THE WAGES OF REDISTRIBUTION AND REGULATION: Why Britain is poorer than any US state, other than Mississippi. And if you leave out the wealthy southeast of Britain, it’s worse off. “Brits may be appalled at America’s gap in black-white life expectancy. But our Liverpool-SW1 life expectancy gap is just as big; we just don’t get upset about it. When you walk south over Westminster Bridge from the House of Commons, life expectancy drops five years.”