British Expats - Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

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British Expats (https://britishexpats.com/forum/)

- USA (https://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/)

- - Is this really, that terrible compared to UK? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-57/really-terrible-compared-uk-701955/)

SultanOfSwing

Jan 25th 2011 6:17 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desdemona (Post 9128143)

The UK is a lovely place, I don't blame you for missing it. The people are lovely, love their happy-go-lucky approach to life. We were there during the 2010 World Cup, so you can imagine the carnival atmosphere in every pub we went to. If there was another country I would choose to live in it would be England. I haven't been to Ireland (just flew over it getting to Heathrow on our Delta flight from from St. Paul's Minneapolis). But I imagine it's no different.

Northern Ireland is a law unto itself. Apparently it is the only corner of the UK that hasn't gone to the dogs yet ;)

Can't speak much for the rest of the island. Outside of Dublin airport I don't know it too well.

Sally Redux

Jan 25th 2011 6:21 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leslie66 (Post 9128101)

In what context exactly? :confused:

(sits waiting in fear of the inevitable answer but cannot help but to ask)

I can't remember exactly how the thread had started out, but it got to the inevitable, "I'm not at all racist, but there are too many darkies in the UK."

SultanOfSwing

Jan 25th 2011 6:22 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sally Redux (Post 9128169)

I can't remember exactly how the thread had started out, but it got to the inevitable, "I'm not at all racist, but there are too many darkies in the UK."

Wasn't it that someone who had emigrated made the point that there were too many immigrants in the UK as one of the reasons they wouldn't go back?

I found that quite ironic :)

Giantaxe

Jan 25th 2011 6:24 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ian-mstm (Post 9128073)

They kept slaves, yes... but it was never a right. This is one of the reasons why I suggested that people don't fully understand the meaning of the word.

Are you aware that the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled there was "a substantive constitutional right to own slaves"?

willmore

Jan 25th 2011 6:24 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing (Post 9128155)

Ireland (including NI) is a absolutely beautiful country as the rest of the UK. We have spent a tremendous amount of time travelling throughout Ireland and the rest of the UK. Everywhere we have travelled the scenery and the people have been fantastic (albeit) the NA accent is confusing for them....;)

As Sally said though, there are other countries that have a great deal to offer. Certainly the UK would be one of the countries on my top five list where I could live; but Scandanavia and Croatia as well as a few others are very tempting.......

Im not slamming the UK here - so please dont take my comments in the wrong context.......

willmore

Jan 25th 2011 6:24 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sally Redux (Post 9128169)

I can't remember exactly how the thread had started out, but it got to the inevitable, "I'm not at all racist, but there are too many darkies in the UK."

I thought they hated the poles?;)

ian-mstm

Jan 25th 2011 6:26 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by zargof (Post 9128095)

So, what do you understand as the meaning of rights.

That's as fair a question as could be asked. I'm sure many people have their own views on what might be considered a right, but to me a right is an abstract concept that is protected both by law and by members of the armed forces.

I think part of the problem here, is that people are confusing the terms "legal" and "right". Lots of things are legal and are allowed... or were legal (such as owning slaves) and are no longer allowed. There are very few things which are actual rights and are enumerated as such. Owning a slave, for example, may have been legal but it was never a right - because it was never included or added to the Constitution.

Quote:

Before you answer bear in mind my other post about how the Constitution is great until it becomes inconvienient.

It certainly seems that the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments were set aside or ignored during WW2, and that was a travesty and tragedy of law. I wasn't alive at that time, so I don't know the mood of the country when Americans were rounded up and held in detention camps. It was a sad period in US history. Hopefully, things have changed since then... but it's very easy to look back in hindsight and determine that things were wrong... it's a lot harder to live through it with the same moral justification!

Ian

Sally Redux

Jan 25th 2011 6:26 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by SultanOfSwing (Post 9128173)

Wasn't it that someone who had emigrated made the point that there were too many immigrants in the UK as one of the reasons they wouldn't go back?

Well that's one of the great BE cliches isn't it - like "Life's what you make it" except that doesn't apply to living in the UK, "We're doing it for the kids", "Just **** off if you don't like it" and "Will an NVQ get me into Florida?"

Sally Redux

Jan 25th 2011 6:27 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by willmore (Post 9128188)

I thought they hated the poles?;)

and the Scots :lol:

SultanOfSwing

Jan 25th 2011 6:33 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sally Redux (Post 9128197)

BE cliches! Brilliant :D

Bob	Jan 25th 2011 7:21 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by airways (Post 9126897)

This forum is polarized into people who love the USA and this who have not had a good time. Unfortunately the balance of posting is from those who had a bad time winging about it and trying to convince others it's all crap and they should leave or not even bother making the move.

There are also a considerable number of people who are indifferent and just put up with things.

Pointing out flaws in either country is not a bad thing, better to be open about them than brush them under the carpet.

ian-mstm

Jan 25th 2011 7:22 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giantaxe (Post 9128182)

Are you aware that the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision ruled there was "a substantive constitutional right to own slaves"?

Do you know why? The Supreme Court held that they were not protected under the US Constitution. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution fixed that, fortunately.

As I have maintained throughout in this thread, rights have always been expanded and enumerated.

Ian

Bob	Jan 25th 2011 7:23 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giantaxe (Post 9127615)

My right to own slaves has certainly been removed.

Technically, in the UK that right was removed last year. Slavery and all the means of slavery has been for years, but actual ownership of people was always over looked till last year :D

Cape Blue

Jan 25th 2011 7:23 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sally Redux (Post 9128197)

We really need a "Best of BE" so we can bookmark these

lansbury

Jan 25th 2011 7:27 am

Re: Is this really, that terrible compared to UK?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Giantaxe (Post 9126148)

Not really. To reach age 65 and Medicare you have to get through that decade and a half of vulnerability to job and/or health insurance loss just at the time that crap starts to happen way more frequently from a medical point of view. If you're bereft of insurance in your early '50's, the fact that you'll get Medicare at age 65 is kind of moot: your lack of insurance before then often forms a large barrier to their "growing old" in the US, especially when they can get single-payer healthcare in the UK. It's no wonder that so many Brits think of moving back around that age or earlier. I know I wouldn't live here absent good health insurance in that age bracket.

But that isn't "growing old". It is still part of your working life.

The fact that you can get stuck at anytime in your working life without insurance in the US is the problem which needs correcting. The problems that can cause can be at anytime. To say that growing old in the US is a bigger problem than the UK isn't so because once people reach 65 they are not worse off. I speak as someone who moved to the US at 58 to retire, and has found the cost of health care to be affordable and the treatment I have received when needed far exceeding anything I received in my life in the UK.

The US excludes people who don't have medical insurance, the UK includes everyone but doesn't charge enough in tax to pay for the NHS so everyone gets crap service.

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