The only effective solution to the unemployment and economic crisis in Illinois (and the nation) is massive emigration from the United States to other countries- same thing many of our ancestors did centuries ago, but this time in the reverse direction. It’s fantasy to think that just switching out politicians would solve this disaster in the midst of such decades-long structural weakness, and there is absolutely nothing at this point that can boost major US job growth anymore. The country’s policies have already sent out most sources of real job growth overseas, and the trend’s only accelerating – our oil’s used up, our manufacturing industries shipped out, now even our service and hi-tech industries are disappearing as engineering and computer industries are totally shipped out (outsourcing and H1-B visas). So the jobs picture in the US is only going to get much, much worse in the next decade.

The picture’s very different elsewhere. There are some European countries (like Ireland, Britain and of course Greece) in even worse shape than the US. But most countries in the heart of Europe are very strong, mainly because they’ve kept their manufacturing and hi-tech with a lower cost of living, among other things. Germany for example is the biggest exporter after China, even though it has about 5% of China’s population and barely a drop of oil, with massive opportunities for emigrating Americans in terms of jobs, starting businesses and getting patents (and without the crippling costs of college and health care that are ruining the US). Same pattern for other core countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or much of France to name a few – solid economies with better long-term planning.

European countries are not immigrant nations like the US, so you really need to demonstrate ancestry in those countries to move there. But the good news is that millions of Americans have for example northern European ancestry (whether Dutch, German, Anglo-Saxon or Irish) and can get settling permits in resilient economies like Germany, or often citizenship straight-out in those countries. While even people with ancestry in the weakened countries (like Greece, Britain or Ireland and Italy) can still move to the stronger countries like the Netherlands, France or Germany, based on the cross-border rules there. You can pick up most of the language when you get there – they help you with that, and German’s a big help everywhere.

Don’t believe the hype that taxes are higher in Europe, they aren’t in part because they don’t have so many tiers of taxes as in the US, plus nowhere near the health care, insurance and education costs, so it’s much easier to raise a family, start a business and thus in a place like the Netherlands or France or Sweden. (My family’s settled in Belgium and the Netherlands, picked up German, French, Dutch – much easier to raise kids and get a business going especially in the small cities or surprisingly in some of the bigger ones like Rotterdam, Ghent or Leiden.) You also don’t have to worry about affirmative action or similar obstacles causing so many problems (very different history in Europe), plus gun owners are respected well in the core countries. You don’t even need fancy education or things like an engineering degree (though it can certainly help), just be willing to work hard, respect the laws, contribute to the society in whatever you do whether it’s a plumber, mechanic, blue-collar worker or whatever else, especially if you start businesses, get patents or do other things that produce jobs there.

Besides the heart of Europe, there are other good places to emigrate to, like in Asia (HK, Taiwan, Korea for example), and even many countries in S America and thereabouts (Chile, Panama, Nicaragua, even portions of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay for example). In general the best place to work and raise a family is no longer the US with all the crippling structural problems we have here, instead it’s overseas, either in the center of Europe or in those parts of Asia and S America. Use whatever savings you have (or don’t have), sell what assets you can, and make the move while at least the dollar is still worth something.