Britain is a poor country pretending to be rich

[socialmedia23]

archive.vn/RhqFe#selection-1335.45-1638.0

'The problem is that it is not even remotely true. In fact, the opposite is the case: Britain is turning into a relatively poor country, and fast. In terms of GDP per capita, the UK is soon expected to fall behind Mississippi, traditionally the worst off state in the US. According to some projections, in less than 15 years we are even set to be overtaken by Poland, the country that used to supply us with an endless army of cheap workers.'

I don't agree with the reasons that the writer of the article gave for the current situation. But I think that it is very stark that even the Telegraph is admitting that we are a poor country. Guardian and FT have admitted that a long time ago.

Wait for it.....

Brexit costs our country £40billion a year in lost tax revenue alone.

https://www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue?utmmedium=Social&utmm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1671559406-1

I can see we are not a rich country, we just hsppen to have some rich individuals who live here.

I am not sure its because of flexible working and early retirement.

100%.

It is because there is no economic growth worth speaking of, we have a lot of low wage jobs and so naturally people don't want to slog for such low wages if there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

People in other countries work much harder not only because they have to, but because they can see that their hard work yields actual results and an improvement in their quality of life, even if it is slow.

5th richest in the world by GDP the internet says?

I’m not sure years of austerity policy is ‘pretending to be rich’ ..?

The rich people who live here are from other country’s, they have bought vast amounts of London property’s to hide money from their own countries, in fact they don’t ‘live’ here, the just own properties here, they also buy expensive cars that they don’t tax or insure because if the car gets seized they just buy a new one, it doesn’t matter if they are banned, money speaks!

Not by GDP per capita though? The UK is pretty low down the list when it comes to that I think, certainly not top 20 anyway.

That is based on population. China is second but its people aren't rich as a whole. They have some rich people and a growing middle class.

Austerity meant public services were underfunded. This meant the bottom 20% were affected but the middle classes were largely unscathed. They simply dodged it by moving their children to private schools or state schools in leafy suburbs, got private health insurance for elective procedures. They coped. The cost of living crisis means that it is harder to use disposable income to cover the defects of the state. and this is why the middle class is suffering. Particularly as the middle class is accustomed to consumerism, inflation hits those who consume the most, along with the poor.

We are quite far down the list based on gdp per capita (which is total GDP divided by the number of people).

data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true
Most Recent Year Most Recent Value
Luxembourg 2021 134,753.8
Singapore 2021 116,486.5
Ireland 2021 106,455.8
Qatar 2021 93,521.4
Bermuda 2021 85,192.3
Norway 2021 79,201.2
Switzerland 2021 77,324.1
Macao SAR, China 2021 73,802.2
Cayman Islands 2020 72,481.0
United States 2021 69,287.5
United Arab Emirates 2020 66,766.1
Brunei Darussalam 2021 66,619.9
Hong Kong SAR, China 2021 65,972.6
Denmark 2021 64,651.2
Netherlands 2021 63,766.9
San Marino 2020 59,571.9
Sweden 2021 59,324.0
Belgium 2021 58,930.9
Austria 2021 58,427.5
Germany 2021 57,927.6
Iceland 2021 57,646.4
Australia 2021 55,807.4
Finland 2021 55,006.6
Canada 2021 52,085.0
France 2021 50,728.7
United Kingdom 2021 49,675.3
Saudi Arabia 2021 49,551.3

We do have quite a few local rich people. the top 5% of earners in the Uk earn more than the top 5% in Germany or Norway for example. Those are PAYE earners so they do live and work here.

We are still pretty well off relative to too many countries to list.

Been to a 3rd world country recently. Gosh. An eye opener.
Still some horses and carts. Many living under tin rooves. [hot country so not as bad as that would be here]. Eating the same food over and over. Majority of cars look like they have been in an accident. A stew involves eating parts of chicken we wouldnt dream of putting in. etc.

It always surprises me how wealthy the US still is. I know there's lots of poverty and little welfare, I thought it might have fallen a bit, but no

I think you'd be surprised at the bits of the chicken which go into the more affordable processed food products sold in UK supermarkets. You may cook with organic stuff from the butchers, but the quality of the food eaten by the average UK person is very low.

It depends how you judge wealth.

The UK has several of the top 10 universities in the world. As a country we are financially wealthy, we have a sound legal system, and plenty of opportunity for those who are committed enough to go for it.

In diplomatic and soft power terms we are very strong. Militarily, we punch above our weight

But health, housing, physical infrastructure and secondary education need a lot of investment.

Much of the UK population subscribes to a jingoistic narrative in which the UK is wealthy and 'world beating'. It's not based on reality though - in reality our growth over the past 12 years has been dreadful compared to other developed nations. Austerity has hampered growth and prosperity in a big way.

if your child told you that he got a D for his GCSEs but you should be happy because 50% of his class failed, what would be your reaction? Furthermore the UK has had advantages other countries don't have i.e. as a former empire, it had a lot of wealth coming in from all corners of the earth and that kind of vast wealth would have simply multiplied if it had been invested correctly (given that the UK never did pay reparations to its colonies). Sadly i think it has been mismanaged; that wealth is probably lurking around in some offshore tax haven somewhere.

Chicken feet are a delicacy in many parts of the world.

There are even news stories about chicken feet smugglers in China.

It is a delicacy in Singapore and Hong Kong and they are not poor. Its more expensive than just ordering chicken.

I remember reading a biography and it said that there was a landlord who owned vast tracts of land and was so wealthy that one of his concubines had 5 chickens slaughtered everyday just to eat the feet!

Many people in their 50s are economically inactive due to poor health, disability and caring for elderly relatives. They're not all going on cruises or attending yoga classes.

What isn’t been discussed is London and the SE are rich. But the neglected north and midlands have appalling poverty. Equivalent to a third world country l read somewhere. Years of ignoring and underinvesting in these areas is a big problem. I’m really pissedoff as a northerner that the north hasnt really got a train service anymore. Yet London gets swanky new tubes all the time.

Ive just been chatting to a Chinese woman l know. In China a train journey if 2 1/2 hours in U.K. takes 20 minutes in China. Chinese students come to my big northern city and refer to the train service as the ‘tractor service’

As for people in their 50’s retiring… l was a teacher at the start of Covid. Did the government put in mitigations in schools like Europe did? No it didn’t? So l just didn’t fancy catching Covid in a human Petri dish at my age, so l retired. That’s the main reason for people in their50’s leaving the workplace.

The UK isn’t poor. The money is just not distributed evenly so then you get the very rich people and the very-much-struggling-to-pay-for-heating people living within the same LA. The UK government (like most governments on this planet) is also very corrupt, and not interested in making sure the resources and money the country has are distributed fairly and managed appropriately. They’d rather give extra money and make shady deals with their mates, than providing for the struggling average family adequately. But like I said, that happens everywhere. Very few countries are actually following a good welfare social state model and providing their citizens with all they can. They’d rather increase their own wealth, they don’t care about random people they don’t know.

we aren't rich, wages have stagnated for years. It was ignored because credit was cheap & people felt rich due to house price inflation. Now that's over & it's a mess. Public services are collapsing, they need more money & investment but how do you tax income that's shrinking.

5th richest in the world by GDP the internet says?

per capita has much more value.

Been to a 3rd world country recently. Gosh. An eye opener.

well that's ok then, nothing to see here 🙄

Totally agree. The north has suffered a lot in recent years.