Personally I measure wealth not by how much my house is worth or how big my shopping bill is but by how much money I have left after paying for life's essentials. The "Northern" way of live involves much more "going out" than does that of the typical Southerner. Houses cost more in the South and people tend to entertain at home more.
I come from so far South that you get your feet wet if you go any further and have relatives in the North of England who have, for the 60 years of my life, always carped on about how hard done by they are, how we Southerners are so much wealthier etc. Utter Bollox! We never were.
They always had two weeks holiday a year during which they travelled to the South Coast. During my childhood we went on holiday twice in 15 years because my parents could not afford to do so more often. "Days out" were the order of the day. Tracing the family tree I came across a pay slip of my father's dated in 1956. His pay, as a shop manager, was £5.00 per week. The Rent book for that period shows he was paying £1.00 of that weekly for our council house. My Uncle (his BiL) lived and worked in Manchester (He too came from the south but married a Manchester girl; at the end of the war) and still lives there. I asked him recently what he earned in 1956 £12.00 a week plus overtime for Saturday mornings. I showed him the pay slip I had uncovered. He still refuses to believe it
I was married to a Girl from Yorkshire for twenty years and listened to this North South crap from my in-laws for the entire time. They were convinced that we had a better standard of living in the soft south but THEY went to the pub 5 times a week, for the evening, as a family. I was lucky if I could afford a pint after work on a Friday.
Fvcking Northerners have been pulling this crap since time began. Now that the house prices are rising and food/clothing etc are catching up with what the South has to pay let' s see if the b@rst@rds can afford the casinos, pubs and clubs every night of the week anymore. Just watch as the clubs start to close down. It'll happen .... mark my words.
