Best Of

I’m gonna say it again, America is now richer than Europe to a quite astonishing degree. Seattle airport is at Doha/Singapore levels of public opulence

And this is just Seattle airport. It’s not the great national flagship

And you see this wealth everywhere. It’s not pockets of affluence. The affluence is ubiquitous, it’s poverty you see in pockets

Depends which parts. Switzerland, Luxembourg, London and Surrey and Monaco and Norway are certainly far richer than Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico etc. Seattle by contrast is part of the IT and tech hub of the US with Silicon Valley.

The US also has more extreme poverty than most western nations with very limited welfare state, little social and public housing and no public healthcare for most, I have never seen more homeless people in a developed nation than I did when I went to Los Angeles for example

Your take is outdated

I’ve seen vast and obvious wealth on 90% of this drive. From LA up to Seattle

Sure there are rundown towns. I saw them. Grisly. But we have easily as bad in the UK, just different in looks. Hopeless towns

In the last year I’ve also been to four of the five poorest states in the union. Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia. Even there the poverty is limited. There are also rich towns and lavish suburbs

It’s terrifying how Europe is being left for dust

I suppose the question is: where would the average person prefer to live? USA or north-west Europe.

Cost of living, especially for healthcare swings it for Europe I think..🧐🤨

It's Rawls' Veil of Ignorance: and yes, you'd probably prefer to be born in Denmark, Norway or Switzerland, than in the US.

If, that is, you knew nothing about your intelligence, status, etc.

US GDP per head is about 55% higher than it is in this country.

The gap in median incomes is much smaller (the median full time salary in the UK is $50,000 to $61,000 in the USA).

The really huge difference between the two countries comes with the standard of living among the top 10%. An income of $97,000 puts you into the top 10% in the UK. The equivalent in the USA is $170,000.

As I've pointed out here many times, parroting GDP/head numbers is highly misleading. Americans work 17-20% more per year than us so that accounts for about half the gap in GDP/head. Much of the rest is accounted for by the unusual strength of the dollar, the absurdly extravagant but underperforming healthcare system and as you note the much more unequal distribution of income.

We could be doing far better in this country, but America is not the shining exemplar many in this country think it is.

America seems quite exemplary at the moment. Secure borders, free speech, a thriving economy, endless innovation

If I was regularly going through US immigration I'd post the same propaganda too. We understand.

I’m gonna say it again, America is now richer than Europe to a quite astonishing degree. Seattle airport is at Doha/Singapore levels of public opulence

And this is just Seattle airport. It’s not the great national flagship

And you see this wealth everywhere. It’s not pockets of affluence. The affluence is ubiquitous, it’s poverty you see in pockets

Depends which parts. Switzerland, Luxembourg, London and Surrey and Monaco and Norway are certainly far richer than Alabama, West Virginia, Arkansas, New Mexico etc. Seattle by contrast is part of the IT and tech hub of the US with Silicon Valley.

The US also has more extreme poverty than most western nations with very limited welfare state, little social and public housing and no public healthcare for most, I have never seen more homeless people in a developed nation than I did when I went to Los Angeles for example

Your take is outdated

I’ve seen vast and obvious wealth on 90% of this drive. From LA up to Seattle

Sure there are rundown towns. I saw them. Grisly. But we have easily as bad in the UK, just different in looks. Hopeless towns

In the last year I’ve also been to four of the five poorest states in the union. Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia. Even there the poverty is limited. There are also rich towns and lavish suburbs

It’s terrifying how Europe is being left for dust

I suppose the question is: where would the average person prefer to live? USA or north-west Europe.

Cost of living, especially for healthcare swings it for Europe I think..🧐🤨

It's Rawls' Veil of Ignorance: and yes, you'd probably prefer to be born in Denmark, Norway or Switzerland, than in the US.

If, that is, you knew nothing about your intelligence, status, etc.

US GDP per head is about 55% higher than it is in this country.

The gap in median incomes is much smaller (the median full time salary in the UK is $50,000 to $61,000 in the USA).

The really huge difference between the two countries comes with the standard of living among the top 10%. An income of $97,000 puts you into the top 10% in the UK. The equivalent in the USA is $170,000.

As I've pointed out here many times, parroting GDP/head numbers is highly misleading. Americans work 17-20% more per year than us so that accounts for about half the gap in GDP/head. Much of the rest is accounted for by the unusual strength of the dollar, the absurdly extravagant but underperforming healthcare system and as you note the much more unequal distribution of income.

We could be doing far better in this country, but America is not the shining exemplar many in this country think it is.

America seems quite exemplary at the moment. Secure borders, free speech, a thriving economy, endless innovation

If I was regularly going through US immigration I'd post the same propaganda too. We understand.

Fine old Soviet joke:

Two brothers, John, and Bob, who lived in America and were members of the communist party, decided to emigrate to the USSR. Even though they didn't believe the American media's negative reports on the conditions in the USSR, they decided to exercise caution. John would go to Russia to test the waters. If they were right and it was a communist paradise, than John would write a letter to Bob using black ink. If, though, the situation in the USSR was as bad as the American media liked to portray, and the KGB was a force to be feared, John would use red ink to indicate whatever he says in the letter must not be believed.

In three months John sent his first report. It was in black ink and read, "I'm so happy here! It's a beautiful country, I enjoy complete freedom, and a high standard of living. All the capitalist press wrote was lies. Everything is readily available! There is only one small thing of which there's a shortage. Red ink."

Utterly disgusting, that Villa decision.

Ban Jews from supporting their club because people are so racist they might not be safe? What a disgraceful victim-blaming attitude.

Villa are a crap club with wankers for fans.

The West Mids Police are a disgrace.

Not sure how much this is Villa's fault.

The Police much more to blame.

If Villa and the Police can't ensure safety it should be relocated to be played in another country that can keep fans safe.

I never said it was Villa’s fault. I just made an observation about the club and its supporters.

Macabi Tel Aviv fans are not always the peace-loving soccerballists some on pb imagine.

Cute victim-blaming there.

That's not the reason they're being banned, though, is it?

Galatasaray fans and other clubs fans aren't always peace-loving, but they're not banned.

This episode is as shameful a moment for modern Britain as I can remember.

The Chief Constable of West Midlands really should resign. This is appalling.

I can understand the concern. But the response is wrong. Move the game. Abroad if necessary.

Feck off. Send the army in, if necessary. The very idea that it is simply not safe for fans to come and watch a football match in this country is nothing short of humiliating.

Utterly disgusting, that Villa decision.

Ban Jews from supporting their club because people are so racist they might not be safe? What a disgraceful victim-blaming attitude.

Villa are a crap club with wankers for fans.

The West Mids Police are a disgrace.

Not sure how much this is Villa's fault.

The Police much more to blame.

If Villa and the Police can't ensure safety it should be relocated to be played in another country that can keep fans safe.

I never said it was Villa’s fault. I just made an observation about the club and its supporters.

Macabi Tel Aviv fans are not always the peace-loving soccerballists some on pb imagine.

Cute victim-blaming there.

That's not the reason they're being banned, though, is it?

Galatasaray fans and other clubs fans aren't always peace-loving, but they're not banned.

This episode is as shameful a moment for modern Britain as I can remember.

The Chief Constable of West Midlands really should resign. This is appalling.

The weird thing in America is that in the morning you can meet a charming, generous, hospitable Republican and in the afternoon you can meet a charming, generous hospitable Democrat - and as an outsider what strikes you is how similar they are. And yet they utterly loathe each other

Yes, when they actually talk to each other in person, they agree on way more than they disagree.

#WeAreCharlieKirk

I am not Charlie Kirk.

I'm in DC right now and have seen a number of Trump administration officials or proxies speaking at various conferences and meetings. Two things strike me: they are often quite ill informed and they are always extremely sure that they are right. In short, they are zealots.
Meanwhile there are troops standing around on street corners like this is some kind of third world dictatorship. This is a country heading in a very scary direction. There is simply no equivalence between Democrats and MAGA Republicans.

On topic, I would bet on Ref UK here. With only a week to go, I can't help feeling that anyone who was going to abandon Lab for Plaid has probably already done so by now.

Bearing in mind that Lab have won every single election in the Caerphilly Westminster and Senedd seats ever, there has to be a rump of Lab till they die voters who will never ever switch.

My guess is that Lab will ultimately do slightly better and Plaid slightly worse than this poll. Also Plaid aren't just another generic left wing party but Welsh nationalists, which ought to put a few people off (perhaps there might be a small number of anti-Plaid people who tactically vote for Ref)

I just went into Ladbrokes. The Caerphilly bet is online but is not on the machine. They were nice and tried to help but given they didn't know Ladbrokes offered political bets, didn't know what Caerphilly was, and only vaguely knew Reform was a political party, it was dispiriting. As I left they called me back in with "found it", only to be greeted with the machine entry for the General Election: they didn't know what a by-election was.

I hate the 2020s