It’s not only customs that differ from one part of the world to the other; things people consider mundane often do, too. So it’s no secret that certain habits or items in the US might not be as common in Europe, for example; and vice versa.
That’s what netizens in the ‘No Stupid Questions’ subreddit recently discussed. User ‘meryse' addressed the American members asking what everyday things Europeans have they would consider a luxury in the States. Their answers covered everything, from food, to healthcare, hygiene habits, and even windows; so scroll down to find them on the list below and see how they compare to your own home.
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I'm just going to assume "Really good cheese" is a legitimate answer.
Fresh baked bread for reasonable prices that you can get in walking distance of your home, and aren't full of preservatives.
Also, affordable health care.
The healthcare in Holland is getting more and more non affordable..
Peace of mind that we won't receive a medical bill that might bankrupt us.
On BP I learned that some US Americans won't call an Ambulance because of the price tag. What a frightening thought that is!
Decent quality chocolate available in almost any random corner shop.
Part of my walk to school was through… yes through the Cadbury factory in bournville, my school was built by George Cadbury, this was back in the day when everything was black and white, I’m old
Schools that are not used as target practice
American tourists mistake Edinburgh Castle for a high school, because there's gunfire there every day.
Food that doesn’t have a ton of artificial additives and non-food ingredients that makes you sick. I never realized that was what was causing my stomach problems until I went on vacation in Europe and within a day had no problems at all. And it came back a day after I returned. They can make great food, even packaged junk food, with just real food ingredients. Why can’t we?
Profits. The US truly are a land of opportunities but mainly the opportunity to exploit people or make profit by all means.
Time. Time to eat in a restaurant without being shoved out. Time to sip coffee at a cafe. Time to spend with new children. Time to go on vacation. Seems like an unattainable luxury to this American.
Maternity leave and healthcare come to mind.
Affordable healthcare and maternity leave equally available to everyone. I know some people have healthcare and some companies offer paid maternity leave, but it's not the standard.
I know someone who works 50+ hours a week,, makes just enough to support his small family (child with special needs) and he can't afford to treat his hepatitis C because of the treatment (12 weeks of pills) costing more than he earns in 18 months. He can't afford to pay for health insurance.. (before a-holes start judging, he was born with it).
This just makes zero sense, it’s unimaginable people not getting the healthcare they need because it costs too much, it’s really sad that the land of the free is also subject to such draconian healthcare measures, I’m grateful for the NHS even if it is a bit slow at times
Can't speak for all of Europe, but workers rights. Wtf is "getting fired on the day"? Or quitting, for that matter? You get 3 months here
Or more. I've been with my company for 15+ years now. I'd get 6 months. Have colleagues in the US. Sometimes people get laid off and have like 20minutes to pack their things and say goodbye.
No high fructose corn syrup in everything!!!!
Like you don't even need to check the label for it.
Unlimited sick days. Or just sick days, because it's just not a concept. If your are sick, you are sick and stay at home with full pay until you aren't anymore. Can't get fired for it too.
Not having to hand over your credit card to a server who then disappears with it. In Europe, the machine comes to you and you just tap it with your card/phone/watch.
No gaps in bathroom stall doors. Not the bottom gap, that’s fine, they could be lower for sure, but I mean the ones between the door.
Yeah this one is just weird, I was so self conscious when I went over the pond! Do not make eye contact!!!! Lol
Ability to not require a personal motorised vehicle for literally every single thing in ones life.
Work-Life balance. Paid time off. The ability to receive healthcare without going bankrupt. The ability to seek higher education if desired without going into life-altering debt. Public transportation. Maternal and paternal rights. Kindness.
A safety net. It is incredibly stressful to work in America as an American. You bust your a*s for decades and could still lose everything you’ve worked to maintain at the drop of a hat. One slip, one positive test result, one broken bone, one genetic disorder, one sudden chronic pain… that’s it. No more job. No more paycheck. Savings gone in under a year. House (if you could afford one at all) gone. Suddenly you’re homeless.
It doesn’t even take a medical issue. Anything that could get you fired (because employers can fire you for any reason without any waiting period) can ruin your life forever. Maybe you missed some court date and you went to jail for two days. Maybe your kid is sick and you had to stay home. Your car broke down. You went to the hospital. Your loved one died.
Fired. Now you have no healthcare. You dip into your savings (if you have them). You keep dipping until there is nothing left. The only place hiring is a grocery store that offers $7.5 an hour. You can’t even rent a 1bd apartment in your city. You rent outside the city. Now your commute is 1.5 hours. You can’t pick up your kids from school anymore so you have to hire a babysitter. How do you get ahead? How can you get out of this hole?
F**k the American system. It’s s**t. Most people never get a chance at a good life and those that have one could lose it all through no fault of their own.
And we are all too terrified to fight back because our survival is directly tied to employment.
And to make matters worse, capitalism had completely decimated our built in support systems, like family and community, but that’s a bigger conversation.
Good public transport outside of main cities. Germans in particular love to complain about Deutsche Bahn (and rightfully so) but compared to USA it's just so much more versatile.
This might seem a little weird, but I really liked the windows when I was in Germany. Turn the handle up and it tilted back, turn it to the side and it opened like a door, turn it down and it was locked. I've never seen windows like that installed in the US. I've googled and they're available but just not in common use it seems. At least not in the parts of the US I've been to.
Universal healthcare (in most countries). A family member in Italy needed an MRI of the brain. if she waited a few weeks it would be free. She didn’t want to wait so she paid out of pocket: $120. That would be a few thousand dollars in the US.
Practically free higher education. They pay fees, not tuition. Minor costs.
Health care costs in America are high but affordable if you have health insurance. If you don't have insurance it is unaffordable (half a million for routine sinus surgery). I swear it is designed this way to force Americans into employment for corporations and discourage independent business.
You might enjoy the documentary Where to Invade Next by Michael Moore. It's about how just as Europe has looked to America, America should look to Europe.
He covers these topics. Summarized with chat gpt.
Education system in Finland.
Workers' rights and work-life balance in Italy.
Healthcare system in France.
Drug policy in Portugal.
Prison reform in Norway.
Gender equality in Iceland.
School meals in Slovenia.
I would put environmental and consumer protection up there e.g. EU banned ingredients in food and consumer goods.
Another thing the French have that is a good idea - 6 weeks of political campaigning for high office. That's it. Rather than the YEARS of manure flinging we have to endure here in the US.
Chocolate that doesn't taste like splenda infused vomit.
Soft drinks that don't taste like windex with a drop of food colouring mixed in.
Legitimate castles that aren't mock ups built by people that missed having a history that goes back further than a middle aged greenland shark
I don't usually drink soft drinks. But there are some excellent examples, like Pellegrino from Italy, or Almdudler from Austria. Anything from CocaCola doesn't even come close.
Quieter cities because there are fewer cars. And along the same lines, smaller cars. And, continuing on those lines, obviously, better/more convenient public transportation - even non-major cities.
Mmmh... it's the first one on the list I kind of disagree with (about quieter cities with fewer cars). There's a few notable exceptions, and it depends from one country to the next. But big cities are still overcrowded with cars. I live in Brussels, and traffic jams are a daily occurence.
Can’t believe it’s not more prominent, but the right to privacy, and recently digital privacy.
GDPR was an excellent piece of legislation.
Funny that they show a camera. Pretty sure e.g. London has more cameras than anywhere in the US. It might be changing but the Brits (and others) are way ahead of the US with regard to cameras being everywhere run by a government entity. Ring and other cameras are everywhere here though.
A sense of community that isn’t based on the color of some old loser’s tie.
«A sense of community» is very very American in essence. Europeans do not refer to their «community», whatever that means, all the time.
Tomatoes that are actually red, flavorful and delicious.
It kinda depends on where you buy them from, I think. And what country you're in. Here in romania, if you buy from a bigger brand (kaufland, lidl) they're not all that good, but the ones from a local shop are way better. When I went to Austria for like a week or so,in Vienna, the tomatoes from a random grocery store(billa I think) were pretty damn awesome
Note: this post originally had 50 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
BOYCOTT these posts. At the very least downvote the whole article and then move on. I know I'm commenting, but I've not read anything (assume it's the same old, same old) and only come here to say this. Ignore these posts the next time (in about 36 hours) one comes up! BP knows these stir people up - don't let it.
Naw, people in the US needs to read about all the things they need to fight for to change the train wreck the country has become.
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Here we go again. And before anyone calls it, I'm not American, I live in Europe, and certainly appreciate some of the things on this list but why do we have to keep pumping our fists and telling the US we're so much better than them. That's the same thing we always accuse them of doing. Pot? Kettle?
It really is, it doesn't make Europe sound much better when there bashing a country and its citizens when the citizens are the ones suffering can't do much about it.
Load More Replies... Really can't be bothered scrolling through yet another list like this. Please let me know if,by some miracle, there's something original on here.
To save time why doesn't Bored Panda just write F**K AMERICA! 3 times a week and we can all just get on with our lives...
How come, once again, this list is so redundant? The same elements appears three or four times. Can't you just keep less elements and make them more to the point?
better yet, can you stop regurgitating the same posts over and over
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Straight answer - because it creates a lot of clicks and comments (from justifiably outraged people) and BP use those to sell advertising. I read none of it but came here to say that we need to boycott these posts. Don't even click on the next one that comes up - just as someone else has suggested.
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Nobody criticises America for the things it deserves criticism for. A virtual monopoly on weapons of mass destruction. A bubble around the president so big that you have to just about evacuate every city he visits.
Sure those Ruskies don't have nukes, actually more than thr u.s.
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All right. Can’t even finish this regurgitated screed. I’m sooooo sick of these repetitive incendiary lists of the same comparisons. We get it BP, the powers that be think America sucks and Europe is perfect. I love Europe. I also love where I live., and I’ve found that every place has something to commend it and something that’s terrible.
"Europe". Around 45% of Europeans are living in countries that are either dictatorships, failing economies, or an active war zone (f**k you, Putin). When we're talking about land mass, that rises to 60%. Russia alone takes up around 40% of all of Europe's land mass, and 15% of it's population, and there is also Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Greece, etc. Throughout recorded history, there has not been more than 20 years straight without brutal armed conflict in Europe. "Europe" has never had its s**t together. Only a small number of countries, which are wealthy from looting Africa, Latin America, and SE Asia, not to mention the the exploitation of their own people, as well as the murder of minorities and the theft of their property, who now have the luxury of having amazing social systems. All Western European countries, including Sweden, had extensive colonies across the world.
1. Many are incorrect (I've been to Europe, folks, I've been to Latin America, I've been to Canada, if you want crappy construction or weird people or bad food .or bigotry or or or ... they're everywhere people are!) 2. DO NOT FEED THE BP TROLLS. Downvote the article, don't comment on any individual bits of it, let BP get no clicks from this bait!
Commenting here does also add to BPs rates I'm afraid... Sorry to have added to it but we need to not comment or click on it at all.
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Can't we just get more positive posts? all these American bashing posts are getting tireing. And if not and board panda still posts these, can they at least share some ways to help fight against this?
This article is a bunch of c**p. I am so sick of snobby Europeans and American catastroporn addicts.
One not mentioned- the ability to take critiscm of our countries without raging about it. The ability to laugh at our own shortcomings with self-depreciating humour and wit.
It's probably a typo but depreciating means diminish in value over a period of time - I suspect that any humour in this subject absolutely has diminished! Of course they can't laugh at it anymore. If you hear the same criticisms day in, day out that can be psychologically damaging. Yeah, okay, you meant deprecating but you hit the nail on the head anyway.
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From this Bored Panda writer alone, she posted two articles bashing Americans in just last week. Last week, she posted 40 Things Americans Weren’t Aware Were So Blatantly American Until They Traveled Abroad and 30 Things Europeans Do That Leave Americans Raising Their Eyebrows. So, not even a full 2 weeks she already posted three recycled, reused articles bashing Americans. No wonder these are getting old very quickly.
What most gets me is school shootings. Recently a visiting US colleague mentioned his kids, and my first thought was how worried he must be each morning when they go to school. He later confirmed that. Imagine, having to fear for the life of your kid every day. It may be rare, but it happens. Here in Scotland it's not something people have to think about. It's a possibility, much like an asteroid crashing into the school is a "possibility".
Have to say. I do nothing where i live. And I still get money and have a home, I am born a lucky place. Still I don't like my country for other reasons. Why you people get so angry about other people don't like Us. I think this list is Silly. Cheese that's a minor thing and not really a problem. But really there is alot wrong in a modern country like USA. And I don't talk about people in general. There is a lot of lovely people there like every other country. But it is really not a good place to live if you have real problems no good back land and is poor. And what is this cult s**t mixed in whit politics. Pushing there religious beliefs down the throat of the people. That's just fuckd up.
Are you f*****g kidding us!??! Health care, full stop. Nothing else warrants mention in the grand scheme….
They don't have Donald Trump. That makes Europe instantly superior in all respects. Plus public transit, trains, healthcare, functioning governments, good social support networks, nobody is shooting 50 people a day with a handgun, I could go on...
I would add one more, freedom in your own home. No HOAs. If you want to grow tomatoes on your garden, you can. If you want to replace lawn with flowers, you can. It is YOUR garden, so nobody can tell you what to do with it.
If only you had some real information about the u.s.
Load More Replies... BOYCOTT these posts. At the very least downvote the whole article and then move on. I know I'm commenting, but I've not read anything (assume it's the same old, same old) and only come here to say this. Ignore these posts the next time (in about 36 hours) one comes up! BP knows these stir people up - don't let it.
Naw, people in the US needs to read about all the things they need to fight for to change the train wreck the country has become.
Load More Replies... Here we go again. And before anyone calls it, I'm not American, I live in Europe, and certainly appreciate some of the things on this list but why do we have to keep pumping our fists and telling the US we're so much better than them. That's the same thing we always accuse them of doing. Pot? Kettle?
It really is, it doesn't make Europe sound much better when there bashing a country and its citizens when the citizens are the ones suffering can't do much about it.
Load More Replies... Really can't be bothered scrolling through yet another list like this. Please let me know if,by some miracle, there's something original on here.
To save time why doesn't Bored Panda just write F**K AMERICA! 3 times a week and we can all just get on with our lives...
How come, once again, this list is so redundant? The same elements appears three or four times. Can't you just keep less elements and make them more to the point?
better yet, can you stop regurgitating the same posts over and over
Load More Replies... Straight answer - because it creates a lot of clicks and comments (from justifiably outraged people) and BP use those to sell advertising. I read none of it but came here to say that we need to boycott these posts. Don't even click on the next one that comes up - just as someone else has suggested.
Load More Replies... Nobody criticises America for the things it deserves criticism for. A virtual monopoly on weapons of mass destruction. A bubble around the president so big that you have to just about evacuate every city he visits.
Sure those Ruskies don't have nukes, actually more than thr u.s.
Load More Replies... All right. Can’t even finish this regurgitated screed. I’m sooooo sick of these repetitive incendiary lists of the same comparisons. We get it BP, the powers that be think America sucks and Europe is perfect. I love Europe. I also love where I live., and I’ve found that every place has something to commend it and something that’s terrible.
"Europe". Around 45% of Europeans are living in countries that are either dictatorships, failing economies, or an active war zone (f**k you, Putin). When we're talking about land mass, that rises to 60%. Russia alone takes up around 40% of all of Europe's land mass, and 15% of it's population, and there is also Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Greece, etc. Throughout recorded history, there has not been more than 20 years straight without brutal armed conflict in Europe. "Europe" has never had its s**t together. Only a small number of countries, which are wealthy from looting Africa, Latin America, and SE Asia, not to mention the the exploitation of their own people, as well as the murder of minorities and the theft of their property, who now have the luxury of having amazing social systems. All Western European countries, including Sweden, had extensive colonies across the world.
1. Many are incorrect (I've been to Europe, folks, I've been to Latin America, I've been to Canada, if you want crappy construction or weird people or bad food .or bigotry or or or ... they're everywhere people are!) 2. DO NOT FEED THE BP TROLLS. Downvote the article, don't comment on any individual bits of it, let BP get no clicks from this bait!
Commenting here does also add to BPs rates I'm afraid... Sorry to have added to it but we need to not comment or click on it at all.
Load More Replies... Can't we just get more positive posts? all these American bashing posts are getting tireing. And if not and board panda still posts these, can they at least share some ways to help fight against this?
This article is a bunch of c**p. I am so sick of snobby Europeans and American catastroporn addicts.
One not mentioned- the ability to take critiscm of our countries without raging about it. The ability to laugh at our own shortcomings with self-depreciating humour and wit.
It's probably a typo but depreciating means diminish in value over a period of time - I suspect that any humour in this subject absolutely has diminished! Of course they can't laugh at it anymore. If you hear the same criticisms day in, day out that can be psychologically damaging. Yeah, okay, you meant deprecating but you hit the nail on the head anyway.
Load More Replies... From this Bored Panda writer alone, she posted two articles bashing Americans in just last week. Last week, she posted 40 Things Americans Weren’t Aware Were So Blatantly American Until They Traveled Abroad and 30 Things Europeans Do That Leave Americans Raising Their Eyebrows. So, not even a full 2 weeks she already posted three recycled, reused articles bashing Americans. No wonder these are getting old very quickly.
What most gets me is school shootings. Recently a visiting US colleague mentioned his kids, and my first thought was how worried he must be each morning when they go to school. He later confirmed that. Imagine, having to fear for the life of your kid every day. It may be rare, but it happens. Here in Scotland it's not something people have to think about. It's a possibility, much like an asteroid crashing into the school is a "possibility".
Have to say. I do nothing where i live. And I still get money and have a home, I am born a lucky place. Still I don't like my country for other reasons. Why you people get so angry about other people don't like Us. I think this list is Silly. Cheese that's a minor thing and not really a problem. But really there is alot wrong in a modern country like USA. And I don't talk about people in general. There is a lot of lovely people there like every other country. But it is really not a good place to live if you have real problems no good back land and is poor. And what is this cult s**t mixed in whit politics. Pushing there religious beliefs down the throat of the people. That's just fuckd up.
Are you f*****g kidding us!??! Health care, full stop. Nothing else warrants mention in the grand scheme….
They don't have Donald Trump. That makes Europe instantly superior in all respects. Plus public transit, trains, healthcare, functioning governments, good social support networks, nobody is shooting 50 people a day with a handgun, I could go on...
I would add one more, freedom in your own home. No HOAs. If you want to grow tomatoes on your garden, you can. If you want to replace lawn with flowers, you can. It is YOUR garden, so nobody can tell you what to do with it.
If only you had some real information about the u.s.
Load More Replies...