Well according to one very respected man ;) :cheers:

Ozzy Osbourne has been moaning that it is just simply too expensive to live in Britain, which is why he has chosen to live mainly in America.

Speaking to Now magazine Ozzy said: "I'm more at home in England but it's so fucking expensive.

"I don't know how people run cars, pay mortgages and go on holiday - you need to earn £5,000 a week.

"I filled the car with petrol and it cost £79! I asked the bloke if there was a hole in the tank.

"In America, if they put a dime on a gallon, people chain themselves to the gas pumps."

Tell us more.:D

"I don't know how people run cars, pay mortgages and go on holiday - you need to earn £5,000 a week.

My answer: They use more economic car models and don't use the car for every fucking meter. ;)

yes, fucking expensive...

That sucks!

Poor Ozzy!

I can hardly hold my tears!

I'll swap my earnings with those of him and his missus if he wants?

I'm sorry, but rich people moaning about stuff being too expensive gets on my tits. There's immigrants on £4.80 per hour (probably plenty of illegals on less) and he's bitching?

This is what I have been telling people all the time... G.B. is hyper-overrated in everything starting from its currency... It is obvious why the entire industrial
infrstructure collapsed...

how much earn every britainfor per hour) in UK?

This is what I have been telling people all the time... G.B. is hyper-overrated in everything starting from its currency... It is obvious why the entire industrial
infrstructure collapsed...

What do you mean the entire economic infrastructure collapsed? the UK has made a successful transition from industrial to service basd economy like many other industrial nations.

The standard of living is as high as other European nations, your post seems to be anti--British rhetoric rather than a sensible comment.

how much earn every britainfor per hour) in UK?

The median full time salary is £22,000 ($42,000) per year, mean is £26,000 ($49,500) and the average person works about 46 weeks at 39 hours per week so per hour that works out at about £12.25 ($23.20) per hour median and £14.50 ($28.50) per hour mean.

The UK is expensive but there are more expensive countries, Switzerland, Norway and Japan spring to mind. The cost of living is also significantly less away from London and the South East of England.

If Ozzy's car costs £79 to fill he needs to get a smaller car or use public transport instead of destroying the environment.

The median full time salary is £22,000 ($42,000) per year, mean is £26,000 ($49,500) and the average person works about 46 weeks at 39 hours per week so per hour that works out at about £12.25 ($23.20) per hour median and £14.50 ($28.50) per hour mean.


46 weeks p/year, means 6 weeks holidays p/year!??! Sorry, but I think the median holidays in UK is 4 weeks (?); moreover I believe the UK average salary is more around $ 28/30.000 p/year.

Uk remains one of the most expensive country in the world, specially for tourists!! :bash:

46 weeks p/year, means 6 weeks holidays p/year!??! Sorry, but I think the median holidays in UK is 4 weeks (?); moreover I believe the UK average salary is more around $ 28/30.000 p/year.

Uk remains one of the most expensive country in the world, specially for tourists!! :bash:

4-5 weeks holiday plus 8 days national holidays, most people I know have 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays, median salary is £22,000 for a full-time job. mean is £26,000. maybe $28-30,000 if you include part-time workers, pensioners, children and unemployed. I think you are talking about GDP per capita PPP, not the same thing.

When I went on holiday in Italy in January, I found most things were about the same price as where I live in the UK (not London though)

It's exspensive in the UK, but no more exspensive than the rest of western europe, and certainly much cheaper than Scandinaiva. The only stinger is the property prices, but that's to be expected in a country as dense as the UK. Also the housing market has slowed down now to a much more sensible pace, which should give time for salaries to catch upto house prices.

19,500$ per year but we are in 33th place(Israel very expensive too)
we have 8 holiday days on the week(not all)

i think in all countries same prices with regard to their wages!

I'm more at home in England but it's so fucking expensive.

...says ozzy in the muffled drunken british accent.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/08/osbourne.accident/story.ozzy.ap.jpg

I'm more at home in England but it's so fucking expensive.

...says ozzy in the muffled drunken british accent.

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2003/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/08/osbourne.accident/story.ozzy.ap.jpg

That's a Brummie accent... Barely British if you ask me ;)

Luxuries etc are very dear in the UK (but as others have said, no worse than Switzerland, Norway, Japan etc), but for the average low-income person stores like ASDA and TESCO sell food and clothing (and just about everything else) extremely cheap, so its not as if there are huddled tattered masses of starving people. Property is admittedly very expensive in many areas, but it is also very cheap in others (ok they're slums)... The main saving grace is the presence of Council / Housing Association Housing in places like London, which enables people on Low Incomes to live there.

I can see the UK being expensive for tourists, but even the poorest native Brits manage so that's not really our problem as long as the tourists keep coming (which they do).

london is incredibly expensive, but the rest of the uk is much less expensive.

Here is an example, a friend of mine went to a wedding in Scotland.. He told me that to go to the pub and order fish and chips costs the same amount as at home. But he had to pay about $2.50 canadian for every pound!.(so it cost him over double) That is my idea of G.B being expensive. I've heard many other make similar comments about prices across the pond.

It's crazy espensive here compared to Canada and the US, where I've lived. If you take the price in $ and change it to £, it's about what prices are. Rent for my flat is about the same in $, but in £ and smaller (though in London, not in Ottawa). But it's worth it. London is a great city.

As not often know....Britain is expensive compared to other countries...But we earn more in our jobs than other countries....so you see...its not as if everyone in the UK is poor because everything so expensive....we get on fine like everyone else!

hkskyline said this in one of his posts...

An american will earn $5 in an hour and a burger will cost $2.50, a Brit will earn £5 an hour and a Burger will cost £2.50

An american will earn $5 in an hour and a burger will cost $2.50, a Brit will earn £5 an hour and a Burger will cost £2.50
I do not know the current situation, but a decade ago (prices where already stratospheric back then if you converted your money to pounds) the average salary in UK was nowhere near the average salaries of Switzerland and Denmark, two other comparably expensive countries. It was significantly lower than the average salary in (western) Germany, which in relation to its rich neighbours is a low price heaven. And average UK salaries never ever reached near average US salaries, or maybe did only in exceptional times like when the dollar was at a absolute low during the first US-Irak war.

But what I would like to know: How much does an average earner in UK (married, 2 children) have to pocket out for taxes, health insurance, pension contributions and the like? What's the disposable income?

I do not know the current situation, but a decade ago (prices where already stratospheric back then if you converted your money to pounds) the average salary in UK was nowhere near the average salaries of Switzerland and Denmark, two other comparably expensive countries. It was significantly lower than the average salary in (western) Germany, which in relation to its rich neighbours is a low price heaven. And average UK salaries never ever reached near average US salaries, or maybe did only in exceptional times like when the dollar was at a absolute low during the first US-Irak war.

But what I would like to know: How much does an average earner in UK (married, 2 children) have to pocket out for taxes, health insurance, pension contributions and the like? What's the disposable income?

UK salaries are now some of Europe's highest and similar to western Germany.

http://www.mercerhr.co.uk/images/EEC_chart1.jpg

Someone earning the mean salary of £26,000 per year would pay about £6,700 in income tax and social security/pension contributions. Not many people in the UK (only about 5-10% of the population I think) buy medical insurance as you can get free healthcare from the NHS.

The UK isnt too expensive, London is very expensive though.

As to fuel prices, smaller countries tend to have higher taxes as people dont drive as far.
Image petrol (for examples sake) was £1 per mile If people in one country drive an average of 20 miles a day you would spend £20.
In a smaller country with drives an average of 10 miles a day if petrol cost£2 a mile you would spend the same money per week.
Yet if you came from the bigger country came to the smaller it would seem twise as expensive, yet you would not yet have adopted the driving habits of that smaller nation and would not realise that on average people dont drive as far as in your country and that the cost to the individual per week is the same.
A big country with spread out houses needs to charge less per mile than a smaller country as more miles are actually driven, so less tax per mile is needed to raise the same amount.

Bear in mind also that a British gallon is larger than a US one.

As to fish and chip prices, it depends where you bought them from as to how much they will cost, one example means nothing.

^^Also cars in the UK (and the rest of Europe) tend to be much more fuel-efficient than cars in the US so when you combine that with shorter distances and a bit more walking we probably don't spend that much more on fuel than in the states.

As for Fish and Chips they may well be cheaper in Canada, but a portion big enough to feed two only costs is still only about £3 or £4, not exactly extortionate.

er, I don't get this. Should Britain be too expensive, you'd look at lower incomes, not at median and mean incomes .. And it would mark a difference whether you're a mum with kids in Greater London or in say Shropshire where a mum with kids is likelier to receive 'silent' support from a grocery store. And I guess that's universal.

er, I don't get this. Should Britain be too expensive, you'd look at lower incomes, not at median and mean incomes .. And it would mark a difference whether you're a mum with kids in Greater London or in say Shropshire where a mum with kids is likelier to receive 'silent' support from a grocery store. And I guess that's universal.

In Shropshire children from poor families pimp their own mothers on the street corners to get money for fish and chips and cider.

:ohno: :rofl:
you mean kids charge their divorced fathers for sex with someone else's mother? England has a bright future with these young managers :D

I live in London. We have a modest house and 2 cars. We manage okay, and my dad is a Bus Driver, earning about 25k, he's been there for quite a while now, with my mum working part-time in a doctor's reception, earning about 5k.

If you budget sensibly and shop around, you can manage FINE.

Budget management is the issue here. People get into problems after giving in to demands created by advertising.

Budget management is the issue here. People get into problems after giving in to demands created by advertising.

Yes I keep popping out for a pint of milk and coming back with Bentleys and Rolexes

I'd rather London be expensive and somewhere only a select few can live and enjoy rather than having hordes of tourists coming over for the cheap beer and souvenirs...

I'd rather London be expensive and somewhere only a select few can live and enjoy

Large swathes of London are hardly inhabited by 'a select few'. Even a ne'er-do-well chav can make money in London by doing sumthin' or nuthin' so that means that even commoners can live there ;)

rather than having hordes of tourists coming over for the cheap beer and souvenirs...

Of course there are no tourists in London buying tacky teddy bears dressed as beefeaters or plastic tower bridges mounted on fake marble are there?

You're right about the one thing though, I wouldn't go to London for cheap beer although the rest of the country has caught up somewhat in recent years in my experience. I pay about £1.90-£2.50 for a pint (568ml) unless it's happy hour/wetherspoons.

Yes I keep popping out for a pint of milk and coming back with Bentleys and Rolexes
Notify me when the Bentley advertisements are on, I never saw one, honest!

Stop watching ITV, aka Lowest Common Denominator TV, and you might see one :yes:

which is procent of poverty in UK?

which is procent of poverty in UK?

how do you define poverty? It will make a big difference to the answer:

% of the population live on less than $5 per day?

% of the population live on less than $10 per day?

% of the population live on less than $25 per day?

% of the population live on less than $40 per day?

% of the population live on less than 50% median income?

% of the population live on less than 60% median income?

% of the population live on less than 75% median income?

% of the population live on less than 50% mean income?

Who are you talking about? low-income families, old, disabled and unemployed people get money and free housing from the government so they can still live ok.

Poor in Norway might be rich in Poland

less than 25$ i think it's poor no?

yeah i would think that virtually all of britain's probably earn or recieve more than $25k a year, however thats combined incomes and state benefits included

yeah i would think that virtually all of britain's probably earn or recieve more than $25k a year, however thats combined incomes and state benefits included

No chance! $25k is £13k, a single person who is unemployed gets £55 per week (£2,860 per year) probably housing benefit and council tax benefit (maybe worth another £3,000-£6,000 depending on the area) and that's about it.

Someone who has a full-time minimum wage job would get £5.05 (from October) x 37 hours x 52 weeks, that is about £9,716 before tax, they may get some tax credits on top but not much if they don't have kids.

There are also lots of pensioners who only receive the basic state pension + housing benefit who live on less than £13k per year.

There are 2.7m on incapacity benefit who get £55 per week + housing and coucil tax benefit, most of these will have less than £13k per year incomes.

Everybody in the UK does get free medical treatment which would probably cost a couple of thousand pounds per year to insure privately but even if you add this on to the examples above they would still not get £13k per year in income + benefits.

I thikn Zohar might have meant $25 per day which is £4,800 per year, I think everyone in the UK gets more than that at least.