- Software and hardware’s more expensive. Take a MacBook Pro: in the US they start at US$1999, in the UK they start at £1299 (US$2640). Our VAT is 17.5%, but even pre-VAT it’s nearly £200 more expensive. Windows Vista is another: we pay £369 for the Ultimate version when Americans pay US$399… we pay almost double!
- We have a self-identity crisis as a nation. Am I European? Am I British? Am I English? I identify myself as all three of these but I’m sure a number of people would choose not to identify themselves as British. I guess we have it quite simple… pity the Manx! Oh, and don’t ask a foreigner to explain the difference between the UK, Great Britain and England!
- Everything’s released later. They don’t even have translation as an excuse for us though! We don’t have iPhone yet, for example.
- We use a really weird mixture of imperial and metric measurements (and the EU have realised it’s going to stay that way)!
- No Mountain Dew
- People steal and change our language (that being English… not Welsh or Scots!)
- Businesses and government are in a never ending loop of using commercial software. The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) alone spent £1,200,000 of tax payers money on Microsoft licen
sces in 2001-2002. - The US$=>GB£ exchange rate is rubbish if you’re receiving money in dollars. It’s bad if you’re an international publisher on sites like TLA because payment is in US$.
- We have slow but plentiful broadband providers.
- It’s GMT, not UTC!
- Everything seems to be limited to U.S. citizens only… (competitions etc.).
I guess it could be worse… we could be French or American! 
:P:P
You only actually make comparisons to US products, the macbook, vista, etc. are all american anyway, so it stands to reason they would be cheaper there.
The comparisons you draw are all against America, yet (as you rightly say
) it would suck to be American.
You complain that our language is stolen and abused, then you use the American spelling of licence!!!
We may pay a lot more VAT but we have many things the US doesn’t, the NHS for example. As far as european countries go, we’re pretty low for VAT.
As for everything being limited to US citizens, I don’t knwo about you… but I have NEVER not been able to use/enter something because I’m not American…
Dan Bishop: Lots of online freebies are only open to US citizens. And as for language, they’re brainwashing me!
and if i had to write an article on why it sucked to be american . . . it would never end –i’m sad to hear that it sucks to be british too, i was hoping to convert one day, like madonna (only i would do a much better job than her!)
LOL! Grass is always greener….
i
Nice one…it’s a rare Brit who will say this. Brits think they are the best and their country is the best and so on…I agree on the cost part of it. UK I hear is goddamn expensive. One thing I prefer the UK over USA is for education – being an Indian perhaps!
Most of those points can be brought out by most Europeans. From my experience, the further a European country is from the Greenwich Meridian the more expensive hardware gets.
In Portugal it’s even worse. Our minimum wages are of around €350, and any hardware or software is more expensive than in most places in Europe. How people manage to live with that amount of money, let alone purchase any technology, I don’t know… your guess is as good as mine.
Marco: Woah. Is your cost of living lower, though? I know in Poland their average wage is pretty low (compared to the UK) but their cost of living was low, too.
I’m with you on the expensive thing. I’m broke because I’m British!
Hey that true British and Europe sucks. You can compare even the basic things, like how expensive it is to get a driving license in UK or EU. Over here it costs only $10……….LOL
it costs money to get a driving license? in america its free, you say our government is cheap and greedy ( which though that is true) atleast they give stuff like that to us, your countries sound just as greedy if not more.
to blaa : Do you have free medical system(for everyone, regardless of how much they earn)? What about minimum wages? And can you compare anything by comparing the cost a driving licence?
I agree with the no mountain dew thing but everything seems so expensive because of the exchange rate, In USD the u.k on average makes more income but our cost of living balances out. Free education and healthcare, Our quality of life is better. Sucks that we get tv series a year later because of some crazy hollywood law.
oh you british people are funny. Your free healthcare sucks. You guys don’t get that? I much prefer my better health care than waiting in lines. Also you guys need to get over your infertility complexes. I know a lot of people who hate the british people because they all whine about supposedly being superior when that is not the case at all.
Maybe we can all agree that being British or American sucks. You know, because we’re both so jaded.
Pff, Irn Bru > Mountain due ANYDAY o’ the week!
NHS haha you will be waiting for ever for botched operation that might even make you feel uworse. All I can say yes all british people stay in UK it`s the best place in whole universe don’t immigrate anywhere just stay all in UK:)
Ah well you dont have to be British to know whether you like London or not as you can see from the debate we are having at Sleep New York about London v New York.
http://sleepny.lefora.com/2009/07/08/london-v-new-york/
There are arguments on the forum going in both directions.