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I would like to hear some interesting stories from people who grew up abroad...What shocked you the most about the US, its culture and people? Please include which country you are from and what you expected the US to be like. I love hearing these stories from people. Thank you very much.
We have awful healthcare and we're the most aggressive country in the world.
I'm Norwegian. Throughout most of my life I had a very romanticized vision of the U.S. as a place of individual liberty and free market capitalism. Much to my dismay, throughout the past three years, I've come to realize that the U.S. I loved was destroyed almost 100 years ago, and that the political system it has now is corporatism—not capitalism.
As an American I'm shocked at the ignorance coming from our European allies<---. You know, because the US has never contributed anything positive to society. We have been the most inventive, productive, giving, and evolving society man kind has ever seen. We have a gross GDP twice as large as the next country which has 4 times the population. Forgive us when things don't always go right.
Are we not allowed to be proud of our accomplishments? Or, should we all feel like a complete failed nation of theiving war mongers?
A Japanese visitor came to my parents' very modest home for the holidays and thought by the size of it that my dad must be very wealthy! LOL. It was a disarming remark; the house is less than 2K sq/ft.
We have awful healthcare and we're the most aggressive country in the world.
Russia is arguably more aggressive. They've been involved in a variety of military ventures to crush ethnic separatists and are the leading international arms dealer.
There are white protestant and jewish elites who rule everything (policy, military, media, economy, culture), they built and still are building powerful lobbies
This goes back the industrialisation and the victory of the Union, with every war, the rising dependence on oil, the founding of the FED, the merger of the companies to mega corporations their power is enlarging more and more ...
If you research well, who´ll find that many of the old company founders still exists, their sons, grandsons and grand- grandsons still have a powerful influence in politicy or economomy - take the Rockefellers, the Bushs, the Kennedies and many more!
The elites marry each other to elarge the lobby networks ...
Who is the wife of the terminator Schwarzenegger ?
Obama is only a puppet, it has nothing to do with "black power", he was the best fitting candidate for the american image campaign after the Bushdesaster!
There isn´t a nobility in the USA like in Europe, but there is a class system. Its boarders are money and the degree of access to the lobbies ...
Women:
Ok let´s count the number of women heading one of the houndreds of big corporations ...
They forced women to work and they brainwash the society, that a mother, who wants to care about here children only and doesn´t work ist a "looser" - but within the elites they´re still underrepresented and their income still is lower than that of men (though in Germany maybe the difference is more significant)
Now that you mention Schwarzenegger... how is it possible for the son of a lowly Austrian Civil Servant to marry into America's premier family... and he's a Catholic to boot?
I work in the medical field and everyone from the CEO down the corporate ladder except one is female... it is very similar to other Health Care organizations...
Two of the most powerful politicians in Government are Speaker Pelosi and Senator Diane Feinstein... the Speaker of the CA Assembly is also a Woman and Black... not to mention many Secretaries of State... Clinton, Rice, etc...
Corporations... almost all large corps are publicly traded which means anyone can buy a piece... insider or outsider. The largest holders of many are employee retirement funds... a public corp is answerable to it's shareholders and corp leaders due go to prison for misdeeds...
Hey, I really enjoy Europe and could see myself living there... the time I spent working there was a great experience...
My own personal opinion is the United States can't win no matter what it does... the US had no national interest in Bosnia and yet the leaders of Europe implored us to become militarily involved...
Obama is the candidate Europe wanted... and now he is a puppet?
As an American I'm shocked at the ignorance coming from our European allies<---. You know, because the US has never contributed anything positive to society. We have been the most inventive, productive, giving, and evolving society man kind has ever seen. We have a gross GDP twice as large as the next country which has 4 times the population. Forgive us when things don't always go right.
Are we not allowed to be proud of our accomplishments? Or, should we all feel like a complete failed nation of theiving war mongers?
Here's a quick rundown of what you superior Euro-complainers could be missing out on. American Contributions
Oh but you misunderstand me, I think Europe is even worse. Despite the fact that the U.S. is far from the great defender of individual rights which I originally believed it to be, it's still the greatest nation on Earth. I'm a supporter of the Ayn Rand Institute, and will be moving to Colorado in a few years.
The following speech from the Republican Convention of Virginia sums up my political beliefs very well:
There are white protestant and jewish elites who rule everything (policy, military, media, economy, culture), they built and still are building powerful lobbies
This goes back the industrialisation and the victory of the Union, with every war, the rising dependence on oil, the founding of the FED, the merger of the companies to mega corporations their power is enlarging more and more ...
If you research well, who´ll find that many of the old company founders still exists, their sons, grandsons and grand- grandsons still have a powerful influence in politicy or economomy - take the Rockefellers, the Bushs, the Kennedies and many more!
The elites marry each other to elarge the lobby networks ...
Who is the wife of the terminator Schwarzenegger ?
Obama is only a puppet, it has nothing to do with "black power", he was the best fitting candidate for the american image campaign after the Bushdesaster!
There isn´t a nobility in the USA like in Europe, but there is a class system. Its boarders are money and the degree of access to the lobbies ...
Women:
Ok let´s count the number of women heading one of the houndreds of big corporations ...
They forced women to work and they brainwash the society, that a mother, who wants to care about here children only and doesn´t work ist a "looser" - but within the elites they´re still underrepresented and their income still is lower than that of men (though in Germany maybe the difference is more significant)
Hmmm ... maybe something to that GermanCiticen handle ... Jewish elites? Reminds me of the screeds of H. Goring.
Oh but you misunderstand me, I think Europe is even worse. Despite the fact that the U.S. is far from the great defender of individual rights which I originally believed it to be, it's still the greatest nation on Earth. I'm a supporter of the Ayn Rand Institute, and will be moving to Colorado in a few years.
The following speech from the Republican Convention of Virginia sums up my political beliefs very well:
And the USA will welcome you with open arms to practice whatever political system you believe in. Some even want to dismantle the current system, and our system allows for some to believe in that. That is why on one hand we're the "greatest" in the world.
Oh but you misunderstand me, I think Europe is even worse. Despite the fact that the U.S. is far from the great defender of individual rights which I originally believed it to be, it's still the greatest nation on Earth. I'm a supporter of the Ayn Rand Institute, and will be moving to Colorado in a few years.
Sounds like I do misunderstand you. I'm not sure who is the greatest nation on this Earth - I really don't think there is one. I just think the US has been an unfare target for a very long time. As an American, I have to speak out.
There are just too many ungratefull, government sucking, crybabies here in the US. If anything, we have done great things but are quickly losing great people.
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. You know, because the US has never contributed anything positive to society. We have been the most inventive, productive, giving, and evolving society man kind has ever seen. We have a gross GDP twice as large as the next country which has 4 times the population. Forgive us when things don't always go right.
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