This article is missing an important part in the relationship between the developed world and the developing world which is exploitation. When companies start offshoring to the UK for cheap labor or taking its resources for pennies on the dollar we can start calling it a proper developing country.
Britain Is a Developing Country
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Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#22Does the UK have anything going for it? It is very hard for me to see the UK having a better quality of life in future than they had in the past. Not being part of the EU means they will mostly be squeezed in trade negotiations. And the UK does not have any industry going for it, so sooner or later the living standards would catch up with the rest of the developing world at the middle.
Compared to where? It's a large-ish, English speaking country, with plenty of other countries nearby, that isn't North America.
The rest of the G8 I would presume.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#23Does the UK have anything going for it? It is very hard for me to see the UK having a better quality of life in future than they had in the past. Not being part of the EU means they will mostly be squeezed in trade negotiations. And the UK does not have any industry going for it, so sooner or later the living standards would catch up with the rest of the developing world at the middle.
Top UK universities are still globally elite. I don’t know how important that is.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#24Does the UK have anything going for it? It is very hard for me to see the UK having a better quality of life in future than they had in the past. Not being part of the EU means they will mostly be squeezed in trade negotiations. And the UK does not have any industry going for it, so sooner or later the living standards would catch up with the rest of the developing world at the middle.
Surprisingly we still have a few things that could be sold off for a fraction of the price. Think about the long term savings in not having to put effort into continuing costly services and letting someone else do it instead!
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#25Does the UK have anything going for it? It is very hard for me to see the UK having a better quality of life in future than they had in the past. Not being part of the EU means they will mostly be squeezed in trade negotiations. And the UK does not have any industry going for it, so sooner or later the living standards would catch up with the rest of the developing world at the middle.
As someone from an actual developing country, I see a lot of very talented people moving there, and they are very happy with their transition. Most of those people could easily get into FAANGs through leetcode interviews, but US visa system drives them to Canada, UK and Germany instead.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#26Does the UK have anything going for it? It is very hard for me to see the UK having a better quality of life in future than they had in the past. Not being part of the EU means they will mostly be squeezed in trade negotiations. And the UK does not have any industry going for it, so sooner or later the living standards would catch up with the rest of the developing world at the middle.
Top UK universities are still globally elite. I don’t know how important that is.
But most people in the UK can afford to go to them, which is maybe by design.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#27Britain isn’t a developing country, it’s a regressing one. Public services and government that used to work well now don’t, and opportunities that everyday folk used to have they now don’t. It’s still a nice place if you’re in a good career, but the long term prospects don’t look good.
>Britain isn’t a developing country, it’s a regressing one.
There's so much research on developing countries, but I find deteriorating countries more interesting. There are many countries that used to be first world, and simply are not anymore. Argentina is the classic example, South Africa is the most heated example.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#28What the UK has going for it is that its population speaks the technology and science lingua franca, by default.
As does most of the educated populations of rEurope and India etc - I’m an English dev working in the EU and the fact that I speak English is of no real advantage over my peers.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#29Having lived in multiple western EU countries and in the US, and now living in the UK, I can say that it's not developing, it's regressing. It is baffling how bad everything is, from public services (8 months of average waiting time in the NHS for something as benign as a lumbar puncture) to worker's rights (it's literally worse than the US). And now they of course committed economic suicide with the Brexit. I simply…
Can you elaborate more on how the UK's workers rights are "literally worse than the US"? I would say things like statutory sick pay, mandatory holiday allowance, protection from unfair dismissal and the right to uninterrupted breaks are all pretty progressive compared to the States.
Re: Britain Is a Developing Country
#30Growing up I assumed the UK was pretty rich. But then when you look at the stats, the UK is about as wealthy as Mississippi, one of the poorest states. Learning that people with college degrees in the UK make 25k GBP, and that is considered good, sure isn't that bad when GBP was worth 2x USD. But people are living in London for those salaries. The big expensive cities in the US, like NYC pay you much more to compensate for the high cost of living.
In the US I know people with GEDs working Plumbing, HVAC, Electrical, Diesel Mechanics, etc. making $100k-150k in areas where a house in the nice neighborhood cost $200k. So the fact that you have people making so little in London where it costs a million to buy a house really shows how bad the UK has it.