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No offense but outside of money does the US have anything going for it?
by axpy906 3mo ago
No offense but outside of money does the US have anything going for it?
- fluidcruft 3mo agoThe Mississippi river. Few understand what an advantage that river is.
- derektank 3mo agoAnd that’s in spite of the fact that we’ve in some ways crippled it with the Jones Act
- artisinal 3mo agoNatural parks. Tasty drinkable water from the tap in nearly the entire country. Being able to flush toilet paper. Free toilets almost everywhere. Being a country for 250 years is also quite an achievement. I’m European and have witnessed many wars on my continent in my lifetime. A childhood friend was shot down with a Russian surface to air missile.
- 2muchtime 3mo agoThe water is drinkable but in many places not what I would call tasty.
- artisinal 3mo agoWater tastes pretty gross in coastal Spain. In countries like Albania I wouldn’t even drink it at all. On Greek islands it is safe but everyone buys water from the stores. Due to the age of many places in Europe there is also still a lot of copper pipe used for tap water. Not deadly but also not very healthy. In Amsterdam over 20 percent of homes have copper pipes.
- jandrewrogers 3mo agoA few places in the US have tap water that tastes famously bad, largely due to where they get the water from. San Diego is a famous example. The water is safe and clean but discolored and the flavor is pretty awful. Much of the US has great tasting tap water.
- dnemmers 3mo agoI'm confused, you're saying that copper piping is not healthy for water lines? Any info you could help link to?
- artisinal 3mo agoApologies, I meant lead pipes. Plenty of pre-war homes have lead pipes.
- dnemmers 3mo agoThanks for the reply. I'm sure there are plenty of elements that could cause issues (acid flux, leaded solder, bursting, etc), I just hadn't hear the same things as galvanized or, like you said, lead piping.
- axpy906 3mo agoI don’t know. There are other countries that have those properties. I am envious of Western Europe’s healthcare, social safety net, healthier food and holidays that you don’t work on. The comment came about from the last charts show religion, patriotism, etc down while money rose. It clicked.
- fluidcruft 3mo agoWhat food does Europe have that the US does not?
- axpy906 3mo agoIts what’s not in the food like additives, preservatives, pesticides, gmos and growth hormone. EU has stricter regulations.
- fluidcruft 3mo agoYou can buy the same food here.
- retired 3mo ago> EU has stricter regulations. Different, not stricter perse. In the EU it is allowed to sell food with non-edible parts inside or cheese with maggots.
- shawn_w 3mo agoIf you're talking about casu martzu cheese, Wikipedia says >Due to these risks, Italian authorities have banned the sale of this cheese, deeming it dangerous. Consequently, it is also prohibited across the European Union, as EU food safety regulations mandate that only food safe for consumption can be sold.
- jandrewrogers 3mo agoNot stricter, just different emphasis. For example, the US famously has stricter controls on bacterial contamination than much of Europe.
- holgerschurig 3mo agoI give you the nature parks. That being out of the way: drinkable water isn't really an achievement, we have it in all of western europe. Maybe even in all of europe. However, in the USA you have these places there the water is heavily poluted due to fracking. That is bad in itself. But even worse is that the political / judicial system in the USA is unable to fix this. Being a country for 250 years is ... neither good nor bad in itself. And if you look at ancient egypt that had 4 digits here, then it is pathetic to bring this up. But also in the western world 250 years aren't that much. Many wars ... yeah, the USA started and/or participated in many wars. More than european countries did during your lifetime. Out of my mind: Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Panama, Grenada, Bosnia+Herzegovina, Irak, Irak, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya. And don't forget undeclared wars like lots of "Wedding seeking hellfire missiles" in Yemen or Somalia. Oh, and that was just a selection. Look up Wikipedia on the full list of US wars and incidents. You'll be mind-blown how militaristic / violent they are. And then don't forget all the coups it did in south america, I think more than 20 incidents. Or the awful Nicaraguan Contra thingy, where the USA paid death squadrons to terrorize just normal people, not just communists. Depending on how old are you, all of the above happened during your lifetime. Ah, and did we forget in these 250 years not about their civil war, about the enslavement of millions of people? Or of the genocide on natives? Never heard of the trail of tears perhaps? No way the USA has a even a tiny bit more of morality on their side as other countries.
- artisinal 3mo ago> drinkable water isn't really an achievement, we have it in all of western europe. Maybe even in all of europe Absolutely not. Water tastes bad in plenty of parts in Europe and isn’t even drinkable in plenty of parts. > But also in the western world 250 years aren't that much. I would like to know which countries you are talking about. > yeah, the USA started and/or participated in many wars I was talking about wars on their own continent, impacting their own people. Europe has seen plenty of that. I am currently less than 1000 kilometers away from an active battle zone. How many Americans can say that.
- holgerschurig 3mo agoYea, like the water in San Diego. Water tastes bad in plenty of USA. Not only due to clornination. In in the fracking counties it isn't even drinkable. Also note that I actually used the term "western europe" in my post. I was in UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Czech, Romania, Hungary, Poland ... and everywhere was tap water totally drinkable. In Mallorca (Spain) it didn't taste that nice, but it was drinkable. Germans travel a lot, and when you book a travel, you get some information about your host country. And never ever did I read "don't trink the tap water". So of all places I've been, "tastes bad" only was once true. "Can't drink" was never true. Your "plenty if parts" is definitely hallucinated. However, I've not been in many places in south-east and east europe, like not in Albania, Moldavia, Slowenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, the Baltics, Belarussia, Slowakia, Ukraina, Russia etc etc etc. So I have no idea on how their water is.
- jandrewrogers 3mo agoThe best geography of any country by a large margin and a non-ethnic culture that believes anything is possible and celebrates the ambition to try. The money is largely a side effect of these two things.
- wqaatwt 3mo agoEurope probably has the “best geography” and the climate, though? Coastal California is probably one of the nicest places on earth but generally US is quite harsh.
- derektank 3mo agoYou can’t have the best geography if you share a land border with an expansionist power, as Europe does with Russia.
- dgellow 3mo agoThe US has pretty much all the possible biomes within its borders. Even active volcanoes
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- jandrewrogers 3mo agoGeography isn't just climate. The US has exceptional soil for agriculture at incredible scales, one of the richest mineral belts in the world, and pervasive waterways outside of the Great Basin. Add to that just about every biome that exists within its borders. Many people find Europe to be gloomy -- too little sun and too much rain. The US is only "harsh" if that is your platonic ideal for weather. The Pacific Northwest is a sunnier version of this climate. Most of the US is well within the range people can naturally adapt to and be comfortable in. The US is also an incredibly sunny place by comparison, even the parts not known for heat. The US does have unusually extreme weather but those events don't define the day-to-day and the built environment is adapted to it. There are only a few parts of the US with irredeemable weather in my opinion. The low deserts of the southwest (e.g. Mojave) are literally among the hottest places on Earth. The northern Plains reach Arctic temperatures during winter. This is why almost no one lives in these places. The South famously has tropical heat/humidity during the summer, which Americans complain about, but that is like tropics everywhere and is quite pleasant during the winter. That said, the best weather in the US (and arguably the world) is widely considered to be in San Diego. Perfect sunny days at an almost ideal temperature with no humidity for virtually the entire year.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3mo agoAsk those returning home from world cup visits. They'll be in the best position to compare to their home country.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 3mo agoI love that I got downvoted above for literally suggesting they ask someone who was recently in America for their opinion as to what America has to offer.
- AnimalMuppet 3mo agoFreedom to say (almost) anything, publicly, including criticism of the elite and powerful. Freedom to do, to create a business with far fewer roadblocks than in, say, Europe. Freedom to go, to travel anywhere in a really large country, with no borders or restrictions. Yeah, you can quote me all the caveats. They're there; I don't deny them. But: Freedom to say, freedom to do, and freedom to go. Those are really big deals.
- dgellow 3mo agoEurope isn’t a single country. We have multiple countries where you can create a company in no time, with little capital. And have freedom of movement within the whole EU
- retired 3mo ago> And have freedom of movement within the whole EU To a certain degree. In the US you can drive to another state thousands of kilometers away and decide to just live there for the rest of your life.
- dgellow 3mo agoI can do the same within the EU, what difference are you pointing at?
- retired 3mo agoI moved to Spain from The Netherlands as a Dutch citizen. It was a lot of paperwork, lots of planning, needed close to €10k in my bank account and needed to get private healthcare with a pretty serious health check. I had to do multiple trips to the national police office and municipalities. That is not needed when you switch states in the US. You just need to update your address and tax records. You do not needed to show financial means and you do not need private healthcare.
- dgellow 3mo ago
- mindwork 3mo ago[dead]
- dgellow 3mo agoSome of the most interesting cities in the world, NYC is so interesting and full of subcultures and energy.
- AngryData 3mo agoLots of good farmland, and it has lots of mineral resources that we often ignore rather than cut margins to mine safely. The US's problems are entirely political. Geologically and climate wise it is a really great place. And it already has an educated populous and a significant amount of industrial hardware.
- lovich 3mo agoSome of every industrial resource, seemingly for every new technology to need one. As a country it’s been like playing civ and every tech upgrade you lucked out in a resource node popping up on your territory.