Best Of

I was in Brighton yesterday attending the last meeting of the season at the racecourse up the hill - a solid 40 minute walk from the station to get there and an easier 30 minute walk coming back. Apparently, the 37B bus from Churchill Square does the job but what's the fun in that?

I managed a Blanchesque 21,000 steps yesterday but the punting was less successful on a card which was more bread and dripping than bread and butter at a course which looks in dire need of something - like so much else, it has contracted to save costs, not physically, but in terms of what's available. The thin (numerically) crowd was crowded into a single enclosure - the other enclosure (which used to have Barrie Cope's superb seafood curry bar) now stands forlorn with the bar and betting shop shuttered.

The cost of everything, the value of nothing....

Brighton itself is curious and reminds me a bit of Camden - very young (as you might expect) but homelessness and deprivation (of a sort) close by. A lot of building work suggesting there's money around but a level of, and I don't know if this is the right word, untidiness. Yet, there's an energy, a strong vibrant youth culture and a loyalty to the place you don't see everywhere.

A word also for the train service - I could have travelled on the Thameslink from East Croydon all the way there but for an extra couple of quid got a ticket to ride (no, I didn't care, you see, that's a subtle song reference unlike @TSE's headers) on the Gatwick Express so went to Gatwick on Thameslink (no stop) and then switched to the Gatwick Express (stops only at Haywards Heath). Very comfortable and quick down to the coast - not quite the Brighton Belle of former times but not bad at all.

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.