Thoughts on England?
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:25 pm
Hi there,
I've seen some comments lately on a very useless topic about door dents on parking lots, and some people just firmly believe the whole country has fallen.
I've recently moved to Italy after always having lived all my life in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm in Northern Italy, near Turin, and it's a tornado of fresh air. Being able to walk to places, riding a bicycle without looking over my shoulder every minute to see if I'm about to be robbed, decent traffic, their sense of safety being a reinforced door ("armored" they call it, albeit not bulletproof) and a burglar alarm, neighbors, local shops (for local people? Hehehe), a yard, trees and what not.
Nice as it may be, I'm not sure I'll be staying because of the ammount of taxes to open a simple company and getting a VAT number, which sadly is required for most things I'm interested in. I'm an industrial designer and I wanted to rent a place, put some light machinery and work, mainly on a prototype car I'm developing, but everything, from an oven for the clay to make some prototypes to a small manual lift-truck, eveything requires a VAT and some basic taxes are ~£2000/year on welfare, even if I don't employ anyone and never take any advantage of it. I have other income sources and I don't want to retire on Italy's or any country's social security, yet people who gain citizenship and are already of age can retire and receive their pension without ever having contributes. Same goes for health, I have a BUPA insurance, which is English, and I can pay for my health and leave the freebies for those who need.
But I digress. What are your thoughts on the current state of England? Same as everywhere else, live in a big city and get it's cons and pros, go farther away and relax with the occasional hiccup such as burglary or theft? I hear every now and then about cars being stolen in unlikely places but then again can't recall any case of one being taken from inside a garage where it didn't involve some stupidty or even at gunpoint, whereas in Brazil I've had my share of armored cars, couple of robberies and even the odd kidnap attempt a few years back when things were weirder, now criminals have just lost all respect and began holding up entire restaurants and blowing up ATMs (yes, it does sound like movie stuff, but guess why I left..)
I hear the Isle of Man is as boring as it's calm and relaxed, plus some tax benefits.
Feel free to flip me off if I'm way off and full of stereotypes, but even though I'm a tad anglophile, my humour culture is British and even my English certificate is from Cambridge, I haven't been to England except for Gatwick and thought of taking a car trip from here to Newcastle and noticed from London to there it's ~350 miles, so the country is not that big (think of my reference) and I thought that may have changed a bit of my feeling of distance, regionality, un-Londoness and eveything just became a big city blur...
I've seen some comments lately on a very useless topic about door dents on parking lots, and some people just firmly believe the whole country has fallen.
I've recently moved to Italy after always having lived all my life in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm in Northern Italy, near Turin, and it's a tornado of fresh air. Being able to walk to places, riding a bicycle without looking over my shoulder every minute to see if I'm about to be robbed, decent traffic, their sense of safety being a reinforced door ("armored" they call it, albeit not bulletproof) and a burglar alarm, neighbors, local shops (for local people? Hehehe), a yard, trees and what not.
Nice as it may be, I'm not sure I'll be staying because of the ammount of taxes to open a simple company and getting a VAT number, which sadly is required for most things I'm interested in. I'm an industrial designer and I wanted to rent a place, put some light machinery and work, mainly on a prototype car I'm developing, but everything, from an oven for the clay to make some prototypes to a small manual lift-truck, eveything requires a VAT and some basic taxes are ~£2000/year on welfare, even if I don't employ anyone and never take any advantage of it. I have other income sources and I don't want to retire on Italy's or any country's social security, yet people who gain citizenship and are already of age can retire and receive their pension without ever having contributes. Same goes for health, I have a BUPA insurance, which is English, and I can pay for my health and leave the freebies for those who need.
But I digress. What are your thoughts on the current state of England? Same as everywhere else, live in a big city and get it's cons and pros, go farther away and relax with the occasional hiccup such as burglary or theft? I hear every now and then about cars being stolen in unlikely places but then again can't recall any case of one being taken from inside a garage where it didn't involve some stupidty or even at gunpoint, whereas in Brazil I've had my share of armored cars, couple of robberies and even the odd kidnap attempt a few years back when things were weirder, now criminals have just lost all respect and began holding up entire restaurants and blowing up ATMs (yes, it does sound like movie stuff, but guess why I left..)
I hear the Isle of Man is as boring as it's calm and relaxed, plus some tax benefits.
Feel free to flip me off if I'm way off and full of stereotypes, but even though I'm a tad anglophile, my humour culture is British and even my English certificate is from Cambridge, I haven't been to England except for Gatwick and thought of taking a car trip from here to Newcastle and noticed from London to there it's ~350 miles, so the country is not that big (think of my reference) and I thought that may have changed a bit of my feeling of distance, regionality, un-Londoness and eveything just became a big city blur...
The last one I worked with in NZ used to tell us how he shot someone in the back who was stealing his ute....while you should never mess with another mans ute he could at least have had the decency to shoot him face on. 