I'm presuming this was directed in part towards us, since we're planning on living outside of the country regardless. There are a couple of reasons for this, and while I'm disgusted in many ways with the political situation in this country (war, etc.) that's only a part of it.
Some of it is stuff we get -- we'd be moving to a country with a fully-funded health care system, and with job-protected maternity leave. We'd be moving to a country with a public school system that I am not scared to send my kids to and which embraces different educational styles and real math and science. We're moving to a country with a decent publically funded retirement program. We're also moving to a country with hard-core environmental standards (nuclear free! Organic produce!). We're moving to a place where if my little boy grows up to be gay he will be able to marry and live with his partner and have that be recognized by the legal system.
But a lot more of it is cultural. New Zealand has the same sorts of class and race diversity as America does, but without the constant racial tensions. NZ is a society that values family and personal time in a way the US doesn't with 10 federal holidays and three weeks guaranteed vacation leave per year. It's a society with different values -- they're more communitarian, FAR more frugal and less focused on brands and appearances. There's more focus on raising children by allowing them to play outside and find their own way. There's more focus on personal responsibility than there is here.
It's not the political issues that really attract is, it's the cultural ones. Here, we'd be trying to teach our children those values and fighting against the dominant culture tooth and nail. If we lived there, we'd be living in a place (and in a way) far more in-line with our personal values and the ones we want to teach our kids.
Could we stay and work to 'fix' America? Probably. We might even eventually succeed. But I'm too political generally to have illusions about how fast that's going to happen. And while I'm waiting for America to be 'fixed', what kind of life is there for my children?
More importantly, it's an awfully big adventure! And in our family, we figure that's enough of a reason to do it on it's own. :)
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Some of it is stuff we get -- we'd be moving to a country with a fully-funded health care system, and with job-protected maternity leave. We'd be moving to a country with a public school system that I am not scared to send my kids to and which embraces different educational styles and real math and science. We're moving to a country with a decent publically funded retirement program. We're also moving to a country with hard-core environmental standards (nuclear free! Organic produce!). We're moving to a place where if my little boy grows up to be gay he will be able to marry and live with his partner and have that be recognized by the legal system.
But a lot more of it is cultural. New Zealand has the same sorts of class and race diversity as America does, but without the constant racial tensions. NZ is a society that values family and personal time in a way the US doesn't with 10 federal holidays and three weeks guaranteed vacation leave per year. It's a society with different values -- they're more communitarian, FAR more frugal and less focused on brands and appearances. There's more focus on raising children by allowing them to play outside and find their own way. There's more focus on personal responsibility than there is here.
It's not the political issues that really attract is, it's the cultural ones. Here, we'd be trying to teach our children those values and fighting against the dominant culture tooth and nail. If we lived there, we'd be living in a place (and in a way) far more in-line with our personal values and the ones we want to teach our kids.
Could we stay and work to 'fix' America? Probably. We might even eventually succeed. But I'm too political generally to have illusions about how fast that's going to happen. And while I'm waiting for America to be 'fixed', what kind of life is there for my children?
More importantly, it's an awfully big adventure! And in our family, we figure that's enough of a reason to do it on it's own. :)