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Standard of living in UK better than in USA
Telegraph ^ | 1/7/2008 | Lucy Cockcroft

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."


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: decline
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To: quadrant
When did free health care and longer vacations become a test of the standard of living?

And furthermore, what good is so-called "free" health care if you have to wait up to three weeks before you can even see a doctor? I'm not sure it's that way in the U.K., but I know it is in Canada, who's health care system is always being so highly touted in the media.

I'd rather pay a little more money and be able to see the doctor on a day's notice if I want.

121 posted on 01/10/2008 11:49:31 AM PST by jpl (Dear Al Gore: it's 3:00 A.M., do you know where your drug addicted son is?)
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To: agere_contra

I visited for about ten days when my daughter was in legal studies there. Stayed at a place she had rented in East Kennsington.

Loved the London experience. Loved the people I met there and out in the countryside.

We had an acquantance of the daughter who was a young attorney. We compared wages, taxes, urban condo prices, healthcare versus insurance and all the rest to what would be an urban Washington, DC cost comparison.

Only to the highest priced US cities was the London suburban living even close. The US wages and standard of living was much better in many other US locations.

That being said, these newspaper generated things are always weighted by leftist amenities.


122 posted on 01/10/2008 11:51:49 AM PST by KC Burke (Men of intemperate minds can never be free...their passions forge their fetters.)
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To: fweingart
This is a complete crock.

Just because the pound is worth $2 on the foreign exchange markets does not mean that it spends like $2 in the UK -- it doesn't and that's what the entire premise is based on.

123 posted on 01/10/2008 11:53:27 AM PST by BfloGuy (It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect . . .)
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To: SomeReasonableDude

Take a chill pill.

I was not saying that we don’t have any problems here in the USA...I was just saying that a hole in Manchester somewhere sells fo a cool 1/2 million!

You can buy a palace here in the US in most places.


124 posted on 01/10/2008 1:07:53 PM PST by eleni121 (+ En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great)
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To: RooRoobird20

No it is not a lower standard of living. Europeans have the Utopian standard that the rats envision. We are raping this good earth with our large homes, cars, boats, malls, private schools, and over consumption. The rats intend to make us live a sustainable lifestyle according to their Utopian vision.


125 posted on 01/10/2008 1:44:49 PM PST by businessprofessor
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To: fweingart
If GM cut prices, would they be described as "descending"? Probably not; instead they'd be described as "aggressive." And so it is with currencies. It is boom time for exporters now.

Besides, if you had a clue about economics rather than a brain made of sponge and saturated by the anti-American media, you'd know that the aggressive dollar is a return to normalcy, and that its unsustainable runup in the '90s was Clinton's gift to his struggling fellow socialists in Europe:


Source: Investor's Business Daily
126 posted on 01/10/2008 1:49:30 PM PST by RightOnTheLeftCoast ([Fred Thompson/Clarence Thomas 2008!])
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To: agere_contra
Amazing isn't it? There are some in this forum who just love to beat up on us Brits. - especially the Muslim thing, which as you point out, is a non-issue.

Rather like being from California. Some take every opportunity to run down this beautiful state.

FRegards,

127 posted on 01/10/2008 2:10:21 PM PST by Churchillspirit
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To: fweingart

Ha-ha-ha-ha. Show me your teeth, laddie.


128 posted on 01/10/2008 2:11:56 PM PST by toddlintown (Five bullets and Lennon goes down. Yet not one hit Yoko. Discuss..)
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To: fweingart

LOL! I have heard this nonsense from all corners of the EU in my travels.

My trainees, who are mostly all from there, are usually a bit shocked to see the difference, and also load up on a ton of gadgets and other things that they could never afford back home, but which every American kid carries in his pocket.


129 posted on 01/10/2008 2:16:23 PM PST by bill1952 (The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
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To: bill1952

Including, I might add, my training.


130 posted on 01/10/2008 2:16:58 PM PST by bill1952 (The right to buy weapons is the right to be free)
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To: RooRoobird20

The Big Book Of British Smiles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZCzKko03W4

Interesting comments on the subject:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-22429,00.html


131 posted on 01/10/2008 2:55:05 PM PST by death2tyrants
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For later


132 posted on 01/10/2008 3:20:02 PM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: af_vet_rr

I do. But I know 300 cameras don’t see me every day.

There are more private cams here, the percentage of govt cams are not nearly as high here.


133 posted on 01/10/2008 5:40:53 PM PST by Secret Agent Man
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To: Getready

I was over there in the early 1990s.

Every TV has to have a paid-up license sticker on it. Govt TV (BBC channels) are funded by TV licenses. To watch live TV stations, you have to have each TV you own have a valid license. They have vans that drive around that can determine if you have a TV on, and they can inspect your TVs. Big fines if you don’t have a license.

Now, the one caveat is that if you don’t watch live TV on them, but say, watch DVDs or videotapes, you don’t need a license for that. I got into a conversation with someone and basically you could have a friend make a DVD of the weeks’ programs and give you a copy and technically you would not be watching live TV, but a taped program on tape/DVD.


134 posted on 01/10/2008 5:46:15 PM PST by Secret Agent Man
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To: KarlInOhio

There are two ways of measuring GDP for comparison. The fair way is to measure by “purchasing power.” This article uses the other way — measures it in pounds, which is obviously skewed by the relative strength of the pound to the dollar right now.


135 posted on 01/11/2008 4:40:23 AM PST by The Old Hoosier (Right makes might)
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To: eleni121
Maybe that was true a decade ago - and still true in the South - but prices in the Northeast and Midatlantic are astronomical. A 'palace' runs you about $800,000 in those places. You're lucky if you can still find a 'McMansion' for anywhere near $500,000.

Sorry about the tone, though. I didn't mean to sound so rude.
136 posted on 01/11/2008 6:43:55 AM PST by SomeReasonableDude (Back it up.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

The consistently government-knocking BBC would be amused to see itself described as ‘Govt TV’!!


137 posted on 01/11/2008 8:38:38 AM PST by Winniesboy
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To: SomeReasonableDude
but prices in the Northeast and Midatlantic are astronomical

-----------------------------------------------------

The Northeast has some unbelievable bargains...you do not know the northeast if you say that.

Here is an example:


$240,000 - over 4300 square feet--hardwood throughout etc.

138 posted on 01/11/2008 10:22:49 AM PST by eleni121 (+ En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great)
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To: SomeReasonableDude

I daresay a house like the one I posted in 138 would cost over 2 million US in the UK...plenty of examples like that.

Not all the Mortheast is NYC or Boston...I might add


139 posted on 01/11/2008 10:25:00 AM PST by eleni121 (+ En Touto Nika! By this sign conquer! + Constantine the Great)
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To: Winniesboy

Just because govt-funded tv knocks the current government doesn’t mean that’s not how they get their money.

They may think they are “public tv” like the PBS stations in America. And trust me the shows on PBS are overwhelmingly left leaning. But PBS gets its money from a congressional budget too.

Self-delusion? Self-loathing?

Whether they recognize it or not, their subsidies come from government policies that force people to pay to keep those stations broadcasting. And the other big difference is that in the UK many of the ‘over air’ stations are government run. In America over the air 1-2 stations are PBS, the majority of over the air stations are private.


140 posted on 01/11/2008 11:22:43 AM PST by Secret Agent Man
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