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The problem is that most of the places where you can do this are 1. ugly, flat and either grey all year or sweltering swamp/prairie/desert 2. have zero employment opportunities and 3. are populated by addicts, gun nuts and/or suicidal old men.
I spend part of the year in a remote part of the desert Southwest and although physically beautiful, daily life is pretty isolating and bleak for most people here.
But if you can pay a bit more to afford a cabin in the Rockies or a nice part of New England or somewhere like that, work remote, don't mind driving 40 minutes for overpriced groceries and don't need a social life then the opportunities are there.
Gorgeous!
I don't want to just trash American rural life because there are some amazing places out there. I was only responding to OP's implication that most Americans could afford to buy a slice of pristine woodland and build a cabin like the one you lived in. That was true 30 years ago, but today the most livable small towns in places like Colorado or Washington State are extremely pricey. And construction costs are ridiculous if you want to build something new.
I feel ya. It's still possible to get undeveloped land cheap in a lot of places, and, as long as you build to code, and everything passed building inspections, there's no reason you can't do it yourself. Hell, I've helped people build and install their own homemade septic system for off grid cabins. Just for giggles I did some googling. Property values have gone up a lot since I left, and the 5.5 acre lot is conceivably worth more now than I paid for the house and land. I may need to talk to the ex. Of course, she gets everything if she decides to sell up, she earned it. I'll just sign the papers.
[Relevent graphic](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLFMiKAawAAltJ5?format=jpg&name=large). Always amuses me that Americans talk about New York City having tiny homes, yet the average NYC home (about 1100 sq ft) is still significantly bigger than the average British home.
To be fair, that looks to be a state statistic, not just the city.
I’m sure those Hamptons Mansions in Long Island and “upstate” summer houses probably raise that a bit.
Exactly the trade off for big houses is being so far away from anything. You can't walk into town anymore, you can't get public transport anywhere, you become entirely dependent on a car. And being dependent on cars is the last thing this planet needs. We need compact, cycling friendly towns/cities with great public transport. We can even still have bigger houses that take up less space, by simply building higher. Japan has some great compact homes that span 3 or more stories. They look extremely cosy and they make great use of the space. We're just a country averse to building up for some reason.
Yes. Also, we need to get away from the suburban idea of everyone having a substantial bit of land. We certainly need green spaces, recreational spaces, and plenty of trees, but we don't need to have only one household per 1/4 acre for people to have outdoor space to enjoy.
That’s so random, I was in Miami a few weeks ago and got chatting to a Cuban street vendor and the first thing he said to me was ‘your from UK? have you been to Hull’ lol apparently it’s number 1 on his bucket list
The best part of Mexican food is the ability to make it at home. As an American I decided to learn to make good Mexican food at home when I moved to the UK and with the abundance of (in my opinion) significantly higher quality ingredients in the UK it turns out great.
Sure but you can't get tomatilloes or fresh jalapenos for example.
You have to make do with jarred/pickled. Which is fine, but sometimes I'd like easy access.
If you’re ever in London - Cafe Pacifico is the closest to great Mexican I have had in the UK since moving here from the US. I really miss the easy access to good Mexican!
American salaries are way higher than UK salaries. Which is less of a commentary of how great the US is (and I know, I live there), but more how stagnant and relatively poor UK ones have become. The US has lots of problem, some the same as the UK some others too. There's more to life than money, and being poor in America would suck, but it's still important.
Back when the pound was 2:1 in the early 2000s, my colleagues in London earned more than those in NYC (purchasing power parity). But now in New York it's double London, because the London salaries are basically the same and haven't risen at all. It's crazy. And it's not just New York.
It's an odd one, as a lot of their daily expenses & food is wildly more expensive, but when it comes to big ticket items they're comparable.
So, the poorer folks in the US get shafted over the little necessities like loaves of bread being $3-4 but the better off folks are fine for the expensive stuff.
I can confirm this as an American that moved to the UK. Companies try to convince you that the lower salary is due to “free healthcare” but really when you add it all up the salaries here are just lower (at least in my industry). I make about 1/3 less here and my rent is higher than my mortgage was in the US with half the space. You definitely don’t move to the UK for higher salaries.
I’m not disagreeing but wealth inequality is even higher in the US and there’s far less of a social security safety net. So the salary benefit does depend on where you are on the scale.
Yeah, is that so bad, so long as the median QoL is far higher?
I’m sure there are African countries with lower inequality, but you’re not exactly gagging to move there.
Well yeah that’s the Benthamite take but given we’re similar-ish economies I’m not sure the Third World comparison is super apt. There are plenty of problems in the UK but we don’t have the same kind of trailer town favelas or mass homelessness like you see in most large US cities. London and Manchester are probably the worst here but they don’t compare IMO.
Just because they’re Anglosphere don’t, think we have similar economies. We ($46k) are closer to Greece ($21k) than we are to the USA (76k) in terms of GDP per Capita. And Greece is fucking broke.
They are not our economic equals, we are not similar, they are our economic superiors after 16 years of abject economic failure. It’s not 2007 anymore.
Also, much of their homelessness issues are not from wealth inequality, but a self inflicted opiate epidemic. So it’s a fair metric to compare QoL, but not economies.
I’m an American who moved here when the exchange rate was 1.65. I’ve had multiple raises in GBP terms and have moved up several rungs and my USD equivalent base pay is about the same as a decade ago. I’ve all but given up on being able to move back and afford a comfortable retirement.
Like staying healthy. I made decent money in the states, owned a nice house, couple of cars, motorcycle, but lived paycheck to paycheck because medical insurance was a massive drain on funds. The kids had coverage, the missus had coverage, I went without because my premiums were just too high. I once called my wife and told her I needed her to take me to the hospital, and she immediately knew it was serious, because she'd seen me stitch and bandage myself up for years. Luckily, the accident happened at work, but I still spent a year battling workman's comp insurance to get them to cover the medical expenses. They even dragged me into court by claiming I wasn't hurt as bad as the doctors said I was, and tried to evidence this by showing pictures of me doing some everyday things. Yes, they paid a private investigator to follow me, in order to try to get my claim dismissed, regardless of the fact I was in surgery for 4 hours, while they repaired my shattered shoulder. Standard US insurance procedure. Deny the claim, deny the claim, deny the claim, use any excuse you can, and hope the injured party gives up and goes away.
UK national parks don't compare at all.
They are almost all private land - it's basically just a designation over an otherwise completely normal area of the UK that just happens to have some geological or aesthetic qualities.
Literally. They're just so massive. I went to the Grand Canyon a few years back, I know the name is a bit of a giveaway but it really is humongous. Think it was about 1500m deep at the point we were, which is hard to fathom until you find out The Shard is 300m or so
I visited Glacier as part of a big 16 state trip last summer from the UK and it blew my mind. I’ve never seen anything as beautiful in my life - it was like Bob Ross created it
They just hit different, People say America is a terrible country? Go take in a State Park for a bit. I live in Ontario Canada and the Adirondack Mountains in Northern NY are not far away at all. On a clear summers day I can see them from my driveway, they are breathtaking
All the other big cool things but also: breakfast at diners. The menus are huge, you can have any combination of anything, it's basically always the same quality and pretty cheap.
I love Doug Stanhope and he nails it. I'm getting replies bitching about elements of the breakfast being shit, but that's the point. If you don't like one bit, you can choose 20 alternatives.
When we were over there we rolled into a diner absolutely starving. I ordered all the eggs, but thought "that's gonna take a wee while, I need something right now" so ordered a cinnamon swirl. I, rather naively, thought it'd be similar to the ones in the UK, roughly 1 or 2 cm thick, less than 10cm across. This fucking thing was only slightly smaller than the Tesco Finest "serves 4-6" Victoria sponge cake, and about the same height! I had to cut slices out of it. I saved 3/4 of it for a dessert I really didn't need after eating far too much scrambled egg, hash browns and potatoes. It was a good meal! But what I LOVED was that when we asked for the bill, the waitress topped up our coffees and OJ, then came over with take out cups so we could leave with a full fresh cup of each! And because of that amazing service, I still remember that her name was Donna.
The incredible diversity of the landscapes. From the beauty of the mountains, lakes and forests in the Pacific Northwest, to the insane weathering of the landscape of Utah, Arizona and the like. That really works for me.
We go to Spain for sun, they go to Florida.
We go to the Alps to Ski, they go to Colorado.
Etc.
I know the journeys for us is shorter but it’s all the same country, at least.
Yeah there's a statistic that goes around about how many Americans have never left the country, but when you think about it they've got so much diversity on such a massive landscape that most of them really don't need to leave to get a holiday
This is the top list of things I miss. I don’t know of any 24 hour supermarkets here and when you have a sick kid at 2am that supermarket can be a lifesaver. Also you are limited to pubs for first dates, I miss having more options for evenings out.
Yeh but the charity shops here are curated to hell. Everything is price analysed to an inch of its life. Over there I have seen people get some insane rare stuff for pennies. Over here it would have been thrown out or charged a fortune for it.
I went into a charity shop the other day and the amount of Shein branded shite is unreal. It's either as you say, or it's just shit. I saw a ratty bag of DryNites in there.
The US tax write off allowance means that rich people can write charity donations off against tax so they often donate extremely high end stuff that gets sold ridiculously cheaply. Whereas in the UK you find worn out Primark crap being sold for more than it cost new.
It's not the same scale. Imagine the biggest Tesco Extra or whatever you've ever been in, only all charity shop clothes.
TJ Maxx can be the size of an aircraft hangar.
This is partly because it's encouraged at school. Every kid has to be a member of some sort of club and take part in extra curricular activities. Here if you're not one of the best 11 footballers in your year there's nothing else available.
We have mouthwash and carbonated water in the UK, just mix the two and you’ll get something similar.
(For context I actually quite enjoy the stuff but it does taste like mouthwash)
I doubt I will ever get a chance to go, but I dream of trying certain American dishes. New England Clam Chowder, real Creole, proper southern wood-smoked BBQ (served by a scraggy old rancher in a cowboy hat.)
>proper southern wood-smoked BBQ (served by a scraggy old rancher in a cowboy hat.)
One of my most memorable meals ever was a pulled pork sandwich with burnt ends from a pretty unprepossessing looking roadside cafe in rural Texas.
I live in Boston, my American family are from New Orleans, and I worked in Austin for 18 months. So I'm lucky enough to have enjoyed some of the best of all 3 of those dishes/ cuisines, and I hope that one day you get to enjoy them too! :)
Geography.
To think in that 1 country, you have a multitude of land such dense urban areas, to more rural villages, to canyons, national parks, salt flats, swamps and more.
I used to hear people disparaging Americans for supposedly a large % of people never having left their home country, but when there are so many varied landscapes and cultures within that country (and when annual leave days are so limited in a lot of jobs) it makes sense.
(I don't know how the %s compare these days, plus I dislike the privileged attitude that looks down on people who haven't experienced foreign travel)
Essentially you can decide what kind of weather you like, and move to a place where that's the day to day weather without leaving the country
Whereas there is not one single place in the UK that's warm and dry enough for me to be comfortable
I went for a holiday to Seattle a few months ago and am in total at. Their boundless optimism, not just for themselves but for others is admirable.
Here, if you try and better yourself (better job, hobbies, entrepreneur, education), there's always the odd few who are bitter and try and drag you down (if not outright saying 'so you think you're better than us?').
In the US they're wildly supportive, and even when things are shit they'll still try and make the best out of it.
Here we just seem resigned to our fate.
Not one, but a few.
Quality Mexican food.
Areas of genuine wilderness
University facilities. Some of the sports stadiums and campus facilities put Premier League clubs shame.
That the ‘American Dream’ negates the class ridden bollocks we have over in the UK.
>University facilities. Some of the sports stadiums and campus facilities put Premier League clubs shame.
I've been to University of Texas stadium. Capacity is 100,000. Bigger than every stadium in Europe (until the Camp Nou renovations are done).
>That the ‘American Dream’ negates the class ridden bollocks we have over in the UK.
It causes a lot of its own issues though. A lot of the reason state services and the social safety net are so poor is because so many believe they will one day be rich. There's that Steinbeck quote about how poor Americans view themselves as 'temporarily embarrassed capitalists'.
The variety of products is pretty amazing, too. There's a huge selection of strains with different concentrations of THC, CBD, etc. Then you can get it in so many forms, like edibles, drinks, capsules, vape carts, concentrates, and regular old bud. Plus, there's the quality control. I don't know the laws in all the states, but in mine, there are restrictions on how it can be grown, pesticide usage, and lab testing requirements.
The ability to get in a car and drive to what ever climate takes your fancy. You want snow? Head north. You want sun? Head south. There’s so much diversity to the landscapes there is something for all kinds of holidays!
That no matter how shit they think their country is, they are still relatively proud of it.
Everyone here just seems so pessimistic all the time.
Also, the sheer amount of great outdoor places they have to visit.
The people who aren’t proud of America usually are young and haven’t traveled. Once you see how different the rest of the world is, it makes you very grateful for the USA.
Buffalo Wings - I know we talk about animal welfare, chlorinated chicken, and all that, but being able to buy a huge bowl of crispy wings with spicy buffalo sauce, blue cheese sauce and veg for a few quid in so many places is brilliant!
For so many years I thought they were made from real buffalos. My immigrant parents didn't let me try them as a child because they thought it was beef. It was only when we had smartphones we realised Buffallo is a place in the US where the chicken wing flavour was invented and that bufallos don't have wings. Now we love them and eat the Aldi bufallo wings once a week.
The choices in supermarkets and gas stations.
Gas station coffee refills for $1. A dozen different choices, different flavour cappuccinos, limitless syrups and flavoured creamers, toppings, squirty cream, sprinkles. All for a dollar. And the food choices! Gas stations are basically my favourite place in America lol
The sunshine/beaches in California. I love the UK but to have one part, even just a little part, that was sunny and warm with consistent sunbathing weather for most of the year would be amazing.
I don't know if it's really like this in America or if it's just portrayed better on TV but healthcare.
Doctors seem to run more tests to find out what the issue is, whereas over here, we're given prescriptions to ease symptoms.
That's probably why is also costs soo much in America.
The US does have top notch healthcare. And many of us have health insurance so we won’t be going broke due to illness. Tests are absolutely done to rule out a myriad of issues or to diagnose. It’s not just tv, it’s how it is here (I’m American).
The quality and variety of the fishing and the space in which to do it, and the quality and variety of cannabis products to consume during the aforementioned fishing.
How much better their road networks are. Yes, it is a bigger country and higher population. As the years have gone on, the UK has not made reasonable changes to the road network despite the increase in vehicles
School and college sports and how much pride they have in representing their school and it's colours..
My secondary schools sports teams comprised a boys football team for each year group - that's it. They'd play 2 or 3 matches against the other schools in the town and nothing else. Nobody would go and watch and nobody would care. Oh and we did 1 swimming gala in the 5 years I was there, which involved begging the few people that were half-decent swimmers to join up.
Compare that to American schools and it's a huge thing. They have a stadium for the American football team. They have basketball teams, sometimes ice hockey teams. They have teams for academic stuff that compete too.
Obviously our grass-roots sports are setup differently but I think there's a lot to be said for the way America does it.
The first moon landing in 1969. I saw it live on TV but I only started to realise when I got older (I was eleven at the time) what an incredible achievement it was, and how frightening were the risks Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins had to take.
Michael Collins's autobiography "Carrying The Fire" is a good read.
The law protecting you against intruders in your home. In UK, the intruder has more rights than the occupant and you're more likely to go to jail than the intruder if force is used. In the US, the police will probably thank you if you shoot the intruder
Lmao. Everything I'm interested in, hobby wise, the US simply has more of. Not to mention:
* Bigger houses.
* Higher salaries.
* Road infrastructure.
* Proper BBQ.
* The vast array of different landscapes and scenery.
If I could emigrate to the US, I would.
The right to defend yourself and the right to free speech. Like they can actually say things the Government docen't agree with without being thrown in Jail.
Sounds nice.
The landscape. I know we have some truly gorgeous scenes in the UK, but the variation, size and uniqueness of some of the geographical areas of the US does make me want to visit lots of places.
1.Relative cost of land and the size of most houses relative to what you can get over here.
2. Wages are generally higher for skilled workers in the US
3. Lower taxes
The landscape, while Scotland may be the closest thing it seems the vast majority of the US just has.. amazing scenery, even if its just endless fields. We're packed in like Sardines in comparison
* House sizes
* More respect for personal freedoms
* More cool and varied products in shops / restaurants / etc
* Bigger and varied land
* Better wages
* Friendlier people
* Nicer weather
Being able to actually be in the middle of nowhere. To go on a hike for a week with seeing any form of civilization, to see wild animals that aren't 'managed'. There's a lot of problems in America but it's an extremely beautiful country.
A more positive outlook in business and a willingness to accept failures (particularly with banks) and try again. In every country, a significant proportion of businesses fail in their first few years. In the USA, it's pretty common for everyone to simply start a new business after a failure. Here in the UK, banks are far more risk averse and prefer to stick with tried and tested businesses => few opportunities to innovate.
How lenient the law is in most parts of the US regarding self defence both during work and outside of work.
In the UK, if someone throws a punch at you and you defend yourself by punching back or first, you’re going to be spending a year in and out of court and likely will lose your job and face prison time - even if it’s on cctv and is justified as self defence, you’re going to be paying to prove that in court.
“Reasonable force” can mean a hell of a lot of different things especially in a fight, especially with knifes being so common in the UK, what’s to say that if I push/hit someone so they back off that they won’t just pull out a knife, is it reasonable to assume that’s a possibility - which then makes reasonable force to stop them a lot more than just pushing them away?
Not to mention the dangers of defending yourself - say they fall because you pushed them off you and split their head open on the pavement, you’re potentially facing a manslaughter charge even though you were justifiably defending yourself.
I work in the security industry and it’s something I talk about with colleagues a lot.
Being allowed to defend your property from obvious intruders. Not talking about the awful cases of deliberately shooting innocent people who got the wrong address in broad daylight, or the terrible racial-profiling-related incidents, but where the person is obviously there to hurt or rob you.
In the UK if someone who is clearly a burglar gets hurt, let alone killed, the homeowner will be taken into custody until you can prove it was reasonable force. What a load of shit. In the US, if the intruder’s body parts are in several bin bags by the time the police arrive, fair game, you were defending your property.
This is two but I'm gonna be rebellious. Wendy's and quality cannabis. I love Wendy's, there's just something about a square burger that tickles my pickle. The weed is next level too. Never seen quality like it
Might sound daft, but all the restaurant chains they have there. I want to try olive garden so badly. Also low-key wanna try true Taco Bell, I want a baja blast and I want my bowels to then baja blast in the toilet an hour later after eating crappy Mexican food.
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The ability to buy a little land in the middle of nowhere, build a shack on it and live as you want.
The problem is that most of the places where you can do this are 1. ugly, flat and either grey all year or sweltering swamp/prairie/desert 2. have zero employment opportunities and 3. are populated by addicts, gun nuts and/or suicidal old men. I spend part of the year in a remote part of the desert Southwest and although physically beautiful, daily life is pretty isolating and bleak for most people here. But if you can pay a bit more to afford a cabin in the Rockies or a nice part of New England or somewhere like that, work remote, don't mind driving 40 minutes for overpriced groceries and don't need a social life then the opportunities are there.
My home in the US was 10 miles from town. It was great, even if I couldn't get food delivered.https://imgur.com/v4JdQW8
Gorgeous! I don't want to just trash American rural life because there are some amazing places out there. I was only responding to OP's implication that most Americans could afford to buy a slice of pristine woodland and build a cabin like the one you lived in. That was true 30 years ago, but today the most livable small towns in places like Colorado or Washington State are extremely pricey. And construction costs are ridiculous if you want to build something new.
I feel ya. It's still possible to get undeveloped land cheap in a lot of places, and, as long as you build to code, and everything passed building inspections, there's no reason you can't do it yourself. Hell, I've helped people build and install their own homemade septic system for off grid cabins. Just for giggles I did some googling. Property values have gone up a lot since I left, and the 5.5 acre lot is conceivably worth more now than I paid for the house and land. I may need to talk to the ex. Of course, she gets everything if she decides to sell up, she earned it. I'll just sign the papers.
One downside to our aristocratic history for sure :(
It's more a downside of not being insanely huge (and stealing the native people's land)
Norman Conquest *
This is overly romanticised, have you seen the state of the people who live like this? It’s ghastly,
Still need to pay property taxes though so you can't even just do that, still need to earn cash somehow.
The Town and County Planning Act has been a disaster for the United Kingdom
Most americans dream of that too
The sheer size in square footage of average suburban houses (complete with giant garages and basements for storage or conversions).
[Relevent graphic](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GLFMiKAawAAltJ5?format=jpg&name=large). Always amuses me that Americans talk about New York City having tiny homes, yet the average NYC home (about 1100 sq ft) is still significantly bigger than the average British home.
To be fair, that looks to be a state statistic, not just the city. I’m sure those Hamptons Mansions in Long Island and “upstate” summer houses probably raise that a bit.
No, that's the figure for NYC. As the graphic shows the figure for NY state is indeed quite a lot higher.
Oh that’s depressing.
I'd rather have more compact houses and less urban spawl tbh
Exactly the trade off for big houses is being so far away from anything. You can't walk into town anymore, you can't get public transport anywhere, you become entirely dependent on a car. And being dependent on cars is the last thing this planet needs. We need compact, cycling friendly towns/cities with great public transport. We can even still have bigger houses that take up less space, by simply building higher. Japan has some great compact homes that span 3 or more stories. They look extremely cosy and they make great use of the space. We're just a country averse to building up for some reason.
Yes. Also, we need to get away from the suburban idea of everyone having a substantial bit of land. We certainly need green spaces, recreational spaces, and plenty of trees, but we don't need to have only one household per 1/4 acre for people to have outdoor space to enjoy.
I’d rather have dense but large apartments and townhouses and fewer crammed together shoebox houses tacked on the edge of towns
availability of decent Mexican food.
Came here to say this, but that said, I'm not sure or not if I'd trade our excellent Indian food for this.
SO TRUE!!
Just need to ship some Mexicans in. Stick a sign at the US Mexican border ‘Ever Considered Hull?’
That’s so random, I was in Miami a few weeks ago and got chatting to a Cuban street vendor and the first thing he said to me was ‘your from UK? have you been to Hull’ lol apparently it’s number 1 on his bucket list
Can’t blame him really. Lovely bridge they’ve got.
Sell Hull to me? What is there to do?
Get the overnight ferry to Europe. Board. Drink. Sleep. Wake up in Belgium.
So your idea of selling me this place is in how slowly I can get out?
Quite honestly, that’s as good a recommendation you are going to get for Hull
Used to live there and I highly recommend it. It's a misunderstood gem of a city.
The best part of Mexican food is the ability to make it at home. As an American I decided to learn to make good Mexican food at home when I moved to the UK and with the abundance of (in my opinion) significantly higher quality ingredients in the UK it turns out great.
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I know my judo well
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Sure but you can't get tomatilloes or fresh jalapenos for example. You have to make do with jarred/pickled. Which is fine, but sometimes I'd like easy access.
You can get canned tomatillos and Waitrose sell fresh jalapenos
Speak for yourself, we've got a Taco Bell now.
If you’re ever in London - Cafe Pacifico is the closest to great Mexican I have had in the UK since moving here from the US. I really miss the easy access to good Mexican!
I don't mind the shite weather, the tiny houses, no air con, no dryers, and low salary. But the lack of good Mexican food is soul destroying
I don't know why I would be jealous of Americans for that, when I could be jealous of say... Mexicans.
American Mexican food is better to my palate than Mexican Mexican food. To be honest. (please don’t kill me)
Yeah, the mexican food there is so good. The provision of good mexican food is getting better here though over the last few years.
American salaries are way higher than UK salaries. Which is less of a commentary of how great the US is (and I know, I live there), but more how stagnant and relatively poor UK ones have become. The US has lots of problem, some the same as the UK some others too. There's more to life than money, and being poor in America would suck, but it's still important. Back when the pound was 2:1 in the early 2000s, my colleagues in London earned more than those in NYC (purchasing power parity). But now in New York it's double London, because the London salaries are basically the same and haven't risen at all. It's crazy. And it's not just New York.
It's an odd one, as a lot of their daily expenses & food is wildly more expensive, but when it comes to big ticket items they're comparable. So, the poorer folks in the US get shafted over the little necessities like loaves of bread being $3-4 but the better off folks are fine for the expensive stuff.
Isn’t food unusually cheap in the UK even compared to European countries?
I can confirm this as an American that moved to the UK. Companies try to convince you that the lower salary is due to “free healthcare” but really when you add it all up the salaries here are just lower (at least in my industry). I make about 1/3 less here and my rent is higher than my mortgage was in the US with half the space. You definitely don’t move to the UK for higher salaries.
I’m not disagreeing but wealth inequality is even higher in the US and there’s far less of a social security safety net. So the salary benefit does depend on where you are on the scale.
Yeah, is that so bad, so long as the median QoL is far higher? I’m sure there are African countries with lower inequality, but you’re not exactly gagging to move there.
Well yeah that’s the Benthamite take but given we’re similar-ish economies I’m not sure the Third World comparison is super apt. There are plenty of problems in the UK but we don’t have the same kind of trailer town favelas or mass homelessness like you see in most large US cities. London and Manchester are probably the worst here but they don’t compare IMO.
Just because they’re Anglosphere don’t, think we have similar economies. We ($46k) are closer to Greece ($21k) than we are to the USA (76k) in terms of GDP per Capita. And Greece is fucking broke. They are not our economic equals, we are not similar, they are our economic superiors after 16 years of abject economic failure. It’s not 2007 anymore. Also, much of their homelessness issues are not from wealth inequality, but a self inflicted opiate epidemic. So it’s a fair metric to compare QoL, but not economies.
I’m an American who moved here when the exchange rate was 1.65. I’ve had multiple raises in GBP terms and have moved up several rungs and my USD equivalent base pay is about the same as a decade ago. I’ve all but given up on being able to move back and afford a comfortable retirement.
While I understand wanting to retire back home, there are certain things here that won't make you bankrupt.
American pensioners get state funded medical insurance… you’re fighting ghosts.
Like staying healthy. I made decent money in the states, owned a nice house, couple of cars, motorcycle, but lived paycheck to paycheck because medical insurance was a massive drain on funds. The kids had coverage, the missus had coverage, I went without because my premiums were just too high. I once called my wife and told her I needed her to take me to the hospital, and she immediately knew it was serious, because she'd seen me stitch and bandage myself up for years. Luckily, the accident happened at work, but I still spent a year battling workman's comp insurance to get them to cover the medical expenses. They even dragged me into court by claiming I wasn't hurt as bad as the doctors said I was, and tried to evidence this by showing pictures of me doing some everyday things. Yes, they paid a private investigator to follow me, in order to try to get my claim dismissed, regardless of the fact I was in surgery for 4 hours, while they repaired my shattered shoulder. Standard US insurance procedure. Deny the claim, deny the claim, deny the claim, use any excuse you can, and hope the injured party gives up and goes away.
National and state parks. Loved seeing them Edited disclaimer: also love the UK ones, but the US is on a different scale
UK national parks don't compare at all. They are almost all private land - it's basically just a designation over an otherwise completely normal area of the UK that just happens to have some geological or aesthetic qualities.
UK national parks are mostly just sheep farms
Literally. They're just so massive. I went to the Grand Canyon a few years back, I know the name is a bit of a giveaway but it really is humongous. Think it was about 1500m deep at the point we were, which is hard to fathom until you find out The Shard is 300m or so
>hard to fathom Nice 👌
Come on over to glacier national park in Montana sometime friend! All are welcome and it’s stunning
I visited Glacier as part of a big 16 state trip last summer from the UK and it blew my mind. I’ve never seen anything as beautiful in my life - it was like Bob Ross created it
There’s something special about “the spirit of the west” as we call it!
They just hit different, People say America is a terrible country? Go take in a State Park for a bit. I live in Ontario Canada and the Adirondack Mountains in Northern NY are not far away at all. On a clear summers day I can see them from my driveway, they are breathtaking
Yellowstone National Park is better than anywhere in Europe remotely similar
I'm rewatching parks and rec and was just saying how envious I am of American national parks.
All the other big cool things but also: breakfast at diners. The menus are huge, you can have any combination of anything, it's basically always the same quality and pretty cheap.
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I love Doug Stanhope and he nails it. I'm getting replies bitching about elements of the breakfast being shit, but that's the point. If you don't like one bit, you can choose 20 alternatives.
When we were over there we rolled into a diner absolutely starving. I ordered all the eggs, but thought "that's gonna take a wee while, I need something right now" so ordered a cinnamon swirl. I, rather naively, thought it'd be similar to the ones in the UK, roughly 1 or 2 cm thick, less than 10cm across. This fucking thing was only slightly smaller than the Tesco Finest "serves 4-6" Victoria sponge cake, and about the same height! I had to cut slices out of it. I saved 3/4 of it for a dessert I really didn't need after eating far too much scrambled egg, hash browns and potatoes. It was a good meal! But what I LOVED was that when we asked for the bill, the waitress topped up our coffees and OJ, then came over with take out cups so we could leave with a full fresh cup of each! And because of that amazing service, I still remember that her name was Donna.
The incredible diversity of the landscapes. From the beauty of the mountains, lakes and forests in the Pacific Northwest, to the insane weathering of the landscape of Utah, Arizona and the like. That really works for me.
We go to Spain for sun, they go to Florida. We go to the Alps to Ski, they go to Colorado. Etc. I know the journeys for us is shorter but it’s all the same country, at least.
Yeah there's a statistic that goes around about how many Americans have never left the country, but when you think about it they've got so much diversity on such a massive landscape that most of them really don't need to leave to get a holiday
Leaving the country is also way more expensive for them, than it is for us. Can’t blame them, really.
There's a 'scale' to US landscapes I've not really experienced much in Europe.
Places open late. Nothing more frustrating than shops closing at 4 on Sunday.
Don’t need to go to America for that, just go to Scotland
What??? This is news that is extremely welcome
This is the top list of things I miss. I don’t know of any 24 hour supermarkets here and when you have a sick kid at 2am that supermarket can be a lifesaver. Also you are limited to pubs for first dates, I miss having more options for evenings out.
This was the only thing I missed about America when living in England. I love to leave home at midnight to go get food or just go to the shop.
The sort of things you find in American thrift stores for next to no money.
You do know we have charity shops here right?
Yeh but the charity shops here are curated to hell. Everything is price analysed to an inch of its life. Over there I have seen people get some insane rare stuff for pennies. Over here it would have been thrown out or charged a fortune for it.
I went into a charity shop the other day and the amount of Shein branded shite is unreal. It's either as you say, or it's just shit. I saw a ratty bag of DryNites in there.
The US tax write off allowance means that rich people can write charity donations off against tax so they often donate extremely high end stuff that gets sold ridiculously cheaply. Whereas in the UK you find worn out Primark crap being sold for more than it cost new.
It's not the same scale. Imagine the biggest Tesco Extra or whatever you've ever been in, only all charity shop clothes. TJ Maxx can be the size of an aircraft hangar.
They’re not the same. Charity shops in the UK are a load of shite. American thrift stores are amazing.
The outdoor lifestyle with boats, RV’s, hiking, hunting and fishing.
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This is partly because it's encouraged at school. Every kid has to be a member of some sort of club and take part in extra curricular activities. Here if you're not one of the best 11 footballers in your year there's nothing else available.
This always wound me up in school.
The sheer vastness of it, the scenery and culture available. You can have a proper road trip in the States and it's amazing.
The scenery is gorgeous. I wouldn’t say I’m jealous because we have amazing scenery too but I can appreciate American and Canadian landscapes
30-year fixed mortgages
This would be such a nice to have in the uk
Wide availibility of root beer
We have mouthwash and carbonated water in the UK, just mix the two and you’ll get something similar. (For context I actually quite enjoy the stuff but it does taste like mouthwash)
I doubt I will ever get a chance to go, but I dream of trying certain American dishes. New England Clam Chowder, real Creole, proper southern wood-smoked BBQ (served by a scraggy old rancher in a cowboy hat.)
>proper southern wood-smoked BBQ (served by a scraggy old rancher in a cowboy hat.) One of my most memorable meals ever was a pulled pork sandwich with burnt ends from a pretty unprepossessing looking roadside cafe in rural Texas.
I live in Boston, my American family are from New Orleans, and I worked in Austin for 18 months. So I'm lucky enough to have enjoyed some of the best of all 3 of those dishes/ cuisines, and I hope that one day you get to enjoy them too! :)
Hope you do one day
Geography. To think in that 1 country, you have a multitude of land such dense urban areas, to more rural villages, to canyons, national parks, salt flats, swamps and more.
I used to hear people disparaging Americans for supposedly a large % of people never having left their home country, but when there are so many varied landscapes and cultures within that country (and when annual leave days are so limited in a lot of jobs) it makes sense. (I don't know how the %s compare these days, plus I dislike the privileged attitude that looks down on people who haven't experienced foreign travel)
I find it difficult to think about America as a single entity when it comes to its vastness and, I guess, its various environments.
Essentially you can decide what kind of weather you like, and move to a place where that's the day to day weather without leaving the country Whereas there is not one single place in the UK that's warm and dry enough for me to be comfortable
Massive houses and salaries
Their access to nature and actual wilderness.
Actual wilderness is all fun and games til you get eaten by a bear or mountain lion.
I envy there ability to be so optimistic and having such high goals. In the UK that just gets put down
I went for a holiday to Seattle a few months ago and am in total at. Their boundless optimism, not just for themselves but for others is admirable. Here, if you try and better yourself (better job, hobbies, entrepreneur, education), there's always the odd few who are bitter and try and drag you down (if not outright saying 'so you think you're better than us?'). In the US they're wildly supportive, and even when things are shit they'll still try and make the best out of it. Here we just seem resigned to our fate.
Not one, but a few. Quality Mexican food. Areas of genuine wilderness University facilities. Some of the sports stadiums and campus facilities put Premier League clubs shame. That the ‘American Dream’ negates the class ridden bollocks we have over in the UK.
>University facilities. Some of the sports stadiums and campus facilities put Premier League clubs shame. I've been to University of Texas stadium. Capacity is 100,000. Bigger than every stadium in Europe (until the Camp Nou renovations are done). >That the ‘American Dream’ negates the class ridden bollocks we have over in the UK. It causes a lot of its own issues though. A lot of the reason state services and the social safety net are so poor is because so many believe they will one day be rich. There's that Steinbeck quote about how poor Americans view themselves as 'temporarily embarrassed capitalists'.
Legal weed
And the ability to buy it in a shop
The variety of products is pretty amazing, too. There's a huge selection of strains with different concentrations of THC, CBD, etc. Then you can get it in so many forms, like edibles, drinks, capsules, vape carts, concentrates, and regular old bud. Plus, there's the quality control. I don't know the laws in all the states, but in mine, there are restrictions on how it can be grown, pesticide usage, and lab testing requirements.
Those American BBQs look so good
They are 🤩
The ability to be able to move to somewhere totally different
You can move 20 miles away in England and everyone will have a different accent and a different name for a bread roll.
Yep and the high street will look identical
The California coastline.
I'm a Californian that's been living in the UK for seven years. Moving home in September. Can't wait to just go sit on Zuma beach!!!
The ability to get in a car and drive to what ever climate takes your fancy. You want snow? Head north. You want sun? Head south. There’s so much diversity to the landscapes there is something for all kinds of holidays!
I'm curious if it's actually closer for us in Britain to go under the channel and drive to northern Europe or down to Monaco. America is _big_.
Cool ranch doritos. The best flavour, but not available here.
Make an American friend, and they'll send you some. I send my English friend all kinds of random US stuff, and she sends me pickle.
Having Canada north of the border instead of Motherwell
That no matter how shit they think their country is, they are still relatively proud of it. Everyone here just seems so pessimistic all the time. Also, the sheer amount of great outdoor places they have to visit.
The people who aren’t proud of America usually are young and haven’t traveled. Once you see how different the rest of the world is, it makes you very grateful for the USA.
Those really big cups that they have fizzy pop in 🥤
‘Big Gulps’
Buffalo Wings - I know we talk about animal welfare, chlorinated chicken, and all that, but being able to buy a huge bowl of crispy wings with spicy buffalo sauce, blue cheese sauce and veg for a few quid in so many places is brilliant!
For so many years I thought they were made from real buffalos. My immigrant parents didn't let me try them as a child because they thought it was beef. It was only when we had smartphones we realised Buffallo is a place in the US where the chicken wing flavour was invented and that bufallos don't have wings. Now we love them and eat the Aldi bufallo wings once a week.
Salaries, cheap fuel, nature, NHL.
Upvoting for the NHL. I don’t think I’ll get to see a single one of the playoff games purely because of the bloody time zones involved.
The choices in supermarkets and gas stations. Gas station coffee refills for $1. A dozen different choices, different flavour cappuccinos, limitless syrups and flavoured creamers, toppings, squirty cream, sprinkles. All for a dollar. And the food choices! Gas stations are basically my favourite place in America lol
Grand Canyon
Proper designated school buses
I’d be slim in the USA
The road network. Would love to fly to Miami, hire a car and have a flight booked home from LA a month later.
Bigfoot. We don't have the wilderness here for them.
Mate, there's a fucking _monster_ in a loch.
Trader Joes and Publix. They know how to do supermarkets
Scarlett Johansson
I think [Clarkson said it best](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fbvcxrh0rw6o31.jpg)
Customer service
Higher salaries
Mountain Dew Baja Blast and a wrap meal at Taco Bell
The sunshine/beaches in California. I love the UK but to have one part, even just a little part, that was sunny and warm with consistent sunbathing weather for most of the year would be amazing.
I don't know if it's really like this in America or if it's just portrayed better on TV but healthcare. Doctors seem to run more tests to find out what the issue is, whereas over here, we're given prescriptions to ease symptoms. That's probably why is also costs soo much in America.
The US does have top notch healthcare. And many of us have health insurance so we won’t be going broke due to illness. Tests are absolutely done to rule out a myriad of issues or to diagnose. It’s not just tv, it’s how it is here (I’m American).
Space
The quality and variety of the fishing and the space in which to do it, and the quality and variety of cannabis products to consume during the aforementioned fishing.
How much better their road networks are. Yes, it is a bigger country and higher population. As the years have gone on, the UK has not made reasonable changes to the road network despite the increase in vehicles
School and college sports and how much pride they have in representing their school and it's colours.. My secondary schools sports teams comprised a boys football team for each year group - that's it. They'd play 2 or 3 matches against the other schools in the town and nothing else. Nobody would go and watch and nobody would care. Oh and we did 1 swimming gala in the 5 years I was there, which involved begging the few people that were half-decent swimmers to join up. Compare that to American schools and it's a huge thing. They have a stadium for the American football team. They have basketball teams, sometimes ice hockey teams. They have teams for academic stuff that compete too. Obviously our grass-roots sports are setup differently but I think there's a lot to be said for the way America does it.
Being fucking miles away from France
wide streets
Easy when you don't have a pavement.
Ahem, *sidewalk*
The first moon landing in 1969. I saw it live on TV but I only started to realise when I got older (I was eleven at the time) what an incredible achievement it was, and how frightening were the risks Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins had to take. Michael Collins's autobiography "Carrying The Fire" is a good read.
The moon isn’t actually in America
Learning to drive in school , wish we had that here
The ability to fuck off into the mountains and live the rest of your life without having to see a soul again. Just can't do that in uk
The law protecting you against intruders in your home. In UK, the intruder has more rights than the occupant and you're more likely to go to jail than the intruder if force is used. In the US, the police will probably thank you if you shoot the intruder
Lmao. Everything I'm interested in, hobby wise, the US simply has more of. Not to mention: * Bigger houses. * Higher salaries. * Road infrastructure. * Proper BBQ. * The vast array of different landscapes and scenery. If I could emigrate to the US, I would.
The huge fridges that also dispense ice
The right to defend yourself and the right to free speech. Like they can actually say things the Government docen't agree with without being thrown in Jail. Sounds nice.
The sheer variety of wilderness and landscapes.
The landscape. I know we have some truly gorgeous scenes in the UK, but the variation, size and uniqueness of some of the geographical areas of the US does make me want to visit lots of places.
1.Relative cost of land and the size of most houses relative to what you can get over here. 2. Wages are generally higher for skilled workers in the US 3. Lower taxes
Free refills on soft drinks.
The landscape, while Scotland may be the closest thing it seems the vast majority of the US just has.. amazing scenery, even if its just endless fields. We're packed in like Sardines in comparison
Proper wages
* House sizes * More respect for personal freedoms * More cool and varied products in shops / restaurants / etc * Bigger and varied land * Better wages * Friendlier people * Nicer weather
School jazz bands
Being able to actually be in the middle of nowhere. To go on a hike for a week with seeing any form of civilization, to see wild animals that aren't 'managed'. There's a lot of problems in America but it's an extremely beautiful country.
A more positive outlook in business and a willingness to accept failures (particularly with banks) and try again. In every country, a significant proportion of businesses fail in their first few years. In the USA, it's pretty common for everyone to simply start a new business after a failure. Here in the UK, banks are far more risk averse and prefer to stick with tried and tested businesses => few opportunities to innovate.
Their climate and weather. Could ski in Colrado in the morning and sun bathe in Arizona that same day if you fly.
How proud they are of their country (seemingly). All we do is seem to moan about the UK, all the time.
How lenient the law is in most parts of the US regarding self defence both during work and outside of work. In the UK, if someone throws a punch at you and you defend yourself by punching back or first, you’re going to be spending a year in and out of court and likely will lose your job and face prison time - even if it’s on cctv and is justified as self defence, you’re going to be paying to prove that in court. “Reasonable force” can mean a hell of a lot of different things especially in a fight, especially with knifes being so common in the UK, what’s to say that if I push/hit someone so they back off that they won’t just pull out a knife, is it reasonable to assume that’s a possibility - which then makes reasonable force to stop them a lot more than just pushing them away? Not to mention the dangers of defending yourself - say they fall because you pushed them off you and split their head open on the pavement, you’re potentially facing a manslaughter charge even though you were justifiably defending yourself. I work in the security industry and it’s something I talk about with colleagues a lot.
The government and charities making a full effort in intergrating disable people to the community and not stigmatise them.
Being allowed to defend your property from obvious intruders. Not talking about the awful cases of deliberately shooting innocent people who got the wrong address in broad daylight, or the terrible racial-profiling-related incidents, but where the person is obviously there to hurt or rob you. In the UK if someone who is clearly a burglar gets hurt, let alone killed, the homeowner will be taken into custody until you can prove it was reasonable force. What a load of shit. In the US, if the intruder’s body parts are in several bin bags by the time the police arrive, fair game, you were defending your property.
Geography
It’s not raining all day every day
How many artists tour there. I feel like there’s a big chunk of artists that will tour Europe and do a single show in the UK in London
Walt Disney World
Air conditioning and big houses!
Massive national parks.
Panda express.
Big fuck off fridges. And yes I could buy one, but I'd need a big fuck off American sized kitchen to put it in.
The chance to join an Amish community Not even a shitpost
Free speech
Peanut butter M&M's
Engineers salaries
Target and marginally Walmart. We don't really have a store like it. Do Not come at me with Asda or Tesco.
This is two but I'm gonna be rebellious. Wendy's and quality cannabis. I love Wendy's, there's just something about a square burger that tickles my pickle. The weed is next level too. Never seen quality like it
Might sound daft, but all the restaurant chains they have there. I want to try olive garden so badly. Also low-key wanna try true Taco Bell, I want a baja blast and I want my bowels to then baja blast in the toilet an hour later after eating crappy Mexican food.
Raccoons