Tuesday, September 07, 2010

seeing the light

pack up all your dishes
make note of all good wishes
say goodby to the landlord for me
sons of bitches always bore me
throw out those LA papers
and the moldy box of vanilla wafers
adios to all this concrete
gonna get me some dirt road back street...

~ jerry jeff walker

the missus and i have had an epiphany.

so we're moving.

we're not sure where, or when, but we're moving.

this is not a "move to a bigger house in magnolia" kind of move. this is the kind of move where we leave the neighborhood entirely, on our way out of the country.

catalonia, maybe. or the southeast of france.

we're not sure of the destination yet, pending scouting expeditions starting the first half of 2011.

back to the epiphany, which upon further review isn't particularly epiphanous. it's that corporate america would like to bleed us dry and kick us to the curb at its earliest convenience, and take its healthcare along with it.

meanwhile republicans, who by all accounts are poised to take back control of congress, would like to give huge tax cuts to the wealthiest americans and spending cuts to everyone else. most credible economists agree this is exactly the wrong thing to do, economic policy-wise, and will deepen the current recession brought about by republican economic policies.

this, according to nobel-prize winning economist paul krugman, has a real chance of setting up a japan-style lost decade of long-term unemployment, cash hoarding and deflation. which means we'll be lucky to stay employed during the next ten years, while the value of our assets declines.

the missus and i aren't up for riding out a lost decade. and really, what's the point? if the best we can hope for is to keep working for the privilege of being allowed to keep working, suddenly the whole "american dream" contrivance doesn't seem so dreamy.

it's not rational to keep participating in a game in which the winners (the very wealthy) are predetermined and everybody else gets to stay poor.

so, we're leaving.

we're not sure when. we're not sure where. we just know it won't be anyplace that worships corporate gods or the elected representatives who serve them.

somewhere civil rights are respected and healthcare is a human right.

someplace civilized.  

Sent from my iPad

3 comments:

Fish and Bicycles said...

Wow. BIG wow.

You must share the results of your scouting expeditions, Mr. Needl. I'd also be very interested in identifying a place where one could find living wage employment (to cover housing, food, education and health care costs) in a country where the government is not owned by big business, where right wingers don't want to keep the poor (including, ridiculously enough, themselves) in poverty, and burn Korans.

Seriously, the little research I've done concluded that the primary obstacle is being able to work legally abroad, particularly in European Union countries when your home country is not an EU member.

Bon said...

Start watching Househunters International on HGTV.

Inspiring, very inspiring.

spaceneedl said...

bon, we watch house hunters intl. every week. we're HGTV geeks. and you're right, very motivational.

howard, thanks for the heads-up. much more research is required on our part...but it's all part of the process. maybe we just buy a dilapidated winery and go the self-employed route