Before the election a large number of celebrities vowed that they would leave the country if Trump won including Barbra Streisand, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie O'Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg, Miley Cyrus and Barry Diller.
We are still waiting for this happen. Perhaps they are waiting until after the inauguration. It could also be that they were waiting for this Never Trump Travel Guide on the best places in the world to destroy any remaining brain cells that they possess.
I recently came across a Bloomberg article that may help them choose where to live once they leave the United States. It compares the cost of a basket of goods — tobacco, alcohol, amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioids — in more than 100 countries relative to the U.S.
Let's call it a Vice Index.
If these celebs are so miserable and depressed about Trump perhaps they need something to take their minds off of their misery when they leave the country.
As a reference point, the basket of vice costs $400 in the United States.
This is what Bloomberg put in the vice basket.
a pack of cigarettes, most popular and premium brands; a bottle of alcoholic beverages, including beer, wine and spirits; a gram of amphetamine-type stimulants, including amphetamine, methamphetamine and/or ecstasy; a gram of cannabis, including marijuana herb, hashish resin and/or cannabis oil; a gram of cocaine, regardless of salts, paste or base forms; a gram of opioids, including heroin and/or opium.
If the celebs take their US dollars with them it will go the furthest in the Congo. What costs $400 for the vice basket in the U.S. will cost them less than $20 in that country in Africa. If they want to stay closer to home, they might want to check out Honduras where the vice basket goes for only about 10% of what it does in the States.
They need to stay away from Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The vice basket is real expensive in those countries--double to triple what it would cost in the States.
I know that these celebrities like to celebrate the socialist ideals of Venezuela. I can't understand why we don't see anyone saying that they want to live there instead of in the United States with Trump. Or in Cuba for that matter.
It must be the cost of the vice basket in Venezuela. I doubt it could be the lack of food, medical services or toilet paper in that socialist paradise.
The vice basket costs $3,645 in Venezuela---almost ten times what it does in the United States.
Life truly is not fair to the Venezuelans. They lack the most basic necessities thanks to their socialist leaders and they can't even do anything to try to ease the pain.
How bad is it?
Rampant inflation means locals would have to spend 17 times their weekly wages for a bottle of beer, a packet of smokes and a gram of cocaine.
That is bad. It is hard to imagine if it is that expensive to have a smoke, get drunk or get stoned how long will it be before political revolution comes to Venezuela?
After all, it was only an increase in the tax on tea that pushed American colonists over the edge.
If the celebrities find that it is not as easy to earn a buck in their new foreign home, and have to find a job in the local economy, this chart might be more instructive. It shows how much the vice basket costs as a percentage of the average weekly wage in the 40 most affordable countries to feed your vices.
Luxembourg and Switzerland are the most affordable countries for citizens with vices. The United States is #17 on the list. However, it still would consume 36% of the average worker's wages. After you pay that, your Obamacare premiums and your taxes, there would not be much left to live on. Vices are not cheap.
Canada is #23. The Congo which has the lowest absolute cost gets expensive when you have to earn a living there---the vice basket would consume over 50% of the average weekly wage.
Safe travels to all the Never Trumpers. Please protect the brain cells that you have left.
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