I thought I knew wrong, but I never thought I'd see a wrong as wrong as this.
Dont give up on America.
- Thread starter coldvein
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I thought I knew wrong, but I never thought I'd see a wrong as wrong as this.
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
LoL….this has to be a Troll post….but I will respond because I'm bored.
It's funny how true this shit is…..for whatever reason…other countries just own us at that "beepy boop shit" lol. Progressive and electro house to be specific.
You know what's funny about this though…Mcdonalds in other countries can actually taste better than American mcdonalds. There are some Japanese menu items for instance at Mcdonalds that's just Amazing.
or Mcdonalds in Hong kong that have Mochi as snacks and they are oh so good…
There are some places where this is legal and have been for a long time outside of America…so….yea…
This is SO debatable…..You only experience western media for the most part so you are mostly exposed to our "sexiest" people but I assure you…..the sexy is all over the world…
Now with all that said…I Wanna live in Tokyo Japan….yea, i know, everyone does…but that's where I wanna go. I'm on some, "I don't even care about boring America" anymore...
It's funny how true this shit is…..for whatever reason…other countries just own us at that "beepy boop shit" lol. Progressive and electro house to be specific.
You know what's funny about this though…Mcdonalds in other countries can actually taste better than American mcdonalds. There are some Japanese menu items for instance at Mcdonalds that's just Amazing.
or Mcdonalds in Hong kong that have Mochi as snacks and they are oh so good…
There are some places where this is legal and have been for a long time outside of America…so….yea…
This is SO debatable…..You only experience western media for the most part so you are mostly exposed to our "sexiest" people but I assure you…..the sexy is all over the world…
Now with all that said…I Wanna live in Tokyo Japan….yea, i know, everyone does…but that's where I wanna go. I'm on some, "I don't even care about boring America" anymore...
Messofanego
Banned
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
terrisus
Member
Well, I've been interacting in a MUD largely populated with people from the UK for the past 17 years.
Granted the UK isn't a MUD (although that would be pretty awesome), but nonetheless.
If someone's willing to put my wife and I up there, we'll hop on over tomorrow.
Agreed, by far the most hideous
Obesity
Justifying gun ownership after public school shootings
Incarceration
Defense spending
Self-promotion
OP that was a really fucking poor post
The Giant
Banned
I don't see anything that's worth wild to live in america.
Here are some reasons why:
Shitty health care system
Tipping
Shitty wages
Shitty education system
Very good at school shootings
Gun nutjobs
Gun laws
Religious nutjobs
Glorified violence but show a nipple and everyone goes crazy
and so on
Here are some reasons why:
Shitty health care system
Tipping
Shitty wages
Shitty education system
Very good at school shootings
Gun nutjobs
Gun laws
Religious nutjobs
Glorified violence but show a nipple and everyone goes crazy
and so on
Tee hee
Sounds like someone needs to re-watch Cool Runnings. Based on a true story.
There's just not enough pride, power, or bad-ass muthas who don't take no crap from nobody (from hot countries competing in the Winter Olympics) these days. Also John Candy's dead.
PanicFreak
Member
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
Sounds like someone needs to re-watch Cool Runnings. Based on a true story.
There's just not enough pride, power, or bad-ass muthas who don't take no crap from nobody (from hot countries competing in the Winter Olympics) these days. Also John Candy's dead.
you know what my grandfather said? GET BACK TO WORK!
terrisus
Member
It's worthwhile for all of that wild worth.
Rabbit Lord
Member
DoktorEvil
Banned
AwesomePossum
Member
usa is where canadians go to be famous.
HappyBivouac
Member
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
No. This photo is exactly how I imagine the majority of the UK.
DoktorEvil
Banned
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
Why is there so much trash in the street?
To be fair, the streets look much cleaner than All of NYC.
Reckon Australia is pretty competitive in that department.
Cradle Mountain & Lake Sinclair National Park (Tasmania)
Kakadu National Park (Northern Territory)
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Northern Territory)
Lamington National Park (Queensland)
Daintree National Park (Queensland) - Where the rainforest meets the Great Barrier Reef
Bay of Fires National Park (Tasmania)
Snowy Mountains National Park (New South Wales)
Nitmiluk National Park (Western Australia) AKA The Katherine
Just scratching the surface there. So much diversity.
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
Bay of Fires National Park (Tasmania)
.
This makes me think of Maldives....Man....I really wanna goto Maldives one day...
Can we get some Maldives love?
That's actually kind of damning for Japan.
The US is an absolutely HUGE land mass while Japan is a small island. The number of McDonalds per sq. km is pretty insane.
Have you lived there?
After living in Europe for a while now I actually miss a lot of things from the US and feel that you're off on those facts.
Wages in Europe are much lower yet prices for EVERYTHING are much much MUCH MUCH higher. It's really ridiculous how cheap things are in the US.
Tipping at restaurants? Once again, prices for food are lower, so it doesn't add much to the overall expense and, more importantly, you often receive better service when people have a reason to treat you well. Service is, on average, so much slower around here in France.
Guns and religion are a stereotype you hear about constantly but, in practice, something you really won't run into during day to day life in most cities. The media makes it seem like everyone is gun crazy and into religion, but that's just not true. Not even close.
Every country has its problems and listing them outright can certainly paint a poor image. I love France and Germany (living on the border), but I could make a huge list of issues with both countries (especially France). That would be ignoring all of the positives so I won't.
Trent Strong
Banned
Why are the sidewalks and streets so dirty?
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
America is great at many things, none more so than believing it's own hype.
Parallax
best seen in the classic "Shadow of the Beast"
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
did a bomb go off at a prom? what happened here?
Not even remotely, but then the U.S. is an extra 2.3M km2 bigger and ranges over a larger portion of a hemisphere, so there's more diversity captured within it. Australia does a very good job with it's conservation efforts to be sure, though that is largely mitigated by a lack of population density.
Best top end healthcare in the world if you can pay for it. Which you can if you have a legitimate career. The disparity in quality of healthcare top to bottom does no reflect the quality of care one can receive at the top.
The hell is wrong with showing that you got mad swag and dropping a Benjamin on the waitress at a nice place after an excellent meal?
Absurdly good wages for all people in the upper end of the economic strata, actually.
1. Only if you value being able to churn out formulaic answers over real critical thinking and 2. not true at all if you have the cash to pay for quality K-12 education. From a post-secondary standpoint the breadth and quality of the U.S. education system is an unprecedented global achievement.
It's a free world man. Some people use that freedom to violate the rights of others, can't be helped.
What defines a "gun nutjob"? Because the U.S. has far from cornered the market on extremist militants. Being a firearms enthusiast is far from being a "nutjob" however.
In that they do exist or in that they aren't overbearing in an attempt to remove freedom from the populous?
Pretty sure these are everywhere, and last I checked no where in the U.S. has outlawed minarets, as opposed to some of the more supposedly progressive countries out there.
People go crazy over the violence too, FYI. It's a big nation full of dissenting views and constitutional protection assuring everyone of the right to express those views.
America is a capitalist society and as a result has a clear social strata between the "haves" and the "have nots". I'm not talking the top 1% v. everyone else here either, though that is an entirely different tier of "haves". A large portion of the U.S. live at the highest standard of living ever achieved on this planet. It unfortunately comes at the expense of others within the United States as well as economically less developed foreign nations, as opposed to much of western Europe where public policy has tried to push down the high end standard of living to elevate the low end internally, while still exploiting the same less developed nations. If you're a moderately hard working, intelligent person in the U.S. you can dispel basically 99% of all the "what's wrong with America" shit from your life while enjoying a great amount of freedom.
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
There's at least three smanging ladies in that pic.
It's a Friday / Saturday night. We just go fucking mental at the weekend. It wouldn't look anything like that the next day.
I can't imagine what large English / British city centres must look like to outsiders at 2am on a Saturday. Shit's wild.
Red top / black skirt on the left, the two on the far right?
Chuckie
Member
This map is wrong. In more than one way.
First of all, Sulawesi is not a country. Second of all...it does have McDonalds.
Edit: Same goes for Kalimantan.
POWERSPHERE
Member
So American.
Nothing wrong with it, and outside America is means so much more when you do it because it is genuinely voluntary rather than "customary".
But since you are asking questions, I'll throw one back at you...
The Hell is wrong with paying your waiters and waitresses a decent living wage to begin with?
travisbickle
Member
LOL. Shit is cheap in the US, sure, but I have had plenty of terrible service there too. And wages are lower than in America? For what occupation?
LOL, nice work being correct on facts and still being a bit silly.
And two possible males.
PJV3
Member
I want you to, for the culture shock when all your preconceptions are destroyed in a night. Do people seriously still think UK is a bunch of posh accent armchair ladies and gentlemen who have tea and crumpets?
At least USA still has the sun and snow.
The tea and crumpets are definitely a thing.
Let's not give the impression we have turned into cavemen completely.
I'd be all for an increase in a service industry minimum wage and removing the exemption for restaurants and the like to pay below minimum wage, but unfortunately my countrymen have yet to see the wisdom in giving me full control of our government.
That said, I've known many waitresses/waiters/bartenders/etc. and almost to a man/woman they make absurdly more money for a 20 hr. a week job than the average joe working their 20 hr. a week part time deal. A lows are real low, but when the highs are coming home after a 4 hour shift with $200 cash in your pocket I don't think the $3/hr. wage is of biggest concern.
Also, while it's customary it still means just as much to waitstaff when someone goes above the 15% range in most places (20% in major metro areas). In fact, I'm a big fan of the sliding scale effect it can have, as in non-tipping countries I have no solid recourse to passively show dissatisfaction since any tip is viewed as a "plus". In the U.S. all waitstaff start out at a 20% baseline for me and can work up or down the ladder. If you do a shit job you'll notice when I give a 0-10% tip. If you're great you'll get 50% or better.
What's so silly about it? Size and climate variance plays a big role in just how strong a nation's natural attractions will be. Australia is a beautiful country with amazing parks and refuges, but does it have anything similar to the Tongas National Forest or Glacier National Park? Of course not, there isn't an alpine/sub-arctic climate regime on the continent. The size and breadth of the United States were ideally paired with it's history of early ecological preservation to produce the largest, most varied natural conservation program in the world. It ties directly into the massive natural resources advantage the U.S. has thanks to it's geographical orientation.
You misunderstand my point. Do I feel that it's right to put quality healthcare behind an achievement wall when passage through that wall is increasingly less about merit and more about which side of the wall your parents where on? Not in the least. I'd be all for universal single payer healthcare.
But the reality is that if you have a good job and therefore employer subsidized healthcare along with enough disposable cash to have a flex account, meet co-pays, etc. then the United States offers by far the best healthcare you can get. Elite medical professionals, designer drugs, etc. etc..
A lot of work needs to be done to expand that quality of care to the entirety of the nation instead of restricting it to the top ~50%, but it doesn't change the fact that on an individual level moderate success begets a wealth of rewards in the U.S..
That's really the United States in a nutshell. If you can make it into the top 50% economically life is pretty awesome. If you happen to be a white male not only is it easier to make it into that top 50%, but it's even better when you get there.
Of course, service can be terrible anywhere, but it is consistently faster in the US than in France, based on my experience and I can't help but think tips play a role in that.
Let's just say that the wages of people at an international company are all much lower than the equivalent positions in the US office (high level engineering positions, among other things). I can't really get into specifics on those numbers, but I was pretty shocked. Also, while looking into other options, I've found average salaries to again be much lower than what you get in the US.
With everything being MORE expensive, however, it really does feel as if you're worse off. We were doing exceptionally well in the US financially while coming to France turned out to be a huge mistake from that perspective. Thankfully it's not a permanent thing but it's definitely not the best decision we could have made. There's more to life than that, however, so I'm glad we're here.
Oh, and it does sting a bit when you start making comparisons. My car was a good 20% more expensive here than a more powerful model of the same car in the US, housing costs are much higher, and, man, things like games and movies put far more of a dent in the wallet ($93 USD for a new game as the standard MSRP?!?).
Because people have been having a good night. You're trying hard to judge, that's fine. But that street has seensome action that night and will all be cleaned up in the morning.
it seems you missed the point of the original complaint. when people say the usa has a shitty health care system they are not alluding to surgeons performing amputations with rusty hacksaws.
You also seemed to have missed my issue with your post, which was your suggestion that the majority of the workforce just isn't working a 'legitimate' job.
As an aside; the suggestion that being top 50% is enough is somewhat amusing. average personal income in the states is about 32,000 dollars.
Messofanego
Banned
Not in daytime. The binge drinking and "living for the weekend" culture is how we ended up with that. If only we had good weather so that people didn't have to drown out the sorrow.
HerbertFish
Member
That's because the rest of the world is obsessed with America.
A bit like having an English accent in America
A
A More Normal Bird
Unconfirmed Member
The post you were responding to didn't mention diversity, only how "incredible" the national parks were, which is a rather subjective thing. Of course, even if diversity was the sole criteria, I'm not sure how either of the countries could be considered to be "not even close" to one another. The USA has a wider climatic range (though FYI the Snowy Mountains in Australia are generally described as Alpine and IIRC parts of Tasmania are too), but also shares many common environments and species with other countries whereas Australia is more isolated.
That said the natural environment in America is stunning and is at the top of my list of reasons for wanting to visit. In fact it's pretty much the only reason, seeing as I can enjoy almost all the other amazing things the nation has produced without physically going there and risking being shot, or at the very least listening to people explain why shootings "can't be helped,"
Cos drunk people throw stuff on the floor :/ It's a Saturday/Friday night what do you expect?
Rookie mistake, never buy a car in France if you can, that's the part of the EU zone that car companies usually overcharge.
Never go to the pictures if you don't have a subs for an unlimited access to the cinema or got some kind of reduction.
Also never, ever trust Air France or the train companies as far as punctuality goes.
And unless you lived literally everywhere in France I wouldn't comment on the housing cost considering there's a huge disparity between places (you don't want to live in St Etienne but they're close giving house for free ;p).
SquiddyCracker
Banned
I like the way you think, but I was thinking the three on the far right of the pic (lady in black dress is curvacious and you can make out the face of a beaut.)
Again, you're massively inferring intent with zero merit.
I'm not suggesting that the majority of the workforce isn't working a legitimate job. I said legitimate CAREER, i.e. a profession with real long term benefits and growth.
I'm also not suggesting that the top 50% being well off is enough. Never even alluded to it. But from the individual's point of view it isn't that hard to make the top 50% with even moderate levels of ambition and intellect, at which point you reap comparatively massive rewards. I'm not defending it as a system, just pointing out how the system works.
And 32K is the average, when there are extremes on both ends. The median income is ~$51,000, which in the vast majority of the country is enough for a pleasant lifestyle even for a single income household.
You're trying to portrait what I said as some kind of "grab yer bootstraps ya lazy sacks!" social Darwinist bullshit when that isn't there at all. But hey, don't let me stop you from tilting at windmills.
The post you were responding to didn't mention diversity, only how "incredible" the national parks were, which is a rather subjective thing. Of course, even if diversity was the sole criteria, I'm not sure how either of the countries could be considered to be "not even close" to one another. The USA has a wider climatic range (though FYI the Snowy Mountains in Australia are generally described as Alpine and IIRC parts of Tasmania are too), but also shares many common environments and species with other countries whereas Australia is more isolated.
That said the natural environment in America is stunning and is at the top of my list of reasons for wanting to visit. In fact it's pretty much the only reason, seeing as I can enjoy almost all the other amazing things the nation has produced without physically going there and risking being shot, or at the very least listening to people explain why shootings "can't be helped,"
1. The post I quoted specifically ended with the word "diversity". So yeah, I"m pretty sure it mentioned diversity.
2. If you achieve alpine climates via altitude you aren't actually an alpine climate. It creates an entirely different ecological regime.
3. The United States doesn't share nearly as many climate ranges and species with other countries as you would expect. The entirety of Europe lacks similar ecological breadth for example. But again, this is largely due to an optimal positioning of the United States, and a purely coincidental one (other than the ravenous pursuit of more land that led to the U.S. acquiring Texas, Alaska, Hawaii, etc. after establishing itself as a nation mind you).
That's basically the U.S. answer to most nation to nation comparisons though. It's the equivalent to getting 50 lottery tickets when everyone else only has 10 then bragging about how well you made out from a total sum standpoint.
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