Speaking as an expat living in Japan, I can’t account for all of this, but most of it, especially regarding attitudes, is bang on. Most of my Japanese friends have written off America as a tourist destination and are reluctant to accept business appointments that take them there.
Canada is much preferred, South American appointments are very competitive, Europe is a city-by-city decision, but going to America even as a highly paid middle management type is just more hassle than its worth.
How’s London?
There was a time when the Japanese were heavily invested in the City, according to the locals, but now the islamics seem much more important...
My next door neighbors are Japanese expats, they seem to like Texas pretty well and they are raising a beautiful family here.
I found a similar attitude on a recent trip to Ireland. The Irish still love Americans, but not America. As one guy explained to me over a few pints of Guinness at a pub in Galway:
"The Irish no longer perceive America as the land of opportunity where even the poorest dirt farmer can advance through the social and economic classes if he is motivated and works hard enough. You've become an overly-bureaucratic, overly-regulated land of paper-pushers, where the biggest growth industry is the advancement of the welfare state and the dependency of the masses, and in the process, you've created a static society of whiners and takers, who complain about everything, but do nothing to change their situation. In otherwords, you have become just like us in Europe, and that's really sad."
Well....I’ve traveled more than this guy and for longer. Was in Japan for 4 years, China (PRC) 6 months, in Hong Kong (before turn over) and Taiwan a month each, likely another dozen countries across ME and Asia.
He is doing the same thing for the countries that he has been in that he is accusing US citizens of...looking only at his own experiences and ignoring things that don’t align with his thoughts.
People focus on what is around them - doesn’t mean they don’t care about other things just that is human nature. True everywhere not just U.S.
There are plenty of shanty towns and slums I’ve seen and walked through that make those in the U.S. look like a palace.
Lots of open sewage in many places which I’ve never seen in the US.
I’ve seen dead folks in the streets left that people just ignored...no it’s not common and there are good and bad places in each country.
In many ways our freedoms are less because of over regulation and political/business cronyism.
The pharma thing is because WE pay for the research to invent them - but it also gives us first access.
High School isn’t guranteed in some countries not even elementary school - even in Japan not everyone goes to high school, often taking a trade school or just starting to work instead. (By the way this is partly why I take the test result comparisons with a grain of salt - they are working with a different sample of kids).
Seen police beat a kid with batons because he ran into them and spilt their coffee in Hong Kong. Saw the teenaged girls sold into the sex trade in Pattaya Beach Thailand.
There are some places I won’t go even in Tokyo or Osaka - and I’ve always said that you can stand in the street at 2AM in Japan buck naked with 10000 yen and sing and eveyone else will just ignore you until the neighborhood cop makes his normal rounds.
Are there things that are bad in the US, yes, are we self-absorbed at times - sure. We’re not perfect, but we have greater opportunity as a whole. Is our culture more standoffish - well, we do have a different sense of space for sure, but it reflects the culture we grew up in - same as the Frenchies and others do theirs. They are less rugged independents then we as a whole and so act accordingly
Kid has left out all the negatives that are apparent in other countries in order to promote his opinions and avoided the facts that didn’t fit. I’m not blind to our faults - and yeah we have an attitude, but I can’t say the Japanese, Chinese, or French can’t be pricks in their own ways. He’s not had his eyes opened to some truely bad long term situations in the other places, and there are plenty of great places out there as well - we don’t have the corner on the market.