To be depressed about how expensive but shyt the UK is

[OptimismvsRealism]

God it's expensive God it's shit

Please regale me with examples of how other places are also shit and it's not just here

That is true. And it was pretty bad in the SW for vegetarians. Better further north.

Hmmm… compared to apartheid SouthAfrica where/when I was born; compared to Iran from the 1980’s and beyond, from where my adoptive dad and family were exiled in the UK; compared to parts of the Ukraine that are close to the war with Russia; compared the Israel/Gaza and nearby warring states; compared to partsof the US and its erosion of women’s rights and bodily autonomy; compared to Afghanistan where woman are both covered and silenced in public and denied an education; you mean?

Yeah, No.

Things are a bit tougher here than during the heyday bubble preceding the 2008 crash/Brexit/pandemic/global oil crisis… but they are certainly not shit.

I can't really comment if being poor is worse here than elsewhere, but having visited many countries it seems to me there are many worse places to be born and live poor.

That will be because we don't want a semi-private version of the NHS, we want a properly funded well run NHS that works the way it is meant to!

Cos the top 20% (who do not have help with housing through gifts) are much worse off than in other countries. Wages for professionals are low in the uk and even London but at the same time if you got lucky with housing your disposable income isn't bad. It's why I am staying cos even though employment prospects aren't great, I can't replicate my £1282 mortgage in new York or Singapore or frankfurt or Luxembourg. I need a hell of a pay rise..

That doesn't mean the bottom 80% would be better off than in other countries.

Even if it's passed that and not achievable?

It depends what you mean by standard of living.
Where I live now many 'poorer' people live in their own houses and have large gardens.
Not everyone lives life based on 'what if'.

And yet people are willing to risk their, and their kids lives to get here.

Get your head out of your arse and appreciate just how fortunate you are to live here. Nothing worse than an over privilege whinger.

you think healthcare is free, tell that to the person who pays £100's of pounds each month into the the health service? Then see if you think you are getting value for money

I agree op.
Fruit for eg very expensive strawberries but often got moldy ones in! Several times in pat few months. Coop and lidl. Even if not moldy yet they go off in about 2 days.

Healthcare me and friend both waoting 18m-2y5m for chikds asd assessments. No help from anyone in meantime.

My own health i have hypothyroidism and pcos which gets no treatment.

I think nhs can be ok if its something like cancer.
but still they now have no check at 40 for bp etc.
Everything in uk is trying to save money but in end costs more i mean if these dc cant work as they cant cope thats not saved money.
Education generally is rubbish - why are soeloings not being picked up and corrected. Why have secondary go no useful homework.
Nothing is ever marked. Just feels like very low effort.

Need more sen schools and raise levels of average schools.
Generally nobody seems to want to do any work, this has got worse since covid. Phones unanswered.

@Spockty no ones health care is free if you look at it that way.

In the past three months I’ve been to Dublin, Paris, Lisbon, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal, Istanbul, Naples, Bergen and Brussels and with the exception of Naples I can’t say I found groceries or eating and drinking out in any of them cheaper than London. Montreal, Bergen and Brussels were (expectedly) significantly more expensive, the rest were en par or slightly more or slightly less for some things. I have friends or colleagues in most of those cities, and they all moan about the cost of living and house prices and how on earth are young people ever supposed to buy a home. People everywhere feel aggrieved that that things are more expensive than they used to be: it’s not specific to the U.K.

Yes all of this

The only European country I've visited lately which seems noticeably in a better state than the UK was Denmark. Organised, clean, community-minded etc. But bloody expensive! Other countries I've been to recently seem to have much the same problems as the UK.

England is depressing right now especially if you're in the middle income wise, taxed left
Right and centre for things that don't work properly. To add to that high levels of crime, the police / judiciary don't seem to care and dole out ridiculously low sentences and the prisons are full.

Not to mention all the immigrants coming over by boat that we have to pay to house in hotels

@Embery
100% need for support for SEN children, anyone that has a SEN child even mild will tell you this.

Why are you not getting treatment for your thyroid? That seems wrong.

And me also, I must be extremely self centred.
As must my entire team caseload, as our average wait time is 3 weeks and we have excellent patient satisfaction scores

If you can still afford the things that are more expensive and you're not gonna starve if you can't afford food, then you should be grateful. It can be so much worse. I feel like some people just want to whine and wallow in misery

I think there's definitely room for improvement but I think a lot of people don't realise how easy we have it here.

Own a property in Europe - one of the Countries reported to be cheap etc. Our house is in a nice expat area, food shop at least as expensive as the UK, wine is cheap!! A good restaurant is London prices. Water bills extortionate, only good thing is we put solar in so it reduces electricity. We now rent it peak season!!

Bet you wouldn't say that to other groups of people constantly complaining about how shit the UK is.

I didn't know that. However, I know a handful of very average people who have emigrated in the last few year, for economic reasons (and honestly I don't know that many people!). Maybe that's an anomaly then? But it struck me as odd, as I've never known it happen before, within my own circle.

Take a friend and go for a walk in our nearest countryside/park, appreciate the beauty of autumn and the the freedom to roam. Be thankful that our country has been at peace for 80 years and is overwhelmingly harmonious. Yes the weather could be better, but we don't have scorching temps and wildfires every summer, or life-threatening hurricanes every winter. Having a "grass is greener" outlook is a recipe for unhappiness.

This. It's not like the UK was faultless and problem free until 10 years ago.

Not everyone has the same problems or experiences which is why people say their NHS treatment is good. But those who appear to hate the UK and the NHS use it as a stick to beat others with and pretty much accuse them of lying.

we're all paying for the baby boomers mistakes in life

What mistakes are those?