Transcription
America is the richest country in the world. So why does life feel so poor for so many of us? This isn't a temporary crisis. This is real life for millions of people in a country that calls itself the land of opportunity.
Over 38 million Americans live below the official poverty line. 44 million face food insecurity. More than 650,000 Americans are homeless each night. Over half of working adults can't afford a $500 emergency. The top 1% of Americans hold over 30% of the nation's wealth. While the bottom 50% of Americans hold just 2% of the wealth.
I know what it feels like because we lived it. We are a low-income family. We've experienced food insecurity. We have lived without access to affordable health care. We have lost jobs through no fault of our own. And we have been exhausted. But after we left the US to find a better life for our family, we noticed something that changed the way we viewed everything. In places that America calls developing countries or third-world countries, we have found people living better on far less but are much happier. They have much higher quality of lives than we did back in the states. Through our experience traveling through lesser developed countries, we have discovered that the system in America is not broken by accident. It is broken by design and it is something that we all need to start talking about more.
Let's be honest, for a lot of Americans, especially in rural areas, life isn't just hard, it's broken. And if you're living it, you don't need statistics to know what I'm talking about. But let's go over some anyway, just so that you know you're not alone. One in eight Americans rely on food banks or SNAP just to feed their families. Rents have doubled in many towns, even while wages stay flat. Health care cost is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. And in rural areas, no hospitals for miles, no public transit, no options. If you're poor in America, you are expected to survive a system that was never designed for you. You're told to work harder, hustle more, grind until it gets better. But the truth is, you can work every single day of your life, multiple jobs, and still never be able to afford to buy a home, to pay all of your medical bills, or to buy truly healthy food for your family. That is not a personal failure. That is what happens when your country treats basic human needs as a profit opportunity.
For most of our lives, we have lived in the southern Appalachian region of East Tennessee and then later we moved to southwest Virginia. We not only have personal experience with this, but we also watch the struggle of our entire families. So, this story isn't just about us. It's about our community, our friends, our loved ones, and it's about a lot of you. We did everything to make it work. We grew our own food. We bought things secondhand. We took care of our stuff. We fixed stuff when it broke instead of buying new things. We were not materialistic. We were super frugal and lived below our means, debt-free. We just did all the things that we felt were right. But still, no matter how frugal we were, no matter what we did, we still could never truly break out of the system. And it's not just us. It's our loved ones, our grandparents, aunts, cousins, neighbors. They are all working so hard and they're still struggling. They work in factories, construction jobs, in slaughterhouses. They're CNAs. They're teachers. These are irreplaceable jobs that are vital, but yet they're still not paid a living wage. The constant fear of your car breaking down or an illness that will keep you from going to work and paying your bills, let alone a doctor's visit. One bad month that can completely wipe you out. That isn't freedom. That is survival mode. And that's what it feels like to millions of people across the US.
This is the country that is the wealthiest nation in the world and a huge percentage of the population can barely make ends meet. So we made a decision that most people don't even think is possible. We left. We started traveling Southeast Asia, Thailand, Vietnam. And what we saw completely changed our viewpoint of what a poor country actually looks like and what's possible when a society prioritizes people over profit. We weren't looking for much when we left the US. Honestly, we were just looking for a more affordable place to survive and have a higher quality of life. But what we found when we got here was something we never really expected. We found access to health care, to affordable housing, affordable transportation, fresh food, amazing community, safety. In countries that we had been told our entire lives were third-world countries.
In Thailand, there's universal health care. In Vietnam, 90% of people are covered by public health insurance. And health care costs are much lower. While we were in Vietnam, we had to take our two-year-old to the ER after a head injury, and we paid a little over $7 out of pocket to be seen. And that was without health insurance. Meanwhile, in America, it can cost $300 just to go to the doctor and thousands of dollars for an ER visit. And that's with insurance. And the food, the food here is so healthy. It is fresh. It's grown locally. There are neighborhood street markets on every corner. It is affordable food, even when you compare it to the wages that the people make here. There's fresh vegetables and fruit and meat and spices and precooked to-go meals that you can just grab and take home with you that are made by local families. Even the poor families here eat well. They have access to affordable, healthy foods. It's not owned by corporations. It's not profitized. It's just local people feeding each other. Compare that to rural America where processed food is more affordable, may be the only thing available, and people may have to drive 20 miles just to get to a grocery store. And the community, the community here is strong. They are still very much family-oriented. Families live together. Elders are respected. Children are respected. People know their neighbors. They look out for each other. Even us, even being foreigners, even not being from this area, just the community vibe that we get, particularly with our 2-year-old, we feel so safe and accepted here.
Listen, we've been told our whole lives that America is the greatest country in the world. And I'm not here to bash America. There are some amazing things about America. I love certain parts of being American. Of course, I'm not denying that. But we still have to acknowledge the problems that we are facing. A lot of us are facing and are truly struggling. We've been sold the lie that if you work hard enough, that if you sacrifice enough, everything is going to be okay. But what I've seen overseas is that a good quality of life is not only about wealth and making more money. It is about priorities. These countries aren't perfect. Far from it. No country is. But they are prioritizing health care, affordable housing, transportation, community care, basic human dignity. While in America that is slipping away for millions of people. So when people ask us why did we leave? Isn't it scary to move abroad? Our answer is no. What's scary is being one hospital visit away from losing everything. What's scary is watching people that you love break down from stress, debt, and isolation in the richest country on earth.
If you are struggling right now, if you're exhausted, anxious, stressed, just know that it's not your fault. You're not lazy, you're not stupid, and you're not broken. You are living in a system that was not designed for you to succeed. It's not designed to take care of you. It's designed to extract from you. We've all been sold the same story. If you work hard enough, if you follow the rules, if you keep your head down, then you will live the American dream. But that American dream just isn't true for most of us anymore. The cost of housing, food, education, healthcare have all skyrocketed and wages have barely moved in 40 years. Meanwhile, billionaires are tripling their wealth and corporations pay almost no taxes. This isn't a failure of individuals. It is a failure of policies. Policies by both parties that over decades have prioritized profit over people. Us in America are owned by corporations. Everything is for profit. Our health care, our food system, things that are basic human needs. Our government bails out banks. They let corporations outsource jobs, slash benefits, and raise prices. They defund schools and health care in our towns. And you are just told to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
I get told a lot that wages in these other countries are a lot lower than in the US. And yes, while that is true, somebody in Thailand can still pay for housing, food, health care, all of their basic needs and still have money left over at the end of the month to save or have a little bit of fun with. While in the US, if you look at the same average wage and then deduct all of your meeting your basic needs expenses, healthcare, housing, transportation, all of that, there's no money left over. In fact, most people are going into debt just to meet their most basic needs today. So, while the wages are lower in these developing nations, the cost of basic living expenses are also much lower. We have personally lost family members due to the health care crisis in the US. We have watched families not only lose their lives but their homes. We have watched neighbors lose jobs, lose hope. And through it all, we've been told that it is our responsibility to fix it. But there's no fixing the system that is controlled by money when you don't have any to begin with. And the thing that is most frustrating is that this country has the money. It has the resources. But what it doesn't have is the desire to build a system in which ordinary people are able to survive and maybe even thrive. And that's why we left, not because we hate America, but because we wanted to be able to live.
So, you might be thinking, "That's great for you, but I can't just pack up and leave the country." And I totally get that. I am not suggesting that everyone just pack up and move. I know that there are very valid reasons why a lot of people can't do that. But what we need to do is we need to wake up to the reality of what is going on. And you need to know that you are not trapped. You've just been told that you are. Step one is to question the narrative. Start asking yourself, who is benefiting from me believing that my suffering is normal. That I should have to work two jobs just to afford to pay rent and put food on the table. That I deserve to go into debt just to go to the doctor. You don't deserve that. Nobody does. The system wants you to believe that. They want you to think that you're failing so that you will work harder. It's your fault for not figuring it out. It's your fault for not working hard enough, for not getting the right college degree, for not having the right job.
Step two is to rebuild your life around your priorities. Wherever you are, whether you live in rural America, the city, or another country, really stop and think what you want your priorities in life to be. Is it healthy food? You can start a garden or go to farmers markets or really deep dive in ways on how to source healthy, low-cost foods. I have a whole playlist on my channel on the most affordable foods that we bought while we were in the US and tons of recipes and everything that we were able to keep our grocery budget really low by eating very low-cost but healthy foods. Do you want to establish a greater sense of community, getting to know your neighbors, building mutual support with each other, having that strong support system with your community? Are there things that you want to learn which everybody should continuously be learning? Reading books, learning about other cultures and countries. You don't have to go anywhere to learn these things. That's something that I'm going to be sharing here on my channel or just the things that we learn as we're traveling around. Do you need to become more financially literate so that you can understand debt and savings and living below your means? Budgeting. All of those things are still very, very important and very vital to living in a weak economic society.
And step three is to consider your options. And yes, that might even mean thinking about leaving the country if that is a viable option for you. There are safe, affordable, family-friendly countries all over the world where you can live a higher quality of life than you have in the US. No country is perfect, but for us it has been the difference between surviving and really living. If your health, your safety, your sanity, your children's future are at risk, you owe it to yourself to explore every possible option. No guilt, no shame, no apologies. Millions of people are waking up to the same realization that the idea of the American dream that we have been sold is a lie. But the human dream to be healthy, to be safe, to be connected, to have enough, that is still alive and thriving in all of us. That dream is still possible. And the first step is refusing to continue to suffer in silence anymore.
We're not just telling the story from the outside. We have lived the struggle. And now we're traveling around to different countries to find something that works. Not just cheaper places to live, but healthier, more connected, more human ways of life. We're searching for more affordable, sustainable options for ordinary people like us. And we're sharing them here in case you might find them helpful, too. Because it's not just about finding a new place to live. It's about finding a new way to live. A new way to live that is sustainable for everyone, no matter where you are. So, if you want to follow along and see what we're learning and unlearning, make sure that you subscribe because I'm going to continue to share our experiences in all the countries that we visit. I know that there's other people like us that are searching for something different, that have felt the struggle and want things to be better. They just want to be happy and free. There is another way to live, so let's find it together. As always, thank you guys so much for watching and I'll talk to you next time.