UK faces long recession and deepest plunge in living standards on record, Bank of England warns
(www.independent.co.uk)
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I seem to have struck a nerve. No, I base my 'assumptions' on my extensive viewing of British tv. Fictional and otherwise. The Royals seem to be doing alright, and I'm sure many of the celebs are okay as well. But a lot of the 'average' British public endure very small and often old-dated / old-fashioned living --accommodations at very high prices. Between that and what my British friends say, that is how I came to my conclusion and made my comment.
No not a nerve per se, but kind of. I was trying to be a bit tongue in cheek tho.
I suppose i was just thinking you were one of those stereotypical Americans who look down on the rest of the world as if we live in hovels but in reality have never left their own state let alone their country so how would they possibly know. Tbh i was a bit surprised to encounter that here, where people are a bit less propagandised. this could just be me having one of those days where i get the wrong end of the stick all day.
So to explain.. It depends on which way you look at it, England has over 1000 years of history as a country and we are a tiny island, there is only so much space to build on. So, our buildings are old, the house I'm living in right now is over 200 years old, i have 3 ft thick stone walls, open fireplaces built into every bedroom and that's fucking epic but we do build new modern houses ofc, they're just worse... modern just means cheap and disposable materials mean to be replaced sooner rather than later but again.. only so much room to build on.
We have many ancient buildings and ancient traditions older than many nations of the world as well but i guess not everyone is into that. Yes prices ARE high in the major cities, not so bad in the countryside. i think its not that prices are high, its that wage growth has been low for decades at the same time our currencies are being debased by our central banks but isnt that story everywhere?
I don't know what you mean by old fashioned living though, how old fashioned? we have all of the modern tech necessary to succeed in the modern world contained inside the old and antiquated buildings... and i like that very much.
Alright, let me start over. First of all, my apologies if I hurt your feelings or offended you in any way. That was not my intention. As I said, I based my comment on what I know of England and GB in general. You are right in that I have not been there myself, so all of my insights are based on first hand accounts with friends or, my own knowledge based on tv and internet viewing.
I have no quarrel with old. Some of the most beautiful places were built centuries ago. What I meant was, for instance, a typical row house, which might have small rooms and outdated kitchen and bath facilities. When I mentioned high prices, I again based that on my own research (thought of getting a place over there) and got a whole lot of it from Escape to the Country episodes. Where, imo, the small country cottages sell for outrageous prices. For instance, it's not uncommon to see a smallish place with a small yard sell for the equivalent of $750,000. To me, that's a LOT. And it makes me wonder how people pay it. I don't know, but I can't imagine that the average salary there is twice or more what the average salary in the US would be. And I'm not even sure twice the salary would still be able to pay that much. And I'm talking about a small place, not a place where people might have a family with 4 or 5 kids. So unless what they are representing is false, or just a skewed view, I would say the costs there for housing (which is most people's biggest expense) are far higher than in most of the US (obviously, places like NYC and San Fran excepted) and the accommodations are much smaller, to boot.
As for stereotypical Americans -- some stereotypes have at least a grain of truth to them. Some are wildly speculative. I have been outside my country, but I look at things differently. When I think of the US, I consider travel within its bounds as akin to visiting other 'countries.' Sure, we have language in common, and the ubiquitous McDonald's restaurants, but there is so much variety between one state and another, there's really no need to go 'abroad' unless one specifically wants to see a different country. From the mountains in Colorado, to the beaches in California or Florida, the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, the urban cities of NY, DC, to the history associated with birthplaces of our country, like Boston and Philadelphia, not to mention the hospitality of the southern states and the wide open plains of Nebraska and Kansas ... there's plenty for us to see here, while spending our money at home and supporting American businesses.