I find #s 2, 7, 8 and 10 probably linked in various ways. We dislike feeling shortchanged so food portions can get large. Some people will eat as long as there is something in from of them, others will eat what they want and discard the rest. The former leads to #7 which (hopefully) can lead to #10, while the latter can lead to #8 along with excess packaging used by retail and manufacturing to keep us thinking we are not being shortchanged there.
I wonder what the demographics are of the ‘foreigners’? We go to Europe and the unknowledgeable are shocked that you can drive from England to Poland in a long day (1013 miles!) A similar distance from New York City gets you to Chicago or the Georgia-SC border. Which also goes to (partially) explain the size of our vehicles (#14) - longer distances make urban vehicles a pain!
And so it goes!
I dated a Serbian woman who never understood America’s “car culture” until she got here.
Today she has an SUV.
Brits live pretty good, but everything is a little smaller over there. I assume things are the same in other parts of Europe. I’ll take American-sized cars, roads, rooms, etc. please.