Record numbers of citizens leaving USA...

They are leaving the U.S.A. and going where? It is not like there is going to be a picnic in the U.K. either or anything.

Are they "real" Americans, or just naturalized U.S. citizens returning to their home countries?

well there I am, contrarian as usual

I'm the one who left in 2002, coming back now

I've always been ahead of the curve

You gotta get busy living, or busy dying, and every place is a prison of sorts

You have to do what you came to do, not cling to a petty illusion of safety

The US is better than people realize...that's exactly why there is so much effort being made to demoralize and diminish the hopes of people here

If the US population weren't a threat, why would they bother?

Turn off the propaganda TV and look around you and realize that heaven is available here and now

Eh?

Yeah, I expatriated too and came back. I finally decided there is no better place than the American outback. For a bunch of reasons. No dengue and malaria is the least of it.

This is such an awesome way of describing it all. It really is. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I was lucky enough to visit the US twice last year. I fell in love with the country the minute my feet touched ground. It felt like 'coming home' and I don't know why, yet. I spent my first night walking the streets of NYC with a US friend who I had come to visit, because we missed the last train to Jersey and had to wait six hours for the first one to arrive the next morning.

Now another one of my US friends, who I stayed with on my second visit, is making serious plans to move to Oz this year. She wants to get out of the USA ASAP. It is sad. I understand, but I am saddened that so many feel that this is their only hope now.

So, how could those words resonate for an Australian visitor to your beautiful country (because the country is beautiful)? Simply put, it describes the nature of US citizens so perfectly that the words, alone, affected me in such a way that it was as if I was suddenly back there, in person.

The attitude you describe was etched into the souls of everyone I had the pleasure of meeting when I was there. In fact, I think I only ever met one unpleasant American and she was unpleasant to everyone, apparently, so it was nothing out of the ordinary.

The mental outlook described in that post was everywhere and, apart from the incredibly cheap cost of living in comparison to the state I reside in (you guys are paying prices for things that we paid in the early 1980's) it was one of the things that really stood out when I was there.

I remember watching my friend negotiate (ahem) with an employee at a Tim Horton's outlet. She had been overcharged by a dime. One dime. Here in Oz, we would let that kind of thing go, and just deal with it, complaining under our breath but just getting on with the day. My friend? Oh HELL NO! The manager was called; the whole nine yards. I sat in the back of the car and kind of cringed at this behaviour. We all laughed about it later but, really, it was 'just the way it was' in the US, and that is only one example. I noted that NY drivers seemed to give each other the middle finger for an extended period of time; until they knew the recipient had seen it. In some ways, it seemed like a greeting: [insert 'flipping the bird' here] "Morning Asshole. I saw you yesterday" [insert 'flipping the bird' again] "Morning to you, too, asshole". Over here, that kind of thing is performed by a suicidal driver wishing for a massive road rage incident to occur! LOL! In NY it seemed to be 'just a part of driving'.

After a while, I said to my friend "You guys are so lucky, you know?" She asked me why. I said "You guys have the absolute and utter freedom to be yourselves, and you have the absolute and utter freedom to be complete assholes!"

Now, before anyone gets me wrong here, I did not mean it as an insult to my friend at all, because it wasn't an insult at all and she knew it. It was an observation that amounted to the knowledge that you are free. You can be yourselves. You can express yourselves freely. You are not limited in ways that those of us in other countries are. You are not afraid, are proud to be American, and never forget your foundations, no matter what they may be. It was a beautiful thing to see, feel, and experience. It may sound off to some that I see 'the freedom to be an asshole' as a good thing but, I live in a country where expressing oneself as oneself, is extremely limited in comparison to the US, especially when it comes to voicing (or demonstrating) what may be an unpopular opinion. You are free to risk offending others without feeling the need to apologise. You are all equally free to be beautiful to one another. Your freedom to be kind, generous, loving, and neighbourly is as strong as your freedom to be an asshole is. It all works together to create a very unique culture with incredibly strong individuals. It is dynamic, not stagnant. I loved every second of my time in the US.

I do hope that my words do not offend you. They are not meant to. And I think that sentence speaks volumes about my own culture. I feel it necessary to add a clause explaining that I mean no offence. The US citizens I came to know did not feel it necessary to add such a clause to their own words.

Beautiful country, awesome people, incredible post! Thanks for inadvertently sending me back to the US with those words of yours. I really did love the time I spent there and I am horrified to see what is occurring there now. I really am!