These Americans fled the country to escape their giant student debt

[PrettyFlyforaChiGuy]

It's kind of an interesting article, as I have some young-30's friends here in Beijing who still do the same thing, even with roughly upper-middle class salaries. Either way, every element of that article reeks of fiscal irresponsibility to me; with similar qualifications, you can definitely do better in terms of jobs abroad than these people achieved.

In case anyone here is interested in working abroad and is pursuing a degree to that end, I can say I've done it for all of my adult life, starting as a basic business school teacher in Japan through the JET Programme back in 2008. You definitely don't want to go about it the way the people in this article did. Earning $1,000 a month to teach in China like the guy in the article, even with partially paid rent, is ridiculously low for a legally employed, college-educated Westerner. I see regular teaching jobs all the time here paying around $2.5K to $3K as an entry-level employee. There is none of that seven-days-a-week nonsense, either, nor long-drop toilets in the jungle.

I just really don't see how any of these people fell into their positions, felt trapped, and never really bothered to advance. With their M.A. or even B.A., their debt back home doesn't preclude them in any way from higher-paying positions in all of the countries that were mentioned.

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Still, he said, “I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans.”

WOW !
how can anyone be so delusional ?

That man definitely is delusional, but I also have had higher standards of living while abroad than I would have had if I stayed living in Mississippi. Thailand was probably the most "Third World" out of the places where I've worked, and even then, I had a nice three-bedroom house 1km from the beach at around $150 a month. Food was cheaper and healthier, and even if it wasn't, health care is more accessible than back in the USA.

That guy's stories about spoiled goat meat and long-drops really paints a piss-poor image of the relative quality of life that can had abroad, especially for capable college graduates, which I'm assuming most people on this forum would be (unlike him).