AIBU to think this godforsaken country is a shambles?

[Toysintheattic29]

THIS IS WHAT’S ON MY MIND: this country is in shambles. I’ve never seen so many homeless people on the streets; social care services unable to cope with overflowing caseloads; our precious NHS struggling to care for anyone at all (forget it if you have non life-threatening surgical needs or are elderly); train fares continually getting jacked up; rising costs; roads cracking up; broadband speeds laughably slow and the biggest con of all, BREXIT. Even in the austerity of the 1950s things were not as grim as they are now - at least we had a reliable health service and publicly owned transport systems and many members of the public didn’t have to rely on food banks.

Is that you Jeremy?

I've lived in several countries over the last 20 years & I still choose the UK to live in. Things are actually much worse in many other places.

Off you pop then OP. ODFOD.

No, it really doesn’t insurance is $80 a month per person. With a $1500 deductible

The United States spends the most on health care per person — $9,237 – according to two new papers published in the journal The Lancet.

www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/04/20/524774195/what-country-spends-the-most-and-least-on-health-care-per-person

For those used to class privilege etc, I think they feel the bottom has fallen out from under them. There is a very good reason for that. They have, quite literally, knocked everyone off and replaced them with an alien demographic over the years. Oh well.

IME a lot of deprevation is caused by the people themselves. So many people have children knowing full well that they aren't in a position to have them. Obviously I'm not talking about people that fall on bad times. I don't have children by the way.

Sorry Cote but it really sounds as though you are making that up. Similar to the experience of previous posters, I have lived and worked in the US. I'm afraid your continued assertion that they enjoy better healthcare is laughable.

I was fortunate to have Heath insurance (cost USD 1320 p/m), which allowed me access to healthcare generally on a par with that received today in the UK...and I stress today, with all the pressures that the NHS were facing. It did not include dentistry, opticians etc.

I was one of the lucky ones. Where I lived (Houston) so many cannot afford insurance and just have to suffer. I will never forget crowds of people in a local mall car park queueing to see the voluntary doctors and nurses who give up their free time to see patients who have nowhere else to turn, and there are no services available to those who cannot pay.

On the wider topic of this thread....again I agree with previous posters. Those who wail about how awful the UK is need to broaden their horizons, on a global scale we are extremely fortunate on this 'god forsaken island'

Apart from the weather, I can't think of a reason to not appreciate how fortunate I am to have been born in the UK.

So many people have children knowing full well that they aren't in a position to have them.

So the answer is Eugenics?

In the 50s people did not feel as entitled and did not whine so much.

So yes...better.

I was born in the 1950s and I can tell you things were definitely not rosy when I was a child in the 1960s. We have a much higher standard of living now, for the vast majority of people. There is absolutely no comparison and people who think otherwise have no grasp of reality or history. Unless you have lived in that era then you don't really understand how different things were then. We live in a land of choice and plenty.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/oct/01/below-the-poverty-line-slum-britain-in-the-1960s-in-pictures

We live in a land of choice and plenty.

Just not very well distributed.

Just not very well distributed.

Under any government by the way.

YABU.
Both my partner and I have decent jobs.
Our child is fit and healthy (thank god) but had an awful start and the NHS was bloody brilliant, I don't expect she'd have survived had she been born in 1954.
She is receiving an excellent education, in 1954 she'd have perhaps left school by now.
Of course there are issues and problems, but I for one would not want to live anywhere else.

And yet you choose to move here, make. Why would you do that if it's so dreadful and unequal?

It is so sad that some people just do not realise or have any idea how truly fortunate they are.

Yes everything can always be better, but travel to some other countries and look at their standard of living and then compare.

Don't whine and complain - either move out of the UK and live somewhere else (you can then start moaning about their problems) or stop complaining about our country and do something to improve it.

Depressing, isn't it? This is the worst period I can remember and my memory goes back to the late 50s. It's not just here, it's the world - Trump anyone?

I’m so fed up with people slagging off our country. I love this country and am very proud to be British. OP, why not volunteer for a worthy charity in a third world country and then come back and say how crap the UK is. My MIL was very unwell last year after many tests the diagnosis was made and she now has monthly injections which have saved her life, these injections are £1000 per shot, all on the NHS, without that she would be dead. My dc are currently at school getting an education, my 9yr old dd has a future to do whatever she wishes without any restrictions, I’ve just poured myself a glass of clear disease-free water, as a women I can have an opinion without risk to my personal safety. Focus on the great things we have, not the negative, if not may I suggest emigration!?

Just not very well distributed. Head off to Zimbabwe then.

I moved from the UK and now only visit occasionally for holidays I have noticed a massive difference on the last trip back. Everyone was depressed, homeless people everywhere. Overcrowding, things were expensive and there was a general gloom about everything.

I thought it was just me. Last time I went back I was shocked at the shabbiness of everything. I thought my perception must have changed or something because I'd never noticed it before. Roads full of potholes, verges overgrown and unkempt, litter everywhere and just a general feeling of grimness.

I don't think the 1950's would have been better, however there is soooo much room for improvement in every area that is government maintained. It feels like everything is spread so miserably thinly right now. I feel genuinely sorry for anybody working in public sector services (that includes my own DH) as they are routinely underpaid and overworked. It's everywhere, from NHS staff leaving in droves, to teachers giving up their profession, to libraries closing down, to food prices creeping up, to public sector pensions being meddled with, to public transport being unaffordable....I could go on and on. I really worry about the future for our kids. When my mum left school in the late 70's she said it was pretty easy to just walk into a job - that certainly isn't the case now.

And yet you choose to move here, make. Why would you do that if it's so dreadful and unequal?

The people at Central were looking towards a new social media communications platform - one that could monitor and respond to multiple instances simultaneously with targeted messaging. Make was brought in (there are actually three of us) to install this system and perform the ongoing beta test. We analyse the response matrix to our comments. We also run a counter-flux system, adopting opposite opinions to gauge against set criteria. Sometimes Make argues against Make.

You may have noticed instances in the last two weeks of alliteration (think "Tory toast tastes terrible") and the use of poetic quotes.

We have a democracy...women can vote and we have access to medical care. We have it so much better than other people around the world so I actually consider myself lucky. If people don't like it, they should move somewhere else!

There are a lot of good things about Britain but the homeless numbers are ridiculous as are the facts that doctor's appointments are near on impossible to get and there are 9000 people just in my area trying to get an NHS dentist. Bringing in unskilled foreign labour (or beggars) should not be a thing whilst we have unemployed people already here.