Does everyone want to live in the US?

[AteRiri]

I was talking to an American friend and he made this blanket statement, "Everyone wants to come here!"

Is this true?

Obama was not at an Ivy League and transferred into one. Yes it was a well respected liberal arts college but it was more on par with Rutgers. Transfers are an important part of closing gaps.

Social mobility programs started at the end of Clinton and only really gained momentum during Obamas years. Where I am there is a huge effort to keep pushing forward with the viewpoint being that it's going to take another generation to see the results.

Anyway, there are significant social mobility issues in the UK and university at £9k a year with very limited ability to work FT while studying enrages me because it creates more of a gap than it closes. So many more people go to private schools in the U.K. Compared to the US as well.

Social mobility programs started at the end of Clinton and only really gained momentum during Obamas years.

And only likely to get worse during the Trump's years, I expect.

You made the comparison about Obama's transfer when discussing community colleges though, without pointing out that it was a private liberal arts school and not a community college, that's misleading at best or you being disingenuous at worst.

Social mobility is still lower than in other developed countries though want2b, the lowest in any developed country, you are correct that the UK is not far behind, its still better than the US.

There may be less children in private schools but that is more to do with the way the school system is based on local taxes and the population density. Private school education is far more common in cities than it is in the suburbs.

Your persistent points regarding the lack of opportunity to work FT and study are incorrect, because the overwhelming majority of students on either side of the Atlantic do not do this. Also in the UK there is the opportuity to study at the OU.

BTW you're wrong about more children being at private school in the UK. 10% of all Children in school in the USA are at private schools, 7% in the UK.

'BTW you're wrong about more children being at private school in the UK. 10% of all Children in school in the USA are at private schools, 7% in the UK.'

Keep in mind that all faith schools in the US are private, whereas in the UK a child can attend a CofE or Catholic school courtesy of the state. This might well account for the difference.

Half of my family is American, I can live there whenever I like, however, I would not choose to exercise that right.

Having said that, I'd quite like not to be living in the UK right now either.

Far right and slightly less far right politics seems to be having a resurgence in both countries and I fear the fall out from both will have far reaching consequences for large swathes of the world.

I have been extraordinarily lucky in that I have had the opportunity to live in a few countries. I don't think you can really judge a country until you have lived there for a while. Your average American is really not all that different in character or action to your average Brit. They are generally kind, outward looking, fair and generous. They tend to look after their neighbours and give their time and effort to improving the lot of those less fortunate. And yet both populations have managed to vote for/elect hugely regressive and awful governments and the UK has voted for Brexit which is undoubtedly going to have seriously awful consequences for the majority of people in the country. Both of these things are totally at odds with the populations I know.

Given the choice, I'd move to Germany. Even while being aware of the deep problems there as well.

Good point Expat, but as I said the local tax laws mean that in the US Private schools are less used by people in suburban/commuter belt communities.

For example people I know that live in Connecticut send their children to the local high school, which is almost exclusively attended by the offspring of bankers and corporate lawyers. If they were in Surrey they'd be going to a private school.

Yes..in a Frasier/Friends style apartment

No in a Detroit Ghetto

Darth very true. I live in Connecticut, and can confirm that most well-off people in Fairfield County put their children through the public school system.

Keep in mind that all faith schools in the US are private, whereas in the UK a child can attend a CofE or Catholic school courtesy of the state. This might well account for the difference.

In fact, over half of students in private schools in the US are in faith schools, the vast majority Catholic. And these schools are for the most part much cheaper than other private schools. Many people of fairly modest means can afford Catholic schools for their children.

For example people I know that live in Connecticut send their children to the local high school,which is almost exclusively attended by the offspring of bankers and corporate lawyers. If they were in Surrey they'd be going to a private school.

This is true where I live (although the intake is more diverse than described above). It is one of the best school districts in the state and the high schools in particular are better than the private schools, which are all faith-based.

unicorn the u.k. Is the best place in the world for me to live. I also love British weather and I don't think it horrid at all!

I wouldn't want to live in the U.S.
The U.K. isn't perfect by any means and if we had to move, I wouldn't mind living in Amsterdam.
I've been to several parts of the U.S. and don't want to make a sweeping judgement based on a few people so this is just based on who we encountered.
I found the attitude in hotels, restaurants quite weird. Over the top friendly to an extent but quite fake and if you asked something else, it became clear that the friendliness was a bit of a facade. I prefer honest and grumpy.
Portions of food were huge but the quality wasn't great. In the last decade, I think that lots of ammenities we have in the U.K. have become considerably better and there doesn't seem to be a huge difference.
While the U.S. produces some of the best television in the world, their everyday chatshow/ daytime television/ advertising is almost unwatchable.
This is the first time I've been since everyone owns a smartphone. Even worse than the U.K. I asked someone sitting next to me at the theatre if they wouldn't mind constantly using their phone in the second half of the show with the brightest light setting and beeps and her partner kindly leaned over and called me a psycho
Constant use in the cinema, museum tour, iPads out during breakfast, dinner etc., impossible not to notice and I don't think I've seen such extensive use in the U.K.
Honestly, I don't think the whole "we are the best country in the world etc." really helps and I don't think it's anti American to have serious reservations about their healthcare system, school syllabuses and a very considerable rich/ poor divide.

No, i couldnt think of a more charmless, culturally devoid place to exist than the US.

No. I'm sure it's a lovely country to live. A bit of a sweeping statement-I'm sure there are shit places, too

But it's not somewhere I can see myself living. Gun control and healthcare concern me, but mainly because I'm happy living where I am.

I don't like the assumption from OP's friend that everyone would want to live there and I think it definitely has parallels with the idiot Brits who assume everyone in Europe wants to live here.

"i couldnt think of a more charmless, culturally devoid place to exist than the US."

Really? You are aware that in the past 75 years at least, virtually every big movement in art, cinema and television as well as many of the biggest names in pop music, fashion, journalism and literature have been American? The galleries and museums in its larger cities also have unrivalled collections. It has one of the most vibrant creative cultures on the planet without the benefit of several hundred years of tradition to fall back on.

Some of the perceptions that some of the posters on this thread have about America and Americans are just very odd .

I have not met one person in all my years here who thinks the US s the greatest place in the world. I have met many immigrants who are gratefu to have the liberty they enjoy in the US compared to the countries that they came from. I think the impression you get from the media about the US is very narrow but if it serves you to believe in that and make you feel happy to be where you are then great. I have lived in both the UK and the US and the quality of life for us is significantly better here. We feel safer and our children are getting good education in public schools -we did not have to fight or scramble for their places as friends tell me they had to in the UK. I have never felt threatened here in the way I did in London. I never see teens drinking in parks as I did in London.

The UK has just voted out of Europe so I don't see it as some place that is so great to live in- we found it a grind there with all our income consumed by bills and I do not miss the UK drinking culture with drunk people spewing out on the streets every weekend.

I actually think the UK rates itself very highly and its people have its 'nose put out of joint' when another country is perceived by many in the world to be desirable.Our neighbours are from another country and lived in LOndon for ten years but jumped at teh chance to immigrate to America when they got the opportuniy. I am delighted more people from Europe do not want to ( and would find it very hard to) immigrate because I like the fact it is less crowded here.

Of course the OP is incredibly naive if you thought some stupid blanket statement that one person made represents what 'everyone' believes. Clearly people make their lives where they end up and lucky are those that feel satisfied with their lot.

Having lived in both the US and the UK there is simply no comparison- the UK has many of its own problems like any country but day to day living in the UK is of a much lower quality in our experience. The UK is overcrowded. There is a shortage of that critical resource- housing. There is pressure on the education system - teachers are leaving in droves due to the ridiculous pressures out on them. How do you think that is going to impact the education system. Here teachers are actually pretty well looked after from what teacher friends tell me. The wages go higher, the unions offer protections that do not exist for UK teachers. The pensions are better. I think the UK will see its young people escaping in droves in the coming decades, unable to get affordable housing, living in overcrowded conditions and forking out 9K plus a year for college. The community colleges in my state are excellent and i know many young people who transfer after 2 years and get a degree with little debt. Is that even possible in the UK anymore?

Sweeping statements aside, which I've mostly ignored, I think what I have read indicates that personal preference and perception drives the decision to live in the US. There are many on this thread who are British, now living in the US quite happily, for lots of good reasons. I moved to the UK because my DH is British, and I absolutely love it here. We live in a small, close knit community where people are supportive and helpful, and the state school my DCs attend is far better than any school where I'm from. I feel safe and connected here, and where I find the US too big, too loud and too bright, my area of the UK is much more lovely and calm. I've been able to attend university for postgraduate degrees that I wouldn't have been able to afford if I were in the US, and the health care here is far better than I had in the US.
It isn't that I think that one country is better than the other...I love my home country, but I feel more comfortable, more at home in the UK.

Since it's a country that killed the majority of its native people and treats the ones left like crap and has no history of its to talk of. Most I've met seem to think there gods gift to the world lol. I notice someone mentioned films,yes loads of films most are rewritten history so the world is saved by them lol. Ego centric a holes to generalise though I'm sure some must be ok though can't say I've met one!

Since it's a country that killed the majority of its native people and treats the ones left like crap and has no history of its to talk of. Most I've met seem to think there gods gift to the world lol.

Ditto Australians.

Aborigines are treated worse than the blacks were under apartheid.

White Australians are the most racist, fascist, arrogant people Ive come across. They keep immigrants in detention centres and fail to acknowledge their home is only theirs as they slaughtered the native people and dispossessed the rest of their homeland.

I notice someone mentioned films,yes loads of films most are rewritten history so the world is saved by them lol.

Yeah U571 being a prime example.

American forces capturing the U Boat and enigma machine when they werent even in the war then and it was the British that did it.

They appropriate others successes and history.

Can't argue with that,for me it's there total arrogance that just makes me have no interest to ever go again,once in my life was too much

No history? Our history is your history. My ancestors all came from the British Isles, several under less than ideal circumstances (Highland clearances, anyone?)

Sorry Lala, but it's ridiculous to state that virtually every movement from the last seventy five years has come from America.
In terms of popular culture , I don't think you can deny the influence America has on other countries positively and negatively. Like any country there's the sublime and ridiculous but I do think that some people are less willing to accept the negative aspects of their country.
I love the U.K. but as mentioned before, I wouldn't claim that it's the pinnacle of everything- partly, because that seems pretty arrogant and it would be incorrect.

No history. LOL. British immigrants effectively invading the place, taking it over, bringing in slaves - Golden Triangle, anyone? They were colonies for over 150 years. Then we have Scottish forced to flee during the clearances. Irish forced to flee during the famine - all of these the work of British policies. Selective history, anyone?

Since it's a country that killed the majority of its native people and treats the ones left like crap and has no history of its to talk of. Most I've met seem to think there gods gift to the world lol.
Yeah, us Brits need to be a bit careful throwing stones in this particular glass house...