Hey, I'm an expat!

Interesting article that seems to be creating a lot of conversations on various forums. I agree with some and I think she has her head up her ass on other parts of it.  http://www.businessinsider.com/us-expats-in-england-2013-10

Yes, there are derelict buildings and strip malls in England, we passed what I would call a strip mall last night--not as prolific as the states and the billboard/signage is not as overwhelmingly obtrusive but we are talking a vast difference in the size of the countries. Note I didn't say population, just the sheer land mass difference.  Not everyone in the states has walk-in closets, basements, or garages and quite a few houses here have the latter two (basements are called cellars though, and as an aside it depends on where you're at in the states as to what nomenclature is used) but I will agree that walk-in closets are few and far to find. Shoot, closets in general are scarce unless it's a new build.

Most grocery stores (shops) here do offer delivery service but it's not used by "everyone".  In my experience it's about equal on the eating out or carrying your own for lunch in that with both countries it depends on the workplace.  I'm not sure what the conveniences are that she is referring to when it comes to housework and I air-dried my laundry quite frequently in the states.  I do concur with missing my American style washer and dryer but that is more of a time issue rather than the quality of the machines because I could usually wash and tumble dry a load of towels in less time than it takes to do only the wash cycle.  Tumble dryers are widely available here but in our case it would have to go into the garage (that mythical thing again, lol) and it's quite expensive to operate here so we have made the decision not to buy one. That's not to say that we don't have a dryer, our machine is the combination style and it simply takes far longer so it's easier (and cheaper) to just hang everything out when possible

The public transit is far more available than in MOST areas of the states but depending on the area it may not  be near as convenient as what she has in her corner of the UK. I can't speak as to the effectiveness of the NHS as of yet because I haven't lived here long enough but the US insurance system has bloated the health services industry to a point where it is disgraceful.

I could go on and on and there are quite a few insightful points made in the article I do agree with but there were just a few that had me scratching my head and wondering if she'd traveled much into the rest of the UK.  However I am still very new to living here myself so my perceptions and experiences will continue to evolve.