Having lived outside the US for 40 years, mostly in France, but also in Italy and Mexico, I have noticed that sooner or later you will mutate into a person who can’t go back even if you want to. Yes, I know some people resist their host culture, refusing to adapt, but even so the US itself is changing. It is reverting to what it was before the New Deal of the 1930’s and 40’s. And it’s using its economic prowess to spread its brand of dystopia abroad.

All of your points are well taken. I grew up in a different time in America, but even then it was not easy to avoid the American money-chase and its emptiness, which it is exporting around the world more successfully than I ever imagined. The trickle of privileged Americans who can find an exit door (that isn’t locked) threatens to become a stampede.