Conrad Black has written an excellent piece that highlights a point from my last post. While things are in trouble in America, things are pretty bad everywhere:
The EU is in hot contention with the United States for title of Sick Man of the Great World Economic Powers, because less than 40% of Eurozone citizens work, and over 60% are on benefits of some sort. But not to be discounted in this gripping Olympic contest for total fiscal immolation is geriatric, debt-ridden, stagnating Japan, a great but terribly beleaguered and demoralized country.
So if you decide to immigrate, where do you go? Most European countries are in worse shape than America. While I see the desirability of a tropical paradise, unless you have millions to invest and live off the interest, it is not a practical choice. Will your employment transfer to your new country? This is doubtful. Of course if you are young enough, and talented enough, then it might make some degree of sense. There is a lot of buzz about emigrating to Chile. But unless you have a flair for language, you will always be an outsider. In the troubling times we have ahead, you do not want to be an outsider. I will blog more about this soon as it is a mostly overlooked aspect of the troubling times ahead.
Bill Clinton and Mitch McConnell (Republican Minority Leader) agree about a major source of our problems. So does Conrad Black:
The cost per capita of U.S. medical care is $7,000 compared to the average among Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, of $3,000; 70% of the people have immensely generous plans that they love with passionate attachment and don’t pay for, either as contributors or as taxable benefits, and the political class won’t touch this. Unfortunately, much of the other 30%, 100 million Americans, get what amounts to emergency health care only, and much of it is uninsured and is billed to the recipient until the patient is out of money, and only then provided gratis. Most of the largest states are bust; Social Security, student loans, Medicare (for the elderly in the U.S.) are all, also, in desperate need of an utterly cacophonous national conversation.
How can one prepare for these multiple crises? Getting out of debt seems a good start. I will also blog about this in the near future, as soon as I am out of debt!
When Mark Steyn read Conrad Black's article he had the following quip that deserves as much publicity as possible:
"The entire western world is approaching the point at which Wile E Coyote looks down and realizes there’s nothing under his feet."
I think the west believes that like the Roadrunner they are exempt from gravity.