I'm a contractor so no severance, although I believe severance in the UK works fairly similarly to the US (I just wouldn't know). On mortgages, I'm very worried because in the UK all mortgages are ARMs and our repayments have gone up a ton. But in addition to this so have our energy bills, and expenses generally.

> Do you worry about access to high quality Healthcare?

I don't have private healthcare. Unless you're very rich most people in the UK just put up with the NHS. I'm young and healthy though so almost never need it anyway. In general I don't think any worries about access to healthcare here.

> Overall, do you think being in the UK makes you less worried that a layoff will leave you broke and homeless?

I'll give you a long answer to this because social mobility and the affordability of homes is something I care deeply about and apparently have a controversial opinion on... But the TL;DR would be that I'm more worried about being broke, but less about being homeless than someone in a similar situation to myself living in the US.

Now the long answer...

The UK is weird in that if you're from a background like mine and you want a decent life (a home and family) you're generally better off not working. With the exception of myself the only people I know from my childhood who have their own homes are those without jobs and on benefits. I don't believe this is the same in the US.

In the UK if you work you're unlikely to be able to afford your own home unless you have fairly wealthy parents who can give you money, or a very good job – and if you're from a council estate you're almost guaranteed to have neither.

So I'm not worried about being homeless because the state will give me a home, but I often feel I'm in an impossible situation in terms of moving up the economic ladder via employment. Imo there's no real wealth mobility in the UK because we're taxed so aggressively and progressively on income. In effect the more you try to earn to not be poor the more the state will hold you back to ensure that never happens, but if you're super wealthy already then you're not taxed a penny on what you have while the poor will pay for your public services and pension via income tax and various consumption taxes.

The end result is that it means the best way to be wealthy in the UK is simply to inherit it (in ways that avoid inheritance tax, obviously). Although I would acknowledge starting a business is another viable option as that way you don't need to worry about income tax – but that's obviously not easy and requires a decent amount of luck.

So I think the right answer your question is that it's just different here. If you're poor the state looks after you very well in comparison to the US. I know single mums who have been given £500,000 houses to live in by the state and £30,000 a year to live on (untaxed). But if you're from a background like mine and want to work for a living there isn't a practical path to afford a £500,000 house in your 30s as a single parent – not to mention the luxury of not having to work a single day of your life for that lifestyle.

Speaking purely from a personal perspective, I would I'd feel much more financially secure in the US because the tax system is fairer there. My understand is that in the US you're taxed less for trying to build wealth and I don't believe you have consumption taxes. I think this is generally why people who work hard in the US can end up wealthy, but in the UK similar things don't really happen.

But I would point out that most people in the UK disagree with me on this. Those who claim to care about social mobility the most here are generally the loudest advocates for even higher levels of income tax.