We were close, we lived in Brazoria County.

Skiing for sure.

Aspen and Snowmass sure beat the Cairngorms.

I just upped and left. I had an opportunity, I took it. I was very young, very itchy feet, no idea at all what awaited me and that was largely the point. Any country might have done (there was an earlier putative attempt to move to France but I was too young to make it happen).Had I been born in the US, I might have done the same thing but in reverse.

Two roads diverged sure enough, and way most definitely led on to way and although it's impossible to know I think my life has been more the varied and interesting for it. I certainly left the tracks that looked, to my young and claustrophobic eyes, as though they would lock me into a certain kind of life - and I didn't want to be locked, wherever those tracks might be going.

I was many, many years in the US, and in a lot of ways it isn't the same country or culture I moved to. But then I am not the same person who moved there - life piles up experience upon experience and you are changed - and the country and culture I'm in now (UK again) isn't the same as when I left. As I've said before I haven't gone back, I've just gone on to the next thing.

I've obviously taken and gained many things from my time in tne US, and the access to Mexico that it brought. But I'm also not sorry to have moved on.

I'm also in the "the two countries are superficially similar but fundamentally much more different than you think they are" camp. Ways of behaving, the meaning that underpins language (not the dictionary definitions, which are largely the same, but the intent and understanding beneath the words), human relationships, the unspoken understandings that two people from the same culture share without thinking about it, are all different.

Just be careful about that Rich - I used to tell Americans how great the NHS was, then I moved back to the UK and realised it wasn't (anymore).

Fingers crossed that the new government can sort it out within the next five years.

First time round - in the 1990's, was for two years, primarily as experience, not that it counted for much back in the UK.
Second time (14 years and counting), almost purely financial. Salaries for both myself and my wife are 3x what they are in the UK, together with better work environments - the US public sector is far better resourced than the UK - believe it or not.
In terms of healthcare, yes, the 'physical' healthcare is generally good, but still have similar wait times to the UK to see your primary care physician (PCP), and even simple procedures can be 4-6 week wait times. Biggest issue is that it's not, in my experience, joined up in that your PCP will send you for tests, but then you have to chase them for the results. Also, specialists seem very narrowly focused, if you have a scan for 'x', they'll only look for 'x' even if there're something else that's obvious. I feel that the UK GPs have way more experience and expertise.

Interesting. Point taken!

I hope so, although I wonder whether the structure and culture might make that difficult.

I was chatting to a lady last week about her recent A&E experience - 18 hours waiting to get seen - and she was clearly not well as she was admitted and spent the next 12 days staying at the hospital. Twice during that stay she got wheeled out of a ward to have to sleep in a corridor.

That is not unusual in both my own experience and friends of mine. I am having to pay for private health just to get seen in a sensible time frame.

It may indeed get somewhat better under Labour, I'm not sure it can get too much worse.

As a note, even when you buy private insurance and/or pay directly for the charges, the costs are still a fraction of what you would pay for either in the US. Getting coverage for pre-existing is probably right out in the UK, so what you would be weighing up would be the costs of care vs the cost of your insurance or other coverage in the USS..

But of course fixing the NHS is first and foremost the goal - hope they can get it done.

In my case, I'd been to the USA on three occasions, twice when I was serving in the Army in Canada and heading over the border for some R&R.
First trip was in the late 80's to Montana on Greyhound type bus from Alberta, second time was the following year, flying from Calgary to LA (I don't recall having a passport back then and think we used travel orders?)
Third trip was in the early 90's, to Florida.

Never considered going back to the USA after those trips were completed but had fond memories.

In 2001, I was living in Hong Kong and received a series of voicemails, asking if I could call back regarding an opportunity to work in the USA.

I had zero interest and every intention of staying exactly where I was, in Hong Kong, so ignored the first four messages.

After receiving a fifth voice message, I thought I should at least be courteous and say, "thanks very much but no thank you!".
At that point in time, my outlook was that Americans spent all their lives at work and never had any time off!

It didn't take long for the consultants to convince me that it was an excellent opportunity being offered. A few weeks later, after my visit to the Embassy in Hong Kong, I was on a flight to Newark.

My take on the USA, is to look at it as an opportunity and if you're willing to work hard (not that high a bar actually) you'll be given better opportunities and responsibility, with increased remuneration.

It's definitely not a part of the world, that I would consider, if you are the lower socio economic end of the spectrum!

I was offered a job based in Wyoming earlier this year but the rewards are not at the same level as years gone by, I was also astonished at the greatly increased cost of living!

Last week, I was chatting with an old colleague who moved to Chicago last year, he was initially very pleased with his move across the pond but is currently suffering from, "buyers remorse", and has an outlook that he should have stayed in Europe.
He is very pessimistic about life in the USA and he's likely to be on a salary/package well above average.

I much prefer my life here in UK but it cannot compete with the USA for opportunities. and financial reward.

When I moved over to the USA, they'd shipped in a bunch of guys like myself from the UK and associated commonwealth nations.
The vast majority opted to leave and less than a handful remain to this day.
One of my colleagues left within six months as he calculated it simply wasn't worth his time and effort, by comparison to compensation and lifestyle elsewhere in the world.

There's also a fairly high number of folks that developed a very negative outlook of the USA, particularly based on the arrival treatment at the border.

It's a big country and your mileage and outlook will vary.

Very interesting thread.
Born in the UK, began working abroad since my early 20's.
Between 23 and 40 I lived in 9 other countries, mostly Europe, but Japan too.
Now I've lived in the USA... well, California for 25 years.
Married to an American lady.
Love my heritage, and love visiting the UK to see family, and travel in Europe, but that's it.
Very much doubt if I will go back permanently.
The USA has its positives, and one of the biggest is that we "Almost speak the same language!".
My joke to friends and acquaintances is that I am Bi Lingual... I speak English and American...
When I talk to family about healthcare, I realize how bad the NHS is.
So many people dying of bowel cancer, but nobody I know has ever had a Colonoscopy.
My Dr here, told me every 6m for the last 10 years to go get one... and eventually I gave in and did it.. all was good, but he harassed me into it!
I feel like the Healthcare here is second to none... its not cheap... but at what cost is your health!
We will be getting out of California at retirement... gonna hit the road for a bit, and see more of this huge country, and then probably settle down in N Arizona, where its cooler, and cheaper to live.

Odd. Colonoscopies are completely routine in the UK. You do the test, send it in, if indicated, you are sent for a colonoscopy. Maybe everyone you know refused a colonoscopy? A lot of people don’t really like them ..

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bowel-ca...0%20and%20over.

We've done this since moving back 8 years ago. Every 2 years we get an invitation followed a week or so later by a test kit in the post. Within a few days of mailing in the test the results show up on our NHS app, and a letter with the results appears in the mail shortly after.

Our neighbour showed positive a few years ago and now goes for regular colonoscopies.

I don't think there is much difference in the death rate from bowel cancer in the USA and UK. Both countries are pretty high although the screening practices these days has been bring down the numbers in the over 55 age group.

From the American Cancer Society

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/...tatistics.html For the UK
https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/hea...er#heading-One

I was just out of college for engineering and a company came over recruiting engineers for the aerospace industry in Los Angeles, my girlfriend and I got married in the March 1981 and moved to LA in May 1981 we were just 23 at that time. We have loved it here ever since; it suited our lifestyle both getting into triathlons and Ironman races back in the early 80's and outdoor activities year-round. We moved to Westlake Village CA and have loved living here ever since for 43 years. My wife still has a big family back in Wales 7 sisters and their families, and over the years we would go back for visits often. Then in 2018 when I decided to retire early, we thought about returning to North Wales to live we even went back looking at homes in late 2019, but then Covid came and went and now we don't care for what has happened with the NHS, so we are planning on just staying here now. We have great health care with our Medicare and supplement plan, we may move to the central coast of CA next year, but we have been so busy traveling we just don't seem to have time for house hunting. We both made a great living with our careers here something I doubt would have happened back in the UK, yes, we worked very hard for what we have accomplished but it was all part of growing up here and we didn't mind, we came with $9000 in our pockets so certainly nothing was given to us without hard work. I loved the various aerospace projects I worked on and proud of my accomplishments in that industry. I think life is what you make of it wherever you live and there is no better or worse place it's all about what you want in your own life. We were lucky in many ways with how things turned out for us here. I will say back in 1981 the USA was a different and better country than it is today, not sure if I was a young person if I would come today but that's probably typical of someone's life's views for any older person's perspective in any country in how we see things when looking back.