So we have all heard it....... 'Rip off Britain" is a popular term shouted around all over the place these days but is living in Britain really a rip-off.
What are people comparing Britain to when they are saying people in Britain are being ripped off ?
After 33 Years in the UK I finally moved to Singapore and am shocked to find out how much easier some things were in the UK. I thought these were common for this day and age around the world in any non-third world country but it would seem the UK is one of the few countries that have them.
I am not trying to start a 'this country is better than that country' type debate but more a discussion on the differences between countries with prices and common every day things.
Singapore is around the size of London with the population of around 4.5 million which the government is looking to grow to 5.5 million.
Ok so to set a base line ..........
1GBP = approx 3 SGD (Singapore dollars).
Singapore:
GST (equiv of VAT) is 7%
Income tax tops out at around 15%
Income for same job = 1/2 of income in UK.
Cost of eating;
Cheap meal (Street cafe - egg and chips type) - S$3.50 (GBP 1.15)
Restaurant Meal for 2 adults and 1 kid (Berni Inn / Local Italian) - S$60.00 (GBP 20)
Cost of hardware;
Belkin N1 Vision Router S$300 (GBP 100) from high street equiv shop.
XBox 360 game S$80 (GBP27) from high street equiv shop.
DVD S$30 (GBP10) from high street equiv shop.
UK (London):
VAT is 17.5%
Income tax is staggered but topped out at 40% for me.
Income for same job = 2 times income in Singapore.
Now while the cost of items may seem cheap when the fact that you have half the buying power here it works out having more of an impact on disposable income.
Some other things I prefer in U.K.;
Link cash machine system. Singapore has a link like payment system but only for over shop counters so it is no good for phone payments (credit card required) and you have to use only your own banks cash machines.
No minimum balance required for current accounts. In Singapore you will get fined by the bank for having less than S$500 in each of your accounts.
No real use for cheque books. Only way to pay the Visa bill is via a posted cheque or direct debit here. No option to phone up and pay using a cash card over the phone.
General manners. As Singapore is primarily Chinese the culture does not generally use 'please' and 'thank you', the older generation quite happily chew lunch with their mouths wide open and think nothing of picking their noses in the street. It has taken me 6+ months to get the people in the 'corner shop' to say 'thank you' and 'your welcome' but they now do.
Peoples walking speed. I tend to walk at a pretty brisk pace and it is very frustrating to have people walking aimlessly very slowly, browsing shop windows and blocking the pavements rather than moving to one side. Yes I did get this in London but nowhere near as bad.
Internet shopping. There is almost no internet shopping here. Companies that do have websites rarely list any prices at all. Only one supermarket chain delivers outside of working hours.
Human side of the police and differences between rules and laws. I have been fined for crossing the road at a crossing even though the road was completely empty because the green man was not showing.
Anyone over 60 is unlikely to be able to speak any English even though it is the countries 'common' language. Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English are the four main spoken languages.
The seasons. There is no change here throughout the year apart from monsoon season where it just rains constantly for days sometimes. I miss the leaves changing colour, coming home in winter to a lovely warm house etc.
T.V. Yep even SKY is better in the UK. There are 5 or so main T.V. channels with two being in English (with Chinese subtitles). The programs are pretty bad although they do have a few US shows as well as local offerings. They are pretty behind here with showing the US shows though with Heroes season 1 about half way through at the moment and the whole season also available to buy in the shops on DVD. No satellite dishes are allowed at all so cable is the only choice. There are packages and the equiv of the Sky family package is costing us around S$35 / month. Most extra channels like BBC world, Star Movies etc are S$7.00 / month each and the only two HD channels cost S$12 / month. Nat Geo and Discovery are the only two HD channels and also the only channels (I subscribe to) which are in widescreen.
Buying a car. In Singapore first you have to bid for a COE (certificate of entitlement) as you need one of these in order to be able to own a car. This is the governments way of limiting the number of cars on the road. The COE currently goes for around S$14,000. Then you have to buy the car. A Mitsubishi Evo X new is currently S$153,000, a Mazda 6 is S$89,000. There is almost no second hand market and if you take the car off the road before the entitlement period for the COE validity (10 years) runs out you can get some of the cost back (sales tax on new cars has just been lowered from 110% to 100%). For example if you take the car off the road permanently after 3 years you can get 50% of the tax back. There is also road tax at around S$100 / month, parking charges which could easily be another S$100 / month and charges for using the toll roads (most of central Singapore). That is without petrol, insurance and maintenance.
Things I prefer in Singapore;
Public transport is generally excellent. The MRT (equiv of the London Underground) costs about S$50 / month for a 25min journey each way to / from work. The same type of work journey in London cost me GBP160 (3 zone weekly travel card * 4). Trains come every 3 mins at peak times and around every 10 mins off peak. The trains have broken down or been delayed twice in the last year when I have been using them.
Climate. Being tropical it is either hot, very hot, or raining. When it rains here it really rains. Walking in the rain is just like taking a shower. 2 seconds and you are totally soaked. It is rarely cold.
Travel. I can just on a plane for two hours and be in Bangkok or Puket for around GBP60.
Moves. Movies tend to come out sooner here in both the cinema and on DVD but the concession stand tends to have a very limited selection (nacho & runny bright orange cheese, hotdogs and popcorn, very little chocolate of any sort. I used to love getting a big bag of minstrals for a movie ). You can book the movies on-line but still have to go to a ticket counter to get the tickets on arrival rather than being able to get them from a machine.
Just of note. A lot of people follow English football here and matches are available on a number of the cable channels. The majority of Singaporeans were cheering for England to will the world cup. This seems to be a left over link from Singapore being governed by the UK un until 1940 when it was invaded by the Japanese and was granted independence just after the 2nd World War ended.
So what do people think is better in the UK and worse in the UK compared to the rest of the world ?
RB
What are people comparing Britain to when they are saying people in Britain are being ripped off ?
After 33 Years in the UK I finally moved to Singapore and am shocked to find out how much easier some things were in the UK. I thought these were common for this day and age around the world in any non-third world country but it would seem the UK is one of the few countries that have them.
I am not trying to start a 'this country is better than that country' type debate but more a discussion on the differences between countries with prices and common every day things.
Singapore is around the size of London with the population of around 4.5 million which the government is looking to grow to 5.5 million.
Ok so to set a base line ..........
1GBP = approx 3 SGD (Singapore dollars).
Singapore:
GST (equiv of VAT) is 7%
Income tax tops out at around 15%
Income for same job = 1/2 of income in UK.
Cost of eating;
Cheap meal (Street cafe - egg and chips type) - S$3.50 (GBP 1.15)
Restaurant Meal for 2 adults and 1 kid (Berni Inn / Local Italian) - S$60.00 (GBP 20)
Cost of hardware;
Belkin N1 Vision Router S$300 (GBP 100) from high street equiv shop.
XBox 360 game S$80 (GBP27) from high street equiv shop.
DVD S$30 (GBP10) from high street equiv shop.
UK (London):
VAT is 17.5%
Income tax is staggered but topped out at 40% for me.
Income for same job = 2 times income in Singapore.
Now while the cost of items may seem cheap when the fact that you have half the buying power here it works out having more of an impact on disposable income.
Some other things I prefer in U.K.;
Link cash machine system. Singapore has a link like payment system but only for over shop counters so it is no good for phone payments (credit card required) and you have to use only your own banks cash machines.
No minimum balance required for current accounts. In Singapore you will get fined by the bank for having less than S$500 in each of your accounts.
No real use for cheque books. Only way to pay the Visa bill is via a posted cheque or direct debit here. No option to phone up and pay using a cash card over the phone.
General manners. As Singapore is primarily Chinese the culture does not generally use 'please' and 'thank you', the older generation quite happily chew lunch with their mouths wide open and think nothing of picking their noses in the street. It has taken me 6+ months to get the people in the 'corner shop' to say 'thank you' and 'your welcome' but they now do.
Peoples walking speed. I tend to walk at a pretty brisk pace and it is very frustrating to have people walking aimlessly very slowly, browsing shop windows and blocking the pavements rather than moving to one side. Yes I did get this in London but nowhere near as bad.
Internet shopping. There is almost no internet shopping here. Companies that do have websites rarely list any prices at all. Only one supermarket chain delivers outside of working hours.
Human side of the police and differences between rules and laws. I have been fined for crossing the road at a crossing even though the road was completely empty because the green man was not showing.
Anyone over 60 is unlikely to be able to speak any English even though it is the countries 'common' language. Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English are the four main spoken languages.
The seasons. There is no change here throughout the year apart from monsoon season where it just rains constantly for days sometimes. I miss the leaves changing colour, coming home in winter to a lovely warm house etc.
T.V. Yep even SKY is better in the UK. There are 5 or so main T.V. channels with two being in English (with Chinese subtitles). The programs are pretty bad although they do have a few US shows as well as local offerings. They are pretty behind here with showing the US shows though with Heroes season 1 about half way through at the moment and the whole season also available to buy in the shops on DVD. No satellite dishes are allowed at all so cable is the only choice. There are packages and the equiv of the Sky family package is costing us around S$35 / month. Most extra channels like BBC world, Star Movies etc are S$7.00 / month each and the only two HD channels cost S$12 / month. Nat Geo and Discovery are the only two HD channels and also the only channels (I subscribe to) which are in widescreen.
Buying a car. In Singapore first you have to bid for a COE (certificate of entitlement) as you need one of these in order to be able to own a car. This is the governments way of limiting the number of cars on the road. The COE currently goes for around S$14,000. Then you have to buy the car. A Mitsubishi Evo X new is currently S$153,000, a Mazda 6 is S$89,000. There is almost no second hand market and if you take the car off the road before the entitlement period for the COE validity (10 years) runs out you can get some of the cost back (sales tax on new cars has just been lowered from 110% to 100%). For example if you take the car off the road permanently after 3 years you can get 50% of the tax back. There is also road tax at around S$100 / month, parking charges which could easily be another S$100 / month and charges for using the toll roads (most of central Singapore). That is without petrol, insurance and maintenance.
Things I prefer in Singapore;
Public transport is generally excellent. The MRT (equiv of the London Underground) costs about S$50 / month for a 25min journey each way to / from work. The same type of work journey in London cost me GBP160 (3 zone weekly travel card * 4). Trains come every 3 mins at peak times and around every 10 mins off peak. The trains have broken down or been delayed twice in the last year when I have been using them.
Climate. Being tropical it is either hot, very hot, or raining. When it rains here it really rains. Walking in the rain is just like taking a shower. 2 seconds and you are totally soaked. It is rarely cold.
Travel. I can just on a plane for two hours and be in Bangkok or Puket for around GBP60.
Moves. Movies tend to come out sooner here in both the cinema and on DVD but the concession stand tends to have a very limited selection (nacho & runny bright orange cheese, hotdogs and popcorn, very little chocolate of any sort. I used to love getting a big bag of minstrals for a movie ). You can book the movies on-line but still have to go to a ticket counter to get the tickets on arrival rather than being able to get them from a machine.
Just of note. A lot of people follow English football here and matches are available on a number of the cable channels. The majority of Singaporeans were cheering for England to will the world cup. This seems to be a left over link from Singapore being governed by the UK un until 1940 when it was invaded by the Japanese and was granted independence just after the 2nd World War ended.
So what do people think is better in the UK and worse in the UK compared to the rest of the world ?
RB
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I suppose I could get a bus but it would cost me £6.50 return and takes 1.5 hours to do a journey that takes 25 minutes in the car!
Plenty of places you can park near the station though, if you fancy a little bit of a walk.
. Then theres the expense of the tube if I'm wanting to go anywhere else (airport, other train station, whatever).
. That number 15 bus is...utter *****.
