Is the US a shitty place to live?

[Deleted member 53669]

Asking "Is the US a shitty place to live?", is kinda like asking "Is Europe a shitty place to live?", and forgetting all the countries.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I lived in the U.S for a few years (Florida). It was pretty cool.

After a while though, things began to grate on me (Private healthcare was number one. People and attitude number two.) and I became massively homesick. To the point where I had to pack up and move back to Blighty.

I've only ever visited other places in the U.S (Chicago, San Diego, D.C) and they seemed nice enough. Wouldn't live there again though.

 

[Cimmerian Nights]

The correct answer is : it varies, and the lack of shitiness correlates highly with how much you can afford. I don't think you can sum up such a vast, diverse country in simple terms.

It's not as homogenous and monolithic as some would like to simplify it to be. I think all too often, whatever your local approximation of Foxnews is, samely and falsely conflates backwoods, bible-thumping, gun-toting people of Walmart type of America with the country in it's entirety.

I've lived long enough overseas and still travel enough that I feel disassociated with people just because we live within the same border. New England is not like Oklahoma is not like Cali is not like Michigan, although there is some commonality.

I also get shocked when I come back here after being gone a while. Yeah there are some fucking fat people here, and Americans have some weird eating habits. Sometimes Americans treat eating as if they don't like it, as if eating is a nuisance. Food as a convenient and fast delivery system of fat and sugar.

The media way overblows the racial stuff, assholes of all skin colors do brutish acts, sometimes it's to someone of a different race. Their assholeness transcends their race or racial preferences in most cases.
The GMO stuff is scary, but there are enough healthy, organic, GMO free alternatives that only the ignorant would continue to poison themselves so.
And the spying, well, the NSA is probably doing it to you too.
Say cheese!

 

[Battlecross]

I lived in the U.S for a few years (Florida). It was pretty cool.

After a while though, things began to grate on me (Private healthcare was number one. People and attitude number two.) and I became massively homesick. To the point where I had to pack up and move back to Blighty.

I've only ever visited other places in the U.S (Chicago, San Diego, D.C) and they seemed nice enough. Wouldn't live there again though.

What attitude did people have?

 

[valcik]

I'd choose the wilderness of North Dakota for living, or some similar place if I could. Californian climate would have killed me probably, as well as social pressure in any ultra-modern overpopulated urban area.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I lived in the U.S for a few years (Florida). It was pretty cool.

After a while though, things began to grate on me (Private healthcare was number one. People and attitude number two.) and I became massively homesick. To the point where I had to pack up and move back to Blighty.

I've only ever visited other places in the U.S (Chicago, San Diego, D.C) and they seemed nice enough. Wouldn't live there again though.

What attitude did people have?

I lived in a fairly backwater town named Jupiter (I lived on the more redneck-y outskirts). There were quite a few people there who didn't like the British, oddly enough.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Is the US a shitty place to live?

If you're poor. Yes.

Isn't this everywhere? Not sure it's exclusive to the US.

Sure. If you want to compare the US to let us say Somalia. But that really should not be a good banchmark. But apparantly in the US it is fine to have schools with metal detectors. And sending children to jail. If a society has reached that point it maybe should evaluate it's stance. But let us not get to off-topic. I love the US. But I also love to criticize it.

Sitting in the comfort of Europe, I wonder - has the US become a shitty place to live? Is it, perhaps, just the media focusing on the negative?

Don't worry. We will catch up fast. Europe is with a lot of things a bit slower compared to the US, but eventually we will get there in time I suppose.

Is it more complex to "fix" socio-economic issues in Europe due to the EU and national governments? Does it work in a similar way to State/federal here in the US?

Seems like there are many similarities between the two when you consider how the societies are striated by class (and geography in some cases).

A lot of the decisions that have bene made here and in other parts of Europe lead me to believe that there are some who really want to establish a system in Europe that is very similar to the US.

For example, right now the health care system of the US is an absolute mess. An overpriced, inflated and inefficient system where the real profiteers is the drug industry and the loosers the common people. While the health care system is also a mess here at least people still (mostly) have their teeth. But I get the feeling there are more and more people in politics which try to privatize everything, what ever if it makes sense or not. Good for the uper class since they have the money to get the best of everything. Bad for those on the lower end of the pay roll. - But like a politician once said, ensurance for your teeth is pure socialism.

The US is becoming steadily a class of two systems. The Rich. And the poor. Where the poor people are divided in several different groups of different religions, political systems and races pitted against each other. Instead of fighting for improvements and a better distribution of wealth people are bussy fighting each other and watching nonsense while the politicans continue to make politics for the 1% of the nation. Afterall it's the lobby that's paying their campaigns.

 

[Battlecross]

I lived in the U.S for a few years (Florida). It was pretty cool.

After a while though, things began to grate on me (Private healthcare was number one. People and attitude number two.) and I became massively homesick. To the point where I had to pack up and move back to Blighty.

I've only ever visited other places in the U.S (Chicago, San Diego, D.C) and they seemed nice enough. Wouldn't live there again though.

What attitude did people have?

I lived in a fairly backwater town named Jupiter (I lived on the more redneck-y outskirts). There were quite a few people there who didn't like the British, oddly enough.

Ah, yeah that's too bad. Anywhere on the coasts likely wouldn't have been a big issue. Most people are fascinated by people from other countries in any of the bigger cities.

 

[UniversalWolf]

I lived in a fairly backwater town named Jupiter (I lived on the more redneck-y outskirts). There were quite a few people there who didn't like the British, oddly enough.

Funny that you lived there. Florida is recognized nation-wide as the place where the most crazy news stories come from. There's a constant stream of bizzare things happening in that state for some reason. Never heard of people disliking the British, though. I'm not sure why they would.

There's still some anti-northerner sentiment in the old Confederate states. I've seen that first hand. In a way I'm sympathetic because the rest of the country constantly ridicules the South.

Anyway, this thread is wall-to-wall BS, IMO, but the last thing I want to do is encourage any more people to come here, so have at it. Please spread the word that it's terrible.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I lived in a fairly backwater town named Jupiter (I lived on the more redneck-y outskirts). There were quite a few people there who didn't like the British, oddly enough.

Funny that you lived there. Florida is recognized nation-wide as the place where the most crazy news stories come from. There's a constant stream of bizzare things happening in that state for some reason. Never heard of people disliking the British, though. I'm not sure why they would.

There's still some anti-northerner sentiment in the old Confederate states. I've seen that first hand. In a way I'm sympathetic because the rest of the country constantly ridicules the South.

Anyway, this thread is wall-to-wall BS, IMO, but the last thing I want to do is encourage any more people to come here, so have at it. Please spread the word that it's terrible.

I found the dislike of the British quite strange, too. No idea where it came from. Then again, as you said, Florida was pretty nutty.

 

[Walpknut]

I am not crazy about the culture but I am sure that there are far worse places to live. Like FAR FAR Worse.

 

[Reaper Shackal]

It's alright. Stressful when it comes to money though.

 

[mobucks]

Everyone wants to be black here. Kids in this country are choosing the worst role models, but it's all they're exposed to so I can't really blame them.

Ironically, the best way I can describe it is with a rap song. By a white guy.

 

[The_WitchDoctor]

Everyone wants to be black here.\

This is such a load of bullshit. Sorry, but, it is.

And ironically, the best way I can explain it, is with a picture of a white guy dressed up like a 70's Blaxipolitan Vietnam War Vet.

On the real (pun intended), no, everybody does NOT want to be black. We all (blacks, whites, gays, natives (like me), latinos), pretty much learned that societal place values are bullshit that stemmed from the 70's and 60's. First white people made it bad to be black, then black people made it cool to be black, and now no one gives a fuck what color anybody is any more. We all rip eachothers culture off left and right, and that's what makes America once of the largest inter-culture nations (that can do it [semi] successfully without some bullshit like the Iraqi Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds all general hated from eachother).

What is it with you people and doctors?

 

[Walpknut]

Casual racism much?

 

[The_WitchDoctor]

In exactly what way? Because I said we all generally get along fine, except for the "other 10%" in the US? And because I said stereotypical societal "places" are bullshit?

I think you just look for problems.

If you want to survive in the US, there is only one rule that everyone lives by. The color of importance isn't white, black, red, or yellow - it's green. That's all anybody cares about here.

I hate all people equally. Doesn't matter what color their skin is.

Let me say this:

When we're kids, nobody knows what a "jew, negro, redskin, or cracker" is. Nobody knows and nobody cares. It's only after we've been taught out our "places" in society (again going back to societal place values) that people figure out what these words mean, and start to become racist. But nobody is born racist, it's stupid bullshit like the post I replied to (the first one, not the second) that conditions people in a racist programming.

Once stereotypes are set, then everything else is fucked. I was trying to say that what he said, along with all these other bullshit stereotypes, are exactly that, bullshit. And stupid ass comments like "everyone wants to be black" or "white people talk like this and it's funny" or "Native Americans are all alcoholics!" (I've heard that one a million times) that put all the progress civil rights movements have made into full-speed reverse.

So I'll say it again. Fuck societal place values and societal place stereotypes.

 

[Walpknut]

I meant in reference to the other message....

 

[The_WitchDoctor]

I meant in reference to the other message....

That was actually a joke specifically for Akratus, because of the movie "tropic thunder" and that specific character.

It's meant to show the hypocritical meaning of some people who use that term, "what do you mean, you people". It can also be looked at as a joke for people who are trying to look for problems where there are none.

 

[Walpknut]

.... The one where he said the problem is that people want to be black and that being the worst role model....

 

[Geech]

Every time I open the news, there's a racial problem. White cops shooting black kids, white cops shooting latino kids, then these same black and latino kids rioting and looting. The education system rates poorly on the international scale yet tuition fees are some of the most expensive you'll find. Complaints about nutrition and the shit they put into US products. The US debt. The justice system, the political lobbying, surveillance etc.

Sitting in the comfort of Europe, I wonder - has the US become a shitty place to live? Is it, perhaps, just the media focusing on the negative?

It seems like its trending in some negative directions (in particular it has become more corrupt), but for the most part it's a pretty good place to live.