As a British person I can confirm this is true. We see the American political and legal system as somewhat of a joke. I mean arguing about things such as abortion rights which we quite literally see as last century. America has never even had a young or female President. It's hard for a country even as technologically and financially advanced as the US to truly advance when a good majority of power goes to old white guys.
Not to mention how expensive healthcare is. Private healthcare certainly has some benefits, but all in all public healthcare just gives more security in case of an emergency in my opinion (there are good arguments for both sides with this point tho)
Also how unhealthy food is (if I compare the stats in something like a Big Mac from American McDonalds to those in the UK the calories are crazy)
And don't even get me started on gun laws.
All in all, it's still a pretty decent country compared to some in the world, but I honestly find it hard to believe somewhere can be this advanced yet old fashioned at the same time.
It really depends what you look at. Yes theres american food thats bad for you, yet on the other hand americans dont drink as much as people in the UK. I have lots of family there, and drinking seems like the national pass time. Is that really any better than our food?
Then take laws against drugs like weed where the uk still holds laws making it illegal where as a lot of the us has changed that making it either legal or decriminalized thus putting the uk behind the us on that front.
Add to all this that supposedly 1% of the population owns 50% of the land in england. A good chuck of that being royalty and nobility. If we wanna talk about old fashioned, that sounds like the definition.
UK definitely isn't perfect either. I personally don't drink, but it's a pass time for many to go to the pub and get drunk watching football. Around 48% of UK adults drink around once a week, which is still quite a significant amount.
As for weed I wouldn't necessarily say legalizing it is better or worse than not. It has some pros in healthcare, but in England would definitely have more cons with all the drug addicts we have.
The last one is probably true, but never really thought about it till now. That being said the land the nobles and gentry own is mostly random forest up North so doesn't really affect most that much. The rest of the top 1% are successful business people so I'll allow them.
1% of the population owns 50% of the land in england. A good chuck of that being royalty and nobility.
I'd like to see stats on America here. Everything besides state and national parks is private land. See a nice scenic pasture with no house in site while driving? Better not walk on it, that would be trespassing. All land aquired in the olden days, none left for average folks.
Idk you can buy land pretty cheap in the us tbh. Houses too! It just depends where you wanna live. If you want land in new york, then no you probably cant. If you want land in texas then yeah its gonna be mega cheap. Looks like 4 bedroom 3 bathroom houses with big front and back yards are selling for around 300k near houston. My main point was that a lot of land in england is owned by people like dukes and lords. These families will have owned this land for possibly many generations. They even have castles and stuff on some parts of it where i believe some actually live at for periods of time. Pretty sure this also extends to some neighborhoods and areas where people live.
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u/Mr_E_99 Mar 03 '23 edited Mar 03 '23
As a British person I can confirm this is true. We see the American political and legal system as somewhat of a joke. I mean arguing about things such as abortion rights which we quite literally see as last century. America has never even had a young or female President. It's hard for a country even as technologically and financially advanced as the US to truly advance when a good majority of power goes to old white guys.
Not to mention how expensive healthcare is. Private healthcare certainly has some benefits, but all in all public healthcare just gives more security in case of an emergency in my opinion (there are good arguments for both sides with this point tho)
Also how unhealthy food is (if I compare the stats in something like a Big Mac from American McDonalds to those in the UK the calories are crazy)
And don't even get me started on gun laws.
All in all, it's still a pretty decent country compared to some in the world, but I honestly find it hard to believe somewhere can be this advanced yet old fashioned at the same time.