To wonder why anyone would want to live in America?

My brother lives in Boca Raton Florida. He has his own business, designing and making super yachts for the mega rich . He loves it out there, he was married and had children before he left the UK. They followed him, a couple of months later, after tying up loose ends , the dog went to. They have a beautiful home, the children attended a British school, they went to university, both excelled and are both engineers. They have a great life, alot of it spent outdoors, they have made friends and say they would never move back to the UK. He has always asked me to go and live there too, but l just couldn't leave my parents. In a way glad l didn't as l gave both of them alot of help before they died. It's too late for me to go now, my three children are grown and are all doing well, two are doctors , and the youngest an engineer. I don't have grandchildren yet, one day l will and l would hate to miss out on that. Both myself and my husband worked hard to be in the position of having a lovely life here, in the UK. There is an eight year age gap between me and my brother, me being the oldest, there is just the two of us. Although we are many miles apart, l speak to him, daily. We are very close and l miss him alot. I am beyond proud of what he has achieved, he couldn't have done here what he has done in the USA. He is a multimillionaire, every penny he grafted for, l am not a millionaire, but happy with my lot. We visit him twice a year and he visits us, once a year. It's strange how things turned out really because my family lived in llinois for three years due to my husbands job, came back after the contract was finished. My brother never mentioning at the time he would like to live there. Everyone has their reasons for living where they like, the main thing is, whatever you have or haven't got , is your health. You have nothing if you haven't your health and many people in the usa lose their homes due to unpaid medical bills. Its a massive industry. The medical insurers dictate the hospital you are in, if they find a cheaper one for the same treatment & it can be 100's of miles away. Medical insurance doesn't come without excess payements, which can be in the thousands of dollars. My niece had a wisdom tooth extraction, there was a $ 2000, excess and the insurance covered the rest of $3000. ln the UK we take alot for granted...Each to their own

Because they want to be free to say, “She looks like my lesbian nana” without being hauled away by police. 😜

Have you not noticed it is already on the gutter.

@Dweetfidilove , I am “not white” as you say. Not sure what “not white and wealthy / just wealthy” means? Can I be a not white and wealthy or not white or not wealthy / just wealthy and who decides whom is wealthy.

@cupofteaandabook Most of us expats do the 2/3/5 year plan. Secondments are for a set period of time and then it is up to the family or employer to negotiate a stay, a return to base or another move. So in the case of little ones, you might be living in the US but not raising your kids there, people usually move back home or elsewhere.

Some fabulous posts from people enjoying the American Dream. Are any of the persons posting how fabulous it is, not white and wealthy or at the very least just wealthy/in a great paying profession?

Presumably most regular Americans do not enjoy extensive annual leave and the income to hop off to a ski resort etc...

I remember folks couldn't believe the amount of annual leave I get im the UK or the fact I had 13 months off work when I had a baby.

I remember being in the US with my 6 month old - she fell and hit her head against the bath... The first thing I was asked when I enquired about a doctor was the insurance question.
Meal out - tip.
Cab ride - tip.
Hello neighbour- tip...
Clothes purchase - $99 + tax (amount dependant on which state you're in).
Food purchase- $99 + tax (amount dependant on which state you're in).

I spend a lot of time there and really enjoy it, but it's not for the faint-hearted or pocket. And that's without getting into the social issues.

While I think there are things that can feel enticing, you couldn't pay me to raise children there.

We loved the outdoor lifestyle, big house with a pool. People were really friendly. Bigger roads and better infrastructure. In the South most finish work at 4pm so we would enjoy BBQs, sports, pool etc where the kids could just run and have fun, not like timed organised fun in the UK eg after school club til 4 then ferry them to class for 5-6. Most USA downers say they wouldn’t live there because of the guns but I don’t think these people have lived anywhere outside of the UK. In the grand scheme of it, its a pretty nice life

And health care maybe there for you but its not there for millions of people living without insurance
Personally as the mother of a type 1 Diabetic i would rather live in a country where i know we will never have to worry about him affording insulin

But many Amerians cant afford it thats the irony of your point.

I am an american and Inwould say it is a HUGE country and lifestyles/issues vary wildly. There are parts i wouldn’t dream of living and and parts with natural beauty and progressive politics.

I grew up in NYC and lived there until we moved to London about 15 years ago, and I'd say that the two countries are roughly similar in that people with means eat well, and people without, struggle to do so.

What really strikes me about the US is how normalised dependency on medication is. There are absolutely huge issues with illegal drugs but the opioid crisis and the 'pill popping' among everyday citizens (not just celebrities etc) is really shocking to me. Obviously not everyone but lots of the US citizens and those living there who I know and this is also widely depicted in the media, TV shows etc. An upper, a downer, a sleep 'aid', an emergency stash of something etc etc it goes on and on and it is the norm. Not to say everyone but nobody bats an eyelid.. procured illegally would be bad in one way but the other way is that this is overprescribing by doctors and insurance companies who are in the pockets of pharma and do not have their patients' best interests at heart. This scares me for the population who trust what their MD tells them, and/or sees that this is normal and what they should do. Many people do need many different types of medication and maybe several at once but this is beyond the scope of that.

I love the geography of the US, have had many lovely long term stays etc and lots of links including family, met so many lovely people, huge diversity which I adore (of course this has been and has become a huge, divisive, dangerous issue in some ways for SOME but I still admire it) but the way US society at large is and is heading... is at odds with what I think is right.

The debt problem is also another jarring cultural issue.. it's just so normalised to be in huge debt for absolutely everything. Again, not everyone, but many and with absolutely devastating consequences for individuals, families and communities.

It's not somewhere I'd ever chose to live, even forgetting gun violence, abortion laws, bigoted swathes of society (not unique to the US by any means) etc which are not small things. Not to be melodramatic, but geopolitically the US has had its day and is now in decline (as are we here in the UK, no doubt) but this is going to be a painful realisation for their govt and then in turn their citizens.

Short version: I wouldn't want to, either.

The food stuff does vary a lot, in CA the food is overall pretty great because so much produce is grown here, we have a vast variety of shops and farmers markets and stores specializing in international foods. I find the selection in the UK quite disappointing in comparison and also find a lot of the food heavy in comparison to what I eat here. That is not the case in a lot of the U.S. and is a huge issue, fast food and junk is cheap and readily available.

I'm also in the South-West, but our local eating out options include British, French, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Indian, Nepali, Thai, Chinese and Caribbean. We're pretty lucky.

That's pretty reductive. People aren't criticising the US because it's 'fashionable,' it's probably because the last short period of time has seen the country shift gears to an exceptionally worrying place. I have a lot of family in the US, and the majority of my work in the last 15 years has been US-based. Yes, lots of people are fine. That doesn't mean that American democracy is safe. People take it for granted, but democracy is really a pretty recent invention, and the US does not have a God-given right to it. If democracy isn't safe in the US, then the world suffers.

There are SO many parts to this, but if nothing else, Roe and Wade? The issues unfolding in America right now are seismic.

Fashionable, my eye.

There’s no council tax but there are property taxes, that homeowners pay, or renters contribute to via the rent.

States where property tax is cheap such as Florida pay similar levels to the UK, but expensive states such as NJ cost a lot more. Some US friends resettled in NJ and were shocked at the amount they had to pay.

It's not just about availability though, it's about the structural and societal approach to eating. Ubiquitous fast food options but also diet culture, over consumption is reflected in the obesity rates at 42% making it 18th ranking in the world!

Agree. Live in the southwest of England and eating out options are dire - toasties, jacket potatoes, fish and chips, greasy Chinese. Let’s not mention roast dinners or full English breakfast- enjoyable but hardly healthy.

american here, living in the uk, and my biggest fear is getting seriously ill in the uk. Yes, healthcare in the us is much more expensive, but when you need it, it is there - unlike the uk. Personally I would rather be broke than dead.

i also think education options are much better in the us than uk - it will be more variable within the us, but the approach is much more aligned to real world skills.

I don’t get the comments about food? Yes, unhealthy food is available, but that’s the case in every country. Surely if you want to eat healthily, you just don’t but unhealthy food? No one is forced to buy pizza and burgers and whatnot. I love to eat heavily and to cook from scratch - I eat the same variety of fresh, whole foods as I did in the UK. Why wouldn’t I?

The only notable difference is that I drink more here because I socialise a lot more, as people are generally more outgoing and have more disposable income to go out and do stuff. But that’s a choice and I could (should) rein in the drinking.

I lived there for 3 years in my 20s, yeah everything looks rosy and shiny but it is so fake. I missed the simple things like walking & the British humour ( there isn't any) . Really true friends and sincere people (very fickle out for what they can get especially service staff) . Obviously the food is awful, along with healthcare and huge gun crime. Been back many times in my later years but each time I'm more jaded about it ...just don't see the appeal

I live in New York (Manhattan) and always get a same-day GP appointment, I never haven’t. If you don’t believe me, look up a Manhattan zip code on Zocdoc and search for primary care doctors - ample availability on any given day. I’m not “super rich”, not at all, just about average for Manhattan. I’m on the same type of health insurance as everyone in my social circle (young professionals). Specialist appointments are almost always the same day too (do the same search but for a specialist).

Totally agree with OP, it’s just not the speed with which you’re able to access care, it’s that you have plenty of time with the clinician. Appointments aren’t rushed. There’s plenty of time for questions and discussing your results and their recommendations. You don’t feel like you’re on a conveyor belt and wasting the clinician’s time with any questions.

Absolutley the treatment of diabetes has come on so much over the past 20 years my son is prescribed fast acting and also slow realease insulin to be taken at different times
From what im told insurance wont cover this for many Americans and they are advisred to get insulin over the counter at Walmart
It works but its an older type of insulin so takes longer and not ideal

Pretty much what I was on about. If you develop a long term health condition (in America) some insurances don't cover it, or will only cover for so long, or the price of the insurance will go up so much that it's unaffordable. It's like pet insurance. Lots of things that are going to cost them a lot of money isn't covered, or it is but only for say, one year, OR the price of your insurance goes up to an amount 10 times higher!

I knew a woman in America a few years ago who had a kidney problem and the insurance paid for a certain procedure she needed, but it wouldn't cover the kidney dialysis treatment. She and her husband had to sell their house to pay the medical bill. (Even though they had been insured!)