It’s become fashionable — especially among the globally mobile, the tax-weary and the disillusioned — to grumble about life in America.
From health care costs to political dysfunction, the list of frustrations is long. But spend time in the rest of the world — and I don’t mean just the beach towns of Portugal or the cafés of Paris — and you’ll remember something too many Americans forget: This country still works.
In Henley & Partners’ recently released Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025, the annual authoritative publication on global wealth and millionaire migration worldwide, reports that the U.S. is in second place.
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Despite headlines about declining global influence or rising competition from other nations, America remains a powerful draw for individuals seeking opportunity, security and upward mobility.
It’s all about the possibilities
I’ll never forget a comment from a local guide while traveling in Vietnam. We were talking about the United States, and he said, half jokingly, “If the lampposts could move to America, they would.”
That comment landed harder than he probably meant, because in much of the world, America still represents something almost mythic: possibility.
Through the years, my family has lived and traveled throughout Asia, spending time not just in major cities but deep in emerging — not even developing — regions.
In Cambodia, we visited villages without running water or toilets.
In China, a smart, capable young woman told us she’d never once thought about what she wanted to be when she grew up — her only childhood wish was to eat meat more than once a week.
In Nepal, a guide told us that even the wealthy can’t easily escape the caste into which they’re born. In a monastery in the countryside, a monk who had never seen an iPhone stared at ours in awe and said, “You’re so lucky to be American.”
America is messy, but you can change your life
That phrase — “you’re so lucky to be American” — came up again and again.
They’re not wrong. Yes, America is messy. But it is also, crucially, mobile. You can change your station in life here. You can build wealth. You can move to a different state and start again. That’s not just rhetoric — it’s reality.
One of the best examples I’ve seen lately wasn’t abroad but right in my backyard.
Two young men — one in his late 20s, the other in his early 20s — were doing some landscaping work for us.
One had a backhoe worth $30,000, paid for in cash, not including all his other well-cared-for equipment, a solo 401(k) and an investment account of well-diversified stocks. He fully intends to stay in his small county, where he grew up, for life.
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The other is trying to break out of a rough family history and build something better. He works two jobs and asked if I could help him plan for his future.
Neither has a college degree. Both are working hard and charting their own course. That kind of quiet upward mobility — absent from most national discourse — is happening every day across America.
In many other countries, those paths wouldn’t exist.
Limited opportunities for young people
In Singapore, where we’ve spent time, most teenagers can’t get part-time jobs — foreign labor from the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh, to name a few, do nearly all the domestic and manual work.
In Italy and the Middle East, youth unemployment remains sky-high, and many talented people feel stuck. In much of the world, economic mobility is a fantasy.
Here, it’s still possible. That doesn’t mean it’s easy — but it’s possible.
Romanticizing life abroad
Our markets are deep and accessible. Our tax code, while frustrating, actually rewards investment and ownership. Our public programs, including Social Security, remain among the most generous in the world.
Even with flaws, the U.S. system allows ordinary people to build wealth in a way few other countries do.
It’s easy, especially for Americans who haven’t spent time outside the developed West, to romanticize life abroad.
But “free” health care often isn’t actually free. Public services in many places are underfunded, overtaxed or both. When things go wrong, it’s not always clear whom to call or if anyone will even come.
A call for perspective
This isn’t an argument against moving abroad or exploring the world. It’s a call for perspective. You can criticize your country and still believe in it.
Sometimes when you see the world as it really is — not just the curated Instagram version — you come home with a renewed appreciation for what you have.
It’s OK to complain, to demand more, to push for better — but don’t forget: people around the world would give anything to trade places with you.
If lampposts really could pack up and move, a lot of them would be headed straight for the United States.
