as ours., and frankly hostile to Americans, knowing that America has done to them for the benefit of big business, like Coke, United Fruit (Chiquita Banana), Exxon Mobil, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Vulture Funds.
The horrible possibility is that many of us, those marked for retribution, revenge or simply extermination, by dying for lack of health care and income, like senior citizens, LGBT and POC
Are doomed if MAGA attains power again. This time Trump and his cult will finish the job that they started in 2016
There are few places left where they won't have to put up with our toxic foreign policies. So they may find their kids picking up the fight by returning to attack this supposed shining city. Once again we'd be leaving the hard work up to the kids.
As a war baby married to a depression baby who now have visas to live in Portugal, I can empathize with young people. We don't want to live here anymore either due to Republican politics, gun violence, and the general malaise that has settled over the population due to the violence and malevolence of so much of the country especially what oozes out of their ilk in DC , TX and FL.
I’m no Gen Zer, I’m a baby boomer. And if it was simple I’d consider moving somewhere else. Especially if the election goes for the fascist.
I’m looking at Canada or Ireland, due to family roots there. Being 60+ makes it more difficult due to a shorter career span until retirement.
I can’t blame the GEN Zers for fleeing this nonsense. For everything that President Biden and Vice President Harris accomplished in their first two years after taking ivermectin this nation that was at the lowest point of its existence, and having to rebuild every single department of the government after it was totally dismantled by the previous administration, and the lunatic that was in charge.
Personally, I highly approve of Vice President Harris. I think she’s done an exceptional job working with President Biden, heading up all the different projects he has had her working on. We must remember, this man has been involved in politics over 50 years, and is about as honest as the day is long. His training Vice President Harris has been going on since before they took office three years ago.
The economy is better than it’s ever been. The prices are higher because of the crap done by the former administration. The trade embargo, and throwing everything we had with other nations out the window where we received nothing from anyone, and we shipped nothing to shunned. All this had had to be re-established with every nation. Try his includes the oil industry, agriculture, everything. So, the extravagant high prices we are paying right now are the blame of Trump. Not Biden.
Something else, President Obama and Vice President Biden had worked on the student loan situation where a lot of college students were actually able to go to college. Trump stopped all of that. Trump stopped the free education, reduced tuitions, everything. Student debt went through the roof. Now, this Republican House of Representatives refuses to do anything needing to be addressed to help the American people.
No mention of Biden appointing Garland and not prosecuting the government GOP traitors that supported the coup. I would be Joe Biden's biggest fan if I knew he was on the side of the working American instead I get the feeling he's keeping the economy going for the oligarchs. The Dems should control the house and supreme Court by now!!!!!!
Great comment Bob. Totally agree.
The Dems are going to lose, because the voters have a short memory, and worse the Republicans have done a good job of agitating the Lizard brain, and the lizard brain doesn't listen to reason.
The Republicans have tapped into the fears, hatreds, bigotry of America, and the Democrats are trying to tout virtue and "look what Biden has done". It doesn't work and hasn't worked. If so then Trump would not be leading Biden. (Yes I don't believe the polls, but polls also influence opinions and Americans always go for the winner)
I’m concerned the GQP could win, and then all Hell will break loose.
Don’t forget the power of Republican gerrymandering. It allows them to select their voters for both state and federal legislatures, and makes their policies appear to have greater support than they actually do.
Not just Jerrymandering but the hundreds of voter suppression, voter nullification laws, and extra legal maneuvers, like limiting the number and placement of drop boxes.
It is finally acknowledged, albeit too late that the emotions (lizard brain) is not swayed by reason. The Republican party, has since Nixon, worked steadily and successfully at commanding the emotions (lizard brain), while the Democrats, like fools, keep trying to appeal to reason and self interest (economics) and it fails, because as in Germany (we haven't learned any lessons from history) that people react emotionally.
It is as fruitless as an atheist trying to reconvert a believer.
Emotion vs Reason. Emotion wins every time. That is why they have cheer leaders, pep squads and if you follow the Seattle Seahawks. The 12th man. (fans in the stadium)
I've been trying to convince people of the immutable fact that emotions, the lizard brain rules, and finally it seems that the idea is catching on, I heard a guest on the Reidout mention just that yesterday. The Trump cult and dare I say many an independent and even some who register Democratic believe that foreigners, people of color, self validating wom
What you say about the lizard brain and emotional thinking is so true. It is possible to raise a baby with a lizard brain for life. Lizard brains can't raise rational thinkers. Hopefully some children will see the errors in their parents logic but few of them will in my opinion. There are three ways to raise a child, the right way, the wrong way and not at all. We need to raise all the children the right way especially during the first five years of their life as a society it would be a great investment. The religious are very eager to groom the children before they have any chance to think rationally, also. I don't think in my opinion that lizard brains would like rational thinking children and vice versa. I also hope that anyone who reads anything I write will take it and run with it because it will do me no good when I die. The lizard brains want to wipe out humanity!
Bob, I was raised a conservative. We lived in a project, which was run by a Republican administration, and my mom was a canvasser, she was kissing ass, to get a better home in the project and win favor with the administration. It worked. Her godmother gave me a yearly subscription to Readers Digest, so I was effectively brainwashed. I joined the service as a virulent anti communist, that was the extent of my conservatism, I was not a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe. In fact I was so unaffected,or oblivious, and acceptance of queers, that My first job out of basic training was that of a clerk, and I was assigned the job of processing lesbians an gays for discharge. The authorities thought that I was gay, and those were the days, before even Don't ask don't tell, that there is a crusade to sniff out and discharge lesbians and gays. I got married to get them off my back. I wasn't gay, just not sufficiently homophobic. I never cared about extraneous bullshit, only who you were, not what you were
There was a dude two desks down, a 2nd cousin, who was gay, but managed to keep it on the down low.
I voted for Nixon in 1960, Goldwater in 64, but not because of the cultural war, which was not even on the horizon then. That started with the ERA , and Phyliss Schafly
My awakening came in 1989, when by a series of circumstances I found myself in California and in the company of old hippies, SDS, even Weather Underground, and became a shop foreman and sat down for lunch with Angela Davis and other officers of the union.
What I learned from them, not the media, caused a 180 degree shift in my opinions.
If we could take our whole family to Norway, we would do it and help them fight off the capitalists.
Norway isn't accepting applications, unless you are wealthy and can bring jobs. It is the same the world over, developed countries with a social safety net, doesn't want foreigners, like Americans, leeching off them. Their governments have to protect their economy.
If Trump gets elected, I fully expect that he will shut down international travel, save for Russia, Hungary, Slovakia, China, No Korea and other countries that will kiss his butt. and I am afraid they are legion, like Macron, money rules the world, and as long as America is a cornucopia, nations will kiss our ass, even Trumps, but if Trump carries through on his 2025 plan of retribution, he will get his revenge and the country will collapse. It is the old dog catches the car, and dies under its wheels.
Then I guess we have to stick together and help each other survive.
Or go down fighting as the GESTAPO militia goes door to door to sniff out and punish the MAGA version of Jews.
This will make the NRA and gun manufacturers have an orgasm, but "liberals" best arm themselves better than the fascists.
I can tell you right now from France. Macron is not going to allow more Americans here. We have so many applications for residence and we cannot even house our own people.
Hmmm. Think back to what you were like at 18 to 26---full of possibilities and with a brain still developing. Gen Z have the tools to form foreign relationships before they even get overseas, so that's something newish.
What isn't new is the desire to go to the countries listed on this poll. It's the Grand Tour all over again. It looks to me that only a third of them are thinking on a permanent basis. Still this is an interesting poll, and I hope everyone hits that link you gave us. I enjoyed seeing the variation from city to city and state to state. They concluded: "However, the main reason for wanting to move abroad was a desire to have new cultural experiences."
I noticed "do you believe in American exceptionalism" was a question being asked in Congressional hearings recently. Damned if you do, damned if you don't is the answer to that question. We have a lot of work to do. Sadly, the intelligent and curious youth are the ones we need to stay. They will be the ones that will help the others to become exceptional too.
I wrote about this on some other substack.
Here in France we are seeing huge numbers of Americans trying to come here...it's a long immigration process.
Portugal is now cutting down on immigrants especially Americans who are buying up properties and renting them for exhorbitant amounts of money which locals cannot pay.
We actually don't want more Americans. We have hundreds of S. Americans/Algerians/Moroccans etc..
Please submit this to the editorial board of any major newspaper. I know many Gen Zers who have been discussing this for years and they are now starting to move.
I am not being querulous or facetious. I honestly want to know. Where is GenZ moving, as far as I can ascertain no country wants Americans unless they bring lots of money and a job.
The ones I know have moved to Spain, Portugal, France and one to Sweden, and another has lived in the Czech Republic for 18 years. They were all college graduates and had careers, except one who decided to travel before settling down. Mitt Romney is leaving the Republican party rather than reforming it. I fear the best of America's young people may decide to do the same because it is just so hard to fight the constant threats from right wing extremists.
Thom: Nobody, not even smart folk like you, connect dots that IF connected properly illuminate for the sake of gaining political advantage. That is, if the Democrats want to shine this light, because they don't really think of things this way. The "dots" are these:
1.) What Senator Sheldon Whitehouse refers to as "The Scheme"....
2.) ....and how powerful Leo Leonard is and what he controls
3.) Citizen's United
4.) Lobbying paybacks at millionaire levels after a politician leaves office and corporations writing bills for the politician that champions that bill
5.) PAC loopholes
6.) The ignoring of AntiTrust law
7.) The Panama Papers syndrome
8.) Off-shoring with no repercussions
9.) Yes, Reaganomics
This his list could go on for a spell. Point being that if these things were made to be seen as one big problem with elements that make clear how America went off the rails on purpose, by design, perhaps fewer people would regard everything left of the centerline as "radical", and more people would come to understand how devasting all these combined things are to all of us, including everyone that sees the likes of you and me as radical.
Peter I am going to critique the way you started your comment "Thom,Nobody even smart folk you can connect the dots.
Just saying that and then hitting as talking points, all of the things that Thom has talked about in his show and Reports, indicates that you don't know what you are talking about, and I find your comment a disgusting attack on Thom, obliguely you say that he isn't smart, but you are.
What crass narcissism in essence stating that you are smarter than Thom.
Thom has never said he was smart, but he is, without bloviating, well read, well traveled, and has well developed reasoning and analytical skills.
And you have what? Snide remarks.
Geez, wow. Not intended to be insulting or snide or an attack at all. I admire this resource and Thom in particular, and truly rely on it for intelligent observations and perspectives. I can't emphasize that enough. I say smart folk because I see Thom as being MUCH smarter than me. I take your message to heart, truly surprised that I could be interpreted the way you saw it. I would appreciate hearing from you one more time to tell me if, having read my sentiments here, you still think what I wrote was disgusting. I mean, if you knew me you wouldn't think that. I obviously caused you grief, and I apologize. I also take note to be more cautious in the way I express myself. I find solace in this column, and perhaps grow too familiar in my demeanor. I am certainly not the enemy of you or any of the readers of Mr. Hartman's words. Even after writing this response, I am still startled by your response.
Did i say disgusting? I think not. My problem with this mode of communication, especially on Thom's page is that people or some folk, don't know how to interject into a conversation started by Thom without using him as a spring board, which is what you did. And when they do, it invariably sounds insulting either veiled or overt.
Maybe if you could state your own opinion without using him as a spring board.
If I recall correctly, you said that People smarter than he and that was demeaning, even unintentionally..
There are a few minor, and irrelevant in light of the present, issues in which I differ with Thom, and have stated my case, without demeaning Thom, whom frankly I much admire and whom I envy. I have lived a life of much interest, and could write a book, but doubt that it would sell.
Thom has lived a rich and rewarding life. Me not so much.
So pardon my reflexive attempts at defending him, he doesn't need me and he doesn't need defenses.
But I just can't help myself, it is who I am.
Thank you, William, for clarifying and explaing your overly sharp reply. Without this correction/addition, others would be left thinking you were... well, a dxck! Just saying! 😁
Be well, Fellow Hartmannite! Xoxo, Frances
I am a dick, an angry old man, and any other epithet thrown my way.
I really don't care. I know who and what I am, I have opinions and voice them, sometimes I am wrong, if so then I will admit it
If I irate, wound and anger then so be it. I "calls it as I see it". I am not dependent upon the opinions of others, for my opinion of self. Strange huh, quite unlike the rest of the herd, who are preoccupied with what others think. Which incidentally they have no way of knowing, except when the other is angry and spouts what has really been on their mind.
Hello again! I appreciate your time to reply. One point I wish to clarify. Like you, I don't really care what others think. My opinions are formed by my life experiences and relative only to me. That being said, I DO comment in a way that is acceptable to me, not others. Admittedly, I believe my point is much more likely to be received when it's served on fine China vs a trash can lid; however, I also recognize this is my approach and what works best for me. I hold myself accountable for my words and actions. I am quick to call out my own errors and have no problems apologizing when I'm wrong. I do this for me and no one else. It's the person I want to be and who I put forth in the world. It has nothing to do with what others think. Just wanted to share this with you.
I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and wish you a wonderful holiday season. Be well, Frances
Beautifully written reply with tremendous grace. Thank you! Well done, Peter! Xoxo, Frances
I wouldn't say brilliant, but he has done a good job so far, at least better than a Trump presidency. The problem for him and the DNC is that they lack the cajones to face Trump and his humpers, square on and fight them with their own weapons. They aren't even bringing a knife to a gun fight, more like fighting with Marquis of Queensbury rules in an MMA ring.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquess_of_Queensberry_Rules
I finally heard a guest on the Reidout (I think it was Joy Reids show) castigate the Democrats for trying to reason with the Lizard brain which is all emotion. The Lizard brain could care less about a nebulous and etheral economy. Yes he got his Inflation Reduction act, but how many pay check earning Americans have saw any benefit? Damn few, but contractors, especially those that are ruled by the mafia, and private equity funds sure have.
The Mideast is not analogous to a political battle in the US. Not one bit.
And yes, unless Biden and the DNC fight on the same grounds they will lose.
I am not asking the Ship of State to turn on a dime, That statement was irrelevant.
I am saying that unless the Democratic party fights the Republican party with the same tools, they will lose,and it will be the fault of people with y our mentality.
This tactic of trying to remind the people of Biden's accomplishments is not making headway, but reminding them of the loss of choice, and Trumps plan to reward the rich, punish the poor and take revenge on liberals and democrats will help the Democrats.
Are you some kind of libertarian, seems so in quoting Ron Paul, you might as well quote Ayn Rand.
I agree that we Democrats need to be prepared to fight Republican fire with am equal quantity of Democratic fire, and to be ready to go roll in the mud with the GQP.
I wear you out because you have no argument., because you have no sense or knowledge of history, and what or who begat who.
I thought Taylor Swift is Australian?
Nope, she was born and raised in Pennsylvania.
I must be thinking of someone else!!!!!!
Thanks