this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
1971 points (99.5% liked)
Political Memes
5453 readers
3583 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
dependent on having a passport and the price of a ticket.
If you have leapt those hurdles, you can travel to any of 186 countries with the click of a button and anywhere from ten to a few hundred dollars.
Canada was $22 yesterday from Washington.
I got a ticket from New York to London for $23 and a ticket from Ireland to Morocco for $12.
New York to Hong Kong? $213 this spring.
I'm comfortable checking ticket prices regularly, but even if don't plan at all, you can add 50 to 100 bucks to any of those prices and find a ticket right away.
you already mentioned you don't want to visit North Korea and Cuba.
That's okay, traveling to one country doesn't mean you have to travel to literally every country.
Just choose the places you want to go to.
I suggest avoiding North Korean and any countries currently operated by actively genocidal warlords.
leaves you with almost 200 other breathtakingly beautiful, culturally unique countries to travel to.
proof in the pudding:
tickets for tomorrow:
So, question: You're someone with a not-remote-friendly skill set. You save your money to travel - travel, mind you, not immigrate, so subject to the visa requirements of travellers/tourists (as this seems to be what you're talking about - immigration is a whole different kettle of fish). The money runs out. What do?
Or - you're living paycheck to paycheck with children. You try to save money to travel for the reasons you've brought up here. It's not possible. What do?
No offence, but your account of travel as a solution here seems deeply naive. It can work for some, sure, but "just leave the country bro" simply isn't an option at all for many, many people.
"The money runs out. What do?"
you do not need a remote friendly skill set to find an online job that will pay you a few hundred dollars per month.
so you get an online job.
if for whatever reason you only want to work in person, you can go berry picking in a lot of countries or harvesting on farms, you can teach English in person in 40 different countries immediately, au pairs, housesitters, a lot of countries hire seasonal workers.
so if you need a job, you can find one.
and if you plan ahead at all (oh no! I only have four more weeks of money), your overhead is so cheap that whatever job you get will cover you, you'll be able to catch up and hopefully learn to plan ahead a little bit.
example: this month you somehow forgot you needed money. but you remembered in the last month before you ran out and you taught English for 10 hours and you got rent for the next month.
now you're one month ahead, so you teach English for 10 more hours, and now? you're 2 months ahead, and you have one whole month minus 10 hours to figure out what you're going to do next.
or what you want to do next.
most travelers don't have this problem, I've never met one that ran out of money without some sort of plan in place.
you have so much time when you don't have any financial stressors, and there are jobs in every country, and a billion jobs that you don't need skills for online, plus countless online certifications if you want a professional online job.
there's no reason why you would end up in a situation where you surprisingly ran out of money.
"you're living paycheck to paycheck with children. You try to save money to travel for the reasons you've brought up here. It's not possible. What do?"
do you have a phone? easiest way is to teach English online for 10 hours a month If that's all you have.
you have enough money to move your family after a few months.
"No offence, but your account of travel as a solution here seems deeply naive"
That's because you don't know anything about traveling, so you are imagining that these simple solutions won't work because you don't know how to solve these problems.
I do.
"naive"
I don't think you know what this word means.
i know exactly how to travel immediately and indefinitely, I've brought other people along and taught them how to travel, I have simple practical solutions to any question off the cuff because I know and have lived this stuff back and forth.
I have as much practical experience with travel and insight into traveling as anybody you're going to find.
you're assuming that because you don't know how to travel, other people cannot know how to travel.
but we do.
"It can work for some, sure, but "just leave the country bro" simply isn't an option at all for many, many people."
travel can work for anybody, leaving the country is an option for anyone with a valid passport and 100 bucks.
and especially if you need financial relief, It's a heck of a lot easier and more liberating than borrowing money from friends or family or living in your car or on the streets, or moving back in with your parents.
people are afraid of traveling, especially Americans, because they live in a monoculture, they're told that the world outside is scary and other cultures are scary, but other cultures are beautiful and compassionate.
other countries function better than the US does in most respects, and practically all livability.
if you travel, you will learn that.
Can I do this from the USA, because every listing I see requires degrees or certifications. Can you toss a few websites my way, please?
yes.
College degrees are nice but not necessary, I would suggest getting TEFL certificate, teaching English as a Foreign Language.
It's an online PDF course, that lasts the rest of your life it is greatly influential and how much you get paid for teaching English.
you have to make sure the tefl course is internationally accredited.
Full circle is internationally accredited and is almost perpetually on sale on groupon.
right now it's $30 for the course on Groupon.
https://www.groupon.com/deals/n-tefl-fullcircle?srsltid=AfmBOoqFYZwQR0qx9rYRLhscJVtcMwVRegIqmTAVW8IbDOyJdzSn_20T
it took me 4 days of a few hours a day reading at PDF and taking the tests on the full circle website.
It's the program I recommend to anyone interested in teaching English.
it might take a few weeks if you have less free time
as for teaching english, there are so many websites, Just find whichever one looks the least burdensome that has high reviews from teachers.
If you have a laptop, these ones:
https://www.tefl.org/teach-english-online/
If you only have a phone, these ones:
https://www.goodairlanguage.com/online-english-teaching-app-list/
you'll get paid about the same, so trial and error and find out which one is the easiest platform for you to use and provides the greatest compensation.
I'd suggest one of the apps where you can talk to people on the phone conversationally so you get used to acting and sounding like a teacher before you jump into one-on-one tutoring or group teaching kids on the laptop, which might pay a little more but might be more work.
Go through the lists and see which ones sound good to you,, they all function a little bit differently but fundamentally the same so you might find one that suits you better.
Thank you, I'll look into that.
For sure!
I love talking about this stuff all the time, but especially while I'm traveling and see a meme like this that posits a lack of alternatives to the struggle of surviving in the United States specifically, I feel it necessary to just let people know that there are ready, low-barrier alternatives.
Doing the work, spreading the good news. Haha 😆