Dogzilla wrote:
Mr D. Zilla, in the spirit of fighting ignorance (some might say in both senses of the word) I hope you won’t mind me pointing out that the maximum tax rate in Britain is 40%.
Since you didn’t specify which tax, and since we used to have even higher rates (of said tax), I should point out in the interests of fairness that I am referring to income tax.
Have a nice day.
Pros: It’s the best damn country in the world. Freedoms, beauty, arrogance, it’s all here! 
Cons: No national health care, we work too much. (The US has the longest work week in the world, and we get less vacation than almost all European countries).
Jman
Jman, please take this in the spirit in which it’s meant
You’re posting this on SDMB! 
Come on guys, how many read/post from work? Eh? 'Fess up.
[sub]yeah, I know. You all work really hard IRL.[/sub]
Actually, the average overall tax burden on both Britons and Americans is much the same, about 36-37% in both countries. (That’s, um, sort of the percentage of Joe Average’s money that goes to the state, via income tax, sales tax or VAT, excise duties, National Insurance…) Or so I’m told - this is based on news items I dimly remember.
As to freedoms and the Bill of Rights; I can’t say I feel terribly oppressed right now… Most US constitutional guarantees are rooted in English common law anyway: remember Magna Carta? Habeas Corpus? I don’t think we in the UK suffer particularly from not having everything written down in one place. The only significant exception would seem to be guns; we have much stricter gun control laws. Personally, I think this is a good thing. I appreciate that others disagree.
Just my 2p.
Thanks for the opinions people.
Like Potter I find appealing the idea of swapping allegiances for convenience or comic affect :).
Dogzilla may be gladdened to know that if I exercise my right to vote I will also have to exercise my right to fill in a tax return each year. No representation without taxation I guess.
Biggirl is of course correct, SF is not the only great city, just my personal #1. I adore NY (note the The Village Vanguard in the OP) and Chicago is cool (actually cool enough to freeze your bollocks off last time I was there - I prefer it in June)
I am still making up my mind. Does anybody know of a software developer job going in Seattle?