of course I realize many of these people are probably childless....
The disintegration of family is key- we used to stay in striking distance for holidays at least. Now we don’t care or influence anyone once close to us.
Strengthen the things that remain.
Lots of people use Skype and Facebook. If family members lived on opposite US coasts, they likely wouldn't see each other that often anyway, so 3000 miles or 10,000 really doesn't make much difference.
Besides, traveling to/from overseas means only have to be assaulted by TSA on one side of the trip.
“family?...friends?...honestly, do these expats have any?.....how could you move thousands and thousands of miles away from your children and grandchildren...”
I suspect that many of these Federal employees are naturalized citizens and retiring overseas actually brings them back to their families. I know people who did this, and more who say that that is what they intend to do.
America is a place for them to earn a good living. But they don’t regard it as their homeland or their culture.
Which for me explains why many of the ‘model immigrants’ vote to the left. That gets them more goodies, and if it wrecks America, well, it wasn’t their real country anyway.