[keiferski]

For me personally, it initially was not about costs. I went to the places I wanted to live in and lived on a budget to survive there. Paris, Tokyo, Berlin, to name a few. Not super expensive but certainly not cheap.

Eventually though, I became more comfortable with living in “less developed” cities. (Although I think this designation for countries is rapidly becoming obsolete. Eastern Europe is in many ways more developed than Western Europe these days, for example.)

At this point, the quality of life in a city like Bangkok, Budapest, Istanbul, or Mexico City on $3,000/month is equivalent to about $10,000 or more in NYC or LA. The only affordable places in the US are small towns or camping, so if you want the urban lifestyle, it’s a major downgrade in terms of QoL to move back.

The other comment mentioned the ability to avoid American sociopolitical issues, which is also an underrated benefit. The American media-complex really is a kind of Matrix and once you’re outside it, it becomes easier to see how artificial most of the “pressing issues” are. Certainly political issues exist everywhere, but I have found the inhabitants of most “cheaper” countries to be more concerned with everyday life and work, rather than the latest news headlines.

[walrus01]

You can certainly avoid a lot of the American media complex even if you live in USA, by getting video news from Deutsch Welle, France24, Canadian sources like the Globe and Mail, etc and not the US domestic sources.

[keiferski]

A little bit, maybe. But the entire culture is so permeated in the media Matrix that you’ll need to avoid local newspapers, many conversations with coworkers and friends, TV ads, billboards and graffiti, and a whole host of other things that are not in other countries.

It’s a bit like saying, “I want to live in Tokyo but not eat any Japanese food.” Sure, that is technically possible and there is plenty of Western cuisine available. But it will require expending energy on an issue that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere.

[ido]

I think a lot of it is also that you just don't care as much about the politics of other countries. I moved from Israel, initially to Austria and then to Germany. I also feel the same thing about not being absorbed/bombarded by the political discourse but I think that's mostly because I can more easily (on an emotional level, I understand the language just fine) ignore Austrian/German politics.

[kubanczyk]

I think the problem with media is this:

When you are abroad, you can calmly observe swathes of people changing their culture.

I mean a broad definition of "changing" which includes criticizing, destroying, enriching, subverting, etc, etc.

When you are at home, you observe swathes of people changing your culture, living in which is beneficial to you. And there is nowhere else to go to get the same culture. (And media primarily report on the changes that you'd disagree with.) And switching to another culture is kinda expensive.

[NonEUCitizen]

German, French, and Canadian media are just as woke as, if not more so than American media.