We need to get back to being human beings and human doings
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2026
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To be fair the UK is actually depressing
I'm from the Netherlands and don't think I'll ever go back if not in my own bubble on a holiday not interacting too much
Such misery I haven't seen elsewhere as what your people vocalize. And the aggression is off the charts. I have my hopes up for Ireland, haven't been yet. But england? Nah, seen enough.
Every hometown is "a shithole" when you ask about it, indoctrination is complete with even "soulful folk" proudly exclaiming the most dumb standpoints
And the ones that rise above that are just more affluent and turn a bit more quiet so as not to risk showing their own true colors. Hypocrites, behind the elbows we call that. Class consciousness. Not European at all in my opinion. I kind of hope nowadays you guys don't ever get to return, it's that bad.
I hope it gets better for you over there but where I live lunches can last 1,5 hours and work still gets done with a vengeance
I lived in the Midlands for two years. I didn't think a place as run-down, impoverished, dirty and forsaken like this existed anywhere in Europe.
Most British people have been slowly crushed by 45 years of neo liberal economics. Its sucked the vitality and investment out of every town and village as the country deindustrialized and turned into a hub for casino capitalism in London
I imagine the Brits were happier before Thatcher arrived.
The poverty is extreme in some places. Even moreso just people's demeanor. Lower class is degenerate in the way that they both hate what's happening and do everything they can to make it worse by voting for right wing parties fueled by xenophobia as all they feel they want to control is their own living area and what else but a paki or a wog to blaim
I'm following the count binface saga for a bit, let's see if something happens there
I won't pretend to know the answers but I will say British folk are usually predictable to a t. Fancy clothes, handbags for men and vitriol for breakfast
I know a few UK people who moved to your country, all have pretty much vowed never to return to the UK. Every time I visit I wonder how you manage to do things so right (at least in comparison to the UK). The equivalent of UK council estates are a completely different vibe over there, the children seem so much happier and the work culture so much more chill.
I have only been to the Netherlands on vacation. I'm from Austria and I did live for two years in the UK Midlands.
The big difference is how they treat public services in the UK. In the UK public services (including public schools, public housing and public transport) are for those who can't afford anything else. If you live in an UK council estate and you happen to find a decent job or a single mother happens to marry, they get thrown out and need to find a house or flat to rent on the private market at multiple times the rate.
Public schools are for those who can't afford a real education.
Public transport are for those who can't afford a car.
All these things lock people in. If they improve their situation, things will suddenly get much worse for them because they drop out of all the social systems. Kids grow up in council estates and many of them don't know a single person who works. Of course they will turn out to be long-term unemployed, because that's all they know.
Contrary to that, Austria's public services are for everyone. Public housing is spread throughout the cities. There's not just one large estate with all the undesireables, instead the public housing is spread all over. There's a check for your financial situation when you move into public housing (though it's quite lenient) and then your income is never checked again. If you become a billionaire, you can still stay in that flat.
That means, there's quite a well-rounded mix of people in public housing. There's poor people, but there's people who are quite well-off in these houses as well.
Same goes for public schools. I went to a public school. In my class we had the son of Chinese immigrants who had to help out in his parents' restaurant on the weekends. But we also had the son of former nobility who inherited €4mio when his grandmother died in his last year of school.
Everyone takes public transport in my city, regardless of their income.
This gives people perspective. The kid growing up in public housing will watch people go to work every day. The same kid will make contacts at school to kids who end up in management positions, it's free networking built right into the school system.
We also have free public universities, which are also the highest quality universities in the country.
Treating public services as something that everyone has a right to and not just something that exists so the poor don't die makes all the difference.
This makes so much sense, thanks for typing that out. I have seen it myself how some people in the UK see the benefits system as a career path - young mothers discussing how many children is the sweet spot for getting as much out of the system. I feel so sorry for these children.
The problem is that the way it's setup it kinda has to be a career choice. Once you are in you are locked in and there's no decent way you. The system actively punishes you for trying to improve your situation.
You know, everything is always a game of incentives. So if you want people to get off benefits you have to reward them for taking steps to do so. For example, a bad system couples benefits to income with hard thresholds. Imagine a system where you get €1000 in benefits each month, but if you earn any money these benefits are gone instantly. So if someone would take a mini job where they'd earn €500 per month, they'd instantly lose €500 by taking a job.
Thresholds in benefit systems are common, and the UK system has really hard thresholds.
As an alternative consider this system: For two Euros you earn, you lose €1 in benefits. So now someone who makes €500 in their minijob would still receive €750 in benefits, thus making €1250. They have a clear incentive to work, and every bit they earn improves their financial situation.
The way the UK system is setup for the most part is that you are either in the benefits system or you are not. If you want to get off benefits, you need to instantly score a decent full-time job.
That's a difficult ask for someone who has no education, no network, no prior job experience and a CV that consists entirely of long-term unemployment.
People like that have the best chance to start with an easy, low-commitment minijob. So making sure that's not an option for them all but guarantees that these people stay on benefits for life.
When I visited Ireland everybody embodied this post. Everyone walked everywhere, 99% of my interactions were genuinely pleasant and friendly, it was a weekday but people were out enjoying a long lunch on a sunny day in Dublin.
Can't recommend enough.