UK vs USA was your life better in UK or USA

[Cupcakeicecream]

Just out of curiosity really. For those who have lived in either country which did you prefer and why. I'm trying to weigh up the pros and cons. Eventually want to be living in the USA. It's always been a dream. I want to give my child a better quality of life and I feel that USA is better suited. I feel that there are more opportunities. But of course health care costs and gun laws put me off slightly.

Wasn't part of the issue with Prince Philip to do with the fact that his extended family were cozy with the nazis - wasnt his sister married to a high ranking nazi elite guy?

As to the original point, I do agree that its v difficult to talk about the US as a whole, due to the sheer size of it, and the massive differentiation on laws, taxes etc, which wasnt something that had every really occurred to me before I moved (which sounds terribly naive now!) You'd never get me out of a West or East coast metropolitan area though, I think going to the southern or midwest states wouldn't be a fit at all for me

want2 I agree on the calling out of outright racism (I live in NYC area too) from what I've seen anyway at work etc and stuff thats just not tolerated, but I've still been shocked by some of the casual throw away comments I've had based on our hispanic last name.

I've been challenged about it "well, you can't be a X-X(name) as you don't look like one", had various issues with the school district as they've assumed without asking we're ESL family, and once they've realised we're not hispanic their attitude totally flips - one actually said "well, because you're articulate and can speak English, you'll clearly get the services you're pushing for" Great for us, but wtaf?! And thats all minimal compared to a lot of people

Overall I'd like to move back to the UK, but now it seems unlikely any time soon as early childhood services that we need (OT, speech therapy etc) are free, much more comprehensive and easy to access here than they ever will be at home

Uk hands down. The US requires a lot of driving and employers often think nothing of making you do a three or four hour commute. It’s very difficult to make friends if you aren’t working as houses are all spread out and often foreign newcomers (even british ones) aren’t included in neighbourhood activities. Incomes are higher, yes, but only if you have one of the handful of masters level qualified positions that break the 200k mark. Otherwise incomes are higher in the UK.

Generalise much? I have a 20 minute commute on foot to work. I, like millions of others, live in a city, not in the suburbs. My salary is much much higher than I would get when I lived in the UK, and I have excellent health insurance paid for by my employer, among many other benefits. New England is full of beautiful places, walking and hiking trails, lakes, beaches and the weather to enjoy them, apart from the absolute depths of winter. Boston itself has wonderful and plentiful parks,

I would never move back to the UK. Any friends I have that moved to the UK couldn't stick it out for more than 2 years, and were very thankful to return to the US.

Oh, and how can an employer force you to do a long commute? You choose both where you work and where you live.

platesandflowers

Yep snow is coming early this year, plus this storm today is screwing up opening weekend!!

A Facebook memory came up today from 6 years ago where Dh and I were sunbathing and swimming in the sea. 

I hope this storm doesn't knock our power out for a week! I don't even know if our generator is working and we're almost out of propane and it's too late to go to the mainland and get more!

Good luck, hope you get through it ok.

Secretly I enjoy the powercuts,

What an interesting thread. I assumed that the US would win hands down. It’s nice to know that the UK isn’t so bad.

Petalflowers

Lifestyle has a lot to do with it. The UK is better for city people.

I love power cuts when we're properly provisioned ha!

What an interesting thread. I assumed that the US would win hands down. It’s nice to know that the UK isn’t so bad.

It's a thread on a UK based website - it's not really surprising that a lot of people on it prefer the UK. Post the same question on UK Yankee and I guarantee the vast majority will say they prefer the US.

We’ve done both. Two stints in the USA - one as new grads (ie no money) and one as expats (loads of money). Our U.K. time has been more gradual economically.

Being poor in the US is rubbish, and not something you would actively choose.

When we were better off in the US, we had small children, so didn’t travel exotically. We were also mindful of moving back to the U.K. so didn’t buy a lot of crap to fill our big house.

We prefer the U.K. without a doubt, mostly for community and lack of success based on what you can buy from big box stores.

We do like going back for holidays and enjoying the brief pleasure of parking with ease, but the day to day scourge of supermarket shopping is not to be missed.

DH and the children are American, and they still prefer the U.K.

We never go to supermarkets. Most people here shop at farm stores or small local stores. Dh is surprised most people in the Uk go to 'huge supermarkets'.

They don’t have those in Cincinnati.

Also, nobody I know in the States eats processed food like Brits do.

We don't even sell ready meals in any of the stores I've ever been to.

I forget that UKYankee exists.

Whenever I visit US embassy in London, I am astonished at how WEALTHY the others are. There's the occasional fellow scruff like me with 4 hulking teenagers and a snot-faced toddler simultaneously moaning loudly etc., but most Americans in UK have evident wealth about them and a single precious charge looking bewildered (lack of English nanny, I suppose). I wonder if UKYankee is like that, too. Not at all ordinary Americans.

I've spent many hours in the US embassy in London as an English nanny lol.

I'm almost half surprised they let you in, Plates. I did meet an English nanny there, actually (my compatriot had travelled with baby+nanny down from Yorkshire IIRC). But that was ... 16 yrs ago? They are getting stricter & stricter about who they will let in.

This was probably 10 years ago though.

My boss was kicking off about having her phone taken off her. God she was a fucking twat. She also nearly got arrested in Heathrow for screaming at security for trying to take her 4 year old's 'baby' food.

Also got threatened with arrest and having the same 4 year old put in restraints on a plane.

Fucking hell it was embarrassing travelling with her!

They started to fly private jets everywhere shortly afterwards. 

US all the way. Better weather, higher salaries, bigger houses, higher standards of living. Pretty neighborhoods, clean streets, loads to do all year round. If you are a racial minority as I am, you will be gobsmacked at size of the middle class it just doesn't exist in UK. But the most important for me is how much happier and friendlier people are here, yes they work hard, but you see the results in what they achieve. There's no way I would be able to afford a big detached house with huge garden in an affluent area in UK yet I do here and I actually have a life here, back in England I just existed on a meager paycheck in a damp two up two down. When friends stay with me they are in shock at how much my life has changed and are ready to move here. Sorry but Wild horses would never drag me back.

Any place is good if you have the money.

Totally agree dont. Even some of the so called Third World countries are great when you have a lot of money.

My friends and family say the same when they come here. My brother is actually thinking of moving here.

Here I have a nice car, house with three bedrooms, dining room, big kitchen, breakfast room, living room, tv room, office, big playroom, laundry room and full house basement which is a library/ games/ dance room. We're on 6 acres, half is woods, half is landscaped garden. We've got a sauna, we're a minute's walk from the beach.

We're 5 minutes drive from our nearest neighbours.

If we sold up and moved to the UK we'd be in a tiny house in a shitty area. Ds would be in a class of 30+ rather than the class of 5-10 that he'll be in here.

And it's not just material, the people here are amazing, and the food, and the views. Sailing in the summer and skiing in the winter.

We aren't big earners, you can just do more with less here.

I honestly pinch myself sometimes, life is like a dream.

Whenever I visit US embassy in London, I am astonished at how WEALTHY the others are. There's the occasional fellow scruff like me with 4 hulking teenagers and a snot-faced toddler simultaneously moaning loudly etc., but most Americans in UK have evident wealth about them and a single precious charge looking bewildered (lack of English nanny, I suppose). I wonder if UKYankee is like that, too. Not at all ordinary Americans.

Some are like that, while many others have worked two jobs and saved for a long time to be able to move to the UK to be with their British spouses.

Similarly if you read British Expats, some have moved to the US on wonderfully extravagant expat deals, while others have moved to be with spouses, and are average income.

IME those tend to be the two types of groups that move abroad. In my many visits to the American Embassy in London to either apply for my own visas or register my American children's births I met all sorts.

They don’t have those in Cincinnati.

No farmer's markets in Cincinnati? Did I read that right?

Just back today from the US and the minute we got in the taxi in Glasgow the taxi driver moaned at us for taking up a valuable fare when we weren’t going far, drove like a maniac and was generally rude. We’d used Uber in the US dozens of times during our stay and the drivers were friendly, knowledgeable and courteous every time.

People were so friendly to us during our stay and were genuinely kind. They didn’t slam the door in our faces and easily struck up conversations. My H returned from the loo when I was sitting in the airport to find I’d made four friends in that time who were all standing around my table having a discussion.
That openness and friendliness isn’t something I often encounter here.