They ragequit the rest of Europe, which absolutely presents them some special problems now.

It has the same problems of having an ageing population as the rest of Europe. Brexit is bad but relatively small in comparison to the demographic challenges. I live in Germany and it's in a sorry state too, because there are so many old people.

"They have the same problems" and "they share one specific particular problem" are vastly different claims.

It’s not one specific problem, it’s the defining problem.

The UK is much more run down and low-quality than the rest of Europe.

EU gives you a choice of price & quality - you can pick what fits your budget best. You can have dirt-cheap but also run down/shitty, or you can have expensive (but still nowhere near the UK) and pleasant.

The UK is the worst of both worlds where it's both expensive and shitty.

I have lived in Germany for 5 years but am from the UK and I don't see much difference overall. The UK is just a bit more individualistic, much less racist, and has London, which has the highest wages in Europe. Germany has less income equality but far worse wealth inequality—most people in Germany will never own their own home because although Germany is rich, Germans are poor. Healthcare is better here, though. It's just a case of picking your poison I think.

But of course the received wisdom is that the UK is a third world shithole with more in common with the Democratic Republic of Congo than any European country, so as you were.

I've also lived in London for 8 years, so I'm not just talking out of my ass here. I made the difficult decision to leave and abandon everything I've built there because I could no longer sustain paying Switzerland-level prices for Eastern European level of quality.

> has London

Yes, the place where in prime city centre locations, you see trash bags dumped on the street because there's literally no space for dumpsters, since they'd rather use that space to (quite literally) seek rent. I swear if there was a way to make people pay rent for oxygen, UK would be the first one to implement it.

> the highest wages in Europe

Where half of it will go to taxes (for nothing in return - again, other EU countries' public services are much better value) and the other half on rent and cost of living (the quality of properties is awful, so you really need to go high-end to get something that's merely considered average in many EU countries).

Where did you go to? Like I said for all the flaws of London and the UK (and I agree there are many), Europe is largely comparatively shit too. I live in Germany’s richest city and it’s also quite shit and everything is falling apart and nothing works.

Consider Barcelona or the smaller coastal cities on the Mediterranean.

I’m alright thanks.