Free healthcare! Really! And no waiting!
Posted on 01/10/2008 7:01:22 AM PST by fweingart
For the first time in more than a century the standard of living in Britain is higher than in America, according to a new report.
Analysts at the respected Oxford Economics consultancy say that increasing incomes, free healthcare and longer holidays make the average Briton better-off than his or her US counterpart.
The GDP per head in the UK is expected to exceed that of the USA in 2008 They predict that gross domestic product (GDP) per head in the UK, an indicator of average incomes, will be £23,500 in 2008, compared with £23,250 in America, reflecting the strength of the pound against the dollar and the steady growth of the British economy.
Adrian Cooper, managing director of Oxford Economics, said: "The past 15 years have seen a dramatic change in the UK's economic performance and its position in the world economy.
"No longer are we the 'sick man of Europe'. Indeed, our calculations suggest that UK living standards are now a match for those of the US.
"The UK has been catching up steadily with living standards in the US since 2001, so it is a well-established trend rather than simply the result of currency fluctuations."
advertisementBack in the early 1990s Britain's GDP per capita was 34 per cent below that in America, 33 per cent less than in Germany and 26 per cent lower than in France.
Now, average incomes are not only above those in America but they are more than 8 per cent higher than in France where it is £21,700 and Germany, with a predicted £21,665.
The British financial services boom and soaring house prices have led to an uninterrupted expansion, credited with boosting the UK's strength. And in contrast America and many European countries slid into recession in the early part of this decade.
However the average British person may not feel richer than their US cousins as goods and services there are often vastly cheaper. So, despite earning less, the average American can buy more.
The report authors also warn that a significant fall in the pound against other currencies could push Britain back down the ladder.
Citigroup, the most accurate forecaster of Britain's economy last year, predicts the slowest rise in consumer spending this year since 1992.
Michael Saunders, Citigroup's UK economist, said: "After the credit-fuelled boom in domestic demand and asset prices, the UK economy now faces a hangover, with slowing credit growth, falling property prices and tightening lending standards."
For the first time in more than a century the standard of living in Britain is higher than in America, according to a new report.
The Muslims will live well and better!
Standard of living in UK better than in USAHow do you define standard of living other than by the amount and quality of the goods and services you buy and the amount of free time you have to enjoy them? Being a millionaire wouldn't be so good if it cost you $100,000 for a typical dinner.
...
However the average British person may not feel richer than their US cousins as goods and services there are often vastly cheaper. So, despite earning less, the average American can buy more.
Free healthcare! Really! And no waiting!
I’ll take America over Britain any day of the week and twice on Sunday!
You and me both!
Because journalism no longer requires an understanding of economics or math.
Source please
It sure is nice of those doctors and nurses to work for free, not to mention the free hospitals and medicine donated gratis by God, of course.
Actually, "you get what you pay for" applies here; my sister and her family were in the U.K. when my niece slipped and hurt her tooth. My sister described the hospital personnel and infrastructure in the U.K. as horrendous, eons behind the U.S. in any facet you might use to compare the two systems.
“Analysts at the respected Oxford Economics consultancy say that increasing incomes, free healthcare and longer holidays make the average Briton better-off than his or her US counterpart.”
Free healthcare. lol I love when this is mentioned. When you’re paying exorbitant taxes to fund a gov’t run healthcare program, it’s far from free.
Dolts.
Aside from health care, markets in the UK are relatively free...just like in the US...so it isn’t surprising that the GDP per head measures are close. It also isn’t surprising that France and Germany lag far behind.
Let’s compare the “actual” standards of living. Average home sizes and luxuries, cars, amenities, actual health CARE, etc.
I think this is a self serving feel good piece for the Brits. But whatever makes them feel good is fine with me.
Maybe some of our liberal entertainment elites will buy into this and move over to Europe.
-cunningly concealed in plain sight in the article--
“Source please”
Personal knowledge and visits to the EU on a yearly basis. Stay from 3 to 6 weeks on average.
It is vastly more expensive to live in the UK than in the US. We have much more powerful purchasing power than any other place in the world and that is why we have much better standards of living.
I’ve read several other articles in the past which state that the standard of living for middle class
Europeans is equivalent to how the working poor live in America.
Hmmmmm....from what I’ve personally seen from my travels to Europe, a lot of “middle class” Europeans live in very old, very small homes with no garages or yards, and are forced to ride public transportation everywhere. That alone is a lower standard of living for most Americans.
Yeah, but we have better teeth. As a matter of fact, we HAVE teeth.
Sounds a lot like the U.S. Wages here are stagnated or falling because of unreported 'real' inflation, ie, exhorbitant healthcare premiums, unaffordable housing, low paying jobs.
100% true.
This is nonsense from the Telegraph.
We in Britain have an average wage of about 42000 dollars a year, everything is more expensive, and there is SEVEN TIMES LESS SPACE PER PERSON.
On the other hand, our legal system actually works on a presumption of innocence - there just isn’t the 90% “success rate” that one sees in the Federal Justice system, our juries are made of sensible people and there is no “Jackpot justice”. We don’t owe our flood victims three quadrillion dollars :0)
And there just isn’t the scope for toxic race-baiters to thrive in the UK as there is in the US.
But otherwise I think the US must be a great, nay superior, place to live.
(And - to the usual suspects who crawl out every single time there is a UK/US comparison, both countries have the same percentage of Muslims. Really. So go soak your heads.)
Exactly. It is called PPP. Purchasing power parity.
I saw this story the other day, and I just don’t believe it. They are only looking at one factor, namely income. It doesn’t talk about the 17% VAT, the oppressive taxes, the crummy socialist health services, the muslim problem there, the hundreds of cameras tracking you everywhere each day, the speed cameras/speed traps/revenue generators along roads (especially where the speeds change) that are just waiting to nail you, and all the Orwellian big brother stuff going on over there.
I just truly do not believe it.
Not could, would and it will happen. And what has the value of the pound against the dollar to do with their standard of living being higher? They pay higher taxes and higher prices for absolutely everything they want or need to buy. Their disposable income is less and with the exception of "free" health care (which is anything but), of which we have all heard nightmare stories, I don't see any examples of a quality of life that meets ours much less exceeds ours. Personally I think this is a propaganda piece to quiet the increasingly concerned people of Britain. Their country is not what it was, by a long shot, in the past. I was there and the differences are staggering. The story reminds me of Pravda in the 50's thru the 70's when they would show film footage of the dust bowl in the 1930's in the mid section of our country and tell their people this is what living in America was. They would show clips of isolated civil unrest and portray it as nationwide rioting and on and on.
Now don’t be mean. LOL
I am curious, though: I was surprised to see (through personal experience) that so many middle class British have bad teeth. Why is that? Is dental care not part of the British healthcare system?
I rememember Robert Rubin saying one time that there are now two things which stigmatize Americans as being poor: being noticably overweight and having bad teeth. Interesting.
Coincidence, that all of these articles proclaiming the US is dead last in the western world in everything, are coming out in an election year?
Dental care is marginal on the NHS now - it is almost impossible to get through the “free” system.
It is quite easy to get top rate Dental care privately. Price check: I had a tooth whipped out for about 120 dollars? I imagine it would have been cheaper in America?
Same shiat happening to them I guess
Last year, my daughter passed through Britain on her way home from Italy, and found EVERYTHING to be ridiculously overpriced.
The NHS (our “free” healthcare system) is paid for with half the VAT receipts - meaning, half the 17.5% sales tax on pretty much everything one can buy except books and food.
There is a minor contribution from something called National Insurance, but the Value Added Tax is the main source of funding.
So, the NHS costs us about, what, 8% of GDP? And it’s infamous for triage and long queues.
“I love the UK, her people, and her history.
That being said, I’d rather be a poor janitor in Lubbock, than a rich stockbroker in London.”
Howdy neighbor! Check out my profile. You aren’t exaggerating: You would have to be rich stockbroker to afford a house in Britain that a janitor could in fact buy here in Lubbock.
The poor are not working hard enough
I had the crowns on my upper incisors replaced a couple of years ago for $1,300 a tooth.
Exactly. bttt
I was talking to a girl I knew when she was young. She ran off to France and married a Fwench guy, had two children. She back in the States getting a divorce. They lived in London, and were making $400K/yr. She said they never hardly went out and were just getting by.
Pay-as-you-go dental care is probbably more expensive in the U.S. because most employers provide dental as well as health insurance. (So the dentists increase their prices, LOL)
Anyone who’s on Medicaid (ACCHS in AZ) also gets dental coverage. Most dental plans cover a big chunk of orthodontic work, too.
If you look at kids in U.S. middle schools and high schools, most of them wear braces at one time or another.
A guide to UK prices for common cosmetic dental treatments
Teeth Whitening £300.00 - £1000.00
Dental Veneers £300.00 - £2000.000 per tooth
Dental Crowns £300.00 - £2000.00 per tooth
Dental Implants £1200 - £2500.00 per tooth
Dental Bridges £250 - £800 per unit
Gum Contouring from £400.00
CEREC restorations from £400.00 per unit
Invisalign £3000.00 - £6000.00
So double the numbers as a rough and ready dollar conversion and - well, we probably don’t have enough data points to make a good comparison. But it seems similar. Anybody else with a price check?
*snort*
However the average British person may not feel richer than their US cousins as goods and services there are often vastly cheaper. So, despite earning less, the average American can buy more.
Uh...isn't that pretty much the definition of "standard of living?"
Baloney. I’ll take life in this country any day over life in the UK.
538,330.09 dollars for this
Eh, I’m taxed through the nose in the US and what do I have to show for it? Not much. Maybe we should consider the beam in our eye before we point out the mote in Britain’s.
Now let’s not turn this into a Britain-bashing thread.
The Brits have been our most loyal allies in the wars against fascists, communists, and jihadists.
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