To be depressed about how expensive but shyt the UK is

This is exactly what we are struggling with. A general sort of anti social, selfish attitude that I don't remember being that widespread before Covid and lockdown.

Combined with litter, filthy streets, potholes and thieving politicians. Our family have decided we may as well leave and put up with all these developing world issues in a developing country but have gorgeous weather and an outdoor lifestyle at the same time. We are fortunate to be able to fund a move and are very aware of how trapped others may be here.

I always marvel at those who say people expect to hop on a plane 3 or 4 times a year. They mix in a much wealthier circle than I do.

If you've been to the US or Europe recently you'd also notice big price rises. There are global reasons for this.
Until recently food here was disproportionately cheap both compared to other countries and historically.
As others have said, if you've lived anywhere else, you'd know that various things are shit in most places. And people love moaning about how shit things are in their country, everywhere. IME.

It does depend what job you work in and if there are any skills shortages.

It's probably easier to move if you're a teacher.

OK well I'm glad you're happy in the UK. Honestly.

The place would fall apart if every one was miserable

Brexit doesn’t stop you moving to Scandinavia? It’s not as easy, but it’s perfectly do-able. One of my friends moved here post-Brexit: she found a job as a teacher in an international school, got a temporary visa and will be applying for permanent residency when she’s been here 5 years.
I don’t live in Norway, and I also didn’t say where I live was perfect. It fits my family much better than the UK and on a post about not enjoying living in Britain I wouldn’t say it was unhelpful to offer a perspective on how it’s worked out for us to move!
MN isn’t an exclusively British website, but as it happens I am still actually a British citizen, so is that okay with you? 😂 There are people here from all over the world and I enjoy hearing other people’s experiences of life. You sound so miserable and bitter, and a bit jealous to be honest.

Yea I would agree that ireland is even more expensive than the UK. I've lived in Ireland too.
Rent in Ireland is definitely more expensive than the UK.

I saw one bed flats advertised to rent in Ireland for 1600 euro.

I saw one bed flats to rent in the UK for 600 pounds

Try going to Ibiza post-Covid!

@Albaamy121 no, not remotely privileged - I live in an old ex-mining town in the north.

It's the Jurassic Oolitic limestone, unique to the area, and used in the construction of housing. This, plus the combination of limestone grasslands and beech woods, make the area distinctive from other pretty, rural, village locations in the UK. The distinctions might not be very large, or even noticeable, if you are not looking for them (and know what you are looking for, topography and geology-wise, like), but they are there. It's not just a subjective matter of opinion.

Off-topic, sorry!

I just checked American health insurance with the family member... it's too long to quote in full, but this will make you very glad we have the NHS in the UK.....
'To qualify for Medicaid, you have to be below the poverty line, which is under $ 7.35 an hour. Individual states can opt out of receiving additional funds from the Federal government, and the Republican states, such as Georgia, have refused the funds. Almost all states were given additional Federal funding during COVID, to cover the higher than normal medical costs. Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, and others, have since declined further funding, and thrown thousands off the Medicaid list.
ObamaCare is an option, which is better than nothing, but you have co-pays, deductibles, and out of pocket maximums. Again, in Red states (Republican), there has been a steady reduction of insurers willing to offer plans under ObammaCare.
Most insurance is provided by employers, which locks you into working purely for the insurance. If you switch jobs, your insurance is canceled on the day you stop working for the old employer, and does not take effect with the new one (assuming the offer it) until 90 days after you start work.
Yes, you can get private insurance. You can also buy an aeroplane or a gold plated toilet. You can buy anything, if you have the money.
When we looked into ObamaCare when *** started getting sick, we were classed as too wealthy for a subsidy. Cheapest plan we could find was
$ 2500 / month, with copays, deductibles, & out of pocket maximums tacked on.
Yes, no hospital can turn you away in a life threatening condition, but they can also take your house if you can't pay the bill. Let's say you go to hospital with a heart attack. The hospital's only responsibility is to get you stabilized. Then you are out. There is no entitlement to any further follow up care.'

In Ireland, living expenses are in general a lot higher than in Britain - groceries, insurance, utilities. Public transport is a lot worse. The hospital part of the health system is much worse, though the GPs are normally better (but it costs €50-90 per appointment). The housing market is even more insane. It's a lot wetter and colder. The two political parties who have always been in government for the last century are both Tory in practice and outlook, and the main opposition is intolerant to dissent.

I do like it here though.

They're not un denial, they just have no escape so they try talking it up for themselves, in a desperate bid to escape proper clinical depression.

That the UK is now being routinely compared to third world countries to make it look better is such a joke.

If so many people seem to be perfectly happy with being squeezed they will definitely be squeezed dry.

.

It’s really not true that our food expensive, it is notoriously cheap. The only country with cheaper food is the USA.

You have to compare food prices against income. Yes food is cheaper in developing countries but comparative to annual income, food takes up a huge proportion of annual income. Spending of income in the UK is around 11% of income, an increase from 8% in 2020. There are a lot of countries that are spending around 40% of their annual income on food.

I just think that the UK needs to get out of the 1800s and update a lot of its systems.

It's very old fashioned in a lot of ways.

People can't move easily after brexit. Have you forgotten?

No it's not shit. If you think like that, maybe move abroad?

The whole world could definitelt improve.

There are enough resources , that no one has to be homeless. They should make housing for everyone a priority.

My brother pays £10 for a cauliflower in Canada

I am in Canada. It's currently a $1.43 for a cauliflower

Strongly down to a race to the bottom.

Everything becomes a competition amongst society to try and get a rung up, instead of everyone wanting to make a better society.

If people have nothing to lose, they are always going to try and find a "win" in life which results in crime, lack of interest in integrating with society and no reason or motivation to create a better life as it's so unreachable. There needs to be some serious levelling out for everything to be improved but I honestly don't know how that can be achieved.

I do think it's the same in many developed countries sadly.

Well you can still possibly move to Scandinavia after Brexit.

It'll just take longer, and you would have to get visas sorted.

I am not sure life in continental Europe is a bed of roses at the moment either.

For example, a lot of people live in desperate poverty in Germany, too. It really surprised me when I saw it on a news website.

They also have rubbish trains and potholes.

Yes. But most of us can't move to Scandinavia thanks to Brexit, so that's not a very helpful post. It also always amuses me how many expats feel the need to come onto websites like the Times and MN and smugly talk about how wonderful things are where they are. So why are you posting on a UK website, then?

Also Norway has its sovereign wealth fund so can generally throw money at problems, though even there life isn't completely perfect.

The UK is not that bad, the main issue is access to primary healthcare (and dental care). Sort that out, and make schools concentrate on teaching and learning instead of policing uniform rules and a lot of things would improve very quickly.

Yes a lot of rich people that I've met through places like work, live in a bubble, as they tend to only socialise with each other

They seem to think that everyone lives like them.

They don't even seem to see that a lot of people live in desperate poverty in the UK.

I remember one of my male colleagues asked another colleague "where did she "summer' when she was a child".

After further chat, it turned out that he thought that everyone in the UK owned a second holiday home, to go and spend the summer in!