to want to go and live in Brazil? Or India? Or China?

[headfairy]

Or anywhere that's not dying on it's feet with crippling economic woes. I am so depressed about the current situation, developments at work are going to make me increasingly worse off - I do appreciate I'm lucky to have a job now, but those developments are actually going to make it too expensive for me to work so I probably won't have one in 5 years. I've spent 20 years building my career and I'm going to have to let it all go.

I can't see our lives getting better for a decade, and the intervening years are going to be bloody hard. I want to go and live somewhere where the future is rosy. Not grim and cold.

Headfairy, you are quite correct in your analysis. It is unpalatable but true we are in a worse situation than is generally realised. You have the advantage of seeing this and can plan accordingly. We made sure our kids had a good education and are acquiring portable and valuable skills as it will probably be neccessary to move where the opportunities are in the future.

Just don't let it get you down too much, after all you only have this one life so you should enjoy as much as you can and get delight from family and friends.

Headfairy- YADNBU - could you take me with you?

The traditional 'west' is dying on it's feet - I see so many of my non eu colleagues just so much more laid back and optimistic and, frankly, far more in tune with a global economy.. I want a bit of that - and I'd love to get out of europe and learn something new.

are we really 'dying on our feet?' ,overall standards of living are much better here...having witnessed the violence and poverty in Rio and Sao paulo, i feel extremely lucky to be living in this country...
why is it going to be too expensive for you to work in 5 years time? sorry, from your post its not clear...

I doubt things are as rosy in China as their government would like us all to believe. I reckon it will come crashing down before long.

I wouldn't be able to work in Brazil, I'd be on the beach all day.

Yup I think we are dying on our feet.

There are extremely worrying signs about the Chinese economy as well. No way would I assume the West is going to fall apart while China is the sole global economic power, they have some massive problems too and their economy is linked into ours.

But as far as standard of living, it's all relative. People in China think we're insane to tolerate such high levels of crime. What good is having lots of money and health care if you can be mugged or killed even in the best neighbourhoods?

I would not fancy any of the BRIC countries but am thinking about some smaller countries in SE Asia and Africa.

I would certainly fancy being in India or Brazil. India could happen but I have no recent brazilian connections sadly. But I'm sure I'd have a ball there.

For me at least I just feel that as europeans we have this sense of superiority that is not warranted. We're a bunch of tiny inward looking countries. UK has certainly (in my view) been influenced by this.

How can we stick up our noses at other countries and the people coming into europe from those countries when we are actually going cap in hand to China (at least eurozone is).

Oh yeah and as I can't see a way out I'm chomping at the bit to ensure my ds learns an asian language.

YANBU the BRIC (Brazil, Russia,India China) nations are the future in the world economy. The UK has very serious economic problems we have relied on North Sea oil and the City of London as the backbone of our economy, neither of which are going to provide us with the revenue that they used to going forward. We have enormous public,personal and corporate debts and our economy is becoming less and less competitive.

The future in the UK, economically, probably very problemmatic. IMO the chances for young people to be successful in their chosen field are slimmer. Compared to the 60s and 70s. I also think its pretty horrible now the way people have to "sell" themselves for the most pedestrian jobs.

But its not all about the money! I was in a busy Southern city today and it was just shops, shops, shops, and more shops - far to many pointless shops IMHO - was that was all there was to British success in the end? Its thought-provoking.

I don't expect my son to have the same opportunities my mother had (work) or me (education) but I still think life here is full of potential if we become a mature society in other ways.

All I've ever heard about Brazil recently is what a thriving economy it is going to be as its a country choc-a-bloc with huge natural resources.

My late father always used to say that Brazil was the future place to be with all the natural resources. I would love to visit, he was out there a lot in the 70s working on the Gasahol program.

Yup- both sides of my family have plenty of non european experience due to family origins or just simply work opportunities in other countries.For this reason I'm not particularly euro orientated because I just think there's a big and lovely world outside of europe that's leading the way in many things. We are getting left behind. And this has been the case for many many years.

We are deluding ourselves if we think we have much to offer the rest of the world these days.