A little over 7 years ago, I moved to Australia with less than $100 in my bank account. Now, my partner and I are getting ready to buy our first apartment. I can’t credit this change in circumstance to some uniquely Australian way of life. It’s possible that some of this would have happened anyway if I had stayed in America, by virtue of progressing along a career path and sharing financial resources with a partner.
But what I felt in America was a pervasive sense of whiplash: that good things could come to you, but that the rug could be pulled out at any minute. That entire life paths could be foreclosed in the aftermath of an election or with a single court ruling.
This doesn’t happen to the same degree in Australia. For all of the “checks and balances” that America prides itself on, Australia feels more balanced.
