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Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Old Feb 13th 2011, 8:32 pm
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by citizenmarie
That's not the only other choice... As I mentioned, the Dutch system may be closer to what would work in the US.
Of course - but I don't get the impression many want to take to the streets - don't get me wrong, I wish they did.
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Old Feb 13th 2011, 11:17 pm
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by citizenmarie
That's not the only other choice... As I mentioned, the Dutch system may be closer to what would work in the US.
Which assuredly would get decried as "socialized medicine" and/or "a government takeover of healthcare" despite being nothing of the sort. This is one of the frustrating things about trying to have a rational debate in this country about healthcare.
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Old Feb 14th 2011, 3:26 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by DenverDave
Home is definitely where "your" heart is - I've been living in Colorado for the past 6 years and will be heading back full-time sometime this year. I know the US isn't for me and don't want to keeping wrestling with much of what you have described above - LIFE'S WAY TOO SHORT MAN! If you're not happy, try going back for a bit and see how you feel - it's never too late to do anything! Listen to how YOU FEEL DEEP DOWN - only you can do that and come up with an answer that is right for you. I'm going back in Feb for two weeks with the GF - we'll be checking things out as she wants to move over there too. Things may have changed back there, but one thing hasn't changed with me - home will always be home! I've travelled, gathered some wonderful memories, had ups and downs along the way - for me, it's time to pack the bags and head back! GOOD LUCK - TAKE YOUR TIME IN YOUR DECISION - KEEP LOOKING FORWARD!

Cheers!
Dave

Dave / All
This is my first post so hope it works out.

I have been in USA for just over 1 year, tried running two houses, 1 in UK and 1 in US (my place in the UK is complex to rent, plus I would have to go onto some horrendous BTL rate so I have had to fund a mortgage and a rental), On positive side that school experience has been good for daughter, but education not as good as her UK grammar (and she finishes at 2:30 - no sport, no languages and any clubs cost a packet)!! My job has been interesting BUT hours are ridiculous. On balance an experience but not for the rest of my life. My wife and I are nearly 50, we have already been given green cards but we have decided adventure is over. She is heading back in 2 weeks and I will go back (with the dog) as soon as I secure a UK job. We managed to get our daughter back into UK grammar thank goodeness and reoccupy our UK house in a beautiful town. The PNW is lovely and the people are really nice but costs, schools and the fear/blame mentality at work make this adventure one for the history book. England is the mother country and always will be.

Good Luck All
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Old Feb 19th 2011, 1:17 am
  #334  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by dunroving
I thought the rationale behind the right to bear arms part of the constitution was to enable the new United States of America to defend itself against any attack by the English (hence my reference to a civilian militia)?

Yes, the whole gun lobby's use of the Constitution underlines the absurdness of how every word of this document is clung to with a nationalistic fervour.
The rationale wasnt to defend against the English, but to defend against the government. The US Constitution was created with the fear of any one part of the gov or it's people become to powerful. It was meant to be a great equalizer filled with checks and balances. The founding fathers' belief was that an armed population is a population that cannot be oppressed.

As an American I think the words hold such weight because in a time when Europe was ruled largely by monarchs with divine right, our Constitution was meant to be a perfect document pulled from the ideas of the founding fathers combined with European/Ancient Greek philosophers.
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Old Feb 19th 2011, 9:05 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

I came here 3 years ago to be with a man I met whilst on holiday here 28 years earlier. I sold my house and left my family behind. In Oct 2009 he was laid off. Earlier that year I was diagnosed with several serious health conditions. Of course we lost health insurance and I had to take the COBRA option as no one will insure me now. It has been ok for the past 14 months but now my insurance goes up to $450 per month. I have a procedure done once a month that costs $5000 and 8 medications. He is still unemployed and and they take 25% for child support. His unemployment wll end in September this year so we have no choice but to return to the Uk as we simply cannot afford to stay here. We are borrowing every month from his Dad to pay the rent and eat. He has diabetes and high blood pressure plus he needs antidepressants for the rest of his life and cannot even afford his medications. He has taken them now for 15 months I feel so upset because of the lack of healthcare provisions and lack of benefits for those who need it. I used to complain like most Brits do about the NHS but it seems like luxury to me now. I will miss it here but I want to feel safe in the knowledge that we will not be homeless or suffer because of lack of medications or in my husbands case potentially die.
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Old Feb 19th 2011, 9:28 am
  #336  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Insomniac
The rationale wasnt to defend against the English, but to defend against the government. The US Constitution was created with the fear of any one part of the gov or it's people become to powerful. It was meant to be a great equalizer filled with checks and balances. The founding fathers' belief was that an armed population is a population that cannot be oppressed.

As an American I think the words hold such weight because in a time when Europe was ruled largely by monarchs with divine right, our Constitution was meant to be a perfect document pulled from the ideas of the founding fathers combined with European/Ancient Greek philosophers.
Wikipedia isn't always the best source of accurate information, but this page seems to indicate it's not as simple as defending against the government, it also included the ability to repel invaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_...s_Constitution

(sections on prior to the Constitution and Drafting and Adoption of the Constitution), for example:

"repelling invasion ..."
"a national militia to repel foreign invaders...."

Regardless, I think most of the reasons why the Second Amendment was included have little relevence to current times (invasion is unlikely and the overthrow of an oppressive givernment is unlikely). It's like one of those ancient laws in Britain that say any woman who wears make-up on a Sunday is a witch.
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Old Feb 19th 2011, 12:46 pm
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by dunroving
Regardless, I think most of the reasons why the Second Amendment was included have little relevence to current times (invasion is unlikely and the overthrow of an oppressive givernment is unlikely). It's like one of those ancient laws in Britain that say any woman who wears make-up on a Sunday is a witch.
Wait...you're saying thats not true?
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Old Feb 19th 2011, 1:47 pm
  #338  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Insomniac
Wait...you're saying thats not true?
Well, maybe for some women.
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Old Feb 22nd 2011, 8:01 pm
  #339  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by Hubcaps
It was quite something when I met my father-in-law at the door last week and the first words out of his mouth "You won't be coming back then." A statement not a question. If I get my way (and my green card), no I won't ever be going back.
I used to say that too.

Don't feel that way anymore. Too many years of seeing off friends and family at the airport. And now we've been here so long that it's less a novelty for them to come and stay. Plus our parents are too old to fly.

We have a great house, nice things, good standard of living blah blah blah. It all means nothing when your relatives are ill and you can't be there, or when your friend's spouse dies suddenly and you can't be at the funeral. Or when all your old friends are getting together to do something really fun and you can't go.

Every time I used to go home, I'd look around and think 'I can't wait to get out of here.' But as the years have passed, that feeling has changed. Now I cry when we leave.
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Old Feb 22nd 2011, 8:04 pm
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

The founding fathers' belief was that an armed population is a population that cannot be oppressed.
Actually, just didn't want to set up a national army, so they wanted an armed populace to protect against the enemy.

Jefferson also said that the constitution should be rewritten every generation to account for the changes he and the other founders could never anticipate. I'd say the current gun culture would fall into that category.

But whatever - they enshrined slavery in the constitution, so they were hardly men of flawless judgment.
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Old Feb 23rd 2011, 4:42 pm
  #341  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

I suppose, in a way, I'm in a "lucky" situation.

I'm 39, and in the K-1 petition stage at the moment, hoping to be moving over to Utah (no, I'm not LDS ) by the end of the summer. No previous marriages, no children, so no ties on that front.

I lived on the Isle of Man for 12 years, seeing my parents and brother maybe once a year for a week, and the friends I started work with in 1989 once a year for a meal, so I'm not imagining major homesickness on that front. I left the IOM in 2009, mainly as I'd got bored of island life (expensive flights, 4-hour ferry crossings in winter, etc) and moved back into the family home.

I made new friends on the island, but my best mate from there has been working in Hong Kong for the last couple of years and has no plans to move back to the UK, and I hardly talk to anyone else from up there. My original friends from here, I see once or twice a year now for a meal. No contact with school friends since I left school all those years ago.

Utah will, to a certain extent, be a clean slate for me - a new life, with the woman I love (and her dogs ), and at this moment in time, I'm unable to think of anything in particular I will miss from the UK. No doubt this will change, but I'm aiming to have a sunny outlook, and to try lots of new things in this new life.

We shall see
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Old Feb 23rd 2011, 4:46 pm
  #342  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by rallybug
I suppose, in a way, I'm in a "lucky" situation.

I'm 39, and in the K-1 petition stage at the moment, hoping to be moving over to Utah (no, I'm not LDS ) by the end of the summer. No previous marriages, no children, so no ties on that front.

I lived on the Isle of Man for 12 years, seeing my parents and brother maybe once a year for a week, and the friends I started work with in 1989 once a year for a meal, so I'm not imagining major homesickness on that front. I left the IOM in 2009, mainly as I'd got bored of island life (expensive flights, 4-hour ferry crossings in winter, etc) and moved back into the family home.

I made new friends on the island, but my best mate from there has been working in Hong Kong for the last couple of years and has no plans to move back to the UK, and I hardly talk to anyone else from up there. My original friends from here, I see once or twice a year now for a meal. No contact with school friends since I left school all those years ago.

Utah will, to a certain extent, be a clean slate for me - a new life, with the woman I love (and her dogs ), and at this moment in time, I'm unable to think of anything in particular I will miss from the UK. No doubt this will change, but I'm aiming to have a sunny outlook, and to try lots of new things in this new life.

We shall see
You can have fun being the only man in Utah with just one wife as well

(Couldn't resist it! Best of luck to you though )
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Old Feb 23rd 2011, 4:54 pm
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by rallybug
Utah will, to a certain extent, be a clean slate for me - a new life, with the woman I love (and her dogs ), and at this moment in time, I'm unable to think of anything in particular I will miss from the UK. No doubt this will change, but I'm aiming to have a sunny outlook, and to try lots of new things in this new life.

We shall see
I hope you don't like drinking - they have some weird laws there! My favorite is the one that says you can't order a drink in a restaurant until you have finished the one you already have.

Seriously though, good luck. I've spent a lot of time in Utah and while it's certainly different culturally, it's also very beautiful. Zion National Park is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Arches National park is just breathtaking also. And Salt Lake is a clean and safe city. I've never been up in mountains but I understand that's gorgeous too.

But be prepared for religion to play a much larger role in everyday life than you ever thought possible. And expect to experience some major culture shock at first - don't let it freak you out. I had a real culture shock coming here, and NYC is much closer to European attitudes than Utah. Over time, most people adjust so hang in there.

Good luck!

Last edited by sallysimmons; Feb 23rd 2011 at 4:56 pm.
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Old Feb 23rd 2011, 8:27 pm
  #344  
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

I've been there twice to see Gin, so not much, about 20 days or so in total, so I've seen some of it

Not a big drinker so the liquor laws aren't too onerous for me - I can still get beer from the grocery store, albeit at 3.2% ABW (which equals 4% by volume as used in the UK etc) if I want one.

The views are fabulous (I love mountains ) and, as someone who rides a motorbike there's plenty to do too.

I did see some sister wives in Lagoon amusement park back in June - or at least Gin said that they were Luckily, her immediate family are lapsed Mormons - she stopped going at about 14 when she started asking questions that they wouldn't answer
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Old Feb 24th 2011, 5:23 am
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Default Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?

Originally Posted by sallysimmons
My favorite is the one that says you can't order a drink in a restaurant until you have finished the one you already have.
Just like Norway.

And getting coffee can be a challenge too: virgin lattes are easy to come by, though (they are hot milk drinks, sans caffeine.)
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