Britain poorer than Mississippi

[BritishMississippi]

Our GDP per capita has now dipped to the level of America’s poorest state. It’s not dipped below due solely to London. We’ve been on a spiral for the last twenty years that means our children are facing not being able to find jobs and even the jobs they can find have miserable wages attached to them. AIBU that we need to engage quite seriously with how to bring the country out of this spiral in a meaningful way?

One word - Brexit

that's quite shocking. Do you have a source?

One word Labour

One word, Conservatives.

Does it matter if it's true ?

Fourteen years of Tory policies

Not surprised at this . Watching from afar Britain does seem to have deteriorated in terms of quality of life . Not just the poor but the middle earners, etc. seem to be struggling more . COL continues to rise but wages haven't and introduction of A1, online services, mean people no longer have any stable jobs .

Brexit definitely but the knock on effect of Trump and his wars are also a huge factor .
Politically I don't see how Starmer can resolve this as his own party members have their own agenda and thwart any good measures. And opposition are also just after enriching themselves .

Brexit

Brexit is acting as a gradual, cumulative "slow puncture" on the UK economy. Studies estimate that UK GDP per capita is currently 6--8% lower than it would have been if the UK had remained in the European Union.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/uk-productivity-economy-reform-party/687303/
this is the article

A huge increase in the size of the non-working population hasn't helped.

Always going to happen if the Government confiscates everybody's money to spaff on benefits. The incentives are the opposite of what they need to be. Tories almost as bad as Labour because they wanted to appear kind.

Importing millions of net recipients of public funds doesn't help either. I'm guessing the population in the UK has grown more than Mississippi.

make sure your kids are qualified to do the well paying jobs because in 20 years time the middle class will have disappeared and there will just be the haves and have nots.

How does the UK compare to Mississippi on life expectancy, crime, prison population, absolute poverty, education or public services?

Or is GDP the only good measure of wealth for a headline?

@LifeBeginsTodayhttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/uk-productivity-economy-reform-party/687303/

Doesn’t that depend on the time frame you look at? If you compare today to 10 years ago then Britains growth has been broadly in line with the EU average, and has exceeded Germany, France and Italy. If you look since 2019 then it’s grown by around 1.5% less… but it’s debatable whether 2019 is a sensible baseline surely because decisions would have been impacted in the lead up to the referendum, after the results, during the brexit negotiations and on the final outcome.

Britains real problem continues to be one of GDP per capita, where it has lagged other developed countries, and the public sector in particular has productivity 8% lower today than in 2019.

In terms of GDP vs Mississippi it’s not really surprise…the US GDP per capita has been considerably higher than in the UK and Europe for years - but those countries have a lower cost of living, so it’s all relative. Of course, under the current government things don’t look like improving…

This 100%

half of canada is poorer than mississippi BUT that's solely based on gdp and not a reflection of the whole picture.

Some people's determination to ignore the economic catastrophe that is Brexit really is something else. Full on ostrich mode.

How? Explain how it is labour when the Tories were in charge for over a decade. The financial issues the country is facing are not due to recent crises or recent policy.

New York alone is the gdp of the entire country of Canada.

@NotAnotherScarf The Tories have ruled for 15 out of the last 20 years…I’m not sure how this could be pinned on Labour

Don't be stupid..

Still looking for facts ?

2010s austerity which destroyed the country's productivity and public services, and didn't even "pay off the debt" as it was supposedly intended to (the debt increased massively).
Whose fault? Tory voters.

Brexit which has cost us hundreds of millions of pounds and yielded none of the claimed benefits.
Whose fault? Brexit voters.

Mishandling of COVID, again to enormous financial cost.
Whose fault? Tory/Brexit voters. ("Boris is a great PM and will get Brexit done")

The "Boris wave" - EU citizens (i.e. net contributors) leave in droves, replaced by people from the developing world and their dependents; immigration triples, just as anyone with any sense warned would happen after Brexit.
Whose fault? Tory/Brexit voters.

Asylum processing system deliberately starved of resources in order to cause the crisis in an attempt to win votes.
Whose fault? Tory/Brexit voters.

Truss mini-budget which virtually crashed the economy and put hundreds of pounds on mortgages?
Whose fault? Tory voters.

Oh no sorry, you're right actually - the long-standing systemic problems of this country have actually been caused entirely by Labour in two years. I was completely wrong.

Never mind though, the same people who did all the above (Tory/Reform/Brexit voters) have the perfect solution in the form of electing Nigel Farage. Wonder who they'll blame when it then all gets even worse? Oh yeah - everybody else, as always.