Why the UK is Falling Behind the EU and US

Britain seems to be in a permanent economic crisis. Last year, an analysis found that the average Slovenian household would be wealthier than its British counterpart by 2024. How does Britain compare to other countries and can it recover?

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0:00 Intro
1:33 Do international comparisons work?
5:51 So how poor is the UK?
8:13 Sponsor

[phoebus]

It's crazy how much of a country's economy is sustained by one city/metropolitan area.

[logbinder]

I'm Polish and I dont know about wealthier in monetary value, but in terms of quality of life definitely. I lived and studied in the UK for 3, 5 years and when I returned to Poland I was able to get a better standard of life than in London (major city in Poland too). And I know that my friends are returning also. I'm pretty sure that the rich in the UK will be fine and they will make the statistics false by covering the poverty level. The gap between the rich and poor in the UK is visible now, I'm afraid what is it going to be in the future. And that is not too say that Poland is brilliant at handling things but at least we're still in the EU :)

[Hodoss]

The UK was also doing badly before joining the EU, and that was one big reason for joining. People forgot.

[Randalftown]

“The UK isn’t poor just the majority of its citizens”

[TheContrarian]

As a Mississippian, it was funny to hear us used as a terrible case scenario.

[jacyesthatjac]

"The UK isn't that poor per household, it just looks that way because of all the inequality!" is a great way of showing how well things are going here.

[Dartanius]

Found out recently that the UK, when you remove London, is about as rich as the State of Mississippi. Nothing would surprise me anymore.

[GillerHeston]

Sadly with each passing day we can see the impact this awful policy has had on the UK. Tied up in red tape and tariffs with lower GDP than before the pandemic whilst the others in the G7, including Italy, are above. The lower GDP means we do not have the headroom to pay our way in the world and must resort to borrowing.Whilst there are rich people in the UK; a great many of us are poor and now we are poorer still. What steps can we take to generate more income during quantitative adjustment?

[avenix]

I'm 25, studied in London for 4 years and now working as a software engineer and I'm counting down months to going back to Poland (Warsaw specifically). The salaries in the UK are insanely low, while the rents are atrociously high and you're often left with no choice than to share a flat with strangers. In Warsaw, salaries in tech are honestly comparable to the UK's, while the cost of living is half as low. A nice one-bed flat shouldn't cost more than 650-700 GBP, which is what I'm paying now to share a flat in London with two more people. I won't even mention cleanliness and safety as comparing London and Warsaw in these respects would be mad :)

[JK-peft]

In the UK, some of the best-paid jobs involve collecting dividends on capital (sometimes from privatised public service monopolies), and not doing any work at all.

[zachsmith]

I am from the US and living in the UK. The UK feels like being on the edge of poverty at all times. The biggest issue for me is the horrible cost of rent and transport. If i didnt have a higher than average salary, I literally couldnt live here

[johnproton]

It sounds like, based on quality of life of its citizens, the UK is doing absolutely horribly. Vote smarter.

[matthewparker]

Median income is used precisely because it accounts for inequality better than mean measurements.

[Rochelletrem]

Some economists have projected that both the U.S. and parts of Europe could slip into a recession for a portion of 2023. A global recession, defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income, is more rare because China and emerging markets often grow faster than more developed economies. Essentially the world economy is considered to be in recession if economic growth falls behind population growth.

[Wrynwynn]

“Should we judge our nation based on our richest citizens or our average citizens? Because if we judge by our richest citizens the UK is doing great!”

[zarkovian]

'The British media has developed a habit of making unflattering comparisons' - the British media is a big part of the problem in this country, and has helped lead it down this dead-end with a its complacency and tummy-tickling.

[dxarelto]

As an Asian has been visited to both UK and Poland for business as well as for leisure, I would say Poland is on par with UK as of 2022-2023, in terms of liveability and doing business. Poland is rising star, UK is fading star after Brexit…

[captainross]

I fear for the future. Children can’t find basic things on the nhs like a dentist, growing up with rotting teeth and gum disease and worsening nutrition is bound to set a whole generation back.

[ChibiOlia]

Thoughtful explanation of the different metrics

[JoshuaHill]

The saddest part is, we can fix is so easily, but no one will. All of the problems in the uk are caused by the super rich controlling politics, everyone says the key is to build more houses to reduce the cost of housing, but the wealthy wont vote for it because they will lose their cushty lives and have to actually be productive. ALL we need to do is build more houses, thus reducing the housing cost and also nationalise the energy markets.