This is unusual because my usually very quiet wife was very vocal about what should we do if the government were to throw us out of the country. During our conversation, she asked me where we could go if we had to leave the United States, and I had to sit a minute and think about it.

My wife grew up in China during the Chinese cultural revolution. During the 1960's, it was the aftermath of the great famine in the late 1950's that killed millions of Chinese people. The succeeding decades weren't much better for the vast majority of the average Chinese citizens as China tried to gain a footing in the world. She grew up with a very repressive government and a society that was strung together on old world customs and a corrupt government that did it's best to keep a tight control on everyone. Poverty was the norm for everyone.

Because of all of that, when she managed to come to the U.S. and claim asylum in 2010, she was granted a green card, which cost her $1000 of hard earned money. Because of the lack of information about the U.S. while living in China, she always thought the U.S. was the absolute best place in the world to live. Until the other night.

Now, she is seeing some parallels to the China she grew up in.

So, back to my quiet moment about where we could go if we had to leave the U.S. in a hurry. She mentioned Portugal as a place that was supposed to be welcoming to Americans. I had to tell her that this was no longer the case. The same for Spain, France, and most of the rest of Europe. Americans have been leaving the U.S. in droves since Trump's first term to go to Europe and Latin America, and because of their often lofty, clueless behaviour, they are not so welcome anymore.

Portugal, Spain, France, England, Ireland, Germany, and most of the rest of Europe and Latin America are starting to put the breaks on American immigration to their countries. They have raised the visa requirements and fees, raised the standards for applying for residency and citizenship, and so on in the last couple of years because these more affluent Americans who have gone over to these countries with their better than everyone else attitudes and satchels full of cash, which drove up house rentals and home prices to the point that local native born citizens can no longer afford to buy or rent decent homes or apartments anymore.

After thinking about my wife's question for a minute, I thought of Italy. Now, neither one of us is Italian, nor do I have any Italian relatives or ancestors. I had thought of Canada before, even though I am one generation too far to apply for Canadian citizenship. But we both realised that Canada is having its own problems with over immigration and housing issues, plus some economic problems due to Trump's tariff war, so we vetoed Canada. My wife hates the cold weather anyway.

With most of Europe off limits for us because we don't have a lot of money, I told my wife about Italy. Italy is a EU country that is relatively simple to live in, a decent standard of living, and not so popular with most Americans. Especially in the north. As a matter of fact, Italy in recent years, has been advertising for people to come live in some of these out of the way villages far from Rome and the Mediterranean coast. Up near the northern mountain regions.

The drawback would be, one, neither one of us know much about Italy, second, we don't speak the language nor do we know any local customs. I have been to Italy a couple of times in the 1980's and I found it to be a friendly place full of nice and not so nice people. Much like anywhere else in the world, other than the U.S. Obviously, some things have changed, such as the government, but then, so has the U.S. At least Italy, despite their very right wing prime minister, is a lot more stable to live in than the United States right now.

In order for us to live there, we would have to sacrifice a lot of things. I wouldn't have my nice, somewhat large suburban house to live in anymore and I would probably lose my social security pension if I gave up my U.S. citizenship. Could we live in Italy until we died of old age as U.S. expats? Maybe. Two years ago, I would have said yes with no hesitation. Now, with a certain MAGA congressman putting forth a bill to eliminate dual citizenship for any non-native born citizens, and a proposal to stop retired Americans from living long term outside of the U.S. for other than work, I am not so confident any more.

As it stands, until they change the law, we could live as expats in certain allied countries, such as NATO countries and I can still keep receiving my government pensions. I personally have known retired military veterans who left the U.S. to live in Thailand, the Philippines, Japan, Germany and other countries like them comfortably. I always thought I had that option also until now.

My concern stems from the current economic situation of the United States. Under Trump, who seems to want to find different, offbeat ways to move money from one federal pot to one he wants to use, I'm concerned that he might decide within the next couple of years to make it illegal for veterans to retire to another country and still keep our pensions and disability benefits.

Trump is slowly choking off the economy of the United States with his tariffs and other foreign policies. The U.S. stock market tanked again yesterday and that's making famous economists take notice. Global corporations like Amazon and Walmart are starting to expand their logistics operations into places like Canada now to get around Trump's tariffs. The jobless rate is steadily rising with all of the recent layoffs in the last few months and analysts are predicting that this will continue to rise this year.

As I noted in my podcast this week, other countries are starting to diversify their trading partners and beginning to exclude the United States where they can. If Russia starts providing naval escorts for their oil tankers to prevent Trump from hijacking more of their ships, other countries will follow suit and America's sea ports will become ghost towns. Without shipping traffic, imports of goods to the U.S. will come to a near halt. A lot of people will get very hungry and angry.  People are already angry over the affordability crisis and this will only make things a lot worse.

Then there is the health care issue. Italy, and Europe as a whole, have a better health care system than the U.S. It's better in some countries than others, but overall, it's still a lot better than here in the U.S. If we moved to Italy, I would lose access to the Veterans Administration hospitals and doctors. I would lose my other health care insurance, such as Tricare and Medicare. But, if I'm living in a country with a national heath care program or even just regular medical services, the cost, even out of pocket, would be substantially less than that of anything offered in the U.S.

If I can keep my pensions, I probably can afford to live comfortably in Italy. The prices of everyday living are substantially less than the U.S as well. There would be things that I would have to learn to live without because they wouldn't be available in a small Italian village but, considering the poverty I have lived with in the U.S. in my younger days, I think we would manage just fine.

If your reading this, just know that I'm thinking out loud here. I hope I don't have to sell my house and possessions in order to start over in a place like Italy. The sheer mountain of logistics alone is prohibitive. Not to mention the income tax sanctions that the U.S. government puts on expats.

I've been studying this for a few years now. Mostly by reading news stories and blog articles from Medium writers over the last three years. I always kept this to myself since I knew what a fervent American my wife always wanted to be, until now. Our lengthy conversation the other night got my attention and I won't soon forget it. Now, in my spare time, which is scant, I will be passively researching northern Italy just in case I need a safe haven someday soon. Maybe I can talk my wife into reconnecting to her distant cousin who lives over there somewhere and is married to an Italian, if I remember right. I remember seeing pictures of their place in the Italian countryside a few years ago. It wasn't fancy or in any way suburban like what we're used to here in the U.S. but still..... Maybe a relative connection to help us with immigration? It's worth thinking about.

In other thoughts, I'm still waiting for the hammer to fall regarding our health insurance coverage. As a military retiree, I get access to subsidised health care through the DOD. Which means, at least for now, my monthly premiums have always been a lot less than any civilian provider. The downside, has always been to find a health care provider that will accept this government backed health insurance because they pay the provider so little compared to the civilian insurance providers. Because of this. providers are becoming scarcer these days.

Case in point. My wife needed some dental work recently beyond the normal six month cleaning and maintenance visits. We found out, after lots of phone calls to providers in my area, that there were no providers that could offer the surgery she needed within the insurance network anywhere near me. We had to find someone willing to do the work first. Then we had to request special permission from the insurance company in order to make the appointment so they could be paid, minus a co-pay of course.

All has gone smoothly, so far. But after a follow on visit this week for the dentist specialist to monitor the aftermath of the surgery, I wonder if I'm now going to get a bill because the insurance will refuse to pay for the office visit? The same dentist wants to see her in a month for the same thing. They're nice about it but, will these checkup visits be covered?

I'm talking about this because I'm sure that there are a lot of other people who've experienced this same thing in this crazy health care system we have here in the United States. It seems we the patients are always having to argue with the health insurance companies about health insurance provider bills that they make excuses not to pay.

I used to know a Canadian woman who needed to see a dentist years ago. She asked me to driver her across the border once to a dentist she knew in a Canadian border town and she paid for the visit out of pocket. It cost her fifty dollars Canadian at the time, which was back in 2011. That's with no insurance.

Imagine what a dentist office visit in the U.S. costs now with no insurance? There was a young lady in the dentist office I took my wife to the other day who was working on setting up a payment instalment plan to pay for her dental care. That's what health care in the U.S. is like. We either pay the insurance companies vast sums of money every month or we pay the health care providers even more after a visit if we can't afford the insurance. It's a no win situation in the U.S. And the worst part? For all of this money we have to pay out, we don't get any better health care or faster service for all of that money. With RFK Jr in charge now, we're probably receiving worse care overall in the U.S. than other developed countries.

In a previous podcast, I mentioned that countries like Canada and regions like the EU are actively recruiting U.S. doctors and nurses who are tired of all the B.S. and looking for something better. A lot of them have accepted positions outside if the U.S. in the last couple of years. As I said, the brain drain is on here in the U.S. and it will be getting worse over the next few years.

Italy is starting to look like a really nice quiet place to retire now. I hear that the Mediterranean diet and fresh air help people live a lot longer. Plus the lack of stress that might come from living in a low cost of living country with half way decent health care. I could live in a place where walking or bicycling to the local village for groceries or a doctors visit is more the norm than having to drive for miles to do the same here in the U.S.

That's what's going on in my world this week. Depending on what happens in the U.S. over the next few days, I may or may not write again before this time next week. If Trump starts world war three I'll definitely let you know. I've included this weeks video podcast below for anyone interested. Be safe. Arrivederci amici miei