Ah, well that explains it. As for the insane taxes, and fees, you can blame our governments for creeping privatization and cronyism. There's almost no escaping it for the moment, but I don't want to hijack this thread and talk politics. I did say that I was exploring all of my options, though, so you should know that I'm not only considering third world countries. Tell me this, though... many Americans envy Europeans for the amount of time off that they get from work - 3 weeks or more spent "on holiday" is supposedly typical. Retirement is also a problem here - "social security" and "medicare" are not only barely adequate, but also in declining spirals. My question is can the typical person afford to "go on holiday"? Are pensions still available to the average retiree? And how do you feel about your healthcare system? I work in healthcare and have an "excellent" insurance policy, but if I were to actually get deathly sick or injured, the insurance would still only manage to keep me from going bankrupt immediately. Once the bills accrue and I've paid off my co-payments, I would then go bankrupt as the healthcare companies collected their money and took all of my assets. I'm looking for a long term solution to those problems and trying to take into consideration possible political changes due to peak oil/climate change/economic calamity and possible war, not just looking into taking a long vacation in a supposed paradise. I'm not only looking for hot women (might have just found my "perfect woman" this week, btw...) but I'm looking for someplace affordable, safe, with access to the activities I like and with some form of real social security. So a Nordic/Scandinavian country might be the best long term choice for residency, a vacation home in central/south america and a small farm in an inexpensive part of the USA are also possibilities. The way I see it, all of these things can be incorporated and revenue generating - a farm can generate revenue in many ways... people can be hired to run it or the land leased to other farmers. A vacation home can be rented out, or it could just be a hotel/motel/small resort to begin with. Having more than one of these things might be a possibility, but realistically I might have to settle for only one of these possibilities. Either way I need to give this more thought, since polishing my Spanish skills obviously might not be enough.
The thing is most of the world seems to believe the EU is the same, but there is massive variation throughout. Most (if not all) people here also envy "Europe" and feel hard done by for our long working hours/weeks and less holiday time. Ive never had 3 weeks off for a holiday, I think the most ive ever had was 5 days and that had to be booked 6 months in advance. I was too ill to go to work once for 4 days, so my employer deducted my days off sick from my holiday allowance.
True we are supposedly 'EU citizens' too, but we have none of the benefits they do, even if we are supposed to by law. Such as the 'working time directive' which an employee can choose to opt-out of, but employers here say "sign this opt-out form for the working time directive, or leave, its your choice". We don't even have national holidays like others do, most jobs are mandatory sat/sun working with no additional pay... the list goes on.
Health service, well I wont even get started on that one.
So all-in-all you could consider going to Europe, but you will want to look more at eastern Europe since they are now part of the EU (so stable, better services than before which should keep increasing). I would probably also consider somewhere like Bulgaria if the move will be in 2/3/4 years rather than right now. They will be full members of the EU, stable government/politics, a lot of things are massively improving there (regulatory frameworks etc) and its still relatively cheap to live. With such an influx of Britons rushing over there for somewhere cheaper to live, they are actually building new towns/villages with nearly all the population English speaking immigrants (including doctors etc).
Unfortunately Spain isn't as viable as it used to be 5/10 years ago, costs are going up due to gaining strength an a member of the EU.
While France is expensive, the south is apparently a lot cheaper to live, lots of countryside etc. Although services are not as good, such as utilities (electricity is a bit shaky and current can be a lot lower in places that electricals don't always work properly, as well as have a lot of spikes), public transport, etc etc.
You could always think about Southern Ireland, its not supposed to be too bad there (except the weather).
Of course you could always think of somewhere like the Dominican Republic as I think more and more is developing there. They also run a citizenship program for an investment into the economy of about $20k I believe, which can in fact be spent purchasing a property!
Not many people realise that most countries run Citizenship programs. Even the US do, for an investment of $1m you can get a social security number and passport. With the current economics I believe its been lowered to only $100k into a local business to employ a minimum of 15 staff in one of the allocated deprived areas of the US - although its been a while since ive looked into it now so im just going by what I can remember.