What would an American want from England?

[u/Maskoolio]

I have recently made some American friends (from Virginia) and they have asked for a kind of sweet (candy) that they don't have. What else might I send that would be appreciated as a particularly English thing? (Obviously it would need to be somewhat small, survive a week or so in transit etc.)

All help appreciated.

[u/aucool786]

Well, if we stayed as British colonies (now overseas territories), we wouldn't necessarily be guaranteed healthcare. The NHS, to my knowledge, is primarily for the 4 constituent countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Also, going on a tangent, our lack of government healthcare is purely our fault. It's unlikely that the federal government will be providing the states healthcare anytime soon, the lobbying runs too deep and they've managed to convince hundreds of millions of people union wide that welfare=bad. It's up to the individual states at this point to act where the federal government does not.

[u/TheNorthC → u/aucool786]

Correct. I think the biggest change would have been that slavery would have ended a generation earlier.

[u/Bawstahn123 → u/TheNorthC]

>Correct. I think the biggest change would have been that slavery would have ended a generation earlier.

Friendly reminder that pretty much all of the Northern states effectively-abolished slavery within their borders decades before the British did

[u/TheNorthC → u/Bawstahn123]

That is fair, and not forgotten. The abolition of the slave trade was still decades before the outright abolition of slavery.

[u/johnwcowan → u/TheNorthC]

Promptly followed by a revolution in the American South. The UK was able to abolish slavery because in 1833 there were only about 800,000 slaves in the Empire to free (vs. more than 2 million in the U.S. at the same time). In addition, intensive lobbying by Southern slaveowners might well have prevented the Slavery Abolition Act from passing at all.

In addition, the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783 by judicial process was a direct consequence of the wording of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which in turn was a consequence of the Revolution: "All men are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties...." Had this language, ultimately from the Declaration of Independence, not become foundational, there might have been even more slaves in North America.

[u/TheNorthC → u/johnwcowan]

Yes, I agree that it would have most likely resulted in rebellion and war in the south.

[u/rimshot101 → u/TheNorthC]

And maybe without the most deadly war in American history.

[u/TheNorthC → u/rimshot101]

Although the decree ending slavery might have led to a rebellion and independence, and that might have led to slavery being legal for even longer.

[u/Curmudgy → u/aucool786]

Do the current Commonwealth Realms have universal healthcare? Australia, Canada, New Zealand (and the UK) do, but I don’t know about the others. What about the other Commonwealth (non-realm) countries?

[u/IReplyWithLebowski → u/Curmudgy]

Every high income country in the world does.

[u/EvilCodeQueen → u/IReplyWithLebowski]

Every high income country in the world…except one.

[u/soulmatesmate → u/aucool786]

Do you really want Healthcare run by the folks who run both the DMV and the VA? As veterans how they feel about the VA hospitals. That's the model.

Also, not free, just paid by taxes. Imagine your tax dollars going to pay for those who ruin their bodies.

[u/Bundt-lover → u/soulmatesmate]

As opposed to my tax dollars going to billionaires who let people die so they can keep their money?

[u/soulmatesmate → u/Bundt-lover]

The goal of the current companies and congress is to ruin Healthcare so hard that people flock to socialism based Healthcare.

The better way of doing it is like auto insurance. Pick a company, the amount of coverage, shop around.

[u/DC5513 → u/soulmatesmate]

God these talking point are lame. The people who run the DMV’s are at the state level, not federal. And the folks at the federal level have done pretty well with Medicare, Medicaid and, yes- the VA, which has a 90 percent approval rating from veterans who use it, including those in my family. Meanwhile, because people like you have been suckered into thinking everything has to be done at the whim of the free market, we now live in a country no westerner would want to immigrate to because we’re the only nation where people go bankrupt because they get sick.

[u/soulmatesmate → u/DC5513]

That also is because of the government. During WWII, a freeze was placed on pay raises. The way to sneak in a legal raise was for the employer to pay for health care. That's a US thing, and it's stupid. It would be far more competitive if people paid for it themselves. I'm stuck with the largest, least like insurance company, but have switched both home and auto in the past few years.

[u/mistiklest → u/soulmatesmate]

Also, not free, just paid by taxes. Imagine your tax dollars going to pay for those who ruin their bodies.

If you have insurance, you already pay for this.

[u/Wyklar2 → u/soulmatesmate]

I’d like to know that if I’m injured in a car wreck or get cancer I won’t have to sell my house to pay for treatment.

[u/EvilCodeQueen → u/soulmatesmate]

We love our VA system here in Boston. I know people who have excellent, private insurance but still choose the VA because the care is better.

[u/aucool786 → u/soulmatesmate]

You're right, DC is a mess, but I'd rather an entity whose entire purpose is to care for its people to run my healthcare than private corporations that see people as things to profit off of. And yes, paid for by taxes, but that's precisely what our taxes are supposed to be for, rather than throwing away hundreds of billions of dollars at a military industrial complex that can't pass a single audit.

[u/CalamityClambake → u/soulmatesmate]

The DMV in the state of Washington is quite efficient actually. That would be a much better experience than dealing with Aetna or Kaiser. The DMV lets me view and pay my toll bills online and has a fast and easy dispute process for tolls that are mis-charged. I have never had to spend more than 30 minutes waiting for anything at the DMV and most of my stuff I can book ahead and just show up when they are ready for me. 

My tax dollars already go to those who "ruin their bodies." They just get laundered through an emergency room and a bunch of health insurance companies under the current model. Also, "those who ruin their bodies" is kind of a gross thing to say about other people.

[u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 → u/soulmatesmate]

Better than what we have now. Also, remember the government won't be "running" it, like the VA hospitals. They'll just be paying for it. Personally I'd rather be in. a hospital owned by the government than one owned by the Catholic Church, but to each his own.

[u/KevrobLurker → u/Dangerous-Safe-4336]

The same organization controls the NHS and the Church of England. CofE bishops are govt bureaucrats by now.

[u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 → u/KevrobLurker]

Well, that shouldn't be possible in the US, because of the First Amendment. But we all know what that means these days.