35 Aspects Of American Culture That Leave Non-Americans Perplexed

The length of time our American elections take is 100% insane, no arguments there.

You raise a great point. Why do they spend more than a billion to run for president?

That’s because we’re a republic not a direct democracy and it’s supposed to protect the rights of the minorities.

Key word...money. The love of which triggered a bible verse

In Spain, parties usually have primary elections (an intern process involving), but rarely catch public attention.

The US has at least a half dozen parties. It's just that two of them get 95% of the votes.

I honestly can't understand why anyone with a working brain would even consider voting for a Republican these days.

"Politicians keep you distracted with petty bullsh!t so you won't notice that big red white and blue d!ck they're shoving up your @ss" ~ George Carlin ~

A large part of "the American Dream" replies on social and class distinction. Even many of those at the lower end of the scale believe that a system that rewards success is good, even if they themselves aren't benefiting from it. Free healthcare and education for all is seen as a bad thing because it removes the incentive to work well and improve one's position in the hierarchy. Nonsense, I know, but seems to be at least a part of the reasoning.

"It is not enough that I succeed. My friends must fail, as well."

Define "they"?

Taxes vary from state to state and area to area because each state establishes the tax rate for the state, with some states not having any sales tax. But then, each county, city, region or however that states names it's districts, those districts can add their own sales tax on top of the state tax. Usually for specific expense such as additional fire station, public park, etc. Most states also have crazy expensive taxes on hotels, motels, etc. called lodging tax. It can add a lot to the price of a hotel bill.

Thats just proof that the price can be whatever we want it 2be. We are the ones that place value on things. We are all born in2a world that provides us all with every resource we need to live and sustain us all. Money stops us from having vital resources. I should say not having any money stops us from thriving. Even though there is plenty of what we all need, regrowing or being created in mass quantities. People truly don't realize that when you already have everything you need to thrive. Money is not needed in anyway to carry on living. The incentive is livin having what we need and enjoying everything this world has to offer. But nope, some selfish asshats makesure that we all can't live comfortably using money2control all the resources

You could still show them

Forget that! Where I’m at, it varies in the same CITY depending on your zip code and whether or not it’s an “improvement” area.

The poor and the rich go to a cash register and pay the same tax for their toilet paper.

In the UK we have a supermarket called Tescos that has different levels of pricing depending on whether it's a local, town centre, or large out of town store. They seems to manage perfectly well at printing out correct pricing labels for each product because we have strong consumer laws. It's a simple enough task, but Americans seem determined to defend a system that makes their lives more difficult.

I've been working full time since I was 16 years old, and I'm about to be 39. I've had a total of about 3 weeks (15 days) paid vacation in that nearly 23 years. Been at my current job almost 2 years, and I get zero paid vacation and 5 sick days per year. Which is still better than most places I've worked. The USA is hell, and I'd leave here in a heartbeat if I had a chance.

I'm in the UK - When I worked full time I got 33 days - everyone in the UK is entitled to 28 days holiday (this includes 8 national bank holidays) but I get an extra 5 as I've been with my company over 10 years.

What country is this and how prepared are they for mass migration?

I get 4 weeks and 10 paid national holidays here in the US and that's considered uncommonly good. Best I've ever gotten was 6 weeks + holidays. Though it was hard to take it all because of our toxic culture of overwork. People freak out if you try to schedule more than one, maybe two, weeks off at a time. So even if I have enough paid time off saved up to take a month off and get a true rest, I can't do that. They don't hire enough people to cover the extra work. Often I end up having to work extra before and after my holiday because there's no one to do my work.

we have 2 months I feel bad for them

where do you live? do truck drivers get 8 weeks also?

That's like...almost a week every 6 weeks or so. I can't fathom having that. Lol where do you live? I'm very jealous.

The 10 days/yr I had as a nurse with kids had to be "shared" with them if they got sick. PTO (paid time off) was accrued. If your kid was sick, there goes 8hrs of PTO .

Show us you don't live in the US without telling us that you don't live in the US

Bookworm

Bookworm

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Oh, I understand it, and that's why I'll never live in one. HOAs are for people who value conformity above everything else. It's actually a similar mindset to the people who think the existence of LGBTQ+ people infringes on their religious freedom. These are people who feel threatened by any reminder that there are humans in the world who don't think and act exactly the same way they do, so they create their own clubhouse and set up the rules to literally write any hint of difference out of existence. They claim it's about property values, but it's really an inability on the part of rich white people to deal with a world where they aren't the center of the universe.

Can you choose? Posts here often don't seem like that.

Yup, first rule of house hunting was absolutely NO HOAs! lol.

Someone on BP wrote it was a way to segregate? Don't know if that's true???