news UK outside London is poorer than Mississippi

[Watson!]

6 hours ago, Sparksfly88 said:

Hmm not sure. My aunt had to wait forever to have a surgery (she lives in London) and ended up getting more sick. The same thing happens in Canada, you have to wait forever and the doctors don’t really care. 
 

im not sure about other states, but since I started working I’ve always had insurance, only had to pay my copay ($20-$50 on average) 

 

the UK is a country in decline (so is the US don’t get me wrong) but the UK is on free fall: ugly weather, weak economy, irrelevant on the world stage, ugly people etc. The only thing keeping it afloat is its banking system. 

why on earth do you associate a countrys state with the appearance of people. what's wrong with you?

[Sparksfly88]

2 hours ago, Communion said:

The cost of healthcare is total health expenditures when you  actually utilize health services,, not the monthly premiums.

 

A diagnosis of cancer in many countries who don't hate their citizens doesn't often result in bankruptcy and losing one's home like it does often in the US.

 

Spoiler:  There are wait lists in the US. It's called  being poor and  never going to a doctor at all.

 

Labor is a finite resource. That labor should be and in productive societies is prioritized to who needs it most, not to those who  can pay the most first. 

You can get yourself out of poverty in the US if you’re smart and work hard. There are people that migrate here with nothing and become business owners, own nice houses and cars you just have to be ambitious. 
 

[Communion]

19 minutes ago, Sparksfly88 said:

You can get yourself out of poverty in the US if you’re smart and work hard. There are people that migrate here with nothing and become business owners, own nice houses and cars you just have to be ambitious. 

This is a very odd thing to claim as a defense of America's shortcomings when those who actually come to America with nothing - the undocumented and those who migrate outside of an immigration system that favors the highly degreed and affluent - largely align themselves politically with the progressive vision for America.

 

Bernie Sanders got dubbed 'Tio Bernie' in 2020 due to overwhelming popularity with young first generation Americans, particularly first generation Latino Americans. The latter group largely being one of the most economically populist in the US. Those who come to America with nothing largely think healthcare and education should be free. 

[Sannie]

14 hours ago, Badgalbriel said:

The difference is that an average American needs much more money to live comfortably than the average brit. Mississippians might have more money per head but they don't live a better life necessarily. 

Yep, and on top of that, Mississippians do not have a robust social safety net, worker protections, or the plethora of other rights and privileges people in the UK are afforded. Being "poor" in Mississippi is miles worse than being poor in the UK even if the monetary numbers say otherwise.

 

10 hours ago, Sparksfly88 said:

Hmm not sure. My aunt had to wait forever to have a surgery (she lives in London) and ended up getting more sick. The same thing happens in Canada, you have to wait forever and the doctors don’t really care. 
 

im not sure about other states, but since I started working I’ve always had insurance, only had to pay my copay ($20-$50 on average) 

 

the UK is a country in decline (so is the US don’t get me wrong) but the UK is on free fall: ugly weather, weak economy, irrelevant on the world stage, ugly people etc. The only thing keeping it afloat is its banking system. 

This right-wing talking point. You have to often wait long periods of time in the US, too, and then on top of that pay an arm and a leg. Waiting and paying nothing is better than waiting and paying a lot. 

 

Quote

im not sure about other states, but since I started working I’ve always had insurance, only had to pay my copay ($20-$50 on average) 

Having insurance tied to your work is not a good thing. The moment you lose your job, you lose your insurance, which means you can be stuck in a job that makes you miserable if you have a chronic condition that needs health insurance.

 

You are also ignoring the premiums you pay each paycheck and the deductible you have to meet. So no, you do not only have a co-pay.

Edited August 13, 2023 by Sannie

[modeblock]

14 minutes ago, Sparksfly88 said:

You can get yourself out of poverty in the US if you’re smart and work hard. There are people that migrate here with nothing and become business owners, own nice houses and cars you just have to be ambitious. 
 

oh honey, you have a big storm coming', even middle class folks have limited upward mobility in this country. 

[katykater]

It's GDP per capita corrected to purchase power parity (cost of living compensated):

 

 

GDP of a country is like the revenue of a company. High GDP per capita means that there is a lot of economic activity per person in an area and low GDP per capita means crickets in some backwater area where nothing happens.

 

High GDP per capita is like high revenue of a company, it does not always translate into higher wages or living standards.

 

The UK without London has a national average below the worst place in the Netherlands or the US and is more dependent on their richest regions than the Netherlands or the US.

 

The majority of the UK is on the level of East Germany.

 

 

And Italy is the example of a country that used to be on the level of France and Germany, but slide down after their industrial boom.

 

 

Brexit has been compared with a car tyre puncture that slowly deflate. Economists have estimated that when today's British kids grow up, they would dream about getting a good paid job in Warsaw (Poland).

 

 

In the future we might get cheap vacations in the UK like cheap vacations could be found in Eastern Europe.

 

A cheap travel destination doesn't require much. A low cost airline has to fly to some destination no one has heard of. Because the local government offer tax breaks or subsidies for airlines to attract airplanes and tourists. The locals have to run enough bars, nightclub,... where the cheap alcohol is available and plane loads of tourists will be coming. Because it is cheaper to party abroad than driving down the road or taking a train to the closest city in your own country.

 

If you want to see "Eastern Europe" like depicted in movies like Eurotrip, you can travel to Scotland where you can see extreme poverty, buildings looking like it would collapse or suffered war damage within walking distance of the city center. If you don't know how to find those places, book one of the cheapest hostels you can find.

Edited August 15, 2023 by katykater

[OrgVisual]

Literally a battle of the rich  Can we see this graph with actual poor countries?  

[Badger]

This doesn’t mean the UK has a worse standard of living but we are self-inflicted flopping to hell

[Badger]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:56 AM, Sparksfly88 said:

You can get yourself out of poverty in the US if you’re smart and work hard. There are people that migrate here with nothing and become business owners, own nice houses and cars you just have to be ambitious. 
 

The way Americans believe this nonsense is sad

[Cz!]

The moment you visit Ireland you realize all that GDP per capita mumbo jumbo is, indeed, nonsense.

[Headlock]

On 8/12/2023 at 9:20 PM, Sannie said:

Having insurance tied to your work is not a good thing. The moment you lose your job, you lose your insurance, which means you can be stuck in a job that makes you miserable if you have a chronic condition that needs health insurance.

 

You are also ignoring the premiums you pay each paycheck and the deductible you have to meet. So no, you do not only have a co-pay.

!!!!!!!!!

[stevyy]

I am all for lashing the UK to the pits... but social security, health care, workers rights etc is infinitely better and the poorest are so much better off, than even the middle class Americans. 

 

That being said: The UK needs to re-join the EU as quick as possible. 

[katykater]

On 8/13/2023 at 1:56 AM, Sparksfly88 said:

You can get yourself out of poverty in the US if you’re smart and work hard. There are people that migrate here with nothing and become business owners, own nice houses and cars you just have to be ambitious. 
 

That's survivorship bias.

 

 

It's like saying that everyone can make money in the stock market if we don't talk about the losses.

 

Starting a business is even risker than investing in stocks.

 

The very reason why stocks were invented, is to pool large amounts of money from many investors together for capital intensive business and spread the risks over large amounts of investors.

 

The term stock came from the wooden thing on which a ship was built. If the ship returned from a long trading trip to the other side of the world, the profits were great. If the ship sinks, the shareholders lose their money. The investors can spread their risks by investing on many ships.

 

Starting a business is like YOLO all your money on 1 stock.

 

During WOII survivorship bias was used for improving the chance of survival of bombers.

 

The holes in the planes that return to base are irrelevant because the planes could afford to be shot at those places.

 

 

What matters are the places the returned planes where not shot at because if those places were hit, the plane would go down.

 

So it is a waste of time to study the success stories because it doesn't tell a thing about the over 99% failures. If we want more people to succeed, we have to know where the weak spots are.

[RideOrDie]

On 8/17/2023 at 12:31 PM, katykater said:

That's survivorship bias.

 

 

It's like saying that everyone can make money in the stock market if we don't talk about the losses.

 

Starting a business is even risker than investing in stocks.

 

The very reason why stocks were invented, is to pool large amounts of money from many investors together for capital intensive business and spread the risks over large amounts of investors.

 

The term stock came from the wooden thing on which a ship was built. If the ship returned from a long trading trip to the other side of the world, the profits were great. If the ship sinks, the shareholders lose their money. The investors can spread their risks by investing on many ships.

 

Starting a business is like YOLO all your money on 1 stock.

 

During WOII survivorship bias was used for improving the chance of survival of bombers.

 

The holes in the planes that return to base are irrelevant because the planes could afford to be shot at those places.

 

 

What matters are the places the returned planes where not shot at because if those places were hit, the plane would go down.

 

So it is a waste of time to study the success stories because it doesn't tell a thing about the over 99% failures. If we want more people to succeed, we have to know where the weak spots are.

you are too smart to be a katycat sis