What things do you dislike about the USA? Drop your answers under this comment! Disagree with some of the points we made? We want to hear from you too! 😄
"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." The US seems to focus on individual freedoms in a way of trying not to interfere too much with people's lives e.g. low taxes. The flip side of that is that the country doesn't care for the people either. Individuals are responsible for their own health care, security (second ammendment), businesses and industry is responsible for providing services but with greater focus on making money rather than providing care plus they have more control over politics so they can be given more advantages than their customers. Yet always it's love your country, stand for the anthem, swear allegiance (invoking God even though God has always cared for and protected his people over those whose focus was on money and power.) America does not care about it's people enough to get involved in helping their lives but expects it citizens to care for it. Independence sounds good but no man is an island. It takes a village to raise a child. We are and should be connected and all work together for the good of all of us. Socially funded services is not the same as socialism. Government curbs on industries unfairly profiting from overcharging citizens for life changing essentials is appropriate because government should work for the citizens, not profit from those businesses. When will US citizens learn the US government exists not to help them but maintain a system in which the rich and powerful stay rich and powerful and anyone else is ripe for being taken advantage of unless they can get successful by themselves. It is, quite frankly, sickening and evil. Not all in power or with money are evil but the organization (American spelling has a z so you can tell) is evil and corrupt.
Actually one more thing to add. Why don't the citizens want more social powers in government? Because they know government is corrupt. Government must pass laws to prevent corruption within itself before they can fix the rest of the country.
This leaves me with a bunch of questions (from a UK view). Do you think the extreme polarised opinions and the polarised political system have some common cultural cause? Has politics always been 100% polarised - has there ever been any other political options other than Republican or Democrat? Is it even realistically possible for such a side to gain any footing? Also, I often wonder (I vaguely remember hearing something like this from California) if the individual states began acting as completely independent entities (secession from the union) with the united states being more of a customs/trade union like the EU currently is supposed to be would they actually be better off financially/culturally? Basically I wonder if the size of the USA is part of the cause of some of it's issues and would having smaller geographical regions encourage a more united populus in those areas.
America's obsession with money. I hate it. Even the sports talk about "the numbers" all the time, pay per view numbers even more than the skill in the actual sport. If you were to watch a European sport they never mention subscribers or how well a 'franchise' is doing. You get a best player award not a most valuable player. Nobody in Europe deals in stocks and trades, nobody works long hours, and nobody unless you're a complete nob judges their status on their career. America is completely run by corporations. Right to the top of power. The country is prisoner to big business.
Lived in the States for 26 years, loved it. We have 4 American grandchildren who we miss very much. Worked in the British Embassy in Washington DC for 24 years. We were on Visas so when we retired we had 30 days to get our butts out of the US I got so fed up hearing..land of the free, home of the brave' best country in the world etc., etc, from people who did not even own a passport!! American is no freer than the vast majority of other countries, we just don't go on and on about it. Nevertheless great times.
We use metric units in Canada! UK uses imperial... not the best but it's old. US changed recently to freedom units lol... What are they? Renamed imperial... waoh.... glad I'm Canadian.
@@LocoMe4u 'Freedom units'. LOL. That sounds like a joke... but I'm not sure. It does sound like it could actually be real. UK imperial? Erm... Yeah, but not really. I'm a 54 year old Brit. We learned both systems in primary/junior school (
@@genrabbit9995 I agree. I think it's unfair that people aren't valued by their employers. In the UK we have hospitality staff on zero hours contracts expected to work at the drop of a hat, or be sent home if it's quiet with no money. Disgraceful.
I even heard of a restaurant in London that had a service charge listed on the bill, but they pretty much demanded a tip on top of that. I know London is expensive, but remember that minimum wage is already nowhere near as low in the UK as it is in the US. This is something encouraged by a tipping culture that spreads from the US and it's damned annoying! I don't get why they can't just charge what they want rather than making people feel guilty all the time!
Edward Noble I’m in London now. I’ve been here since just after new years and have not encountered any one demanding a tip. There’s lots of restaurants here that place service charges on their bills and in 3 months time only once has a server mentioned that you could tip if you like but it was in a place with no service charge and she was anything but demanding. Having not lived in the states for 20 odd years I’ve noticed when I do go back now that tipping has gotten really out of hand. When I left 15% was the norm and the people you tipped was limited to wait staff and a handful of others but now I hear people saying 18, 20, 22 even 25% tips are normal. Are they nuts? And it seems like everyone expects a tip now. It’s gotten completely crazy. Cost of living is high enough without this voluntary extra tax.
@@Bob_just_Bob Yeah that is crazy. I just want them to charge what they want and fir it not to be a guessing game ir a point of shame. To be fair this didn't happen to me. I lived there for 7 years. Most places would include a service charge, which you could argue they shouldn't have to. People should be paid properly to start with. Here in Sweden there is no expectation to tip and it's noticably different from how it felt in London.
Unfortunately, the only way this would change is if all of the service staff decided to walk out. Only when you cannot find employees do you begin to consider offering more, otherwise, you pay as little as you can. One of the things with tipping that really gets me (and is always a source of contention with my friends) is the pizza delivery guy. I understand tipping a restaurant employee who refills my water, brings me another napkin when I drop mine...this is a service. The pizza delivery guy's whole purpose is to deliver me a pizza. I do not think I should have to tip them. I do not tip the person as the McDonald's drive-thru, so why should I tip the pizza delivery guy? "They have to live off of these tips" is usually the answer I get, and that simply explains the entire tipping culture itself from the cab driver to the hotel maid. It is not a reason for tipping someone
when you said "in 2 days you could have a car crash and need thousands of dollars in medical care" blew my European mind, because that would never be something we'd worry about, so when we save its for a house, a holiday, university etc etc etc
When you are paying over 50% of your income in taxes, you are effectively "putting away" money to pay for your health insurance. Actual health care costs are not much difference between similarly developed countries, the difference is in how each system pays for them.
The majority of people in Great Britain pay 20% as the average income (among the lowest in Europe) is between £20,000 and £50,000, all of which comes out when you get paid so you don't notice it, so when we save (which most people do) we save for leisure and things to enjoy not basic rights which should be provided by the government.
@@nathanpym6287 do you pay 20% in income tax, or is that total including VAT and other taxes? We also have income taxes 'withheld' from paychecks by employers and submitted to the government. I think this is a particularly underhanded move by government to placate taxpayers by stealing their money before they ever realize that they earned it. I think if the average citizen had to write a check for their taxes every year as someone who is self employed or a business owner does, there would be massive resistance towards runaway government spending and we would get reform.
plcwboy We pay income tax of 20%, and we also pay Nation Insurance (which goes towards things like the NHS, our state pensions, etc etc) which is 13.8% (I believe), but I don't work for HMRC so I'm not well read on the intricacies of the UK tax system but there are loads of good websites if you want to read up on it more. Even if our taxes are higher than those in the U.S, I don't think that you'll ever convince us that privatisation of healthcare is a good idea, especially when "a jaw-dropping 34 million Americans say a friend of family member died because they were unable to afford medical treatment" - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/11/nhs-us-health-care-trade-deal-uk-election
@@plcwboy You once had to make an income tax payment semi-annually to the IRS; then the great FDR (who got us into WW2 and sent 120,000 Japanese-Americans to concentration camps) schemed to take the cash out of your paycheck. His line: "They'll never miss it." Friend of the workingman? I don't think so.
I am absolutely grateful I was born and raised in the USA 🇺🇸 However it is far from perfect, I wish more Americans would travel internationally more so they can see and appreciate what they have and what they could have 🤔
@Garry Ellison On the right or left coast across the ocean there is some land that you can move to so start swimming bye! Obviously you haven’t traveled to other countries and have no comprehension of the English language!
Yeah. It really depends on which side you ask. I hear the right saying they're "conservative libertarians" refering to the left as "radical anarchist out to destroy our freedoms for free stuff" and the left saying "there is not left, there's only the good and the Nazi right that doesn't value human life". Either way they both go on about how terrible the 2 party system is then turn around and say "but my party will fix it" so...
@@pnkrathrt have it always been like that? Earlier I used Google+ where no one talked about politics, now I'm on MeWe where they talk about politics all the time and both seem to hate the other side. As a Swede I disagree with some parties in my country but I don't hate them.
@@reineh3477 I wouldn't say always. US politics have been divided in 2 for most our our history, but It's been way more visible and way worse for the last 12 years.
@@nadeau The 'Socialist' in 'National Socialist' is a misnomer designed to give the German people at the time the belief of collective unity of German speaking people. The Nazi's oldest enemies were the Socialists going back to the end of the First World War, when the Nazi Party emerged from the right wing nationalist Freikorps. The Freikorps and later the Nazi, tortured, assassinated and imprisoned in the concentration camps socialist intellectuals, artists, social democratic politicians and trade unionist along time before they got around to imprisoning the Jews and Gypsies. They had no problem with capitalists especially the US ones that carried on trading with them right up to the point where the US joined the war.
I pretty much agree with all of your points. You guys nailed it. The one thing I would add is that there is a strong strain of anti-intellectualism in the U.S. We generally know only one language, we know nothing about geography, next to nothing about history (even our own) and often very little functional science or math. But that's OK, apparently, because we are "exceptional" and "leaders of the Free World." The truth is that we are resting on last century's achievements and power and whistling past the graveyard on our future.
@Frank Filthyfinger Without going into a lengthy discussion (I wil ot respond to anything after this), the "protection" is usually unnecessary murder. There are other ways to protect yourself as other countries show. We all have the right to protect ourselves all over the world but that has nothing to do with guns itself. You don´t even know how indoctrinated you are about gun use. It should not be a normal and accepted thing. And you start with "freedom to", which is exactly the point Kevin is making. (You edited it later to protection from others, which is also typical American. nobody is as scared. You are made scared to keep up the weaponsales and don´t even know it.)
I can't believe how seriously Americans take politics. When I see these rallies with thousands of people with stars and stripes hats thinking they're making a difference, it makes me laugh. In the end the people with the money make the decisions whichever party are in the Whitehouse.
Oh and another thing I really hate about the US is the amount of adverts on the TV!! 5 mins of adverts then 5 mins of program then another 5 mins of adverts = 5 minutes of program in the last 15 minutes, insane and unwatchable!
@@kevinshort3943 As a person from the UK, that is fricken annoying... Its like saying that Americans are so dumb that they cannot remember what happened 5 mins ago. Dont get me wrong, there are some UK programs that do this (its mainly as a "coming up after the break" thing) but thankfully most dont. Plus in the UK an ad break is halfway through a 30 min show or 3 ad breaks in 1 hour. (we actually have TV regulation on this) I can remember when ABC first started airing in the UK and it had US style ad breaks and it was so hated that ABC in the UK has had to change it. You guys even get an on screen banner advertising a show during the program which NEVER happens in the UK. In fact, a lot of the shows we watch from america sometimes have a 1 second black screen where in the US, thats where the ad break happens, here the show just continues till the usual UK ad break.
@@CrazyInWeston Haven't you noticed that sky do this too? Break just after the credits, 4+ minute breaks instead of 3, and an extra one compared to normal.
"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real." -Tupac Shakur Reminds me of another quote by Albert Einstein that kind of parallels that sentiment. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." In short. The human imagination and the ability to pursue dreams is a powerful human ability.
I've been questioning the validity of the "America is the best country in the whole world" statement since I was in elementary school. That's a big nope. Lol
MLK was right during his 1967 speech when he mentioned how United States is an arrogant country. Any country that claims to be the "best" in the whole world, really shows its arrogance. US is the only nation that does it and at a very high level.
What a truly charming, articulate, modest and attractive couple! You two look genuinely lovely together. P.S. Great cultural analysis. P.P.S. I would be happy to fork out a few euro for you to have a second shirt, Eric, if you would like.
You're too kind! Thank you for the compliments 😊 We're very glad to hear that you're enjoying our videos. About Eric's shirt! Due to our nomadic lifestyle, we're pretty intense minimalists, so Eric’s fashion statements have more to do with baggage space than savings 😄 But if you’d like to help support the channel, we have recently started a Patreon www.patreon.com/wanderingravens Stay safe and healthy! x
@@EvsEntps Abortion is natural. The animal kingdom would likely love to stop the pregnancy or hope for a miscarriage. A baby is highly dependent and knows only what you teach them. Destruction is likely nothing anyway. They're not paying taxes or costing any money.
The extreme lack of savings is probably tied into the hyperconsumerist culture, look at the way adverts are built in the US, the underlying message is always "spend spend spend, flaunt your wealth", whereas the underlying message in adverts elsewhere is more "buy this product and save a bunch now and long term".
They have to constantly advertise because the shit they advertise is just that, shit. Their view is quantity over quantity. Job security for big corporations. Sell a bunch of crap that'll break down after a short period of time & they'll come back to buy it again & buy the newest version of crap. If they actually valued quality first, customers wouldn't come back as often because it was made right the first time. It's just one of many crooked ass ways that they corner the market. Trillions go into corporate bailouts & crumbs go to the people. Politicians ride their dick because they think it's the only way to stimulate the economy. If more of those trillions went to the people, the people would do what with it? Spend it! And that in turn would stimulate the economy. But fear & greed go hand in hand & they just can't risk it. But they'll quickly dump it all at the top end & watch it disappear in minutes. They'd rather do that bullshit then do something good with it that might actually bring about good change for people. They don't care. You think they care?? People are just assets to them. Commodities. Objects. It's oligarchy. As Canibus put it "same shit, different laxative". Big government is in bed with big corporations. Look no further for your kings and queens. Change is definitely needed now. Big change.
Same here in Australia. Savings have mostly declined since the 1980's. I was taught to save, though my adherence to that has admittedly been patchy, but I have avoided credit for most of my life, even on a disabled pension.
In the 80s everybody in Ireland wanted to move to the US but with EU membership all that changed, plus the realisation of the state of US healthcare and holiday days and now I never hear anybody wanting to move.
It is interesting that you started this video with what I would call “the ME culture” of Americans. I have, in the past, taken opportunities to raise this with Americans and it appears to be broadly accepted by them - usually as something positive. However, when you explore other areas of American culture you dislike in your video it becomes clear how many of those are routed in the same ME culture, especially if you recognise just how close “Me first” and “greed” are. The most profound impact is on your politics which almost seems designed to service the ME culture - the slightest hint of “WE” is immediately and wrongly labelled socialist and therefore taboo. Despite history showing time and again that we are better working together, this seems to be anathema to too many Americans. A profound negative of the ME culture is the absolute dependence on ME. This leads to a collapse of trust and the growth of fear, which in turn leads to off grid living, personal bunkers, guns and enough armaments to blow up the world several times. It leads to living for the moment (lack of savings) and ignoring the future (once Global Warming but “adjusted” by Republicans to the less stark “Climate Change”). Finally, you mentioned the “American Dream” - what is it? Again, I have asked Americans and most have no answer. When pressed we eventually agree on “get rich quick”. Some will go as far as to say “Get rich quick at any cost”. How ME and selfish is that?
I'm French and had the occasion to live in the USA. I love your country. I'm Ok with all you said but most of them are inconveniences, or things that are two-sided coins (except perhaps health-care costs but I had my French health-care in America). The two things I really hated are : guns and race relations.
@@leagueofotters2774 Go there, meet people, you'll see. And The USA are big! Like me, you'll find some places you'll dislike, and some you'll like, and even some you'll love.
@@raycom201 They kill people without making them safe. 12.2 killed by firearms in the US per 100,000 inhabitants. 0.2 in Britain : 60 times less. In Britain they have 42 times less guns by 100,000 people. You can make these comparaison with all the industrialised countries. That gun worship you have in America is crazy, dangerous and makes it a worse place than it should be.
If you love it so much, do you support its human rights violations? Do you support USA dropping bombs on other countries? Do you also support USA overthrowing foreign democratic leaders? Over-all, do you support all these crimes that US has committed? The people who love USA, support all these things.
Late to the party but gradually catching up with your informative & entertaining videos. Would be interested in hearing your views on American gun law ; a concept which seems quite alien to many Europeans.
Hi Chelsal! We'd love to make a video on gun laws as well, but want to do the topic justice so will cover that after we've had time to research the topic and speak with experts on both sides of the argument. Thank you for the suggestion and do enjoy catching up! :)
One of the worst things about America is the lack of gun laws and licensing. It doesn't seem to matter how many school children are murdered in mass shootings, the government just will not do anything. If that was any other country they would have scrapped gun ownership long ago (just look at how the UK changed its gun laws after the Dunblane Massacre). Anyway, thanks for being so open and honest about your country. Love your channel!
You have to remember how complicated gun ownership is in the United States. The right to bear arms is enshrined in our Constitution so without an amendment you can't just scrap gun ownership. And the vast majority of people on both sides would be opposed to eliminating guns entirely. People do want more done but there are arguments on what way is best. Remember there are four basic guns situations we are talking about. One: normal ownership by people for hunting, sport and self defense. Two: Accidental gun injuries and fatalities. Three: Mass shootings by the unstable and/or intolerant. Four: criminal gun use in particular gang violence. Most of the time we are in category one. Most of the violence falls in category four.
I never heard a kid in Europe answering "American", when asked "who do you wanna be when you grow up?". I have heard of princess, F1 driver, Ronaldo, etc but never "I want to be american!" ;) And these days, when people here in Europe say they want to move to another country - you rarely hear USA as a destination for long term living.
Katariina K - Nevertheless, there are very many people around the world who still want to come to “America.” My barber, who is from mainland China, recently became a U. S. citizen. She reports that she is feeling like she is “American” and she seems to be loving it.
I often wonder about "I am an American Citizen!!!" like it's going to change the situation. I hear it all the time at customs in airports. "No, you can't check inside my bag, I am an American citizen!!" "No I'm not going to pay for a visa to visit your country, I am an American Citizen." WTF? I worked in a call centre where we took calls from all over North America and every now and again someone would ask where I was. When I said Canada (half our call centre was in the states but we all answered all the lines) they'd say, "No! I want to talk to an American! I am an American citizen!!" Oooh, excuse me while I tremble in my boots or bow at your feet.
Fairly sure they'd just cut off your call if you did that to a British call centre. Either that or say "okay" put you on hold for 5 minutes then have exactly the same person come back. There's an attitude of: if you're going to be a rude w*nker then don't expect good service.
When we were in Budapest we queued to buy a ticket for a tour of the parliament building. There was a huge sign to say EU citizens paid one price and non EU citizens another (about a third more). The American lady in front of us was arguing loudly with the ticket clark that she was ‘American’ so should pay the same rate as the EU citizens! She was demanding to know why she should pay more. My husband explained very succinctly that her American citizenship meant diddly squat outside of America so pay the ticket price or get out of the queue as she was spoiling everyone else’s day. She huffed and puffed, paid the ticket price and proceeded to whine loudly the whole way around the tour 🙄. She really showed herself up big time.
@@Lambchop2701 I'm a Brit who lives in Amsterdam. In my work I have known several occasions where a newly arrived American tourist has attempted to pay with Dollars and seems amazed that we only take Euros. The presumption is always "But these are US dollars! The strongest currency that all other nations are desperate to get their hands on! Why wouldn't you accept them?" My answer is: Because that shit only flies in bankrupt third World Countries with worthless currencies, and this is the Netherlands, one of the richest, strongest economies in the world, and the Euro outperforms the Dollar by some way. It comes as quite a shock to them, especially those whose world view is cut and pasted from Fox News reports about how "Europe is done!". Honestly, they seem to think they are visiting some quaint but failed ex-Soviet state, rather than a major player in global finance, with a much higher average standard of living than America has ever had.
It's the international version of Karen's 'I want to speak to your manager' - probably learnt from some unrealistic international travel comedy film that Hollywood puts out on a regular basis
It's great to find Americans who travel outside the USA and have a balanced, erudite knowledge of "things" and can be introspective of the short-comings of their home culture. We all should do this! By being self critical or questioning, how else are we to develop. I agreed with all your observations but sadly they are not just American, especially the political and the me-first culture. Weirdly, as abhorrent as the beer-virus is, it has polarised what really is important in our lives/world. The irony is nature at the moment could not be more beautiful. Stay safe in your lockdown in France. Just found you two today and love the content.xx P.S. From the UK, Bournemouth
Too many acronyms, for eg, The pgp = The primary gifting period = Christmas. America -"it's a good idea that has got out of hand" Al Murray - The Pub Landlord. Great content guys, keep it coming. ;-)
I have had nothing but positive experiences when I've been in America but one thing that does get on my nerves is the religiosity of Americans. Particularly when someone wins an award or a sportsperson wins their event and they thank God for getting them there or even making them win, as if their personal relationship with God is more important than anyone else's. Now I understand the importance of faith in their lives but the loud bragging that they do often sets non-American's teeth on edge and seems a little un-Christian (although I'm sure they don't mean to have that affect).
This is a really interesting observation. We hadn't thought about it from that perspective before, but what you said makes a lot of sense! Just say thank you for the award and move on :D
plcwboy ..what he’s saying is that God has watched the contest (as if he didn’t have any more important things to) and that He favored the winning competitor over the others.....that makes the winner somehow chosen by God.....an often made claim, apparently....
yealandred ----- You said: "the loud bragging that they do often sets non-American's teeth on edge" It doesn't require one to be a non-American. I'm American and it bothers me a great deal. If it's their personal belief then whatever, I simply don't want to hear about it. We also have to put up with the Christian Right pretending to believe that Trump is "one of them". He's not a Christian, he's a narcissist. The Christian Right ignores that he cheated on his wives (3 times). The latest example was sex with a porn star while Melania was pregnant. To keep the porn star quiet he paid her 130 thousand dollars which is an illegal campaign contribution. It's bad enough that we have to put up with loud bragging by Christian athletes. But now we also have the spectacle of the worst President in history being embraced by the Christian Right hypocrites.
Controversial. Such courage, given the haters out there on social media! I think some of the traits attributed to Americans apply equally to other countries. Selfishness is not uncommon here in Australia and the UK, two countries I know well. Having said that, the selflessness being shown by people in this country during these times is remarkable. A big shout out to all medical staff, but also to those people serving at super markets, and all other outlets deemed to be essential, including cafes serving take away coffees, the best in the world here in Melbourne. Sounds very American, doesn't it!!!! Cheers to everyone
Once upon at time, Australia had a good socialist Government but USA took that away from your country! USA always has been screwing over your country. I wish Australia would recognize that US is not a true ally.
"If you are European, let us know what you think about American politics". Oh boy. I once heard someone say; "Never discuss politics with an American" and it's the best advice ever! Biden for president 2020!
Taxes even as an expat. The fact that we have to pay the taxes of the country we’re living in, plus US taxes makes working outside the US that much more stressful and expensive.
Yep the USA one of only TWO countries to apply this double taxation, the other being Eritrea. If you marry an American you then are taxable by the IRS as well, any children you have are then also treated as US citizens for tax too. If you open a bank account you now have to declare you are NOT as US citizen if a bank does not do this the US slaps them with a 30% transaction tax on all transactions that go through the USA.
I was surprised how many of these also apply to my country, Hungary. The only exception is perhaps public transit. I sometimes feel that I live in a red state that has somehow been mysteriously transported to the middle of Europe. No wonder Orban and Trump get along so well.
Phew.I'm glad we finally got to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Eric the Raven's one purple shirt. I didn't want to be rude enough to bring it up.
I think the polarisation of politics has happened in quite a few countries over the last decade or so. The US situation probably isn't helped though by the shear amount of money involved in it and how that inevitably leads to politicians looking to keep the support of those that provide it, rather than the people they are supposed to represent. It also seems like people care a lot less about policy or realistic intentions and more about how a candidate makes them feel, which is again an increasingly common trend in global politics.
Yup! Personality politics. As long as a voter like the way a candidate makes them feel, they're happy to twist and turn their own values to match the politicians :P
The fact that you're not ignorant to the fact that both political sides are as bad as each other when it comes to tribalism and recognise that both have their good intentions, but only those intentions may often get misinterpreted, that makes me want to give the video a thousand thumbs up, because I think that open mindedness and ability to extract ones self from an ideology to discuss things like what things matter to each side is so important and too few folks are capable of that, I personally love culture, but it seems hard to talk about it without someone just making negative assumptions because of all of the rhetoric that they hear about each side.
I like the new, *_slightly_* more controversial Wandering Ravens. You have always seemed very averse to offending anyone (which may come from the taboo status of politics and religion in the US), but the main reason people come to your channel is to hear your opinions! Also, don't be too afraid to criticise aspects of other countries, e.g. the ridiculous separate hot and cold taps here in the UK. Don't listen to the overly sensitive types who get offended by that - they're the British equivalent of the Americans you talked about who think the US does everything best and everyone wants to be American.
I have to second this. You might lose a few subscribers, but in the end you will gain people who respect you for having an opinion and being willing to share it. Who knows, it might even lead to fewer trolls (wait...did I just say that?). If we can compare your channel to a reaction channel, the successful reactors actually listen to the song (not pausing it 21 times during a three-minute song) and then say, "that was my reaction to..." People go to reactors not to actually get a reaction, they go to see if these people get the same connection to the music that they have. Music moves people, so they want to know they are not alone in how much they love this particular song and how it can influence their life. Your channel is slightly similar in that you have an opportunity to grow an audience who will appreciate you for what you think and the experiences you have had. No need to be mean and nasty, but let's face it, some countries do some really stupid things and America is right up there. Just be yourselves. We will be here.
Daz ...so rightsomebody once said that if you’re not offending anybody, just wtf are you doing here? Opinions are what move the media....no one wants to listen to bland chat.....
You are lovely people, keep up the good work and calm the graphics in your videos!? You are communicating and doing a smashing job. I say this standing on the beach looking at the USA thinking - absolutely nothing at all.....!?
The thing i find odd about Americans is how little they know about the rest of the world. Even the current president cant tell the difference between Iraq and Iran. Having been to America several times, i think their news coverage is atrociously insular and one sided. They dont seem to travel outside the USA very often either, which is understandable since it is such a massive place. My wife went to New York (from Scotland) for the weekend with her sisters and people couldnt believe it. "OMG, you flew here for the weekend!" That being said, on a one to one basis, i find most Americans to be very polite and welcoming but the thought that anyone, at any time, could pull a gun and shoot you is terrifying. Fantastic place to visit but i wouldnt want to live there.
The company I work for has a sister company in California (and now in Minneapolis). The one thing I found whilst visiting on business was that there wasn't really anywhere to walk to from the hotel, I asked at the desk and they went to call a cab, I just wanted to walk to a local eatery to fill a little time in the evening as I was on my own and enjoy going for a walk, they seemed almost shocked that I didn't want the cab.
I've recently repatriated to the US after living overseas for 13 years and I agree wholeheartedly with every point you both have made in this video. To the extent, actually, that I think these issues are really deal breakers when it comes to staying in the US long-term.
The health insurance situation certainly stops anyone sensible, I have a 67 year old American friend who's a multi millionaire, he looked into moving back to the US after 40 years in Europe, (mainly UK), he realised that he couldn't take the financial risk inherent to the American 'healthcare' system and is now taking British citizenship.
In Britain, a bill has the cost of the food and drinks, we only give a tip (a couple of pounds) if the service was particularly good, and most of the time, it ends up going to the employer, not the waiter.
"and most of the time, it ends up going to the employer, not the waiter" -- That would be illegal in the UK. Most people tip in smart restaurants unless the service is poor, in my experience, and typically 10-15%. But it's often erratic and the result of people saying "keep the change" rather than working out a percentage. I've been out with groups who all just estimate their share of the bill and throw in a bit more to cover the tip, which can lead to quite small or quite large tips purely by chance (for example, you think your meal came to £12 and some change, so you throw in £15 to cover the tip, and someone else's meal came to £14 and they also put in £15).
@@jrd33 Yes, that's generally how a tip is worked out. I would only tip exceptionally good service, and ask for something reduced if it was particularly bad.
Thanks so much for this video! I agreed with you on everything! Ha Ha I’m an American true but I haven’t lived there since the 90’s because of many of the things you mentioned which I did not see until I could view it from an outsider’s perspective
Wandering Ravens Sorry for the late reply. I live in Beijing, China. Have been in China 22 years. Currently in lockdown in London. Came over to visit my son and got stuck because of the virus.
What is logical about everyone having to park, leave their vehicle, enter the lobby, wait in line for a teller, then leave the lobby, re-enter their vehicle, and wait to re=enter traffic when you can drive thru in a very small fraction of the time?
"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." The US seems to focus on individual freedoms in a way of trying not to interfere too much with people's lives e.g. low taxes. The flip side of that is that the country doesn't care for the people either. Individuals are responsible for their own health care, security (second ammendment), businesses and industry is responsible for providing services but with greater focus on making money rather than providing care plus they have more control over politics so they can be given more advantages than their customers. Yet always it's love your country, stand for the anthem, swear allegiance (invoking God even though God has always cared for and protected his people over those whose focus was on money and power.) America does not care about it's people enough to get involved in helping their lives but expects it citizens to care for it. Independence sounds good but no man is an island. It takes a village to raise a child. We are and should be connected and all work together for the good of all of us. Socially funded services is not the same as socialism. Government curbs on industries unfairly profiting from overcharging citizens for life changing essentials is appropriate because government should work for the citizens, not profit from those businesses. When will US citizens learn the US government exists not to help them but maintain a system in which the rich and powerful stay rich and powerful and anyone else is ripe for being taken advantage of unless they can get successful by themselves. It is, quite frankly, sickening and evil. Not all in power or with money are evil but the organization (American spelling has a z so you can tell) is evil and corrupt. But of course that's possibly why citizens don't want to government to control more services, because they know it's corrupt. Government needs to fix itself with anti corruption and lobbying laws before it can fix the rest of the country.
I'm gonna say one word, education. It seems like, from what you've said, that a better education on a multitude of subjects would solve so many of these issues, but hey, I'm a brit and i hated my education, at least i hated it when i was at school, looking back now i wish i could do it all again and do better.
When I go to the store I almost always go find a parking spot away from all the other cars because I don’t like my car getting dinged and it’s a lot less stressful to park away from everyone else. Also with all of the gargantuan SUV’s and pick up trucks it is hard to see backing out of a parking spot when you drive a car sized vehicle like my Subaru Impreza or 1980 MGB convertible which is similar in size to a Mazda Miata. Also both of my vehicles are manual transmissions which are becoming rarer and rarer here in the USA because of this damn addiction to convenience.
Savings and money sense in the UK: I have a good amount of savings. Where I know about other people's savings, they also have savings if they have sufficient income. However, I think that there is a problem with some poorer people taking out short-term loans at very high interest rates for small amounts of money.
I really liked this video. I think that your (relatable) opinions are so because you have travelled so much and come to know different cultures and people. That's the best thing to do: know something and then talk about it. Good job!
Italian born and raised, dual citizen American, currently in Germany. I totally agree about selfishness... Americans don't care if others die due to healthcare cost, or poverty, or whatever, as long as they don't have to pay taxes to help them! I really don't understand! Those people have zero empathy and can't even fanthom the idea that one day it could be them the ones in need of help. I'll also NEVER understand why people love their guns so much, and why do they think they are protecting their families despite all the statistics show the opposite
Lack of money sense is probably linked to being embarrassed or ashamed of talking about money, which you mentioned in a previous video about the US. Just an observation! I mention money with a family member at least once a week. Not as in "I owe you x, y, z" more "so I thought about opening an x account..."
I have to say I have extremely limited experience of the states as I have family in Sacramento I only know California. My experience is pretty much wonderful. I love the friendliness, and the great customer service. I was amazed that everyone seems to be on some fad diet. How does anyone throw a dinner party. When you have to cater for vegans, people who don't eat wheat, people who only eat fruit, those that only eat vegetables that have received counseling, etc
The whole strong opinion thing (often in conjunction with little knowledge of the subject at hand) really seems to be a 21st century phenomenon. I think there was a lot less of this arrogance in the 20th century.
Politics in the US is so polarised because you have a polarising electoral system. Your "first past the post system" increases polarisation. Because the result of an election is always "Either Us or Them", there is an increasing tendency to feel under threat: if you don't win your election (at the local level, state level, whatever), then your opinion is totally obliterated because only one candidate can win. In other countries, where you have a list of candidates and seats are distributed proportionally (with some distortion, of course - no representative system is perfect), your voice may still be heard even if your party only managed to elect a representative. Also, the US electoral system promotes a dual party system, so that adds to the sense of Us/Them = Good/Evil. If you have more parties represented, things become less absolute: e.g., in my country we have 10 parties with MPs (the party currently in power is Center-Left); some laws are supported by the party in power and all of the parties to the left of it, but some other laws are supported by the major party and the parties to the right of it, and yet other laws are supported by the two major parties (Center-Left and Center-Right) and opposed by both extremes, etc. So you end up with a mix and with less of a sensation that everything is absolute.
Yeah, OK fine, we (The UK) didn't go to the Moon. But we did go to Mars! Well, we didn't actuall go to Mars, but we did send a beagle. OK, not an actual dog but a probe called the Beagle 2... And yeah, we lost it... Sigh.
The Brits did great space work too in the 1960s. We wouldn't have gone to the moon but we did conceptualise the space shuttle. We would have built one too but the government at the time pulled the plug and made the designs secret. Rumour is it was due to American pressure.
When I was younger, I went without health insurance. I had several procedures done, including out-patient surgery. Yes, they were all expensive, but never made me go bankrupt. Do the math! It cost less to occasionally pay out of pocket over 5 or 10 years, than it does to pay high priced insurance premiums that do not pay 100% of the bill anyway. Also, since doctors only get paid 40% to 60% of their bill by the insurance companies, they will often reduce their price if you are paying out of pocket.
Savings. I save what I can and it is amazing how quickly it can build up if you are careful. I have to keep it secret from the wife though, as she would just blow the lot on crap. One of the problems I see with the U.S is this. The U.S spends far too much money on its military. Don't take this the wrong way. The brave military personnel are amazing but why oh why does the U.S feel the need to have 12 or more aircraft carriers and literally thousands of jet fighters when every other country has 2 or 3 carriers and a few hundred fighter planes. The huge amount of money required for all this military hardware could pretty much eradicate homelessness and poverty.
Xtcy Saf ----- Totally agree with your point about "spending far too much on the military". To put it into context, it is the case that the US military budget is greater than the budgets of the next 10 nations military budgets. It's an absolutely absurd and wasteful system. A recent example of this was in Iraq. Dick Cheney prior to being Vice President was the CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton owned a company called KBR. After the war in Iraq began KBR received a contract (without competition) to provide food, gasoline, and uniforms to the soldiers. In 2009 it was found that they overcharged the government in the amount of 553 million dollars for meals not delivered, rip off gas prices, uniforms not delivered. They used a private security company which charged a 100 million dollars. This was prohibited by their contract, they had to use the US military for security. They never shared their computer data with the government, so the likely overcharge was much larger. This is the kind of outrageous crap that goes on with the military budget. Meanwhile the conservatives all argue that there is not enough money to pay for Universal Basic Income or Medicare for All. Put the military on a diet and we shall find massive amounts of money to benefit the populace.
@@bruxi78230 . "Meanwhile the conservatives all argue that there is not enough money to pay for Universal Basic Income or Medicare for All." Healthcare in the US costs per capita, about twice that in the UK and is lower in world rankings. The US healthcare system is very profitable for various corporations.
@@grahvis ----- You're absolutely correct about healthcare costs. It's amazing to me that those that advocate for Medicare for All don't point up that the savings are huge. I now live in South America. When I need medical services I can easily visit several doctors and get a quote quickly. The doctors here are incentivized to charge a reasonable amount due to the fact that I could easily use another doctor. In the US when your company is paying for medical services, the patient has no idea how much it is costing. There is no reasonable way to get a transparent quote ahead of time. When I need to buy pharmaceuticals the cost here is about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of in the US. The US system is designed to price gouge in every step of the way due to improper incentives.
I think that after the US had to bail Europe and Asia out of two world wars, we finally decided that it was better to prevent future wars than to try to win a future one.
Quality content! I really like you guys' rantings! They aren't toxic or caustic but reasonable and insightful ☺️ + The mystery of the same shirt is solved!! It looks good on you tho Eric!
The issue is it will be different for each of the 27 countries. They're all so different and that's amazing, but also overwhelming for you guys to accurately represent in a video. Maybe 1 video for each country... How many Euro countries have you guys been to so far?
I suspect that it would be a little complicated since Europe is not a single nation. What French people would dislike about Europe are probably not the same things as the Greeks, the Polish, the English or me here in Iceland... if Iceland counts ;-) Also, you would be likely to mainly get rants about the European Union and other Europeans rather than about common cultural things.... that said, if you could pull it through... get people to identify the aspects of a common European culture/life that they dislike it might be an interesting mirror on what europeans think is commonly european.... hmmm... you got me thinking ;-)
@@edwardnoble9897 Hi Edward! So far, we've only been to 4 - Germany, France, UK, and Italy. But we're planning on sticking around for a good while, so that number should be going up as soon as Coronavirus settles down
Just a little point, in regards to the “Moon Landing” USA achievement. I’ m sure you are aware of Brit’ Francis Thomas Bacon and the role he played? Nixon actually said “ if it wasn’t for you Tom we would never have gotten there!”
There was also a lot of international co-operation. For example, the TV pictures were received by a satellite dish in Australia and then beamed to NASA, who then broadcast them.
Hi guys. Love the content. I live in England and our download speed is 200 Mbps. We take this for granted and it is CHEAP. Come on America. All the biggest internet companies are American. You can do better.
Who is your internet provider? I pay TalkTalk for fibre and my download speed is 36 Mbps. I'm guessing it's because I don't live in London - either that or we have different definitions of "cheap", lol.
Yeh but you're paying Richard Branson so he can avoid tax out in the Caribbean and leave his workers high and dry during the coronavirus lockdown at the same time asking for government relief money.
Hey! From England here!! Where I used to work, we had a semi regular customer for a few months, and he was always coming up with anecdotes about time spent in America. He wasn't American, he was English and would use "When I was in The States...." as a prelude to complaining. Almost everything he was served, would be followed by "An American wouldn't settle for that!" "When I was in America, I could order anything I wanted, whether or not it was on the menu!!" and similar Bollocks!! Until one day he came in half an hour after the kitchen was closed, and he knew this, but he still tried to order a meal, after clicking his fingers at me, which pissed me off straight away! "Sorry 'sir', but the kitchen closed half an hour ago, and Chef has left for the day. However, we can still serve Tea or coffee and cakes." "I've told you what I want , Badger!!" (obviously he used my given name!) "Sorry, But like I said, the kitchen is closed!!" "Well, that's just ridiculous!! When I was in America, any cafe or restaurant would reopen their kitchen for me, regardless of time or my order!!" "Sorry, but we can't do that for you!" Needless to say he didn't like that!! And, he left!! The stupid thing is, I gave him no information he didn't know already!!! Also, any actual American who passed our way, always commented on how "wonderful" the place was!!! All Americans who came in, generally had great manners!!!
As someone from England I find America so "shoved in your face" and that it's always a one way sytem to it. For example, a lot of kids TV shows made in America aren't dubbed with some form of English accent but almost all English kids TV shows (that I'm personally aware of) are dubbed with some form of an American accent. We also hear so much about America and what happens in America but not about other places as much (we still hear about other countries though) and most people I know who are American hear nothing about other countries at all. One of my American friends was only taught the map of USA. states in schools which is insane?? But yeah, it's all very much of a "you need to indulge in American culture but they won't indulge into yours" (Again, this isn't everyone or everywhere in America. But it's just how it can feel)
James Gertz we have our own and we watch a mix but on services like netflix most the shows are american! all BBC programmes are british but otherwise there are just more american ones in general
In the U.S. parents of toddlers are experiencing what has been referred to as the "Peppa effect." It's where young American children are developing a British accent from watching Peppa Pig. From what I've seen most parents don't seem to mind and in fact many are encouraging it. The only ones having a real problem with it are the children's teachers and schools.
@@illiniwood I've heard of that. When I was a kid I used to put on a fake American accent when I was playing games because it's largly what I saw on TV. It's common it a lot of countries for kids to copy a singular accent on TV that's different from their own/they hear a lot on TV.
The first time I visited America the was a explosion at a American Embassy in the Far East, the news said that there were so and so many Americans killed or injured but nothing about any other people from any other country. It seems if it don’t happen to Americans it don’t happen. They are inward looking.
Wow you're so right, here in the UK most won't know you have medical cost help for people on low income. That's the problem, most people only know what's on media, and it's usually only the negative that makes the headlines :(
@@dapablo2 Oh shut up you foolish boy if you can't even think for yourself for a reasonable conversation. The talking point was in the dam video FFS. And here we don't really go hard on the left and right wing bullshit like your broken country :)
A lot of how we behave comes from when we are growing up and seeing and hearing how our elders behave.in regards to saving money I think that people who earn a lot of money believe that they have no need to save but most of us know that we can lose a job in minutes.
What Americans call individualism in the UK is called selfishness. Individualism in the UK means something quite different to what is does in the US, it means being eccentric and not doing things or living your life the way everyone else does..................... For example a country of people all saying we are individuals, means they are not, they are the exact opposite opposite of individuals, they're all saying the same thing. The one person who say I am not an individual, is the only individual.
I am just so done with the culture here after I graduate I plan to get the hell out of here and see the world and live the dream my parents were/are to scared to go after.
The UK is pretty bad for reliance on convenience food, something that's going to (and is) hurt pretty bad in the current beervirus situation. One because a lot of people are out of work and 2 because a lot of people probably don't know how to cook (and I don't mean just opening a jar and heating it up :) ). Internet is something that has improved dramatically, gigabit broadband is becoming much more popular and even in some rural areas speeds over 30mbit are more and more common. My parents live in a village and have 80mbit but equally hear of people in major cities struggling to get 1mbit.
@@WanderingRavens I'm very glad that I can cook without poisoning myself but be interesting to see how many people have issues related not to the virus but to their own cooking!
On the first point. At lot of that difference is a hangover from World War II. In the UK, we had food rationing which lasted well into the 50s. That meant waste and the need to be careful with resources was a big thing. So it's a natural progression for us to see the need to conserve and share resource more easily. The same with the NHS, as much of Europe recovered from the war, they realised that the only way that working people on low wages could afford healthcare was to do share it across the whole of society.
Not an American, I've been a few times to different areas and had a wonderful time in each occasion (including last year when I ended up in the ER in florida...), but the thing that really freaks me out is the popularity of fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity. These people are seriously crazy (IMHO). The fact that they can influence stuff like whether evolution is taught in schools or not, or if it is only as a theory; dictating what qualifies as sex education. That blows my mind. The power afforded to these people is ridiculous. I went to a Catholic secondary school in the UK (no nuns!) and evolution was accepted as fact, sex education covered the pill and condoms, masturbation was discussed. They had to be, it's part of the national curriculum.
Eric, it's awsome how you used your hand to show the number 3at he beginning of the video. I got to spend 2 years in Frankfurt Hoechst and learned verry quickly to use my thumb to order 1 of something. The first time I ordered a beer I used my index finger and got served 2! 😆😅😂🤣
Totally agree about convenience, a lot of people in the UK have the same view. And, while I like driving, I prefer public transport. Not a lot of people have money sense.
Hello Ravens! Since my last rant about the “two Gs” I find the US falls down in (Guns and God), my main gripe about the US is what we in the UK treat nearest to a common religion: the NHS. This encompasses two of your own gripes - healthcare and financial responsibility. We utterly trust and revere the NHS for what it is and does. Moreover, we are prepared to pay for it through a fair and progressive taxation policy. Yet we see such gross calumnies by serious US politicos saying we have “Death Committees” who decide who will get expensive treatment and who will not. What you said about personal financial responsibility being lacking in that those on a good salary fail to save, I assume, also applies to spending their hard-earned dollars on a comprehensive health care policy, on the basis that they are healthy and therefore are in no need of one, at least for the time being. As an economist, let me say this is a classic case of market failure: an insurance model for national healthcare is bound to fail, because insurance companies need to have significant payments from customers to average out the cost of healthcare for claimants relying on many (or most, possibly) of their customers never making a substantial claim, if the business is to be viable. With the attitude to personal finance which you describe, that is (not next to) impossible. In the UK, insurance to drive is compulsory by law. Riskier drivers find themselves uninsurable, and therefore cannot drive. In he US, if funding health is by insurance, even i “compulsory”) some will find themselves uninsurable, magnifying the tendency you described to be financially irresponsible and not get health insurance any way. Much better for a broad consent to support taxes to fund a US NHS, but are Americans too stupid to realize this?
What people from other countries don't seem to understand is the American people don't trust our government as is. Look what they do with Social Security. Every time they decide they need some extra money they take it from Social Security. No one knows if they ever pay it back. Why then would we trust them with our health care? Under Obamacare they've already ruined alot of people's insurance by causing them to lose the good insurance they had and being forced to buy more expensive insurance with a much higher deductable and a lower catastrophic limit. You look at your government representatives as your leaders. In America they are supposed to be our servants. They serve not lead the people. Yet they act like we are their servants and owe them. These are the reasons the conservative voters don't want national health care. Also the fact that the politicians always turn our social systems into a chance to buy votes from people who should not be able to get benefits from them (ie, illegal aliens). People from other countries don't know what's really happening here and are constantly voicing their opinions against those of us who are trying to protect our country from our own politicians. This is why you always hear so much about the Constitution. And another thing, most people are always down on us about our guns. If our government is willing to do these things to our citizens why would we surrender our guns, knowing that one day they may come for us? Those of us who own guns know we cannot win against our government but are willing to die for what little freedom we still have. I personally don't own a gun but I will not comply with tyranny when it gets to that point. When they decide to come after us it won't be just for our guns, it will be for everything the Constitution is meant to protect us from. To you I may sound paranoid but I'm not. I'm not afraid of them, nor of death. And I have never been afraid of the people around me having guns. I go to diner in town occasionally and one of the customers that frequents the place wears a pistol on his hip. It doesn't bother me at all. Nor, apparently, does it bother the law enforcement officers.
I am an intellectual late bloomer. In my early 30s and finally figuring out what I think politically about things. ...I have been ostricized for not having an opinion on things. My fellow Americans get so uptight about it.
American here. Politically, I am Me. I will not label myself as anything else. The stereotype isn't worth it. ...even though neither the Left nor the Right are friends with me....
We use to have a bed and breakfast in Windsor UK , I found our American visitors very kind and polite, not loud and brash. General stereotypes of different people are often very wrong.
I'd say on the flip side of the convenience thing is productivity. If I can get my lunch quicker I can get more done. That's why with the exception of Asian countries, especially Japan, we tend to be more productive. We're always looking for a way to get one thing done faster so we can get to the next.
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What things do you dislike about the USA? Drop your answers under this comment! Disagree with some of the points we made? We want to hear from you too! 😄
"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."
The US seems to focus on individual freedoms in a way of trying not to interfere too much with people's lives e.g. low taxes.
The flip side of that is that the country doesn't care for the people either. Individuals are responsible for their own health care, security (second ammendment), businesses and industry is responsible for providing services but with greater focus on making money rather than providing care plus they have more control over politics so they can be given more advantages than their customers.
Yet always it's love your country, stand for the anthem, swear allegiance (invoking God even though God has always cared for and protected his people over those whose focus was on money and power.) America does not care about it's people enough to get involved in helping their lives but expects it citizens to care for it.
Independence sounds good but no man is an island. It takes a village to raise a child. We are and should be connected and all work together for the good of all of us. Socially funded services is not the same as socialism. Government curbs on industries unfairly profiting from overcharging citizens for life changing essentials is appropriate because government should work for the citizens, not profit from those businesses.
When will US citizens learn the US government exists not to help them but maintain a system in which the rich and powerful stay rich and powerful and anyone else is ripe for being taken advantage of unless they can get successful by themselves. It is, quite frankly, sickening and evil. Not all in power or with money are evil but the organization (American spelling has a z so you can tell) is evil and corrupt.
Actually one more thing to add.
Why don't the citizens want more social powers in government? Because they know government is corrupt. Government must pass laws to prevent corruption within itself before they can fix the rest of the country.
What do I most dislike about the USA? Would have to be the two of you :p (it's Trump and selfish republicans really)
This leaves me with a bunch of questions (from a UK view). Do you think the extreme polarised opinions and the polarised political system have some common cultural cause? Has politics always been 100% polarised - has there ever been any other political options other than Republican or Democrat? Is it even realistically possible for such a side to gain any footing?
Also, I often wonder (I vaguely remember hearing something like this from California) if the individual states began acting as completely independent entities (secession from the union) with the united states being more of a customs/trade union like the EU currently is supposed to be would they actually be better off financially/culturally? Basically I wonder if the size of the USA is part of the cause of some of it's issues and would having smaller geographical regions encourage a more united populus in those areas.
America's obsession with money. I hate it. Even the sports talk about "the numbers" all the time, pay per view numbers even more than the skill in the actual sport. If you were to watch a European sport they never mention subscribers or how well a 'franchise' is doing. You get a best player award not a most valuable player.
Nobody in Europe deals in stocks and trades, nobody works long hours, and nobody unless you're a complete nob judges their status on their career. America is completely run by corporations. Right to the top of power. The country is prisoner to big business.
Lived in the States for 26 years, loved it. We have 4 American grandchildren who we miss very much. Worked in the British Embassy in Washington DC for 24 years. We were on Visas so when we retired we had 30 days to get our butts out of the US
I got so fed up hearing..land of the free, home of the brave' best country in the world etc., etc, from people who did not even own a passport!! American is no freer than the vast majority of other countries, we just don't go on and on about it. Nevertheless great times.
We use metric units in Canada!
UK uses imperial... not the best but it's old.
US changed recently to freedom units lol...
What are they? Renamed imperial... waoh.... glad I'm Canadian.
@@LocoMe4u 'Freedom units'. LOL. That sounds like a joke... but I'm not sure. It does sound like it could actually be real.
UK imperial? Erm... Yeah, but not really. I'm a 54 year old Brit. We learned both systems in primary/junior school (
@@LocoMe4u Not actually true, we often use both, but schools teach metric in the UK and weights and measures are nearly all metric too.
I like to tip when staff go the extra mile to give great service. But to tip for bad service is just insane.
Yeah, we wish tipping was rare and only for exceptional service.
And yet a "beautiful" giving bad service will get more tip than a "average to ugly" giving damn good service.
@@genrabbit9995 someone sounds bitter
@@GrahamS67 IK just think its unfair for those working there
@@genrabbit9995 I agree. I think it's unfair that people aren't valued by their employers. In the UK we have hospitality staff on zero hours contracts expected to work at the drop of a hat, or be sent home if it's quiet with no money. Disgraceful.
If employees rely so much on tips, why don't the employers just pay them a proper wage in the first place?
We're happy to pay more for food if it means no tipping!
I even heard of a restaurant in London that had a service charge listed on the bill, but they pretty much demanded a tip on top of that. I know London is expensive, but remember that minimum wage is already nowhere near as low in the UK as it is in the US. This is something encouraged by a tipping culture that spreads from the US and it's damned annoying! I don't get why they can't just charge what they want rather than making people feel guilty all the time!
Edward Noble I’m in London now. I’ve been here since just after new years and have not encountered any one demanding a tip. There’s lots of restaurants here that place service charges on their bills and in 3 months time only once has a server mentioned that you could tip if you like but it was in a place with no service charge and she was anything but demanding. Having not lived in the states for 20 odd years I’ve noticed when I do go back now that tipping has gotten really out of hand. When I left 15% was the norm and the people you tipped was limited to wait staff and a handful of others but now I hear people saying 18, 20, 22 even 25% tips are normal. Are they nuts? And it seems like everyone expects a tip now. It’s gotten completely crazy. Cost of living is high enough without this voluntary extra tax.
@@Bob_just_Bob Yeah that is crazy. I just want them to charge what they want and fir it not to be a guessing game ir a point of shame. To be fair this didn't happen to me. I lived there for 7 years. Most places would include a service charge, which you could argue they shouldn't have to. People should be paid properly to start with. Here in Sweden there is no expectation to tip and it's noticably different from how it felt in London.
Unfortunately, the only way this would change is if all of the service staff decided to walk out. Only when you cannot find employees do you begin to consider offering more, otherwise, you pay as little as you can. One of the things with tipping that really gets me (and is always a source of contention with my friends) is the pizza delivery guy. I understand tipping a restaurant employee who refills my water, brings me another napkin when I drop mine...this is a service. The pizza delivery guy's whole purpose is to deliver me a pizza. I do not think I should have to tip them. I do not tip the person as the McDonald's drive-thru, so why should I tip the pizza delivery guy? "They have to live off of these tips" is usually the answer I get, and that simply explains the entire tipping culture itself from the cab driver to the hotel maid. It is not a reason for tipping someone
when you said "in 2 days you could have a car crash and need thousands of dollars in medical care" blew my European mind, because that would never be something we'd worry about, so when we save its for a house, a holiday, university etc etc etc
When you are paying over 50% of your income in taxes, you are effectively "putting away" money to pay for your health insurance. Actual health care costs are not much difference between similarly developed countries, the difference is in how each system pays for them.
The majority of people in Great Britain pay 20% as the average income (among the lowest in Europe) is between £20,000 and £50,000, all of which comes out when you get paid so you don't notice it, so when we save (which most people do) we save for leisure and things to enjoy not basic rights which should be provided by the government.
@@nathanpym6287 do you pay 20% in income tax, or is that total including VAT and other taxes?
We also have income taxes 'withheld' from paychecks by employers and submitted to the government. I think this is a particularly underhanded move by government to placate taxpayers by stealing their money before they ever realize that they earned it. I think if the average citizen had to write a check for their taxes every year as someone who is self employed or a business owner does, there would be massive resistance towards runaway government spending and we would get reform.
plcwboy We pay income tax of 20%, and we also pay Nation Insurance (which goes towards things like the NHS, our state pensions, etc etc) which is 13.8% (I believe), but I don't work for HMRC so I'm not well read on the intricacies of the UK tax system but there are loads of good websites if you want to read up on it more. Even if our taxes are higher than those in the U.S, I don't think that you'll ever convince us that privatisation of healthcare is a good idea, especially when "a jaw-dropping 34 million Americans say a friend of family member died because they were unable to afford medical treatment" - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/11/nhs-us-health-care-trade-deal-uk-election
@@plcwboy You once had to make an income tax payment semi-annually to the IRS; then the great FDR (who got us into WW2 and sent 120,000 Japanese-Americans to concentration camps) schemed to take the cash out of your paycheck. His line: "They'll never miss it." Friend of the workingman? I don't think so.
I am absolutely grateful I was born and raised in the USA 🇺🇸
However it is far from perfect, I wish more Americans would travel internationally more so they can see and appreciate what they have and what they could have 🤔
We're grateful that we were too! We'll be following this video up with 10 things we love about the USA :)
That's definitely a problem I have with a lot of Americans, very uncultured and in all honesty ignorant towards the rest of the world
@Garry Ellison On the right or left coast across the ocean there is some land that you can move to so start swimming bye!
Obviously you haven’t traveled to other countries and have no comprehension of the English language!
Thank you 🙏🏾
Well, when you’re poor or middle class, you don’t really have the time and money to travel internationally, now do you?
The US 'Left and Right' is generally regarded as, 'Slightly to the Right of Mussolini,' versus 'Way to the Right of Hitler.' True story.
Yeah. It really depends on which side you ask. I hear the right saying they're "conservative libertarians" refering to the left as "radical anarchist out to destroy our freedoms for free stuff" and the left saying "there is not left, there's only the good and the Nazi right that doesn't value human life". Either way they both go on about how terrible the 2 party system is then turn around and say "but my party will fix it" so...
@@pnkrathrt have it always been like that? Earlier I used Google+ where no one talked about politics, now I'm on MeWe where they talk about politics all the time and both seem to hate the other side.
As a Swede I disagree with some parties in my country but I don't hate them.
@@reineh3477 I wouldn't say always. US politics have been divided in 2 for most our our history, but It's been way more visible and way worse for the last 12 years.
Nazi are national socialists. I don't think they were big on capitalism and personal freedom.
@@nadeau The 'Socialist' in 'National Socialist' is a misnomer designed to give the German people at the time the belief of collective unity of German speaking people. The Nazi's oldest enemies were the Socialists going back to the end of the First World War, when the Nazi Party emerged from the right wing nationalist Freikorps. The Freikorps and later the Nazi, tortured, assassinated and imprisoned in the concentration camps socialist intellectuals, artists, social democratic politicians and trade unionist along time before they got around to imprisoning the Jews and Gypsies. They had no problem with capitalists especially the US ones that carried on trading with them right up to the point where the US joined the war.
I pretty much agree with all of your points. You guys nailed it. The one thing I would add is that there is a strong strain of anti-intellectualism in the U.S. We generally know only one language, we know nothing about geography, next to nothing about history (even our own) and often very little functional science or math. But that's OK, apparently, because we are "exceptional" and "leaders of the Free World." The truth is that we are resting on last century's achievements and power and whistling past the graveyard on our future.
Americans seem to have a "Freedom to" attitude, rather than a "Freedom from" one.
eg: Freedom to carry guns as opposed to freedom from being shot.
You put that so accurately!
Perfectly put.
@Frank Filthyfinger
I would prefer "protection from others".
@Frank Filthyfinger Without going into a lengthy discussion (I wil ot respond to anything after this), the "protection" is usually unnecessary murder. There are other ways to protect yourself as other countries show. We all have the right to protect ourselves all over the world but that has nothing to do with guns itself. You don´t even know how indoctrinated you are about gun use. It should not be a normal and accepted thing. And you start with "freedom to", which is exactly the point Kevin is making. (You edited it later to protection from others, which is also typical American. nobody is as scared. You are made scared to keep up the weaponsales and don´t even know it.)
Very good point :)
I can't believe how seriously Americans take politics. When I see these rallies with thousands of people with stars and stripes hats thinking they're making a difference, it makes me laugh. In the end the people with the money make the decisions whichever party are in the Whitehouse.
It's really hard to make a positive change these days 😢
@G Money 😂😂😂😂
@@GrahamS67 Good point Simon. but you know America almost had Bernie Sanders as president in 2016. Pretty damn close in my eyes.
Simon Templar - This year (2020) it will make a huge difference who is in the White House in 2021.
@@GH-oi2jf True that.
Oh and another thing I really hate about the US is the amount of adverts on the TV!! 5 mins of adverts then 5 mins of program then another 5 mins of adverts = 5 minutes of program in the last 15 minutes, insane and unwatchable!
You forgot the summary of what happened before the ad break, eating into the program as well.
Look on the bright side, an awful lot of TV in the States is jaw droppingly awful.
Andeez Anderson It’s infuriating
@@kevinshort3943 As a person from the UK, that is fricken annoying... Its like saying that Americans are so dumb that they cannot remember what happened 5 mins ago. Dont get me wrong, there are some UK programs that do this (its mainly as a "coming up after the break" thing) but thankfully most dont. Plus in the UK an ad break is halfway through a 30 min show or 3 ad breaks in 1 hour. (we actually have TV regulation on this)
I can remember when ABC first started airing in the UK and it had US style ad breaks and it was so hated that ABC in the UK has had to change it. You guys even get an on screen banner advertising a show during the program which NEVER happens in the UK. In fact, a lot of the shows we watch from america sometimes have a 1 second black screen where in the US, thats where the ad break happens, here the show just continues till the usual UK ad break.
@@CrazyInWeston
Haven't you noticed that sky do this too?
Break just after the credits, 4+ minute breaks instead of 3, and an extra one compared to normal.
That kitchen is so delightfully '80s, it makes me feel all nostalgic.
We don’t have a “British Dream”, because we are awake! 🤣😂🤣😂
Your dream ended in a nightmare: WW2
@@darren_myatt WW2 was a nightmare for the whole world.
@@darren_myatt Don't you mean pearl harbour
@@darren_myatt What the hell are you on about?
"Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real."
-Tupac Shakur
Reminds me of another quote by Albert Einstein that kind of parallels that sentiment.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
In short. The human imagination and the ability to pursue dreams is a powerful human ability.
I've been questioning the validity of the "America is the best country in the whole world" statement since I was in elementary school. That's a big nope. Lol
Yup.
Black and Brown folks definitely felt this lie early on.
MLK was right during his 1967 speech when he mentioned how United States is an arrogant country. Any country that claims to be the "best" in the whole world, really shows its arrogance. US is the only nation that does it and at a very high level.
What a truly charming, articulate, modest and attractive couple! You two look genuinely lovely together.
P.S. Great cultural analysis.
P.P.S. I would be happy to fork out a few euro for you to have a second shirt, Eric, if you would like.
You're too kind! Thank you for the compliments 😊 We're very glad to hear that you're enjoying our videos.
About Eric's shirt! Due to our nomadic lifestyle, we're pretty intense minimalists, so Eric’s fashion statements have more to do with baggage space than savings 😄 But if you’d like to help support the channel, we have recently started a Patreon www.patreon.com/wanderingravens
Stay safe and healthy! x
And don't get me started on the Pro-life group or I really will be here all day!
Anti abortion? All pro life until the baby has exited, then it's "You're on your own from here pal!"
@@EvsEntps Abortion is natural. The animal kingdom would likely love to stop the pregnancy or hope for a miscarriage.
A baby is highly dependent and knows only what you teach them. Destruction is likely nothing anyway. They're not paying taxes or costing any money.
“They should just have the child and put it up for adoption”
“So should we raise government funding for healthcare and childcare?”
“No”
How very British of you! Unnecessarily starting a debate and then acting as if you will not tolerate it. Cunningness thy name is Britain.
Well if you don’t agree with abortion don’t have one! Your choice!
The extreme lack of savings is probably tied into the hyperconsumerist culture, look at the way adverts are built in the US, the underlying message is always "spend spend spend, flaunt your wealth", whereas the underlying message in adverts elsewhere is more "buy this product and save a bunch now and long term".
Consumerism is part of what is wrong with modern society
They have to constantly advertise because the shit they advertise is just that, shit. Their view is quantity over quantity. Job security for big corporations. Sell a bunch of crap that'll break down after a short period of time & they'll come back to buy it again & buy the newest version of crap. If they actually valued quality first, customers wouldn't come back as often because it was made right the first time. It's just one of many crooked ass ways that they corner the market. Trillions go into corporate bailouts & crumbs go to the people. Politicians ride their dick because they think it's the only way to stimulate the economy. If more of those trillions went to the people, the people would do what with it? Spend it! And that in turn would stimulate the economy. But fear & greed go hand in hand & they just can't risk it. But they'll quickly dump it all at the top end & watch it disappear in minutes. They'd rather do that bullshit then do something good with it that might actually bring about good change for people. They don't care. You think they care?? People are just assets to them. Commodities. Objects. It's oligarchy. As Canibus put it "same shit, different laxative". Big government is in bed with big corporations. Look no further for your kings and queens. Change is definitely needed now. Big change.
Same here in Australia. Savings have mostly declined since the 1980's. I was taught to save, though my adherence to that has admittedly been patchy, but I have avoided credit for most of my life, even on a disabled pension.
I love you picked up on the nonsense that everyone wants to be American😂😂😂
What really blows American's minds is telling them that some people would rather immigrage to Canada than the USA.
I'm English and very proud to be. I would not live anywhere else.
I couldn't think of something worse.
@@WanderingRavens *emigrate btw does pedantry bother you or are you pragmatic about it? Do you notice a meaningful difference between cultures?
In the 80s everybody in Ireland wanted to move to the US but with EU membership all that changed, plus the realisation of the state of US healthcare and holiday days and now I never hear anybody wanting to move.
It is interesting that you started this video with what I would call “the ME culture” of Americans. I have, in the past, taken opportunities to raise this with Americans and it appears to be broadly accepted by them - usually as something positive. However, when you explore other areas of American culture you dislike in your video it becomes clear how many of those are routed in the same ME culture, especially if you recognise just how close “Me first” and “greed” are. The most profound impact is on your politics which almost seems designed to service the ME culture - the slightest hint of “WE” is immediately and wrongly labelled socialist and therefore taboo. Despite history showing time and again that we are better working together, this seems to be anathema to too many Americans.
A profound negative of the ME culture is the absolute dependence on ME. This leads to a collapse of trust and the growth of fear, which in turn leads to off grid living, personal bunkers, guns and enough armaments to blow up the world several times. It leads to living for the moment (lack of savings) and ignoring the future (once Global Warming but “adjusted” by Republicans to the less stark “Climate Change”).
Finally, you mentioned the “American Dream” - what is it? Again, I have asked Americans and most have no answer. When pressed we eventually agree on “get rich quick”. Some will go as far as to say “Get rich quick at any cost”. How ME and selfish is that?
The Uk banks have adverts to promote saving and teach money skills
I'm French and had the occasion to live in the USA. I love your country. I'm Ok with all you said but most of them are inconveniences, or things that are two-sided coins (except perhaps health-care costs but I had my French health-care in America). The two things I really hated are : guns and race relations.
@@leagueofotters2774 Go there, meet people, you'll see. And The USA are big! Like me, you'll find some places you'll dislike, and some you'll like, and even some you'll love.
Bad idea
What’s wrong with guns?
@@raycom201 They kill people without making them safe. 12.2 killed by firearms in the US per 100,000 inhabitants. 0.2 in Britain : 60 times less. In Britain they have 42 times less guns by 100,000 people.
You can make these comparaison with all the industrialised countries.
That gun worship you have in America is crazy, dangerous and makes it a worse place than it should be.
If you love it so much, do you support its human rights violations? Do you support USA dropping bombs on other countries? Do you also support USA overthrowing foreign democratic leaders? Over-all, do you support all these crimes that US has committed? The people who love USA, support all these things.
Late to the party but gradually catching up with your informative & entertaining videos. Would be interested in hearing your views on American gun law ; a concept which seems quite alien to many Europeans.
Hi Chelsal! We'd love to make a video on gun laws as well, but want to do the topic justice so will cover that after we've had time to research the topic and speak with experts on both sides of the argument. Thank you for the suggestion and do enjoy catching up! :)
One of the worst things about America is the lack of gun laws and licensing. It doesn't seem to matter how many school children are murdered in mass shootings, the government just will not do anything. If that was any other country they would have scrapped gun ownership long ago (just look at how the UK changed its gun laws after the Dunblane Massacre). Anyway, thanks for being so open and honest about your country. Love your channel!
Lotte Cowan YES!
You have to remember how complicated gun ownership is in the United States. The right to bear arms is enshrined in our Constitution so without an amendment you can't just scrap gun ownership. And the vast majority of people on both sides would be opposed to eliminating guns entirely. People do want more done but there are arguments on what way is best. Remember there are four basic guns situations we are talking about. One: normal ownership by people for hunting, sport and self defense. Two: Accidental gun injuries and fatalities. Three: Mass shootings by the unstable and/or intolerant. Four: criminal gun use in particular gang violence. Most of the time we are in category one. Most of the violence falls in category four.
I never heard a kid in Europe answering "American", when asked "who do you wanna be when you grow up?". I have heard of princess, F1 driver, Ronaldo, etc but never "I want to be american!" ;)
And these days, when people here in Europe say they want to move to another country - you rarely hear USA as a destination for long term living.
@Avatar Ang thank you please stay in your country's so you don't make this a s******* hole like the rest of Europe
@@franksmith2129 you don't need help for making your country a mess
Katariina K - Nevertheless, there are very many people around the world who still want to come to “America.” My barber, who is from mainland China, recently became a U. S. citizen. She reports that she is feeling like she is “American” and she seems to be loving it.
Remember: If you can not love yourself - you can not learn to love others. That goes with people or countries.
Me first attitude,... We call that selfish
Instant convenience,... We call that Lazy
I often wonder about "I am an American Citizen!!!" like it's going to change the situation. I hear it all the time at customs in airports. "No, you can't check inside my bag, I am an American citizen!!" "No I'm not going to pay for a visa to visit your country, I am an American Citizen." WTF? I worked in a call centre where we took calls from all over North America and every now and again someone would ask where I was. When I said Canada (half our call centre was in the states but we all answered all the lines) they'd say, "No! I want to talk to an American! I am an American citizen!!" Oooh, excuse me while I tremble in my boots or bow at your feet.
Fairly sure they'd just cut off your call if you did that to a British call centre. Either that or say "okay" put you on hold for 5 minutes then have exactly the same person come back. There's an attitude of: if you're going to be a rude w*nker then don't expect good service.
When we were in Budapest we queued to buy a ticket for a tour of the parliament building. There was a huge sign to say EU citizens paid one price and non EU citizens another (about a third more). The American lady in front of us was arguing loudly with the ticket clark that she was ‘American’ so should pay the same rate as the EU citizens! She was demanding to know why she should pay more. My husband explained very succinctly that her American citizenship meant diddly squat outside of America so pay the ticket price or get out of the queue as she was spoiling everyone else’s day. She huffed and puffed, paid the ticket price and proceeded to whine loudly the whole way around the tour 🙄. She really showed herself up big time.
@@Lambchop2701 I'm a Brit who lives in Amsterdam. In my work I have known several occasions where a newly arrived American tourist has attempted to pay with Dollars and seems amazed that we only take Euros. The presumption is always "But these are US dollars! The strongest currency that all other nations are desperate to get their hands on! Why wouldn't you accept them?"
My answer is: Because that shit only flies in bankrupt third World Countries with worthless currencies, and this is the Netherlands, one of the richest, strongest economies in the world, and the Euro outperforms the Dollar by some way.
It comes as quite a shock to them, especially those whose world view is cut and pasted from Fox News reports about how "Europe is done!".
Honestly, they seem to think they are visiting some quaint but failed ex-Soviet state, rather than a major player in global finance, with a much higher average standard of living than America has ever had.
It's the international version of Karen's 'I want to speak to your manager' - probably learnt from some unrealistic international travel comedy film that Hollywood puts out on a regular basis
@@emdiar6588 Lol hahaha good one.
It's great to find Americans who travel outside the USA and have a balanced, erudite knowledge of "things" and can be introspective of the short-comings of their home culture.
We all should do this! By being self critical or questioning, how else are we to develop. I agreed with all your observations but sadly they are not just American, especially the
political and the me-first culture. Weirdly, as abhorrent as the beer-virus is, it has polarised what really is important in our lives/world. The irony is nature at the moment could not be more beautiful.
Stay safe in your lockdown in France. Just found you two today and love the content.xx P.S. From the UK, Bournemouth
I'm an American, and I would have to say..no, you're not being too harsh,,seems spot on to me .
Too many acronyms, for eg, The pgp = The primary gifting period = Christmas. America -"it's a good idea that has got out of hand" Al Murray - The Pub Landlord. Great content guys, keep it coming. ;-)
Americans do love their acronyms.
I have had nothing but positive experiences when I've been in America but one thing that does get on my nerves is the religiosity of Americans. Particularly when someone wins an award or a sportsperson wins their event and they thank God for getting them there or even making them win, as if their personal relationship with God is more important than anyone else's. Now I understand the importance of faith in their lives but the loud bragging that they do often sets non-American's teeth on edge and seems a little un-Christian (although I'm sure they don't mean to have that affect).
This is a really interesting observation. We hadn't thought about it from that perspective before, but what you said makes a lot of sense! Just say thank you for the award and move on :D
How do you equate thankfulness with 'bragging?"
plcwboy ..what he’s saying is that God has watched the contest (as if he didn’t have any more important things to) and that He favored the winning competitor over the others.....that makes the winner somehow chosen by God.....an often made claim, apparently....
yealandred ----- You said: "the loud bragging that they do often sets non-American's teeth on edge"
It doesn't require one to be a non-American. I'm American and it bothers me a great deal. If it's their personal belief then whatever, I simply don't want to hear about it.
We also have to put up with the Christian Right pretending to believe that Trump is "one of them". He's not a Christian, he's a narcissist. The Christian Right ignores that he cheated on his wives (3 times). The latest example was sex with a porn star while Melania was pregnant. To keep the porn star quiet he paid her 130 thousand dollars which is an illegal campaign contribution. It's bad enough that we have to put up with loud bragging by Christian athletes. But now we also have the spectacle of the worst President in history being embraced by the Christian Right hypocrites.
yealandred Oh yes they have to bring God into everything. God is the reason and excuse for everything. It’s so tedious
Controversial. Such courage, given the haters out there on social media!
I think some of the traits attributed to Americans apply equally to other countries. Selfishness is not uncommon here in Australia and the UK, two countries I know well. Having said that, the selflessness being shown by people in this country during these times is remarkable. A big shout out to all medical staff, but also to those people serving at super markets,
and all other outlets deemed to be essential, including cafes serving take away coffees, the best in the world here in Melbourne.
Sounds very American, doesn't it!!!!
Cheers to everyone
Yes! Huge thank you to the selflessness of everyone that is keeping the world running right now
Once upon at time, Australia had a good socialist Government but USA took that away from your country! USA always has been screwing over your country. I wish Australia would recognize that US is not a true ally.
"If you are European, let us know what you think about American politics".
Oh boy. I once heard someone say; "Never discuss politics with an American" and it's the best advice ever! Biden for president 2020!
Taxes even as an expat. The fact that we have to pay the taxes of the country we’re living in, plus US taxes makes working outside the US that much more stressful and expensive.
really? that pants
@@gorrthebutcher4696 yep.
Yep the USA one of only TWO countries to apply this double taxation, the other being Eritrea. If you marry an American you then are taxable by the IRS as well, any children you have are then also treated as US citizens for tax too. If you open a bank account you now have to declare you are NOT as US citizen if a bank does not do this the US slaps them with a 30% transaction tax on all transactions that go through the USA.
I was surprised how many of these also apply to my country, Hungary. The only exception is perhaps public transit. I sometimes feel that I live in a red state that has somehow been mysteriously transported to the middle of Europe. No wonder Orban and Trump get along so well.
Phew.I'm glad we finally got to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Eric the Raven's one purple shirt. I didn't want to be rude enough to bring it up.
I think the polarisation of politics has happened in quite a few countries over the last decade or so. The US situation probably isn't helped though by the shear amount of money involved in it and how that inevitably leads to politicians looking to keep the support of those that provide it, rather than the people they are supposed to represent. It also seems like people care a lot less about policy or realistic intentions and more about how a candidate makes them feel, which is again an increasingly common trend in global politics.
Yup! Personality politics. As long as a voter like the way a candidate makes them feel, they're happy to twist and turn their own values to match the politicians :P
When bus wifi in UK Is faster than the wifi in the average household in US, yikes
The fact that you're not ignorant to the fact that both political sides are as bad as each other when it comes to tribalism and recognise that both have their good intentions, but only those intentions may often get misinterpreted, that makes me want to give the video a thousand thumbs up, because I think that open mindedness and ability to extract ones self from an ideology to discuss things like what things matter to each side is so important and too few folks are capable of that, I personally love culture, but it seems hard to talk about it without someone just making negative assumptions because of all of the rhetoric that they hear about each side.
I like the new, *_slightly_* more controversial Wandering Ravens. You have always seemed very averse to offending anyone (which may come from the taboo status of politics and religion in the US), but the main reason people come to your channel is to hear your opinions! Also, don't be too afraid to criticise aspects of other countries, e.g. the ridiculous separate hot and cold taps here in the UK. Don't listen to the overly sensitive types who get offended by that - they're the British equivalent of the Americans you talked about who think the US does everything best and everyone wants to be American.
Aww, thank you for the kind words and support, Daz! We appreciate you xx
I have to second this. You might lose a few subscribers, but in the end you will gain people who respect you for having an opinion and being willing to share it. Who knows, it might even lead to fewer trolls (wait...did I just say that?). If we can compare your channel to a reaction channel, the successful reactors actually listen to the song (not pausing it 21 times during a three-minute song) and then say, "that was my reaction to..." People go to reactors not to actually get a reaction, they go to see if these people get the same connection to the music that they have. Music moves people, so they want to know they are not alone in how much they love this particular song and how it can influence their life. Your channel is slightly similar in that you have an opportunity to grow an audience who will appreciate you for what you think and the experiences you have had. No need to be mean and nasty, but let's face it, some countries do some really stupid things and America is right up there. Just be yourselves. We will be here.
Daz ...so rightsomebody once said that if you’re not offending anybody, just wtf are you doing here? Opinions are what move the media....no one wants to listen to bland chat.....
You are lovely people, keep up the good work and calm the graphics in your videos!? You are communicating and doing a smashing job. I say this standing on the beach looking at the USA thinking - absolutely nothing at all.....!?
The thing i find odd about Americans is how little they know about the rest of the world.
Even the current president cant tell the difference between Iraq and Iran.
Having been to America several times, i think their news coverage is atrociously insular and one sided.
They dont seem to travel outside the USA very often either, which is understandable since it is such a massive place.
My wife went to New York (from Scotland) for the weekend with her sisters and people couldnt believe it.
"OMG, you flew here for the weekend!"
That being said, on a one to one basis, i find most Americans to be very polite and welcoming but the thought that anyone, at any time, could pull a gun and shoot you is terrifying.
Fantastic place to visit but i wouldnt want to live there.
The company I work for has a sister company in California (and now in Minneapolis). The one thing I found whilst visiting on business was that there wasn't really anywhere to walk to from the hotel, I asked at the desk and they went to call a cab, I just wanted to walk to a local eatery to fill a little time in the evening as I was on my own and enjoy going for a walk, they seemed almost shocked that I didn't want the cab.
I've recently repatriated to the US after living overseas for 13 years and I agree wholeheartedly with every point you both have made in this video. To the extent, actually, that I think these issues are really deal breakers when it comes to staying in the US long-term.
Are you planning to expatriate again in the future?
The health insurance situation certainly stops anyone sensible, I have a 67 year old American friend who's a multi millionaire, he looked into moving back to the US after 40 years in Europe, (mainly UK), he realised that he couldn't take the financial risk inherent to the American 'healthcare' system and is now taking British citizenship.
@@paulm2467 um...at 67 he would be on medicaid, which is socialized medicine.
@@plcwboy that's not great compared to the everything covered, everything free, no limits, no deductible, no prescription charges NHS.
Lack of historical knowledge
You two are my favourite kind of Americans I call you globalised Americans
Lots of love from Scotland 🏴
In Britain, a bill has the cost of the food and drinks, we only give a tip (a couple of pounds) if the service was particularly good, and most of the time, it ends up going to the employer, not the waiter.
"and most of the time, it ends up going to the employer, not the waiter" -- That would be illegal in the UK. Most people tip in smart restaurants unless the service is poor, in my experience, and typically 10-15%. But it's often erratic and the result of people saying "keep the change" rather than working out a percentage. I've been out with groups who all just estimate their share of the bill and throw in a bit more to cover the tip, which can lead to quite small or quite large tips purely by chance (for example, you think your meal came to £12 and some change, so you throw in £15 to cover the tip, and someone else's meal came to £14 and they also put in £15).
@@jrd33 Yes, that's generally how a tip is worked out. I would only tip exceptionally good service, and ask for something reduced if it was particularly bad.
Thanks so much for this video! I agreed with you on everything! Ha Ha I’m an American true but I haven’t lived there since the 90’s because of many of the things you mentioned which I did not see until I could view it from an outsider’s perspective
Your story sounds like ours! We didn't realize most of these issues until we left the country too. Where do you live now?
Wandering Ravens Sorry for the late reply. I live in Beijing, China. Have been in China 22 years. Currently in lockdown in London. Came over to visit my son and got stuck because of the virus.
I like feeling better, not worse, after watching you. I can get controversy ad nauseum by watching various news outlets. Just do you, pleeeze!
When I first heard that there are drive-through BANKS in the USA, I must admit that I did say the forbidden phrase... "that's so American". 😁
the what? omg they're so lazy
@@patrik6872 Great for social distancing if online banking isn't an option, though XD
What is logical about everyone having to park, leave their vehicle, enter the lobby, wait in line for a teller, then leave the lobby, re-enter their vehicle, and wait to re=enter traffic when you can drive thru in a very small fraction of the time?
I think those are brilliant though , right!
Wait. You don't have drive-through banks??! jk yeah, our drive-through culture is a bit wild.
Good on you for being self aware! It takes some sense to post something like this.
"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country."
The US seems to focus on individual freedoms in a way of trying not to interfere too much with people's lives e.g. low taxes.
The flip side of that is that the country doesn't care for the people either. Individuals are responsible for their own health care, security (second ammendment), businesses and industry is responsible for providing services but with greater focus on making money rather than providing care plus they have more control over politics so they can be given more advantages than their customers.
Yet always it's love your country, stand for the anthem, swear allegiance (invoking God even though God has always cared for and protected his people over those whose focus was on money and power.) America does not care about it's people enough to get involved in helping their lives but expects it citizens to care for it.
Independence sounds good but no man is an island. It takes a village to raise a child. We are and should be connected and all work together for the good of all of us. Socially funded services is not the same as socialism. Government curbs on industries unfairly profiting from overcharging citizens for life changing essentials is appropriate because government should work for the citizens, not profit from those businesses.
When will US citizens learn the US government exists not to help them but maintain a system in which the rich and powerful stay rich and powerful and anyone else is ripe for being taken advantage of unless they can get successful by themselves. It is, quite frankly, sickening and evil. Not all in power or with money are evil but the organization (American spelling has a z so you can tell) is evil and corrupt. But of course that's possibly why citizens don't want to government to control more services, because they know it's corrupt. Government needs to fix itself with anti corruption and lobbying laws before it can fix the rest of the country.
Actually the United States has one of the most upwardly-mobile societies in the world. The majority of millionaires here are first-generation wealth.
@@plcwboy Actually, the US has one of the worst rich/poor divides in the 'first' world.
I'm gonna say one word, education. It seems like, from what you've said, that a better education on a multitude of subjects would solve so many of these issues, but hey, I'm a brit and i hated my education, at least i hated it when i was at school, looking back now i wish i could do it all again and do better.
You two are great. I love the way you have opened my eyes to different point of view from the American stereotype I'm used. (I'm British)
Most Americans are not like that. But a lot of Americans are also tired of the "Group First" attitude when it destroys the individual in the person.
When I go to the store I almost always go find a parking spot away from all the other cars because I don’t like my car getting dinged and it’s a lot less stressful to park away from everyone else. Also with all of the gargantuan SUV’s and pick up trucks it is hard to see backing out of a parking spot when you drive a car sized vehicle like my Subaru Impreza or 1980 MGB convertible which is similar in size to a Mazda Miata. Also both of my vehicles are manual transmissions which are becoming rarer and rarer here in the USA because of this damn addiction to convenience.
Savings and money sense in the UK: I have a good amount of savings. Where I know about other people's savings, they also have savings if they have sufficient income. However, I think that there is a problem with some poorer people taking out short-term loans at very high interest rates for small amounts of money.
I really liked this video. I think that your (relatable) opinions are so because you have travelled so much and come to know different cultures and people. That's the best thing to do: know something and then talk about it. Good job!
The reasons I would never live in America 1) Guns, 2) Healthcare & 3) jails (the number of people in jail for stupid things).
@Frank Filthyfinger Not much knife crime where I am.
Italian born and raised, dual citizen American, currently in Germany. I totally agree about selfishness... Americans don't care if others die due to healthcare cost, or poverty, or whatever, as long as they don't have to pay taxes to help them! I really don't understand! Those people have zero empathy and can't even fanthom the idea that one day it could be them the ones in need of help. I'll also NEVER understand why people love their guns so much, and why do they think they are protecting their families despite all the statistics show the opposite
Wow, this covered pretty much all the things that I - a Brit - find frustrating about some/most (certainly not all) Americans
Lack of money sense is probably linked to being embarrassed or ashamed of talking about money, which you mentioned in a previous video about the US. Just an observation! I mention money with a family member at least once a week. Not as in "I owe you x, y, z" more "so I thought about opening an x account..."
Here in Spain almost anyone has savings for the next month. Ok, our income sucks, but come on, is not so difficult.
That's impressive! Well done!
Noname ...wasn’t there a recent report by the UN criticizing the unacceptable levels of poverty in Spain?
I have to say I have extremely limited experience of the states as I have family in Sacramento I only know California. My experience is pretty much wonderful. I love the friendliness, and the great customer service. I was amazed that everyone seems to be on some fad diet. How does anyone throw a dinner party. When you have to cater for vegans, people who don't eat wheat, people who only eat fruit, those that only eat vegetables that have received counseling, etc
So glad you had a good time! If Americans are anything, it's friendly! :D
My first thought when you mentioned strong opinions: No where in the world there are as many Flat Earthers as in the US.
The whole strong opinion thing (often in conjunction with little knowledge of the subject at hand) really seems to be a 21st century phenomenon. I think there was a lot less of this arrogance in the 20th century.
BerishStarr Oh Jeeez how embarrassing!
nothing like a terrible school system, especially in some areas, to produce those "woken geniuses" LOL
Politics in the US is so polarised because you have a polarising electoral system.
Your "first past the post system" increases polarisation. Because the result of an election is always "Either Us or Them", there is an increasing tendency to feel under threat: if you don't win your election (at the local level, state level, whatever), then your opinion is totally obliterated because only one candidate can win. In other countries, where you have a list of candidates and seats are distributed proportionally (with some distortion, of course - no representative system is perfect), your voice may still be heard even if your party only managed to elect a representative.
Also, the US electoral system promotes a dual party system, so that adds to the sense of Us/Them = Good/Evil. If you have more parties represented, things become less absolute: e.g., in my country we have 10 parties with MPs (the party currently in power is Center-Left); some laws are supported by the party in power and all of the parties to the left of it, but some other laws are supported by the major party and the parties to the right of it, and yet other laws are supported by the two major parties (Center-Left and Center-Right) and opposed by both extremes, etc. So you end up with a mix and with less of a sensation that everything is absolute.
Yeah, OK fine, we (The UK) didn't go to the Moon. But we did go to Mars! Well, we didn't actuall go to Mars, but we did send a beagle. OK, not an actual dog but a probe called the Beagle 2... And yeah, we lost it... Sigh.
This was quite the emotional rollercoaster
The Brits did great space work too in the 1960s. We wouldn't have gone to the moon but we did conceptualise the space shuttle. We would have built one too but the government at the time pulled the plug and made the designs secret. Rumour is it was due to American pressure.
The Martians captured it so they could listen to Blur.
You'd be surprised how much of a space industry the UK has! It's more than you might think. Also, we did co-build Concorde with the French, so...
When I was younger, I went without health insurance. I had several procedures done, including out-patient surgery. Yes, they were all expensive, but never made me go bankrupt. Do the math! It cost less to occasionally pay out of pocket over 5 or 10 years, than it does to pay high priced insurance premiums that do not pay 100% of the bill anyway. Also, since doctors only get paid 40% to 60% of their bill by the insurance companies, they will often reduce their price if you are paying out of pocket.
This is why we recommend people in the States open an HSA and save for health emergencies in there.
Savings. I save what I can and it is amazing how quickly it can build up if you are careful. I have to keep it secret from the wife though, as she would just blow the lot on crap. One of the problems I see with the U.S is this. The U.S spends far too much money on its military. Don't take this the wrong way. The brave military personnel are amazing but why oh why does the U.S feel the need to have 12 or more aircraft carriers and literally thousands of jet fighters when every other country has 2 or 3 carriers and a few hundred fighter planes. The huge amount of money required for all this military hardware could pretty much eradicate homelessness and poverty.
Xtcy Saf ----- Totally agree with your point about "spending far too much on the military". To put it into context, it is the case that the US military budget is greater than the budgets of the next 10 nations military budgets. It's an absolutely absurd and wasteful system.
A recent example of this was in Iraq. Dick Cheney prior to being Vice President was the CEO of Halliburton. Halliburton owned a company called KBR. After the war in Iraq began KBR received a contract (without competition) to provide food, gasoline, and uniforms to the soldiers. In 2009 it was found that they overcharged the government in the amount of 553 million dollars for meals not delivered, rip off gas prices, uniforms not delivered. They used a private security company which charged a 100 million dollars. This was prohibited by their contract, they had to use the US military for security. They never shared their computer data with the government, so the likely overcharge was much larger. This is the kind of outrageous crap that goes on with the military budget.
Meanwhile the conservatives all argue that there is not enough money to pay for Universal Basic Income or Medicare for All. Put the military on a diet and we shall find massive amounts of money to benefit the populace.
The US military spent more money than was spent on the Apollo programme, on a tank that didn't work.
@@bruxi78230 .
"Meanwhile the conservatives all argue that there is not enough money to pay for Universal Basic Income or Medicare for All."
Healthcare in the US costs per capita, about twice that in the UK and is lower in world rankings.
The US healthcare system is very profitable for various corporations.
@@grahvis ----- You're absolutely correct about healthcare costs. It's amazing to me that those that advocate for Medicare for All don't point up that the savings are huge. I now live in South America. When I need medical services I can easily visit several doctors and get a quote quickly. The doctors here are incentivized to charge a reasonable amount due to the fact that I could easily use another doctor. In the US when your company is paying for medical services, the patient has no idea how much it is costing. There is no reasonable way to get a transparent quote ahead of time. When I need to buy pharmaceuticals the cost here is about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of in the US. The US system is designed to price gouge in every step of the way due to improper incentives.
I think that after the US had to bail Europe and Asia out of two world wars, we finally decided that it was better to prevent future wars than to try to win a future one.
Absolutely enjoyed the take on Politics... I feel redeemed. Thank You.
Quality content! I really like you guys' rantings! They aren't toxic or caustic but reasonable and insightful ☺️ + The mystery of the same shirt is solved!! It looks good on you tho Eric!
Hi Sean! So glad you enjoyed the video :D And we're glad to hear the ranting wasn't too controversial :) And Eric says "Thanks!"
I so agree with you! I love your videos. Keep going.
Please, do "What Europeans can't stand in Europe". It'll be great as a four-part examination of opinion.
We really want to make that video! Just need to find some Europeans who are willing to get self-critical with us for the internet :D
The issue is it will be different for each of the 27 countries. They're all so different and that's amazing, but also overwhelming for you guys to accurately represent in a video. Maybe 1 video for each country... How many Euro countries have you guys been to so far?
I suspect that it would be a little complicated since Europe is not a single nation. What French people would dislike about Europe are probably not the same things as the Greeks, the Polish, the English or me here in Iceland... if Iceland counts ;-)
Also, you would be likely to mainly get rants about the European Union and other Europeans rather than about common cultural things.... that said, if you could pull it through... get people to identify the aspects of a common European culture/life that they dislike it might be an interesting mirror on what europeans think is commonly european.... hmmm... you got me thinking ;-)
@@edwardnoble9897 Hi Edward! So far, we've only been to 4 - Germany, France, UK, and Italy. But we're planning on sticking around for a good while, so that number should be going up as soon as Coronavirus settles down
@@sgjoni Those are really good thoughts!
Just a little point, in regards to the “Moon Landing” USA achievement. I’ m sure you are aware of Brit’ Francis Thomas Bacon and the role he played? Nixon actually said “ if it wasn’t for you Tom we would never have gotten there!”
There was also a lot of international co-operation. For example, the TV pictures were received by a satellite dish in Australia and then beamed to NASA, who then broadcast them.
You have been forced to say Beer-virus by the UA-cam algorithm. Lol!
Hi guys. Love the content. I live in England and our download speed is 200 Mbps. We take this for granted and it is CHEAP. Come on America. All the biggest internet companies are American. You can do better.
Who is your internet provider? I pay TalkTalk for fibre and my download speed is 36 Mbps. I'm guessing it's because I don't live in London - either that or we have different definitions of "cheap", lol.
Virgin baby
Yeh but you're paying Richard Branson so he can avoid tax out in the Caribbean and leave his workers high and dry during the coronavirus lockdown at the same time asking for government relief money.
This was a really good video.
Thank you!
Hey! From England here!!
Where I used to work, we had a semi regular customer for a few months, and he was always coming up with anecdotes about time spent in America. He wasn't American, he was English and would use "When I was in The States...." as a prelude to complaining. Almost everything he was served, would be followed by "An American wouldn't settle for that!" "When I was in America, I could order anything I wanted, whether or not it was on the menu!!" and similar Bollocks!! Until one day he came in half an hour after the kitchen was closed, and he knew this, but he still tried to order a meal, after clicking his fingers at me, which pissed me off straight away! "Sorry 'sir', but the kitchen closed half an hour ago, and Chef has left for the day. However, we can still serve Tea or coffee and cakes."
"I've told you what I want , Badger!!" (obviously he used my given name!)
"Sorry, But like I said, the kitchen is closed!!"
"Well, that's just ridiculous!! When I was in America, any cafe or restaurant would reopen their kitchen for me, regardless of time or my order!!"
"Sorry, but we can't do that for you!" Needless to say he didn't like that!! And, he left!! The stupid thing is, I gave him no information he didn't know already!!!
Also, any actual American who passed our way, always commented on how "wonderful" the place was!!! All Americans who came in, generally had great manners!!!
As someone from England I find America so "shoved in your face" and that it's always a one way sytem to it.
For example, a lot of kids TV shows made in America aren't dubbed with some form of English accent but almost all English kids TV shows (that I'm personally aware of) are dubbed with some form of an American accent.
We also hear so much about America and what happens in America but not about other places as much (we still hear about other countries though) and most people I know who are American hear nothing about other countries at all. One of my American friends was only taught the map of USA. states in schools which is insane??
But yeah, it's all very much of a "you need to indulge in American culture but they won't indulge into yours"
(Again, this isn't everyone or everywhere in America. But it's just how it can feel)
DinoThePenguKing i swear literally all british kids show have their accents changed for the USA
James Gertz we have our own and we watch a mix but on services like netflix most the shows are american! all BBC programmes are british but otherwise there are just more american ones in general
In the U.S. parents of toddlers are experiencing what has been referred to as the "Peppa effect." It's where young American children are developing a British accent from watching Peppa Pig. From what I've seen most parents don't seem to mind and in fact many are encouraging it. The only ones having a real problem with it are the children's teachers and schools.
@@illiniwood I've heard of that. When I was a kid I used to put on a fake American accent when I was playing games because it's largly what I saw on TV. It's common it a lot of countries for kids to copy a singular accent on TV that's different from their own/they hear a lot on TV.
The first time I visited America the was a explosion at a American Embassy in the Far East, the news said that there were so and so many Americans killed or injured but nothing about any other people from any other country. It seems if it don’t happen to Americans it don’t happen. They are inward looking.
The lack of money sense. Damn, that hit the hardest
So weird that when you are driving and come to a 4 wat crossing there is a first come basis. Why no roundabouts or give way signs.
Cathy Gill Maryland has round-a outs everywhere.
Fun fact roundabouts was invented by an American
@@aaranross952 so why don't you use them??
@@cathygill8442 I do I'm From the uk, but I don't know why Americans don't use them 👍
@@aaranross952 A Frenchman invented the roundabout, he was called Zebedee.
Wow you're so right, here in the UK most won't know you have medical cost help for people on low income. That's the problem, most people only know what's on media, and it's usually only the negative that makes the headlines :(
..and you assume that helps everybody don't you? Can I sell you a car?
@@dapablo2 where is the assumption that it helps everyone 😂
@@Jamie_D Because you're using a right wing talking point. Honest you stick out like a sore thumb, How's Donnie the dork doing nowadays?
@@dapablo2 Oh shut up you foolish boy if you can't even think for yourself for a reasonable conversation. The talking point was in the dam video FFS. And here we don't really go hard on the left and right wing bullshit like your broken country :)
Is it the international Colour Purple Day today?
Purple is my favourite colour too!
It’s the Oprah appreciation society - color purple (geddit?)
It's always purple for Eric 😉🤣
A lot of how we behave comes from when we are growing up and seeing and hearing how our elders behave.in regards to saving money I think that people who earn a lot of money believe that they have no need to save but most of us know that we can lose a job in minutes.
Americans always talk about rights but never about responsibility s
What Americans call individualism in the UK is called selfishness. Individualism in the UK means something quite different to what is does in the US, it means being eccentric and not doing things or living your life the way everyone else does..................... For example a country of people all saying we are individuals, means they are not, they are the exact opposite opposite of individuals, they're all saying the same thing. The one person who say I am not an individual, is the only individual.
Can't say it better than this ua-cam.com/video/QereR0CViMY/v-deo.html
I am just so done with the culture here after I graduate I plan to get the hell out of here and see the world and live the dream my parents were/are to scared to go after.
That's true about Wallace forgetting to plant a flag. But he DID eat all the cheese!
Shoot! No wonder there wasn't any up there for Neil Armstrong 😂
Question ask 10 Americans where Luxembourg is ......how many will get it right lol
barry matthias Then ask 10 Europeans where Billings is?
@Joe Horrell how did they fit Luxembourg through the Panama Canal to get from the Pacific to the Caribbean?
@@sleepyreader666 Montana duh
The UK is pretty bad for reliance on convenience food, something that's going to (and is) hurt pretty bad in the current beervirus situation. One because a lot of people are out of work and 2 because a lot of people probably don't know how to cook (and I don't mean just opening a jar and heating it up :) ). Internet is something that has improved dramatically, gigabit broadband is becoming much more popular and even in some rural areas speeds over 30mbit are more and more common. My parents live in a village and have 80mbit but equally hear of people in major cities struggling to get 1mbit.
Oh dear! Hadn't thought about the poor folks who are stuck at home right now and don't know how to cook 😂
@@WanderingRavens I'm very glad that I can cook without poisoning myself but be interesting to see how many people have issues related not to the virus but to their own cooking!
On the first point. At lot of that difference is a hangover from World War II. In the UK, we had food rationing which lasted well into the 50s. That meant waste and the need to be careful with resources was a big thing. So it's a natural progression for us to see the need to conserve and share resource more easily. The same with the NHS, as much of Europe recovered from the war, they realised that the only way that working people on low wages could afford healthcare was to do share it across the whole of society.
Not an American, I've been a few times to different areas and had a wonderful time in each occasion (including last year when I ended up in the ER in florida...), but the thing that really freaks me out is the popularity of fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity. These people are seriously crazy (IMHO). The fact that they can influence stuff like whether evolution is taught in schools or not, or if it is only as a theory; dictating what qualifies as sex education. That blows my mind. The power afforded to these people is ridiculous. I went to a Catholic secondary school in the UK (no nuns!) and evolution was accepted as fact, sex education covered the pill and condoms, masturbation was discussed. They had to be, it's part of the national curriculum.
Eric, it's awsome how you used your hand to show the number 3at he beginning of the video. I got to spend 2 years in Frankfurt Hoechst and learned verry quickly to use my thumb to order 1 of something. The first time I ordered a beer I used my index finger and got served 2! 😆😅😂🤣
Totally agree about convenience, a lot of people in the UK have the same view. And, while I like driving, I prefer public transport. Not a lot of people have money sense.
Hello Ravens! Since my last rant about the “two Gs” I find the US falls down in (Guns and God), my main gripe about the US is what we in the UK treat nearest to a common religion: the NHS. This encompasses two of your own gripes - healthcare and financial responsibility. We utterly trust and revere the NHS for what it is and does. Moreover, we are prepared to pay for it through a fair and progressive taxation policy. Yet we see such gross calumnies by serious US politicos saying we have “Death Committees” who decide who will get expensive treatment and who will not. What you said about personal financial responsibility being lacking in that those on a good salary fail to save, I assume, also applies to spending their hard-earned dollars on a comprehensive health care policy, on the basis that they are healthy and therefore are in no need of one, at least for the time being. As an economist, let me say this is a classic case of market failure: an insurance model for national healthcare is bound to fail, because insurance companies need to have significant payments from customers to average out the cost of healthcare for claimants relying on many (or most, possibly) of their customers never making a substantial claim, if the business is to be viable. With the attitude to personal finance which you describe, that is (not next to) impossible. In the UK, insurance to drive is compulsory by law. Riskier drivers find themselves uninsurable, and therefore cannot drive. In he US, if funding health is by insurance, even i “compulsory”) some will find themselves uninsurable, magnifying the tendency you described to be financially irresponsible and not get health insurance any way. Much better for a broad consent to support taxes to fund a US NHS, but are Americans too stupid to realize this?
What people from other countries don't seem to understand is the American people don't trust our government as is. Look what they do with Social Security. Every time they decide they need some extra money they take it from Social Security. No one knows if they ever pay it back. Why then would we trust them with our health care? Under Obamacare they've already ruined alot of people's insurance by causing them to lose the good insurance they had and being forced to buy more expensive insurance with a much higher deductable and a lower catastrophic limit. You look at your government representatives as your leaders. In America they are supposed to be our servants. They serve not lead the people. Yet they act like we are their servants and owe them. These are the reasons the conservative voters don't want national health care. Also the fact that the politicians always turn our social systems into a chance to buy votes from people who should not be able to get benefits from them (ie, illegal aliens). People from other countries don't know what's really happening here and are constantly voicing their opinions against those of us who are trying to protect our country from our own politicians. This is why you always hear so much about the Constitution. And another thing, most people are always down on us about our guns. If our government is willing to do these things to our citizens why would we surrender our guns, knowing that one day they may come for us? Those of us who own guns know we cannot win against our government but are willing to die for what little freedom we still have. I personally don't own a gun but I will not comply with tyranny when it gets to that point. When they decide to come after us it won't be just for our guns, it will be for everything the Constitution is meant to protect us from. To you I may sound paranoid but I'm not. I'm not afraid of them, nor of death. And I have never been afraid of the people around me having guns. I go to diner in town occasionally and one of the customers that frequents the place wears a pistol on his hip. It doesn't bother me at all. Nor, apparently, does it bother the law enforcement officers.
I am an intellectual late bloomer. In my early 30s and finally figuring out what I think politically about things.
...I have been ostricized for not having an opinion on things. My fellow Americans get so uptight about it.
From a UK perspective, American politics seems to be solely focused on money. All the main politicians seems to be very wealthy?
As an American I fully agree with everything you said!
American here. Politically, I am Me. I will not label myself as anything else. The stereotype isn't worth it.
...even though neither the Left nor the Right are friends with me....
We use to have a bed and breakfast in Windsor UK , I found our American visitors very kind and polite, not loud and brash. General stereotypes of different people are often very wrong.
I'd say on the flip side of the convenience thing is productivity. If I can get my lunch quicker I can get more done. That's why with the exception of Asian countries, especially Japan, we tend to be more productive. We're always looking for a way to get one thing done faster so we can get to the next.
The best way to have balance on most issues is very simple. Have more political parties. Not just 'far right', or 'extremely far right'.