Looks like we chose the wrong time to move to the US; this is from The Sunday Times:
UK living standards outstrip US
Living standards outstrip those across the Atlantic for first time in over a century
David Smith, Economics Editor
LIVING standards in Britain are set to rise above those in America for the first time since the 19th century, according to a report by the respected Oxford Economics consultancy.Mind you, it's still much cheaper to eat out in America. And the beer is cheaper here too. And the petrol.
The calculations suggest that, measured by gross domestic product per capita, Britain can now hold its head up high in the economic stakes after more than a century of playing second fiddle to the Americans.
It says that GDP per head in Britain will be £23,500 this year, compared with £23,250 in America, reflecting not only the strength of the pound against the dollar but also the UK economy’s record run of growth and rising incomes going back to the early 1990s . . .
2 comments:
Last year on NPR I heard that only the UK beats the US for lack of upward mobility. Wonder if that's about to change too. The whole "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" thing doesn't work well in the US anymore. Best predictor of wealth is how much you inherit.
I'd add that best predictor of seeing your book widely read is having a "marketing platform." Journalists and professors have legitimate ones, but otherwise it's a name recognition thing. You have that or your work's unlikely to be published regardless of your qualifications and the quality of your thought and writing.
Whilst I do love the US Mark, the beer is awful, however cheap (aside from stuff from brew pubs). Nevada Porter is particularly poor. Eugh.That was my greatest deprivation last time I lived there.
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