Difference between the UK and the USA

[kmanmx]

This is what annoys me about living here...

So I am reading about Hyperloop. There are a bunch of trials going on in the US, Spain, India, Dubai, Canada. They're doing feasibility studies, trials, and plans to commercialize asap.

Meanwhile the UK point of view: "Last year, the Department for Transport said that it would be impossible to launch a hyperloop in Britain in the next few years, and that the technology is at least two decades away. "

For ****s sakes. There is no ambition or risk taking in this country. Everything has to be mundanely safe and boring. No one dreams big in this country, no one will take risks, the word moonshot is not in the vocabulary here. Nobody wants the financial risk of something failing, so they don't try anything at all. Everything that happens here is already proven technology that happened somewhere else 10 to 20 years ago.

edit:

You can basically distill it down to this mentality:

Americans: "What if it works?"
British: "What if it doesn't?"

 

[Trotter]

Americans: "What if it works?"
British: "What if it doesn't?"

Exactly. Look at how many times Edison failed before he got the light bulb to work.

 

[kmanmx]

Exactly. Look at how many times Edison failed before he got the light bulb to work.

There used to be an enterprising spirit 50+ years ago here, but it has long since disappeared. Everything is just safe and steady now. There arn't really any areas that we challenge the world on now. We still have a great higher education system with places like Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College etc.. but that is just a relic of a better past. I can't really think of anything in the past 20 years that the UK has led the world on.

edit:

I googled it. Apparently our best exports are Peppa Pig and London's financial services. So basically a cartoon pig and corrupt bankers. ****ing A+. https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/9-industries-uk-leads.html

 

[danhodge]

I can't really think of anything in the past 20 years that the UK has led the world on.

I think we invented the Raspberry Pi, and we have Dyson. That's all I can think of

 

[Trotter]

I think we invented the Raspberry Pi, and we have Dyson. That's all I can think of

Just off the top of my head... Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, Jack Daniels, McDonalds, KFC, Five Guys, Taco Bell, Dr Pepper, chocolate chip cookies.

Yeah, I'm hungry.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

We gifted you peasants wifi, you're welcome

Our country is a weird juxtaposition of a british style govt (stuffy and ****ing useless, everything has to be legislated and there must be rules for everything) and a public that couldn't give a rats arse. So lots of things are yeah-technically-illegal like drinking on the beach, but everyone does it anyway even in front of the cops*. But if someone's being an idiot then they can step in and use the law.
*Although every now and then there's always some absolute dickhead of an officer who thinks THEY alone are the law of the land. e.g. the cunts in this story. Dude ended up getting the fine overturned, but **** my loife why waste people's time like that -_- bloody dickhead.

 

[Spud1200]

@ Everyone who has replied ..

The UK has taken a back foot on the front line enterprising and commercial endeavours like kman says purely for financial costs.

If you look at the 1960s in the UK and the cuts financially over successive governments for instance this government, previously Margaret Thatchers Government of the 1980s and going back to the days of the second world war when the country was left on its knees financially the Government of this cabinet who is in power ; I get why they have had to do what they have done and to the extent they have done it when this country under Gordon Brown and Tony Blare our former leaders of the labour party basically bankrupted the UK.

But then again you also have to think of how physically small GB is and how industry's have changed. What was a thriving steel, coal, oil industry's of GB and the UK is now more technological in the way of how we as a nation have developed the likes of the ARM Chips.

A thriving front line higher education system and I know for fine well fact Britain not the UK. Listen and read carefully what I'm saying; Britain, not the UK has lead the world in surveillance and the likes of intelligence on the front line.

Money moves around 24 7 and as they say money never sleeps.

As for kmans comment on corruption. Well what can I say corruption is everywhere. Are you really surprised any more with money being king dong No. 1 ...

 

[danhodge]

If you look at the 1960s in the UK and the cuts financially over successive governments for instance this government, previously Margaret Thatchers Government of the 1980s and going back to the days of the second world war when the country was left on its knees financially the Government of this cabinet who is in power ; I get why they have had to do what they have done and to the extent they have done it when this country under Gordon Brown and Tony Blare our former leaders of the labour party basically bankrupted the UK.

Uh oh, you mentioned Thatcher. My Northern blood is boiling

Just off the top of my head... Coca-Cola, Mountain Dew, Jack Daniels, McDonalds, KFC, Five Guys, Taco Bell, Dr Pepper, chocolate chip cookies.

Yeah, I'm hungry.

You can mention JD all you want, we have scotland 😂😂
The best thing the US gave us is the modern pizza. That's some nobel peace prize **** right there...

 

[kmanmx]

We gifted you peasants wifi, you're welcome

Our country is a weird juxtaposition of a british style govt (stuffy and ****ing useless, everything has to be legislated and there must be rules for everything) and a public that couldn't give a rats arse. So lots of things are yeah-technically-illegal like drinking on the beach, but everyone does it anyway even in front of the cops*. But if someone's being an idiot then they can step in and use the law.
*Although every now and then there's always some absolute dickhead of an officer who thinks THEY alone are the law of the land. e.g. the cunts in this story. Dude ended up getting the fine overturned, but **** my loife why waste people's time like that -_- bloody dickhead.

The only good thing about the massive austerity cuts in the UK is there is no police anywhere. Nada. I remember when I started driving 7 years ago, that you had to be careful driving like a ****. There was a reasonable chance of a police car being around and spotting you. Lol, not anymore. You can drive howevever you want. I probably see one marked police car on my commute every 2 weeks, and I am in the car for almost 2 hours a day. Not to mention police foot patrols, which are completely non existent outside of London. They have even admitted that in some jurisdictions, police won't turn up to the scene of a house robbery, because they dont have the resources to deal with it.

 

[carnageX]

Exactly. Look at how many times Edison failed before he got the light bulb to work.

I hope you're attributing more to Tesla, because Edison didn't do jack (besides run a smear campaign against Tesla, and used his workers as his idea generators/inventors).