American Exodus

In my last post, I quoted Mark Twain, who said that, rather than repeat itself, history often rhymes. What both repetition and rhymes have in common, when it comes to history, are the echoes of the past. (Most of the following is shamelessly copied, shortened, and/or barely paraphrased, from The New Republic’s February 20 article, Americans are Heading for the Exits.)

Just the other day, Der Speigel reported that the Max Planck Society is experiencing an uptick in applications from American scientists…the society regards the US as “a new talent pool” at a time when the Trump administration seeks to cut billions in funding to the National Institutes of Health. There’s a deep historical irony here: during the Third Reich, the Max Planck Society—then known as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society—lost its best and brightest, among them Albert Einstein, to the US and other countries.

Just the other day, Irish broadcaster RTÉ reported that Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs has seen a 50% increase in the number of Americans seeking Irish passports, with some people specifically citing the new administration as a reason. Searches for terms like “dual citizenship” and “jus sanguinis” likewise saw significant spikes on Election Day and Inauguration Day, according to Google Trends. Polaron, an Australian company that helps people obtain European citizenship by descent, has also “seen a steep increase in Americans wishing to leave their country, with many more keen to use their EU passport as a plan B.”

A growing number of people in this country see the writing on the wall…In 2023, 17% of Americans wanted to leave the country; in 2024, the figure had risen to 21%…a bit over a month ago, a TikTok-er started a channel, Escape the USA, making videos that provide practical advice to Americans hoping to leave the country. He began researching how to leave the country after the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, and then saving money when Trump announced his candidacy again in November, 2022, when he saw the potential for history to repeat itself. After a month, his channel had nearly 11,000 followers.

I was attracted to Asian cultures and traditions from an early age, and left the US for Japan in 1984. When I tired of the rat-race, in 2008, I moved to the Himalayan foothills of Dharamsala, India, home of HHXIV Dalai Lama and 15K+ other Tibetans, as well as hundreds of other non-Indian followers of Buddha and other Asian saints. Dharamsala is in the state of Himachal Pradesh, in the disctrict of Kangra (directly north of New Delhi), and receives the most rainfall of any district in Himachal. It is verdant, with marginal, small & medium farmers growing food year round.

Furthermore, the cost of living in India is far less than most places where the living is easy. I give some suggestions for easy ways to live here in my first post, which you might want to read: https://outofunitedstates.com/p/home-in-the-himalayas