Living like a King Abroad Cost Less than Rent in the United States
- Trevor Alexander Nestor
- 21 hours ago
- 3 min read
After my wrongful termination from Microsoft, I've been traveling abroad - namely to China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, the Pillipines, and East Timor. As I am typing this article I am staying at a 5-star hotel in Bangkok for only $80 a night. What I can say is that I do not regret my choice, and with the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and toxic sociocultural and sociopolitical climate in the United States, it's not difficult to understand why. (Forgive my use of TikTok, I just needed an easy video platform to post videos):
Some observations I've made so far as there does not seem to be the same issues with homelessness in these countries in major cities like you see in the United States. When asking locals why, they claim that even the unemployed own their own homes, and there is a strong culture of maintaining family ties as a support system. The data certainly does seem to back this up - with the absurdly high home ownership rate when compared to the United States. My family simply kicked me out to live in my car after I was unemployed.
Police do not usually carry weapons - in the United States I've seen police in New York carrying semiautomatic rifles. Cities seem remarkably safe when compared to the US with less need for law enforcement interventions. The subways and rail at least in China are clean, efficient, and cheap - allowing me to easily travel between major cities without a car or plane. The tech ecosystem seems less bloated and confusing than in the United States. I've seen flying cars, everybody seems to be driving an electric car with strides in self-driving technology, I've seen drone shows and the recent military parade. When I stayed in Shanghai it was remarkably clean and modern.
For less than you pay in rent in the United States for a one or two bedroom, you can live full time in 5-star hotels, eating sushi, steak, and king crab, drinking cocktails by the beach, where you don't have to pay for Tinder plus to get matches and dates. I've lost weight as well because the food is less processed in general. I've visited the Qufu Shaolin Kung Fu school and you can stay at their little resort and learn Kung Fu there if and when you become unemployed in the United States during the next round of layoffs.
What I'm trying to point out here is that in the United States, they want workers in a constant state of anxiety and desperation to be coerced into propping up the economy which is increasingly more top heavy and unstable. If workers are insecure about themselves, pressured, and desperate - they are more likely to feel pressured to waste their time just working any job that comes their way, living alienating austere stressful lifestyles they are both pressured into but punished in various ways for accepting. They certainly have issues in these other countries, but due to exchange rates, there is more to offer, and I can't say I feel stressed at all. It's true that the United States has so much going on - but how much can you actually afford? What sort of lifestyle are you living day-to-day? I would much rather live where I have to drink out of a water bottle because the tap is not potable than be pressured to waste my time working dead end low wage unstable jobs to make ends meet where folks lie to my face that what I'm doing is responsible.
If you don't have any money at all, getting a TEFL certificate is quite easy and landing a position is not hard for foreigners. Getting a visa to China was simple through TravelVisaPro and I would even recommend you buy a pass from Thousand Trails and a cheap RV from Facebook marketplace living off-grid over working dead end low wage unstable jobs in the United States. Do not play their game - if you are in a position where you are unable to afford necessities like healthcare, transportation, taking a nice girl on a date a few times a week, the ability to support a family (even if you don't want one), going on frequent social outings and proper social integration, the time for adequate exercise and to live without anxiety attacks and feelings of isolation all the time, don't let anybody lie to you that what you are doing is responsible.
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