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30 Things That America Does Better Than Many Other Countries, According To Folks In This Online Group
There are always lots of pros and cons to any country. Some have amazing food, others are very safe to live in, many have amazing sights. But sometimes there are things a certain country just does the best and you wouldn’t be able to get that quality anywhere else.
With the United States being the third biggest and most populated country, there are bound to be lots of things that it excels at. People came together to share the things that the US does best in this AskReddit thread and here are the best takes.
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The national parks are on a different level of simply amazing!
I really like the diversity in this country. How anyone can be an American. And you have no idea who is American and who is not. That's my favorite thing. You have no idea who is just sightseeing, who is visiting family, who is here on a student VISA versus who is actually American. So, until someone says otherwise, we are going to assume you are American. Doesn't matter how thick your accent is. Doesn't matter how you dress. You are American until otherwise noticed.
Also, I love how quickly we adopt things from our immigrants and declare it American. It's like, "What are you eating? Is it delicious? Let me try some of that. Oh, God, this *is* delicious. Go open up a restaurant. More people should be eating this. And now it's part of the American fabric."
I love how the American tongue is such a mutt language. How quickly we adapt non-English words and more often than not pronounce them how they would be pronounced in their Native tongue. We don't try make them more English like the way the French will French up foreign words. I like how it's easy to correct an American by saying, "It's actually pronounced this way." And they will have a go at trying to say it correctly rather than huff and puff and try to make *you* change the way you say it. Language is so adaptable here. It's far more forgiving than other languages. You can butcher it up here and as long as we understand the idea of what you are trying convey, you will get a pass. I think it's why it is such a juggernaut on a global stage. Yes, we have language rules but the native speakers will mostly ignore them in order to communicate better.
Wide. Open. Space.
Seriously. Go west and you can get to places that are so remote and so beautiful, with big blue skies during the day and Star filled nights.
I can attest to the stunning beauty of massive wide open spaces & the "big sky". I lived in the Mojave desert for 5 years. I lived in a small town and it only took a 3 minute drive to the edge of the city to see...absolutely nothing for countless miles. It's an amazing experience, similar to the vast horizon on the ocean, but with miles of sand and sparse plant life. And I honestly believe that there is no sky that compares to skies with zero barriers.
Our neighbor down the road fled Sudan in the 1980s and made it to the US as a refugee. She lost her father two brothers and most of her extended family as they were related to the wrong political leader that was killed. Her mother and two sisters arrived with literally nothing in the late 80s.
She is now a nurse making 100k a year married to a firefighter with 3 kids living on a property with 8 acres and a 5 bedroom house. One sister is a school teacher and the other manages a Barnes and Noble.
That is pretty cool.
The food. Because we are a melting pot, I can eat basically any ethnicity's food without leaving my city! Bonus points, if the place looks sketchy and your chances of getting robbed are high.....the food will be amazing
It is always amazing, I don't care if you clean the stove or not. Keep making it..
We’ve never lost a superbowl
The Americans With Disabilities Act is seriously some of the best handicap-accessibility protection in the world. A paraplegic person can wheel themselves into pretty much any commercial building in the country and be confident that there will be ramps in all the right places and a restroom they can use. If there aren't, there are powerful legal tools to make it happen.
That's not the case in a lot of places in the world, and it wasn't that long ago that it wasn't the case here.
Public libraries are awesome.
I hate to be the nitpicky one but... other countries also have libraries? Agreed they are awesome though, I always used to struggle to study at home, so I'd go to the library where it's peaceful, but my brain associates it as "academic area" xD
This isn't going to be seen by too many people, but I think the community college system is one of the United State's best institutions. After two years in the community college I was able to transfer to a university and received a double bachelor's degree. That type of second chance isn't available in many countries.
Two year colleges and trade schools exist in many countries. I'd say the US actually really lacks trade schools and apprenticeship programs that you'd see in other countries. College is free in many parts of the world, bit that's also because fewer people get a liberal arts education. Many people go to trade schools. My mother is a retired doctor, but she went first to a two year trade school for accounting. Only later did she go back to study medicine. My father went to a trade school to study journalism. My uncle did an apprenticeship program for electrician. My cousin did a trade school for culinary arts, nephew did sports medicine. They're all free, but they aren't four year university programs.
I beg people to get off Reddit and actually spend time in their neighborhoods or actually talk to people.
Americans are incredibly resilient, hard working people who always want to see improvement. We know we’re not perfect, but ffs, the smallest story about “America bad,” will flood the front page, and anything seen as success is treated as the ills of capitalism and America.
If you visit any American city, you’ll see that it’s very progressive, and people are happy, polite and want everyone to be who they are. It’s easy to get trapped in the clickbait headlines, but remember that Reddit is a big karma farm and doesn’t reflect real life.
I came from a very poor upbringing, a large urban public school and was able to graduate college and create a pretty comfortable life for myself. I’m not rich by any means, but my life is pretty good. I don’t think I could’ve had this life if I lived in other parts of the world.
Visit an American park on a Saturday. At least where I live you’ll find diversity, natural resources, friendly people, families and no judgement. We’re not what the extreme right wants us to be and we never will. We don’t wait for the government to do something for us. If we want something we build it. And if people like it they support it. You can’t stop an ambitious American. I’ll kindly accept your downvotes now.
I've lived on every continent except Australia, and on both US coasts, plus Chicago. I'd say of all those places, the East Coast of the United States suffers the least xenophobia. Particularly the area between New York and Richmond Virginia. Too far north, or too far south, and problems arise. The West Coast has a real problem with racism, as does Chicago. Europe and Asia both have major issues with xenophobia. As does Africa and Latin America, though it tends to be directed at specific groups.
If I don’t like where I live I can go somewhere thousands of miles away that has completely different laws, culture, and climate and don’t have to get anyone’s permission to do so.
We have large gatherings and bad mouth our leaders without even giving it a second thought.
we do this in the UK too, if you go to soundcloud and search "fry ups boris is a c**t" its an absolute bop. xD
I moved to Germany almost 3 years ago and I can tell you what I miss: how goddamn friendly Americans are.
tbf, you DID move to Germany... (jk, Germans can be amazingly friendly, but socializing in Germany is entirely different to socializing in America xP)
I believe I once read that Americans are among the most charitable people in the world.
Honestly most people I know are really pure, kind individuals. It's a shame we get such a bad rap
The bad people of America don’t represent the average person but they unfortunately are very loud so they end up representing the country
As an immigrant from CCP's China:
The rule of law is the number one thing that gives you a sense of security.
In countries rules by the people in power, you are simply doomed if you are born into a poor family. The educational system is corrupted, the court system as well, the government as well.
If you don't have the money and connections, your life is qualitatively different from those who do.
Of course, the capitalist rush for gold in the 90s-2010s created the super rich class and gave them a lot of power in addition to the political figures, but the recent crackdown on the biggest tech forms show you who the real boss is. Jack Ma had to disappear; Tencent basically bent down to CCP to continue its reign of internet, TikTok is probably doing everything the CCP want.
Without the true rule of law, a citizen will always feel destined to fail in life regardless what you strive to be.
The US legal system may be flawed, but it is definitely the most rehearsed and tested system of practice in the history of the world.
I have 1000% more confidence in it than anything from my country of origin.
"The US legal system may be flawed, but it is definitely the most rehearsed and tested system of practice in the history of the world." From Wikipedia, the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Justice_Project) is a quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a detailed and comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries adhere to the rule of law in practice. The US is rated #26. Having said that, I'm happy OP has found a Country in which they feel 'safe', for want of a better word
I feel like entertainment is something the US does extremely well.
Want to go to a show? The US has you covered regardless of how niche your taste is.
The ability to get in your vehicle and drive wherever you want to see the vast natural beauty of the US and to experience the diversity of different regions and ways of life
I hear the BBQ is pretty good.
My opinion: *opportunity*. In spite of all of its faults, America is still a country that offers some of the best opportunity to find work and being able to survive and even prosper. I've spent some time overseas in some rougher places when I was in the military, and while I recognize that we're not perfect and we can do better, I'm still thankful for the opportunities we have here.
Think every country in Western Europe would do better in this. Not to say that it is bad in the US though
The huge variety of everything is great. The best thing is the people though. You have so many good people. Of course you have more than your fair share of bad people, but I can live with that. Yin and yang. Your very best are amazing, your ordinary are terrific. There is so much talent but the sad thing is you don't know what to do with most of it, so it goes to waste.
1, It has almost every climate/terrain you can think of. Desert, forrest, tropical, mountains etc.
2. Anything is possible mentality. As someone from Europe, I find we are stuck in our ways and hold on to tradition a lot more than Americans. This is cool in some ways but can hold us back in terms of ingenuity when it comes to things like food and technology. The Americans aren't afraid to put Pineapple on Pizza for example where as you would be chased out of Naples for trying such a thing.
3. Highest cultural output of any country in the world. Most trends in movies, technology and music can be traced back to America.
While I would love for the US to take credit (‘cause it’s delicious) the Hawaiian pizza was invented by a Greek-Canadian in Ontario.
huge variety of grocery products.
Would be good to use an actual American grocery store image instead of a South African one
The Diversity.
America gets s**t on about racism all the time (not saying it doesn't exist), but is very little talked about when it comes to diversity. We have entire sections of cities and even towns that are dedicated to specific minority groups.
Take for example German, want a slice of Germany? we got that in Kutztown, PA.
Cuban? Southern Florida.
Mexican? So Cal or Texas for your huge communities
Chinese? Any major city has a China Town
Korean? Almost as big as China Towns in major cities, the most famous one being LA.
Irish? Boston
List is really endless. If you want something their is a slice of community for that nationality.
I may be wrong but large communities keeping to themselves, whilst it is diversity, it is not exactly integration.
Yk some people might disagree with me but many Americans are the nicest most hard working people you'll meet. I'd also obviously say our natural landscapes scenery even here in Michigan you'll be surprised how cool some places are. Funny enough went down to Detroit recently despite yk being Detroit I like how old it is, and how the architecture was.
I feel like one thing a lot of people should think about is how a lot of Americas appeal is also in it's small towns, like you can't understand the world unless you know a place like Missouri.
Detroit has some amazing architecture, ngl. I love art deco styles of architecture and such, it's a shame about what happened there over the course of the years, but hasn't there been a lot of revival/resurgance there?
As someone who lived in Europe half my life and has travelled extensively and is a person of color. It is very clear that the USA has put alot of effort in establishing vocabulary and dialogue around race relations that has been adopted world wide. Europe really lacks the entry points to have honest conversations about race. They are either too scared to say anything at all or end up using very inappropriate/prejudicial vocabulary to communicate their thoughts on race and immigration. **HOWEVER** I think they know this and are trying to figure out how to establish these conversations while still embracing their culture which is rooted heavily in the colonization of others.
Yep as an African I can confirm. EU people are really jumpy about talking about race issues. We appreciate the frank conversations more than the polite evasions.
Bigfoot
I live near Seattle, Washington in the USA and will share that we have BIgfoot Coffee shops here. LOL
As someone who lives in Europe and never even been to the US, I feel like the US is basically the centre of modern civilization and culture, no matter how defensive everyone else gets about it.
Certainly technology. The US economic system is geared for rapid development and ease of going to market. For all that's good and bad, it's definitely true.
Cream of crab soup in Baltimore MD
I’m from Maryland you don’t have to go to Baltimore to get good crab anything. As a matter of fact there are much better places to get crabs and crab related food on the eastern shore. Also if you’re a tourist visiting Maryland skip Baltimore.
Note: this post originally had 40 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
As a Brit who has travelled to America several times the thing I love most is the people. The Americans you generally encounter day to day there are genuinely the nicest people I have ever met. And Americans who I have encountered in the UK have been even better, really interested in learning and experiencing a new culture (and they were willing to get into a good old round of drinks too).
Finally a thread about good American things. To bad a lot of people are being really negative and not a lot of upvotes :(
One thing I like about America is how clean it is compared to my country and how little the crowd is despite being the 3rd most populous country. I like these kinds of posts, it’s a nice change from having mostly posts bashing on America. I know they’re not perfect but they have at least a few good things about them that makes them unique
Whoa…first a positive piece on men this week, now a positive US thread? What’s going on lol. Kudos BP!
Everywhere has positives. Those are often a matter of taste, perspective, and cultural upbringing. No need to be so grumpy, everyone. :-)
They forgot a super important point: We (the world) owe most of our technology and progress of the 20th century to USA. Speaking as an african who the last US president said, I allegedly live in a shithole, well. Still. NASA. Silicon Valley. Tesla. Boston Dynamics. OpenAI. This is amazing stuff. Above everything else, above hollywood, this and this alone is America's claim to fame which GIVES them the right to claim status as possibly the greatest nation ever. I hate to admit it. They're pretty mediocre at everything else (as we see from the above examples). But the technology innovation man, jesus that is amazing.
Many nations have many great things, this post is a celebration of what America has, it’s not ‘what makes it unique’ or ‘what do Americans have that no one else does?’. It’s a bunch of folk highlighting the stuff that makes them happy, feel proud, enjoy their country and that they want to share. Long may their nation provide these moments and pleasures. Me? I’ve visited and my two abiding memories are the people I shared time with and the Rockies. Both beautiful in so many different ways.
I just don't understand why so many people are very negative when it comes to America. Yes we have our negatives but we also have many more positives that outweigh them.
How no one mentioned space programs where America is really on top and whole world is benefiting from it? NASA, SpaceX, etc.
No one mentioned air conditioning. I don't care what anyone says, a/c is awesome!
The US is so clean. This week, I saw someone intentionally litter. It had been years since I saw someone throw sizeable sized trash into nature. Usually, it something tiny like a bit of paper, or something blowing away, or falling out of the door of a car. ETA: Most urban litter I've seen is intentionally abandoned like a bottle on a window sill, or a wrapper near trash but not in.
since you guys wanna take it for granted, your LONG A*S holidays. 3 MONTHS. 3 MONTHS OFF SCHOOL IN A ROW?
Not sure I trust this enough to read. If it's BP then it's most likely a pile of jealous Europeans giving backhanded compliments. Think I'll pass lol
Yes, thank you for this discussion. I've been to the UK and Europe and saw much that I loved and had no problem chatting with people, as a visitor. But so much of America is wonderful. Natural beauty, standard of living, kind generous people. But the media here and abroad hype on about the negative. Racism does exist, from all sides. But I am surrounded daily by people in minorities who have better jobs, income, cars and housing than I do (Brit/Scandi descent.) They've worked hard, taken advantage of education and gotten ahead. I've lived in CA, MI, MA, SC, FL and TX. People have been kind and generous everywhere. It's not perfect, but we strive. Anyone who comes here and chooses to do what it takes to make this home becomes American.
The dominance of long-term fixed rate mortgages that carry no pre/early payment penalties! This makes home ownership within the reach of pretty much anyone. I was shocked to learn that in much of the world adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) dominate and/or the terms are short and/or include pre/early payment penalties!
Can BP just stop with these posts that is all about America?? Seriously. There's a whole world outside it you know, and I want to read about that.
As a Brit who has travelled to America several times the thing I love most is the people. The Americans you generally encounter day to day there are genuinely the nicest people I have ever met. And Americans who I have encountered in the UK have been even better, really interested in learning and experiencing a new culture (and they were willing to get into a good old round of drinks too).
Finally a thread about good American things. To bad a lot of people are being really negative and not a lot of upvotes :(
One thing I like about America is how clean it is compared to my country and how little the crowd is despite being the 3rd most populous country. I like these kinds of posts, it’s a nice change from having mostly posts bashing on America. I know they’re not perfect but they have at least a few good things about them that makes them unique
Whoa…first a positive piece on men this week, now a positive US thread? What’s going on lol. Kudos BP!
Everywhere has positives. Those are often a matter of taste, perspective, and cultural upbringing. No need to be so grumpy, everyone. :-)
They forgot a super important point: We (the world) owe most of our technology and progress of the 20th century to USA. Speaking as an african who the last US president said, I allegedly live in a shithole, well. Still. NASA. Silicon Valley. Tesla. Boston Dynamics. OpenAI. This is amazing stuff. Above everything else, above hollywood, this and this alone is America's claim to fame which GIVES them the right to claim status as possibly the greatest nation ever. I hate to admit it. They're pretty mediocre at everything else (as we see from the above examples). But the technology innovation man, jesus that is amazing.
Many nations have many great things, this post is a celebration of what America has, it’s not ‘what makes it unique’ or ‘what do Americans have that no one else does?’. It’s a bunch of folk highlighting the stuff that makes them happy, feel proud, enjoy their country and that they want to share. Long may their nation provide these moments and pleasures. Me? I’ve visited and my two abiding memories are the people I shared time with and the Rockies. Both beautiful in so many different ways.
I just don't understand why so many people are very negative when it comes to America. Yes we have our negatives but we also have many more positives that outweigh them.
How no one mentioned space programs where America is really on top and whole world is benefiting from it? NASA, SpaceX, etc.
No one mentioned air conditioning. I don't care what anyone says, a/c is awesome!
The US is so clean. This week, I saw someone intentionally litter. It had been years since I saw someone throw sizeable sized trash into nature. Usually, it something tiny like a bit of paper, or something blowing away, or falling out of the door of a car. ETA: Most urban litter I've seen is intentionally abandoned like a bottle on a window sill, or a wrapper near trash but not in.
since you guys wanna take it for granted, your LONG A*S holidays. 3 MONTHS. 3 MONTHS OFF SCHOOL IN A ROW?
Not sure I trust this enough to read. If it's BP then it's most likely a pile of jealous Europeans giving backhanded compliments. Think I'll pass lol
Yes, thank you for this discussion. I've been to the UK and Europe and saw much that I loved and had no problem chatting with people, as a visitor. But so much of America is wonderful. Natural beauty, standard of living, kind generous people. But the media here and abroad hype on about the negative. Racism does exist, from all sides. But I am surrounded daily by people in minorities who have better jobs, income, cars and housing than I do (Brit/Scandi descent.) They've worked hard, taken advantage of education and gotten ahead. I've lived in CA, MI, MA, SC, FL and TX. People have been kind and generous everywhere. It's not perfect, but we strive. Anyone who comes here and chooses to do what it takes to make this home becomes American.
The dominance of long-term fixed rate mortgages that carry no pre/early payment penalties! This makes home ownership within the reach of pretty much anyone. I was shocked to learn that in much of the world adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) dominate and/or the terms are short and/or include pre/early payment penalties!
Can BP just stop with these posts that is all about America?? Seriously. There's a whole world outside it you know, and I want to read about that.
