Will my life be better if I move to USA?

[Yatre]

I truly hate the UK class system.

I hate the whole private school vs grammar school vs state school elitism.

I hate the Oxbridge elitism and how Oxbridge-educated people dominate public life and the arrogance many of them have.

I hate the posh Etonians and Harrovians.

I hate the elitism of the Royal Family, the British aristocracy, all those titles and landed estates, the House of Lords etc.

Just the existence of certain British politicans (regardless of their politics - because this isn’t necessarily about their political beliefs) really irks me. Think David Cameron or Boris Johnson. Both upper-class, privately-educated, Oxford/Bullingdon Club, which have given them a great sense of arrogance about their position in life.

I hate the Oxford Union and the way they all dress up in posh attire, acting all special, and thinking their oratory skills will materialise into anything of worth.

This arrogance has been talked about before with many Brits believing that these Oxbridge, privately-educated, middle and upper-class people have the arrogance to think they have the right to run the country.

They’re present everywhere. Edward Davey, Keir Starmer, Suella Braverman, Tony Blair etc. it’s not just a right-wing thing. In fat, you could argue, these days, it’s more so left-wing.

Even successful British actors like Emma Thompson, Tom Hiddleston, Eddie Redmayne etc exhibit these attributes. They

I just don’t want to have to live in the same country as these types of people or listen to their antics.

Luckily, I’m a dual UK-US citizen since I was born in the US while my parents were living there for a while, but I have never been there since my parents returned and I don’t know anyone there.

I really want to move to the US.

If you know what it’s like to live in the USA, can you just tell me whether if I moved to the USA, I wouldn’t have to come across any of those posh, aristocratic, upper/middle-class, privately-educated, titled, Oxbridge graduate snobs that I mentioned.

I would live in a much more meritocratic country where nobody would tolerate Oxford Union debaters thinking their opinion matters or privately-educated people thinking they have a right to run the country.

At least Trump’s wealth or that of the Kardashian’s isn’t offensive to me because it just feels different - it doesn’t feel as layered and it doesn’t make them act as entitled or snobbish.

So, if I move to USA will I be free from these types of people or will I still see some of them/hear from them? I’m not sure if America is dominated by middle-class or posh, Oxbridge graduates or aristocrats.

Sorry for the rant. Just felt overwhelmed.

This is such an odd rant. A quick google tells me 66% of Oxbridge admissions, and 71% of Cambridge admissions are state school educated.
I hate Boris Johnson too, but I wouldn’t move to the USA to avoid him. What does he even do nowadays apart from write spiteful (and also incorrect and stupid) columns for the Daily fail?

Most of those state school-educated students actually went to selective grammar schools and/or are from wealthy, middle-class families.

I don’t think you’ll find anything is different in the US. They have rich people sending their kids to private schools there, too, and they have selective schools for high achieving students. You’ll probably find that a disproportionate percentage of those who get into ‘Ivy League’ universities in the US (similar to Oxbridge) come from private or selective public (state) schools and that the vast majority of Ivy League students are from families who are well-off. Privilege is everywhere, even in ‘Communist’ countries, let alone the ‘money is power’ US of A!

A tiny proportion of the country has grammar schools.

Also how one with would you know the stats? Honestly it's a weird fixation

The gap between wealth and opportunity in the US is much larger than in the UK.

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/wealth-inequality-united-states-and-great-britain

He was born in 1853, 15 years after the abolition of slavery so I doubt that he had any involvement. Son of a vicar so I doubt that he inherited any slave-generated wealth either.

I believe that the reason that he is a controversial figure is down to land appropriation when he was the Prime Minister of South Africa.

Citation needed.

Perhaps you should look at what proportion of Yale/Harvard students came from private schools.

The standard, reliable sources say that 25-40% of UGs at Harvard and the other Ivies geared to affluence come from private schools, OP. And with Trump’s anti-DEI stance, this will only be getting worse.

But this seems worse to me: there are over 20,000 high schools and about 11,000 K-12 (all years) schools in the USA. Over 30,000 schools from which to admit UG students. Typically about 9% of Harvard entrants are from just 21 of these schools.

Equal opportunity, you say?

If you think the USA is more meritocratic, I think you're delusional. Wealth and power there is based on inherited privilege as much as anywhere else!

Doesn't the gun crime and lack of respect for woman's rights worry you? It would me!

Keir Starmer went to Leeds OP.

Same here. The stuff the OP mentions doesn't affect my life and doesn't even occur to me.

No

I really don't understand the level of hatred for something that I very much doubt you come across all that much in day to day life.

If your complaint is that it is a certain group running politics... look at the US dynasties, the Kennedys have been at the top of politics for years, Clintons, Bush's. Would you really rather have Trump in charge than most UK politicians just because he didn't go to Oxbridge?

You are mixing in the wrong circles then? Clearly.

There is NO ONE where I live that is like your description.
Remember though, if everywhere you go are arseholes, what is the one constant?

The Oxford university decisions came out recently. I am thinking there may be a link with this thread.

If you know what it’s like to live in the USA, can you just tell me whether if I moved to the USA, I wouldn’t have to come across any of those posh, aristocratic, upper/middle-class, privately-educated, titled, Oxbridge graduate snobs that I mentioned.

Move to Chatham in Kent, and you will never meet a single one 🤣 seriously. Where do you live that is dominated by these throngs of well-educated snobs? You need not venture very far even from the capital to see people who leave school with no qualifications at all if that's what floats your boat ( there are grammar schools in Chatham, extremely good ones so you might be suprised at what the area demographic looks like in reality).

My DH went to Cambridge. First person in his entire extended family to go to university from a local state school. All of his mates there were also mainly state school educated. And yes, if they didn’t put a gown on they didn’t get served supper in the evening where it really was like Harry Potter (but with liberal quantities of port if the Master was dinning).

They’ve all done incredibly well - C Suite of a FTSE100 company, partners in law and accountancy firms, MDs in tech companies. He works with people from all over the world - they’ve all attended some of the best universities in the US and Europe. Most of the Americans he works with are Ivy League and many of them expressly say they’ve moved to London to escape the elitism, narrowness and snobbery of their lives in the US. Personally I do wonder whether Torquay in the summer is really on a par with a staffed mansion in the Hamptons, but most of them are happy to swap the two.

I’m clearly older than you - you sound the same age as my university aged DCs - but I would tell you the same as I have told my kids. The world is in a blip. Every 45-50 years there is an economic and social cycle and everyone lives through ay least one. Some of us live through two (I am old enough to remember the bread shortages with hours long queues outside the bakers, the power cuts, the reading by candle light during the miners’ strikes in the 70’s even though I was still in junior school). Look at the great depression of the 1920’s, the unrest of the 70’s. This is cycle will move on and things will resettle. You can’t blame it on Oxford elites and if you truly think that other countries in the world aren’t living through the same level of economic and social uncertainty right now, you are being naive.

You're definitely that girl fixated with getting in to Oxford aren't you.

Agreed. I'm an American in the US and there is definitely huge wealth disparity. My husband works for a UK company and his colleagues who have moved here are struggling because they're still on the UK pay scale. Salaries seem larger in the US but your money doesn't go nearly as far. For example, $100k sounds like a nice living but it provides a lower middle class lifestyle, living paycheck to paycheck, in many areas. Politics aside (although that'd be a deterrent for me if I didn't already live here), I'd just recommend being extremely mindful about where you move, what your income will look like, and research cost of living (including taxes, healthcare, energy costs, groceries, whether there is public transit, transportation costs, etc) before moving.

Does anyone have a linky to the previous thread?

I read it all the time, but my memory needs a refresh. Something about repeating A Levels, wasn't it?

Have tried to AS but nae luck.

Ooooh you might be right

Hmm. Now you mention it you might be right. The OP sounds a little odd.

Her username was Juliette96 I remember because my baby sister is called Juliette and was born in 96

“Trump’s wealth doesn’t make him act entitled or snobbish” 😂

Ooh - good call. I'm thinking OP didn't get in (Oxford offers came out on the 13th), has an extreme case of sour grapes and wants to try and ensure she never has to encounter people who did get in.