A growing trend of leaving America
sduford on Jul 31 2008 at 12:08 pm | Filed under: Panama, Politics, Travel
Here’s a cool article from U.S.News on American expatriates and a fair bit of talk about why many of them go to Panama.
Here’s an excerpt:
In his recent book Bad Money, political commentator Kevin Phillips warns that an unprecedented number of citizens, fed up with failed politics and a souring economy, have already departed for other countries, with even larger numbers planning to do so soon. But that may be putting too negative a reading on this little-noticed trend. In fact, most of today’s expats are not part of a new Lost Generation, moving to Paris or other European haunts to nurse their disillusionment and write their novels. Some may be artists and bohemians, but many more are entrepreneurs, teachers, or skilled knowledge workers in the globalized high-tech economy. Others are members of a retirement bulge that is stretching pensions and IRAs by living abroad. And while a high percentage of expats are unhappy with the rightward tilt of George Bush’s America, most don’t see their decision to move overseas as a political statement.
I would say, based on my personal experience talking to Americans who have moved to Panama, that at least two-thirds of them have made the move at least in part because of political reasons. The two main reasons for them to make the move, based on my informal poll, are finances and climate, but being fed-up with American politics ranks right up there too.
