Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have to say that when I came back to the UK it made you realise that all is not great in the US and all is not poor here.
Let me start by saying that I like the US but they have a culture of 'this is the way we do it so it must be best'.
Working there was frustrating at times because of the NIH attitude- not invented here. My wife also encounters this with certain American colleagues.
Away from work some examples of what frustrated us were;
Toilets that block too easily!
Crap electrical system in the house- you might have a mega watt microwave, but the electrical system can't necessarily handle it.
Quality of house build- why are houses cheaper over there? One reason is that the build quality over there is not so good. I seem to recall it being said that houses in our area of Houston were designed for a twenty year life. Want to hang a picture? Need a hammer? No- your thumb will do the job.
A retail banking system that is nothing like as smooth running as the ones we have in the UK. Part of this reason is down to issues that arise between States, though for many, especially in Texas, many locals would not encounter this. Our branch of our bank was in Manhattan, and that led to a few problems when living in Texas.
I guess that having a half decent nationalised healthcare system here would be preferable to the profit led healthcare system in the US is preferable to most in the UK, but that's a whole other subject!
I have to say that when I came back to the UK it made you realise that all is not great in the US and all is not poor here.
Let me start by saying that I like the US but they have a culture of 'this is the way we do it so it must be best'.
Working there was frustrating at times because of the NIH attitude- not invented here. My wife also encounters this with certain American colleagues.
Away from work some examples of what frustrated us were;
Toilets that block too easily!
Crap electrical system in the house- you might have a mega watt microwave, but the electrical system can't necessarily handle it.
Quality of house build- why are houses cheaper over there? One reason is that the build quality over there is not so good. I seem to recall it being said that houses in our area of Houston were designed for a twenty year life. Want to hang a picture? Need a hammer? No- your thumb will do the job.
A retail banking system that is nothing like as smooth running as the ones we have in the UK. Part of this reason is down to issues that arise between States, though for many, especially in Texas, many locals would not encounter this. Our branch of our bank was in Manhattan, and that led to a few problems when living in Texas.
I guess that having a half decent nationalised healthcare system here would be preferable to the profit led healthcare system in the US is preferable to most in the UK, but that's a whole other subject!
Yes! This culture of this is the way we do it so it must be the best and we have no intention of even listening to or discussing how else it might be done- but that applies within the US too- eg healthcare systems all competing against one another instead of collaborating to provide the best care (based on research evidence and national guidelines)for customers in their area. Although that is changing now with some of the stroke and MI care networks where the larger, specialized hospitals are partnering with smaller ones and using telemedicine to share their expertise and assess patients.
We've found that service tends to be better if they're reliant on tips (eg waitresses who have an hourly rate of $2-$3) or are getting commission, but often once they've got you signed up the service deteriorates .
The other day I collected new spectacles after an eye exam showed I needed new lenses. The spectacles were fine for looking about 1 foot in front of me , but the ophthalmologist hadn't put anything on the prescription for reading close up so they were useless. When I rang them on Wednesday they couldn't fit me in for a (free) retest until this Monday.
I think if you buy cheaper homes in the large SDs then they tend to be badly insulated ,have cheap, nasty vinyl siding and built on concrete slab which can be a PITA for plumbing problems, renosetc. Our house is a "one off" built in the 80s ranch with wood siding and is very solid with loads of insulation and great wooden frame windows, but some of the homes built in the 90s are very cheap and nasty looking. They look OK from the front and have some stone cladding on them and maybe some pillars around the front door and a bay window or 2,but round the back they look like huge sheds!
They don't plaster over the plaster board-just skim the joins and then paint or wallpaper so if you take wallpaper off the plaster comes off the plaster board and you end up needing new plasterboard or having to skim over the top. That's why people hate wallpaper!
Maybe because less importance is placed on people earning poor wages to be customer service reps
well somebody have to do the job. maybe the higher ups in the company should be customer service reps also. not everybody are going to have high paying jobs, that's just not reality. any job should be respected no matter how low or insignificant it is as long as he or she is making an honest living.
Oh definitely tired of the US - and definitely not missing the UK
I did say "middle class Americans" and ,yes, a lot of them are complaining about Obama- out town is strongly Republican-as are many around us- as obviously you are!
The whole healthcare system here is completely over rated and overpriced. If the "customer is king" in the US what the hell happened to healthcare. And it's not just about "poor" people! We're not poor, no thanks to the US immigration service/system, (there's another example of crappy customer care) but if we had a major illness in the family it could probably finish us off financially. We are healthy and pay $600 per month (exc dental and eye) in health care ins premiums. That's 12% of our gross annual income.
As for retirement - here people talk about needing $1,000,000 in savings to retire, which to me is crazy. So much greed and this entitlement attitude and a lack of true passion about anything except money and material things
I am not a Republican. I'm a Libertarian.
The healthcare system has overly high prices, but the care is not overrated in my opinion. There are so many reasons why it got so expensive that the subject is too big to cover in a post. But I will tell you that by and large, the system worked fine throughout my childhood. Laws were gradually passed that actually eliminated competition, so it's gotten far worse over time.
There have been solutions proposed to bring back competition, but the democrats refused to even consider those. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is just a boon for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies (who co-wrote the act). It is a very badly written piece of legislation. In NC, where you live, prices are expected to rise far more than in most states. Self-insured people are getting canceled in droves and pushed into premiums that are twice as high with much higher deductibles - THAT's a big reason people are complaining.
You don't need a million to retire, but you do have to account for the fact that people are living longer in retirement, and inflation eats into your savings over time.
Question - since you are so tired of the U.S., why on earth do you stay?
I have to say that when I came back to the UK it made you realise that all is not great in the US and all is not poor here.
Let me start by saying that I like the US but they have a culture of 'this is the way we do it so it must be best'.
Working there was frustrating at times because of the NIH attitude- not invented here. My wife also encounters this with certain American colleagues.
Depends on your employer. Some are always open to suggestions. Besides, I've heard the exact same complaints from Americans working in the U.K., except they usually say there is too much protocol and red tape.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezer
Away from work some examples of what frustrated us were;
Toilets that block too easily!
Crap electrical system in the house- you might have a mega watt microwave, but the electrical system can't necessarily handle it.
I have heard this about the toilets before.
Crap electrical system? I have never experienced what you're describing, and I've lived in 12 houses in my lifetime. How many houses in the U.S. have you lived in that you've come to this conclusion? Also, our electrical system is actually safer than European systems because of the wattage. We have fewer deaths due to electrocution.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezer
Quality of house build- why are houses cheaper over there? One reason is that the build quality over there is not so good. I seem to recall it being said that houses in our area of Houston were designed for a twenty year life. Want to hang a picture? Need a hammer? No- your thumb will do the job.
Too general a statement for such a large country. I have not lived in a house with walls like that. Building standards vary between regions, states, and even towns. Not to mention that there are crap builders and quality builders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezer
A retail banking system that is nothing like as smooth running as the ones we have in the UK. Part of this reason is down to issues that arise between States, though for many, especially in Texas, many locals would not encounter this. Our branch of our bank was in Manhattan, and that led to a few problems when living in Texas.
Can't speak to that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezer
I guess that having a half decent nationalised healthcare system here would be preferable to the profit led healthcare system in the US is preferable to most in the UK, but that's a whole other subject!
I think some punctuation is missing in this sentence. I couldn't exactly make it out.
What I'm saying is that I think that most people in the UK prefer our healthcare system to yours.
As to internal walls in the US, I think they are called drywalls.
There is no question that the NHS is more admired than the US system by Americans. Far more people here would take a nationalized system than Brits who would want a completely private system.
The healthcare system has overly high prices, but the care is not overrated in my opinion. There are so many reasons why it got so expensive that the subject is too big to cover in a post. But I will tell you that by and large, the system worked fine throughout my childhood. Laws were gradually passed that actually eliminated competition, so it's gotten far worse over time.
There have been solutions proposed to bring back competition, but the democrats refused to even consider those. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is just a boon for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies (who co-wrote the act). It is a very badly written piece of legislation. In NC, where you live, prices are expected to rise far more than in most states. Self-insured people are getting canceled in droves and pushed into premiums that are twice as high with much higher deductibles - THAT's a big reason people are complaining.
You don't need a million to retire, but you do have to account for the fact that people are living longer in retirement, and inflation eats into your savings over time.
Question - since you are so tired of the U.S., why on earth do you stay?
I think competition is a big part of it, but not all. Obamacare is bad and its such a massive failure on the part of both parties to have missed an opportunity to reform America's health care system. People are not getting thrown off their insurance; the ACA mandates that more benefits are available so the insurance companies are sending letters out stating the extra cost of these benevfita, while not explaining that the person can keep their current agreement.
I think competition is a big part of it, but not all. Obamacare is bad and its such a massive failure on the part of both parties to have missed an opportunity to reform America's health care system. People are not getting thrown off their insurance; the ACA mandates that more benefits are available so the insurance companies are sending letters out stating the extra cost of these benefits, while not explaining that the person can keep their current agreement.
Well, there are umpteen news articles on all the self-insured people who are getting canceled, with no option to keep their current plan.
The devil is in the details. Obama promised that if you like your current plan, you can keep it. But buried in the Act are those pesky details. Your plan would be grandfathered in if you bought it prior to March 2010, HOWEVER what they didn't tell anyone is that if there has been any change made to the plan, it's grandfather status is null and void.
By "change" they really do mean any change at all, even if all you did was change your deductible. NBC News did an investigation that showed the Obama administration had projections all along for what percentage of people would get cancelled because of merely normal changes. So Obama knew full well it was a lie that you could keep your plan.
My plan was grandfathered in, and thank goodness there were no changes made by me or the insurance company, so I can keep it. However, should I want to get out of this plan, even the lowest-tier "Bronze" plans cost nearly twice as much as what I currently pay. Also, I have a $750 deductible and the bronze plans have $5,000+ deductibles!!!
What is pissing me off is that I wanted to change my plan to a different provider last year, but if I had done so, I wouldn't have been able to keep it. Yet, my insurance agent could have gotten me into a plan that would have suited me better. So, while I can keep my current plan, I can't purchase the ideal plan I could have last year, and the new options are extremely high cost.
Ironically, there's nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act.
I also hate the way Obama keeps saying that the people who lost their plans had "inferior" plans. That is NOT the case. As I said above, grandfathered plans were cancelled because of tiny changes. Most of the articles I'm reading online are showing that most people had much better plans than what is now available. They're being forced into inferior plans with higher costs and higher deductibles.
Also many of the new plans don't provide access to the doctors people already have. The network of doctors is much smaller. It's especially awful for people who are seriously ill. One guy who is fighting cancer said none of his doctors or hospitals are covered under the new plans.
If you carefully shopped for insurance to make sure all your preferred doctors and medications were covered, now you have to start from scratch if you've been cancelled. The act is very poorly written, but what can you expect when insurance and pharmaceutical companies contribute so much money to campaigns on both sides?
There is no question that the NHS is more admired than the US system by Americans. Far more people here would take a nationalized system than Brits who would want a completely private system.
Not me.
You know, Switzerland doesn't have a nationalized system, and they do very well. Wonder why no one ever tries to emulate them?
I know you aren't a Libertarian, but here is some of Ron Paul's writing on the U.S. system. He points out that many of the problems we face are because of past legislation that has distorted the market.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
