Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
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Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
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Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#2> With almost identical population sizes, the UK has under 30 million homes, while France has around 37 million. 800,000 British families have second homes compared to 3.4 million French families.
I'm not sure that's a fair comparison, France has double the area of UK, and more of it is usable.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#3I once held a British passport, I'm glad I now hold another.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#4The UK was, and to some senses still is, a culture that strongly values who your parents are vs what you’ve personally accomplished. The head of state is the child of the previous head of state. The House of Lords is still a thing. Prestige based on family lineage is considered a big deal.
In the US and other parts of Europe it’s very different. People value you a lot more because of what you’ve done vs who you are and, with some exception, nobody cares who your parents were. If you have a rich daddy most people don’t care. If you’re rich because you inherited wealth vs earning it that’s see as “less” than those who are self made. While there are certainly exceptions, most of our richest people are in the self-made category and that’s a source of pride. “The American Dream” while a bit of a glossy story is generally a very real thing.
Passing off wealth and prestige by lineage has long been shown to be a bad idea. The next generation typically just screws it up.
Until the UK truly does away with its still quite hereditary ways and focuses a lot more on valuing individual achievement it will likely only continue to stagnate against other economies that have long since broadly moved on from such archaic mental models.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#5Long essay.
TL;DR the UK planning system is too restrictive and is stopping investment.
However, some of the comparisons made don't really stack up.
Yes. France has a better housing supply, and roughly the same area. But France has over twice the area, and under half the population density, even before you account for the almost uninhabited mountainous areas in Wales, Northern England and Scotland. So our populations are squeezed into smaller areas.
There are some good points made though. The gold plating of a lot of projects is ridiculous. And don't get me started on the Elizabeth Line. I get it, it is clearly hugely beneficial and I have no doubt it pays for itself. But then you visit places like Maerdy in the Welsh valleys, devastated by the closure of the coal mines, and it seems obscene to spend all that money in so small an area.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#6The list of issues that the article list seems very ad hoc. Some are compared to EU countries, but apparently only where this makes the UK come out worst.
It also ignores the fact that the UK might do better in some area's than other countries, it would be fair to lists these as well. Otherwise you could make a list like this for any country in the world.
Also some issues seem irrelevant. E.g. the crime rate was given, and it was mentioned that this had been actually going down in the recent years. But then it was compared to the crime rate after WO2, and yes, compared to that it went up.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#7> With almost identical population sizes, the UK has under 30 million homes, while France has around 37 million. 800,000 British families have second homes compared to 3.4 million French families. I'm not sure that's a fair comparison, France has double the area of UK, and more of it is usable.
But the UK is nowhere near full in terms of housing. The Netherlands is the densest large country in Europe, and rocks double the population density of the UK. Despite this, the two countries have a roughly equal ratio of people to homes (~2.2). It's not as if a country actually needs that much land to build homes - humans simply don't take up that much space in terms of housing.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#8The list of issues that the article list seems very ad hoc. Some are compared to EU countries, but apparently only where this makes the UK come out worst. It also ignores the fact that the UK might do better in some area's than other countries, it would be fair to lists these as well. Otherwise you could make a list like this for any country in the world. Also some issues seem irrelevant. E.g. the crime rate was give…
The fact it's a whole site dedicated to this article means there's some angle to it. Would be interesting to know who paid for this.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#9The UK was, and to some senses still is, a culture that strongly values who your parents are vs what you’ve personally accomplished. The head of state is the child of the previous head of state. The House of Lords is still a thing. Prestige based on family lineage is considered a big deal. In the US and other parts of Europe it’s very different. People value you a lot more because of what you’ve done vs who you are a…
The same last names are mentioned in the context of many US elections. US is not as far removed as you might think.
Re: Foundations: Why Britain Has Stagnated
#10I once held a British passport, I'm glad I now hold another.
Why, and which one?