Ho-hum

"the cost of living is generally lower than in the US" Not by much. Comparing groceries is not straight-forward since different items can be higher or lower in the US. While overall the cost of living is lower in the UK, higher average income in the US more than makes up for it. "Our food... has fewer of the additives found in yank products, which are simply there to prolong the shelflife of the product to the benefit of the manufacturer." Americans simply have different spending habits than Europeans do, shopping only about once a week or less which requires relatively more preservatives in some items like bread. Manufacturers couldn't change that if they wanted to for all the svengali powers you attribute to them. "The peanut butter I spread on my bread has precisely three ingredients" OK, you've got me there. I just checked my peanut butter label and it has a whopping four ingredients (those bastard corporate swine had the temerity to add molasses to my peanut butter!!!). I mean, it's not even close. Pat yourself on the back for the win. "a chemical called tert‑butylhydroquinone which gives the product that special yank aftertaste of puke." No, it doesn't. It doesn't really have a taste at all because it's used in such small amounts. You must be confusing it with butyric acid which is a natural chemical compound found in dairy and is what's actually responsible for confusing unrefined British palates. It's just a matter of associative learning history. If you grew up only ever knowing that taste from your own puke, certainly you won't be able to tell the difference. "I can go anywhere in the countryside, including private farmland." I guess now we know the reason for the British rural horror film genre if you've got creepy Brits roaming around like that. And with those teeth! Also, the geography is just plain different. We have enough flat boring land to spare so that most farm tracts are quite separate from any of the more scenic areas. "Oh yes, and then there's that small matter of being able to leave my front door with the certain knowledge that I won't be shot dead." A very small matter, indeed. My only experience with gun violence was outside the US. "slaves and lapdogs to the top 1 per cent - and have been well trained to leap gallantly to the defence of their economic masters" This coming from someone who esteems the coercive hierarchies of the ancient world as opposed to the "corporate masters" of today who can only stay in business by catering to their customers' every beck and call. The irony. For all your elitist class pride, it's the ignorant condescension of conspiracy theories like this that cement the picture of you being functionally illiterate in the social sciences.