I think that this is an important issue for Americans here and as much as many of you want to just go out and risk everything to transition, unless you are good at survival, you cannot ignore the current and future situation of the economy.
From what I have seen, the reality is that the U.S. economy will never be as good as it was before, because America's superior economic position compared to the rest of the world, government spending and americans buying things on credit (and obtaining money cheaply, like to buy houses) is what kept the economy good before, and that has all crashed. Americans now are more worried about paying down their debt, are less optimistic about the economy than during the peak of the recession in 2009, state governments are still laying off thousands and thousands of workers, and lawmakers are more worried about paying down the deficit than in passing effective economic stimulus bills, means that the government doesn't look like its going to save America from the bad economy this time. People need to spend in order to make the U.S. economy go up, and in order to do that they need jobs, but the U.S. Government is not helping much in that regard, and corporations are sitting on lots of cash and are hiring people mostly in other countries, so the prospects of the U.S. economy going back up (at least for most people) are dim. Corporations are hiring more and more people overseas rather than Americans (thanks to free trade policies), and are looking more to markets in other countries rather than care much for the U.S. economy (and they fund the politicians, to do their bidding of course). States are slashing budgets for public education (because they themselves have to meet massive gaps between revenue and expenses, since they are required to balance their budgets), making it harder for people to retrain for the jobs that still have much demand. The economic engine that has been responsible for the prosperity of America is broken, and there's no signs that it'll be fixed anytime soon, given the dysfunctionality of the American government in solving America's problems. Japan has had a dysfunctional government for 20 years, and what has that resulted in? Twenty years of a stagnant economy, due to ineffective stimulus policies and increasing debt, which has resulted in much of Japan outside of Tokyo suffering as a result, and young people that are resigned to living with lower quality of living standards than their parents. Japan's economy has stayed stagnant for 20 years, while the American economy doubled in size since then, and now China has surpassed Japan's economy, and 20 years ago Japan was expected to have become the world's largest economy! I'm just giving this as an example of what happens when the government becomes so dysfunctional that it can't solve the problems of the country anymore, which is what it looks like with the American Government now.
The thing is that I don't see the U.S. economy getting any better, and also the European Debt Crisis is only starting to unfold (and that WILL hurt the U.S. Economy from what I've read), and it looks like the economy is going to get worse before it gets better, and with a government that doesn't care about the suffering that the people are going through, its very dangerous to put yourself in a position of weakness in terms of an ability to survive, given that you cut ties with friends and family, that you give up your job (or risk being fired from your job because you are trans), and that you make it harder for yourself to find a job given how hard it is even for cisgendered people to find a job, and UNLESS you are good at survival skills, working very hard, and making friends with others, can you make it.
Even then, I think with an untrustable healthcare industry (yes, Healthcare Reform was passed but the bill didn't have controls on the price of healthcare premiums) and the miserable and worsening quality of healthcare (see the movie Sicko for instance), Republicans that want to bring down Medicare and Social Security, as well as Republicans being very aggressive in trying to dismantle everything that protects the American people from hardship and corporate predators, and corporations having more and more power over U.S. Politics (with total disregard over the welfare of American citizens), the future is in danger in terms that it'll only get harder and harder to survive in this country. Third World countries have lots of people who have to work so hard as that they are virtually economic slaves, just to be able to survive on a day to day basis. It's hard finding a good paying job in a third world nation, most jobs pay very poorly and you need to be a doctor or lawyer and/or have good connections in getting a job just to be able to live a decent life. Third World countries much of the time are not in such bad conditions because they are poor, but because the top 1% of people hoard most of the wealth of the nation, and forcing the rest of the people to accept scraps (thus, very low pay.) I see America going in the direction of that, that America's essentially gradually turning into a Third World Nation, and unless Americans rise up and overthrow corporate power in this country, I don't see that outlook changing for this country in the future.
I don't mean to scare any of you, I just fear the consequences of people here just jumping in and sacrificing everything in order to transition, not knowing what they are getting themselves into given the economic situation of this country and just how much of an unfavorable position in terms of survival they could be putting themselves in. I've seen trans people in L.A. have a hard time surviving, and/or just barely making it.
I've always felt that the TG community should be more closely knit given how TG people have the short end of the stick in society, and thus have a significant disadvantage in survivability ability, financially and psychologically. I wish that the TG community was closely knit enough that people would help each other survive in this world, but I haven't seen it, and I guess I've only seen L.A. so I can only hope that it is better in other cities, but given the nature of TG people not being united, i'm not confident that it is much better in other cities.
At the very least, try to build a good and large social network before you transition, including trusted friends and such.
If you want to know why we're not close knit, I can answer that right now.
Not everyone agrees with the philosophies and politics you subscribe too. I by and large don't. And I wouldn't consider a Michael Moore movie as evidence of anything. Though credit where it's due, at least you didn't call it a documentary. Michael Moore produces some entertaining stuff, but it's all biased and controlled. You can't make informed decisions based on it.
Even if he were fighting for a view I agree with (which happens from time to time), I wouldn't want people deciding based on his work. People like that can be made to believe almost anything with the right presentation.
Things suck, sure, I'm with you there. But they could also suck a lot more, and maybe they need to suck for a while for them to get better. Or at least to get people to appreciate how much they had.
I personally don't believe the economy is really much of a concept. There's really no single force that makes up an economy; the only real factors in life are those who, by some method, are financially comfortable, while there's others, who by some design or other, that are struggling on things like paying for medical costs, finding a job, and going through the trials of getting government assistance.
A bad economy simply extents as far as those who literally are struggling to keep alive; if someone is simply having trouble paying off a houseboat, that's just not as serious as having trouble affording doctors and surgeries that could save your entire well-being or even your entire life. The reason I support a free healthcare system (that supported people like us as well) is because it would not matter how much the economy fluctuates, healthcare would always be there, paid for by set-in-stone taxes, programs, and funds that just will not change. However, once doctors start being paid by the government, you can bet there will be corruption in the malpractice rates; most surgical fields are highly unregulated as it is; I've had two botched cosmetic procedures myself that left me maimed and harmed, it's even the current state of medicine that is harming people like us; discrimination, no medical standards, experimentation, extremely high and nonrefundable costs, ect ect
Really, economy is a concept that should govern when is a good time be able to have fun with your life. Economy shouldn't be a life threatening situation, it should simply be what governs wether you can buy that new houseboat, that new car, or finally own your own house. People just shouldn't have to fight for survival. However, the truth is that to some extent, it's surprising how much our government indeed does for people who can prove they do make a certain very low income or get hurt on the job, but the paperwork behind it all is so extremely complex that the majority of the people who need the very programs do not have the literacy to understand what they're applying for. Big, big problem there, I say the process of getting on current programs is even a bigger problem than how our country needs to extent the medical and financial list of what's covered.
For instance, my therapist gave me an assignment to "pretend to" apply for college online. I tried filling out a whole application (would not effect me, it was just something to see how much it would cost, ect ect) and the questions on it were truly out of this world and simply unanswerable. Not in an IQ sense (it wasn't a knowledge test), it was stuff about living situations and family and income and ect ect yada yada that not even someone who studied these terms for a long time would know exactly what some of these program applicants are asking of you.