The Hollywood actor is a prominent donor to the Democratic Party in the United States. In recent years, that has regularly led to criticism from President Trump, who has called him a “second-rate movie star,” among other things. According to Clooney, it didn’t bother him much. “It’s not my job to keep the President of the United States happy.”
So glad to hear that his unimaginably privileged kids will be better off in France. I think they would probably do pretty damn well just about anywhere. Hell, I’d move to France too if I could do so in a financially sustainable way (spoiler, I don’t think I could).
I think that’s the point. They could be anywhere and they choose not USA.
Do you think getting a job in France and living like French people do not to be a financially viable option?
Considering most Americans couldn’t even afford to buy a one-way ticket to France with cash-on-hand, the costs and logistics of actually moving to another country are a moot point. Not to mention the additional costs of securing residency and eventually citizenship.
Most Americans can’t even bear the thought of moving a couple states away for fear of losing all of their social safety nets in existing friends/family.
I guess it’s different if you’re a childless, perpetually single loner tho.
People living in places considerably poorer than the US do travel to other countries, they do secure residency and get jobs. While I have met several people in America complaining about the hardships of life, which I do reckon definitely exist in the US, I have also seen them not recognising the great amount of riches they had. I did move several times and I lived in different continents.
While being able to afford a plane ticket is a much better way to move somewhere, it is not something necessary. I went to work in China as a factory worker and asking nicely to the company over there they agreed to pay my ticket.
Indeed, travelling with no children is definitely easier.
My point here is not much about the fact that everyone should move all the time or that you should do so to enjoy your life; the point is that if you want to go to France just go there and don’t complain about the financial viability of the thing.
I think you’re conflating the wealth of the nation and the wealth of individuals. Saying that if you really want to go to France it’s possible, you just need to sell or abandon your belongings, walk away from your debt, abandon your family and travel by steerage on a cargo ship to get to France and live illegally because you don’t qualify for any type of long term residency and you also can no longer return home because you’ll be homeless and left to die in the street is… Unrealistic.
A very significant number of Americans simply do not have the resources to fail at something like that.
I think you’re making it much more difficult than it actually is. I just checked prices for a flight new York - Paris and it is less than 200€. That amount of money should be easy to source for pretty much anybody. Make it 1000 and you have 2 months of breathing time without having to immediately get a job. In Europe you can stay for 6 months without a permit; that gives you 6 months overall to find a legal job, which should not be too difficult. That way you get back to paying your debt and you can send your stuff in boxes from America to France. I met plenty Americans in Europe, they were not rich people. Although I’ll give you that most people who leave America did have some kind of problem in there and decided to leave. I met a bunch of people from other countries where mostly people want to see different places, and so they do that.
This applies if someone else depends on your income. Indeed, if you have children leaving the place where you are in such a way is a bit risky. Would be better to first get a job and then move. If you don’t have children or a family member that depends on you, I don’t see how losing one year of income could noticeably ruin your life. You’re always in time to go back and get back to your previous life, if you didn’t enjoy the new place.
Most of the country is not New York, and transportation is more expensive. Basing travel costs off of the cost at a major transit hub isn’t representative.
France requires you to file your visa applications before travel. If you show up on a travel visa and then apply for long term residency they’ll reject it because you didn’t follow the rules.
A residency visa requires €1400 a month in income, so good luck getting residency with €1000 cash. Particularly when a significant portion of Americans don’t have that to begin with.
No one said you had to be rich to leave America and move to France, just that it’s not available to most Americans.
Says the person who is obviously not American.
https://www.norc.org/research/library/most-working-americans-would-face-economic-hardship-if-they-miss.html Remember that we don’t have a social safety system here like most countries do. Being unemployed means you don’t get medical treatment , and even if you’re employed the costs can be devastating in their own right. You can end up homeless, where housing assistance can have a wait list of more than a year, if it even exists. Same for food assistance. The only medical care you’re entitled to is that the ER must do the minimum necessary to stabilize a life threatening condition.
That’s what’s looming over Americans when we weigh taking financial risks. Loosing a month of income can create an unrecoverable financial burden.
That’s what I mean when I say most Americans can’t afford to fail at something like that. They may be able to afford to do it, and it might work out, but if it doesn’t the consequences are crippling.
How often do you see an elderly person in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank doing menial labor at a supermarket or hardware store?
I do see your points, and I do reckon you have strong reasons supporting what you say. Please, understand that what I consider movin is indeed always a difficult and extenuating endeavour. It can be very moving and accomplishing, but that does not take away the difficulties. Please, read my messages above as a way to interpret the initiation of such an experience, rather than precise steps to take. See it more of a way to look at life. It may not be the way you like to live yours.
Regarding the points you raised, these are very valid, and all of them very good reasons to be afraid of moving. Very valid reasons to believe what I said is either uninformed or what would decide to do somebody who is desperate.
However, I do know many US citizens living in Europe. While I do have some survivorship bias, what I have said is not something impossible, and actually something quite realizable. Some corners are often cut in such occasions, I do reckon that.
I’m sure people are able to work things out.
While this is true on paper, I really have not seen this being applied. I know some people who stayed illegally several years and then got a job and regularised themselves.
Are Americans in such terrible conditions? That is a salary that I’d now consider a starting salary in Western European countries. Pretty much any full time job will get you that much.
Do people in the US with full time jobs earn less than that? Or is it difficult for many people to find a full time job?
I understand this as over half Americans make less than 1400€ a month. I assume you were exaggerating a bit.
Thanks for the linked article, a bit aged but very interesting.
Indeed very worrisome to live in a place where people can not get essential goods. I’m not sure how those are defined, but I imagine we’re talking about food.
Indeed, that is a huge limit.
Never seen, most homeless people around where I live are homeless because they do not work. Most of them is people who lost their job after the 2008 crisis and either got hooked on drugs or decided to stop working. I know many of them, they do not live a hard life according to their own interpretation. They either go to a cheap canteen dedicated for that, or either way people is very happy to gift food. Some of them beg for money, but that is mostly to get alcohol, crack or heroin.
Besides, I know many people doing odd jobs and working a couple days a week. Working this way allows them to safely rent a house, to have food and extra money for diversion as well as saving up for times in which there may be no available jobs. Most of them can probably go on one year without working with the minimal savings they have.
After expenses and taxes the average American household brings in under $1000 dollars a month. It varies by region since cost of living and wages vary significantly. 25% of Americans have no net income after expenses, and 1/3 have a net worth of $0 or less. In euros that’s less than €800 a month.
Essential goods usually refers to medical expenses, but it’s also used to refer to food, rent and utilities. Even if you’re employed and have insurance medical costs can be high.
I’m not in a bad situation at all, I’m actually in a very good one, and I pay about $400 a month for insurance and have a yearly cap of $6500 in costs, not counting medicine or the actual cost of insurance (so I’ll pay at least $4800, and at most $11,300+the cost of medicine+the cost of anything the insurance company thinks I didn’t need after the fact. ). I’ve hit the max for the past two years, once because baby and again because baby got a nasty cough and they spent a little being observed for safety.
My example was not homeless people. That’s what happens if you become elderly and have financial difficulties earlier in life here. A lot of Americans simply can’t afford to stop working, ever. I don’t remember a time I haven’t seen at least a person who should definitely be retired doing menial labor, and wheelchair and oxygen is common enough that it’s not really not worthy.
That is not how it is in America. Housing, food and recreation on a part time job is actually a laughable fantasy, and that’s before you add “having savings”.
America’s economic disparity and lack of social safety net makes risk taking exceptionally dangerous.
You seem like a worldly and well traveled person. Use that experience to understand that there’s a rational reason Americans tend to be risk adverse in this regard. We either actually can’t afford it, or we can’t afford it without a shocking risk.