Americans and expatriates: Do you (did you) want to leave the US?

As long as I can remember, I have dreamed of moving out of this country. Many obvious reasons: education, health care, relative lack of extreme militant attitude, etc. With the recent change in our government’s leadership, I haven’t been thinking “Oh my God, I have to get out of this horrible place” quite as much – but then I felt that panicky feeling again when I heard that Goldman Sachs is giving each of their employees $700,000 bonuses (Why do these guys continue doing it?! It’s so audacious! Aargh!), and when I first read the report that Dick Cheney may have had a hand in Benazir Bhutto’s assassination (this has since been retracted) and found that I believed it immediately.

My college friends who have moved away love their new lives and say they are never coming back. But now that I have enough skills and money such to actually get out, I haven’t, and I’m not entirely sure why. Will you guys share your feelings and actions on staying and leaving?

And first-generation immigrants: Why did you come here?