What if your home country were nuked. Completely blasted off the planet. Didn't exist anymore. To what country would you re-locate? Remember now, you'll have to earn a living in the place you select. How do you suppose you would do in your new homeland?

Being my home country, by definition I would be nuked with it. Therefore, the point is moot. <BR>

Wouldn't I be dead?

No, no, no. You were on vacation when the bomb hit. So you survived with the clothes on your back and the money in your pocket. <BR> <BR>I'll leave it to you to decide whether your spouse was on vacation with you.

I would gladly give up my corporate job to wait tables or be a barrista in France or Italy, even if the U.S. continues to exist. I actually have experience at these jobs, and speak some of both languages - it's that darn work permit that's standing in my way!

So who nuked us? Did we nuke em back? <BR>This is just to ridiculous for intelligent comment.

There is a worldwide investigation to find the bomber, so we don't know who nuked us yet. Therefore, we have not nuked them back, because we don't know who to nuke. <BR> <BR>OK, is everyone clear?

Maybe it wasn't a nuke (us vs. them), maybe it was an asteroid or comet and therefore one-sided and localized. <BR> <BR>I would go live with the mole people under the city. If I wasn't just too dead to get up and go. <BR>

So I'd probably ask the Italian government for refugee status or become an illegal and sell roses to the still-alive tourists at the Trevi fountain in Rome.

If you don't have a country than you don't have a choice, you'd be stuck in a refugee camp. <BR>You can't "re-locate" <BR>The world is full of people whose homes have been destroyed by famine or flood or war. <BR>If you are luck someone might feed you. <BR>If not you might starve or be beaten to death, having first watched your children die. <BR>No need to invent scenarios of disaster, it happens every day. <BR>That's why your passport is worth so much.There is no "new homeland". <BR> <BR>

I would survive, I, like many (most?) Swiss have a nuclear shelter and there are several miles of tunnels in the mountains around my house-the master plan to move all Swiss into Central Switzerland in case of war. The joke is that the Swiss would be able to move all the cows into the tunnels thus ensuring cheese and chocolate production.

No way, Chris, the average Swiss nuclear shelter is either chockfull of whatever didn't fit in the closets, or a wine cellar, a spare room for visiting inlaws or the children's rock band studio.

Florence, <BR> <BR>My neighbours mostly have Faschnacht costumes in theirs. Though one neighbour does have quite an impressive wine collection, we have all sports equipment and luggage in ours. But another neighbour does have tons of food in theirs.

None of my skills would transfer to another country. I would quickly find myself destitute, penniless and quite desperate. I'm figuring I'd wind up as a prostitute. <BR> <BR>And Frank, you need to lighten up, dude.

Anon - my post addressed the question & contained no personal comments.Sorry this didn't suit you.

Frank, the only people who ever say "lighten up" are the lightweights of this world who want company. And your points are well taken. <BR> <BR>However I do think "Mad Bomber" chose an unfortunate way of setting up his question -- which was, at core, if you had no alternative but to leave your home country and start over again somewhere else, where would you go? I suggest all the various anonymous posters quit quit focusing on the set-up and consider a possible answer. <BR> <BR>For myself, realistically if I had to leave the US, I'd have the best chance of surviving in Canada, preferably Toronto or Vancouver. My skills are most transferable, culture shock would be minimal, and the language is - mostly (;-} -- manageable. <BR> <BR>But from the point of view of semi-fantasy, I'd love to "forced" to survive in Italy. I only know tourist Italian at the moment, and without the language, my professional skills would be useless so I'd probably end up cleaning other Americans' apartments. But the art, the music, the food, the sun!

It certainly wouldn't be Canada, since that is a little too close to the fall out for me. By inclination, either France or Italy just because I love history, art, and food. By necessity, maybe the book "On the Beach" had something when it used Australia as the best place to avoid death. It is very far away, unless of course China nuked us and got nuked back.

I would take my submarine to Melbourne to await the arrival of the fallout and the end of the world. Perhaps I could meet a nice alcoholic Australian lady there who would help me through the last days.