Can We Keep Gen Zers From Fleeing America?

Thom Hartmann -  The language tutoring site Preply did a national survey of over 3,000 Gen Zers, published last month, and found that more than half of them are seriously interested in, or actively considering, permanently moving out of the United States. For a bit over a quarter of them, the main attraction of living in the UK, Canada, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Ireland, or Italy (the top 10) was free or low-cost access to healthcare and higher education.

Because Republicans have fought any effort to institute Medicare for All or anything like it (12 Red states won’t even expand Medicaid!), the United States is the only developed country in the world that lacks a national healthcare system and has millions of people without any health insurance whatsoever. While a half-million American families are wiped out every year by medical debt and must declare bankruptcy, every single one of the top ten countries Gen Zers are considering moving to offers a free or near-free national healthcare system where nobody ever goes bankrupt just because somebody in the family got sick.

Similarly, because Governor Ronald Reagan ended free college in California — and then, as president, took a meataxe to the Education Department, cutting its budget and programs by over 20% — America is now the only developed nation in the world where widespread student debt is even a thing. American students are carrying almost two trillion dollars in college debt, but each of the top ten countries on the Gen Z list offers free or nearly free college. In several of them, in fact, students get paid or earn a stipend to attend college.  MORE