As an immigrant to the UK I'm continually surprised on how poor life here actually is. The main culprit in my mind is the atrocious cost of real estate. Not so

As an immigrant to the UK I'm continually surprised on how poor life here actually is. The main culprit in my mind is the atrocious cost of real estate. Not so much in how much money it takes to buy a house - those costs can be comparable to other countries, but on the ratio of post-tax salary pound per square meter. Most of the real estate in the UK is very small, both in outdoor space as well as in indoor proportions. In the US middle class housing often provides fairly large indoor spaces where multiple people can collaborate, as well as things like garages and large-ish lawns, these things are much rarer and more expensive in the UK. This makes it much more difficult to have a space for multiple people to effectively collaborate on idea "for free". Sure, you can hire a co-working space, but that requires already some form of financial commitment.