how are Brits so poor yet the country is damn expensive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t have to pay for or even consider saving for things like:

Healthcare
A pension
Transportation (you do not need a car)

Jobs have job security and guaranteed vacations. Paid maternity leave. Also very cheap to holiday in europe. Council estates gor the poor. Etc.

This.

My spouse is British. Their sibling is retired in the UK. They live comfortably in a hcol city (not London). They generally don't pay for their medical care ( she just had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and paid nothing for it) and don't need health insurance. They walk into town mostly to run errands. She takes vacations with her friends quite often.

Their college costs are not insane like in the US. It's true that they don't eat out often but when they do, they don't tip.

One of the siblings works a low wage job, but they are still able to take vacations and have enough to live on because they don't pay for healthcare and worry about saving for it.

We are ready to retire now but for the cost of healthcare.

It’s simply not true that this applies to all of the US. Plenty of US states have low cost flagship universities. Only a few states, typically in the northeast and DC, do not.

Also most employed workers have access to employer provided health insurance.

My point is that the European claims that the difference in COL is made up for my high healthcare costs and college simply isn’t true.

DC I'll give you, of course. Which states don't have a (relatively) low cost flagship university?

PA does not.

DP

[Anonymous]

As a poor student I moved from Germany to Oxford for one year. I was shocked by how much lower the standard of living was. Except for a few stinking rich “peers.”

[Anonymous]

You're not the only one to wonder this. I still wonder and I've known the UK intimately for 40 years, including living there for a while. It still doesn't make sense to me. How do people manage to send children to private schools, have holidays in Italy, live in a pleasant house and still make less money than their peers in America.

Having said the above, there is money in Britain and lot of it is invisible. It's not all Russian oligarchs. The countryside in Britain can be quite wealthy, richer than towns and cities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not the only one to wonder this. I still wonder and I've known the UK intimately for 40 years, including living there for a while. It still doesn't make sense to me. How do people manage to send children to private schools, have holidays in Italy, live in a pleasant house and still make less money than their peers in America.

Having said the above, there is money in Britain and lot of it is invisible. It's not all Russian oligarchs. The countryside in Britain can be quite wealthy, richer than towns and cities.

Their houses are tiny and old. Practically decrepit. Fewer cars and expensive items.

[Anonymous]

It’s just a different life. I’m British and now I live here so I see many differences. Houses are much smaller (see above poster calling them “tiny and decrepit”!) - not necessarily but on average, much smaller than American homes and people don’t really build houses or buy land like here. Smaller cars, fewer per household, because much better public transport and much better laid out towns. I disagree that food is more expensive there. Cheap food is very cheap here, but good quality food in the US costs the same or more than in the UK. Normal people don’t go to farmers markets for strawberries, they go to Tesco, where they cost about £5/kilo which is around $6.50/2.2lb. The equivalent weight here is about $8, so that’s pretty similar.
Healthcare is not the worry it is here - there’s the NHS (however bad it might be) and private health insurance is much much cheaper than here. Cheap flights and holidays abroad, cheap university, and less of a culture of buying everything all the time.
And, anecdotally (because I don’t know the stats on this), I don’t think British people save as much as Americans or even think about it.
With all of the social care, a poor person in Britain will have a much better life than a poor person here, but rich people here are much much richer

[Anonymous]

We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

This isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of Americans pay very little for college. You just only hear about the extreme stories in the media. University in the UK is a lot for room and board and many students live at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we do the rest of Europe too? I have seriously wondered this. A friend in France in her made like 30k euros and I was shocked her salary was so low. A friend in London made 18k pounds and I wondered about that too.

I do think Americans have upped our standards of living to rates we really can’t afford. As noted by how many people have car payments.

You can’t really compare the cost and use of cars between UK and the US, because cars are essential in most parts of the US. Americans probably do spend too much on new cars, but cars also just cost a lot. The average price of a non-luxury car is 44k.

A separate question is: What's the true cost of a car? It's crazy that the car industry has kept this such a secret. I keep hoping the answer will come out. I bet it costs $10K or less to make a car, and car companies earn $30K plus profit on each one.

It’s a great question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

This isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of Americans pay very little for college. You just only hear about the extreme stories in the media. University in the UK is a lot for room and board and many students live at home.

Dp. The difference is that most states here don't have a lot of good in state options (CA and NY being the exception). If you go oos you pay oos prices which is more than the UK unis. The UK doesn't have the concept of oos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t have to pay for or even consider saving for things like:

Healthcare
A pension
Transportation (you do not need a car)

Jobs have job security and guaranteed vacations. Paid maternity leave. Also very cheap to holiday in europe. Council estates gor the poor. Etc.

Europe’s standard of living is awful, and their share of global gdp is shrinking rapidly. DCUM skews very white - and therefore Europe has held out as some amazing standard. I was convinced and got a job with a European company. Never again! These people don’t work. The least inspiring workforce I’ve ever encountered.
This.

My spouse is British. Their sibling is retired in the UK. They live comfortably in a hcol city (not London). They generally don't pay for their medical care ( she just had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and paid nothing for it) and don't need health insurance. They walk into town mostly to run errands. She takes vacations with her friends quite often.

Their college costs are not insane like in the US. It's true that they don't eat out often but when they do, they don't tip.

One of the siblings works a low wage job, but they are still able to take vacations and have enough to live on because they don't pay for healthcare and worry about saving for it.

We are ready to retire now but for the cost of healthcare.

It’s simply not true that this applies to all of the US. Plenty of US states have low cost flagship universities. Only a few states, typically in the northeast and DC, do not.

Also most employed workers have access to employer provided health insurance.

My point is that the European claims that the difference in COL is made up for my high healthcare costs and college simply isn’t true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don’t have to pay for or even consider saving for things like:

Healthcare
A pension
Transportation (you do not need a car)

Jobs have job security and guaranteed vacations. Paid maternity leave. Also very cheap to holiday in europe. Council estates gor the poor. Etc.

This.

My spouse is British. Their sibling is retired in the UK. They live comfortably in a hcol city (not London). They generally don't pay for their medical care ( she just had a mastectomy due to breast cancer and paid nothing for it) and don't need health insurance. They walk into town mostly to run errands. She takes vacations with her friends quite often.

Their college costs are not insane like in the US. It's true that they don't eat out often but when they do, they don't tip.

One of the siblings works a low wage job, but they are still able to take vacations and have enough to live on because they don't pay for healthcare and worry about saving for it.

We are ready to retire now but for the cost of healthcare.

It’s simply not true that this applies to all of the US. Plenty of US states have low cost flagship universities. Only a few states, typically in the northeast and DC, do not.

Also most employed workers have access to employer provided health insurance.

My point is that the European claims that the difference in COL is made up for my high healthcare costs and college simply isn’t true.

DC I'll give you, of course. Which states don't have a (relatively) low cost flagship university?

New Jersey
New York
Connecticut
Massachusetts


These states have in-state universities but the average UMC student doesn’t want to attend. The parents in these states complain about $70k a year college and think everyone is paying this. They don’t understand the average UMC florida student attends UF for $8k a year. There are a lot of states with desirable in-state colleges including Texas, Georgia, Florida, NC, etc. But not the NE.

So the densely popular areas that are sending more kids to college.

Not everyone wants to go to a state school in the US. In the UK, there are cheaper options for top schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

This isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of Americans pay very little for college. You just only hear about the extreme stories in the media. University in the UK is a lot for room and board and many students live at home.

Where do Americans pay very little without financial aid? What do you define as very little?

I stayed at home for university because there wasn't a culture of moving to another city for college unless a certain subject (e.g.medicine, architecture) wasn't offered locally. There again there was no magazine ranking my country's universities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

This isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of Americans pay very little for college. You just only hear about the extreme stories in the media. University in the UK is a lot for room and board and many students live at home.

Where do Americans pay very little without financial aid? What do you define as very little?

I stayed at home for university because there wasn't a culture of moving to another city for college unless a certain subject (e.g.medicine, architecture) wasn't offered locally. There again there was no magazine ranking my country's universities.

$0 in Texas
$7k in Florida
$0 in Georgia
I could go on….

[Anonymous]

Londoner here and this is very true. It's possible to live very cheaply in England, shop at Primark and other cheap stores. But yes the average Briton is far poorer than the average American, makes less money, lives in tiny dwellings etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have the National Health Service, University doesn’t cost anywhere near what it does in America. Flights to mainland Europe are relatively cheap if you want a no frills holiday.

This isn’t necessarily true. Plenty of Americans pay very little for college. You just only hear about the extreme stories in the media. University in the UK is a lot for room and board and many students live at home.

Dp. The difference is that most states here don't have a lot of good in state options (CA and NY being the exception). If you go oos you pay oos prices which is more than the UK unis. The UK doesn't have the concept of oos.

Nope. Get out of your bubble. I’d argue NY and CA don’t have as desirable of options as other states. Here are some examples: Florida, Georgia, Texas, NC, SC, Ohio, Arizona etc.

I know it’s strange because it’s the red states that offer low cost options to flagship schools. Go figure.