Posted on 11/13/2013 9:34:38 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
A lot of people around the world have ideas of what America is like, possibly thanks to Hollywood, or their local news channels, and maybe from what they’ve heard from families and friends. But then, they came here, to the grand old United States and their minds exploded. Taken from Quora.
I am originally from Bangladesh and here are a few things that I find hard to explain to peeps back home.
- Fruits and vegetables are way more expensive than meat and poultry.
- That, generally speaking, the poor is more obese than the rich.
- A lot of couples adopt children, sometimes in spite of having their own, and treat them exactly like their own. (To me, this alone is a marker of a great people)
- By and large, people do not carry cash.
- That you address your boss (and some of your professors) by some abbreviated variation of their first name. And that applies to pretty much everyone, regardless of how much older they are than you.
- Parents can get arrested for physically punishing their children.
- Severe poverty, homelessness, etc, no matter how limited, actually exist. Even in America.
- A name as common and as easy to pronounce as mine is almost invariably incomprehensible to most Americans.
- America is literally HUGE. My home country is roughly the size of Florida, one of the fifty states.
- In spite of the society being openly hedonistic and liberal, the social norms and standards still have very strong conservative religious influences.
- People don’t really care about the FIFA World Cup even though USA qualifies.
- The importance of credit rating/ credit score.
- Return policy.
- The history behind Thanksgiving.
- Black Friday and the frenzy associated with it.
- Amazingly friendly, hospitable and helpful people. Yet, a very conveniently private lifestyle.
- That, American foreign policy is a very inaccurate reflector of public consensus.
- Grinding. The dance form.
- That you cannot purchase alcohol unless you are 21 but can purchase a gun if you are 18.
Reminds me of Hanoi Jane Fonda's boast that Americans would LOVE to live under Communism if they only truly knew what it was.
And then there is Bill Maher (a self-proclaimed Libertarian) who says that of course Obama had to lie about Obamacare, because Americans are too stupid to accept what's good for them.
It is incremental socialism. And it is as Ronald Reagan predicted in the early 1960s.
Calling those who oppose it "afraid" and worried about conspiratorial "plots" does nothing to say that ISN'T what it is.
Being eligible to become President comes after drinking age (age 35) and ability to draw on your life savings without facing harsh tax penalties comes even far later.
How about we legalize pot, LSD, and opiates but set minimum age of use at 40?
The US lags behind other nations in not being nickled and dimed for services. THAT is the “American” way.
I’ve seen restaurants up-serving portion sizes (and prices) over the past decade. You ARE charged for what you are being served.
Yeah but one of Trumph’s hotels in Atlantic City is CALLED the Taj Mahal!
That picture reminds me of my dad’s pickup truck. One bench seat. Dad drove, Mom sat by the door holding the baby, and me and my sister and my two other brothers sat in between.
* Every state has a lot of autonomy.
* President doesn’t automatically become the richest person in the country.
* Majority of things in the US aren’t controlled or regulated by the government.
* Some hospitals look like five-star hotels.
* Budgets of some hospitals are equal to h/c budgets of small countries.
* Doctors tell their patients everything.
----
The times, they are a changing.
"Write a letter right back and tell him that you believe government economy and fiscal responsibility, that you know governments don’t tax to get the money they need; governments will always find a need for the money they get and that you demand the continuation of our free enterprise system.... If you don’t, this program I promise you, will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow and behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country until one day as Normal Thomas said we will wake to find that we have socialism, and if you don’t do this and I don’t do this, one of these days we are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free." Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine
Had I my way, I'd move 'em all back where their opinions count.
18. Contents of doggie-bags are not just for doggies. :)
Some of those same hospitals are regularly visited by the politburo and "dear leaders" of counties with socialized medicine (places where those who CAN afford to travel abroad for health care do so).
I have heard a lot of these things from South Asians.
Return Policy - Does not exist back home. Though I hear now merchants are being forced into this as so many Indians have spent time in the US.
Informality at work - Very different from over there
Tipping - Very foreign to them as it does not exist back home (earning the consternation of restaurant waitstaff)
Traffic - very orderly (or at least we don’t have daily 15 car pileups that generally involve an elephant or a camel)
btt
He says that like it's a bad thing...
” The real problem was a lack of understanding about the enormity of the country itself, and the vast numbers of people here. America. It’s big.”
Which is why so called “smart growth” density in liberal controlled metropolises isn’t so smart after all. Plenty of space that can still be settled.
In Prague I was instructed to wave away the condiments and spices that the waitstaff would try to place on the table after ordering. Salt, pepper, catsup, etc. all add up on your bill. Nickel and dime (actually they could run 50 cents each).
Well, International Socialism is going to achieve its population control vision one way or another.
I hope they clean up after they make yoga in the park.
“Each one of those states has its own constitution, legal standards, and tax policies.”
And, each one also has an insatiable Federal leviathan nibbling away at its rights and responsibilities, along with that of its citizens.
MILLIONS of people think that the writings of Karl Marx are the greatest revelation of all time and just have never been properly applied in spite of the deaths of over 100 million people in one hundred years’ time.
Then there are the billion+ people who submit to the ravings of a dead conquering warlord and kill, maim, and enslave in his name to this day. Yoking themselves with the excuse that he was the perfect man and they are not to question his wisdom.
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