Living outside America

Re:Living outside America by rdl on Sunday July 01, 2012 @08:26PM (#4186642)

I haven't lived in Germany (I've visited for maybe 3 weeks total), and in terms of quality of life, it wasn't that different from the US, at least for the things you see as a short-term tourist. Lots of stuff was more expensive (vs. SF baseline), and rural Germany around 2000 was pretty undeveloped, but Berlin would be more representative.

I'm also using SFBA, NY, Boston, Seattle as exemplars of the US. I'd rather live in London than New Mexico, but there are parts of the UK worse than New Mexico, too. (amazingly. I didn't know this until living in the UK.)

US universities are stronger than German universities, at least in commercialization, graduate studies, etc. K-12 could go either way; Baltimore public schools are worse than what I assume are the worst German schools, but Palo Alto, Stuy, etc. might be better (at least I don't know of anything comparable in Germany).

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Re:Living outside America by mc32 on Monday July 02, 2012 @02:18AM (#4187602)

W/re UK. Chris Kipllip did a photo documentary called "In Flagrante". NE England in the 80's (not sure about now) was a depressed place to be.

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Re:Living outside America by waterlesscloud on Monday July 02, 2012 @02:28AM (#4187620)

The movies of Andrea Arnold were revealing in a certain way. "Red Road" and "Fish Tank", as well as her short film "Wasp". All set in the world of UK council estates(like US housing projects). A poor underclass with many of the same features as the poor underclass in the US.

Great films, worth watching.

You can see Wasp, which won an Oscar for best short film, here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aJjj8v3xVs

Trailer for Fish Tank, featuring Michael Fassbender: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1yMOdjyp0

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Re:Living outside America by nicholassmith on Monday July 02, 2012 @10:58AM (#4189124)

NE England is an interesting topic (I've lived here all my life), areas still are very depressed with some of the highest unemployment levels in the UK, married off to a rapid decline in our traditional industries of chemical & steel production.

Oddly we also seem to be developing one of the better tech hubs outside of London in Newcastle, so the rise of technology could see things improve.

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Re:Living outside America by mc32 on Monday July 02, 2012 @11:30AM (#4189256)

Edit, misspelling. The photographer's name is Chris Killip, the book is out of print, but Available on Amazon as a Bookb on Books. He has others about depressed areas in England/UK.

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