To think British people aren't thought of as rich anymore

[DeliaSmithsEpicGuitarRiff]

I kind of love this, as the child of someone from a colonised country and different race, but the other half very much British.
I am away somewhere that it is possible to spend a lot of money. There once was a time where being British would mean you received excellent service, no one thought you were poor, no one suspected you would steal or have your card declined.
Now I feel the opposite. That being British makes people assume I'm poor or likely to quibble about prices. Where I am now there are so many tourists from much richer countries such as the Middle East, China and India and we simply do not compete. The sales people look at us with contempt and pity, the poor English woman. It feels like some epic karma for the empire.
Are we likely to continue to decline in standard of living until we are Europe's shabby cousins, you know the ones who had lice and lived off tinned ravioli? And will the proud, Brexiteers even recognise that this our fate?

I've never experienced people thinking I'm either rich or poor for being British, so I don't relate to this.
As for India being a much richer country. Really? Yes, there are many rich Indians. I know some Indian millionaires. There are also many, many poor Indians. I spend a lot of time in India and see poverty way beyond what I've seen here.

Americans have always been pandered to as they have always been rich,at least the ones who travel have.
There are v rich Arabs and v rich Asians but it’s a small proportion of their populations.
i don’t tink very rich Brits are hanging around tourist shops or in the Rolex shops -
more likely relaxing on their yachts.

What an odd post.as one of the richest countries in the world, why would we be seen as poor. Also not everyone here goes abroad. Some out of choice.all the times we have travelled we have been treated with kindness and respect. I do not approve of our colonial past either.however we are hardly alone in that!

That’s true! “Cheaper than Asda!” - heard that one a couple of times.

The UK is definitely poorer than it used to be.

Since the year 2000, American salaries have risen 40% more than British. The average salary in the USA is now £61k versus £41k in the UK. Salaries in China, India and elsewhere have risen

Based on current economic growth, average salary in Poland will be higher than the UK in just 4 years! Guyana and South American economies will over take the UK in 10 years. There have been articles in the Times and Telegraph about this.

In real terms since 2007, salaries have basically stayed flat in the UK.

No I don't think so... think our money is as good as anyones to the businesses abroad.
Karma for the empire? Lol

British is broadly a wealthy country. But like most countries the wealth is very unevenly distributed. In the UK this takes the form of the top 5% owning 40% of the wealth. Brought down to the size of a small classroom of twenty kids, this is akin to one child owning almost as much as the other nineteen put together. But this is normal across countries. Put simply, there are wealthy people in every country, but the vast majority are not. This holds true most cases across the globe, just the split changes a bit.

UK is definitely poorer than it used to be!

By GDP per capita we are 24th in the world, about 20 years ago we were close to the top 10.

Poland is on course to overtake us in 4 years.

I went to a vair, vair posh restaurant before Christmas, meeting a mindbogglingly rich family friend. My family looks like what we are - comfortably off and slightly scruffy (even whilst making an effort). We were not typical of the clientele. After the meal, the (lovely) reception staff established it was our first visit and asked if we were planning to return. I said all was fabulous - it was, TBF - but we were realistically more at the Wetherspoon level. For a split second they looked shocked, before offering a high five, and agreeing that was them too.

Our friend, for the record, is not British, and looks rich! But I think the excellent service was just because what the restaurant does - I'm pretty sure it would have been as good if they hadn't been there.

Last time I was on holiday in a resort with people from much wealthier countries (Russia, Emirates etc) we received excellent service as we weren't up our own arses treating the staff like crap like they were.

No, it's what YOU would like to see happening, but it's not the reality. Many Europeans are struggling financially, but for some reason, you think it's just the British.

Tinned of raviol?
We only had Alphabetti Spaghetti,
You was lucky, we only has Spaghetti 'Oops - that's just the O's from Alphabetti Spaghetti
Aye it were hard after Brexit.

As for 'razzle dazzle', well, we had to make our own,
Aye, we'd make t'crown out of brown paper and for the dazzle staple the foil lids from yoghurt pots on it.
You had a stapler? We only had t' ole punch.
And a blue passport?
Aye, and a blue passport, mind, it were tatty blue passport and all immigration and customs people would sneer at us.
Aye, but we was 'appy

But aren't one third of the country's children living in poverty? UK has wealth concentrated in certain areas. I read that if you removed London from the UK, we'd be poorer than Poland. So it's rather too simplistic to say we're a rich country. However, I disagree with OP too.

Not had that abroad but in any discussions abroad or with foreign colleagues they do find it amusing about how some Brits ( I would argue only politicians and that has changed) argue about our world class NHS. My Spanish colleague dissolved into laughter and points out that she flies back to Spain for treatment.

I've worked in retail all my life and think you are talking nonsense. I have never considered any specific nationality as likely to be wealthy or poor, the range of individual wealth within countries is huge.

It is possible that certain holiday destinations make assumptions based of the TYPE of british person they usually see.
I suspect our image in biza or other traditional binge drinking locations isn't great......
I very much doubt it is because they have decided you don't have money because you are British but more likely something in the way you are presenting yourself personally.

Wow, op, you have the whole potato on your shoulder, don't you?

But were you wearing a tiny dress with enormous cut outs and black patent thigh-high boots held together with a safety pin, and in which you keep your condoms?

Go on a shopping spree, change into the clothes, and go back in to the shop that failed to ‘razzle-dazzle’ you. Ask the staff if they work on commission, then say ‘Big mistake. Huge’. Then skip off wrapped in the Union Jack.

I've worked in retail loads and I think this is bullshit.

I think Britain has lost respect on the international stage, and very fairly, but it's not about money.

I was in Switzerland last year and got lovely service.

I don't think you need to "pick who to put on the razzle dazzle for" unless you're bad at your job or good manners don't come naturally to you.

" It feels like some epic karma for the empire."

It doesn't even come fucking close to even mild karma for the empire, how can you think these things are on a level?

I think you're weirdly status-obsessed.

Yeah this. My Canadian husband is horrified by some (not all!) of what he's seen in the NHS and then people say he must be grateful to be in the UK because they assume Canada has a similar health structure to the US and he was priced out of healthcare. (It doesn't and he wasn't.)

So true! We went to Turkey a few years ago.
the hotels were mainly full of wealthy Russians. Also Germans.

the visible difference in how poor the British holiday makers were was really easy to see.
also I suspect the better service to the wealthier tourists was down to being able to chuck large tips at the staff

There's definitely that, but that was ever thus.

If the UK was a US State, it would be the 2nd poorest.

Brits holidays in Switzerland (like skiing) generally have money.

We take decisions to make ourselves poorer:

Other countries- let's build roads as it's good for the economy.
UK - building roads is bad as more roads will mean more cars (oh and more economic growth, never mind the growth).

Other countries - let's have cheap electricity
UK - let's create systems which means we have electricity prices 3 times higher than the USA.

Other countries - let's have reliable electricity and decarbonize cheaply
UK - let's have renewable electricity which is unreliable so we have "demand side response" which pays factories to stop using electricity for short periods and makes it unattractive to have factories here.

Other countries - let's increase the amount of power we generate reliably
UK - let's import 30% of our energy from abroad and force our gas and coal power stations to close without replacing them

Other countries - let's welcome investment.
UK - let's reject multi billion dollar investments in new film studios and data centres (read Sam Dumitrous blog about this)

Other countries - let's have cheap reliable infrastructure
UK - let's have the most expensive infrastructure in the world. Let's make it so expensive that our trams cost 10x more to build than France and the the planning permission for one tunnel under the Thames has cost almost £1bn whilst in Norway they build the world's longest road tunnel for £297m.

Other countries - if we are going to make big spending decisions let's make sure the jobs go to our local firms
UK - let's make massive spending decisions which for instance on offshore wind lead to UK wind farms being mostly maintained from Holland, Belgium and Denmark and build with majority foreign content. Let's have the UK renewable industry trade association controlled by foreign state owned companies.

Other countries - if we make policy decisions let's make sure they benefit our companies.
UK - let's create low emission vehicle targets for London and ignore the fact that the majority of cars made in the UK by British workers won't meet the standards when we introduce the policy so in the lead up to it's introduction Londoners have to buy foreign made cars with very few UK made options.

Other countries - let's carefully consider the impact of our economic policies
UK - let's not consider the impact and then be surprised when loss making steel plant and oil refineries are closed and force us to import steel and oil from abroad.

Erm not experienced that, got treated the same as anyone else. Which is as it should be, no preferential treatment and no shunning for being a lice ridden, tinned ravioli eating loser.