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their living standard will easily exceed ours by the end of 2008, on an average basis.
I'm not sure on what basis you say that, but the reality is that Brits are emigrating in droves. That can't be a good reflection of their living standards.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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The test of how good a country is vs another country is this: Imagine that today the govenments of both the UK and USA said "OK anybody that wants to move between nations can do so". Who do you think would gain people and who would lose people? I would bet that 20% of the people in the UK would be on the way over here. Less than 1% of ours would go there,
The test of how good a country is vs another country is this: Imagine that today the govenments of both the UK and USA said "OK anybody that wants to move between nations can do so". Who do you think would gain people and who would lose people? I would bet that 20% of the people in the UK would be on the way over here. Less than 1% of ours would go there,
Except for the free healthcare!!!! Saved us many thousands and was faultless
True. But I think it about time for the market to head downward. I honestly don't see a bad crash or anything. But definitely a downturn. Granted if I read correct there is alot of Polish immigrants coming into the U.K. This might keep thing going a little longer over there.
Like I said we shall see.
The UK has experienced an explosion in migration from eastern Europe due to 10 new countries joining the EU in 2004. The number of Polish migrants far exceeds government estimates prior to Poland joining the EU but it's hard to say how many are actually there at the moment; I've heard estimates of between 300 and 600,000.
A lot of the Polish migrants want to just earn money to take back to Poland with them, but for every one that returns I'll bet you 1 or 2 stay in the UK. I think they'll mainly only affect the lower end of the housing market though; Polish migrants don't generally have a lot of money to throw around.
The test of how good a country is vs another country is this: Imagine that today the govenments of both the UK and USA said "OK anybody that wants to move between nations can do so". Who do you think would gain people and who would lose people? I would bet that 20% of the people in the UK would be on the way over here. Less than 1% of ours would go there,
Actually, I read that annual migration from the US to the UK exceeds migration in the opposite direction...however, I think that number was also taking into account US military forces being posted over there. That'll inflate the numbers big time.
Before you decide there is a better standard of living over there I think you'd best read this Yahoo! Personal Finance (broken link)
It says that Americans are happier than any of those other countries. The reason for this is. "For one thing, Americans are far richer than those in other countries. And yes, this matters. Contrary to popular belief, neither the Europeans nor the Japanese lead better lives than Americans. "
"""I've lived in Germany for many years. During that period I traveled through much of France, parts of England, and most of Germany. Nowhere did I see people living in trailers, run down shacks like in America's Appalachian region or southern Mississippi. Of all the European cities I've visited none have the large ghettos of poverty like in American cities, which can be measured by the square mile"""
You´re right. Yes in Britain, France, Belgium and in my country Germany there are run down areas, in which espacially live immigrants, and there are many homeless people ... but you can´t compare this with beeing poor in the USA - not with the Inner City slums, not with the trailers and shacks all around the country, not with the number of homeless people, caravan and tent cities, the indian reservations or your crime rates
You won´t find such living conditions in middle europe, even not in London and Paris. In the eastern part of Europe, in southern italy as well in portugal you´ll find more poverty, the living conditions for the the minority of the people "sinthi" and "roma" in south east- Europe are like in third world countries.
The high living standard in the USA in statistics is a result of the high living standard o the upper class and the upper middleclass, so Millions of poor incomers don´t destroy the official statistics
Maybe you can make money easier than in europe. But you also fall faster. I don´t deny poverty in Germany, but nobody knows hunger here. Unemployed citizens receive social aid, so they can live in a small appartement.
And here the poorer families can live without a car, because the net of public transport is much closer - and you haven´t to work in two or more jobs in struggle to survive ...
But here also the social networks are reduced step by step
Before you decide there is a better standard of living over there I think you'd best read this Yahoo! Personal Finance (broken link)
It says that Americans are happier than any of those other countries. The reason for this is. "For one thing, Americans are far richer than those in other countries. And yes, this matters. Contrary to popular belief, neither the Europeans nor the Japanese lead better lives than Americans. "
That´s right for the upper middle class and the upper class - because they haven´t pay taxes like here. Even the extremist evangelicals praise buisiness and moneymaking.
Some americans blame our "social capitalism" a socialist system, but in your system the big companies and their lobbies destroy the small and medium sized buisiness and the health system becomes a two-class- system
Unfortunately in Germany we imitate the american economic ideology, the only difference is the more important role of the state as server of the social balance. But the new religion "buisiness economics" can´t be stopped yet, because this elite from New York to London is to powerful ...
Please repeat after me. Greed is good. More greed is better. One company owning everything is the goal. There can be only one.
The moral measure of a society is not how well the winners live but how far the losers are left to fall. In Europe the losers can survive. In the US they can starve in a shanty town shunned as failures.
FWIW - the success of the European economies and societies is based on the money saved by shedding the useless empires that plagued them for so long. The US is now being destroyed by a failing empire that is costing far more than it is yielding. We are not the cops of the world.
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