My fellow Americans, it's safe to say our country has MORE THAN A FEW problems. Sometimes, it's easy to forget that there are actually things we do well.
So this week, a Reddit thread asked users: "Non-Americans of Reddit, what are the positives of America that you see?"
1. "How accommodating many places are to disabled people, especially for people in wheelchairs. There are often ramps and large disabled parking spaces, not to mention that there is an entire amusement park for people in wheelchairs in San Antonio!"
—misssplunker
2. "You guys invest a lot in entertainment. The shows in my country suck."
—Hulton-Sama
3. "Big living spaces. I live in Hong Kong and our average flat sizes are around 300 to 500 square feet. If you are in a flat that's over 1,000 square feet, that's considered super luxurious."
—TheFakeMercy
4. "Cheaper housing for huge houses. We could get a villa in Florida for the same price as a semi-detached three-bedroom house in the UK."
—Lrralw
5. "People there are really nice and talkative. Here you don't ask where tourists are from or begin a conversation just randomly while in a grocery store. Was a bit confused by you guys saying 'How are you?' as a greeting, though. I knew you did this, but still, it caught me off guard."
—no_unknown
—Chaos_Primordial
7. "You can right turn on red lights."
—dumbleydore94
8. "Hospitality and kindness. On my travels in America, I found the majority of Americans to be kind, keen to help, and lovely to spend time with."
—sapphobear
—2_kids_no_more
10. "Free refills at restaurants. Still amazed."
—mushroomoose
11. "The country has everything! You want mountains, you got it! You want forest, you got it! You want beaches, you got it! You want huge cities, you got it! In Europe, you have to go from country to country to achieve this."
—Theholynun
—krisp-lisp
—edeq_10
14. "Zip codes have only numbers — easier to remember than postal codes. And all telephone numbers throughout the country have exactly the same number of digits."
—john_wb
—aussiegreenie
16. "My country never would have thought of replacing the bread in a KFC chicken sandwich with TWO PIECES OF CHICKEN. Genius. Keep 'em coming."
—ivENyMantibLEPtaISti
17. "The diversity is wonderful, in its people, culture, food, architecture, and nature."
—MallenStreak97
18. "I have to say Americans are very talkative and they do like to socialize a lot. They love to get together a lot and meet up. There are lots of places to have fun and hang out, like arcades, bowling alleys, bars... it’s just not something people really do where I live."
—asolidfiver
19. "The best food I have seen in 35 different countries visited. The food diversity in the US is phenomenal, and Americans have perfected many cuisines. In Europe, there’s way too much attention to being authentic, and in the US it really feels like the melting pot and 'bastardization' of cuisines has elevated food to a whole new level."
—Bit-Random
—Patches67
21. "Innovation. Americans think of really cool stuff and make it happen, from Disneyland to iPhones."
—khal33sy
And finally...
22. "You are allowed to publicly criticize your government and leader."
—onepuffyeye
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best educated and location aren't the same. that's ignorant. we do have the well educated here, even if they were educated someplace else. they all keep moving here. e.g. India has the best doctors in the world. but they move to the USA because better resources and pay.
Consumerism.
Other countries you go to buy butter. There's 1 maybe 2 kinds. America, you have dozens of choices from butter to margarine to "I can't believe it's not butter" to flavored butter to low-fat butter and I'm just getting started.
This applies to everything consumer-related.
Everything else on this list, lots of other countries have.
I have a Russian friend and they said this is so true.
In Russia, doesn't matter what's going on, you always assume the worst is going to happen. But it's ok because Russians are strong and you just drink a vodka and forget about your upcoming bad future.
In America, doesn't matter what's going on, you always assume things are going to get better. No need to fix any problems or worry about them, somehow they'll all just magically disappear! Eternal optimism or naivete?
I'm American btw.
Childish naivety as is the case with most americans. Thank you for your service! Omfg
In the spirit of quid pro quo, what I most admire about Europe and the UK is their high standards in food quality. Here in the US, out FDA allows all kind of unhealthy additives and preservatives that your countries have wisely banned. Also here and in NZ are the only two countries that allow direct to consumer prescription drug advertising.