Some sort of a gallup

[Rusco]

1) Is it expensive to live in a country you're living to?

2) What is the approximate, average pay you get there?

3) Would you say it's easy to get loan from a bank?

Just asking... It seems we're getting taxed to death in Finland. Wondering where should we move to.

*eeeks!*

[Master Ray]

Well, I'm in the UK and I'm JUST getting by...

Might be an idea to give us an idea about a budget you have in mind and where you might be moving to... 

A little info goes a long way, mate!

[Pol]

1) Depends where you want to live What size of house you need.
2) Depends on what kinda work you do and what area you do it in
3) Depends on your credit rating and what security you have

Sorry i cant be any more helpful

[Shush]

1) depends on which part of the UK you live in
2) depends on who's asking
3) depends on your results to questions 1 and 2

Come and live over here Rusco, its cheap in the midlands and the north. Plus you will go to more NMA gigs 

[Rusco]

A little info goes a long way, mate!

Oh thanks a lot Ray & Shush. We'll keep that in mind if there' s an odd case we would really end up doing that. 

To be fair, I won't believe that day will ever come, as we've had our circles, families and past here. To be fair, we love the living and all the peace and nature here.

But there are some things with UK that I've always liked. There's no one other like you with your history and awesome music. Middle England sounds good. I think I could perhaps have some more success there with my second career as a printmaker too. Arts do not have a well established base of markets here either and is considered rather a high cultural, bourgeoisie thing.

The more I keep hearing about the Rock City the more I'd like to see that too. :-)

[Rusco]

The list of countries by average wage is quite interesting to see, actually. But you have to bear in mind the small amount of some really rich which raise the average value per person.

I corrected the link to the right one.

[Bunny]

A little info goes a long way, mate!

Oh thanks a lot Ray & Shush. We'll keep that in mind if there' s an odd case we would really end up doing that. 

To be fair, I won't believe that day will ever come, as we've had our circles, families and past here. To be fair, we love the living and all the peace and nature here.

But there are some things with UK that I've always liked. There's no one other like you with your history and awesome music. Middle England sounds good. I think I could perhaps have some more success there with my second career as a printmaker too. Arts do not have a well established base of markets here either and is considered rather a high cultural, bourgeoisie thing.

The more I keep hearing about the Rock City the more I'd like to see that too. :-)

We are lucky in a lot of ways. But then to counter balance it, I think the quality of life here sucks and you pay through the nose for it. Im particularily looking forward to working when im 70 odd years of age or whatever nonsense age our elected representatives deem fit 

[Rusco]

[...] then to counter balance it, I think the quality of life here sucks and you pay through the nose for it. Im particularily looking forward to working when im 70 odd years of age or whatever nonsense age our elected representatives deem fit 

At sometimes the 'progreso' goes too far and it acts as a contrary. We too have the so called welfare with all of its benefits that should make a living, everyday life of a modern man easier. But what I just heard...

You couldn't even park a car in a city without a smartphone and use of a bank account soon. So do the banks really can decide that. What about the poor or homeless people? Will there be a chip for them too? Every single taxi has more various technical gps systems than an average police car has. The world has really gone mad.

[ldopas]

Mmm, "quality of life sucks here" is an interesting one. Look I'm not trying to be controversial, well not much, and I know for some people life is a real struggle, but then it is worldwide.

So when we talk about quality of life here in the UK, I think we have to be careful. First thing to say is we bash our "meagre" welfare (which is in the end should be a safety net not a prop), but where would you rather be unemployed, here or say Sierra Leone? Where would you rather be ill, here or Sierra Leone? Welfare (well the living wage) needs to be more robust, true, but on welfare here we receive multiples more than someone would earn in a decade in most countries.

Someone posted a very interesting average earnings link here, and if you look at the map the further reaches of even Europe the average starts to plummet, and we haven't even mentioned the tiny wages people get in parts of Africa, Asia and South America.

Personally, and you can all shout at me if you want, it ain't perfect but I would rather be here than many places on the earth. Here I can put my mouth under a tap and get clean cool water, most of the planet cannot and if they have access to water also access disease.

Now hear me please. It's far from perfect, no country is. But as far as sexual, religious and speech freedoms we are near the top. And some people do better than others, again another worldwide trait. But I think we should be careful when saying it "sucks". Coz for most it doesn't, certainly not compared to most other countries! But hey you know, no one moans quite like us Brits.

[Shush]

I can certainly agree we are a nation very skilled in the art of moaning. I also agree, I think people are not truly aware of the benefits we have here in the UK and the Western World compared to most other countries. You can have a quality of life here whereby you can expect to be in health, under a roof, and fed unlike  most of the rest of the Worlds population.

I suppose when assessing the quality of life here, one important factor has to be happiness. Not always easy to quantify, but there is far more to some ones quality of life than the basics needed to be alive. If you are poor, out of work, or on the basic state pension, it is hard to get along in a society based on consumerism. Constantly bombarded by images creating desire for things that you cannot afford. Also the feeling of being trapped in cities and built up areas when you cannot afford a car or public transport.

I cannot help thinking that some peoples with far much less than even the poorest parts of our society in countries where people still interact with nature to get their basics to live may well be more happy than some peoples in the West.

[Danny]

From what I know about it, my direct experience of the place the few times I've been and what I hear from my Finnish friends, compared to Finland the quality of life (in terms of welfare and services provided by the state) DOES suck here. The UK, especially England and most especially the south east of England, is becoming more and more a great place to live if you're rich (look at all the scumbag bankers that caused the crisis we are still paying for, the Russian mafia bosses, sorry I mean oligarchs, and oil sheiks, all of whom prosper and practically own the whole of London between them) and a terrible place to live if you're not. And this coming from somebody (me) who's actually doing quite ok at present, at least the way I see things - I'm certainly not rich but I've got all I need and even a number of things I *don't* strictly speaking need (like being able to afford to go and see NMA in London, Nottingham and Amsterdam next month), which is more than many people I see around and/or personally know can say.

[Bunny]

Yeah id agree with the quality of life thing in some ways. We have it way better than many many countries. However in comparison to the developed world, I think we're way behind. Healthcare, transport, council, housing, employment is and always has been unfair. The recession hasnt stopped the price of food, heating, transport and housing being pushed up and its the folk at the lower ends of the ladder that cop it.  Meanwhile John Lewis cuddly penguins are selling well I hear!!

Im far from against people doing well for themselves through hard work or intelligence. Its the way it is. But I find it absolutely sickening that on one hand we're being told we're all in it together but in reality, this country has millions in private bank accounts and companies whilst their are people dying in hospital corridors because their is no money to fund hospital beds.

It feels almost that we have gone back thirty years.

Yeah we do moan. Well I do. But not without cause 

Incidentally Rusco, the taxi drivers at work just in my small area of the world will wholly outnumber the Police.. Therefore if you're a victim of crime, call a cab 

[Pol]

Its kinda like what my dear old mum used say " You don't know your born"

[ldopas]

Good replies to my post people. One thing here is we rarely fly off the handle even if we disagree, I appreciate that! 

Drummyb you say;

Healthcare, transport, council, housing, employment is and always has been unfair.

My take on this. Fair is a word thrown about by the politicians that to me means nothing. Change is another word used by politicians, used to say to us moaning Brits that they stand for something other than what is current, not that they have a clue what they want to change to, but the word is good for us moaning Brits to hear.

Fair means different things to different people. And of course those who try to define fair in their eyes which usually means it's laced with lashings of political bias, economic viewpoint, situational position, emotional experiences, love and/or hatred, and prejudices good or bad (though even that is subjective).

My fair isnt your fair I'm sure. Who is right? Both of us and none of us probably. Is Lord Sugars' fair what Len McCluskeys' fair? I very much doubt it.

There are certain things we probably all agree on like not killing people (but what if we had Hitler in our shot site in 1938?), people starving (but since I started typing this 6 minutes ago over 100 people have died from starvation in the world, 18 on average a minute).

I think all we can do is keep trying, look at how we perform globally to see it we are at or near the top of the good league and look after our fellow brothers and sisters best we can.

You say that healthcare etc has always been unfair. Well I can't comment for everywhere in the UK. But healthcare is still free at the point of need and the people who work in it are still fantastic I find. I don't understand the employment is unfair; do you mean wages are too low, you can't the job you want or what? I, as I've bored people with before, went my own way and I'm my own boss, so if the boss is an asshole then that's me! But the internet for example has freed employment up a lot for people to do their own thing, earn their own money, hell even dipsticks can post videos, get a following and get Google to pay for the exposure. To form a company (ie you) to do something online can be less than £40, and that is to register the thing, get a domain and a rudimentary website.

All I'm saying this for is I think that a lot of people feel powerless and trapped if only they looked at it a bit differently. Hell Einstein tells us our bodies have the energy of many hydrogen bombs if only we could release it, which we cannot because we don't know how to...yet! (That paragraph will probably be picked up by the NSA bots now!!) 

I've just realised how much verbiage I've written here....apologies I've gone on a bit. 

[ldopas]

From what I know about it, my direct experience of the place the few times I've been and what I hear from my Finnish friends, compared to Finland the quality of life (in terms of welfare and services provided by the state) DOES suck here. The UK, especially England and most especially the south east of England, is becoming more and more a great place to live if you're rich (look at all the scumbag bankers that caused the crisis we are still paying for, the Russian mafia bosses, sorry I mean oligarchs, and oil sheiks, all of whom prosper and practically own the whole of London between them) and a terrible place to live if you're not. And this coming from somebody (me) who's actually doing quite ok at present, at least the way I see things - I'm certainly not rich but I've got all I need and even a number of things I *don't* strictly speaking need (like being able to afford to go and see NMA in London, Nottingham and Amsterdam next month), which is more than many people I see around and/or personally know can say.

Well lets look at Finland for a start. Never been, though I hear its fantastic. Have been to Sweden, Norway and Iceland...brilliant places. In money for EU contributions they contribute £1.8 billion, whilst we have over 11 billion taken out of the economy. I'm not anti-EU I assure you but that must make a different to spend on services. Whilst the average per capita income is roughly the same, did you know that the gap between rich and poor is much widerin Finland than our country; the top 20% of the population earn almost four times as much as the bottom 20%. But don't take my word for it, look at this OECD comparator where we compare very favourably to there; http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/responses/#GBR+FIN   Perhaps they don't moan as much as us...ahem! 

So as Pol mum very wisely says; " You don't know you're born"!