WHAT MOST AMERICANS DON’T KNOW ABOUT AMERICA Few People Are Impressed By Us As Americans, we’re brought up our entire lives being taught that we’re the best, we did everything first and that the rest of the world follows our lead. Not only is this not true, but people get irritated when you bring it to their country with you. So don’t. Few People Actually Hate Us Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush (twice), people from other countries don’t typically hate us either. In fact, most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us at all. We Know Very Little About The Rest Of The World For all of our talk about being global leaders, we seem to know very little about the world -- 63% of American’s can’t even find Iraq (a country we’re at war with) on a map. And we didn’t invent Democracy. It existed in parts of Europe for over 100 years before we established our government. The Quality of Life For The Average American Is Not That Great Despite the fact that the average American having more material wealth than citizens of most other countries (more cars, bigger houses, nicer televisions), the overall quality of life suffers. On average, American workers have less vacation time, spend more time commuting every day, and are saddled with more debt that our counterparts in other countries. The Rest Of The World Is Not A Slum Compared To Us As Americans, we have this naïve assumption that people all over the world are struggling and way behind us. They’re not. Sweden and South Korea have more advanced high speed internet networks. Japan has the most advanced trains and transportation systems. Norwegians make more money. On the flip side, America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. We’re Status-Obsessed And Seek Attention The way we communicate is designed to create attention and we’re status-obsessed. Comparing ourselves and attempting to out-do one another has infiltrated our society. We Are Very Unhealthy The World Health Organization ranked America 37th in the world for health care, despite the fact that we spend the most per capita by a large margin. In Asia, the hospitals are nicer (and cleaner) and cost less. A routine STD test that can run you over $200 in the US but is free in most other countries. In terms of life expectancy, despite being the richest country in the world, we come in a paltry 38th. Right behind Cuba, Malta and the United Arab Emirates, and slightly ahead of Slovenia, Kuwait and Uruguay. Enjoy your Big Mac. We Mistake Comfort For Happiness ‘nuff said.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 03:44:09 +0000