We had a very long discussion on this issue in office today. England as a country is not known to have any mineral resources, I hardy see any manufactured product MADE IN ENGLAND despite the fact that they are our colonial master. The only major investment in Nigeria that is traced to England is BP.

My questions are;
1. Why do we have less poor people in England compared to America.
2. Without a huge manufacturing base like in America, China, Germany or Japan. How do the British manage to sustain a vibrant economy and at the same time avoid the recession ravaging Europe and America?
3. We have many blacks in England, they hardy made their presence known globally except in the EPL. Most noticeable black personalities in the world are from America, in music, movies, sport and what have you. Are the blacks in England marginalized or what? why are they not making waves as their counterparts in America?

How is England more developed than America? Do you mind explaining? Mind you, America is pretty big compared to small england with less mouth to feed and less responsibilities compared to America.

Btw, I think we trashed a similar topic sometime back.

England is not more developed than America. I also don't know in what sense it can be considered more stable.

Despite being wealthier, the US also has a higher per capita GDP growth rate, if I'm not mistaken.

Taxes.Equitable and accountable taxes are the smooth wheels that keeps a society spinning for eternity.Not that i am saying it is ver fair in england,but it work.

The concept of give and take is the the concept of yin and yang.

a) England is more developed, and stable than America??

b) There are less poor people in UK than in America?? This one na news to me

@Poster, care to share the source(s) of your assertions?

England is social and moderated devoloped,the very low are relatively well looked after.While america is like a disney world,fictional.Where people act out their greed and wantoness at the expence of the vulnerable and with the law strongly behind them.

More stable? I don't know about that.

For #1. . .hmmm, this is a very tough one. The simple answer is because America is GEOGRAPHICALLY LARGER thus has more people than England but that's too obvious naa, so I think I will say because the queen shares her wealth with her subjects.

For #2 - I am not sure this is right oh. Can we see some evidence of England's vibrancy? (The Queen's shiny crown does not count)

For # 3. . . Here's your answer

Will we ever have a black prime minister?
There’s no educated ethnic middle class in this country to counter the black 'street’ stereotype, writes Lindsay Johns.

On Any Questions recently, Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham – black, mixed-race – was introduced as “the black British Obama”. If only… Much as I like the guy, and think he’s doing a good job in his – and my – constituency, it was a spurious comparison.

Obama is a Harvard-educated, intellectual heavyweight with formidable oratorical prowess, drawn from an educated black American middle class. That middle class dates back decades, forged in the civil rights era and buttressed by the black church. Umunna, the New Labour poster boy and scourge of the bankers, is an anomaly; there is no equivalent pool of black middle class to draw from in this country. We are incapable of producing a British Obama at the moment. Black Britain’s middle class is, at worst, in real terms, non-existent, and, at best, nascent. If it exists at all, it is in its infancy.

Just take a look around. Black people figure prominently on billboards and on our TV screens when it comes to less celebral worlds, like sport and music. But where are the doctors, intellectuals and engineers? On TV – usually a fairly good social barometer –when was the last time you saw a black middle-class couple advertise a product? Do white racist advertisers not want to feature black people for fear of alienating white consumers? Or does this glaring lack of diversity just hold a mirror up to the lack of black, middle-class consumers?

The chronic dearth of educated, black, middle-class professionals in this country explains the mess we are in today. If there were a sizeable black middle class, perhaps there’d also be less racism – like that displayed by the celebrity hairdresser James Brown, whose recent vitriolic, N-word peppered tirade at black TV presenter Ben Douglas at the Baftas showed the worst sort of bigotry in Britain today.

On the British arts scene, depictions of black, middle-class realities are practically non-existent. Most worrying is the exponential increase, over the last 10 years, of black British theatre, now almost exclusively “the theatre of the ghetto”. “Street” patois, histrionic hip-hop hand gestures and plots revolving around the tedious staples of council estates, guns and drugs are the norm. And when was the last time you saw more than three black people in the audience at a non-black play at the National Theatre?

When it comes to film, Noel Clarke’s successful Kidulthood and Adulthood focused exclusively on the pathologies of the “You get me, blood?” ghetto underclass. Likewise, radio. When the new BBC radio station 1 Xtra was set up a few years ago, the thinly veiled rationale was to placate the black demographic with “urban” pirate radio-style “street” music. In short, give them what we think they want.

But hang on a minute. Where was the black Radio 4 equivalent? Don’t black people in this country want intelligent news, current affairs, drama and cultural programmes, too? Or are they only reserved for educated, middle-class white people?

On TV, black British protagonists – like Luther, the BBC detective played by Idris Elba –are a recent and rare phenomenon. How psychologically debilitating this must be for young black people, to be devoid of balanced, fair, let alone positive, portrayals. Black America, with its educated, middle-class depth in numbers, is 30 years ahead of us. Think of The Cosby Show, a hugely successful middle-class family sitcom, whose patriarch was a black doctor. What do we get in the UK? The Crouches, whose father-figure worked on the London Underground.

So is middle-class, black America the promised land for the educated black British? For all its many problems, America offers far more opportunities than Britain does right now. Hence the trans-Atlantic brain drain, which speeds up year after year: novelist Caryl Phillips and poet Fred D’Aguiar left for America years ago, as did actor Idris Elba. Playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah has just gone to be the artistic director at a theatre in Baltimore.

Over here, “black”, “working class” and “street” are still seen as synonymous terms. Black conservative commentators, like educationalist Tony Sewell and former teacher Katharine Birbalsingh, are constantly demonised by the left for “selling out”, for being “coconuts” and Uncle Toms. But their presence on the public stage demonstrates the long overdue growth of the black British community. Black Britain is slowly maturing, albeit at a snail’s pace. The once clear-cut, Manichean polarities of black-left and white-right are no longer valid.

In America, there is a huge black “ghetto” underclass. But, there is an equally huge, educated, black middle class, out of which sprang Obama and other leaders – the dynamic Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia, Adrian Fenty. Both, like Obama, are Ivy League-educated lawyers by profession, who have gone on to hold public office. Black American lawyers, accountants, politicians, novelists, intellectuals, airline pilots and even astronauts – for the most part lacking here – are positive role models, counterbalancing destructive messages of black “hood” culture.

Britain has no really prominent black intellectuals to speak of, save LSE professor Paul Gilroy and theologian-turned-TV presenter Robert Beckford. Lenny Henry and Rasta chef-cum-Dragon’s Den victor, Levi Roots, are perhaps the closest thing we have in the public consciousness. It’s ironic that the most high-profile and eloquent media commentator on black Britain, Bonnie Greer, is herself a black American. Likewise, Katharine Birbalsingh grew up in Canada.

Cast your minds back to the BBC Newsnight coverage of Obama’s election victory. Who did Jeremy Paxman interview about what this momentous occasion meant to black Britain? A black politician, academic or journalist, surely? No. Cockney rap singer Dizzee Rascal. The fact that Rascal managed to give a good account of himself is incidental. The preposterous decision to interview him as the representative of black Britain speaks volumes about the mentality of the white British media.

In America, I can discuss medieval Latin poetry with my African-American, Ivy League-educated friends, then go to a nightclub and dance to Beenieman. In the UK, it’s either medieval Latin poetry or Beenieman. And even the medieval Latin poetry is pushing it. Black British classicists are rarae aves.

So why is the black British middle class so tiny? On one level, it’s a simple matter of chronology. Black people (in real numbers) only arrived on these shores in the 1950s and 1960s. Working-class communities, with varying degrees of cultural emphasis on the importance of education, have only had roughly 50 years to establish themselves. Throw in the undoubted influence of hostility and racism towards these immigrant communities, and we begin to understand why there are so few black, middle-class people in Britain. America’s educated black middle class has been built on hundreds of years, not just a mere half-century.

Until we reach a critical mass of educated, black, middle-class people, black Britain will always be handicapped by glaring under-achievement. And it will be both stymied and sabotaged by the careerist, loony left. With their hallowed position as self-appointed “community leaders” – in reality, demotic rabble rousers – they pin all of black Britain’s woes and failings on “endemic white racism” and the Establishment. They never encourage some degree of personal responsibility for the community’s empowerment, or lack of it. The crass stupidity characterising many of black Britain’s dashiki-wearing community leaders often does more harm than good.

I passionately love this country, I’m very proud to be British, and realise that America is far from being a racial panacea. But I can’t be bothered to wait another 20 or 30 years for a sizeable black British middle class to develop, flourish and thrive; to wait until there are more than a handful of people with whom I can have the kinds of conversations I value, without having to explain myself constantly – whether it’s patronisingly downplaying my level of education or playing up to limiting cultural or racial assumptions. It is as if Britain, white and black, doesn’t know how to treat black, educated, middle-class people. Rather than being embraced, they are viewed with suspicion and distrust on both sides.

In America – one of the most viscerally racist countries in the world– there are far more opportunities for educated, middle-class, black people than here in the UK, one of the most tolerant and progressive countries when it comes to race. Will the first black British occupant of Number Ten turn up any time soon? I seriously doubt it.

* A version of this article first appeared in the 'Notting Hill Editions Journal’

UK actually seems to be poorer than Japan and France, not to talk of the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

US at #14 per capita.

Japan at #18.

Poorer than Germany and Iceland too, for that matter.

Americans have a lower IQ

Also they are more obese and therefore less productive.

Finally, Americans spend to much on Wars rather than developing their economy, country and warped minds.

How the fvck did Germany get their asses kicked in two major world wars and end up STILL richer than the UK? Lmao. These dudes are badasses

Nwa_Nimo: Americans have a lower IQ

Also they are more obese and therefore less productive.

Finally, Americans spend to much on Wars rather than developing their economy, country and warped minds.

So, what have the productive English produced with their level of productivity? Pls don't say premierhip.

I agree that the US spends too much money on its military. Yet despite this handicap, is still wealthier (per capita) than most countries in Europe. And is growing faster than most of them.

And is the leader in technological innovation today in the world.

I think you have to give props to the Germans and Japanese, though. Quite impressive.

Uk has a very rigid class system that sweep away the fickle minded.Basic opportunities abounds for all,but it all depends on what people want,what matters to them and how to go about it.

The OP's Claim that England is more developed than the US is really stretching things. Aside from the culture of having a Queen, England has nothing above the US.
Even in Europe, England is far from the richest, in fact they are into their second recession in 3 years, with an economy whose recent growth was due to consumption; much worse is the fact the the pound is overvalued, driving all manufacturing abroad; in turn, its leaders dare not massively devalue the pound because it would lead to a feeding frenzy of cash outflows and disinvestment.
Except something drastic is done, it sounds like a terminally ill economy to me.

The US on the other hand, has a growing economy and makes more per capita than his English counterpart. Equal amounts of money stretch out much farther in the US than in England where everything is grossly overpriced. Its a double whammy.

Over here, “black”, “working class” and “street” are still seen as synonymous terms. Black conservative commentators, like educationalist Tony Sewell and former teacher Katharine Birbalsingh, are constantly demonised by the left for “selling out”, for being “coconuts” and Uncle Toms. But their presence on the public stage demonstrates the long overdue growth of the black British community. Black Britain is slowly maturing, albeit at a snail’s pace. The once clear-cut, Manichean polarities of black-left and white-right are no longer valid.

In America, there is a huge black “ghetto” underclass. But, there is an equally huge, educated, black middle class, out of which sprang Obama and other leaders – the dynamic Mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, and the Mayor of the District of Columbia, Adrian Fenty. Both, like Obama, are Ivy League-educated lawyers by profession, who have gone on to hold public office. Black American lawyers, accountants, politicians, novelists, intellectuals, airline pilots and even astronauts – for the most part lacking here – are positive role models, counterbalancing destructive messages of black “hood” culture.

I agree.

Beaf: The OP's Claim that England is more developed than the US is really stretching things. Aside from the culture of having a Queen, England has nothing above the US.
Even in Europe, England is far from the richest, in fact they are into their second recession in 3 years, with an economy whose recent growth was due to consumption; much worse is the fact the the pound is overvalued, driving all manufacturing abroad; in turn, its leaders dare not massively devalue the pound because it would lead to a feeding frenzy of cash outflows and disinvestment.
Except something drastic is done, it sounds like a terminally ill economy to me.

The US on the other hand, has a growing economy and makes more per capita than his English counterpart. Equal amounts of money stretch out much farther in the US than in England where everything is grossly overpriced. Its a double whammy.

Yeah, wutever n***a, let's talk about GEJ. . . .

kingoflag: Yeah, wutever n***a, let's talk about GEJ. . . .

I wonder why this post sounds really daft and out of tune with the thread? Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!
--Beaf scratches head--

Beaf: The OP's Claim that England is more developed than the US is really stretching things. Aside from the culture of having a Queen, England has nothing above the US.
Even in Europe, England is far from the richest, in fact they are into their second recession in 3 years, with an economy whose recent growth was due to consumption; much worse is the fact the the pound is overvalued, driving all manufacturing abroad; in turn, its leaders dare not massively devalue the pound because it would lead to a feeding frenzy of cash outflows and disinvestment.
Except something drastic is done, it sounds like a terminally ill economy to me.

The US on the other hand, has a growing economy and makes more per capita than his English counterpart. Equal amounts of money stretch out much farther in the US than in England where everything is grossly overpriced. Its a double whammy.

lmao @first bolded.

@Second bolded, SPOT ON.

Beaf:

I wonder why this post sounds really daft and out of tune with the thread? Hmmmmmmmmmmm!!
--Beaf scratches head--

Maybe because your attention is needed on the other thread where you've been hovering like a Vulture over dead carcass without putting up a post as if your fingers suddenly became arthritic. . . You know, that one where Hilary Clinton dropped kicked and two-pieced your uber-corrupt President.

England is an over-glorified crap of a country
They have been there for more than 1000 years
America is barely 250 years old
I'd stay in my village in Nigeria than live in England

Germannig:
I'd stay in my village in Nigeria than live in England

loool. you are insane, then

Germannig: England is an over-glorified crap of a country
They have been there for more than 1000 years
America is barely 250 years old
I'd stay in my village in Nigeria than live in England

I keep telling Nigerians this. 90% of those that travel abroad live very unhappy lives, its something you can even notice from a lot of posts on NL.

Eh...

lol

Beaf: I keep telling Nigerians this. 90% of those that travel abroad live very unhappy lives, its something you can even notice from a lot of posts on NL.

They live unhappy lives because they're working double to send money home to the country your president is supposed to be fixing.

This thread is just another one of those jokes.

Tomorrow, someone else will come and tell us that Nigeria is more developed than England.

ogugua88:

They live unhappy lives because they're working double to send money home to the country y our president is supposed to be fixing.

I hope you don't mind the necessary edit?

Sorry, but Nigerians abroad did not travel out to save the country, so their working double has nothing to do with Nigeria. They are working double because they went abroad either ill-equipped or with no plan, but travelled with the sole purpose of improving their own lives (and none other). 90% of them would have made much more money in Nigeria with the attitude that saw them dare the odds to try out a life abroad.

With belief, each of us can pitch in and make Nigeria great, instead of running off to foreign lands.

ogugua88:

They live unhappy lives because they're working double to send money home to the country your president is supposed to be fixing.

Damn, uppercut and double-knee chops to his nuts. Lmao hahahaha Dem don kill Beaf o!