Britain’s output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi

inglor_cz

Anecdotally, I meet some Polish returnees from the UK when I am in Poland. You can often tell by something like a small Union Jack hanging by the checkout bar etc. (they seem to cherish the memories), and I like to ask them about their experience. The consensus seems to be that it does not make sense to bear British costs of living for British wages anymore, and that the living standards have reached approximately the same level here at home. Something very similar was said to me in 2023 by a youngish barista in Riga, Latvia.

ch4s3

It's odd to me that there's only a passing mention in one paragraph about energy costs effecting places like Stoke-on-Trent, and dwelling on austerity as though government cuts caused industry to leave. England has the highest electricity prices in Europe and that is surely what has been driving industry out of the country in the last 30 years.

applfanboysbgon

> living standards fall well below Mississippi’s GDP is not a measure of living standards. The NHS alone puts even the poorest Brit's living standards above Mississippi.

jmyeet

So I've long had the theory that the primary cause of economic malaise is high housing prices. It makes labor more expensive. It makes everything more expensive. Treating houses as investments actually kills the economy. I recently came across an actual economist who has been saying the exact same thing, which he calls the Housting Theory of Everything [1]. He has written a number of papers on this doing the math and has a bunch of videos around this topic. For example, this gap with Missouri actually goes away when you consider purchasing power [2]. Fudge himself is a capitalist but he points out what I think a lot of capitalism defenders don't know, and that is that Adam Smith hated "rentiers", saying they got unearned income by essentially hoarding land. That's a problem we have now. His theory uses a term he calls the "rentier black hole" [3] and the premise is essentially that the returns on property are too good such that it sucks away any investment on productive ventures. Instead of building a factory in Manchester, you park your money in Knightsbridge property. And that's where all the money is going. It increases the returns and sucks away all money. [1]: https://henryfudgeofficial.substack.com/p/the-housing-theory... [2]: https://www.tiktok.com/@henryfudgeofficial/video/76490164617... [3]: https://www.tiktok.com/@henryfudgeofficial/video/76404878354...

alephnerd

1. Both the US and the UK are large countries with significant federalism and devolved powers. I think subnational HDI is a better metric [0] instead of GDP per Capita. Once you remove the outliers that are London and the Southeast (there isn't a similar subnational comparison that can be made within the US), developmental indicators between much of the US and the UK are the same. 2. After seeing the riots in Belfast last night where rioters specifically targeted and burned the homes of Black residents [1], I'd be inclined to agree that the United Kingdom does have some hallmarks of Mississippi, and in some sense is worse. We haven't had targeted race riots in the US for decades. The UK has had 3 in the last year. [0] - https://globaldatalab.org/shdi/table/shdi/USA+GBR/?levels=1+... [1] - https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cr47x99k5n6t?post=asset%3Ab5f8...

swishbx

GDP is a measure of economic output only. It doesn't say if that output is actually efficient or useful. For example, if everyone in a country is in perfect health, they might have a very small medical expenditure, which would negatively impact GDP.

dofm

I love the Atlantic but here we go again: Americans defining Britain in American terms as if they are the ineffable, indisputable default. The USA, right now, is heading into its own Suez crisis, with a de facto king attacking its democracy, and literally cannot even organise a proper birthday party at the most prestigious address in the world. The UK has many problems we must grapple with, but I think, maybe, right now is not the time to argue from a US default position. Not least while your three vice president ghouls (Musk, Vance and Rubio) are so loudly cheering for us and all of Europe to fail. To quote your first king, clean up your own backyard.

blini-kot

I can't really even be smug about the framing anymore, this is like a developer deflecting blame for a bug by saying "oh I don't know, it was cursor/claude"

fl4regun

In spite of this, I think I'd rather live in the UK than in Mississipi.

CalRobert

Is it possible that maybe Mississippi.... isn't terrible? I've never been there but is it just a given that it's a horrible place to live? I understand their schools have improved a good bit, at least. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Miracle

vermooten

HS2 Phase 1 as a whole required 8,276 public-body consents, but those were not 8,000 permits for the bat structure.