To be so intrigued by America?

@PermanentTemporarywhich states have better abortion laws than in the UK? What is that difference?

Speaking as one of the many Americans who is not poor, and certainly not wealthy, thank you for this post.

Are people in the US sicker than in the UK? I don’t know, I’m not being pejorative.

I don’t think using individual cases is helpful. I have several stories of how the NHS has failed people, including my own mum, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think the NHS is generally great, I do. US healthcare is not as scary as everyone makes it out to be. Sure, it isn’t a system I would pick but as an insured person, I have access to amazing healthcare. Overall, I prefer an NHS but that’s because I’m an old pinko.

Hear, hear. Mumsnet loves a good America bashing thread, based on social media or biased media (looking at you, BBC). I put it down to lost empire syndrome.

Strange that this woman didn't contact a food bank first, isn't it? 50 churches? Almost sounds made up.

51% of the population is considered middle class.

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/05/31/the-state-of-the-american-middle-class/

Also - if she called them on the phone, they don’t have any evidence that she even has a baby. People steal baby formula to sell it for money and scammers like to prey on people’s sense of charity.

I don’t think I fully appreciated this before. Anyone else?

I'm curious as to how you didn't know about this before now.

Everyone knows the u s has virtually no paid annual leave.No maternity rights and very little employment rights

How on earth didn't you know this..

I’m an American living in the US. You don’t understand a lot of what happens here, as is clear from your posts. But that’s ok. You don’t live here, and never will, so you don’t need to. I could try and break it all down for you an explain how things like Section 8 and Medicaid work, just to start with. But I just think this is yet another anti-American post here and you don’t actually want to understand anything.

I lived in the US for a few years on two separate occasions and I loved it. Yes, it’s very different but each of the States is like its own complete little country. When I visit, I always struck by the huge amount of racial diversity too. It used to be called the melting pot of the world, where anyone (if they worked hard) could achieve the American dream. I think a lot of that is still true today.

Haven’t seen the video, but I’m willing to bet that several of them referred her to a food bank.

Have you visited every state in the US for a long period, or have you come to your conclusions purely based on what you’ve read/ seen on the internet? The media LOVE to spin a negative narrative about the US. I would never leave the wonderful US state, that I proudly call home. I’m extremely excited about becoming a citizen in the upcoming future.

And what part of the UK’s booming economy wasn’t dependent on slavery at the same time?

They probably are. It is much more of a “thank you for your service” day whereas Memorial Day is very solemn.

The US was built on slavery. All this talk about enterprise and self sufficiency.

Did you see the video of the women who rang over 50 churches to ask for a tub of baby formula and all said no bar 4 churches and when she phoned a mosque they said yes straight away.

Where did you park the spaceship?
Really, where have you been all this time that you’ve only just sussed out the vast gulf between the USA and GB!
Theres no more reason the States should resemble Britain than France or Germany should.

Britain isn't ‘socialist’ at heart, but it is (pace Thatcher) built on centuries of collective endeavour and responsibility, a badly damaged spirit which just about survived the 1980s, though possibly only in comparison with far more individualistic societies than GB.
The USA was built mostly on individual enterprise, initially by those abandoning the conventions and dominant organised religions of Europe, separating themselves from the collective according to a desire for the expression of personal conviction (or frequently, as decreed by a very different kind of conviction, of course).
European powers which had colonised most of the continent were ultimately far less influential than this characteristic among settlers, which brought about and survived Independence, and became a national ideal.

(It’s that collectivist spirit of GB which motivated the creation of the welfare state after the War, a system viewed as anathema in the USA.)

The famous observation that Britain and America are ‘two nations divided by a common language’ in fact covers a great deal more than language, certainly!

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. If he was low income his care would have been covered under Medicaid.

https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chip-enrollment-data/report-highlights

it provides government funded healthcare for 77 million Americans.

Veterans Day here is for the living who have served. Memorial Day in May is for those who died in conflict.

@PermanentTemporary ”huge range of states; governance and culture really vary from state to state” - it’s interesting to me how so many people on Mumsnet fail to grasp this. (Not talking about anyone on this thread.) I still smile a little when I think of that one thread several months ago where the OP was contemplating a move to Connecticut, and people started telling her that she’d be living amongst evangelical Christians and would never be able to get an abortion. In Connecticut. 😂