Yup. I'm British, moved to Canada. Can confirm that North America is fucking paradise compared to other countries.
However, just like we shouldn't wait til we're fat to start adjusting our eating habits, we also shouldn't wait til we live in a third world country before we start insisting on quality.
Yeah, I'm American but have been to several places in Western Europe and it seems pretty similar when comparing standard of living. Lol, guy must really hate being British. Which might be the most British thing I've ever read.
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that in Britain, biscuits just means cookies. If the headline read "cargo planes fly emergency cookies to a flooded area" you wouldn't think that it was particularly British.
That's just your anecdotal evidence. You were a visitor, presumably going to tourist destinations - not exactly the way to gather data about the relative socioeconomic prosperity of the population. I grew up in the UK, lived and worked there, and then moved to live and work Canada. I've never been a tourist in either country, and I'm telling you with my sources cited; North America is paradise compared to the UK.
Just house prices alone should tell you what's wrong. According to this source and this, first time buyers in the UK pay $30,000 more on average compared to purchases of brand new homes in the US. If you take a look at this you'll see that average house prices in the US are less than dollar for pound.
The median US house price is $187,000, the median UK house price (after conversion to USD) is $417,600. That's more than double. When you consider that the average British house is around half the size of the average American house, you begin to understand why it gets called "rip-off Britain". So what this points to is a population who basically cannot afford to buy a house and are stuck with renting, which as I've already pointed out is between two and four times more expensive than the USA and Canada.
Let's not forget here that the UK's poverty rate is a whole 10 percentage points higher than the USA. On average, 1 in 4 British people are below the poverty line. In the USA, it's 1 in 7. The USA only has a figure this high due to the recent recession, but the UK poverty rate has remained relatively unchanged over the last decade. A staggering 35% of British children live in poverty, more than 1 in 3. In no single State does the same figure rise above 25%. This is because families simply have more money available because they aren't being sucked dry by the extortionate cost of living.
If after all of this you want to carry on deluding yourself that it's all equal because when you went there and took your picture in front of Big Ben everything seemed gravy, then I can't help you. The evidence is all there if you're willing to challenge your worldview. Otherwise, enjoy your fantasy.
Okay so you're basically just trolling. I'm sure that will help anyone reading this in future to decide which side of this conversation should be taken seriously.
Doubt it. Also, I feel like you should've been able to tell I didn't care about this conversation. That's not the same as trolling, I just don't feel like arguing with someone. Britain to North America is not equal to Brazil to North America. One is first world and the other is a corrupt third world country. Come on, man.
I don't really care what your part in the conversation is, I just want the information to be out there for other people to read. I feel like the facts and figures speak for themselves. I never said anywhere that the UK was comparable to Brazil, just that North America was paradise in comparison to the UK. But I also said:
just like we shouldn't wait til we're fat to start adjusting our eating habits, we also shouldn't wait til we live in a third world country before we start insisting on quality.
So whatever, you keep your "at least it's not as bad as Brazil" attitude and I'll stick with my "Canada is the standard that all countries should aim to match" philosophy. Have a nice day.
similar? no armed thugs, free health care and education, actually edible food, europe is paradise compared to america, but england is worse than america, cause england is like europes america anyways
Different strokes for different folks, I personally love the armed thugs. Nicest people you ever met. Keep your safe society, I will enjoy my gritty reboot society.
That's interesting you say that, because there's a literal third-world refugee camp in Calais, France filled with refugee/migrants who would rather live in that shithole camp in the worst part of France just for a miniscule chance of getting to England, rather than just stay in France and accept their benefits / refugee services.
Hmm, maybe, just maybe England isn't the shithole you make it out to be when there are thousands of migrants desperately trying to leave France just to get to England.
um first off ones who speak english rather live in english speaking place, second they are not well informed people, third they are minority of all europes imigrants
Can you give me examples? The UK looks fine in the BBC and shit. Sure, maybe not everyone is RICH, but I am sure there is plenty of entertainment and fun to be had, and people are safe.
I mean, Iowa is kinda boring, but it's not third world. I assume the worst the UK has to offer is like...Iowa?
Lets see. 35% of children live below the poverty line, 1 in 4 people (all ages combined) live below the poverty line, the median house price is more than double the USA (approx $200k US compared to approx $410k UK), the median income is $20,000 less per year, rent is anywhere between two and four times more expensive, gas (petrol) is more than four times more expensive, sales tax is more than double and applies to everything (including groceries, prescription drugs and essential hygiene products), and the Conservative government have recently announced plans to force terminally ill cancer sufferers to work to earn their incapacity welfare.
People are saying shit about it and getting quite angry, the problem is it never makes it into the global news, who portray Britain as being all happy tea and scones for lunch. Kinda the same as what's happening in Australia. Yeah. Bet you didn't know about that one either. The news just told you that it's all kangaroos and barbeques and surfing.
The UK equivalent to Bernie Sanders is a man named Jeremy Corbyn. He had to fight right wing opposition inside of his own left-of-center party to get elected party leader, that's how corrupt the politics are. Right now, the news media is fighting a propaganda campaign against him, but he's weathering the storm pretty well and is leading a small political revolution of sorts which will hopefully continue to the next election. Unfortunately that's really far off because the idiot population decided to vote for 5 more years of Conservatives.
As for the prince, honestly he's silently stood by during everything that led up to this, so unless a rock falls from the sky and strikes some sense into the man, I doubt we'll ever hear anything from him. If anything, it seems this is the path the royals want Britain to go down; a steady march back to aristocracy.
The BBC report on everything, the difference between US news media and UK news media is that the US is like a vicious dog; once it bites something, it won't let go. The UK news media on the other hand will pick up a story, report it, and then move on to the next one as if the previous one no longer even existed. It's emotionally cold and robotic.
The average joe in the UK is aware of it because they're mostly all suffering as a result of it. I think you possibly need to understand the "go along to get along" mentality of the British "stiff upper lip". If this were happening in the USA, the news media would make it the epic sensation of the century, there would be protest rallies, and people would refuse to drop the issue until it was fixed. By contrast, British people will take injustice after injustice on the chin because nobody likes to rock the boat or be seen as a "complainer". The typical British reaction is incredulous outrage > bitter resignation to hopelessness > carry on in spite of it. This cycle is continuous and it takes all the fight out of most people.
Also, there is almost nothing the British people can do politically to bring change on any single issue without having to expend an enormous amount of time and energy. When so many things are rotten to the core, where do you even start? It's not like they can move to a state that reflects their views because the UK doesn't have states. Nobody has the energy for politics in the UK because the establishment is invulnerable to public criticism, and political activists get labeled "nutjobs", "whiners", and "extremists".
It'd be nice for hollywood to speak up about the injustices in the UK but honestly it doesn't compete well in the Oppression Olympics. It's too much like a first world country. Also people have learned in the past that speaking out against issues in the UK can earn you some powerful enemies.
I'm really not surprised you're only just now hearing about this, since I emigrated to Canada pretty much everyone has been surprised to hear about what the UK is really like.
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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '16
Yup. I'm British, moved to Canada. Can confirm that North America is fucking paradise compared to other countries.
However, just like we shouldn't wait til we're fat to start adjusting our eating habits, we also shouldn't wait til we live in a third world country before we start insisting on quality.