As the American Dream fades away, millionaires have left the country to find it elsewhere. According to Business Insider, America’s millionaires are moving to countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta to grow their wealth. The consulting firm Henley & Partners suggests that the reason for the move is not due to high taxes, rather it is to seek a place where millionaires can invest their money, grow their businesses, and raise their families in a safer environment.
Jeff D. Opdyke, an investment expert, said that the American Dream was at one time inspirational, but now “is on life support.”
Henley & Partners pointed to the decrease in the middle class as a sign that America has taken a turn for the worse. Business Insider reports that “one of the measures [the firm] uses to gauge the health of a country’s economy is its middle class — which has been shrinking in the US.” Opdyke added that “at the same time, the middle class is growing outside the US, with nearly 430,000 new consumers joining the middle class in the developing world every day.”
Executives, investors, and entrepreneurs have become increasingly “disillusioned” with the American Dream as the economy suffers, calls to heavily tax the rich are becoming more popular, and political divides and societal issues bring massive tension and unrest across the U.S., as well as “unpredictable markets because of the war in Ukraine.”
For centuries, America was the “land of opportunity,” a place where rags-to-riches was more than just a dream, for many it was a proven reality. America attracted people looking for a better life for their families, a place where their children could grow up nurtured, protected, and dream of their own futures. Now, according to Henley & Partners’ research, the dream now exists elsewhere, and whether or not it returns to America is a question we will see answered soon.