Insurance is also less, both contents and car insurance. Utilities a lot lower (fast internet for £30 a month, sim only contract with 50GB of 5G data for £15 a month).
There is this strange idea that the UK is super expensive, and whilst not cheap, a lot of things are decidedly cheaper in the UK than they are in the US.
Also student loans - universities are capped at £9250 per year, so you've not got hundreds of thousands in student loan debt to pay off either.
Which has now collapsed so in practice you need to go private if you need any kind of decent, timely care. And it never covered dentistry from what I’ve heard.
In practice you end up paying twice - once in taxes for the dysfunctional health service you can’t actually use, and a second time in the form of either insurance or out of pocket to go private when you do need healthcare.
If you have a life-threatening issue, MI, stroke, cancer - you will be seen quickly and the standard of care is similar to the US.
If you need something treating that is non-life-threatening, yes, you may need to wait some time.
Don't get me wrong, the NHS is being handled appallingly by the current ruling party, but it is not collapsing - thanks to the doctors, nurses and support staff going above and beyond to keep it running.
Sure, but there are plenty of anecdotes about ambulances taking hours to arrive right now, as well.
"Life-threatening" is also too fuzzy of a term, here. Don't get me wrong -- I'm an immigrant to the UK from the US, and I think things are better here for most people -- but mental health issues, gender-affirming care, etc. are not treated as life-threatening even when they genuinely are, and care is nearly impossible to get in a timely manner. I'm not especially well-connected to the trans community, but I have some friends who are, and it's quite common for trans people in the UK to move to the US because they can access care much easier and much faster.
Additionally, objective measures of wait times show them increasing unsustainably right now. :(
Zone 1 is typically very expensive. Typically, with some variation, it gets less expensive as you go to outer zones. Zone 5/6 is getting to the outer reaches of the city, and historically was much more affordable at the cost of >60 minute commutes into zone 1 and higher fare costs.
You also need to keep in mind that the marginal tax rate can be very high. This is esp true for UK university graduates that typically are repaying what is technically a "student loan", but even the government's statisticians call a tax because almost nobody will pay it off in their lifetime given the repayment terms. Many graduates have marginal tax rates in excess of 50% on incomes above roughly 40k.
> £55k as being equivalent to $100k in the US
Is not? I don't see any argument for that not being correct. Everything you said about costs, sounds that exact same as $100k in the US. Unless you live in North Dakota, chances are you are paying pretty close to the same percentages for rent/foot in a larger city such as San Fran or Chicago.
Not exactly sure what zone 5 is, but a rough search gave me $2500 for rent in Chicago, which is about double £1,500 (roughly), council tax probably doesn't exist, but travel in Chicago is certainly going to be WAY more than "£50 a week". And GOOD luck finding utilities for "at least £100", internet alone is probably $50 US, cell phone another $40 US, power, heat, hot water, depending on apartment is probably another $100 US. Food for "£50 a week" is also a dream I would expect food to be closer to $200 USD a week. Unless you're living on ramen.
Everything I see adds up to that being about correct.