Pat Hasler:
I have voiced my opinion on the wages in the UK many times. 27k is a disgustingly low wage.
Its not that simple though is it? If its 60hrs a week then yes it is but if its 40-45hrs a week then that’s the UK average.
I make $80k a year here which at tonight’s exchange rate is 60k and even I find it hard to get by. How on earth you men get along on such poor pay I will never understand ?
Well first of all how many hours a week are you doing for that? You’re also in the USA so there is no statutory paid holiday whereas we get 5.6 weeks. And then there’s medical insurance, co-pay, you pay what the cost of the drugs are and not a flat £8.50 prescription fee, you have to have a car to go anywhere and even a trip to the local store to buy a loaf of bread is a trip in the car due to the distance. You’re also paying far more for your house and things which we have included in our council tax such as the Fire Brigade are an additional bill for people in the USA. No doubt like many Americans you have a car on finance that costs you several hundred dollars a month and now that fuel is hitting $4 a gallon that 25MPG it does is really starting to hurt. Internet and mobile phones are ridiculously expensive in the USA, I constantly read on Reddit comments from Americans jealous of what we pay here, as is the obligatory cable TV. No doubt like many Americans your family goes out for their meals instead of cooking them at home like we do here.
And it doesn’t cost that much to live in the USA unless you lead a typical American expensive consumer lifestyle. www.mrmoneymoustache.com is a site run by a guy in the USA who manages to lead a good lifestyle for $27k a year for a family of three.
We get by because despite the belief that the UK is expensive what the State provides saves us a lot over what people in the States pay for. We don’t for example get a bill for giving birth - I couldn’t actually believe that even the US healthcare system did that. We get by because the typical lifestyle in the UK isn’t as consumerist as it is in the USA. We don’t for example go out every day for our main meal which is a common thing in the States.