Peter wrote:
A friend is planning to move to the Spanish mountains (s. coast) exactly for that reason; he seriously thinks there will be a nuclear war.
In a nuclear war scenario, he should be in the southern hemisphere because of milder predicted winter.
Peter wrote:
Personally if I was the OP I would do all possible to just move within the US. (…) The US has a big range of cultures and a big range of cost of living options, while you don’t need to learn a new language and don’t need to learn subtleties in the use of language and subtleties in the local culture.
True, but moving to a less expensive area in the US may expose one to even less pleasant cultural aspects such as extreme social conservatism, parochial and compartmentalised thinking, Christian fundamentalism, xenophobia, etc.
Airborne_Again wrote:
Sweden is a high trust society – both in how people trust each other and in how they trust authorities.
where is this trust coming from ?
Peter wrote:
Also most of Europe is pretty crap for GA flying.
And Portugal is not really known to be rather GA friendly …
In a nuclear war scenario, he should be in the southern hemisphere because of milder predicted winter.
Waste of energy. In a full-blown nuclear war, or anything close, supply chains will be destroyed. There will be mass starvation, globally, regardless of how far you are from any actual bombs. New Zealand? Where does their oil come from? Medical supplies? Populations will necessarily fall to pre-industrial levels. Personally I’d rather die quickly than starve to death over a period of months. Think how a not-very-serious contagious disease messed things up, never mind destruction of major cities and infrastructure followed by a nuclear winter.
In a nuclear war scenario, he should be in the southern hemisphere because of milder predicted winter.
Until what is left of the north heads down to the south 
True, but moving to a less expensive area in the US may expose one to even less pleasant cultural aspects such as extreme social conservatism, parochial and compartmentalised thinking, Christian fundamentalism, xenophobia, etc.
Sounds like a lot of the earth’s surface area
But seriously there must be ways to halve one’s cost of living without compromising much else. You can easily do that here in the UK for example and you can probably do it in much of N Europe if starting in a place where the cost of living is high. Every country has spots where the cost of living is very high, so you don’t have to move very far.
And Portugal is not really known to be rather GA friendly …
Indeed; it would be ok if you have a bizjet so you can get somewhere useful fairly quickly.
There are so many other factors… For example a lot of kids get really screwed up by a move. They lose all their friends…
Peter wrote:
For example a lot of kids get really screwed up by a move. They lose all their friends…
From my experience, it’s a short-term thing. In the long run, there is hardly anything better for broadening children’s outlook on life than moving from one country to another. My daughter who had by the age of 12 already lived in three countries and mastered three languages at a native/near-native level, is now (in her 30s) very grateful for the experience.
Ultranomad wrote:
From my experience, it’s a short-term thing. In the long run, there is hardly anything better for broadening children’s outlook on life than moving from one country to another. My daughter who had by the age of 12 already lived in three countries and mastered three languages at a native/near-native level, is now (in her 30s) very grateful for the experience
Agree 100%. Kids will often whine about short-term change, but be grateful for it long-term. Doesn’t always make it easy on the parents though… 
From my experience, it’s a short-term thing. In the long run, there is hardly anything better for broadening children’s outlook on life than moving from one country to another.
That was certainly true for me, moving to the US, and then from one side to their other. My outlook would have been immeasurably narrower and more restricted if we’d stayed in Europe. Seeing the world outside of a narrow view is a a good thing.
AdamFrisch wrote:
how does your region feel to you at this moment in time?
Good question. The other day I had to drive almost the whole lenght of the country outside motorways (as those converted to “parking lots” at that time) and found what a beautiful country we really live in. And that it is worth going out there and seeing other places than the one you live, as one gets a tunnel vision after a while.
Where I live, taxes are low, schools are good, pay is decent and in general and apart from the usual bitching about insignificant stuff, it’s a good life. On the GA Side, there are plenty of GA fields available in Switzerland and nearby Germany, as long as you don’t need IFR and H24 hours and can get by with a comparatively small airplane. The positives are close to what @Snoopy writes about Austria. It’s comparatively safe, has a good quality of life and you can get by with English until you pick up German and dialect.
The area I live in is very expensive though, but there are plenty others which are even more beautiful but a lot less expensive. Salaries do reflect that though so normally you can live ok, depending on the profession you have. That also should be something to consider if you move, is there an industry around where you can actually find jobs? Switzerland is not exactly Hollywood (I appear to recall that you work in that industry?) But on the other hand, Germany, the Uk, France and Italy have a movie industry.
I have often considered running away from Switzerland but always found that in the final analysis I’d rather be in a place where democracy is not only a word but is actually lived. So I’ve given up all those ideas.
Sweden and Scandinavia in general are in today’s world the place where many Swiss and other Europeans go for holidays. The airline my wife works for has included lots of destinations and flights into their holiday program from Southern Sweden all the way up to the tip of Norway and Finland. Also the Happiness index is quite impressive there. LeSving does not appear to be the only one who likes it there :). And some who actually do own places in Sweden and go there in summer also own a place south for the winter, Italy, Spain, Portugal or even the Canaries. What I’d think is, that you would most probably have much less problems “fitting in” in your old home than anywhere else, particularly if you still have the passport.
I would also not discard the UK, in particular places which are not in the biggest centers but more rural. Guy I knew from the London threadmill went off a literary spree to find his happiness in the writings of Carlyle and Tom Sharpe and now lives somewhere between the border wall and Hexham. Apparently you can get quite larger estates there for very few money if you don’t mind to be up the “a**e of geography” but well, you might want to learn to fly helicopters to do your shopping. On the other hand, there are less radically rural places such as the lake district or the general southwest, which are areas of beauty and feature quite often in programs like “Escape to the Countryside” and similar. I did like that are a lot when travelling a few years ago and you can still hop on the train to London or thereabouts if you feel the need for a metropolitan area.
Other friends have moved to Italy from the Netherlands and love it there. From a GA point of view, France and Germany would be very attractive, with the French GA scene being closer to what you are used to in the US, apart from the fact that you need to learn the language.
On the other hand, in your situation, I would second others about looking around in the US first of all to see what can be found there. Lots of people have left California in recent years due to high living cost and high taxation, I’ve seen countless opinions about less frequented places in the US which would be considerably cheaper yet within the airline network to the big places if you need to hop over for work. Friend of mine relocated from CA to Oregon, another one went to Wyoming, where she sais cost of living is a fraction of what she paid in CA and taxes practically nothing but nature is great. Others went to Texas. Quite a few places are within a 2-3 hour range out of LAX per Southwest or Jetblue, another friend used to stay near Boulder CO and found it great until work made him move to the FL panhandle.
I also have friends who moved further South to Costa Rica and found it cheap to live and still only a couple of jet hours away from where work is.
I do know your feeling and I do understand it, particularly also seeing how the US is getting worse and worse in recent years particularly on the political side. So I do understand your motivation. Well, why not do a “Griswald” and take time one summer for a big European Tour and see the places you are considering first hand? It may well be a way to think about what you really want. What is great about it is that you do have the choice.
