|
My point wasn't to claim that the US was worse of off by the UK; I was just claiming that the US has a higher degree of wealth inequality, so it might be easier to see how one group is affected by the influence of the other. Regardless, it's an assertion; I've only visited the UK and never lived there.
I think we have different definitions of gentrification. By gentrification, I mean, to make of the gentry. In which case, it entails that the people living in a given place are not of gentle birth, and the people that remake the area make it so. In the case of Thatcher's right-to-buy program, I wouldn't call that a case of gentrification as much as a move toward privatization. If I am not mistaken, that program let the renters of state houses purchase the houses they lived in. Not to be dogmatic, but that is not technically gentrification, only because someone didn't purchase cheap property, redevelop it, and then sell it or rent it. I think that is more aptly titled privatization, and even the successes of these practices vary.
But yes, I can't help but agree that ghettos are bad places to live; at the same time, I don't think that gentrification is the way to fix those problems. I see it more as displacing them.
|