Posted on 01/10/2008 7:01:22 AM PST by fweingart
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.
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