Just a question but do you know what the average family income in the UK is? It’s £22,000 or so. Having a family income of £37,500 in the UK puts you in what, the top 3rd of the population? Top 4th maybe even?
So you might want to think about that a bit for comparison purposes. How much did you think people in the UK earned, btw? I know you operate a lot outside the country (not sure if ex-pat or not) but your fellow Brits operate on a lot less than £37,500, in general.
Also, £37,500 does get you pretty far in the UK, outside of the big cities. If you can somehow earn that without living in London or a few other places, you won’t be rolling in it, but you’ll definitely be doing okay. Certainly a lot better off than most Brits.
But in America it’s even better. The vast majority of people live outside the few expensive cities. Even Chicago, for example, isn’t really an expensive city. And Trump voters particularly live outside those cities.
So if you’re a Trump voter earning $50-100k it’s a very strong bet that you live in either a rural area, or a small city. Either way, your costs are vastly lower than a Brit. You can buy a house which, even in a rural area, in the UK, might cost £800k to £1.2m for about $350-400k, and that’s IN a smaller city. Which may well be a pretty nice civilized city, actually. Not the hick shithole Brits tend to imagine.
If you’re going for something lesser, well, that’s even cheaper. A 3-bed in a smaller city might cost $125-250k, and it’ll likely be nicer than a UK equivalent, because it’s simply physically larger, and more modern in design (they don’t have everyone trying to shove into Victorian crap), and will actually be designed for modern amenities.
And if you’re renting, wow. In the US rent is frequently LOWER than a mortgage, because the housing market is actually competitive. A massive modern two-bed condo with all mod cons in a safe area, with gated security, where I used to live with my wife in the US costs $550. Per MONTH. In London the same would cost you £2000+ per month, and even outside London you’d be looking at £1200-1500 per month. Not the £400 that’s equivalent to.
Then look at grocery prices, look at utility bills, even account for gas mileage in some shitty SUV, and you’re ridiculously way ahead because $50000 is a lot of money (and £37500 is quite a lot of money).
And that’s the bottom end of your range!
Most of the people in that range around going to be somewhere in the middle, say $75k, which just makes it better. And people who are on $100k, outside of SF/NY, who consider themselves “poor” or “dispossessed” are wild fantasists. And they do exist. I’ve them IRL. I’m related to some marriage. People who boast about earning $120k (and I am confident they are not lying from their lifestyle, decade on decade) in one breath, but claim to be completely disenfranchised, dispossessed, and barely above water in another. People who have a mansion (no seriously, maybe it’s a “McMansion” and hideous/tacky-AF but it’s still huge and good quality and could be rendered tasteful if people cared), multiple good cars (not lemons), a cabin or two, maybe they even own a bit of land, who put kids through college, and really the only threat to them is healthcare costs, but they voted for the guy who said he would get rid of Obamacare, so…*
I mean, I think what might surprise a lot of British people, if they went to the rural US, is how well-off a lot of it is and a lot of the people are. It’s a crazy place but… I went with my wife’s mom to buy a car and a totally upright, normal-seeming dude, holding his baby on one arm, and chatting about the car he was selling, had a H&K USP (or similar) holstered on his waist with three extra mags for the firefight I guess he must be anticipating. Job-wise he was a server tech, not some kind of cop or security guard. Nuts.
- = This is where it does get interesting though. Even some staunch pistol-toting “white genocide” (though they never quite say it, only imply it) Republicans I’ve met have actually been keen to keep “ACA”, even as they might sneer at “Obamacare” (they are the same exact thing) because it actually does benefit them in an obvious way. So there are Republican politicians wavering on that.