do you wish uk would be more like usa

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  • Net NutNet Nut Posts: 10,286
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    “The reason America has more people in prison than the rest of the world put together is because people are making a lot of money out of it. One in thirty men aged 20 to 34 is behind bars that's one in nine for black people, There are more 17 year old blacks in jail than college.

    Ninety three percent of paints manufactured in America are made in prisons, thirty six percent of home appliances, twenty one percent of office furniture.

    They reintroduced slavery that's all.”


    “With the exploitation that brings, and expect low paid workers to be made redundant whilst benefit claimants are brought in at a mere fraction of the price of a employee given a decent living wage. It's already happened, I've seen it in my line of work myself, jobseekers and work experience people made to do the full time work someone normally gets paid minimum wage or above for, that benefit claimant or work experience person is made to do the same work for as little as £30 a week (80p an hour). It's exploitation in my opinion and will do nothing to motivate employers to take on workers and give them a decent wage and working rights. If the company happens to be a private one and is taking on benefit claimants to fill in roles normally done by a member of staff paid a decent living wage, then you, the taxpayer, is subsidising that private companies labour bill.”


    Two good reasons why everyone made to do any work should have to be paid a minimum living wage/hourly rate.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,663
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    I regularly see how nasty the USA is if your are poor.

    A friend keeps moaning about her son not having medical and dental insurance and she works 49 hours a week and seems to get little for it.

    Even those who have insurance are little better off. Seven out of ten adults driven into debt my medical expenses had insurance.

    Sixty two percent of bankruptcies filed in 2007 were related to medical expenses and eighty percent of those had insurance.

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/12/most-driven-into-debt-by-medical-bills.html
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 288
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    Apart from being tougher on crime no.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 166
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    How about much lower taxes in the us compared to ours where most of your hard earned cash is taken off you in one way or another to pay for all the people that dont work i like that idea,al so much tougher prisons where your punished unlike our holiday camps.
  • andyknandykn Posts: 66,849
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    lesley365 wrote: »
    How about much lower taxes in the us compared to ours where most of your hard earned cash is taken off you in one way or another to pay for all the people that dont work i like that idea,al so much tougher prisons where your punished unlike our holiday camps.

    Add in health insurance to cover what we get here and then tell us how much lower US taxes actually are.
  • jassijassi Posts: 7,895
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    Nate91 wrote: »
    Apart from being tougher on crime no.

    I don't think they are tougher on crime, merely tougher on retribution and punishment.

    Their measures certainly don't seem to stop crime.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 34
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    No. I think firearms should be legal, but Switzerland does that better than the US anyway.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,799
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    kibblerok wrote: »
    America is somewhat smoke and mirrors - huge discrepancies in welfare, quality of life and 'fairness'

    I prefer Europe - a somewhat more relaxed equal environment, it's far from perfect but preferable over the US.

    Tough sentences, but that doesn't result in less crime, take murder for example life not meaning life here vs a long stretch or in extreme cases dependant on state - death

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
    You're right, things often aren't what they seem.
    • So for example from the land of equality who would want to import this:
      In U.S., 14% Rely on Food Stamps

    • Or from the land of self reliance this chaotic behind the scenes wealth redistribution:
      "ATLANTA -- A record number of people are trying to get help paying their heating bills, Atlanta officials said.
      Fulton and DeKalb County residents started showing up at 4 a.m. Friday to get in line at the DeKalb-Atlanta Human Services Center, which houses the Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority. The agency is tasked with distributing federal funding to people who need help paying their gas and electricity bills. The funding comes from the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program. The program determines the amount of funding for each county based on its poverty level. Cobb County, for example, got less funding, Dorsey said, which is why that county ran out of funding just one day after the distributions began. Dorsey said her agency received $4 million in 2010, $1 million less than last year. She anticipates her agency will run out of its winter assistance funding by February".

    • Or from the home supposedly of people standing up to government tax tyranny this little heartwarmer:
      Wesley Snipes sentenced to three years imprisonment for failing to file tax returns.

    • And from the land of the free:
      More people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. One in every 32 American adults is behind bars, on probation or on parole.The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people is the highest in the world.

    Finally, the US is a federal system with 300 million people paying their taxes and sending their children into military service at the behest of one central government. When the idea of a federal Europe hits the agenda people in the UK seem to run a mile, as if they fear some great tyranny will fall upon them, at least that's my impression. So no I don't think people in the UK want to be like the US.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 3,799
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    SuckMyDisc wrote: »
    No. I think firearms should be legal, but Switzerland does that better than the US anyway.
    I think it's because firearm ownership comes with with certain obligations in Switzerland, I don't think it would work in the UK. We're too much like the US. Before the end of the first week someone would have watched a Hollywood 'home alone' movie, fallen asleep with a copy of the Daily Mail folded across their lap, woken with a start the next morning at hearing a sound at the door, and shot the postman.

    Besides we already have a right to bear arms, it's where the US gets its right to bear arms, we've just differentially modified it by experience.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,916
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    bean999 wrote: »
    You're right, things often aren't what they seem.
    • So for example from the land of equality who would want to import this:
      In U.S., 14% Rely on Food Stamps

    • Or from the land of self reliance this chaotic behind the scenes wealth redistribution:
      "ATLANTA -- A record number of people are trying to get help paying their heating bills, Atlanta officials said.
      Fulton and DeKalb County residents started showing up at 4 a.m. Friday to get in line at the DeKalb-Atlanta Human Services Center, which houses the Fulton-Atlanta Community Action Authority. The agency is tasked with distributing federal funding to people who need help paying their gas and electricity bills. The funding comes from the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program. The program determines the amount of funding for each county based on its poverty level. Cobb County, for example, got less funding, Dorsey said, which is why that county ran out of funding just one day after the distributions began. Dorsey said her agency received $4 million in 2010, $1 million less than last year. She anticipates her agency will run out of its winter assistance funding by February".

    • Or from the home supposedly of people standing up to government tax tyranny this little heartwarmer:
      Wesley Snipes sentenced to three years imprisonment for failing to file tax returns.

    • And from the land of the free:
      More people are behind bars in the United States than in any other country. One in every 32 American adults is behind bars, on probation or on parole.The United States has 5 percent of the world's population and 25 percent of the world's incarcerated population. The U.S. incarceration rate of 737 per 100,000 people is the highest in the world.

    Finally, the US is a federal system with 300 million people paying their taxes and sending their children into military service at the behest of one central government. When the idea of a federal Europe hits the agenda people in the UK seem to run a mile, as if they fear some great tyranny will fall upon them, at least that's my impression. So no I don't think people in the UK want to be like the US.

    And I think you could add land of opportunity to that list as well.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 166
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    So your happy when people murder in the uk and they get out after as little as 8 years,your happy when some people put in 40 hrs work per week and they get less than some one on the dole.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,663
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    lesley365 wrote: »
    So your happy when people murder in the uk and they get out after as little as 8 years,your happy when some people put in 40 hrs work per week and they get less than some one on the dole.

    Would you be happy with people being sentenced to life for shop lifting like they are in America? In America there are people sentenced to life getting parole just as in Britain there are people sentenced to life who will never be released.
  • andyknandykn Posts: 66,849
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    lesley365 wrote: »
    So your happy when people murder in the uk and they get out after as little as 8 years,your happy when some people put in 40 hrs work per week and they get less than some one on the dole.

    Yes, not that I know anyone who's got out after 8 years for Murder, but I trust the system enough to believe that the decision would have been made taking all the relevant facts into account.

    And some people on the dole have children to feed and house that can cost more than 40 hours on the minimum wage, that's why we have working tax credits so there is still an incentive for those on the dole getting more than the minimum wage to work.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 288
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    jassi wrote: »
    I don't think they are tougher on crime, merely tougher on retribution and punishment.

    Their measures certainly don't seem to stop crime.

    True.I wouldn't want our sentences to be quite that tough anyway, I don't believe a life for a life works or is fair but over here we seem to give out sentences too small for the crime.
  • CRTHDCRTHD Posts: 7,602
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    dotty1 wrote: »
    I wonder how long it will be before they [Food vouchers] are used to replace benefits entirely?

    It can't come soon enough for me.
  • MoggioMoggio Posts: 4,289
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    CRTHD wrote: »
    It can't come soon enough for me.

    Yeah, being on benefits isn't degrading enough.
  • allafixallafix Posts: 20,683
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    CRTHD wrote: »
    It can't come soon enough for me.
    Vouchers don't gain you anything except further marking out those on benefits for shame. It won't stop cheating, as even benefits cheats have to buy food. And why shouldn't people budget well and save for a few treats. Vouchers are open to abuse by counterfeiting..
  • allafixallafix Posts: 20,683
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    lesley365 wrote: »
    So your happy when people murder in the uk and they get out after as little as 8 years,your happy when some people put in 40 hrs work per week and they get less than some one on the dole.
    Got many examples of people out after eight years for murder? Any at all in fact, apart from juveniles?
  • AnnsyreAnnsyre Posts: 109,476
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    lesley365 wrote: »
    Tougher on crime ie life means life not 8 years like the uk,only so much help from the state ie no free houses,only so much social money,low taxes for those that help themselves, no handouts for those that have not paid in ?

    The USA is huge and has state law as well as federal law.

    Would you like to go to the electric chair for an offence committed in Yorkshire while your friend got twenty five years for the same crime in Lancashire?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,366
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    I don’t get this fascination of wanting to compare and contrast UK vs. USA. What is it you are trying to achieve? :confused:

    Besides the similar language the country is so vast in size and population, not to mention laws are very different from state to state, it would be difficult to put a realistic comparison. You can fit the UK into Florida for crying out loud.

    Why not compare the UK with countries similar in size, population and history i.e. France, Germany etc. Wouldn’t that be a better comparison? It’s like Switzerland comparing themselves with Canada or Russia or China.

    To put it bluntly, if the UK had the same size, population and history as the US some of our laws in here will be very different to what we currently have.
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