To wonder why anyone would want to live in America?

[allergon842]

I follow a woman on Instagram who moved from England to the States and someone commented "America is only great if you're white, rich, and healthy".

Putting aside Trump/politics, I've always found it weird why anyone would want/would have wanted to live there. I understand if you're from a developing country, but I don't see the appeal for anyone who comes from Europe. The lower taxes and opportunities are enticing, but if you can't make it, you can fall very easy with the lack of a safety net. It seems to be only decent if you're a top earner ($100,000+).

“I find all these threads weird, why don’t people understand that some people have different preferences to them.“

Mumsnet has become extremely parochial, just like the rest of Britain.

I have enjoyed my trips to the US and would certainly travel there again for holidays (although not while Trump is president).

But I couldn’t live there because:

guns
food
women’s rights
lack of annual leave
evangelical Christians

I assume that she could earn 5x her wage there and pay a small percentage of that on healthcare, or even have it included in her work package as well as paying less in tax than she currently does in the uk?

The comparisons with Japan, do you mean the work life balance as how is the U.S. culturally like Japan?

I imagine it's a bit like living in the UAE - great if you're rich. You'll enjoy low taxes and a high standard of living, as long as you can avoid debt and legal trouble and are comfortable with not having a safety net.

On the other hand, if you're very poor, your quality of life is likely to be dire and your employment rights will be limited.

The US is wealthier, but its not all sunshine and rainbows

And don’t get sick or seriously long term sick .

Yeah instead of council tax we pay property tax. Ours is cheap at 10k a year. Nicer neighbourhoods are 20k+. There are so many hidden costs that if you treated them like a tax, you’d pay a lot of ‘tax’. Eg health insurance plus copays, cost of home and car insurance. Our home is about 3k a year and car insurance for 3 cars is $266 a month. There isn’t much left over for grand adventures, believe me.

if you asked my H what he like about the US he’d say I don’t know I just like it. Which isn’t good enough. Unfortunately we’ve been here so long our kids are ‘American’, I won’t leave them here without family so I’m stuck too. It’s an absolute shit show and getting worse by the day. The current WH incumbent has given permission for people to show how racist, bigoted and misogynistic they are.

come on, Unlimited AL is not "very common" is it?

It might be more common than in the UK in that more companies overall offer it, but they are only a tiny minority of all the employers in the US - stats show the average amount of PTO in the US is one of the lowest in the world.
e.g. according to Forbes the average American worker gets 11 days of paid vacation per year, and twenty-eight million Americans don’t get any paid vacation or paid holidays - that's probably the equivalent to the entire UK workforce!
Average PTO In The US & Other PTO Statistics – Forbes Advisor

I agree with you that people make over-generalisations about the US but going too far the other way doesn't help!

In answer to the actual q - I'd possibly consider living in a 'blue' state with strict gun laws if I had a decent job.

That's the thing about the US - it's a country of extremes. If you're doing well, life is really good, probably better than most places in the world. If you're down on your luck you're really shafted. The main difference is that it doesn't take that much to go from one to another - one serious illness = losing your job = no health insurance = homeless, bankrupt and unable to pay for medical treatment very quickly. Of course you could equally be in the UK and be unable to get medical treatment because you've been on a waiting list for over a year, so horses for courses!

I pay around 45% of my whole wage in PAYE in the UK, of which 20% goes to fund the NHS.

That’s vastly more than I paid when I lived in the US.

For higher earners the way the U.K. funds universal healthcare is quite expensive.

That’s not to say the US system is particularly good. I had good coverage in the Netherlands when I lived there for under £3,000 per year for the whole family. I’d be quite happy to see the Dutch system adopted here.

If we were younger we would consider it. Our salaries would be a lot higher. The whole 2 wks holiday, no maternity etc is a bit of a myth.

Right, so you're not including the expense of actually getting ill or injured, so not really a fair comparison. You have to look at the full picture. Great when you're healthy though.

Haven't read the full thread yet, but I will as it's a thought-provoking subject.

For many I imagine the weather is part of the pull! There are many states in the States where the weather is a hell of a lot warmer than the UK.

Otherwise - apart from the obvious inarguable point about friends/family - I don't see the appeal either. I shall read the thread with interest.

Right, so you're not including the expense of actually getting ill or injured, so not really a fair comparison. You have to look at the full picture. Great when you're healthy though

Im going to go private for an OP soon despite paying a load of tax. The waiting list is 18 months plus….

Or course it is.

Earn half a million pounds in the UK and you pay £220,000 in PAYE.

20% of that goes on the NHS, which is £44,000.

It does not cost £44,000 per year for good health insurance in the USA.

I can’t really understand why some people on here can’t get their heads around the fact that in the U.K. higher earners are funding nearly everything,

Yes, that is true!!

Is it not true about holiday and maternity pay then @footbeds?

These costs are not included in the U.K. either.

I don’t know how to explain this any more simply, I paid (and would pay) far less in the US for the coverage I get in the U.K.

Again, you're not including the cost of actually getting ill or injured. You're cherry picking. The NHS cost isn't equivalent to your insurance payments, because the NHS payments cover all treatment in full, whereas with private, you'll still have money to pay if you need treatment.

Sorry, you think people in the UK have to pay a bill if they go to hospital or see a GP?

Haven't read the full thread but didn't they introduce a law demanding to see the social media history of anyone wanting to enter to US, to check if you've said anything bad about that fat, disgusting fucking animal they have for a President?

(Oops, guess I don't be getting let in any time soon....)

I think in the UK there's more recognition (although still not much), that the high earners wouldn't earn much without the low-paid workers who are the backbone of the economy. Could the CEO of a retail chain earn hundreds of thousands of $ if it weren't for the sales and warehouse staff? Could a care home owner make a big profit if it weren't for the care assistants?

It's definitely not sunshine and rainbows. It's far harder to be poor in the US than in Britain. You can be bankrupted by getting ill. The government is headed by a demented lunatic etc. These are givens.

I was just making the point that the US and the UK are nowhere near economic parity so there's no meaningful comparison any more. The US is to Britain what we are to somewhere like Paraguay in terms of GDP per capita etc. I don't think the penny has really dropped with most people in the UK how poor we are.

You are wrong. The NHS does not cover all treatments “in full” and I had more coverage in the US than I get under the NHS.

Unless you are pretending my deductible in the US was over £50,000 per year.

As a relatively poor person I don't think it's for me. The grass doesn't seem to be greener unless you have a decent job and all the benefits that go with it.
Some areas do look beautiful though.