Chris, the expense that makes it seem like $=£ comes in a couple of forms. Some good, and some not fair at all. The latter of those two is usually when a company brings their US product to the UK. Because of a whole slew of reasons (some because of the higher cost of manufacture, some because of government regulations, some because of a roller-coaster exchange rate), the price is going to be much higher over here than it is over there.
But there is good news, too. Although the UK charges a massive 17.5 percent tax on some items, this tax does account for a good portion of the "higher cost of living", but it goes toward a lot of things that you then don't have to pay someone else for. Medical care, for instance. Prescriptions. Also, there's no tax on some things over here that are taxed through the nose in the US...winnings, for example. That show, "Who Wants to be a Millionaire"...in the US you're clearing about $600,000. (Not an accurrate amount; I guessed!) In the UK you're winning about the equivalent of $1,920,000 (due to exchange rate and there's no tax on it).
Okay, so some people take out additional medical insurance, and some people use private medical practices, and the waiting lines for an operation can be more than a year. And it's true that gambling is NOT a way to count on any sort of living, but think of the chances of winning on "Who Wants to be a Millionare"...the population alone of US vs. UK
