Why was Great Britain so broke for so long after WWII?

Britain was unique in having an empire which always made money. Most empires did not or do not. They cost more to maintain than they make, and are begun and kept for nationalist and prestige reasons. But the British were quite anal about making certain that virtually every colony made money almost all the time. read more

So there is a certain irony to Britain being on the "winning" side of WWII yet being left bankrupt and having to pay debts for many decades after (while the "losers" were rebuilt by the USA via the Marshall Aid plan). read more

I’ll give a short answer. It took Britain up into the late 50’s to end rationing and in the 1960’s to economically get going again. At the end of the WWII Britain was bankrupt and close to failure, the U.S. had to bail England out. England lost its world trading position to the U.S. also. read more