The Ascendance of Sociopaths in U.S. Governance
Submitted by Doug Casey via InternationalMan.com,
An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He’s diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions, and his residence in yet another. He doesn’t depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.
Living as an international man has always been an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted for it, since the U.S. used to reward those who settled in and put down roots. In fact, it rewarded them better than any other country in the world, so there was no pressing reason to become an international man.
Things change, however, and being rooted like a plant - at least if you have a choice - is a suboptimal strategy if you wish to not only survive, but prosper. Throughout history, almost every place has at some point become dangerous for those who were stuck there. It may be America’s turn.
For those who can take up the life of an international man, it’s no longer just an interesting lifestyle decision. It has become, at a minimum, an asset saver, and it could be a lifesaver. That said, I understand the hesitation you may feel about taking action; pulling up one’s roots (or at least grafting some of them to a new location) can be almost as traumatic to a man as to a vegetable.
As any intelligent observer surveys the world’s economic and political landscape, he has to be disturbed - even dismayed and a bit frightened - by the gravity and number of problems that mark the horizon. We’re confronted by economic depression, looming financial chaos, serious currency inflation, onerous taxation, crippling regulation, a developing police state, and, worst of all, the prospect of a major war. It seems almost unbelievable that all these things could affect the U.S., which historically has been the land of the free.
How did we get here? An argument can be made that things went bad because of miscalculation, accident, inattention, and the like. Those elements have had a role, but it is minor. Potential catastrophe across the board can’t be the result of happenstance. When things go wrong on a grand scale, it’s not just bad luck or inadvertence. It’s because of serious character flaws in one or many - or even all - of the players.
So is there a root cause of all the problems I’ve cited? If we can find it, it may tell us how we personally can best respond to the problems.
In this article, I’m going to argue that the U.S. government, in particular, has been overrun by the wrong kind of person. It’s a trend that’s been in motion for many years but has now reached a point of no return. In other words, a type of moral rot has become so prevalent that it’s institutional in nature. There is not going to be, therefore, any serious change in the direction in which the U.S. is headed until a genuine crisis topples the existing order. Until then, the trend will accelerate.
The reason is that a certain class of people - sociopaths - are now fully in control of major American institutions. Their beliefs and attitudes are insinuated throughout the economic, political, intellectual, and psychological/spiritual fabric of the U.S.
What does this mean to you, as an individual? It depends on your character. Are you the kind of person who supports “my country, right or wrong,” as did most Germans in the 1930s and 1940s? Or the kind who dodges the duty to be a helpmate to murderers? The type of passenger who goes down with the ship? Or the type who puts on his vest and looks for a lifeboat? The type of individual who supports the merchants who offer the fairest deal? Or the type who is gulled by splashy TV commercials?
What the ascendancy of sociopaths means isn’t an academic question. Throughout history, the question has been a matter of life and death. That’s one reason America grew; every American (or any ex-colonial) has forebears who confronted the issue and decided to uproot themselves to go somewhere with better prospects. The losers were those who delayed thinking about the question until the last minute.
I have often described myself, and those I prefer to associate with, as gamma rats. You may recall the ethologist’s characterization of the social interaction of rats as being between a few alpha rats and many beta rats, the alpha rats being dominant and the beta rats submissive. In addition, a small percentage are gamma rats that stake out prime territory and mates, like the alphas, but are not interested in dominating the betas. The people most inclined to leave for the wide world outside and seek fortune elsewhere are typically gamma personalities.
You may be thinking that what happened in places like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and scores of other countries in recent history could not, for some reason, happen in the U.S.. Actually, there’s no reason it won’t at this point. All the institutions that made America exceptional - including a belief in capitalism, individualism, self-reliance, and the restraints of the Constitution - are now only historical artifacts.
On the other hand, the distribution of sociopaths is completely uniform across both space and time. Per capita, there were no more evil people in Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China, Amin’s Uganda, Ceausescu’s Romania, or Pol Pot’s Cambodia than there are today in the U.S. All you need is favorable conditions for them to bloom, much as mushrooms do after a rainstorm.
Conditions for them in the U.S. are becoming quite favorable. Have you ever wondered where the 50,000 people employed by the TSA to inspect and degrade you came from? Most of them are middle-aged. Did they have jobs before they started doing something that any normal person would consider demeaning? Most did, but they were attracted to - not repelled by - a job where they wear a costume and abuse their fellow citizens all day.
Few of them can imagine that they’re shepherding in a police state as they play their roles in security theater. (A reinforced door on the pilots’ cabin is probably all that’s actually needed, although the most effective solution would be to hold each airline responsible for its own security and for the harm done if it fails to protect passengers and third parties.) But the 50,000 newly employed are exactly the same type of people who joined the Gestapo - eager to help in the project of controlling everyone. Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo.
What’s going on here is an instance of Pareto’s Law. That’s the 80-20 rule that tells us, for example, that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your salesmen or that 20% of the population are responsible for 80% of the crime.
As I see it, 80% of people are basically decent; their basic instincts are to live by the Boy Scout virtues. 20% of people, however, are what you might call potential trouble sources, inclined toward doing the wrong thing when the opportunity presents itself. They might now be shoe clerks, mailmen, or waitresses - they seem perfectly benign in normal times. They play baseball on weekends and pet the family dog. However, given the chance, they will sign up for the Gestapo, the Stasi, the KGB, the TSA, Homeland Security, or whatever. Many seem well intentioned, but are likely to favor force as the solution to any problem.
But it doesn’t end there, because 20% of that 20% are really bad actors. They are drawn to government and other positions where they can work their will on other people and, because they’re enthusiastic about government, they rise to leadership positions. They remake the culture of the organizations they run in their own image. Gradually, non-sociopaths can no longer stand being there. They leave. Soon the whole barrel is full of bad apples. That’s what’s happening today in the U.S.
It’s a pity that Bush, when he was in office, made such a big deal of evil. He discredited the concept. He made Boobus americanus think it only existed in a distant axis, in places like North Korea, Iraq and Iran, which were and still are irrelevant backwaters and arbitrarily chosen enemies. Bush trivialized the concept of evil and made it seem banal because he was such a fool. All the while, real evil, very immediate and powerful, was growing right around him, and he lacked the awareness to see he was fertilizing it by turning the U.S. into a national security state after 9/11.
Now, I believe, it’s out of control. The U.S. is already in a truly major depression and on the edge of financial chaos and a currency meltdown. The sociopaths in government will react by redoubling the pace toward a police state domestically and starting a major war abroad. To me, this is completely predictable. It’s what sociopaths do.
Editor’s Note: A big part of any strategy to reduce your political risk is to place some of your savings outside the immediate reach of the thieving bureaucrats in your home country. Obtaining a foreign bank account is a convenient way to do just that.
That way, your savings cannot be easily confiscated, frozen, or devalued at the drop of a hat or with a couple of taps on the keyboard. In the event capital controls are imposed, a foreign bank account will help ensure that you have access to your money when you need it the most.
In short, your savings in a foreign bank will largely be safe from any madness in your home country.
Despite what you may hear, having a foreign bank account is completely legal and is not about tax evasion or other illegal activities. It’s simply about legally diversifying your political risk by putting your liquid savings in sound, well-capitalized institutions where they’re treated best.
We recently released a comprehensive free guide where we discuss our favorite foreign banks and jurisdictions, including, crucially, those that still accept Americans as clients and allow them to open accounts remotely for small minimums.
New York Times best-selling author Doug Casey and his team describe how you can do it all from home. And there’s still time to get it done without extraordinary cost or effort. Click here to download the PDF now.
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You damn with feint praise but can an American trust his judgement after 80 years of the WWII cult and 250 years of the founding fathers?
Feint and faint are two different words.
Now for something completely different.
I have lived, since infancy, as an autistic person for many, many years. I can make it so you probably cannot see this now, due in part to my eating vast quantities of psychedelic chemicals. I have had many sociopathic friends. They trust autistic people, although we have virtually nothing in common, except in the very rare case of a person having both conditions.
Some sociopathic people are mass murderers who kill millions. Others obey all the social norms, and are quite honest people of good will – but only out of sheer habit.
However, even if an honest sociopath runs over a baby with a car, they will feel absolutely no guilt or remorse. They simply lack the ability to feel those emotions, and it is not a matter of choice for them. You could become a sociopath tomorrow. Just have a bad auto accident, injure a certain part of your frontal lobes, and you will instantly become a sociopath. This will not make you “evil”.
Since sociopaths cannot feel guilt or remorse, they have profound disabilities. For example, they usually have the same lack of empathy for their own selves as they do for everyone else. So the very often become drug addicts.
I believe what most neurotypical people fear most about the existence of sociopaths is that it makes a mockery of the fake constructs we have built up regarding “good”, “evil”, “honesty”, and so on. If we are smart we will jump to a new level. Shuffle off these ancient destructive paradigms.
Let me give you a piece of advice: Once you completely absolutely abandon all impulses to control others, they completely absolutely lose any ability to control you. Wanting to control and also to be controlled is the fundamental pathology.
bluez, thank you for your comment. the implications of it make a one size fits all a bit more difficult. living with the mentally damaged makes me think an undamaged soul's main reason for being here, is to protect the damaged ones, and minimize the pain to all. perhaps we should stop electing them to power.
First you would have to know who they are.
One size fits almost none, but there is no one "best" size. "Typical" doesn't mean better or "undamaged". It just means more predictable and controllable by mass manipulation.
Hard not to want to control others when there are so damned many of them deliberately trying to make my life miserable. TURN THAT EFFING "MUSIC" DOWN! AND THROW YOUR TRASH IN THE TRASH, NOT ON THE STREET WHERE I HAVE TO LOOK AT IT!
There. Now if all the Betas out there were willing to confine themselves to behaving neatly and quietly and cleaning up their messes, I wouldn't even have to speak to them. Unfortunately, most of them try to assert a pathetic pretense of independence by flinging crap of all kinds every which way whenever they know their Masters won't punish them (because they're not tossing it at the Alphas). Perhaps the solution is to reduce the population of Betas by about 90% so there aren't so damned many of them?
Need to have sociopaths identified like child molesters.
Maybe euthanasia.
As it was shown in Camus's 'The Stranger' , Meursault was on trial not simply for murder, he was being tried for not being 'human'.
What does it mean?
Lincoln was the 1st psyopathic US president.
Then Grant.
Now the USG is riddled with them.
I agree that Dishonest Abe was clearly the first. I do have some suspicions regarding John Adams, however.
Washington was the first psychopath.
Not only a 'founding father of freedom' but the first American to turn the U.S. Military against Americans.
Ya but he walked off set after his term. Few did that before or after
John Quincy Adams, the mediocre son of a worthy (and wealthy) father. But Lincoln was the first poor boy to work his way up to whoring for the corrupt and greedy financial industry under cover of a Noble Cause.
Uh, I hate to break it to you, but abe was descended from upper middle class and his father was a politician.
Politicians don't come from the lower class.
Lincoln was a LAWYER by trade. A(n e)squire for the british realm.
In 'merica you don't have power without wealth and family status going back unless you are a nigger or meztizo.
And its been said that Adams jr. was one of the best foriegn policy statesman to ever hold that position.
He bought Florida fer christs sake, you mo-ron!
Jesus Harold Christ on a rubber crunch you are an idiot.
I stoped reading when Bush, but not Obama was mentioned.
The increase in sociopathic rule in the last eight years was done by Obama, a facist colored boy (how's that for irony). He brought his entire crew of homosexuals, militant femininists, and black incompetents to support him.
"Political Correctness," "Affirmative Action," and "Multiculturalism" are the sociopathic tools to consolidate their power.
The acceleration towards a police state has increased with Obama in the driver's seat. This point cannot be politically correct overlooked.
I think it's probably more accurate to say that "sociopathic rule" began under Bush and has worsened under Obama. You seem to acknowledge that in your final sentence.
Obama could only do what he did by standing on the shoulders of TIA, patriot act, free speech zones, TSA, On and on.
Not the slightest change in the trajectory since 2000 starting with the diebold elections and 911
No change from Resident Bush to Resident Obama
You incorrectly and emotionally personalize what has been a long-term, bipartisan trend towards more and worse government, federalizing state and local powers, and centralizing the payoffs of government corruption to feed the biggest parasites. The ideological codewords change; the process of institutionalizing mediocrity and corruption does not. Obama at least has a brain, something that was questionable with regard to GW.
Obama is an overeducated mentally ill idiot.
unmonitored business association with government always leads to massive government (read greed) and destruction of capitalism. I was watching Nikki Haley's response. She was weighing her words and sentence structure so bad to protect her GOP donors it would be funny if it wasn't so damn sad. Citizens, take the party line NOW or else. What a joke.
A big part of any strategy to reduce your political risk is to place some of your savings outside the immediate reach of the thieving bureaucrats in your home country. Obtaining a foreign bank account is a convenient way to do just that.
Sorry. I don't buy it. A foreign bank account only puts your savings in the reach of foreign thieving bureaucrats. During a worldwide collapse of this magnitude, there is no such thing as a safe haven when there is counter-party risk. That leaves gold and silver off the books in your possession. Even if they go to the extreme of outlawng gold and silver, all that would do is set up a thriving black market. If there is anything that bothers me about Casey, it is advice like that and his ideolizing international living. Extremely few people can do that.How much cash did the author stash in Venezuela, Argentina, or Cyprus?
The ascendance of sociopaths among governments is directly related to the ascendance of passive-aggresives among voters.
A very good article in my view.
It can only help people if the MO of psychopaths is exposed and better understood. They are the most evil and manipulative of people.
Doug's comments about the type of people who are attracted to jobs like TSA - because they get a uniform and exercise authority over the rest of us - are absolutely spot-on and have been raised numerous times by Brandon Smith over on alt-market.com. It's interesting that Doug likens these people to those who volunteered to be Gestapo members. Many police officers are just the same.
I think Doug's comments about the TSA are right but there is another angle. I know someone who applied for that job because he was desperately looking for any job.
That's the downside I guess. The minority of good guys also get blackened by the majority of bad guys.
You'll get no argument from me. I've believed this theory about sociopaths in the government for years.
Here in Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder approved the poisoning of 99,000 Flint, MI residents.
Saddam Hussein poisoned his people as well.
Enough lead will cause issues in the brain - such that you can only vote Democrat.
-I never going to be tired of repeating this until Humans start to have their act together ...”…-
"MURPHY'S law"; IF ANYTHING CAN GO WRONG,IT WILL
Humanity is in trouble!...
How Psychopaths operate and how to deal with them:
As humans, we need to confront this threat and DEAL with it.
We need to remember that cooperating with evil, on ANY level, is a MISTAKE and it will ultimately come back to bite you.
So why we spend so much ink and time to explain how to American (Predatory) Capitalism works?!
When relationship with reptilian host is killing us…
{“WW3 WILL BE THE Reptiles & Psychopath VS. Human”} …A
{ http://bit.ly/1MgUyTk }
Defense against the Psychopath full length version
Note: [ Ditch the Chrome browser, it IS THE ENEMY ]
Seriously, Windows 10 is a virus masquerading as a OS. It comes complete with keyloggers.
"Never wrassle with a pig;you both get dirty,and the pig likes it." Mark Twain
How Psychopaths operate and how to deal with them:
Do not gorget to ADD this at your repertoire..
its complement the PHYCHOPATH Familie..
{ http://bit.ly/1TPQQAr }
Saludos..
"But few Americans opted for it"
Really 'but few Americans could afford it'
Gee I think I'll move to Costa Rica, no, maybe New Zealand tomorrow...
Ya, right.
I've been working everyday since I was 16. Raised a family, never took gov handout....
In summary ..
Fuck you Casey
The Progressives, as liberals now prefer to be called, are really the Regressives. They want the European model for the US. The decay, the rot, the splinterring apart we see in Europe today... that is the end result of hare-brained liberals running wild over the institutions of culture with their progressive (actually, regressive) ideas. Liberals are causing western society and culture to regress and eventually to cave-in on itself. When will right-minded leaders ever stand up and slap these vandalizing chidren down to where they belong ? Without the full backing of the liberal and arrogant media, none of this liberal non-sense would be happening.
These characters are everywhere. Knowing what to look for may save one from making a bad investment even when a "business plan" appears to have covered all the bases...
Consider reviewing:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/how-spot-sociopath
http://www.naturalnews.com/036112_sociopaths_cults_influence.html
I don't know about psychopaths, but I do know the US government, entertainment, education, and financial industries are more often than not run by zionist jews. This fact is incontrovertable:https://thezog.wordpress.com/
I don't think its psychopathic tendencies as much it is cultural bias. That is to say if you have been educated to believe you are "chosen" better than everyone else, and more deserving, well indifference to those "others" is understandable.
The problem is that we are not allowed to deal with the obvious, we have to act like it does not exist. Great article in the LA Times that exemplifies this contradiction in our society: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/opinion/oe-stein19
This near monopoly of certain industries becomes a problem when it blocks out other perspectives. So what happens is we get only one perspective of the world a Jewish/Zionist perspective. Lead anchor after lead anchor are either zionists or Jewish or both, you think they or those networks are going to report honestly on the Middle East, The Federal Reserve, Wall Street, when same institutions are working for the same interests as they. Wolf Blitzer comes to CNN from Israel and AIPAC, how is he going to give unbiased reporting, or any of the others, I mean Andrea Mitchel is married Greenspan, is that not a conflict? This list only scratches the surface: http://www.subvertednation.net/jew-lists/jewish-reporters-and-journalist...
Sheldon Adleson bank rolls the republican debates, thus the debates are more about supporting israel that America. Same with George Soros and Clinton...And when the NSA starts listening to "our" elected officials time and again it is Jewish/Israeli's who they are colluding with.
I remember when Huffington Post first started it was great, very informative, lighter reading than what I do now, but it was early in the web's existence. There was actually great discussions, especially about the Middle East and our too strong "allegiance" to Israel and its supporters. But as Huffington Post grew, so too did its influence. And like EVERYTHING IN America, once you become relevant, influential, in swoop the zionists to buy your gravitas and use it for their PR. So Huffingotn Post was purchased buy AOL, and they brought in Howard Fineman as editor. Suddenly the articles took a decidedly pro-Israel stance, but more subversive, was the comment section, suddenly any anti-Israel, Zionist, Jewish comments were quickly deleted. And you were FORCED to have a Facebook account to comment, that was all I needed to see Huff Post had gone to the dark side. Now you get articles like this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/28/food-stamp-demographics_n_67719...
Versus a more honest look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u1J6EEhkyM
Open borders and amnesty for illegal immigrants is the primary goal for American Jewish organizations and yet we see: http://newobserveronline.com/jews-demand-open-borders-for-usa-but-use-dn...
We see Hollywood, Wall Street and the other levers of jewish influence and power pushing for open borders.
The point of all this is immigration, monetary policy, foreign affairs, are all heavily influences by zionist/jews information control. Who owns the most powerful new tool to mold our youth's minds, Facebook....
I forgot to mention hasbara trolls, another avenue of influence zionists use to manipulate public opinion. They are paid (well) to police the web, using numerous aliases to populate the web with pro zionist propaganda. They are far more numerous than people would ever believe. America is being manipulated, how else could you explain a nation with the most powerful military many times over, yet our borders are wide open? Why is it we have a organization like the Federal Reserve printing our money, a job the US can do for itself, and 40% of our Federal tax dollars goes to just paying the interest to the fed...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reSrmmae63k
http://www.thenation.com/article/israel-cranks-pr-machine/
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=08d_1379073067
Some Hasbara trolls use sockpuppet accounts to post anti-Zionist propaganda in order to make a site look "anti-semitic". The comment section is flooded with all Zionism, all the time, and ceases to be a place for discussion of the real issues.
Thanks for posting this. I'm saving this one for posterity. I am sure I will make good use of it.
"Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo."
Thanks for posting this. I'm saving this one for posterity. I am sure I will make good use of it.
"Nobody was drafted into the Gestapo."
Sad truth is that we, all of us, from The most ardent Republican to the most screechy Democrat, beg for this type of person to be in office. It is not the fault of the media, or world events, or left-v-right...it is our own fault.
We shrink from candidates with blemishes in their lives, yet everyone has many blemishes and secrets. So what do we end up with? The REALLY GOOD LIARS and fakes. The near-sociopaths.
We like Trump simply because he is irreverent toward the system, but will we actually put him in office? Or will we, as we have ALWAYS done, shrink away toward the traditional, safe choice...the sociopathic choice?
Want true representative democracy? Could be that the only way to get it would be a lottery, a draft. I would rather have a "guy or girl fresh off the street" in the White House than ANY known politician...but...that wouldn't be "safe," now would it? So we shrink towards the people willing to play the game...the almost-sociopaths.
"We"?
You got a mouse in your pocket?
Yes, "we" in the colloquial sense, the community factor. I am finding that Zerohedge is populated with a lot of Zerobrains.
Way too much "we" going on, isn't there? Time to point fingers at the actual perpetrators instead of pondering the nature of blame in the universe. Speaking of sociopathic tricks, getting people to question themselves (instead of the looking at the source of the problem) and using shame and guilt on others to confuse the issue is at the top of the list.
All government in the USSA have been usurped by these megalomaniacs whether it be Federal, State or Local. Even businesses hire selfish, immature 25 year old tantrum throwing toddlers to manage their stores and restaurants. The whole country along with most of the now fascist West are shit piles of skilless ill mannered imbeciles that make the movie Idiocracy look like the epitome of a well balanced, moral and sane society.
No joke, a picture of Lenin to illustrate US sociopathy? Don't you have homegrown specimens?
When are you 'Murikans going to knock it off with your stale Cold War propaganda?
Even coming from a New York Times author, this is getting beyond ridiculous.
US is run by zionists, and no greater enemy to zionists than Russia, thus continuous anti Russia propaganda.
Hollywood movies have moved form Nazi villains to Russian ones (or Muslim, they are interchangeable bogymen).
There does seem to be a pervasive corruption, not only in Washington DC, but on Wall Street and all over the world.
There are really two questions:
1. Why
2. What to do about it
1. Why? Not sure, but there seems to be a guiding force to the corruption that wants to overcome the world with corruption and make everyone and all things "unworthy", not just leadership, but of life itself and God. If this is the case, then it helps to answer 2... while not truly answering the question.
2. What to do about it? I am thinking nothing. Don't try to kill the people who have been overcome by it. That just spreads the corruption further. I doubt that we simple humans have the ability to rid the world of corruption. We are most likely meant to endureit and keep our hearts as light as a feather if possible. If we can help others do so, but mostly is a way that helps them help themselves.
JMHO
Not claiming any expertise in this arena, I believe I have an answer. Please, bear with me and I will tell you again...
Service in congress was not unlike jury duty in terms of serving the community, state...
During the primary process, a lottery should be held and the winners stand before the people in the primary. The people that emerge as the most palatable will run for office, 2 terms only. Like jury duty, there are no refusals except in special circumstances and the persons selected must be physically, emotionally and mentally capable.
The "We need experienced leaders" can stick it up their collective ass. The people can and do make good decisions, they just have no choices under the current system. This would provide those choices without interference from the PTB or career politicians (They would be extinct!). It would work.
It would work for the House of Representatives branch. I agree with you 100% on that.
It would NOT work for the Senate or the Supreme Court.
I really think Ted Kazyinsky was right. Our modern world is prone to this type of thing because the technology is prone to create the kind of world we're living in.
It becomes more and more disconnected from the natural world as each day passes. We are never going back to our roots because we don't exist in that timeframe of independent farmers that created this country.
Each of us is a disconnected lost soul in aggregate, unable to live independently and forced into a collective by the sheer weight of our modern enviroment. This can only end one way.
With our complete destruction.
It's a chicken and the egg thing, we are not spiritually centered enough to posses the powers we posses and some portions of society that have always existed are finding they have been given a hammer of God with which to torment us.
They could not have found a more opportune weapon if they tried. The conditions for their accension are perfect. They find themselves in a world where eons of cultural inibitions to their existence are stripped away, they can and do exist in such a massive domain that the usual small human groupings that would spot and shun them simply don't exist as a check on them.
In other words their vistas have been lifted and they are free to roam the earth and create pain, misery and agony without check.
We are fucking doomed.
On the other hand, maybe I'd prefer to stick around and play my part rather than sit on a beach in Panama sipping mojitos with expats. That's just me, I don't begrudge others their lifestyles.