Where are you from?

Brenden wrote:

poolerboy0077 wrote:

René wrote:Originally from the Netherlands, married to a Michigander, used to live in England, now living in Scotland.

Scotland is the best. I feel like I've come home. These are my people.

What’s so great about Scotland that surpasses these other places?

The United Kingdom has the NHS making it significantly better than the United States' ridiculous private health care system and slightly better than the Netherlands' more reasonable private system, and Scotland's NHS is even better than England's NHS (it has free prescriptions for all; expanded dental coverage; more doctors per capita — 80 vs 60 per 100,000 — despite doctors being paid less, indicating there are more reasons why they prefer working in Scotland; more nurses, midwives, medical hospital staff per capita; and all that for just 9% higher spending per capita).

People in the United States are about 3 times more likely to die violent, unnatural deaths — homicide (4x), suicide (2x), traffic accident (4x), occupational (6x) — than people in the United Kingdom. The Netherlands is only slightly worse than the United Kingdom.

Scotland's laws give more rights to tenants. In general, Scotland's laws are much more progressive than England and Wales' laws.

Scottish people seem friendlier and more welcoming than English people. René got a letter from our Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) welcoming him and offering help with his immigration status. Recently, England seems increasingly xenophobic.

In our experience, customer service is better in the UK than in the Netherlands. Staff are friendlier, there is more focus on customer satisfaction, etc. Although perhaps not as great as in the United States.

Grocery prices are far more reasonable in the United Kingdom compared to both the Netherlands and the United States.

Trains and public transport generally is much better in Scotland compared to England (outside of London). A lot of the rail network in Scotland is electrified (Northern England is all clunky diesel trains), there are services scheduled, and prices are more reasonable. IIRC, something like 95% of the population lives within a 10 minute walk of a bus station. Trains in the Netherlands are faster and cheaper, but there are far fewer train stations, especially in rural areas, unlike Scotland (and England to be fair).

Water in Scotland is provided by the local government and paid through the council tax bill, often unmetered. In England it's provided by private geographic monopolies who charge ridiculous fees.

The scenery in Scotland is superior to the flat Netherlands and mostly flat Michigan. The accessibility of nature in the United Kingdom generally is also far higher, with train stations in rural areas as I mentioned above (there's one here in Scotland that takes you to a place you can't even get to by road) and paths all over the place. Scotland has enshrined a freedom to roam in law, allowing access to private countryside and wilderness.

The climate is more temperate in the United Kingdom. The Netherlands has a terrible wind problem from time to time, but the hills and mountains break the wind more on Great Britain. The Netherlands is also at long-term risk of disappearing; I wouldn't want to invest in property there.

Scotland > England > Netherlands > United States

René wrote:

poolerboy0077 wrote:

René wrote:Originally from the Netherlands, married to a Michigander, used to live in England, now living in Scotland.

Scotland is the best. I feel like I've come home. These are my people.

What’s so great about Scotland that surpasses these other places?

Brenden wrote:[...]

In our experience, customer service is better in the UK than in the Netherlands. Staff are friendlier, there is more focus on customer satisfaction, etc. Although perhaps not as great as in the United States.

[...]

One time I mentioned to my second cousin who used to work at a supermarket in the Netherlands that I took a grocery item back for a refund here in the UK once because I was very unhappy with it. She laughed out loud and said something like "I dunno, maybe we have that policy in theory, but I would just have told you to fuck off."

Most Dutch companies seem ridiculously greedy, trying to squeeze every cent they can out of you and not offering any gestures of goodwill. Stores here realise that they're much better off taking the loss of one little product rather than potentially losing a customer who might keep coming back for 50 years after a positive customer-service experience.

Another example: in the UK, personal bank accounts are typically free, and on top of that, banks reward you for keeping your money with them (in the form of benefits like travel insurance, cashback, etc.). In the Netherlands in my experience, you pay the bank a monthly or quarterly fee for the privilege of having the account and get no benefits in return.

Credit cards are typically free in the UK. In the Netherlands AFAIK there is always an annual fee. Meanwhile, banks in the Netherlands make tonnes of money off you using their cards just like they do here... it's just greed.

The UK is also incredibly technologically advanced in some areas where the US and Netherlands are ridiculously behind, like bank transfers between different banks.
In the UK, domestic bank transfers are instantaneous and free no matter who you bank with. Instant payments between different banks were introduced 7 years ago.
In the Netherlands, they're free but can take up to 1 business day. They're planning to finally introduce instant payments next year, in 2020 — 8 years after we got them in the UK.
In the US, if I recall correctly, there is a convoluted system of different types of transfers, typically with hefty non-standardised fees and never instant.

All UK workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks of paid time off per year.
I think it's something like 5 weeks in NL too.
In the US it's what, zero weeks?

Also, we have actual competition between telecom providers here, resulting in reasonable prices and good service (we pay about $5/month for cellular and $25/month for 60-70 Mbps broadband + landline).

I could keep going