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London is an exercise in marketing, to see how far peoples suspension of disbelief can be stretched whilst being a net drain on a country it isn't even strictly
by brnt 5y ago
London is an exercise in marketing, to see how far peoples suspension of disbelief can be stretched whilst being a net drain on a country it isn't even strictly part of, and a drain the world as a whole.
It is amazing to see how Brits outside of (hell, even in) London live, the British countryside has some of the poorest areas in western Europe. Evidence marketing is effective!
- maccard 5y ago> the British countryside has some of the poorest areas in western Europe All rich countries have impovrished areas that have been left behind. > It is amazing to see how Brits outside of (hell, even in) London live, The same can be said for California, New York, Florida, Dublin, Paris, Barcelona, etc.
- seniorivn 5y agoSwiss don't
- bojan 5y agoIn The Netherlands they are few and far between.
- brnt 5y ago> All rich countries have impovrished areas that have been left behind. Check which countries make the top 10 lists in QoL. You'll find their ghetto's are as nice to live as some of Britain's good neighbourhoods!
- HPsquared 5y ago>> net drain on a country it isn't even strictly part of Not quite: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_fiscal_balance https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_fiscal_balance
- estaseuropano 5y agoLondon and the City of London are different entities.
- newroman 5y agogood job it's not talking about the city of London, then
- ForHackernews 5y agoWhat parts of the British countryside are poor? Anecdotally, the stereotypical British farmer is a wealthy Tory, and low income populations are concentrated in council estates in postindustrial northern towns and cities (i.e. not the countryside).
- toyg 5y agoto most non-brits, Britain is effectively divided between "London" and "anything else". This "anything else" can be referenced to, more or less interchangeably, as "the countryside", "Scotland" or (after Game of Thrones) "the North". Manchester is basically a London suburb, Sheffield is just a factory that closed in the '80s, and Birmingham doesn't exist.
- mc32 5y agoFrom my US PoV, most smallholder farmers in the UK are not rich or wealthy, but almost subsistence --perhaps better than break even but do not generate enough income so one partner has to keep a professional job. As for post industrial rust-towns, I think of the northeast/Newcastle, Humberside & Scotland --maybe influenced by 'The Post War Dream' and Kris Killip's photography.
- ForHackernews 5y agoMaybe it's a matter of perspective: If you buy a million pound property to live in and keep as a hobby farm that also generates a little bit of income, are you "subsistence" or in fact "very wealthy"?
- alexgmcm 5y agoCornwall has some of the worst poverty in Western Europe. The Welsh Valleys too since the loss of the mines.