The good advice (original title: Le bon conseil), by Jean-Baptiste Madou.

(Update July 21, 2019 – The situation is getting worse. I encourage anyone with the means to seriously consider leaving the country.)

(Update June 30, 2018 – This situation is getting progressively worse. The fascism/authoritarianism in America is increasingly apparent. The executive and judicial branches are merging and if control of the legislative branch remains with the Republicans then the final checks on the corruption and cruelty of the tyrants will be gone. I urge all young readers to either fight the oppression or seriously consider moving from the USA.)

(Update 2017 – There is now more reason than ever to leave the USA. I would encourage all my readers with the means to consider this carefully, subject to the caveats below. But if the Mueller investigation is undermined or ignored, as I’m assuming it will, then the rule of law will have been undermined. And that would be the real canary in the coal mine.)

There are many considerations here: one’s age, occupation, income, family status, foreign language abilities, potential destination, etc. Clearly moving to Central Africa would be unwise but what about moving to a country notably better in terms of happiness? One could consult the UN’s World Happiness Report where the US was ranked #17 and move to a happier country like Denmark or Norway or Sweden. Or one might move to one of the most democratic countries as rated by the Democracy Index. (The happiness and democracy lists in large part overlap.)

But it isn’t that simple. If one didn’t speak the language of the destination country then one would be isolated after moving there. So for our purposes let’s consider English-speaking developed countries, the kind that a US citizen would most likely consider like Canada, England, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand. Suppose you were a young married couple with a newborn considering such a move and you could get a job transfer to one of these countries. Would it be wise to do so?

In some respects, it obviously would. The chances your child would be the victim of sexual assault, gun violence or incarceration would drop dramatically. If you were concerned about economic equality or a strong social safety net, all of the above countries would be more aligned with your values than in the USA’s “winner-take-all” society. Still, suppose you had to leave an extended family in the move? Would it be worth it then?

Consider the following thought experiment. Suppose you lived in one of the worst countries in the world surrounded by a loving family. Now suppose you had the chance to move to Denmark, the world’s happiest country in the 2014 survey, where you had a good job waiting. Suppose also that you spoke Danish fluently. In that case, moving to Denmark is an obvious choice, and your loved ones would likely encourage you to move.

Now suppose you had the choice of staying in a country with your loved ones or moving to a country you thought was a bit better to live in, but to which your extended family could not move. In that case, most would probably stay put. The benefits of the support and comfort of grandparents, aunts, and uncles, would probably outweigh moving to a slightly better country. Of course, this might depend on how often you could see your extended family. If you could see them quite often, it makes more sense to move than if you could only see them occasionally.

Still any calculations on such matters depend on whether you are a single, married, married with children, etc. For example, if one has no family, then the choice is pretty straightforward, go to the best place. Or if one was married with children and could bring their family but not their extended family, that is much better than bringing no family at all.

Yet all of this depends on your best estimate of a country’s future. In the case of the USA, increasing social corruption and political dysfunction (especially of the Republican party) make the future seem bleak to me but, on the other hand, it is nearly impossible to predict future trends. In the end, we make life’s decisions with imperfect information; that is the state of the world that we must accept. And all advice is imperfect too.

With that caveat in mind, I would advise all young people (and others as well) to seriously consider emigrating from the US if they have the chance, especially if all or some of their loved ones could accompany them. After observing trends over the last 50 years, I believe America will increasingly become a worse place to live, except for the very wealthy. Even the wealthy though suffer from living in a country with high levels of violence, social instability caused by wealth inequality, the hatred of the US by others around the world, our denigration of science and other expertise, and our increasingly lax environmental regulations which put us all at risk. To have a better life, seriously consider moving.