Gas (Petrol !) Prices UK

UK gas prices would be roughly equivalent to US prices if it was taxed at the same rate. 75% of the price of gas in the UK is taxes.

Yeah! But consider the cost difference when one wishes to drive coast to coast! :) The UK is a smaller drive than many of our States.

That is one luxury the US has that the UK does not - space..... The UK is now apparently the third most densely populated part of the globe - after Bangladesh and Holland I think. But we still get to fly !

Colin

PS - we head south to Europe when we want decent weather .... that racks the mileage up a bit ! and of course the cost of ferry crossings etc

Heading coast to coast can take several days due to traffic jams, road works and diversions. Even getting to work at peak period a distance of 15 miles could take 45 minutes on a good day!

Every tax in the UK is about 10 times what it is in the US. You get taxed here for just breathing Fresh air. My gross pay is around GBP 1800 a month, I take home around 1400 a month. I also pay about GBP 1 on every bottle of wine I buy GBP 3 on every gallon of fuel I buy. Everything else I buy is subject to 17.5% VAT. Oh don't forget the tax I pay on my company car. I'm sure someone else can add to this list.

Those ferry crossings are SUCH a ripoff! If you go over for just a day you can do it for as low as 20 pounds. Stay two days and it jumps to 160 pounds. Stay more than 5 days and it can top 300 pounds! I never knew it cost the ferry companies more when you took a longer holiday!

The Canadian ferries from Vancouver to Victoria are longer, prettier rides through the islands and cost about CDN$65 each way for a car and two passengers. Just show up and get in line. Thats about US$47 which is about

And that's not even going near London!

It's difficult at best to try to compare tax rates between the US and Europe. The main reason being that different benefits are obtained through those taxes. Last I knew, Germany collected for the recognized churches through a tax (and if you didn't claim a religion, your cash went to the government). England has socialized medicine which is paid for through taxes (didn't say it was good, just that they have it). Most European countries have excellent mass transit which is no doubt subsidized through taxes. And I believe all of them have some form of welfare and state sponsored retirements. All from taxes! And the list goes on! Sure there's bloating, corruption, excess and the like in all the systems.

But the bottom line is, you have to look at your system and decide if you're getting your moneys worth. Then you have to look at others and decide if you want to pay twice something else is really worth in order to have your government provide and manage it for you. I'll stick with the US. At the very least, I understand it best of all the systems out there.

C O Jones makes some good points .....

Yes in the UK you can qualify for a state retirement pension if you pay your National Insurance for long enough - but is is a fairly miserable sum - something like £100 per week max I think. And then you have to pay from that the Local Council Tax - which in my case is £34 per week !

And on Healthcare the UK National Health Service is riddled with delay and inefficiency - two years ago my Mother nearly had to queue to get into a Hospice ward for what turned out to be her last 10 days of life ........ they even gave me the bottles of morphine to treat her in case she could not get into the Hospice.

And our public transport system in the UK is pretty much now needing complete renewal - delays are endemic. And our roads are very congested and full of potholes. And all the time our politicans are telling us how well we are doing, and our dear Chancellor keeps introducing yet another steath tax on some item or other that he hopes we will not notice.

It is difficult to see how things have 'improved' at all for at least the last five years in the UK

Col>It's difficult at best to try to compare tax rates between the US and

Well consider driving the coast road (Hwy 1) in West Australia...it's the same distance as Seattle to Miami and you're still in the same state :)

You will find that in common with most of Europe about 60% of the GDP circulates throught the government or local government.

As I said, about 60% of GDP goes to the government.

About 80% of it goes to pay people who then decide what if anything, to do with the last 20%.

I have long been an advocate of simp.ly giving it back to everyone as a falt national income, completely regardless of anything, and letting them spend it where they will. Of course this throws about 25-30% of te labour force who used to work in the civil service out of work, but as long as heroin is immediatelty legalised and made avaialable at sufficiently low prices, they can sit at home and watch reality TV stoned out of their minds, thus allowing the scarce resources of the country to be better utilised for those who actually contribute something.

With habits easily fed at minimal cost, street crime will be far lower.

With most people at home, traffic congestion and parking will be hugely eased. Not to mention an instant improvement in oil consumption and pollution.

Sadly it will never happen: The international criminal drig trafficking organsiations feed far too much cash into 'anti-drug' lobbies... to keep them illegal, and the 30% of people who are employed by the government are hardly likely to vote themselves out of work either...

Many in the U.K have private/company pension schemes which substantially increase the amount of pension you get in conjunction with the State Retirement Pension. I was fortunate to be in a good company scheme which we paid a substantial slice of our pay packet into in order to benefit later.

You are obviously not aware that the Hospice Movement (for terminal cancer patients) is *not* part of the Health Service, it is in fact run on voluntary contributions by the people in the vicinity of each hospice. The Hospice Movement provides superb care and accomodation and can't even get funding from the National Lottery. Every single establishment is funded by those in the local communities who appreciate the excellent service. The standard of care is soooooo superb that there can only be a limited number of beds in any one area... it is virtually one to one care from the dedicated staff. It is funded by the community and there is no charge for anyone requiring that level of care.

Having been the recipient of U.S medical care some years ago I can honestly say that you don't appreciate how good our system is. There are delays but a lot of that is caused by improvements in medicine causing people to live longer... hence more people in the system who would otherwise have died from things which are now treatable.

Welcome to the legacy of the Thatcher government... remember how they sold off all the family silver ? Privatising everything was going to make a vast improvement... they overlooked the greed, incompetence and racketeering of big business.... or did they ? many politicians sit on various company boards as soon as they retire from politics !!!

Despite all the funding this country has received from being a member of the E.U. ? Where I live has improved enormously as a result of employing E.U funding to improve the environment and job opportunities. I have recently been for some chest Xrays, waiting time 10 minutes on one visit ( no appointment) and 5 minutes on the next visit (with appointment), mind you I do have the sense not to live within a few hundred miles of the south east of England >:-)

Perhaps you need to remove your blindfold and have a good look around you !

Reg

And now we have endless bureacracy and huge numbers of managers overseeing everything, and hopeless inefficiency and delay.

Let them make profits. Its less costly than making prtetend work for people in the long run.

Very few organisations HAVE to be state run. Arguably the railway (tracks) and maybe the phones. And power distribution possibly.

But OI'd privatise schools and healthcare instantly if I could. Just FUND it centrally, and let the hospitals and schools compete for the business.

I have, both. Took a year to get some hernias patched. Still rips up and is uncomfortable.

Father in law went in for internal endoscope examination, and nearly died when they nicked a bit of his bladder, sent him home and he got a raging bacterial infection.

A LOT depends where you live.

On numerous occasions my

Lucky him/her. Sometimes its t'other way about.

Indeed. I agree. I wish all those northeern batsdards would bugger off back to oop north where they came from so we could have the south back again :-)

And take coronation street with them. Bloody eck, I listened (not watched) an episode for teh first time ever whilst building a model the other month. Talk about role models. Makes Trisha look like some kind of normality show.

And whether the doctor and you speak the same language!

Hey, my aneasthetist was an Iraqi, and boy, I've never met a better drug dealer. What a rush :-) The last thing I said was "Jesus Christ!", but he didn't seem offended cos I am still here :-)

My son broke his wrist playing basketball at 1200 on a saturday. We went to the local NHS Trust hospital for treatment. He finally had the fracture set and a cast put on around noon the next day.

In the US, we would have gone to the local community hospital and had the full treatment in around two hours. That's what happened to my wife.

Having lived and suffered under both systems, I'll take the US one any day.