Emigration

[LonelyPilgrim]

Quoting novium from 01:19, 4th Aug 2006
plus, the cool thing about going to the US is the wide variety in states. "Moving to the states" doesn't really mean all that much, or describe the various benefits and problems you are gaining by moving.

Yeah, the problem is, though, that sometimes the states with the most permissive laws have the most repressive culture. Not always though.

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Arma virumque cano...

[novium]

huh?

[hr]

sed tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[LonelyPilgrim]

Quoting novium from 04:47, 4th Aug 2006
huh?

[hr]

sed tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

I'm just thinking that your more socially liberal states have more restrictive laws on things like gun control, privacy, automobile emmissions, etc...

While your more legally permissive states, in the Midwest and non-Pacific coast West let you do almost anything legally, but have stricter social codes of proper behaviour.

[hr]

Arma virumque cano...

[novium]

ahhh. I was thinking along the lines of restrictive in the social-legal sense. i.e. recognizing same sex couples and not restricting adoption by same...medical marijuanna...that sort of thing.

I see what you mean now. Like you can't smoke in public places in california.

[hr]

sed tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[Rob]

living in south africa at the moment, i can tell you 2 things:

1. The quality of life is the same if not better for cheaper, BUT:

2. Small things. You HAVE to drive EVERYWHERE. like, even the equivilant distance from melvile to new hall or from the library to the union. Especially at night. There's no public transport either. You cant walk to the shop for a pint of milk or walk to the pub for a pint. Even then you have to watch which traffic lights you stop at.

Basically, everywhere's got its problems. not that i'm saying for a minute the UK has the least....

[boris]

My family and I, have just emigrated to New Zealand, Auckland to be exact, (still studying at st-andrews just come here over the summer/winter over here!)

I can say that the place is just as good as Scotland if not a little better for scenery, and the people are alot nicer ie If you walk down the street people will take a minute to talk to u even if they dont know you!

Some things are cheaper and somethings are more expensive here than home... but the main downside is if you plan on retiring here its not a very good idea i dont think... houses are cheaper but the cost of living is insane... i dont know why but electricity water etc is soo expensive and most people have to BUY more water over the summer period.

My family love it here, so i guess for them they made the right decision...

[Manic23]

I'm unsure of where I'll end up after I finish in St Andrews, but one thing is for certain: It won't be Northern Ireland.

I fucking hate Northern Ireland. It is the biggest shithole on the planet, and anyone who says otherwise is lying, be it out of a misplaced sense of loyalty or the fact that they've only ever seen the Antrim coast. The place has so many shitholes that I cannot even begin to list them here, but it would not be an understatement to claim that the town of Antrim makes the likes of Cumbernauld or Luton resemble the Pacific Palisades of Hollywood.

And the people. When they're not preoccupied with kicking seven shades of shit out of one another over events that happened long before they were born, they don't tend to be the friendliest in general. Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone, but still.

Go Emigration!

[nighteyes]

You could move to Glasgow manic. But then thats pretty much like staying where you are. Just a little less violent and a little more pretty.

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i didnt say i was consistant, just right!

[Otis redding]

i hate the metro

[Malcolm]

Like I've said, Edinburgh is shite. You have been warned, don't believe the tourist board.

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" ... No-one knows what it's like, to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes ... "

[novium]

Hollywood itself is largely a dump of its own....

Quoting Manic23 from 13:26, 5th Aug 2006
has so many shitholes that I cannot even begin to list them here, but it would not be an understatement to claim that the town of Antrim makes the likes of Cumbernauld or Luton resemble the Pacific Palisades of Hollywood.

[hr]

sed tamen ira procul absit, cum qua nihil recte fieri, nihil considerate potest.

[WashingtonIrving]

Can I break with the trend and say I actually quite like Scotland, or where I live anyway. Nice little town, 40 mins or so from Glasgow by train. If I want to go for a walk, within 10 minutes there's not a house in sight. Has a couple of nice pubs, not too much of a criminal element (we had a shooting a couple of weeks ago though!). Overall its a nice place.

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I bet you don't know how to spell contridiction.

[raheli]

I think the gist of this debate is that people just like moving around. That's why we live all over the world instead of only in Ethiopia.

[Colin]

Quoting raheli from 21:33, 5th Aug 2006
I think the gist of this debate is that people just like moving around. That's why we live all over the world instead of only in Ethiopia.

Lets face it, I think anyone with the means to do so would emigrate from Ethiopia. But the reason that anyone would now - ie the place is a war and famine torn disaster zone - is probably similar to why our early ancestors started moving around: necessity. Thats where the main difference between types of emigration comes from; people moving because they have to for survival, or because they want to move somewhere where it rains less.

[raheli]

Or more, which is why they left Ethiopia.

[Jaspar]

Quoting LonelyPilgrim from 23:29, 3rd Aug 2006

Quoting Altheia from 22:35, 3rd Aug 2006
And yet, for all these valid points, at the moment I'd still rather live in Britain than the States. (Someday that may change... but I anticipate not for another, oh, two years and four months at least.)

It'll take more than a change of president to fix the deep problems that the US has. I love my country, but without serious changes, we're going down the tubes. Our system of electing Congress is broken, and our executive branch of government has set precedents to claim far far more power than it traditionally has had. All of that gives us a semi-Parliamentary system that is often just a rubber stamp for the White House, when we are meant to be more democratic than that.

Economically, we're just holding ground. Standards of living in the US are rising, but only because people are living with less savings, buying more on credit, and are drawing more on the equity of their rising property values. Real wages have fallen over the last two decades. When the so called 'housing bubble' bursts, and property values fall back into market equilibrium a lot of American homeowners are going to be facing real economic problems.

Outside of the major east and west coast cities we have practically no public or mass transportation, while our road infrastructure is in a constant state of disrepair.

Last I read, 40% of Americans either don't have health insurance or have insurance but can't afford to use it because they can't pay their deductibles.

Most of these are not partisan problems. They were around when Clinton was president, and nothing was done then either. Some of them have been around since Carter's time. No one has been serious about solving the long-term systemic problems that are in the US. It's much more politically convienant to make a fuss about something like gay marriage or flag burning than to tackle issues that require serious bi-partisan co-operation.

And if that fails, you can always start a war and then just say that other problems have to take a backseat to the war.

[/bitterness]

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Arma virumque cano...

Amen, LP, amen.

I'm just starting university in September, so I have a bit to go until I have to figure out where I want to live. Some places that I've been that I would consider are Germany, New Zealand, and China. Even if it's just for a year or two, I think I would enjoy the adventure at least.