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Freedom in America is often perceived as expensive and constrained by societal pressures, leading many to feel more liberated in countries with lower costs of living and fewer expectations.
The video explores the concept of freedom, contrasting the author's experience in the United States with his time living abroad. He argues that true freedom in America is prohibitively expensive, requiring millions in net worth to escape the necessity of working a disliked job. The author highlights that most Americans are not truly free because they are tied to jobs they dislike to cover basic living expenses, a situation exacerbated by the high cost of living in the US.
Beyond financial constraints, the author discusses how personal experiences and societal control impact freedom. He shares that difficult memories and past traumas are easier to manage when living overseas, away from familiar triggers. Furthermore, he observes a growing trend of authoritarianism and controlling behavior in the US, citing examples like police checkpoints and excessive security measures, which he feels are antithetical to the nation's self-proclaimed status as a free country.
Finally, the video touches upon the pressure to consume and the high social expectations prevalent in American culture. The author contrasts this with his experience abroad, where he feels less pressure to buy the latest products or conform to certain lifestyles. This reduced pressure, coupled with lower expectations from others, contributes to a greater sense of personal freedom and well-being when living outside the US.
Many Americans feel less free due to the high cost of living, which ties them to jobs they dislike. Societal pressures and perceived authoritarianism in the US also contribute to a diminished sense of personal liberty.
True financial freedom in America is often unattainable for most, requiring an extremely high net worth. Without it, individuals are typically bound to work out of necessity, limiting their autonomy.
Living abroad can offer greater personal and economic freedom due to lower costs for housing, transportation, and daily expenses. It also provides distance from personal trauma and reduces societal pressures to consume.
Living overseas can provide a greater sense of liberty by reducing financial burdens and societal expectations. It also offers a new environment that can help in processing personal experiences and detaching from difficult memories.
Yes, the cost of living significantly impacts freedom. A high cost of living in places like America often necessitates working undesirable jobs, thereby reducing personal freedom and autonomy.
Many individuals report experiencing more personal freedom outside the US, particularly in regions with a lower cost of living. Reduced pressure to consume and fewer social expectations contribute to this feeling.
True freedom in America is prohibitively expensive, requiring a substantial net worth to escape the necessity of working a disliked job. Most Americans are not truly free because they are tied to jobs they dislike to cover basic living expenses, a situation exacerbated by the high cost of living in the US.
Personal experiences and societal control impact freedom, and difficult memories or past traumas can be easier to manage when living overseas. Being away from familiar triggers in a new environment can facilitate detachment and processing of these experiences.
The author observes a growing trend of authoritarianism and controlling behavior in the US, citing examples like police checkpoints and excessive security measures. These elements are seen as antithetical to the nation's self-proclaimed status as a free country and diminish the sense of personal freedom.
American culture often involves pressure to consume and high social expectations. Abroad, the author experiences less pressure to buy the latest products or conform to certain lifestyles. This reduced pressure, coupled with lower expectations from others, contributes to a greater sense of personal freedom.
Some viewers find that living abroad, such as in Thailand, offers a less regulated society leading to a greater day-to-day sense of freedom. While laws exist, their application can be inconsistent, contrasting with the stricter and more consistently enforced rules often found in the US.
While America can be a great place to earn a living, it is perceived as difficult to retire there due to high inflation. The cost of living and economic conditions make financial independence and retirement challenging for many.
0:02 Hey YouTube, Alex here, and in today's video, I want to talk about why I feel far more free in other countries. This video topic is brought on by the fact that yesterday was the 4th of July, and a lot of people view this as celebrating American Independence Day.
0:19 They want to enjoy fireworks and beverages and get wild and have fun. And I had to reflect on my perception of this holiday, but more importantly, the topic of freedom.
0:39 For those who don't know, if this is your first time watching my channel, my name is Alex, and I previously lived abroad for a total of about 3 years, two of which were in Southeast Asia. I came back to pursue my financial freedom.
0:58 And it's a bit ironic, right? I'm talking about why I feel more free abroad, and yet I'm coming back here to pursue financial freedom. So, is that contradictory? I don't think so, and I'm going to talk about why in this video.
1:12 The first point is that freedom is far too expensive for most Americans. If you want a true sense of freedom, I believe that starts at around $10 million in net worth in the United States. And if you want complete and utter freedom, you need more like $100 million if you want financial freedom.
1:35 A lot of people will say, "Well, yeah, but I could do this, or I could do that." If you have to get up and go to work 5 days a week to a job you don't like, then you're not free.
1:47 If you love your job, it's different, but studies show most people don't like their jobs. They might not like the industry, the type of work, their employer, or their co-workers.
2:04 There are many different reasons why somebody may not like their job. A lot of people choose a job based on factors in the immediate term. Some people choose due to long-term reasons, but many people they just got to go get something.
2:21 I've had jobs I didn't like, co-workers I didn't like, managers I didn't like, and I had to stick it out anyway because I needed money to pay bills. I needed to have a way to cover my rent, gasoline, car maintenance, and food.
2:44 For most of us, we can't just say, "Oh, no, you know, I don't feel like coming to work today, boss. I'm just not feeling it." Typically, you get a finite number of excused absences, PTO, etc., at which point you can be disciplined or even fired if you don't show up to work.
3:06 So, not working is not really an option for most Americans. And the price at which they would need to pay to give up their job is far too high for most of them to hit that number in their lifetime.
3:23 Now, I believe that certain segments of society tend to do very well for themselves. If you're a lawyer, a doctor, or an entrepreneur in certain fields like tech or finance, then yeah, you can do pretty well for yourself and eventually retire.
3:45 But for a lot of people, they're going to spend their prime healthy years grinding away. And when I think about all the times I commuted, I got up early in many cases before the sun was up, put on clothes for professional reasons, not because they were comfortable, and chugged coffee before rushing to start work, I don't feel very free.
4:11 When I'm living abroad, because costs are so much less, because I can choose more economical cities or locations, because I don't have to hassle with expensive car maintenance and repairs, and I'm not beholden to sky-high rent, I feel far more economically free.
4:32 The amount of money it would take for me to be free in parts of Southeast Asia, Latin America, or even Europe, is far less than the equivalent here in the states.
4:47 So, when people talk about feeling free, I would add a caveat or many caveats that here in America where you can't just quit a job because you don't like it. For most people, you need to stay at a job for multiple years.
5:00 You need to grow your skill set, work on improving your skill set, and maybe get a promotion so you qualify for better jobs. It's not just, "Man, my boss is a jerk. I don't want to work here anymore. I quit."
5:19 No, you're probably going to have to stick it out. Probably most of the people watching this video have had a job that they had to stick with for longer than they would have liked.
5:31 And some people will say, "Oh, that teaches resilience, determination, or perseverance." But I think it also tends to lead toward people gritting their teeth, biting their tongue, and doing unhealthy things to cope with the stress of that job or working for that employer.
5:50 If you ever worked for a company that got bought out by private equity, you know what I'm talking about. But yeah, I mean, I just think about all the bad things that have happened to me in the last year and I'm like, man, none of these things would have happened to me if I were still living overseas.
6:07 I still feel far more free when I'm elsewhere than I do here. This next one is personal to me, but probably many of you watching this have similar experiences that you could point to.
6:22 And that is difficult memories. I have a lot of difficult memories here in the States. Not so much overseas, but here in the States, I've had a lot of traumatic experiences that are atypical even for here.
6:39 Losing my mom when I was eight, losing my dad when I was 10, and having to deal with a pretty chaotic and unstable upbringing.
6:52 When I go abroad, I feel that I can better detach from those memories or experiences. I don't like to go back to my hometown too often because when I do, I am reminded about a lot of these difficult memories that make me feel trapped.
7:09 I remember being trapped. I remember my autonomy being taken from me. I grew up in what I would describe as a high-control family system that was super toxic and people were always out to get one another and couldn't trust anyone in my family.
7:28 And all those memories and feelings are difficult to process, difficult to work through.
7:36 I find that when I am abroad, I can have more light-hearted conversations with people. Some of that may be a lack of English, some of that may be a cultural thing.
7:49 But, I find America is a very formal and serious culture. I don't like to joke as much here because you have to worry about offending people. That's another memory I have is, "Oh, don't do this or don't say that because people are going to get offended."
8:04 I've also found that people in America don't really care if you have difficult memories. I've had questions or situations where people ask me about my background, not knowing. And then I tell them that when I say answer, and then they're like, "Oh, no. Better move on to the next topic."
8:21 And it's a reminder of the awkwardness and the difficulty there, the pain there, to where I feel like I just can't escape it.
8:28 Where when I go abroad, especially in countries where I don't speak the language, it's refreshing to not have to rehash a lot of these conversations. People I find mind their own business.
8:41 There's a freedom that comes from that. I'm just another foreigner when I go to many of the countries that I like. It's not, "Oh man, how do I get to know this person to build rapport with them to be able to manipulate them?"
8:53 Which is often what I encounter here in the US is people are not really genuinely curious about you. They're more so trying to figure out how they can get what they want out of you.
9:04 And I'm not saying that doesn't exist overseas. I found a lot of guys that I met in expat hotspots had been through similar difficult interactions. Most of them have been divorced at least one time.
9:17 Many of them had poor relationships with their families. And it was just a difficult situation all around.
9:27 It's a self-selecting group that moves abroad. Where you have to have this odd combination to end up going overseas to try to make a better life.
9:41 The next point is the growth in authoritarianism here in the states. This wasn't so much of a thing when I was a kid. Maybe it's just something I didn't notice until I got older, but I notice way more controlling behavior in today's America or control freaks.
10:01 I feel like a lot more people today are going around trying to tell other people what to do, trying to control other people. And I'm not sure what exactly caused that, but it's something that doesn't make me feel very free.
10:16 People are freedom, freedom, freedom. Oh, by the way, we're going to have a police checkpoint. Oh, by the way, you need to stop at the state border because they need to check. And I'm like, I thought this country was supposed to be super free, but we got to stop at the state border. We got to stop for the DUI checkpoint.
10:34 We got to get pulled over and have them go through our stuff. When I was on my way out here to California, I got stopped in Kansas and the cop just made some stuff up.
10:44 Uh he basically said your license plate does not show up when I scan it. There's nothing wrong with my license plate. It's totally standard issue state license plate.
10:57 You have this kind of big brother sense here in the states that was not always present. At least I think a lot of it was post GWOT, global war on terror.
11:09 But it doesn't really feel very free when you hear about and see a lot of this stuff. For me, it's like, okay, I'll just stay home. I mean, you go out. I remember I used to go to live music, and toward the end of live music, there was more and more security and they would go around like looking at people, trying to catch people doing stuff.
11:28 Woo, what are you doing over here? It's I'm not going to pay all this money and pay for parking, drive all the way to downtown to deal with security always, you know, just like creeping around.
11:42 Just like creeping around. I've dealt with this in employment situations. I've experienced this a ton of people coming up to you trying to control you. It reduces my interest in socializing with people because so many people in America today can't turn it off.
12:00 I don't know if it's insecurity, I don't know if it's anxiety, I don't know if it's just part of the work environment today. But, there are so many situations where people are trying to tell you what to do, people are trying to trip you up, get you in trouble.
12:18 I find a lot of people in today's America are power tripping, and I experience that far less abroad. Are you going to experience it to some extent everywhere? Yeah, it'll be there to varying degrees.
12:28 Any country you want to go to, you're going to have to get a visa if you're not a citizen of that country. But, it's just not quite to the same extreme.
12:36 When I'm in Thailand, for example, I just mostly handle my visa, but I walk around at all hours. I can go into 7-Eleven at any hour. Here, I go to Costco, right? I have to have them check my receipt before I exit.
12:52 That's never happened in Thailand from what I recall. I would just buy stuff at the mall, at a store. They just waved me out. They've got security cameras. They can tell if you're stealing.
13:03 And people will always say, "Well, they just want to make sure you didn't forget anything." I'm like, "Sure, okay. Sure, they did."
13:09 Whatever, I mean, people also, to justify the security theater, will jump up and down to try to explain away why it's necessary or why it's good. I don't buy it.
13:23 And to me, some of the countries that I love to go to, they don't claim to be free like America claims to be. This is a truth claim, they claim to be one of the most free countries on earth and it's so free and freedom, freedom, freedom. But yet I go to these other countries that don't make any such claims and yet they feel more free because nobody's checking on me here and checking on me there.
13:45 You don't have the suspicion culture quite to the same extreme. There's always going to be some degree in the modern world, but that controlling factor, it's just very, very frustrating to me.
13:59 And it'll flip on in a switch. You'll have you'll be having a normal conversation with somebody and all of a sudden they'll start telling you what to do.
14:05 Look, I don't need guidance on this. I know how to do this. And some of this comes from America devolving into a low trust society.
14:13 But there's just so much verification and extra verification and, oh, I want to log into my bank. Oh, you we've never seen this before. You're going to have to fill in a code. Okay, we're going to need to email you a code. Okay, you need to call this number and also take a picture of your ID.
14:34 I could go on and on about this, but it does not ever make me feel free to have to handle all these situations.
14:42 To sum it up, I feel like people know the country is in decline and as a response, they're trying to control what they can control. And I feel like I have to argue with people a lot more than I used to have to in the past.
14:57 Because the response to feeling like things are out of control is to double down for a lot of people. The next point is that overseas I feel less pressure to consume and also less expectation placed on me, and that feels like a sense of freedom.
15:13 Here in America, I can't tell you how many times people have been angry at me because they expected something and simultaneously it was unspoken. And they have all these expectations.
15:26 Then you look at their lives and these expectations that are not realistic apply to everything. They have this funny saying I heard that most Americans, or even all Americans, many Americans are temporarily embarrassed millionaires. Any day now they're going to become millionaires.
15:48 And when it doesn't happen or when a million dollars is not nearly as much money as it used to be, they get upset. And I experienced that a lot with the pressure to consume. I drive a 12-year-old vehicle. I've had people make fun of my vehicle.
16:04 I don't really hang out with these people. But it's something that is very common here is if you don't have the latest and greatest, there's a ton of marketing to try to pressure you into complying with these purchases that are not necessary.
16:25 My car, 12 years old, it works perfectly fine. There's nothing seriously wrong with it from what I can tell. No, it's not the prettiest. There's a couple dings and scratches and a little bit of iffy paint here and there. But it gets me to work just fine.
16:38 It cools in the summer or the hot summer months. It warms up in the cold winter months. The gas mileage is fine. It's not perfect. It could be better. But I don't have a payment. I don't have money coming out every month to make my car payment.
16:54 I do not have high-end service because it's a luxury line. That's perfectly fine with me. But you have to live at times a very solitary or spartan lifestyle if you don't want to consume all the time.
17:13 A lot of social events require money. You want to join a bike club, you got to buy a bike. Now, oh, why did you buy the cheaper model? You should buy the more expensive model. Cars, man, you need to upgrade your car.
17:25 There's all this consumerism and pressure to do it where when I lived in Southeast Asia, I stuck with studio or one-bedroom apartments. I didn't go out and buy a car in Southeast Asia.
17:38 I didn't even buy a motorbike, but motorbikes are far cheaper and more efficient from a cost perspective than a personal vehicle, a sedan or a truck. There's so many examples of that here in the states where people feel this pressure to consume.
17:57 And I think it really it takes your freedom away because I see it a lot where I've worked where people know that they've got a certain amount of money coming in every month and they accumulate different products, mortgages, etc.
18:22 to what amount of monthly payments they can afford. It's not can I buy it cash or can I work my way up to it? It's what's the maximum I can consume?
18:35 And I don't think that these objects are freedom. When you're having to get up and drive to work every day and work 9:00 to 5:00 or more if you're working overtime or you're in a sales role where you're trying to get extra commission, you're not free when you're at work if you'd rather be doing something else.
18:53 And if every single penny goes out really living a totally free lifestyle. Yeah, that's a big one where if you want to fit in, you need to have certain niceties if you want to be socially adapt.
19:09 Some of that comes with the like oh, you need to dress a certain way. Oh, you need to have a certain haircut style. To sum it up, I love that the expectations when I'm living abroad are lower than they are here.
19:23 Let me know what you think down in the comments. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Subscribe if you haven't already. If you want to see more content like this. And please give us a thumbs up if you enjoy this content and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye.
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