Pondering on The Pond Divide

Perhaps I should have been a little more coherent in my post about the U.S. versus European divide. Perhaps I will blog my developing thoughts and then join them into a more coherent series. The reason I am doing this is trying to figure out how these differences affect media consumption patterns, which in turn affect business models.

Day-to-day idiocy in British life frustrates me no end, as the previous post says. Of course, since I only moved here about a year ago (was based in NYC before that), I understand the dynamics which drives both cultures, so to speak (and I am still in the hyper-absorption phase of British culture). At root, both of the cultures have a lot in common, and it is difficult to have any clear cut differentiation as I was attempting.

On my point of pay-as-you go being socialist, here’s how I look at it: socialist societies are distrustful of their citizen to make rational decisions, which is why it imposes all these rules. As a part of that mistrust is the fear of misuse of a public/private utility. Hence the concept of pay as you go is more prevalent here, or so I have deduced. For the same reason, it is infinitely difficult to get a credit card and open a bank account in UK, as opposed to US.

Of course, the opposite can be true as well…fairness means everyone pays equally and then use it, though “as much as they want” is something socialists would not approve, since temperance is at the heart of socialism, you will agree…

It is all confusing, but very fascinating: I should try speaking to an anthropologist. Anyway, sorry about rambling

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