Reasons you wouldn’t move to US

[Preiu]

Dh has been offered a job in the US. The increase in salary would put us into a completely different wealth bracket but I really don’t want to move.

• fear of home invasion with guns
• school shooting - guns in general I guess
• American exceptionalism attitude annoys me
• Being away from family
• Not having Europe on doorstep

Can I ask if you have any other reasons

they like different sports

As far as I'm concerned this can only be a good thing!

Every once in a while I think, gosh what if I'd stayed in the US, and just kept working and working and never felt I could have kids because of the horrible maternity leave?

What if I never actually met someone? Never got on with US blokes, not sure why. But I have these Sliding Doors moments with some regularity where I can imagine I'd have stayed single somehow. Living in NYC and never actually meeting someone properly. Dating is hard there. My friends who are married now are actually with people they met a university - I didn't meet anyone!

Thinking of my two lovely DDs and I'm so happy I got on that plane.

The political bickering is annoying but you can tune out, and we have plenty of that in the UK too although granted it's not quite as divisive.
@muggart I rather get the feeling that since 175 P45s were handed out last week, we don't seem to have much in the way of political bickering in the UK at the moment. The new PM has made a few decent ministerial appointments and the feeling is that the grown-ups are back in charge.

By contrast, the US appears to be heading for a knife-edge election between an 81 year old who is losing his marbles and a 78 year old who never had any marbles to begin with.

Alabama, Oklahoma, and Texas have recently gotten machines where people can buy ammunition. The machines scan someone’s driver’s license and use facial recognition software. I’m not sure how well they work, and I can see a lot of possible pitfalls.

But no, you cannot “buy guns from vending machines” in any state - not to mention the fact that OP isn’t considering moving to any of those states. Can we please stick to actual facts?!

My reasons would be
guns
healthcare
trump
biden
being so far from family and friends

If they're scanning driving licences then at least there must be some kind of check going on.

Of far more concern is the gun show loophole.

Thank you. I had missed the bald statement from PP that one can buy guns from vending machines in America.

Some of the more bizarre statements on this thread are of the same order as utterances from the mouth of one Donald Trump. And being accepted by those who share the bias.

Yet they look down on Americans because (under half of) Americans accept Trump’s statements because they share his bias, and do not see the irony.

To the poster who thinks love of British accents is patronizing - not at all, IMO - I find it charming, really, and it's got me further here than I deserve! Also, with regard to the teeth, you've never been in the South, have you?

There have been many posts on this thread (and I have no idea if yours was one of them) which listed "Americans" as a reason not to move to the US.

This thread continues to throw up blatant and ridiculous lies, which I assume come from people who have never spent much time in the country.

Cakes all come from packets.

Er, no. They don't. Yes, you can buy packaged cake mix, and no doubt there are people who use them. But you can buy delicious baked goods from high quality bakeries, and there are many people who bake cakes and other baked goods from scratch.

As for the poster who would prefer a person to have bad teeth and breath that smells like cheese and onion crisps rather than nice teeth and clean breath, that sounds like a you problem.

Yes, I found that post a bit rich in the land of Bird’s. I had not known of the concept of powdered custard - or gravy stuff - until coming to the UK.

I don’t mind that some use Bird’s or the gravy stuff in the least. But this was another tiresome example of people living in glass houses throwing stones

So just seen this today. I guess this is the sort of thing I was worried about when I said I hated the idea of medical insurance being linked to your job

Being bored at the moment, I’m trying to come up with equally false and ridiculous “reasons” why Americans shouldn’t move to the UK. Like…

”The Church of England is their official state religion, so no one is allowed to have a different one. They think that once someone becomes king or queen, that person magically gets a second birthday. Because of the NHS, you can only see a doctor when the government tells you that you can. There are no dentists. I know Hermione’s parents were dentists in Harry Potter, but those are fantasy novels.

”In Scotland, all of the meat is haggis. It’s named after Paul Haggis, the director, who co-wrote two James Bond movies. Small villages have a particularly high homicide rate; we know this because of Midsomer Murders. And every thirteen hours in Northern Ireland, the IRA blows someone up.”

The whole gun culture, while I hate it, wouldn't overly concern me as much as the below:

• Crippling cost of healthcare, especially for serious illnesses;
• practically non-existent workers' rights;
• Astronomical college fees;

Oh I know - it's a wonder anyone lives there isn't it?

Poor downtrodden things, going bankrupt from being ill, no-one being able to attend college because it's too expensive, and they must all hate their 24/7 jobs.

Meanwhile, in the real world, all the Americans I know are living their best lives and not spending their time on forums moaning about how hard life is and how the government should do something about it.

Trump, Biden, Guns
Piss poor maternity leave
Christianity being more of a thing there.
Price of university
The fact that it's just isolated pockets of malls and housing estates and nowhere to really walk unless you live in a city.
No right to roam. Dogs only get walked in dog parks not even allowed off lead in National Parks so unless you have a lot of private land, seems kind of rubbish for them.
Bigger divide between rich and poor so living up against some serious frightening areas of poverty.
Spiders. (sound silly, but Arizona has dinner plate sized ones).
Fresh food being more expensive.

The college fees are insane - it was a huge eye opener for me when my DSDs went to college.

Even non Ivy, not the famous ones like Harvard, Stanford etc cost $40-50,000 a year! And the courses are 4 years long!

However - a bit like the healthcare service there are several different ways regular people make this work.

1. Go to a university in your own state (the state university) and get local resident fees - significantly lower. Works if you have a really good state university which is good for whatever you want to study.
2. Have a parent or stepparent who is employed by a university - often means practically free fees for the university the parent is employed at, but also counts for discounts at other universities - we are talking knocking $10-20K off the bill.
3. Apply for scholarships - there are tens of thousands available and you can stack them - so with a bit of prep you can shave another 10-15K off or for some people a lot more. Sometimes they even apply the discounts for you without asking.

So you can get it down to fairly managable levels - it just takes a bit of preparation.

There's also a lot more flexibility in how to graduate for most students - they collect credits to graduate so can work harder in the early years and finish earlier which makes it cheaper, and it's easier to switch to a different university without losing your credits - it's a lot more flexible that the UK system.

Oh and the lack of recycling! Jesus! Nobody has recycling bins. They use polystyrene and plastic one-use cups like it's the latest fashion. Am talking big companies as well as private individuals, big restaurants and small.

Lots of US cities have weekly recycling collection with council provided recycling bins. Washington DC is a good example of that.

If you live outside one of the cities that offer this there are still municipal recycling depots where you can take your paper, glass and plastics.

Again the USA is the size of Europe - each state determines law and policy and public health campaigns differently depending on their population etc.

Why do you think you can make a determination about the whole of the USA's recycling habits in one fell swoop?

Can you determine the recycling habits of Finland by looking at what they do in Portugal????

Charming. It's what I've experienced in: TN, MT, FL, SC, NC. In private homes, in restaurants, in tourist attractions.
I'm sure there might be options for doing your own recycling and some liberal East and West coast areas where the gov makes it more of a habit, but there's much more of a cultural and industrial not giving a shit. If we're talking about shit.

I agree. I'm in the Midwest and we recycle everything- even to the point in casual restaurants or coffee shops the bins are divided up into compost/recycle/landfill and everyone stands there looking a bit stumped figuring out where everything should go 😄

Both places I have lived in have recycling and most people I know elsewhere do too, and they don't all live in liberal coastal areas. There are rural areas where you have to take your own trash to the dump and I suppose they might not. Although now that China doesn't want plastics, it's becoming questionable about how worthwhile plastic recycling is. Green bin programs are more variable.

A quick google says 91% of the US population has access to recycling. Actual rates vary with the highest rates being in the Northeast and the West Coast. The best states for recycling are the ones with bottle deposit laws (they charge you 5 or 10¢ per bottle or can when you purchase and then you get it back when you return the empties). Hence, Iowa, which has a bottle bill, is a standout recycler.

Again it's very state specific - you are talking way too broadly about a country the size of the European continent. Think of each state like a different country in Europe and you'll be more accurate.

Interestingly the states you reference are all some of the lowest recyclers across the whole USA so perhaps that's why you got that impression. The states at the top end of the table actually have higher recycling rates than the UK.

www.oberk.com/packaging-crash-course/states-best-worst-recycling

This thread is bloody hilarious, I've stayed up much too late reading it!😂