Cutting Bait

My mama raised a quitter. If she were still alive, she’d probably be horrified at my admission, but I’m not ashamed. Sticking with a bad situation just to be sticking with it is stupid. It’s a trick of capitalism: the powers that be don’t want people cutting and running at the first sign of unhappiness, or when they’re knee-deep in debilitating stress, or when they’re so miserable they can barely get out of bed. ‘Give it your all!’ they say. Sorry, but no. We were not put upon this earth to put up with other people’s nonsense, and I’ll be dipped in dirt before I sacrifice my sanity so that someone else can make a quick profit.

That’s not to say that I run at the first sign of trouble. In bad situations, relationships, etc, I’ll always try to make things better or look for workarounds that help me cope with the stress. But there are times all avenues are simply exhausted, and when that happens, it’s time to go.

I always knew it would be difficult to live in Brexit Britain, and things here have deteriorated more than I’d anticipated. I’d managed to hold onto hope for improvement with Scottish independence, but that’s a long way off now. When the First Minster quit (I fully support her doing so), some rather regressive, nasty factions tried to take over the governing party. They failed, but only just. And the authoritarian nonsense that’s infected England is fast creeping north. Like the US, the UK is a target for wedge-issue, culture war, identity politics bullshit and I’ve had enough of it. I’d rather live somewhere no one cares about – an uninteresting, quiet, peaceful country with a diverse and democratic parliamentary system, decent healthcare, a reasonable cost of living, and absolutely of no interest to likes of the Mercers, the Kochs, Putin, or any other billionaires who seek influence for their own personal gain.

If I can find the right country, I should be able to sell the house and the business and live off the proceeds for a couple of decades. It would be a place where my paltry UK state pension can actually provide a modest-but-decent quality of life. With that, my social security from the US, my small private pension, and whatever additional savings I can pull together, I should be able to live out my years in relative comfort.

What I’m not going to do is stay in a place where the infrastructure is crumbling, the government is actively trying to harm the population; the cost of living is terrifying; and food, energy, and healthcare are becoming luxuries. I refuse to freeze in my own home because I’m too afraid to turn on the heating for fear of bankruptcy, and I’m not paying exorbitant prices for mealy, mushy tomatoes at the supermarket.

So where to go? There aren’t many inexpensive countries that actually seem to care about the wellbeing of their citizens, but I’m putting together a short list. Unless things in the UK take a drastic turn for the better in the next six to eight months, I’m quitting. Loyalty has limits.