UK or USA/London or New York? (Essex: violent crime, cheap house)

[hutch5]

Thank you Mead,
this is an interesting and important point you make. So the fact that one does not see so many drunk young people on the streets and their associated antisocial behaviour does not mean that the drinking problem does not exist. In the USA they just get drunk behind closed doors. Is it a very generalized problem? What about drugs? Here in England drugs circulate a lot in Discos. I would imagine that big cities are the same around the world, but what about smaller towns?

[hutch5]

Originally Posted by straight outta camden

I would say family is more important to Americans than to Brits. Americans are particularly attached to their grandparents and, in many cases, their great-aunts / uncles. I'm British, and I couldn't tell you the names of my grandparents' siblings, or even how many there are.

As for the drink and drunken violence problem, that is far worse in Britain. Britain is the second-most violent rich country in the world, after Australia. By some measures it is the most violent (see the International Crime Victimisation Survey, now a few years out of date). You are much less likely to be killed in Britain than in America, but you are much, much more likely to be assaulted. America does have a drink problem, of course, but it takes a different form. The main thing to worry about is drunk driving.

Needless to say, though, whether your kids will be safe, family-loving folk has about 5% to do with where they live and 95% to do with how you raise them.

Somehow I had missed this opinion, sorry
I am absolutely in agreement with you about the importance how we reaise our children and the influende that child rearing has on their future behaviour and I think you for reminding me that. Sometime one is so concern about so many things that forgets to remember some very simple truths.

[imadovich]

usa is the best for you, thats it

[krichton]

This is a really old thread but I feel compelled to respond nevertheless. The extra $25,000 is meaningless and I'll tell you why. ALL that money will be going to paying off private health insurance for your entire family for the course of the year. If any member has a serious illness you'll go bankrupt paying the deductibles. Aside from that NYC would be an exciting place to move to. How many murders occur each year in London? Maybe a handful? Well we nearly hit 1000 each year and assaults are around 50,000 so we beat you yet again. This is why nyc is one of the most exciting cities in the world. There's always that fear of death that you simply wouldn't get elsewhere unless you traveled to some third world country.

[mead]

Originally Posted by krichton

This is a really old thread but I feel compelled to respond nevertheless. The extra $25,000 is meaningless and I'll tell you why. ALL that money will be going to paying off private health insurance for your entire family for the course of the year. If any member has a serious illness you'll go bankrupt paying the deductibles. Aside from that NYC would be an exciting place to move to. How many murders occur each year in London? Maybe a handful? Well we nearly hit 1000 each year and assaults are around 50,000 so we beat you yet again. This is why nyc is one of the most exciting cities in the world. There's always that fear of death that you simply wouldn't get elsewhere unless you traveled to some third world country.

Actually the murder rate in NYC has been hovering around 500 per year for the past couple of years (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/ny.../23murder.html)

The murder rate is certainly higher in the USA, but general street crime and assaults are definitely worse in the UK than here.

[dare5555]

Inner city schools have serious issues in the USA . You would not want to send your kids there . Suburbs are way much better and safe. You wouldn't regret moving to NYC but healthcare costs here are ridiculous .

[SeventhFloor]

Originally Posted by hutch5

We are currently living in Chelmsford and if we move to NY we would probably live in one of the commuting town in Westchester depending on schools and house prices, so yes, it is and it would be life on the outskirts rather than in the big city as such. Would you say that the State schools are aslo bad outside NYC?
The weather does not worry us that much. We have lived in tropical countries with very hot and humid weather and we have also live in Madrid with cold winters and VERY hot summers. I, by far, prefer that than the week after week of grey and humid weather we get here.
When it comes to values, I, in part meant religion, but also generally how people make their choices, what is transmitted to the younger generations, how important is the family for example? Do you get the drinking problems amongst young people England is experiencing? And the repressed violence that occasionelly explode in to road rage episodes or hooliganism?

oh u mean like "A Clockwork Orange"....its not like that over in the US.

[I_Love_LI_but]

Originally Posted by krichton

This is a really old thread but I feel compelled to respond nevertheless. The extra $25,000 is meaningless and I'll tell you why. ALL that money will be going to paying off private health insurance for your entire family for the course of the year. If any member has a serious illness you'll go bankrupt paying the deductibles. Aside from that NYC would be an exciting place to move to. How many murders occur each year in London? Maybe a handful? Well we nearly hit 1000 each year and assaults are around 50,000 so we beat you yet again. This is why nyc is one of the most exciting cities in the world. There's always that fear of death that you simply wouldn't get elsewhere unless you traveled to some third world country.

Where did the OP say that the job didn't come with health insurance for the family?

[Carbro]

I was under the impression that UK covers its citizens' health care no matter what country they are in when they need it -- even for routine, well-patient exams.

[ajeleonard]

I live in here and the £35,000 salary your husband has been offered is a really derisory salary for London. I'm only 23 and made nearly twice that last year! The exact same job in London generally pays slightly more than New York (I make 16% more than the person doing my exact job in our Manhattan office) to cover the cost of living. So if your husband can command a salary of $95k in New York, he should be looking at around £50-55k here. If he is being offered less then tell the employer where to stick it. So many employers here think they can get away with paying foreigners badly because they will put up with it to live here, an American friend was offered £17k out of college when we (her British freinds) were offered 3x that in base and bonus package