Been seeing a lot about how the government passes shitty laws, lot of mass shootings and expensive asf health care. I come from a developing nation and we were always told how America is great and whatnot. Are all states is America bad ?
To all and every non-american - the only reason you’re ever told that America is great, is because it is being compared to, to where you are now. America is NOT everything though. It’s got it’s own problems.
America is wealthy as all hell regardless. It is part of the reason things like Healthcare is so expensive: there’s a whole lot of economic power to siphon up as an insurance company.
form communities due to being more spread out and car centric.
It’s also just not a community type of country. There’s a huge emphasis on individuality here. I think to the point where it flies against human nature. I have a hunch that that’s why we have so many cults. I’d ask a sociological organization but I’d rather not because I’d rather go my own way.
Nothing is ever so black-and-white when it comes to talking about the state of the USA right now. Yes, we are still comparitavely well-off when stacked against developing nations, but we have unique problems that are a real sore spot for many that aren’t getting any better and nobody is addressing them, letting the wounds fester.
For example, we have a lot of poverty. Sure, our lowest of the low class probably still enjoy a lifestyle better than that of someone from a remote village in some far away corner of the world, but the promise of prosperity is not equally accessible and the idealized “middle class” is vanishing rapidly. Homelessness is a crisis in basically every large city, especially in the warmer parts of the country, and inflation is still not under control which means the cost of living is going to be unsustainable for a lot of people very soon.
If you put politics aside, things really aren’t as bad as they could be, but that doesn’t stop people from voicing their concerns that things aren’t as good as they could be either.
Every state has its good and bad. We are out of control with the gun thing. There is a higher chance you will get shot and killed while minding your own business in America than most other countries. We are selfish and not much unity unless you are on one side or there and even then, we have become stupid and gullible. We are violent. We are much more violent in general than anyone I have ever encountered in other countries. Maybe England, but even there, it is not the same. Americans have no problem straight up killing each other. We are getting worse.
Is America great? Depends on who you ask. Is America a place where you still have some opportunities to make a better life for yourself. Sure. But it is not the same as that the pamphlet sold to everyone else. We are far from perfect and in many cases, other countries do things better.
Having said that, it is cool. Just keep your eyes open and pay attention.
Honestly, no. People bitch a lot but I’ve lived here a lot of years, my healthcare is fine, despite owning several guns I’ve never seen one fired at anyone, and I can pretty much do whatever I want.
Just a few million homeless, hungry, and incarcerated, plus the exploitation of workers in poorer nations, and you can be pretty ok with how things are! It’s a great system
Last I checked, US had like 20% of the world’s prison population. Just absolutely insane, plus prison doesn’t exactly rehabilitate anyone, so people just end up back in it
Well, when a good chunk of your prisons are for profit, and there is no system to incentivise reform, then it makes sense. They don’t want to kill their business.
It’s bullshit though. Prisons should be paid based on how many of their inmates successfully rehabilitate.
America definitely has its issues, but I think we have historically been good about surfacing problems and making sure they’re at least talked about publicly, even if they’re not fixed. This probably makes it look worse than it is. I feel like even in countries with reasonable free speech, there can be social taboos against talking about certain things.
I’ll echo this. My understanding is that compared to other countries, Americans are willing to share our lives with strangers. Now, apply that to politics. As a country, we’re very open about everything.
This is what Europeans don’t understand. US is so large it is essentially 50 different countries all with their own governments and laws. Your American experience will differ greatly depending on what city and state you visit.
and we were also first in line for things like the COVID vaccine, because the companies could make so much of their profits here…
We were first in line because the US government paid billions to fund the R&D to get the vaccine out. Then when manufacturing started in limited supply it went to the highest bidder first, which again was the US. We paid for it twice . I think that kind of thing should not be patented, we the people paid for the research and development, and the pharma companies got all the profits. If other companies and countries were allowed to manufacture the vaccines, we would have squashed COVID much faster.
When doing world rankings, to me it’s a better visual to compare each US region/state to countries as the size of the US is a big factor. Each region has its own distinction. I live in the Pacific Northwest which is (I believe) comparable to most developed countries. If you’re in the southeast, the rankings drop and your probably better off in Eastern Europe. The Northeast US (I.e. New England) is also comparable to most developed countries but the Midwest is moving more towards a theocratic style of localized governance. The US isn’t in a position I’m any region to compete with Norway, Finland, Denmark, etc but that’s why they are ranked at the top.
America is 50 different countries in one. There are really two whine different Americas. Several of the states are world class nations unto themselves. It’s the 3rd most populous nation in the world and the richest. It invites a lot of immigration to fend off declining birth rates and doesn’t have a cultural taboo about it like Japan.
It lacks a lot of modern supports for its very lowest classes. New immigrants cannot expect to get baseline healthcare, food assistance, or housing. And it has a generous helping of religious nuttery which brings about scattered laws against gays, a generalized attack on women (though nothing like a lot of the developing nations are still stuck in).
That’s the long and short of it. If you want to go into business and have a relatively free hand, it’s still one of the best places to be. If you have nothing and are looking for a compassionate nation that will keep you from dying of poverty, keep looking.
The areas of the country that are in terrible poverty, with serious systemic issues, vote for the people who refuse to help them. They’re so proud of it, and being American, and own the most guns. They hate you for not being one of them. It’s a weird place to visit in all these areas.
If you live in a major metropolitan area, it’s fine. The country could have a much higher standard of living if we’d band together and get some labor rights and benefits codified. As a worker your treated better, and have more rights in every other western country.
Wild take. The metropolitan areas are home to massive homeless populations that are riddled with people hopelessly addicted to fentany. Nearly every city that people want to live in has a shortage of housing. Walk around Seattle/ Portland/ SF/ LA for 20 minutes and you’ll quickly discover its not fine.
Every city has homeless people, criminals, drug addicts. These aren’t really unique to America. But I didn’t feel like writing a book on what city life is like. Have you visited many cities outside of America? Cities are cities everywhere, the drug of choice changes, sometimes they hide the homeless people more effectively.
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