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Precisely so!

> > I can hazard a good guess why it came late but it is an economic reason rather than a national characteristic. < <

That is exactly so, and one of the more shameful episodes of US history that is almost completely unknown the the average American.

After WWII, the US demanded "reparations" - not only from the enemy (eg, the Germans and Italians who started the problem in the first place), but also among our *allies*. Yes, that's right, the US *demanded* that the UK repay the US for our help in fighting the Nazis. There were *billions* of dollars involved, and the bill was not fully repaid until the mid-1990s.

The whole thing is rather disgusting, as while the US was enjoying a huge post-war economic boom during the '50s, the UK was struggling to keep poverty from plunging the entire country into a full blown depression as they shipped off a significant portion of their economic output to the US. Here are just a couple of examples:

1) The UK is the only country in the world that uses "ring wiring" for the AC power in their houses. The *only* reason this was done was to save on the cost of expensive copper wire. From Wikipedia "This design enables the use of smaller-diameter wire than would be used in a radial circuit of equivalent total current".

2) The main reason for IBM's domination of the world of computers was that all of the computer technology developed at Bletchley Park by Alan Turing (and nearly 10,000 others!) was "given" to IBM as part of the war-time "reparations". The UK equivalent was ICL (International Computing Limited), but they were restricted from selling outside of the UK, leaving IBM to have the rest of the world market.

These are just two examples of how the "friendly" US prospered during the '50s and '60s, while in the UK times were *extremely* tight and stereo was a luxury that virtually none could afford. I'm sure that PAR has many more examples.

Best,
Charles Hansen

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