Well, it's been a few months since I posted. I took a trip to New Zealand looking for a new home. I found it just north of Wellington, along the cost.

45 minute electric train ride into town and on an amazing beach, not bad at all.

Anyway, for those that know me (or don't know me), the reason I am leaving the US, is it's broken and can't be fixed. I am a problem solver at heart. I worked in a think tank for the US military for 7 years, with the sole purpose of solving technical problems that the rest of the organization I worked for could not. So it's just something I naturally do.

About 3 years ago I started looking into the problem of the US decline. Trying to figure it out. I finally did. The real problem with America, is the mindset of the it's people. I asked this simple question on many forums, including this one:

If you could rate human quality of life on a scale of 1 to 100. 1 being the worst, and 100 being the best, would you rather live in a world where the best was 100, and the worst was 60, or the best was 45 and the worst was 40?

Shockingly, more people picked the second option. People care less about there absolute position in life, and care more about there relative postion compared to everyone else. This then justifies the redistribution of wealth, and the root of our problems. The wrong people are not in office. They are the people a majority want ruling, and are doing what a majority of the people want them to do.

All the polls showing unhappiness are more upset that these philosophies are not working. No one is upset that we steal from the rich. They are just upset with the results of such actions. When you steal from the rich, everyone losses. What's happening is exactly what I have predicted will happen (along with every other economic conservative). Next year, we are going to start stealing a lot more from the rich, and thus the consequences we see from those actions will continue to grow. We are heading into a deeper depression, and our leaders are sending us there. They are sending us there by doing what a majority of the voters want them to do. We are moving more from the first option of my question, to the second. We are doing so, because we are getting exactly what we as a people think we want.

To fix the problem of a failing US government, you first have to fix the mindset of the people electing our leaders. Sadly, this takes at least a generation of time to do, and I don't wish to wait that long. Plus, I don't think the US will survive that long, at least not as the US I grew up in. 

So, time for me to leave. New Zealand was everything I imagined and more. We are on a plan to move in the summer of 2011. First and formost, is we have to sell our house. Not the best time to be selling it, but we will do what we can.

Take care everyone :)

I'd been wondering how your trip went. Glad you found what you were looking for.

I figured you would leave the US but, I thought you would move to a move conservative country and not a liberal one. Good luck in the future anyway buddy!

Well, I can somewhat see your point, although I'm sure many (Americans) wouldn't agree.

I visited the US on numerous occasions, and even did a 6-month internship there, and I have to agree that the general mindset of people there is unlike what you'll find most everywhere else. However, I'm not saying that's a negative thing, though, and I'm sure it's very different for people who grew up there. It's just that the way people (not all) live and act in the US is quite different, on some levels, to how the rest of the world does it. That's certainly not to say they're bad people, on the contrary, just different.

I for one wouldn't want to live there for the rest of my life, but that's a choice everyone has to make for themselves, and I appleaud you for being so bold as to head into a fresh new direction and starting a new life, if you can call it that. I wish you all the best, man, good luck!

How does someone move all their belongings from US to NZ? just pack up and put it on a boat? or do you sell everything and rebuy stuff in NZ.. I moved alot but all my belongs fit into a small van and driving around in the Netherlands is all done with 2 hours..

mafoo, i just have one question...well maybe several

If a rich guy buys an imported car, how does that help everyone, more than say, a hundred thousand people buying a gallon of milk?

Additionally, why move somewhere where the tax rate is so obviously geared towards redistribution and has a lot of other social structures? Are you moving there because it's a country who's success does not depend on capitalism and therefore is ok to be social? I'm not sure I understand how your decision to leave reflects anything you've ever talked about.

And I'm curious why you're saying we are in a deep depression when employment is up, house buying is up, stock exchange is up etc etc

Thanks!

Year, the trip was incredible. Without a doubt, the best place in the world I have ever been. If you have not made it down there, I would recommend it.

well an early welcome to NZ man hope you like it. As for why you are leaving people choosing 40-45 rather   100-60 is pretty odd, but I think one reason may be that people think it's more likely. As for stealing from the rich I don't see how the US government is doing that, I mean I could argue that many of the richest people are stealing from the poor as a lot of them don't pay much if any taxes. But what do I know I gust live in New Zealand. 

If you're worried about redistribution of wealth New Zealand isn't the country to move to, we have a highly progressive tax system as well as very thorough welfare and socialized healthcare and education.

America's main problem isn't its philosophy of redistribution of wealth (which I must say hardly exists) but its entire political and governmental system.

We lost over 120,000 jobs last month. The unemployment figure the government releases are not the real numbers. They don't take into account the 650,000 people who just stopped looking for work last month. In this country, if your not looking for a job, you not counted as unemployed, even if you don't have a job.

The housing market took a 30% dive in sales last month when the tax credit stopped. The housing market was a gamed market. A temporary fix to try and make things better. It, as all gamed systems, failed.

If you bought a house 2 months ago and got your 8 grand, good for you. Now the bad news. Your house is worth more then 8 grand less today then when you bought it. Ops, you lose.

The stock market is all over the place. The numbers are not important. What is a truth, is volatility is bad, stability is good. The Stock Market is definitely not stable.

And as for why move to NZ (asked by two people). First off, for small business, it's the #1 most capitalistic english speaking country in the world (#3 in all). My wife wants to open a small business, so it's perfect.

Also, it's a country of 4 million or so people. While some of the programs are not to my liking, they have the least corrupt government in the world. If I am going to pay a high tax, I would at least like to pay a governing body that functions well. They are extremely efficient. I would not pay any more in tax in NZ then I pay in the US.

As to moving, for 8 grand, a 40 foot cargo container that will hold everything I own (including two cars), will be dropped off at my door in the US, and 2-3 months later delivered to my doorstep in New Zealand. So it's easy, just a little costly.