Mark Ehrman - Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America

Getting
Out

Getting
Out

Your Guide
to Leaving America

Updated and Expanded Edition

Mark Ehrman

process self-reliance series

Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America

Updated and Expanded Edition 2012 by Mark Ehrman

All rights reserved.

Getting Out is the second volume of the Process Self-Reliance Series

Process Media

1240 W Sims Way #124

Port Townsend WA 98368

www.processmediainc.com
www.gettingoutofamerica.com

Associate Editor for Updated Edition: Cletus Nelson

Researcher: Elizabeth Kotin

Additional Research: Amanda Wilson

Editorial Assistance: Laura Smith Guerrero

Editorial Assistance: Leslie Reed

Design by Gregg Einhorn

ISBN 978-1934170304

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

America, love it or...

Getting In...and Staying In:
Visas, Residencies, Work Permits and Citizenship

Liberty and Justice For All?
Freedom, Democracy and Good Governance

Do the Trains Run on Time?
Infrastructure/Availability of Goods + Services

At some point during the coming years, due to an array of factors, with energy scarcity foremost among them, the economic system of the United States will teeter and fall, to be replaced by something that most people can scarcely guess at, and that even those who see it coming prefer not to think about.
Dmitry Orlov, Reinventing Collapse

We have been gradually disempowered by a corporate state that, as Huxley foresaw, seduced and manipulated us through sensual gratification, cheap mass-produced goods, boundless credit, political theater and amusement. While we were entertained, the regulations that once kept predatory corporate power in check were dismantled, the laws that once protected us were rewritten and we were impoverished. Now that credit is drying up, good jobs for the working class are gone forever and mass-produced goods are unaffordable, we find ourselves transported from Brave New World to 1984. The state, crippled by massive deficits, endless war and corporate malfeasance, is sliding toward bankruptcy. It is time for Big Brother to take over from Huxleys feelies, the orgy-porgy and the centrifugal bumble-puppy. We are moving from a society where we are skillfully manipulated by lies and illusions to one where we are overtly controlled.
Chris Hedges, 2011: A Brave New Dystopia

The greatest irony in modern American may well be that while argument and discord prevail in the edifice of American Democracy, the best and most thoughtful citizens have already left the building.
John R. Wennersten, Leaving America: The New Expatriate Generation

Back in 2006, when the first edition of this book came out, the bubbles were still inflating, the economy hadnt yet crashed and despite the mounting evidence to the contrary, the mythology of America as the best of all possible worlds still lingered via some mysterious inertia. Those who were paying attention knew better, but sounding the alarm, saying that the USA was a place you wanted to leave, was a message that the public at large wasnt yet ready to hear. Oh sure, moving abroad could be accepted as a delightful, purely elective and perhaps even frivolous lark. And of course, it can be that, as well. But there was a growing sense among people of uh oh, maybe its time to get out. Some of them never before imagined they would one day feel the need to flee. They didnt know where to begin. Leave? And go where? How? What would I do?

My idea was to create an easy-to-use manual that could walk anyone through the process of looking for and finding a new life abroad. Regardless of whether a person was a fundamentalist Christian, left-wing radical or apolitical hedonist, the book would have to help them identify what they like and dont like, need and dont need, tolerate and cant tolerate, and figure out how those applied to countries around the world and their respective costs of living, available employment and entry requirements. For such a thing to be useful for any American contemplating getting out, I needed to reach out beyond my own experience and research and tap into the expertise of Americans all around the world, from all walks of life, from every race, creed, color, age group, sexual preference and just about any other dimension that I could think of, and ask them to share their experiences moving and living abroad and their advice for others who wanted to do the same.

They were liberals creeped out by the Bush Adminstrations sinister antics. Conservatives and libertarians alarmed by the soaring deficit. Muslims who no longer felt comfortable under the hostile and suspicious gaze of post-9/11 America, Jews who felt their Jewishness needed to be practiced in their ancestral homeland, and Christians who believed the U.S. didnt allow them to freely invoke God whenever they had the urge. Some were lonelyhearts in search of love...or wanted to be united after theyd found it. Others sought adventure. Still others, jobs. Many could no longer afford America and moved to a place where their money would stretch further. More than likely, they were driven by a combination of factors. Each one was testament to the fact that there is no typical American expat. They operated under different, though often overlapping, criteria when evaluating where they should go. Likewise, they employed strategies both unique and tried-and-true for making it happen. Some were lucky. Others clever. And many simply persevered. Regardless of their level of education, expertise, or how articulate they might or might not be, each one offered, if only by their successful example, invaluable information as well as inspiration. Their suggestions and experiences could then be not only integrated into the general structure and focus areas of the book, but also shared directly with the readers themselves. Their support, encouragement and enthusiasm kept me going through the arduous days, weeks and months it took to put the whole thing together.

The result was Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America.

Upon release, Getting Out was pretty much either ignored or ridiculed by the mainstream media. Those who did deign to notice it found the material to be useful but thought the tone and attitude to be unnecessarily alarmist. Nevertheless, Getting Out found its audience. Independent bookstores all over the country displayed copies in their window...or it wound up in front of mega stores in the Employee Picks. Many blogs took notice. Word of mouth carried it the rest of the way. My inbox filled with countless emails from strangers, expressing their desire to leave the United States. For many of them, Getting Out represented the first affirmation that they were not alonethat what they were thinking and feeling was shared by a diffused and nearly invisible multitude.

That was then, as they say, and this is now. While our politicians played musical chairs, and pundits argued about what it all meant to the viewers at home, Getting Out has gone from being radically chic to desperately obvious. The State Department estimates that over five million of your fellow citizens (who are non-military or otherwise unaffiliated with the U.S. Government) have already made their exit, and the true figure is probably a lot higher given the huge numbers of Americans who leave and dont bother to register their presence anywhere they can be counted. Network news and major newspapers now regularly report on how Americans by the droves are seeking opportunities in China or India, or moving to Canada and other countries with a saner healthcare systemor to Mexico, Costa Rica or the Philippines where decent lifestyles can still be led for pennies on the ever-shrinking dollar.