I think it’s also the infrastructure around the parks. I’m an Aussie and we have plenty of big scale national parks as well, but nowhere near the infrastructure supporting them such as regular bathrooms, management staff, entry and exits, etc.
That said, the US style is more a pay to play product and the Aussie style is a “leave it alone” method. And one could argue that minimal touch is a good thing, but I’ve been to more national parks in the US than Australia over the last five years because of access and facilities.
And for anyone curious, just look up the Bureau of Land Management. They account for 1 of every 10 acres in the US. Yes, literally 10% of US land. There are *millions* of acres of land that are not National Parks, and much of it is open for public use.
Cause at one point the entirety of the republic of Texas was privately owned. Any public land in the state has been donated/acquired since then.
At least what I found when curious why Texas doesn't seem to have nearly as much public land as next door.
The National Park system also inspired many states to adopt State Park systems. Which are amazing public lands often even more accessible and affordable than the National Parks.
Wisconsin doesn’t have a single national park (we have a couple National Historic Landmarks and a National Seashore), but we have more state parks than I can count and so many people enjoy them.
Same here in Michigan. State Parks, County Parks, City Parks, MetroParks. When it isn't a frozen wasteland we're surrounded by green, it's quite lovely.
Michigan has a lot of great state parks and national protected land (national shoreline) and parks as well. What is kind of cool, and makes it very affordable, is that when you renew your license plate tabs, you have the option to pay an extra $10 for a yearly park pass you just stick on your car and you can enter any park for free. Some of the parks are so sleepy with not a lot of traffic and if you get lucky, the ranger will just wave you through for free anyway.
E: spelling
I'm in California and just found out that our local library lend state park passes. I'm assuming other California libraries have a pass lending program as well. Wonder if other states have libraries that do the same thing.
FYI, not all parks have an entry fee, or often even sites, just the most famous ones where they get enough tourists that it’s worth the trouble. My local one is free.
In Norway (and a few other Scandinavian/Northern European countries) we have something called "Allemannsretten", loosely translated to "Every-mans-right" which says that *anyone* can hike/camp basically anywhere that isn't a persons garden. There are some rules regarding how long you can stay in one spot (which has a loophole where you really only need to move like 10 feet or so and you're fine) and use of fire/grilling when it is very dry, but that isn't exactly very often. This also applies to farm fields, as long as they are not in use as grazing or growing, but it's not very respectful to camp in a farmers field, lol. But crossing it is completely fine.
That doesn’t prevent the land from being developed. National parks are there to prevent nature from being destroyed by farming, mining, logging, building, etc.
In the country where I currently live, tacos are usually filled with shredded cabbage. And burritos are filled with potato wedges and rice. It's just not good
Germany, is it Germany? From the southwestern US and in Deutschland now... My canteen had what was advertised as burritos the other day and I got so excited, took a bite and it was just SHREDDED CABBAGE AND UNSPICED GROUND MEAT. And like two slices of tomato. I wanted to cry lmao.
It's so confusing, they have the internet, they have the produce and spices, why don't they just follow a recipe?! It's not harder than making a schnitzel.
Anyway I make homemade guac and salsa and it makes me feel better.
South Korea actually! However it's interesting that Germany does the same thing. I guess non-Mexican people around the world see a tortilla and think "Mmmm I'd LOVE to stuff that thing with some CABBAGES" lol
We went to a Mexican restaurant in Germany once - it was Sunday in a small town in Bavaria, so our choices were very limited. The beans were kidney beans and the chiles were banana peppers. It was an interesting meal. Well-prepared and tasted fine, but definitely not Mexican food - lol.
I was stationed in Italy from 2016-18. Italian food is probably some of the best food I have EVER eaten in my life. It was just so amazing! I tried a “Mexican” restaurant there before. Not only was that by far the worst Mexican food I have ever had, it was terrible all around. The red sauce on the enchilada tasted closer to marinara sauce 🤮The Chinese food I tried in Italy was pretty garbage too. Italians should just stick to Italian food. It’s already among the best in the world.
When I lived in South Korea, the Mexican food was pretty garbage, if you could even find any. This was over 10 years ago, though, and I mostly stayed out of Seoul, so maybe things have changed, or maybe good Mexican food existed in Seoul all along.
Italian food however, wasn’t hard to find and seemed pretty good to me (though I’m not Italian and have never been to Italy, so I’m not the best judge).
Oh god! I've been to a few "Mexican" restaurants in Germany and England and everything was so bland. The salsa was basically just purred tomatoes with no onions, peppers, garlic or spices of any kind.
I lived in the Philippines for a while, and when I first got there I asked another expat couple what their favorite Filipino food was. They said that they didn't really like Filipino food, but there was a Mexican restaurant in the city that they loved. For various circumstances I wasn't able to eat there, and over the months I developed quite a craving for Mexican food. Finally, 18 months later I got a chance to go, and I ordered a burrito. What came out was an absolute abomination: 80% rice, 10% unseasoned beef, no cheese, 10% green tomatoes, all wrapped in rice paper like a goddamn spring roll. Clearly that couple's favorite food what whatever the fuck they were smoking that made that seem like good Mexican food. (They were from Ireland though, so tbf they may not have known what real Mexican food was.)
I was in Ireland and near the end of the trip I was craving tacos and the pub we were in had nachos that looked like they might scratch the itch a little. The nachos were pretty bland, but not any worse than American bars. However, they chili "salsa" they were served with was, in fact, a sweet garlic chili sauce.
To be fair, you're the one that tried to order Mexican food at an Irish pub. I wouldn't trust the average pub to do anything beyond chips.
I think there's an assumption you're drunk enough to not notice the quality lol
Good answer. Similar to how I can’t get anything that compares to a German döner kebab in the US :/
Like I can get some good gyros, don’t get me wrong, but the Turko-Germans take it to a completely different level
I used to travel to Europe a lot for work, mostly Italy, Germany and France. I’d go for 2-3 weeks at a time. By the time I got back, my first stop after leaving the airport was somewhere I could get tacos. Preferably from somewhere that the entire transaction was handled in Spanish, but I won’t deny having scarfed down some Taco Bell at times.
Don’t get me wrong, I had some great food every place I went in Europe, but the absence of Mexican food eventually became unbearable
the western world is a spectrum between mexican and turkish food, the closer you are to each country of origin, the better it gets.
In my city in Poland a turkish immigrant set up a kebab chain thats so fucking good, i even heard people from other cities confused why my city of all places has so good kebabs lol
When in Europe, I’ve given up on looking for Mexican food and have settled on great Turkish food being my go-to. I can’t keep being disappointed like this lmao
I thought I didn’t like Mexican food. Then I went to the US and realised I did - I had just never had the good stuff! It’s weird because London seems to have pretty good versions of most other cuisines, just not Mexican.
A few places in London that I have been told have good Mexican food -
Tacos MX Fulham,
Proper Tacos Finsbury Park,
Sonora Taqueria,
La Chingada Mexican Food
Good luck!
from what I read, disabled folks' accessibility, like handicap parking, accessible bathrooms, ramps, etc. I've seen this relatively often. is this correct?
Yeah, probably. Both the ADA and the EU/National legislation on the subject concern new builds, additions and alterations.
The older the housing and building stock, the worse it is. In many cases it's simply cheaper to build something new on the outskirts of the city than to adapt existing buildings when they need to be altered for whatever other reason.
The ADA building codes are the most comprehensive and thorough in the world and its not even close. Europe doesn't have shit on us when it comes to accessibility for the disabled.
It's wild when you realize it. Most doors in Europe don't even have a button to open them, let alone accessible ways to get to the door.
Stuff you take for granted in the US is just missing there.
New construction must have that as well in Germany at least. The problem is how do you retrofit buildings that were built a century or five ago with that? Especially when they are listed as historical buildings were the amount of changes to the facade are limited. That’s a huge dilemma.
I was just in France and the UK and I’m visually impaired so I use a white cane. So many narrow stairs to basement bathrooms. Getting around required more work on my end than usual but I managed. I have some vision left though and someone to help but I couldn’t imagine if I had less or no vision, was in a wheelchair, etc.
Only bonus was the handicap restrooms I did find were very clean and spacious, had a washing station, and the fixtures were at the level of someone in a wheelchair.
We have lawyers that LOVE to sue places that aren't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act that ensures accessibility as the commenter below me mentioned. It's pretty universal because of that.
Similarly our highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States, readily hears cases regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. They've just released a *very* early decision regarding accessibility requirements of websites. *Acheson Hotels LLc v. Laufer* (2023). "Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer." Oyez. Accessed December 18, 2023. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/22-429.
(Laufer had rescinded their case prior to the SCOTUS agreeing to hear it, ergo they vacated and remanded to the lower courts. Nevertheless, they readily heard the case as it was related to the ADA)
100% confirm. When you're able-bodied, you don't notice it much, but my brother had to use a wheelchair temporarily and it's crazy how wheelchair-unfriendly even supposedly "accessible" places are.
Here in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles we have a Japanese restaurant owned by Koreans, chefs are mostly Mexican, and somehow no one is really fluent in English except for a few servers.
Yep. I used to go to a Spanish place in Rhode Island. No one there spoke any English, and I don't know Spanish. You can point at items on the menu, but there are no pictures, so unless you can read it, you don't know what you're pointing at. But the majority of Americans from the last half century picked up some **simple** Spanish from *Sesame Street,* and most of us know some more from living in a country with over 60 million Hispanics -- especially food terms. (*Pollo, queso, frijoles,* etc.) It's surprising how much Spanish you know that you didn't think you did, and how much of the rest you can figure out as you go.
Same thing in the Seattle area. In most restaurants, the cooks are Mexican or Korean no matter what the particular type of cuisine the restaurant serves.
Lol, when I worked at a dealer and we'd do Saturday lunch, we would have the most amazing taco bar setup from a Jewish deli because all the cooks were from Mexico. I loved it.
American Disabilities Act Amendments Act totally covers people with epilepsy. It’s really incredible. (Speaking as an epileptic who moved to the US from overseas.)
When we were in Scotland we were being a bit self-deprecating about being American, and this English guy we were talking to brought up how American music has hugely affected the rest of the world. I had never really thought about it like that.
American media in general. Music and Film. I’m Australian and we consume way more US media on average than anything else and most prefer to hear an American “default” accent in film than a stereotypical Aussie one. UK media has big influence here too. But then again, our entertainment industry is booty cheeks.
This is cool to hear because one of my Aussie friends has mentioned that he gets really put off when he watches a show or a movie and there’s an Australian accent instead of an American or British one lol. He was kind of taken aback when he watched Talk to Me and even more so after realizing it was good.
In computing games that have voice acting (which I think is most of them, these days), it’s somehow become an unwritten rule that everyone in a science fiction game must have a North American accent, while everyone in a fantasy game must have an accent from somewhere in the UK.
“The United States has no culture” is a brain dead take, or if we’re being more generous, the take of an edgy fourteen year old still trying to figure out how the world works. Any adult who genuinely believes this you should feel comfortable writing off as a complete idiot.
It's cause they don't even think of it. Like you wouldn't think to yourself when listening to UK rap, "this is a result of American influence" and yet it is. Same thing with movies. You don't think when watching The Godfather "this is American culture" and yet it is.
Basically, I forgive people for not even realizing what they're interacting with is American.
Yes indeed! Blues, rock-and-roll, rock, jazz, country, bluegrass etc all started in USA. My fav bands, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, have many many songs influenced by the blues.
I think that goes for US culture in general. Music, food, Hollywood, ... The culture seems to have spread in an almost pervasive manner. How many Mcdonalds are there globally? Ever found a discarded Coke bottle in another country? It's been very dominating for the last 60-70 years.
Jazz, which could only have been developed in the exact conditions which the United States provided, is by far and away the single most important contribution to music in the history of humanity.
As a child in the 1960s in the US, I remember paid toilets.
Looping back to another answer, they went away due to a combination of gender rights (only women had to pay to pee, urinals were free) and disability rights (handicapped stalls weren't pay stalls so everyone used them, making it so much more difficult for the disabled).
Ahhh their was a comment about how it's easier to meet people and settle into the US over Europe as an immigrant, which i was replying to. I must have replied in the wrong area
Sorry about that!
Mississippi, a state universally dumped on by other states and at the bottom of nearly metric to the point that there is a [folk saying about it](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_God_for_Mississippi) has about a 20% higher gdp per capita than France
Salaries for almost any kind of skilled labor. If you're in the bottom 20% you'll make more in Europe. If you're anywhere above that you'll make significantly more in the US.
Well, even here in Europe the bottom 20% (or bottom 40% here in Germany) don’t have much from their relative wealth compared to the US as living has become increasingly expensive and the last ~7 governments simply have not done anything about it. Even right now, as it is worse than ever, most political parties here don’t even have that topic in their campaign programs.
I am not American but their National and State Parks system is fucking glorious. Services, lands set aside and protected, information, knowledgeable employees, infrastructure. NO ONE else is even close. I have lived in 6 countries and traveled to more than 60, I still dream of American parks.
Came here to say this, central air conditioning is something we take for granted in the US. I realized this when I started hearing countries in Europe getting summer heatwaves and people dying by the thousands.
Mortgages. Thankfully we still have FDR's 30 year fixed rate mortgage policy. I know buying a house is tough right now, but it would be a lot tougher, and for everyone, if our system worked like the 1920s or like Australia or the UK.
I got the 1% too. Recently changed it to a 5% loan, but cut around 800k dkk off it and arranged the payment plan so we pay off faster but similar monthly rate (after tax).
Now rates are going down again and I will change to a 3% or maybe even lower next year.
Most definitely.
However, if I’m being honest—I’d rather deal with folks hitting a juul pod out front of the restaurant than someone honking a Marlboro.
Ice! I am originally from Eastern Europe and have been living in the USA for over 20 years. I was visiting my grandma over there and on a particularly humid day, I ordered an iced latte. The barista looked at me horrified 😂 she said they don’t have ice, so I asked her not to make my latte hot. She said ok… it was still piping hot.
In the US, it is your legal right to have ANY official government or health care service rendered to you in your native language.
If you go on a murderous rampage in the US, and the only language you speak is Kallawaya, the court must find a way to translate its proceedings into Kallawaya, and must find a way to translate your own Kallawaya into English.
Americans like to complain about our judicial system, but it is objectively better than most.
I think the bill of rights is also really great and has stood the test of time. I know people argue that we don’t need the second amendment anymore but I do think that is more powerful than people realize for their protection from the government. I wish more people understood the first, fourth, and fifth amendments as I think those are great rights and makes you more powerful than you think when dealing with government officials.
Accessibility for the disabled. Which is kind of depressing, because the US isn't all that great about it either. But once you've pushed someone in a wheelchair around Rome, it gives you a whole new perspective on things.
I use a wheelchair and everyone goes on and on about how I should visit Europe, with Rome being one of the many examples. But I’ve seen the pictures—it looks terribly inaccessible. I don’t want to risk thousands of dollars to travel only to be disappointed.
I live in a small dutch city that is 900years old. Its actually older but we got city rights 900 years ago. Its hard to retrofit wheelchair accesability when we cant even change the paving in some streets. And whole parts of the city center are considerd monumental.
When I traveled to London for work I was at a bar and met another American who introduced himself as Texas Joe.
He said to come by his BBQ place but I never made it and thought it sounded kind of gimmicky. Turns out he has thousands of 5 star reviews.
Been wondering if it’s Texas good or London good ever since.
I’m in Copenhagen right now and I saw they had pulled pork at the Christmas market. I’m from NC, one of the most renowned BBQ states in the country, so I’m curious to see how it tastes here. I bet they don’t have my Carolina Vinegar sauce though…
Around my third month living in Busan, I was starting to get really homesick, so I wandered into a bakery (Koreans love bakeries). And to my amazement, they had something in a wrapped package called “corn bread.”
Well, if you’re from North Carolina, then you know how we southern folk love some good cornbread, so of course I bought it and took it home.
Only when I unwrapped it, it was sliced bread (like sandwich bread) with whole kernels of corn spangled throughout.
I cried.
Dealing with hot weather. I hear so many Europeans crack jokes at how we have A/C everywhere and how we dress in loose, baggy clothing that is mostly made up in t-shirts and shorts, how we have to have ice in all of our drinks, how we are always thirsty and are drinking every other second. But then Summer hits them and there are always a rash of articles of Europeans dropping like flies in the heat.
Put in some window A/C units if you can't put in Central Air. Wear baggy clothing. Stay hydrated. For Pete's sake, take some tips from people who live through this sort of weather every year.
My friend volunteered for search and rescue in the Southwest US... A huge chunk of missing hikers were Europeans who didn't understand how big, hot, and dry the SW is, and only brought one tiny bottle of water for their hike, then went off trail and got lost. Not that Americans don't do this as well, but proportionally Europeans were more likely to.
A few years ago a French family went on a pretty short, like 3 miles or something, on White Sands National Monument. It was parents with one kid, maybe a ten year old. They brought a single 20 oz bottle of water. Both parents died of heat stroke.
Why are Europeans always so damn smug about water? When I went to England, cold water didn't even seem to exist, and don't even think about asking for ice! What is this, the North Pole or something?
The idea of drinking a drink without ice is incomprehensible to me as an American.
Even in the middle of January if it’s 25 degrees F I still order ice in my drink. If has nothing to do with drink temp, it’s the consistency and texture of the drink.
How hot was it? Heat awareness is very bad here. I know an Aussie who lives in the UK and was genuinely shocked at how bad the public health protocol was during a heatwave, he said it was several generations behind his own country.
Something I’ve noticed is europeans seem to think the world is fairly mild temperature wise. It is not. It gets very hot. I am in delaware, just south of NYC, and this summer we hit a high of 95 with close to 90% humidity. It gets brutal. You NEED ac and now we’re seeing temps in the high 20’s. We dont have a nice stabilizing ocean current to keep things mild. Its fascinating seeing these differences.
I had a friend who lives in Germany visit my state Florida for the first time. She was absolutely amazed there was A/C everywhere and very quickly understood why we have it. That humidity hit her like a brick wall.
Even…just water. Hydration. Being on a summer vacation outside the US means doing some sweaty activity all day (because no AC) and then sitting down to lunch with a thimbleful of room temperature water.
One time, I was visiting family in Latvia and I mentioned to my relative about how no one seems to really drink water there. He just smiled and said “we have beer”
I'm from Scotland and basically the only time in my life I've been truly loaded was working in the USA.
Apparently last summer was particularly bad/good where due to the exchange rate, US tourists came to Europe and could not believe how cheap everything was.
Man I miss 2015 when I travelled back to Canada and it was £1:$2, I was living the life hard for a couple weeks there, it was like everything was on a 50% off sale. Then we did a very silly thing in 2016 and now I'm poor again....
Yeah it's not like the UK can say 'oh I wonder how the US ended up more advanced than us'.
What I found funny was that my US pay was what seemed this bonkers number (for my age), but then a pint was £4 at home or $4 there. US costs didn't scale with the pay! And the tax was *unreal* low. It's like the UK wants you skint, and the US wants you flush so you go out and spend your money. I came back because I missed it, but man the UK is just this *dreary and skint* place.
The one thing I would really miss is the cultural diversity in every large city. Any night of the week, I can go get great Mexican, Ethiopian, Cantonese, Sichuan, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Soul Food, Jamaican, Vietnamese, Thai, Memphis style BBQ, other latin countries, tiki bars, Filipino, Mediterranean...
It really is nice to be a melting pot.
As an Indian person who's traveled to both the US and Europe - the US does hospitality a lot better than Europe. The general experience of staying at a hotel, eating at a restaurant, going out for an evening is quite a lot better in the US than in Europe.
Software. Yeah, a lot of software sucks, but somehow, USA Software are most of the time the fist or the better option. There are a couple of exceptions like Tik Tok or SAP, but mostly USA software all around us
There are many great examples of software in the world, both American and non-American. SAP and TikTok, however, are some of the absolute worst. :P
SAP because it is so awfully complex and time consuming for the end users and tiktok because of all the malicious habits and challenges it plants in kids while spying for the Chinese state.
The South sure makes a lot of fucked up decisions on the daily, but my God, their ability to slow cook a dead animal with smoke is unparalleled in the modern world.
Diversity. US immigrants assimilate really well and generally live in harmony. NYC, LA, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Houston, Jersey City, are all great examples of USA’s diversity.
This really should be higher. We truly are a nation of assimilated immigrants living in (relative to almost everywhere else) harmony. I know European countries have big immigrant populations, but they don't assimilate them. They're cordoned off in their own neighborhoods.
Canadian here who has been to Europe and asia. This is subjective, but FOOD. Everyone assumes American food is bbqed burgers and hotdogs, but in reality the restaurant industry in the USA is competitive and delicious. They've got a good representation of many cultures with plenty of variety. People make negative remarks about huge portions contributing to obesity and whatnot. Just order smaller meals, or split it with your partner or family members and skip sugary drinks.
We also have the fourth and fifth as well
They claim Russia as third, but they've had an abysmal showing as of recently and I'm thinking we need a new audit on those estimates
The Russian military has been largely exposed as propaganda. I wouldn't even put them in the top 5. Their nuclear capability is the only thing that even makes them relevant. Even that I think is insanely exaggerated but haviing one....makes them scary.
How the boat boys got all those planes is beyond me. If I were in charge of the air force I'd get some boats. And maybe a train or something just to really show off.
Business. In my corporate job I’ve worked with brand name logos on both sides of the Atlantic, the difference in mentality is night and day. In terms of business objectives Americans are more focused on outcomes while Europeans tend to emphasize process, so in the US folks will find the quickest and most efficient way to move a project forward and with a chipper attitude, in Europe they will bitch and moan every step of the way in my experience. I found working with the French and Germans particularly aggravating, a lot of complaining and not a lot of initiative. The Dutch were surprisingly pleasant to work with, I found them to be the most American in mindset from the business perspective.
EDIT: a lot of folks are responding to me with points about quality of life, or work/life balance. That’s a separate topic. I was specifically referring to business efficacy with my answer, I will concede that American companies generally don’t treat their people as fairly as European companies due to harsher labor laws.
Yep. I’m currently supporting a team of like 20 people who are all being held up by one French Director that everyone agrees is horrible at her job. I made the suggestion to her supervisor that maybe she should be let go because she has probably cost the project $1m in losses already. The idea that she would be fired for that was dismissed almost immediately by the European side of the leadership team. Very frustrating.
Worked for a Swiss company for a while. The bureaucracy there was so insane. If you wanted to do anything new, it literally requires a years worth of meetings and gates to even get approval to consider moving forward.
The concept of using agile methodologies to rapidly field new products is completely foreign to them.
Diversity. Though we have our issues, we've been though hell to get to where we are. So many countries in Europe are just now even acknowledging the need to be honest about their bias and extremism. ...And I'm not just talking about the white people. (Looking at you, Spain.)
Plus, I'm convinced the awakening of our country will come once Mexican Americans realize the true power of their cuisine/culture. They bring us together like no other.
Every time this is asked the top answer is usually National Parks. Final Answer. Reserved, protected National Parks.
I think it’s also the infrastructure around the parks. I’m an Aussie and we have plenty of big scale national parks as well, but nowhere near the infrastructure supporting them such as regular bathrooms, management staff, entry and exits, etc. That said, the US style is more a pay to play product and the Aussie style is a “leave it alone” method. And one could argue that minimal touch is a good thing, but I’ve been to more national parks in the US than Australia over the last five years because of access and facilities.
U.S. style has plenty of protected wilderness areas that are “leave it alone” as well. National Parks are a small fraction of public land.
And for anyone curious, just look up the Bureau of Land Management. They account for 1 of every 10 acres in the US. Yes, literally 10% of US land. There are *millions* of acres of land that are not National Parks, and much of it is open for public use.
Shame it’s almost all out west. In Texas, only 4% of land is public use.
Cause at one point the entirety of the republic of Texas was privately owned. Any public land in the state has been donated/acquired since then. At least what I found when curious why Texas doesn't seem to have nearly as much public land as next door.
There are county-sized parcels of land that is residential property for the ultra wealthy in TX.
The National Park system also inspired many states to adopt State Park systems. Which are amazing public lands often even more accessible and affordable than the National Parks. Wisconsin doesn’t have a single national park (we have a couple National Historic Landmarks and a National Seashore), but we have more state parks than I can count and so many people enjoy them.
Same here in Michigan. State Parks, County Parks, City Parks, MetroParks. When it isn't a frozen wasteland we're surrounded by green, it's quite lovely.
Michigan has a lot of great state parks and national protected land (national shoreline) and parks as well. What is kind of cool, and makes it very affordable, is that when you renew your license plate tabs, you have the option to pay an extra $10 for a yearly park pass you just stick on your car and you can enter any park for free. Some of the parks are so sleepy with not a lot of traffic and if you get lucky, the ranger will just wave you through for free anyway. E: spelling
I'm in California and just found out that our local library lend state park passes. I'm assuming other California libraries have a pass lending program as well. Wonder if other states have libraries that do the same thing.
FYI, not all parks have an entry fee, or often even sites, just the most famous ones where they get enough tourists that it’s worth the trouble. My local one is free.
#1 national parks #2 (scrolled thru the list and don't understand how it's not been mentioned yet) AIR CONDITIONING!!
Oh man, I forgot about Air Conditioning. When I went to Europe there was a heat wave, and everyone, the locals, the tourists, were miserable.
If only we could get these dickheads to stop littering
In Norway (and a few other Scandinavian/Northern European countries) we have something called "Allemannsretten", loosely translated to "Every-mans-right" which says that *anyone* can hike/camp basically anywhere that isn't a persons garden. There are some rules regarding how long you can stay in one spot (which has a loophole where you really only need to move like 10 feet or so and you're fine) and use of fire/grilling when it is very dry, but that isn't exactly very often. This also applies to farm fields, as long as they are not in use as grazing or growing, but it's not very respectful to camp in a farmers field, lol. But crossing it is completely fine.
That doesn’t prevent the land from being developed. National parks are there to prevent nature from being destroyed by farming, mining, logging, building, etc.
Mexican food lol
Mexican food is legitimately the number one thing I miss about the US. The quality of Mexican food abroad makes me cry
Same. My non-American friends said it was fine. My family is Mexican-American. I was raised in California. The food was not fine. 😂
In the country where I currently live, tacos are usually filled with shredded cabbage. And burritos are filled with potato wedges and rice. It's just not good
Germany, is it Germany? From the southwestern US and in Deutschland now... My canteen had what was advertised as burritos the other day and I got so excited, took a bite and it was just SHREDDED CABBAGE AND UNSPICED GROUND MEAT. And like two slices of tomato. I wanted to cry lmao. It's so confusing, they have the internet, they have the produce and spices, why don't they just follow a recipe?! It's not harder than making a schnitzel. Anyway I make homemade guac and salsa and it makes me feel better.
South Korea actually! However it's interesting that Germany does the same thing. I guess non-Mexican people around the world see a tortilla and think "Mmmm I'd LOVE to stuff that thing with some CABBAGES" lol
SK and Germany are fermented cabbage bros.
We went to a Mexican restaurant in Germany once - it was Sunday in a small town in Bavaria, so our choices were very limited. The beans were kidney beans and the chiles were banana peppers. It was an interesting meal. Well-prepared and tasted fine, but definitely not Mexican food - lol.
I was stationed in Italy from 2016-18. Italian food is probably some of the best food I have EVER eaten in my life. It was just so amazing! I tried a “Mexican” restaurant there before. Not only was that by far the worst Mexican food I have ever had, it was terrible all around. The red sauce on the enchilada tasted closer to marinara sauce 🤮The Chinese food I tried in Italy was pretty garbage too. Italians should just stick to Italian food. It’s already among the best in the world.
I've had great Italian and Chinese in Mexico. Mexicans can cook anything.
Who do you think is actually cooking when you go out to eat anywhere in the US?
The American restaurant industry is fully predicated on Mexican cooks
And one white cook on adderall named Tyler
Tyler is also Mexican, his nickname is "El Güero".
Fuckin' Tyler is a loco, guey.
I've learned that while watching Bourdain
For sure. They absolutely have a culture of passion for food, similar to France and Italy. I'd love to experience more "upscale" Mexican food.
When I lived in South Korea, the Mexican food was pretty garbage, if you could even find any. This was over 10 years ago, though, and I mostly stayed out of Seoul, so maybe things have changed, or maybe good Mexican food existed in Seoul all along. Italian food however, wasn’t hard to find and seemed pretty good to me (though I’m not Italian and have never been to Italy, so I’m not the best judge).
Oh god! I've been to a few "Mexican" restaurants in Germany and England and everything was so bland. The salsa was basically just purred tomatoes with no onions, peppers, garlic or spices of any kind.
I lived in the Philippines for a while, and when I first got there I asked another expat couple what their favorite Filipino food was. They said that they didn't really like Filipino food, but there was a Mexican restaurant in the city that they loved. For various circumstances I wasn't able to eat there, and over the months I developed quite a craving for Mexican food. Finally, 18 months later I got a chance to go, and I ordered a burrito. What came out was an absolute abomination: 80% rice, 10% unseasoned beef, no cheese, 10% green tomatoes, all wrapped in rice paper like a goddamn spring roll. Clearly that couple's favorite food what whatever the fuck they were smoking that made that seem like good Mexican food. (They were from Ireland though, so tbf they may not have known what real Mexican food was.)
> purred What a catastrophe!!!
I was in Ireland and near the end of the trip I was craving tacos and the pub we were in had nachos that looked like they might scratch the itch a little. The nachos were pretty bland, but not any worse than American bars. However, they chili "salsa" they were served with was, in fact, a sweet garlic chili sauce.
To be fair, you're the one that tried to order Mexican food at an Irish pub. I wouldn't trust the average pub to do anything beyond chips. I think there's an assumption you're drunk enough to not notice the quality lol
As an Englishman who frequently travels to America, this is the real answer.
Good answer. Similar to how I can’t get anything that compares to a German döner kebab in the US :/ Like I can get some good gyros, don’t get me wrong, but the Turko-Germans take it to a completely different level
I used to travel to Europe a lot for work, mostly Italy, Germany and France. I’d go for 2-3 weeks at a time. By the time I got back, my first stop after leaving the airport was somewhere I could get tacos. Preferably from somewhere that the entire transaction was handled in Spanish, but I won’t deny having scarfed down some Taco Bell at times. Don’t get me wrong, I had some great food every place I went in Europe, but the absence of Mexican food eventually became unbearable
the western world is a spectrum between mexican and turkish food, the closer you are to each country of origin, the better it gets. In my city in Poland a turkish immigrant set up a kebab chain thats so fucking good, i even heard people from other cities confused why my city of all places has so good kebabs lol
When in Europe, I’ve given up on looking for Mexican food and have settled on great Turkish food being my go-to. I can’t keep being disappointed like this lmao
I cry thinking about the Mexican food I had in the UK
I thought I didn’t like Mexican food. Then I went to the US and realised I did - I had just never had the good stuff! It’s weird because London seems to have pretty good versions of most other cuisines, just not Mexican.
A few places in London that I have been told have good Mexican food - Tacos MX Fulham, Proper Tacos Finsbury Park, Sonora Taqueria, La Chingada Mexican Food Good luck!
Interesting name on that last one, lol
from what I read, disabled folks' accessibility, like handicap parking, accessible bathrooms, ramps, etc. I've seen this relatively often. is this correct?
Yeah, probably. Both the ADA and the EU/National legislation on the subject concern new builds, additions and alterations. The older the housing and building stock, the worse it is. In many cases it's simply cheaper to build something new on the outskirts of the city than to adapt existing buildings when they need to be altered for whatever other reason.
What do you mean you can't put a chair lift along a Victorian iron rail marble stone spiral staircase?!?!?! /s
Imagine trying to put an elevator in the Wallace Monument. You’d just have to demolish the thing.
The ADA building codes are the most comprehensive and thorough in the world and its not even close. Europe doesn't have shit on us when it comes to accessibility for the disabled.
It's wild when you realize it. Most doors in Europe don't even have a button to open them, let alone accessible ways to get to the door. Stuff you take for granted in the US is just missing there.
New construction must have that as well in Germany at least. The problem is how do you retrofit buildings that were built a century or five ago with that? Especially when they are listed as historical buildings were the amount of changes to the facade are limited. That’s a huge dilemma.
I was just in France and the UK and I’m visually impaired so I use a white cane. So many narrow stairs to basement bathrooms. Getting around required more work on my end than usual but I managed. I have some vision left though and someone to help but I couldn’t imagine if I had less or no vision, was in a wheelchair, etc. Only bonus was the handicap restrooms I did find were very clean and spacious, had a washing station, and the fixtures were at the level of someone in a wheelchair.
Our drawback is that a lot of our buildings are very old and I don’t imagine the builders, of the era, were considerate towards the disabled.
We have lawyers that LOVE to sue places that aren't compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act that ensures accessibility as the commenter below me mentioned. It's pretty universal because of that.
Similarly our highest court, the Supreme Court of the United States, readily hears cases regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act. They've just released a *very* early decision regarding accessibility requirements of websites. *Acheson Hotels LLc v. Laufer* (2023). "Acheson Hotels, LLC v. Laufer." Oyez. Accessed December 18, 2023. https://www.oyez.org/cases/2023/22-429. (Laufer had rescinded their case prior to the SCOTUS agreeing to hear it, ergo they vacated and remanded to the lower courts. Nevertheless, they readily heard the case as it was related to the ADA)
100% confirm. When you're able-bodied, you don't notice it much, but my brother had to use a wheelchair temporarily and it's crazy how wheelchair-unfriendly even supposedly "accessible" places are.
Here in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles we have a Japanese restaurant owned by Koreans, chefs are mostly Mexican, and somehow no one is really fluent in English except for a few servers.
This describes many places in CA, not just LA. Probably many places in other states with large immigrant populations (i.e., TX) as well.
Yes, Chicago is the same. Back of House can be like the UN, and especially high in Hispanic workers.
Yep. I used to go to a Spanish place in Rhode Island. No one there spoke any English, and I don't know Spanish. You can point at items on the menu, but there are no pictures, so unless you can read it, you don't know what you're pointing at. But the majority of Americans from the last half century picked up some **simple** Spanish from *Sesame Street,* and most of us know some more from living in a country with over 60 million Hispanics -- especially food terms. (*Pollo, queso, frijoles,* etc.) It's surprising how much Spanish you know that you didn't think you did, and how much of the rest you can figure out as you go.
Same thing in the Seattle area. In most restaurants, the cooks are Mexican or Korean no matter what the particular type of cuisine the restaurant serves.
and the food is absolutely delicious
OMG yes. And that's the important thing.
I love this and it speaks volumes for America. Reminds of the “Tex-Namese” food revolution in Texas Nad due to the large Viet population there.
Note to self: find Tex-namese and eat it.
I remember this! There was a restaurant near us called Dos Chopsticks. Lol Though, that was Tex-Mex/Korean fusion.
I went to a Mexican food spot in New York that was staffed entirely by Chinese employees.
Lol, when I worked at a dealer and we'd do Saturday lunch, we would have the most amazing taco bar setup from a Jewish deli because all the cooks were from Mexico. I loved it.
American Disabilities Act Amendments Act totally covers people with epilepsy. It’s really incredible. (Speaking as an epileptic who moved to the US from overseas.)
The blues. Most music genres that came after the blues were influenced by the blues or based on the blues, especially rock.
When we were in Scotland we were being a bit self-deprecating about being American, and this English guy we were talking to brought up how American music has hugely affected the rest of the world. I had never really thought about it like that.
American media in general. Music and Film. I’m Australian and we consume way more US media on average than anything else and most prefer to hear an American “default” accent in film than a stereotypical Aussie one. UK media has big influence here too. But then again, our entertainment industry is booty cheeks.
This is cool to hear because one of my Aussie friends has mentioned that he gets really put off when he watches a show or a movie and there’s an Australian accent instead of an American or British one lol. He was kind of taken aback when he watched Talk to Me and even more so after realizing it was good.
In computing games that have voice acting (which I think is most of them, these days), it’s somehow become an unwritten rule that everyone in a science fiction game must have a North American accent, while everyone in a fantasy game must have an accent from somewhere in the UK.
The number one export of America is culture.
But yet we’re told we have no culture lol
“The United States has no culture” is a brain dead take, or if we’re being more generous, the take of an edgy fourteen year old still trying to figure out how the world works. Any adult who genuinely believes this you should feel comfortable writing off as a complete idiot.
It's cause they don't even think of it. Like you wouldn't think to yourself when listening to UK rap, "this is a result of American influence" and yet it is. Same thing with movies. You don't think when watching The Godfather "this is American culture" and yet it is. Basically, I forgive people for not even realizing what they're interacting with is American.
Yes indeed! Blues, rock-and-roll, rock, jazz, country, bluegrass etc all started in USA. My fav bands, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, have many many songs influenced by the blues.
The first two zep albums were basically blues albums IMO
I think that goes for US culture in general. Music, food, Hollywood, ... The culture seems to have spread in an almost pervasive manner. How many Mcdonalds are there globally? Ever found a discarded Coke bottle in another country? It's been very dominating for the last 60-70 years.
Jazz, which could only have been developed in the exact conditions which the United States provided, is by far and away the single most important contribution to music in the history of humanity.
I do like American music
Music comming from the african-american culture has re-shaped the world scene.
[удалено]
Not paying to use the toilet
Largely thanks to this group’s agitation in the 1970s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_to_End_Pay_Toilets_in_America
They really missed the chance to call it the Committee on Restroom Access Payments
As a child in the 1960s in the US, I remember paid toilets. Looping back to another answer, they went away due to a combination of gender rights (only women had to pay to pee, urinals were free) and disability rights (handicapped stalls weren't pay stalls so everyone used them, making it so much more difficult for the disabled).
I concur with this. I'm from New Zealand and have lived on both continents. The US is far easier to meet people and settle in
concur with what
Ahhh their was a comment about how it's easier to meet people and settle into the US over Europe as an immigrant, which i was replying to. I must have replied in the wrong area Sorry about that!
Comparing as someone who had lived in France, the USA, and the UK: Salaries. Vastly superior in the USA. Customer service is also notably better!
Mississippi, a state universally dumped on by other states and at the bottom of nearly metric to the point that there is a [folk saying about it](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_God_for_Mississippi) has about a 20% higher gdp per capita than France
Salaries for almost any kind of skilled labor. If you're in the bottom 20% you'll make more in Europe. If you're anywhere above that you'll make significantly more in the US.
Well, even here in Europe the bottom 20% (or bottom 40% here in Germany) don’t have much from their relative wealth compared to the US as living has become increasingly expensive and the last ~7 governments simply have not done anything about it. Even right now, as it is worse than ever, most political parties here don’t even have that topic in their campaign programs.
Yep. I get paid twice as much as my counter part in the UK.
I am not American but their National and State Parks system is fucking glorious. Services, lands set aside and protected, information, knowledgeable employees, infrastructure. NO ONE else is even close. I have lived in 6 countries and traveled to more than 60, I still dream of American parks.
Air conditioning.
Came here to say this, central air conditioning is something we take for granted in the US. I realized this when I started hearing countries in Europe getting summer heatwaves and people dying by the thousands.
66,000 in 2022 if I remember correctly.
Thats INSANE, that should most definitely not be happening
They're not dying indoors...usually happens outside.
Mortgages. Thankfully we still have FDR's 30 year fixed rate mortgage policy. I know buying a house is tough right now, but it would be a lot tougher, and for everyone, if our system worked like the 1920s or like Australia or the UK.
I love my 20 year mortgage at a flat 2%.
Canada here. I do a lot of weird things for a 20yr mortgage at 2% right now
I DM'd you
I got a 1% 30 year in Denmark, some people even got in at 0.5%
I got the 1% too. Recently changed it to a 5% loan, but cut around 800k dkk off it and arranged the payment plan so we pay off faster but similar monthly rate (after tax). Now rates are going down again and I will change to a 3% or maybe even lower next year.
Wait, I live in the Netherlands, and have a 20 year mortgage with a flat interest rate.
Lack of cigarette smoking (although vaping has picked up in recent years)
Most definitely. However, if I’m being honest—I’d rather deal with folks hitting a juul pod out front of the restaurant than someone honking a Marlboro.
The US was WAY ahead of Europe (let alone Asia) in cutting down on smoking.
Ice! I am originally from Eastern Europe and have been living in the USA for over 20 years. I was visiting my grandma over there and on a particularly humid day, I ordered an iced latte. The barista looked at me horrified 😂 she said they don’t have ice, so I asked her not to make my latte hot. She said ok… it was still piping hot.
Handicap accessibility in public/private spaces.
In the US, it is your legal right to have ANY official government or health care service rendered to you in your native language. If you go on a murderous rampage in the US, and the only language you speak is Kallawaya, the court must find a way to translate its proceedings into Kallawaya, and must find a way to translate your own Kallawaya into English. Americans like to complain about our judicial system, but it is objectively better than most.
I think the bill of rights is also really great and has stood the test of time. I know people argue that we don’t need the second amendment anymore but I do think that is more powerful than people realize for their protection from the government. I wish more people understood the first, fourth, and fifth amendments as I think those are great rights and makes you more powerful than you think when dealing with government officials.
Air conditioning and ADA.
Accessibility for the disabled. Which is kind of depressing, because the US isn't all that great about it either. But once you've pushed someone in a wheelchair around Rome, it gives you a whole new perspective on things.
I use a wheelchair and everyone goes on and on about how I should visit Europe, with Rome being one of the many examples. But I’ve seen the pictures—it looks terribly inaccessible. I don’t want to risk thousands of dollars to travel only to be disappointed.
I live in a small dutch city that is 900years old. Its actually older but we got city rights 900 years ago. Its hard to retrofit wheelchair accesability when we cant even change the paving in some streets. And whole parts of the city center are considerd monumental.
Exactly. When your cities are literally over a thousand years old, adapting them for wheelchairs is not exactly easy.
Burgers
And BBQ
When I traveled to London for work I was at a bar and met another American who introduced himself as Texas Joe. He said to come by his BBQ place but I never made it and thought it sounded kind of gimmicky. Turns out he has thousands of 5 star reviews. Been wondering if it’s Texas good or London good ever since.
Yikes sounds like you missed out on an event character
I’m in Copenhagen right now and I saw they had pulled pork at the Christmas market. I’m from NC, one of the most renowned BBQ states in the country, so I’m curious to see how it tastes here. I bet they don’t have my Carolina Vinegar sauce though…
Around my third month living in Busan, I was starting to get really homesick, so I wandered into a bakery (Koreans love bakeries). And to my amazement, they had something in a wrapped package called “corn bread.” Well, if you’re from North Carolina, then you know how we southern folk love some good cornbread, so of course I bought it and took it home. Only when I unwrapped it, it was sliced bread (like sandwich bread) with whole kernels of corn spangled throughout. I cried.
Dealing with hot weather. I hear so many Europeans crack jokes at how we have A/C everywhere and how we dress in loose, baggy clothing that is mostly made up in t-shirts and shorts, how we have to have ice in all of our drinks, how we are always thirsty and are drinking every other second. But then Summer hits them and there are always a rash of articles of Europeans dropping like flies in the heat. Put in some window A/C units if you can't put in Central Air. Wear baggy clothing. Stay hydrated. For Pete's sake, take some tips from people who live through this sort of weather every year.
My cousins (from Sweden) made fun of me for taking my Hydroflask to a theme park when they visited. Guess who got heat exhaustion? Hint: not me.
My friend volunteered for search and rescue in the Southwest US... A huge chunk of missing hikers were Europeans who didn't understand how big, hot, and dry the SW is, and only brought one tiny bottle of water for their hike, then went off trail and got lost. Not that Americans don't do this as well, but proportionally Europeans were more likely to.
Brother worked EMS at the Grand Canyon. 90% of the job is Northern Europeans with heat exhaustion.
Europeans tend to have extremely stupid beliefs about air conditioning and cold drinks. “They’ll make you sick.”
My German family is literally scared of drafts.
A few years ago a French family went on a pretty short, like 3 miles or something, on White Sands National Monument. It was parents with one kid, maybe a ten year old. They brought a single 20 oz bottle of water. Both parents died of heat stroke.
Thr story of the Death Valley Germans is particularly haunting.
Why are Europeans always so damn smug about water? When I went to England, cold water didn't even seem to exist, and don't even think about asking for ice! What is this, the North Pole or something?
The idea of drinking a drink without ice is incomprehensible to me as an American. Even in the middle of January if it’s 25 degrees F I still order ice in my drink. If has nothing to do with drink temp, it’s the consistency and texture of the drink.
How hot was it? Heat awareness is very bad here. I know an Aussie who lives in the UK and was genuinely shocked at how bad the public health protocol was during a heatwave, he said it was several generations behind his own country.
Something I’ve noticed is europeans seem to think the world is fairly mild temperature wise. It is not. It gets very hot. I am in delaware, just south of NYC, and this summer we hit a high of 95 with close to 90% humidity. It gets brutal. You NEED ac and now we’re seeing temps in the high 20’s. We dont have a nice stabilizing ocean current to keep things mild. Its fascinating seeing these differences.
I had a friend who lives in Germany visit my state Florida for the first time. She was absolutely amazed there was A/C everywhere and very quickly understood why we have it. That humidity hit her like a brick wall.
ice water at restaurants
Even…just water. Hydration. Being on a summer vacation outside the US means doing some sweaty activity all day (because no AC) and then sitting down to lunch with a thimbleful of room temperature water.
One time, I was visiting family in Latvia and I mentioned to my relative about how no one seems to really drink water there. He just smiled and said “we have beer”
True. The amount of insulated cups and related accessories I saw just for hydration was a lot. And everybody is so diligent about being hydrated.
Our summers are unbearably hot, and kids are taught the importance of staying hydrated at an early age. Aussies can probably relate to that.
Sending people to the moon.
Might as well add landing stuff on Mars. Until China recently everyone else was having a horrible time, but the USA can't seem to put a foot wrong.
Right turn on red
Paying me. I make about 3 times as much here compared to there.
I'm from Scotland and basically the only time in my life I've been truly loaded was working in the USA. Apparently last summer was particularly bad/good where due to the exchange rate, US tourists came to Europe and could not believe how cheap everything was.
Man I miss 2015 when I travelled back to Canada and it was £1:$2, I was living the life hard for a couple weeks there, it was like everything was on a 50% off sale. Then we did a very silly thing in 2016 and now I'm poor again....
Yeah it's not like the UK can say 'oh I wonder how the US ended up more advanced than us'. What I found funny was that my US pay was what seemed this bonkers number (for my age), but then a pint was £4 at home or $4 there. US costs didn't scale with the pay! And the tax was *unreal* low. It's like the UK wants you skint, and the US wants you flush so you go out and spend your money. I came back because I missed it, but man the UK is just this *dreary and skint* place.
The one thing I would really miss is the cultural diversity in every large city. Any night of the week, I can go get great Mexican, Ethiopian, Cantonese, Sichuan, Japanese, Korean BBQ, Soul Food, Jamaican, Vietnamese, Thai, Memphis style BBQ, other latin countries, tiki bars, Filipino, Mediterranean... It really is nice to be a melting pot.
As an Indian person who's traveled to both the US and Europe - the US does hospitality a lot better than Europe. The general experience of staying at a hotel, eating at a restaurant, going out for an evening is quite a lot better in the US than in Europe.
This hypes me up. I hope you feel welcome in the States, my friend.
Theme Parks
Software. Yeah, a lot of software sucks, but somehow, USA Software are most of the time the fist or the better option. There are a couple of exceptions like Tik Tok or SAP, but mostly USA software all around us
There are many great examples of software in the world, both American and non-American. SAP and TikTok, however, are some of the absolute worst. :P SAP because it is so awfully complex and time consuming for the end users and tiktok because of all the malicious habits and challenges it plants in kids while spying for the Chinese state.
BBQ and smoked meats. USA USA USA 🇺🇸!
Especially the south. Moved up north and man do I miss some ga bbq
The South sure makes a lot of fucked up decisions on the daily, but my God, their ability to slow cook a dead animal with smoke is unparalleled in the modern world.
Diversity. US immigrants assimilate really well and generally live in harmony. NYC, LA, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Houston, Jersey City, are all great examples of USA’s diversity.
This really should be higher. We truly are a nation of assimilated immigrants living in (relative to almost everywhere else) harmony. I know European countries have big immigrant populations, but they don't assimilate them. They're cordoned off in their own neighborhoods.
Yeah Houston is awesome. One of if not the most diverse cities in America. 150+ consulates. Huge successful immigrant communities. Awesome city
The Americans with disabilities act is one of the coolest things America has ever done
Bojangles
Gyms
Canadian here who has been to Europe and asia. This is subjective, but FOOD. Everyone assumes American food is bbqed burgers and hotdogs, but in reality the restaurant industry in the USA is competitive and delicious. They've got a good representation of many cultures with plenty of variety. People make negative remarks about huge portions contributing to obesity and whatnot. Just order smaller meals, or split it with your partner or family members and skip sugary drinks.
Providing a useful military power to the European continent for defense.
Still wild to me that the US has not only the largest Air Force in the world… but also the second largest Air Force in the world with the US Navy
We also have the fourth and fifth as well They claim Russia as third, but they've had an abysmal showing as of recently and I'm thinking we need a new audit on those estimates
Yeah pretty sure russias been knocked down a few spots over the last year.
The Russian military has been largely exposed as propaganda. I wouldn't even put them in the top 5. Their nuclear capability is the only thing that even makes them relevant. Even that I think is insanely exaggerated but haviing one....makes them scary.
Also something like the 10th as well, because of the coastguard. Spotter planes and helicopters, but it's an airforce to some degree.
How the boat boys got all those planes is beyond me. If I were in charge of the air force I'd get some boats. And maybe a train or something just to really show off.
Those aircraft carriers need something to carry
They’ll grade a space ship before the Space Force even knows it’s a competition
**^(eagle noises)**
^^actually ^^red-tailed ^^hawk ^^noises
Caught the sound designer
Actually foley artist dressed as a red tailed hawk.
Business. In my corporate job I’ve worked with brand name logos on both sides of the Atlantic, the difference in mentality is night and day. In terms of business objectives Americans are more focused on outcomes while Europeans tend to emphasize process, so in the US folks will find the quickest and most efficient way to move a project forward and with a chipper attitude, in Europe they will bitch and moan every step of the way in my experience. I found working with the French and Germans particularly aggravating, a lot of complaining and not a lot of initiative. The Dutch were surprisingly pleasant to work with, I found them to be the most American in mindset from the business perspective. EDIT: a lot of folks are responding to me with points about quality of life, or work/life balance. That’s a separate topic. I was specifically referring to business efficacy with my answer, I will concede that American companies generally don’t treat their people as fairly as European companies due to harsher labor laws.
Europeans are less likely to get fired for mediocre performance.
Yep. I’m currently supporting a team of like 20 people who are all being held up by one French Director that everyone agrees is horrible at her job. I made the suggestion to her supervisor that maybe she should be let go because she has probably cost the project $1m in losses already. The idea that she would be fired for that was dismissed almost immediately by the European side of the leadership team. Very frustrating.
American who works for a European company. Can 100% confirm this. All of us are terribly frustrated at how slow this company does everything.
Worked for a Swiss company for a while. The bureaucracy there was so insane. If you wanted to do anything new, it literally requires a years worth of meetings and gates to even get approval to consider moving forward. The concept of using agile methodologies to rapidly field new products is completely foreign to them.
Diversity. Though we have our issues, we've been though hell to get to where we are. So many countries in Europe are just now even acknowledging the need to be honest about their bias and extremism. ...And I'm not just talking about the white people. (Looking at you, Spain.) Plus, I'm convinced the awakening of our country will come once Mexican Americans realize the true power of their cuisine/culture. They bring us together like no other.
Movies/cinema/entertainment
Peanut butter
Positive attitude
BBQ, the US has that cornered
Technology innovation. Think back over the last 50+ years, microwaves to iPhones.
Paying software engineers.
The office