I'm at work so I can't go digging for sources right now, but I know research has been done showing that legal gun owners (so the overwhelming majority of people with guns in the US) commit crimes at a much lower (I think half?) rate than police officers in the US. Why? Because legal gun owners in the US know that pretty much any screw up and you lose your guns - for life.

FTFY

Except that I don't need to pay for cable (Netflix, digital antenna, etc). In the UK if you own a TV, you have to pay a yearly tax.

Do you honestly think that a few extra weeks of vacation time is worth losing 23% of your pay? A price differential, absolutely - I'd gladly take a small paycut for more vacation time. But nearly a quarter of your income lost? That's a horrible trade off for the increase in vacation days.

I'm not sure why you're comparing the NHS insurance to Social Security, when that's a separate program for them entirely - I just wasn't able to find numbers on what they pay as a tax rate for their equivalent of Social Security.

Alright. I couldn't find data on the taxes to fund UK retirement, so that's not included here and SS is left out to compensate. If you can find the numbers, I'll gladly update with that data. I currently make $52,000 per year. Health insurance premiums are $50 $63.75 per bi-weekly paycheck for health, vision, and dental combined.

US - Federal Income Tax: $6,078.75 State Income Tax: $1,330.94 Insurance Premiums: $1,657.50 Healthcare Expenses (this year, highest I've had due to surgery, ongoing sinus issues, and a higher deductible): $1,123.90 Fuel Tax (assumed 12 gallons per week * 52 weeks): $404.35 Medicare: $738.92. Ohio Sales Tax (assumed $200 per month taxable expenses): $156.00 Grand Total: $11,490.36.

UK - Income Tax: $4,830.00 NHS Tax: $3,292.45 Fuel Tax (assumed 12 gallons per week * 52 weeks): $3,112.61 VAT (assumed $200 per month taxable expenses): $480.00 TV License: $234.26 Grand Total: $11,949.32. However, due to the mandatory additional vacation, paternity leave, etc, UK companies do not pay as high of a salary initially - I have been approached by UK recruiters and it seems that there's about a 23% decrease in pay for my field (Applied Economics / Econometrics) simply for working in the UK. That means that instead of making $52,000 per year, I'd make roughly $40,250.00 per year ( £25,000.00). Adding in the lost salary of an extra $11,750.00 (pre tax, so some of that money would be added to the taxes paid and the rest would be lost income), and you have a final value of $23,699.32 paid in taxes if I were to move to the UK and obtain a similar job.

That's an extra $12,208.95 in taxes paid if I were to work in the UK instead of the US. That's roughly twice as much in taxes paid. You also have to remember that the UK tax rate increases are much steeper, so as I would work and earn raises, my taxes paid would increase far faster in the UK than in the US.

I was planning on it.

Sure thing. I'm busy (working) today, but over the weekend I'll pull up actual tax rates for a country or two and compare them to my actual rates and post them. Sound good?

"There is an unexpected item in the bagging area. Please remove your pants and wait for a TSA agent to perform a cavity search."

And a much lower income as a result. Also, the "no copay / deductible / insurance premium" is crap since they pay HUGE income taxes instead. There's a reason all of those nations rage about how Americans are "materialistic" - because the United States is the only developed world that doesn't tax the living shit out of their citizens to the point where they have very little disposable income. Also, for those benefits (mandatory longer vacations, mandatory paternity leave, etc), compare salaries for the same job across countries - you'll find that (with few, if any, exceptions) the US jobs pay more because you're being more productive and spending more time working. I've been approached by recruiters in other nations (such as the UK) and my pre-tax pay would be significantly lower if I accepted a their job - and that's before their absurd tax rates.

Except if you compare those same drivers and their tickets while driving different cars, I'll bet money (based on my personal experience owning both family sedans and sports cars) that you'll see that it's the car and not the driver that drives the ticket count.

When I drove an old sedan, I never got a speeding ticket. Ever since buying a new coupe (driving the same speeds) I've gotten at least one ticket per year. I don't care about paying the money because I'll openly admit I was speeding, but to claim that cops don't target sporty cars to punish them is a joke.

Unless there's a trade agreement I'm unaware of, the US doesn't have any Free Trade agreements with countries like China.

Actually the skill non-Americans have is called "math". They refuse to teach it in almost all American schools, so foreign immigrants are needed in order to invent things.

You just made every economist cry with that statement. Free trade benefits all countries involved and tariffs harm both the nation enacting the tariff as well as the nations they trade with.

There's the xenophobia Americans are so known for!

Well 4) (GPS on a bike / motorcycle) is more about the "turn left in 100 feet" or the audio directions would be a lot more useful than trying to figure out something with your phone while riding.

First off, most people don't have "secretaries" to take their messages. Secondly, it allows you to discreetly tell if the incoming alert is just an email that you don't care about or your wife saying that she has to take one of the kids to the hospital. A quick glance at your wrist lets you know if you can just ignore it or if you need to leave. Also, how is glancing at a notification "interrupting" a meeting? Something tells me that you don't attend many meetings....