Comparing Living in Valencia, the UK or the USA in the Year 2SC

Graham

Many years ago, back in the dim and distant past of 2017, in the before days, I wrote an article on this blog about the fact that we are not “lucky” to be living in Valencia or Spain but we have planned it and it’s all part of Lifestyle Design, you can read it here.

Today I want to expand a little on that blog post and emphasise what a good decision coming to Valencia was and still coming to Valencia can be for you. Let’s call today the year 2AC (After Covid) And yes I know Covid is still around and causing major misery to people all around the World so maybe better to call it 2SC (Since Covid) In 2SC the consequences of the Pandemic and mad decisions made in 2016 are coming home to roost around the World but today we are going to compare Valencia with two places that made especially mad decisions in 2016, the UK and the USA.

Living in Valencia in 2022

One thing we can say for certain is that the lockdown in Spain was harsher than most other lockdowns in the World. Effectively the World stopped for us on the 15th March 2020 when the State of Alarm was announced. We left the house for one hour per week to visit the supermarket and stock up, all work considered non-essential stopped and a day later the Spanish borders were closed. Children were allowed out for a short walk each day a month later on the 17th of April accompanied by adults and then little by little restrictions were reduced. Lockdown restrictions were taken away 98 days later on the 21st June 2020 and we entered a new normality. That 98 day period changed the mindset and reset the chip in our brains here.

It has now been two years since that partial reopening of the country and some minor restrictions remain such as wearing facemasks in hospitals, clinics and to a lesser extent on public transport. However Spain, and more particularly Valencia, has bounced back quite well and the economy is picking up strongly around the country with the post Covid opening up meaning tourism, business creation and employment is rising fast. Of course just like every other country this is a rise from a decimated base during Covid but Spain is picking up faster than many other comparable countries (of which more later).

Possibly more importantly, Valencia and Spain are benefitting from the more open work market within the EU and the World post-Covid. The pandemic taught us that many jobs can be done remotely just as well as on-site and most meetings are not required to be in person (Let’s face it, most meetings just aren’t required, full stop). In the knowledge economy this gives freedom of location to workers with more enlightened bosses and that freedom often means a move to a more attractive and maybe affordable destination to live in. As we have mentioned on these pages before Valencia benefits from this homeworking revolution.

For people looking at Lifestyle Design and a family friendly lifestyle and working culture, Spain is a great option with the Mediterranean Coast having excellent communications both in terms of transport and speedy internet, along with one of the best climates in the World, a friendly outgoing people and a welcoming environment combining beaches, a vibrant cityscape, wonderful inland villages and countryside and more. As mentioned in the previous article the comments we get from our clients on coming here open our eyes more every day to the beauty before us.

And guess what? People living here like it. They enjoy their days and nights, the freedom to go out and see with renewed vigour the beauty of the place they live and the friendliness of the people they know and love. Valencians and those of us who have moved here to become adopted Valencians have taken their second chance at life and are taking advantage of it having come out of the pandemic determined to enjoy life to an even greater extent than before.

But maybe that’s not the case everywhere right…?

A Tale of Two Clusterf*cks

Let’s make a comparison and, with apologies to Charles Dickens and his seminal work about Paris and London, we borrow and adapt the title to the two countries that made the worst decisions pre-pandemic and are now reaping the rewards of the awful decisions they made in 2016.

One of them, the USA, I thought would get away with it because at worst it was going to be for 8 years, but they managed to oust the orange sh*tgibbon after just 4 years in the end. (Nevertheless, as we are seeing, the decisions made in those four years and the extremism promoted during that time are leading to horrendous consequences from an attempted insurrection to a stacked and reactionary Supreme Court). The other basketcase, the UK, will have to live with the consequences of the lunacy of 2016 for generations to come.

The Basketcase Country on the Other Side of the Atlantic

And, no, I’m not talking about Canada.

The USA seems to be falling apart and regressing before our very eyes at the moment and when I say regressing I mean very, very quickly with the foot down on the accelarator reversing towards the 18th Century of the Founding Fathers, mostly slave owners remember.

Writing this in the wake of the decision to reverse #RoeVsWade, America looks like a scary place to be for women and I don’t doubt that this situation will be repeated with ethnic minorities, LGBTQ communities and more very soon. In fact, one of the Ultra Conservative Taliban-like justices on the Supreme Court confirmed this after the RoeVsWade reversal by stating it’s now time to look at Contraceptive Rights, Gay Rights and most other Equality laws. It’s a scary time to be anything other than a middle aged or old white guy in the States.

Ironically the Reversal of #RoeVsWade was a week after the Supreme Court ruled that States couldn’t make laws at a State level to make buying and carrying guns more difficult leading to the ludicrous situation where a gun has greater rights than a woman in certain States.

There is now a situation where women are required to carry foetusus to birth (or miscarriage or death) without any sort of public healthcare, state childminding services, special educational grants or provision or support of any kind for the child or parents having given birth. Have no doubt that these laws are to control women’s bodies and condemn them and their children to poverty and exclusion. The rich will always take that holiday abroad (Or to the more forward thinking States) where magically they lose a few pounds and come back refreshed.

The only question now left to answer in the United (sic) States is when the next Civil War between the more modern States and the Theologian States begins and what form it takes.

Don’t you think it might be time to get out?

I wrote an article a couple of years ago about the Trickle Becoming a Flood. See it by clicking on the link or the image below. I wrote it two months before the first lockdown, great timing eh? However, I wasn’t wrong, the flood was just put on hold for a while. I remember the weekly Zoom and Skype calls during lockdown with clients wanting to get out of the States due to what Trump and his administration was doing to the country. Those calls continue to this day because of what he did and what situation that has created. If you are one of those people who is horrified by what the US has become and are looking to get out, join them by contacting us and requesting a call.

Week by week and month on month we get more and more American clients requesting our help to move to Valencia. And this is happening every month now, it doesn’t depend on the time of the year or any other factor, it’s just growing.

In 2021 Americans became our number one client base and in 2022 their rise continues, although they are being outpaced by the floods of Dutch citizens setting up here now.

“There are already more American clients who have bought in 2022 than in 2021 when they were our number one client base“.

But one country is possibly in an even worse situation than our friends in the States…

Sovreignty, Blue Passports and Believing Magic Red Buses

If there is one thing the World should have learnt from the dire consequences of the 2016 Brexit vote it’s “don’t believe lies written on the side of a red bus“. (That and don’t promote swivel eyed loons whose name rhymes with Garage promoting populism without solutions and blaming everything on immigrants ) However, here we are with three word slogans from the Johnson government substituting for any sort of coherent policy ideas and the constant shouting of “He got Brexit done” and “He got all the big calls right!“, when he evidently didn’t, replacing any sort of introspection and study of the economy as it falls apart and companies are forced to close down or move to “the Continent” in order to survive and prosper.

The Charge Sheet for the UK

Let’s just look at where the maelstrom of incompetence and Culture War led idiocy that Brexit brought on has led the UK to: (I won’t detail what most of them mean as it’s not a short list, but if you ask me…)

  • Deregulation and Differentiation meaning no easy return to the Single Market in the future
  • Online safety bill. Potentially making all UK websites effectively blocked around the World.
  • Immigration Policy. Heartless and pointless.
  • Paying Rwanda to take Refugees in exchange for accepting Rwandan refugees!!
  • Exports. Much more difficult.
  • The Northern Ireland Situation. Remember the troubles? They’re back
  • Imports. No restrictions as there would be no goods in the shops if the protocol is put in place.
  • The Cost of Living Crisis. Exacerbated by lack of supply
  • Empty Shelves
  • Inflation. Worst in the G20
  • Underemployment. People wanting full time jobs being trapped in low paid part time work with no prospects
  • Food Banks. Highest in Europe due to highest child poverty
  • A 1200% increase in Brits being granted Irish Nationality in 6 years
  • Universities cancelling humanities courses under pressure from government taking away funding
  • Idiot Ministers Chosen for Loyalty Over Competence. Ladies and gentlemen, Nadine Dorries.
  • The Potential For the Break Up of the Union. More referenda incoming.
  • Sewerage in Rivers and the Worst Water Quality in Europe
  • Polio!!! (In that water)
  • Highest Covid Death Rate in the developed World (Truly world beating)
  • Worst performing economy in Europe apart from Russia (Who at least didn’t impose sanctions on themselves)
  • A servile press which now looks seriously North Korean at times
  • Corruption.
  • Partygate and Animal Farm where some of the animals are more equal than others
  • Huge Increase in hate crimes
  • Enormous Passport queues through every airport (Don’t mention feckin blue passports)
  • Lack of opportunties for British talent in all fields to exploit their talent abroad (Bands, artists, businesses and more)
  • Fruit and veg left unpicked because nobody wants to go to Plague Island to do backbreaking jobs for piecemeal wages.
  • The ability to sack workers and replace them with agency workers. Compare reaction to P&O and RMT.
  • Oh yeah, fire and hire.
  • British tourists now need to pay for a visa to visit Europe
  • But they can’t go yet because there are no baggage handlers to load their bags at airports
  • Lies, lies and more lies. A Pinocchio culture from the top down.
  • Making enemies of UK allies
  • The worst Prime Minister ever to inhabit Downing Street who runs away to hide in a metaphorical fridge abroad (Often Zelensky) when bad news happens
  • Brits in Europe no longer order things from the UK as they never know how much the import taxes might be
  • Swimming pools in the Uk closing down as they cannot get basic supplies of chlorine
  • British scientists locked out of the Horizon European co-operation programme
  • Erasmus programme scrapped
  • Breaking international law regularly
  • A continual flow of Conservative MPs being investigated for sexual harrassment
  • Even the situation where UK Drivers in Spain are not able to drive their cars
  • I could go on and maybe as people point out other things I missed I will
  • (And I wrote all of this before the 6th July meltdown in UK politics)

And the people of the UK have to live in this sh*tshow, day after day after day.

More lies, incompetence and consequences for the frankly, and more evident with each day that passes, stupid decision to leave the EU made by just 37% of the voting public in cahoots with corrupt politicians supported by Russian money and ultra Conservative right-wing think-tank funds from the States (Those same States that are now legislating against women)

Brexit Benefits

There must be benefits that accrue from all of this though mustn’t there? Why would a country put itself through so much pain if there weren’t any benefits? So let’s list them:

  • Duty free is back (But you could take as much back as you wanted previously, now you are limited)
  • World beating vaccine rollout (Oh no sorry, that’s another lie! Could have been done just as easily with the European Medicines agency which used to be in the UK supplying jobs but has now moved)
  • Changing the signs in the Dartford tunnel from Metres to Yards (Yes, the irredeemably stupid Jacob Rees-Mogg the minister for “Brexit Opportunities“, an impossible job of Kafkaesque proportions of course, said this in an interview this week when given the open goal of listing the benefits. He also said fish fingers wouldn’t go up by 2% so there’s that. And they were the only two examples he could come up with)

However, I’m biased of course so I’ll leave a space there for Brexit supporters to send me a list of all of the Benefits of Brexit. You can contact us on the mail address on the site with your twenty page list of Brexit Benefits (or more if you have them) and we’ll take a look at them and add them to the list above*

*I don’t expect to have to change that list much

Where You May Want To Live in Valencia

Obviously the city of Valencia is a good option and we have details about all of the different districts of the city in this series of posts, but Valencia is surrounded by well connected towns and villages which we have detailed before in this post about inland towns and villages to have a great lifestyle. The advantages of moving to Valencia and Spain can be measured in so many ways, mental health benefits from not having to live in the Brexit or Trump created sh*tstorms, cost of living reductions, a better climate, a cleaner environment, a slowing down of the news cycle and the pace of life and much, much more. Try it. As I said in a tweet this week.

Summer News From Valencia Property

There won’t be a blog post next week as I will be away in Asturias in Northern Spain for a few days and really need a rest. I’ll be off the radar for a few days from the 1st to the 6th but the rest of the Valencia Property team will be carrying on working as they are taking holidays at different times throughout July and for most of August.

Also remember there will be no blogs in August until the end of the month as we are mostly closed in August this year apart from for essential services. I will be noting down blog post ideas and if there is anything you want us to write about or talk about on the podcast just let us know by sending us a mail or a voice note on our whatsapp (You can see the whatsapp icon in the sidebar of the blog).

Valencia Property Of The Week

One of our better recent descriptions (And there are plenty of good ones) but with photos that really don’t do the property justice. You may just need to come and see this one. This villa in L’Eliana might well suit a lot of people looking for that extra space and quality of life.

“The kids finished school for the summer yesterday, and its at times like this you wish you had a bigger house. One with 5 bedrooms maybe, and a pool, and an underground garage for when you really need JUST 2 BLOODY SECONDS TO MYSELF SO I CAN THINK PLEASE IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK

Sorry, but for example here is an interesting villa in L’Eliana, built on a corner plot, so only a neighbour on one side. Convenient to both Valencia city and also Eliana town centre, including its metro stations, and restaurants for DINNER WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHATS FOR DINNER, YOU’VE JUST HAD LUNCH

There is a very manageable garden and nice pool, and IF I HAVE TO GO DOWN TO YOU ONE MORE TIME I WON’T BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT I’LL DO TO THE PAIR OF YOU

Look, I have to go. Check out the photos and call us, before WHAT LITTLE SANITY I HAVE LEFT GOES OUT THE EFFING WINDOW ALONG WITH THAT BLOODY SKATEBOARD IF YOU RIDE IT IN THE HOUSE ONE MORE TIME YOU LITTLE BOLLOX”

The Podcast Is Back

The podcast returned last week in its second series and we started with a detailed discussion on the subject of last week’s blog post, FAQs and how we answer them. Have a listen by clicking on the player below or go to our Valencia Property podast page here and listen to many of our pods.

If You Liked This…

Then click through on the images below for more about Valencia, the experience of living here and what we can do to help you achieve your goal of living here.