Millions of Americans Are Leaving and Realizing the USA Isn’t Normal

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]I escaped the US.

[00:00:01]>> I'm 18 years old and I escaped America.

[00:00:03]>> Once you leave America, you ain't never going back.

[00:00:06]>> But I wanted to send my daughter to school safely with a peace of knowing that I would be able to pick her up at the end of the day.

[00:00:11]>> The best option for us was actually to leave the country cuz I wholeheartedly believe if you can't afford the healthcare in the country that you live in, you can't afford to live in that country.

[00:00:19]>> I don't think Americans realize the way that they live is not actually normal when you compare it to the rest of the world. It's not normal to not have access to health care. It's not normal to be in a crippling amount of debt just because you went to college or you went to the hospital. It's not normal to be so afraid of violence or sending our kids to school and they're potentially being a school shooting. It's not normal for one in five citizens to be illiterate or for over half of the population not to be able to read above a fifth grade level. It's not normal for 75% of a population to be overweight and over 70% to be on at least one prescription medication. It's not normal for some American food to be completely banned in other countries. It's not normal to not have access to maternity leave or any paid vacation throughout the year. It's not normal to only have two choices when it comes to politics.

[00:01:23]And this is not just when you're looking at other developed countries. This is when you're looking at countries on a global scale, both developed and developing. What many Americans would classify as third world countries have access to a lot of the things that Americans could never dream of. My family left the US over a year ago. We have a three-year-old and one of the biggest driving factors to us leaving was just what kind of lifestyle our child was going to grow up in, what type of environment.

[00:01:55]>> This is just another reminder of why I will never move back to America. I've been living in Thailand for over 2 years now. And whenever people ask me if I will ever move back to America, especially now that I have a young son, I have a seven-month old son. and they asked, you know, with the public school, the education's better and this and that than it is in Thailand. And I couldn't care less. I really couldn't. Um, I don't think most Americans realize that most places in the world don't live like that. I I've been through some situations in my life in when I was in America. I mean, I had situations where I had pew pews pressed to my head and I was in crowds when they went off and, you know, just situations.

[00:02:43]And so maybe I'm a little bit more tainted than someone who hasn't been through those things, but you know, it took me probably 6 months of living out here full-time and going out in public all the time and being around people to shake this underlying layer of stress and anxiety that I believe almost every American has and doesn't realize they have. And it's a combination of everything. It's a combination of the things that are actually happening, right? Because those things aren't fake. They're really happening. And it's a combination of how the media portrays it, how they push it, the division, the narratives that are cast upon everyone throughout social media and the news outlets and all these things. Living here in Thailand, I just don't even think about it. when we go to the mall, when we go to a a festival, when we go to a a public place, when I think about sending my my son to school here in a few years, doesn't even cross my mind. And that to me is worth whatever effort, price I have to pay to be out here and not go back.

[00:03:59]>> You know, we are living in Thailand. We experience that exact same feeling of being able to go out places and not be afraid anymore, not have that constant background noise of what if something happened. The first month we got to Thailand, my husband was in the mall and there was a really loud bang bang bang noise that he thought his brain automatically told him could have been a gun going off. And so his first reaction was, you know, to find safety. But he noticed everyone around him was just going about their normal business.

[00:04:36]Nobody flinched or did anything. And it ended up being there was a performance on a stage down at another spot in the mall that was just really loud. But nobody in that entire mall of Bangkok even considered that that was a gun going off. And that was his immediate reaction. These are just little indicators to us that we were living in a state of fear because of all of the experiences and the exposure that we have had around gun violence. And that is blanketed across the entire United States. And I I don't think people are even fully aware of that fact and what that does to your nervous system. Being in an environment where there is very little concern for our safety has really like regulated our nervous system and it was it's a sense of like calm that I hadn't felt in a really long time since I was a kid, you know, growing up. All the school shootings started to happen like towards the end of my high school years. And so like I did get to experience a lot of my my childhood without that fear of violence. And um I I think that a lot of like if you're like 40 and up, you probably remember a life where there wasn't so much fear in just our society.

[00:06:00]>> One of the top reasons why I got my family out of the United States was for our safety. I don't think I could have ever foreseen the events that are taking place in the United States right now.

[00:06:08]But what I did know two years ago is that I wanted to send my daughter to school safely with the peace of knowing that I would be able to pick her up at the end of the day. Just that aspect alone, the safety and just the overall peace and calmness is enough to keep us living outside of the US. But there's multiple other reasons why we and others have chosen to leave the US. Reasons why I would never move back to the US as an American living in Asia. First and most importantly, cost of living. You can get an apartment in a lot of these countries for 200 to $300 per month. Food can cost as low as1 to3 US dollars per meal. And we're not talking about a value menu cheeseburger. I'm talking about the whole nine yards, the rice, the drink, the chicken, etc. Number two is the quality of food and the quality of life overall. My current studio apartment only costs $100 per month. And this is 5 minutes walking distance from the beach.

[00:07:05]I drink fresh coconut water all the time. There are markets everywhere.

[00:07:10]There are fruit stalls everywhere. And it just tastes so much better.

[00:07:14]>> It is incredibly expensive to live in the United States. And what you get for your money is not really all that great.

[00:07:22]We live a much better, more financially stress-free life here in Thailand than we could have ever imagined in the United States. In fact, we were living in poverty and like just not doing great. Could never get ahead. and we were trying really hard to do whatever we could to like pull ourselves up by our bootstraps um and you know make it in the US and we just couldn't because of the way that the system is designed, how expensive everything is and how hard it is to um get out of that situation.

[00:07:58]And again, this is another thing that has just validated for us that it is not normal in the United States cuz ever since we've left, uh, we have done a million times better both like financially and just the stress around money. living somewhere where you have access to a lot more affordable options.

[00:08:21]Like we do not own a vehicle. We ride a motorbike or use um public transportation. Uh like the average American household spends over $1,100 a month on transportation. And to basically delete that almost entire expense, we spend maybe $100 on transportation a month, maybe $150.

[00:08:43]And like just taking that expense off of our plate has been incredible.

[00:08:50]>> What I'm doing right now is probably why I can never see myself living in the US again. I'm walking in the evening on these beautiful walking paths, which are also biking paths on the river in beautiful Budapest. And Budapest is probably like a tier 2 or tier three city in Europe. I don't really know, but it's better than basically every city in the entire US. Maybe excluding New York City because New York actually has public transportation and walkability.

[00:09:20]Overall, you can't tell me a single city in the US that has the walkability and public transportation of basically every city in Europe. And the very few cities in the US that do like have some sort of walkability or public transport are so outrageously expensive that it's just not even worth it. Obviously living most places and most cities in Europe have so many benefits that make it so much better than the US already, but honestly the biggest breaking point for me is the walkability. Like in the US it's so hard to get even a couple thousand steps a day unless you're living in some super wealthy area where they actually do have a little walkability built into it. Here in Europe, literally you can walk everywhere and I get my 10,000 steps so easily every day. The food in the rest of the world is incredible. Most people eat whole foods and they just eat real ingredients. And there's still local markets that you can go shopping at. And the local cuisine when you go to a restaurant is a lot more just homemade style food that's made with whole foods.

[00:10:30]>> Here at the fresh food market in Chiang Mai to make some groceries. Let's make some groceries for the week. Mangoes are one of my favorite fruits here in Thailand. And let's see what my damage is. Okay. So, the total came out to be 112 bot. That's about $2.

[00:10:45]I got three pineapples. Let's see what the total comes out to be.

[00:10:50]>> Sound 15 bot. Three pineapples. You can get literally all of these bell peppers for 90 B. 90 B is roughly about $3. So, they have all of their fresh meats here.

[00:11:02]More just about anything that you want.

[00:11:04]More ginger, cucumber. We can get like four watermelons for 100 B. They came right out the form and still have the dirt on it.

[00:11:11]>> You know, a lot of the food in the US is actually banned in other countries because of the high amounts of sugar, some of the chemical ingredients that they put in the food. And I did a whole video on that recently that I'll link up here. But like the food in the US is not normal. We did not have access really to healthcare. We avoided going to the doctor. And since we've left, we have had access to all the healthcare that we've wanted. If we've gotten sick, you can just go into a pharmacy and the pharmacist can write you a prescription.

[00:11:43]So, you know, if we had, you know, I had pink eye, you know, not very long ago.

[00:11:49]And so, I was able to go walk to the pharmacy, get some antibiotic eye drops right there. Literally took me 3 minutes and $3 to get these eye drops and I was good to go. I didn't have to make an appointment to go to the doctor and, you know, sit in the waiting room, get a prescription, take it to the pharmacy, pick it up at the pharmacy, you know, pay, you know, for all of that co-pays.

[00:12:14]If you have insurance, you have co-pays even, you know, it's just like this the healthare system in the US is absolutely insane and crazy.

[00:12:22]>> Moved from the US to Thailand. And here's one of the reasons why. US healthcare healthcare in the United States was one of the biggest reasons why we ended up leaving the country.

[00:12:30]Here's the best example. When we had Liam, we got a bill for labor and delivery, which was around $50,000.

[00:12:36]>> 50 grand.

[00:12:37]>> And it was well over our annual salary at the time. But when we had Caris here in Thailand, the bill for labor and delivery was only around $3,000. And that was at one of the nicest, most expensive hospitals in Bangkok. It's really not reasonable or normal to pay the outrageous health care expenses that you pay over in the US. Cuz over here in Thailand, we'd have better affordable healthcare. And we're in a country that a lot of Americans consider to be a third world country. It's a serious problem that the US is facing. And it was a big enough one that we decided that the best option for us was actually to leave the country because I wholeheartedly believe if you can't afford the healthcare in the country that you live in, you can't afford to live in that country.

[00:13:13]>> Even people in these developing countries have access to some sort of universal health care system. Like it's not all forprofit and completely inefficient. The US health care system is completely inefficient and is wasting so much money, profiting so much money off of the American people to the point where like so many people do not even have access to health care and it is causing people to get sicker and to even lose their life because um they can't afford to go to the doctor. That is not normal at all. Even in Vietnam, we went to the ER and it was $7 cash, no insurance, out of pocket to see a ER doctor and to get a prescription medication. And you know, Vietnamese citizens don't even have to pay that. In Thailand, you know, third world country, Thailand, uh they have universal healthcare and people can go to the doctor and even us out of pocket cost is much much much less expensive than in the US. This is what it's like to go to a doctor in Thailand. We paid $125 per person for a full checkup. They ran all sorts of tests, including an EKG and blood tests. Zap doesn't do too well when they take his blood, so we had to take a power nap. We had to put these tape things over our nipples for the chest X-ray. Lol. Then the doctor went over our results, and they sent us home with copies of all the tests and everything they did. Then, of course, because we're American, we had to get Burger King for lunch. Actually, they gave us free food at Burger King as part of the package. Have you ever wondered what healthc care is really like in Thailand? Just had my first experience at Samumbit Hospital, the women's healthc care center. My appointment was at 2:30 with Bangkok traffic. I ended up arriving 10 minutes late. I know, very American of me. But they still saw me immediately. When I arrived, I went through registration and they gave me my own identification card, which makes everything a lot easier because the hospital is so huge. There's literally every clinic you could think of. Doctor spoke very good English. She went over my healthcare report from the US to determine how to help me. In total, I paid $4,594 bot, which is $144. That's without insurance. They ended up giving me this little goodie bag, which obviously holds my medication, but it also has my forms that I need to file reimbursement with my insurance. $144 to be seen by a doctor, actually go through all of my healthcare documents, give me her best judgment, and prescribe me the right medications. She gave me a cervical exam, three different medications, one of those including three months worth of birth control, and they gave me all of my documents for reimbursement without even asking. It was a 10 out of 10 experience. Healthcare for foreigners out here in Thailand is affordable and awesome because of the overall stress and anxiety that US citizens are living with. the overall like just vibe of people and being around people and there's so much hate and division and stress among the population. Like pulling yourself out of that situation and going to a country where the people are generally less stressed, they are just more peaceful, community-minded, friendly. The vibe of the area really does affect your overall mental health and the way that you perceive the world and you live life. It's the type of environment that not only I want to be in, but I want our child to grow up in.

[00:16:40]I want there to not be so much fear and stress in our lives. like everyone deserves peace and happiness. And it has just been a incredible experience to be able to get out of that bubble and just live life differently.

[00:16:59]>> I'm 18 years old and I escaped America.

[00:17:01]And let's talk about it because a lot of people say it's exaggeration that you can escape, but let me tell you why it's really not. First, let's talk about credit cards because that is one of the biggest traps in America and it's honestly so sad to see like 90% of Americans are in debt and like they obviously cannot pick up and go to another country. I'm 18 years old and I literally have a credit limit of 25,000 which is honestly so crazy. And I don't mean crazy as a good thing. That is horrible. But that's literally what the US government wants is Americans to be in debt so they have like control over them. I have a few more things to talk about, but next is inflation and the prices of stuff. Literally 70 to 80% of average Americans just working like jobs even making 100,000 a year are going into debt each week just because so much prices are going up in America. Rent is going up. Literally bread, food, anything is going up except people's wages. Okay, next topic is college and getting a degree in America. Right now, more Americans than ever before are literally just getting an online job and traveling with their families. I know people who are traveling with their families to Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, all the Asian countries for less than 2,000 a month. Back to my next point, getting a degree in America literally puts straps on you to stay there for the rest of your life. And you might say, "Oh my gosh, that's the American dream."

[00:18:19]Yeah, that used to be the American dream is to go to college, get a job, buy a house, but now that's like not even possible for my generation. Okay, holy What the hell is that? I need to run, guys. Why is it just on the street literally next to shopping? It's just like over there. And the amount of money that people pay for college and get into debt for is also a strap on their hand.

[00:18:39]Like that's not even an exaggeration. If you don't have parents to pay for your college, which 90% of Americans don't, you're going to be in debt for the rest of your life paying college off. It was so sad because in high school, my teachers, they would like tell us how much debt they have. And mind you, they've been a teacher for over 20 years and are still paying off college.

[00:18:56]>> The system absolutely wants us in debt.

[00:18:59]That is how they keep us working hard to, you know, pay off all these loans and wealthy people make money off of us in interest. So, if they can get us going to college and get us in college debt and paying off student loans from like the time we turn 18 and then there's credit cards that are set up at these schools to try and get kids set up with their credit cards as soon as they apply for college and get people in as much debt as possible right out of the gate. And that really sets you up for having to work hard to get out of that hole that you have dug yourself. It's really hard because you are told that you have to get a college degree in order to get a job. So, not everybody likes it that I am bringing up these issues with the United States. But the reason I'm doing it is because we have got to bring awareness to all of these issues in order for them to change at all. You can't fix what you don't know.

[00:19:55]And I know that I've had an eyeopening experience after we left the United States. Things that I didn't even think about um as being abnormal leaving and actually experiencing them on like a deeper level like a dayto-day.

[00:20:14]I just I couldn't have even imagined how much my mindset would change after leaving. I absolutely do think that if you have any way whatsoever to put yourself in a position to be able to experience something different than just normal US culture, that would be one of the most beneficial things that you could do for yourself. Even if your goal is not to like leave the US and and move out of the US forever, putting yourself in a situation where you have to challenge all of your core beliefs and all the things that you had been taught your entire life. Um, and really questioning everything is going to give you so much wisdom and just a better framework to be able to make real choices from. think that that is what the United States needs. It needs for more people to experience something different, to recognize the problems within, compare our lives with the lives of like the rest of the world. So, I really hope that instead of seeing everything that I'm saying as negative, you see it as empowering because once you recognize the problems that you were surrounded with, you can make an active choice to change them. When you start to recognize that the problem is the system that you're living in and the environment that you're living in, then you can start realizing that it's not you and it's not your fault that all of these things are so stressful and that maybe some days you're having a really hard time. You can be a lot more patient with yourself and it can be a way to find the motivation to change your environment if that is something that you really want to do. Leaving the United States is a big deal and it's scary at first. It is one of, if not the hardest things that my family has ever done and we would make all of the same sacrifices again just to be able to give ourselves and our child a better life because in the end it has been so worth it.

[00:22:22]>> I'm just going to be straight up with you right now. My wife and I have been living overseas for the past year and a lot of people think one of the hardest things to make that possible is money.

[00:22:33]But they couldn't be further from the truth. Yeah, sure you might need money to go after things in your life, to chase a dream, to make a change, to move overseas, but even if you had the money, there is still one thing that most people will never be able to get over.

[00:22:48]And that is the very thing that's holding them back from changing their life in a significant way. And that is courage. Even if you had a million dollars, you still need the courage to go after the things that you want to do.

[00:22:59]You still need the courage to take the risk. And until you have the courage, nothing in your life is going to change.

[00:23:04]But as soon as you realize that the courage you need to change your life is already within you, game over. You can do anything in your life.