To be a bit envious of this lifestyle? (USA)

[ThePinkPonyClub]

I've just watched School Swap: UK to USA on Channel 4 and have ended up feeling a teensy bit jealous of the kind of lifestyle that's possible over there.

Even normal, non wealthy families seemed to be able to live really outdoorsy lifestyles where they can hike and hunt and boat amongst the gorgeous scenery. I feel like in the UK, even rurally it isn't possible as everywhere is so densely populated especially when the weather is nice. The weather is also a limiting factor!

I'm obviously not jealous of the MAGA/Trump craziness or the crappy healthcare and all the rest of the political stuff but purely the lifestyle side of things, it seems so much more possible to live in that free, outdoorsy kind of way.

And the schools seemed to have a much more positive, enthusiastic culture with things like school sports and dances, compared to the UK teens in their drab uniforms staring at their phones the whole time in their miserable, run down secondary school.

aibu? Anyone live this kind of life in the UK? If so, where?!

Yep! I've spent many, many months at a time back in Britain, caring for my parents, and I have many friends and family there. Plus, I can read! I have online subscriptions to several UK papers.

I have heard that one 😂😂😂😂😂

At this point, there’s two separate pools for posting: domestic and overseas.

Domestic, we can be a bit more choosy. Overseas, if you’re applying for specific ones then you have to be willing to go to any of them. So we can put our top 3 preferences, and it’s highly unlikely we wouldn’t get any of those 3. But if we don’t get any of them? We will simply get told which of the others we’re going to 🫣🫣🫣
Last time we checked a couple of days ago, we were still the only people that had one UK base, Ramstein in Germany and Aviano in Italy as our top 3 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

I suppose the UK isn't all bad, although I'd never want to live there again. 32 years was enough! I do miss Marks sausage rolls and the variety of crisps available.

Then you’d know how hard it is to fire anyone in the UK

I didn’t quote you when I made the original comment. My comment referred to the OP who was describing the over population of the UK, and being unable to have an outdoorsy lifestyle etc. and I was saying that she’d been to the wrong places.

Yeah, that line was touted in my 17 years of working there. It's just not true. They make up some false performance issue and then fire you anyway. It's oft-said, but in reality, they get rid of you and then it's up to you to take them to court, if you have the money and stomach for it.

Sure, there are lots of rural places in the UK, but there's very little work in those areas, so you end up living somewhere crowded - i.e. where the work is.

Massachusetts would need six Birminghams to have the population density of the UK.

Never known anyone this has happened too.

Plenty of work around here.

This is quite an interesting article given the discussion on this thread and the numerous references to European countries.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/rankings/quality-of-life

This is interesting but are you comparing like with like? Eg tax rates and cost of living?
Also don't forget that you have a good few billionaires that incredulously drag averages up.
I thought I saw something ( from a credible source!) that compared the different averages and distributions of wages in the US and it was scary reading. I will try to find it. I am certainly under the impression that the gap and distribution of wealth between rich and poor is shocking but more than happy to be proven wrong

Actually, in the last few years, I've been very disillusioned with the UK. When you're a foreigner abroad, you want to be proud of your country, but it's been very difficult.

The scandals are endless. Windrush, Deepcut, the undercover-police scandal, the Post Office scandal, and worst of all, the deep-rooted child abuse. Dozens of towns running abuse rings for a couple of decades, and thousands of victims. And no one cared. All topped off by celebrity abusers like Savile, Rolf Harris, and Gary Glitter - whose employers all looked the other way.

And Brexit happened on an anti-immigration mandate. And then all I hear about the NHS is how it's crumbling, people are not diagnosed in time, there are no ambulances, people wait on trolleys in corridors for two days.

That's a lot of bad stuff for such a small place.

The gap is probably larger, yes, given that the US has a lot of very wealthy people and that there are certainly pockets of deep poverty. More extremes. But those extremes don't describe most people, while the UK folk who insult the US make out like the entire country is held hostage by guns and has no healthcare, and everyone gets shot at school.

Well, since I don't know where your "here" is....🤷‍♀️ I'd have loved to live rurally in the UK when I was there, but work always kept me in London. Major pain.

I just looked up the annual median household income in both countries. I didn't get all granular about it! 😂 Taxes and COL vary hugely by state.

Sometimes it's dressed up as redundancy.

You've never known anyone who's lost their job?

Job protections are largely bollocks everywhere. If a company wants rid, they'll find a way.

That's sadly what a lot of MAGA people seem to do - have you heard all the crap spouted by Musk? And the way members of the administration love to hurl insults at 'pathetic' Europe?

Otherwise @ThisFluentBiscuit I do see everything you see about the US. Workers rights can be an illusion in the UK too- if a company wants to treat you like dirt they will find a way regardless where they're based. If you have a decent salary and benefits it can be great. One of the US companies I worked for in the past had the best employment terms I ever had: flexibility to work from anywhere, lots of annual leave (contrary to the clichés) etc. Perhaps not typical but again, it all depends on what you can negotiate.
However, I would not live in the US under this administration. That's not something I thought under Trump 1, but I feel very strongly about it this time around. I worry that this ongoing chaos will ultimately severely affect the quality of life described on here.

Hang on a minute, I'm not a citizen so I can't vote. You can't say I should take some any responsibility when I don't even have a vote!

Oh yes, the MAGA folk have been terrible about Europe, absolutely terrible. I meant socially, really, for me.

I also don't blame you for how you feel about Trump 2.0 - it's shocking, absolutely shocking. Fortunately we are quite protected in Mass, and T has gone so completely nuts that I'm sure the Dems will get back in next time, but yes, he is destabilising the world order that was already shaken by Putin. Russia and America are adversely affecting everywhere. I hate T and could never vote for him, but I didn't foresee that he would turn on Europe and embrace Putin and create all these tariffs - not to mention harassing legal residents. 😱

I have family who have teens growing up in the USA and completely agree. Everything just seems much more fun.

Ha - are you recruiting for Massachusetts! As it sounds unlike a lot of the USA to be fair - considerably better - although my DH did a band tour involving that area and he didn’t like Boston as said it seemed too prim and preppy - land of the pressed chinos -and he found Arlington really odd as apparently it was a ‘dry town’ - not great with a load of rock musicians!! lol - still it’s liberal and on the whole quite prosperous and yes I can see the appeal -

as you said though it’s very region specific so it’s like me comparing where I live in Bath to say clacton-

thing is with the USA it’s the size of Europe and therefore it’s like you living in say Germany and others living in say poorer bits of Greece - there will be vast differences.

In what way are workers rights an illusion in the UK? Do you mean something like zero hours contracts? In the UK you have to have a written contract in place, there is no such legal obligation in the U.S. Does unfair dismissal exist in the US? I'm just curious about this allusion?

Illusion not 'allusion'.

I believe we both meant that if companies want to get rid, they will.

To answer your question about unfair dismissal, yes, we do have that. It's referred to as wrongful termination. Info:

https://www.usa.gov/wrongful-termination