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meatcleaver -> RE: UK surpasses US ,in standard of living (1/6/2008 10:51:57 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Owner59
I think we need a real leader,who`s at least curious ,about these matters...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article3137506.ece
“The past 15 years have seen a dramatic change in the UK’s economic performance and its position in the world economy,” said Adrian Cooper, managing director of Oxford Economics. “No longer are we the ‘sick man of Europe’. Indeed, our calculations suggest that UK living standards are now a match for those of the US.”
In those days, according to Oxford Economics, Britain’s GDP per capita was 34% below that in America, 33% less than in Germany and 26% lower than in France. Now, not only have average incomes crept above those in America but they are more than 8% above France (£21,700) and Germany (£21,665).
I think the operative word here is average. Take away the top salaries in the UK and the US and you will find that the ordinary average German is far better off than either Brits or Americans, the top Germans and French earning a lot less than their UK and US counterparts. Not only that, the cost of living in Germany and Holland for that matter is far below that of Britain. OK we can say the GDP doesn't lie and shows the average Brit is better off than the average German and Frenchman (maybe Dutch too) but experience tells me that is not so. When my family visit me from Britain, they can't believe how cheap it is to live here compared to Britain (and all the services, buses and trains etc. actually work and run to time while being far cheaper than in Britain). I certainly don't buy the average Brit is nbetter off than the average German, even with the fact that Germany has had to incorporate East Germany with all of its economic woes and social problems.
Footnote. Mental illness in what the French call Anglo-Saxon economies (America, Britain, Australia etc.) is twice that of western European social democracies. The individual greed in these Anglo-Saxon economies comes at a price.
A book worth reading is The Selfish Capitalist.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Selfish-Capitalist-Origins-Affluenza/dp/0091923816/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199645250&sr=8-1
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