Page 7 | If you had the chance to move to the USA right now, would you?

HiddenGiraffes · 2023-02-06T16:35:46+00:00

Context is it's a major city we've lived in before and liked, and we're currently in London, and like the area we live too. Some family in both countries. I'm just curious if, given the opportunity to get out of the UK right now, people would consider the US a superior alternative.

magicthree · 06/02/2023 18:25

TwilightSilhouette · 06/02/2023 17:07

Never.
Guns. Rudeness. Big- headedness. Ignorance. All these things put me off America.

Interesting that you mention ignorance when your whole post screams it.

PissedOffAmericanWoman · 06/02/2023 18:26

I realized that america wasn’t the place I wanted to be anymore when my workplace gave us training on what to do if a mass shooter showed up. I realized. how far we had fallen from grace. My niece went to a school where there was a literally mafia drug ring bust. It was largely regarded as a very nice private school up to that point. There were so many mass shootings and bomb threats while Trump was in office.

I don’t really see anything with rose tinted glasses. While trump certainly didn’t help matters I very much see him as a symptom of a much bigger pre-existing problem.

I know there is no perfect country. I moved to canada and traded one set of problems for another. But I’m generally happier here despite that trade off. I feel like canada better fits my values as a person. It’s safer here and people have healthier attitudes about life generally speaking. There’s less racial and political tension.

I find it disturbing how many Americans can’t see the forest through the trees. There is a lot of finger pointing and not enough problem solving. It’s all either the liberals or the conservatives faults. Too busy trying to vilify each other instead of working together. Each president thinks they are only in charge of half the country that voted them in instead of seeing themselves in charge of the WHOLE country including the people who don’t like them.

Politicians instead of working together are constantly bickering and being petty and just placing barriers in front of each other to make each others jobs and life as difficult as possible.

When two halves of the country refuse to see each other as fellow americans and can’t even see each other as fellow human beings anymore and there’s no end in sight as it’s only getting worse what else is left to do but leave?

Canada may be hyper woke to an annoying degree but at least I feel like they are largely on the same page with each other.

DRS1970 · 06/02/2023 18:27

No.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 06/02/2023 18:27

I might in some circumstances but it wouldn’t be my first choice of foreign country to move to.

Bobbybobbins · 06/02/2023 18:28

I lived and worked there as a uni student for two years and did camp America two summers. Absolutely loved it then but was insulated from costs of healthcare etc.

It's sobering that at least two of the children I looked after at camp are dead as a result of gun violence.

piggijg · 06/02/2023 18:32

Mumsnet is really not the place to ask. There's a real strong anti-American sentiment on here pushed mostly by those who have never set foot in the US. For Maryland I'd strongly consider it. Public schools will be miles better. There are so many better jobs and career opportunities for young people. No GCSEs, no A-levels. If you're senior you should be able to negotiate just as much time off.

ToThineOwnSelfBe · 06/02/2023 18:32

SwordToFlamethrower · 06/02/2023 18:09

PMSL absolutely not!! Don't fancy getting shot and then having to pay thousands for medical treatment. Also i value abortion rights and women's rights.

You say that about women's rights but, where I live anyway, they know what a woman is and no one is trying to insist that anyone can be a woman and have access so single-sex spaces on just their say so, not on the scale that they are in the UK right now.

Mamai90 · 06/02/2023 18:34

Never in a million years.

magicthree · 06/02/2023 18:34

I'm not in the UK and am happy where I am - but if my country was sinking into the sea and the only options were the US or the UK I would be heading for the US.

Liz1tummypain · 06/02/2023 18:36

No siree.

Naunet · 06/02/2023 18:39

piggijg · 06/02/2023 18:32

Mumsnet is really not the place to ask. There's a real strong anti-American sentiment on here pushed mostly by those who have never set foot in the US. For Maryland I'd strongly consider it. Public schools will be miles better. There are so many better jobs and career opportunities for young people. No GCSEs, no A-levels. If you're senior you should be able to negotiate just as much time off.

It’s not anti American, just as I wouldn’t call your post anti British. Most of it is valid criticism, and I’m sure if you asked, people could do the same about the uk and tell you things they don’t like. Nowhere is perfect.

America is a country that still allows child marriage in some states, that to me is batshit crazy, doesn’t mean I hate the whole country and everyone in it though, just because I mention it.

TheShellBeach · 06/02/2023 18:41

There have only been three mass shootings in the UK in my entire lifetime.
That's an average of one every twenty two years.
And only one was a school shooting.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 06/02/2023 18:45

No. I have been such a fan of America over the past decades - yearning to be able to move there - and adored our many holidays all over the place, and visits to friends (two close sets) who emigrated, one to west coast and one to east coast. We holidayed in Florida last year knowing it will probably be the last time we go over there. It feels more threatening, and I think it’s changed. There are too many problems.

Even with the state of the uk currently, I think it’s a much safer bet.

Baldieheid · 06/02/2023 18:48

Not if you paid me. And I'm in Scotland watching the scotgov pour my rights down the drain. The USA is a wonderful country with amazing people but I'd rather fight for my rights here than have my 5 year old taught how to hide from a gunman at school.

AliceOlive · 06/02/2023 18:51

HiddenGiraffes · 06/02/2023 17:25

Not even school age yet. Yes, that's a good point. I've had that thought about my niece in the past. I think what's new is I'm finding it hard to see a positive future for the UK. It just feels like locked in decline and I don't know where the floor is. Maybe I'm minimising the substantial issues with the US.

Show quote history

I am American and live in the US. I haven't seen one major reason that I would hesitate move here, if I had children, posted yet. The normalization and legalization of drugs is devastating this country. It's very difficult to keep children from being exposed to this when they become teens. And our leaders are doing NOTHING to prevent it and perhaps are even enabling it.

PissedOffAmericanWoman · 06/02/2023 18:52

TheShellBeach · 06/02/2023 18:41

There have only been three mass shootings in the UK in my entire lifetime.
That's an average of one every twenty two years.
And only one was a school shooting.

My husband was canadian and while we were dating in our early years this didn’t bother me much as at the time I was very desensitized to it and thought it was just the media blowing things up to scare monger it started bothering me more and more as we debated having children. I started thinking about what I would do if I sent her to school and whether or not we would be able to protect her from these things. There are no guarantees. Even at a nice school in a nice neighborhood my niece was not safe from bomb threats and guns. There was not a shooting but there was a child who was caught with a hit list, a hoodie, a mask and an automatic weapon in his backpack.

That is what really made the wheels start turning in my head. I was very much brought up on the mantra “Be proud to be an american!” “this is the land of opportunity!” “we have it a lot better than many places!” “you can do anything when you’re american!” so it took a lot and a very long time for me to get to the place of thought that maybe america really isn’t the “best” country to be in. And I started considering moving to canada to start our family.

I was sad and there were definitely tears involved. I still love my country and hope they work through this dark path they are on and find the light. But in the mean time I’m keeping them on low contact because it’s become a very toxic relationship!

AliceOlive · 06/02/2023 18:52

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 06/02/2023 18:45

No. I have been such a fan of America over the past decades - yearning to be able to move there - and adored our many holidays all over the place, and visits to friends (two close sets) who emigrated, one to west coast and one to east coast. We holidayed in Florida last year knowing it will probably be the last time we go over there. It feels more threatening, and I think it’s changed. There are too many problems.

Even with the state of the uk currently, I think it’s a much safer bet.

I agree with this, too. Things have changed, particularly since the start of Covid.

AliceOlive · 06/02/2023 18:54

PissedOffAmericanWoman · 06/02/2023 18:26

I realized that america wasn’t the place I wanted to be anymore when my workplace gave us training on what to do if a mass shooter showed up. I realized. how far we had fallen from grace. My niece went to a school where there was a literally mafia drug ring bust. It was largely regarded as a very nice private school up to that point. There were so many mass shootings and bomb threats while Trump was in office.

I don’t really see anything with rose tinted glasses. While trump certainly didn’t help matters I very much see him as a symptom of a much bigger pre-existing problem.

I know there is no perfect country. I moved to canada and traded one set of problems for another. But I’m generally happier here despite that trade off. I feel like canada better fits my values as a person. It’s safer here and people have healthier attitudes about life generally speaking. There’s less racial and political tension.

I find it disturbing how many Americans can’t see the forest through the trees. There is a lot of finger pointing and not enough problem solving. It’s all either the liberals or the conservatives faults. Too busy trying to vilify each other instead of working together. Each president thinks they are only in charge of half the country that voted them in instead of seeing themselves in charge of the WHOLE country including the people who don’t like them.

Politicians instead of working together are constantly bickering and being petty and just placing barriers in front of each other to make each others jobs and life as difficult as possible.

When two halves of the country refuse to see each other as fellow americans and can’t even see each other as fellow human beings anymore and there’s no end in sight as it’s only getting worse what else is left to do but leave?

Canada may be hyper woke to an annoying degree but at least I feel like they are largely on the same page with each other.

Agree with everything written here, also. I am hopeful it will improve, but not sure how or when.

greenspaces4peace · 06/02/2023 18:54

there are some absolutely amazing nooks and crannies with the improved buying power i would certainly consider it especially if i had a decent medical package.

MabelMoo23 · 06/02/2023 18:58

Not a fucking chance. I do love the US - but live there? Never. Not a chance.

I’m a woman. I have children and they are daughters. Guns and women’s rights alone mean it’s a hard flat no.

I’ve had 3 miscarriages, in many states, I could arrested and questioned. Not a fucking chance would I put my daughters at risk of a school shooting, a play date where there could be guns or the fact that republicans get to decide what they do with their bodies. Just not a fucking chance. EVER

enweto · 06/02/2023 18:59

Hell to the nooooo

AngelinaFibres · 06/02/2023 19:00

DIL is American. Lives in UK with my son. She doesn't ever want to go back to America. She was raised in LA and lived in New York for a year.Her mother lives in Idaho. Mothers mother also lives there. She has 97 !!!!!!weapons in her house and a bullet making room in her cellar. Perfectly standard apparently. She's 82. DILs mother carries an 8" knife in her handbag, a purse revolver and a machete in the side wall of her car in case she is car jacked. No thank you, not for me.

Butchyrestingface · 06/02/2023 19:01

No.

Call it quaint, but I kind of like NOT living with the fear of getting riddled with bullets.

Whobuysthedog · 06/02/2023 19:01

MabelMoo23 · 06/02/2023 18:58

Not a fucking chance. I do love the US - but live there? Never. Not a chance.

I’m a woman. I have children and they are daughters. Guns and women’s rights alone mean it’s a hard flat no.

I’ve had 3 miscarriages, in many states, I could arrested and questioned. Not a fucking chance would I put my daughters at risk of a school shooting, a play date where there could be guns or the fact that republicans get to decide what they do with their bodies. Just not a fucking chance. EVER

“I’ve had 3 miscarriages, in many states, I could arrested and questioned”

Where did you get that information from…

HRTQueen · 06/02/2023 19:02

No

I have lived and worked there, have immediate family there it’s just not a country I feel at home in.