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76 Things America Does Better Than Anyone Will Admit, Including Americans Themselves
America is a lot to take in. It is loud, it is large, it has an inexplicable relationship with portion sizes, and it produces and consumes more corn syrup than any other nation on earth. It has also been the subject of more global eye-rolling than perhaps any other country in recorded history, which is another thing they can chant “we’re #1” at.
But here's the thing about America that tends to get lost in the discourse. Underneath the deep-fried everything and the aggressive patriotism and the healthcare system that charges $400 for an aspirin, there is a country that is often surprisingly good at a remarkable number of things.
A user on Reddit recently asked people to share what Americans deserve more credit for, and the answers came from Americans and non-Americans alike. Put down the corn syrup. This one's good.
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#1
Small talk and casual friendliness. It gets mocked as "superficial" by a lot of cultures, but having a warm, cheerful, five-minute conversation with a complete stranger in a grocery store line is actually a really nice part of daily life.
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#2
American's have a culture that makes them really passionate about things. Unusually passionate. It doesn't matter what obscure hobby you have, you can find an American forum where people live and breathe that thing and have found a way to turn it into a fulltime gig. I think this is why they always find a way to take business ideas to a whole new level and just-about own every industry. I also think that this passion causes a lot of the problems, where, when it comes to politics, the other side is not just someone I disagree with but the most evil person known to mankind and the future of the world depends on destroying them. It drives people a little insane and can be used, by people in power, to manipulate them. But I do admire them for their passion.
#3
I find Americans to be exceptionally good at public speaking.
A couple of years ago, I worked with American lawyers and attended an executive course at Yale. I was genuinely impressed by how effortlessly they could explain complex concepts in a way that was both clear and entertaining.
In Germany, my general perception is that you often have to be very serious—and, frankly, quite boring—to be taken seriously in a professional setting.
America holds some pretty interesting #1 rankings that aren't on all the tourist brochures. The United States has more pet dogs than any other country on earth. So if you ever want to attend a doggy birthday or wedding, this is the place to be. But it's not all good news for animals. Thanks to the Thanksgiving industrial complex and a farming infrastructure built specifically around one annual meal, America breeds and processes more turkeys than anywhere else on the planet.
Approximately 12 million registered American voters (around 4%) actually believe that shape-shifting reptilian creatures are secretly controlling the world's governments and institutions. This is the highest recorded rate of lizard people belief in any country that has bothered to measure it, which raises the immediate question of why other countries haven't bothered to measure it.
#4
Public libraries. We’re super committed to funding these third spaces so that all may have access to information. Not everyone has the Internet and a computer at home.
#5
Americans are very good with long drives. People would drive three hours one way for almost nothing. Six hour drives are almost not even worth mentioning. In my country drives like that are almost something you plan for. I've only done a 14 hour drive in my life and that was crossing between Al Khobar and Jeddah in Saudi a lifetime ago and thought it was an epic journey. Here, almost everybody's had a story for being on the road 2-3 days.
The United States spends more on its military than the next several countries combined. Which is good news for Americans but scary for everyone else. It also has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. There are more guns in America than there are people in America. We understand if you need a moment to process.
Whether all of this translates into actual survival capability when the world ends is unclear. What is clear is that Americans think it does. Global polling on hypothetical apocalypse scenarios found that 34% of Americans firmly believe they would personally survive a total collapse of civilisation, the highest self-assessed doomsday survival rate of any country surveyed. If the apocalypse does arrive, America will at least face it with conviction.
#7
Cooking. With all the different cultures here, the food is excellent.
#8
Striking up conversations! Regardless of where you are in the US, someone will talk to you and make you feel included.
But one compliment in the comments deserves a standing ovation. The American National Parks system is one of the greatest conservation achievements in recorded history, and it doesn't get nearly the international recognition it deserves because it's harder to make fun of than the other stuff.
In 1872, the United States made a decision that was radical for its time: to set aside land not for profit, extraction, or development, but simply for preservation and public access. Yellowstone became the world's first National Park. The idea spread globally. America invented it.
The world's longest cave system. The world's largest living thing. The world's densest concentration of geysers. The country has over 420 federally protected areas and 63 official National Parks, covering terrain so varied and so extraordinary that visitors regularly describe it as feeling like multiple different planets. The decision to protect all of this, made over 150 years ago, is one of the best things America has ever done.
#10
Disaster relief and grassroots mobilization. For example when a tornado or hurricane hits, neighbors show up with chainsaws, tractors and hot meals before federal aid even sets up a tent.
#11
Tolerating other people's brand of weirdness.
I've lived on 4 continents, and nobody is as tolerant of the harmlessly weird than Americans. As long as you're not hurting anyone, you can be yourself in America in some pretty bizarre ways that would get you ostracized in a lot of places, but the US considers just expression of personal freedom.
I'm not saying it's universal, and I'm not saying the US is the only place like this, just it's something I've noticed about community norms around the globe.
#12
Giving people a chance to start over.
We have the most advanced and largely debtor-friendly bankruptcy system in the world. I've practiced bankruptcy law for 19 years, and spent 15 of them as a Chapter 7 trustee.
Americans love to talk about how charitable they are, which is very American of them. And the numbers do back it up to a significant degree: the US has the second-highest number of nonprofit organisations in the world, just behind India, and charitable giving per capita is among the highest globally.
However, the 2025 World Giving Report named Nigeria the most generous country in the world, with Egypt, the UAE, and Qatar also making the top ten. So the crown is not exclusively American, even if the press release suggests otherwise. Generosity, it turns out, is a global instinct. America is just louder about it.
#13
I think we’re better at talking about mental illness than most countries. I have family abroad, and have found that there’s a lot less stigma around having a mental illness or neurodivergence in the U.S. Mental illness is seen more as a real illness, rather than something to be ashamed of.
#14
Throwing.
Most countries have football/soccer as their most popular sport while Americans are raised with baseball and American football. Everybody learns to throw a ball at one point or another as a child in the US
Don’t believe me? Ask your nearest European to throw you anything. Not toss, not hand you, but throw you an object.
Roman Arendt 57 minutes ago
Handball is very famous in Germany, though. Btw: Congratulations to the German men's team for winning their fourth World Cup yesterday!
#15
Americans are the most welcoming people in the world! You see loudmouth racists on the news all the time but as an immigrant I have encountered mostly kind and friendly people in this country. I don't think anywhere else in the world is so accepting of different cultures.
America has been called the fattest country in the world so many times it has essentially accepted the title as fact. The WHO data, however, tells a different story. American Samoa leads at 75.81% obesity rate. Cook Islands follows at 72.42%. Tonga, Nauru, Tokelau, Niue, Tuvalu, Samoa, French Polynesia, the Bahamas, and several others all rank ahead of the United States, which comes in at 41.83%.
It is still below Puerto Rico, Palau, Qatar, Egypt, Belize, Kiribati, and Micronesia. The US obesity rate is a massive public health concern that deserves serious attention. It is just not, by the WHO's own data, number one. The corn syrup reputation has been doing more work than the statistics warrant.
#16
Americans are, in my experience, extremely resourceful. We/they are very adept at finding creative solutions to problems, and I think that's based in a few different things. Rugged individualism requires resourcefulness for example, but also our govts are (these days) largely non-responsive to the country's problems. We are often required to find solutions ourselves partially because our local, state, and federal govts either can't or won't do anything to fix them.
#17
Being direct. I am a Canadian and deal with a lot of American customers and they actually ask for exactly what they want and don't really settle unless its reasonable or comparable enough to what they want.
#18
Swimming.
Having two large coasts and a countless number of lakes and rivers has made swimming a part of the fold for the large, large majority of Americans. A common activity for children growing up, and a respected sport.
Over 80% of Americans are able to swim, compared to about a 45% global average. This is down to sub-twenty or single digit percentages in some Asian and African countries, due to a lack of accessible, swimmable bodies of water.
The United States has more immigrants than any other country on earth, with a foreign-born population exceeding 51 million people. But what people in the rest of the world see portrayed is a dark and unwelcome society.
Yet, a consistent finding across the comments is that Americans are among the most genuinely warm, hospitable, and welcoming people in the world. Strangers strike up conversations. People hold doors. Someone in a diner will ask where you're from and actually want to know the answer.
The disconnect between this lived experience and the image projected internationally is significant, and most people who have spent time there point to the same conclusion: the warmth is real, and the problem is not the people. It's the volume at which the government speaks on their behalf.
#19
We are surprisingly good at toughing it out.
A culture of overpriced medical care will make people grit their teeth and get through some stuff that makes most in other countries faint.
Like, it's funny we get told how tough we arnt, and how Americans are "a bunch of p***ys", but in reality, we can walk off a broken leg.
#20
High school sports. Other countries have very good extracurricular activities, but it's not connected to your education.
Roman Arendt 55 minutes ago
And it shouldn't to the extent it often is in the US, cutting from arts and libraries to give the already scarce resources to cheerleading, football and the like.
#21
Couple winters ago we got slammed. Found a Korean guy who'd somehow gotten backed into a snowbank and hung up. Parked on the road and by the time I got behind the car, I'd been joined by a black guy and a Sikh (in Virginia? Ok). We looked at each other for a sec to coordinate a one-two-three and shoved the guy free. The stuck guy waved and everyone went back to our cars. No one said a word, it's just what you do.
America takes considerable heat for its education system, and some of it is deserved. But at the top end, the US leads the world and no other country comes close to matching. Harvard, Stanford, and MIT occupy the top positions in the 2026 Academic Ranking of World Universities, and the United States has more universities in the global top 100 than any other nation.
The research produced, the Nobel Prizes accumulated, and the sheer concentration of academic excellence in the American university system is extraordinary, no matter who you ask. The student debt attached to accessing it is equally extraordinary, but that is a separate article entirely.
#22
A common mind-blow for visitors to America is the extent that we have gone to cater to the disabled. America is unique in that we passed the ADA laws early enough that most of construction in our country was completed afterwards, so you didn't have to retrofit entire cities that were centuries old, like most of Europe.
As a result, you have entire cities that are totally accessible to those that are disabled in just about any way imaginable, which is something we Americans take for granted. Go anywhere else in the world, and you're mostly f****d if you're in a wheelchair, blind, or deaf.
Cloud Ryn 47 minutes ago (edited)
I had a friend who was born half blind and half deaf he was a pen pal i had in Africa i say Africa cuz he moved around alot . He said pretty much the same thing USA has it's massive problems but he said him being blind or deaf wasn't one of them. He tragically lost his life to a unexploed mine 10 years ago ,miss you Jhonny 😢
#23
Medical research. Almost half of all medical research worldwide is done by the USA. Lots of outsiders talk s**t about how bad American healthcare is while completely ignoring the fact that their own loved one had a good medical outcome due to medical breakthroughs and technology developed here.
#24
We have done a very good job of educating the public on how bad smoking is for you and very few people smoke here in public compared to in Europe and I'm very happy about that while I'm stuck here.
Americans eat approximately 20 billion hot dogs per year. That is roughly 70 hot dogs per person annually, which means that somewhere in the statistical average, a person is eating more than one hot dog per week, every week, for their entire life. No criticism here! Now, if only we knew how many of those 70 dogs came from Costco.
#25
Being kind, welcoming, and helpful. Because of the constant negativity in the news and the subsequent microscope the coverage puts on the country, people sometimes conflate the perception of its people with the reality.
I've met tons of people from other countries in my travels that talk about how kind and welcoming Americans are to visitors, but you wouldn't think that if you have never been in the US.
#26
In the past, Americans have reached out to other nations during their time of need and desperation. Providing medical care, emergency support, financial aid, food and sustenance, engineering and technical support, vaccines and medication, etc when other countries, even ones we diplomatically do not care for suffer disasters. Up until recently, we didn’t care whether these gifts were reciprocated during our times of need (floods, wild fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.).
#27
Their customer service,... whether this is a symptom of a litigious or the power of social media.
I live in a country with appalling customer service (outside of our tourist areas) that it is always jarring when i travel to the US.
#28
As a Cajun man i can really only speak for people in acadiana, but I've never been around any other culture that beats Cajun hospitality. Period. You will never go hungry. Many of us have and will offer our homes to complete strangers. There will be smiles. Many of us are poor and can barely afford to feed our families, but a Cajun person will starve themselves so everyone else can eat if they have to and you'll never even notice or hear about it. This includes people they met that same day. There's truly nothing like . Of course this is a generalization and Louisiana has a lottttt of problems, but out of everything in my life I'm most proud to say im a Cajun, and love to be able to prove it. Festivals acadiens et creoles is coming up in October. It's my favorite time of the year. Come pass a good time and message me if you need a tent to hang out at.
America is easy to mock, and the internet has made a full-time industry of it. The corn syrup, the portion sizes, the lizard people voters, the hot dog mathematics- all of it is practically begging for a comment. But the thread that inspired this article asked a different question, and the answers that came back were very illuminating.
The national parks alone would be enough. The immigrants and the people who warmly welcome them are a fabulous measure. As is the sheer volume of volunteers. Maybe not the military spending. America is loud and complicated and frequently its own worst enemy on the international stage. It is also doing some things remarkably well. The hot dogs, however, remain between America and its cardiologist.
What do you think Americans need a little more credit for? Share it with us in the comments!
#29
Making fun of themselves and not taking themselves too seriously, but also in a genuine way. Not saying that this is appropriate in every occasion, but it's a sense of being chill and humble I've learned to appreciate after living in the US over a decade.
#30
Education. America has more than 20 universities that are among the best in the world, including public institutions like UC Berkeley and University of Michigan.
They have Harvard for politicians, Yale for lawyers and creatives, MIT for scientists and engineers, Stanford for entrepreneurs, and all of them are super elite. .
#31
Charity. Which is so funny considering how many people don’t want “their” money going toward social programs…. But will gladly donate their money for the same things.
#32
Public land. Millions and millions of acres of public land. We have national forests bigger than some countries.
Also John Waters.
#34
Americans have a high rate of volunteering compared to other countries. You see a lot of bad things about Americans online but I think IRL most Americans are kind people.
#35
When I was in Germany, I saw an elderly man fall down the stairs going to the subway. I ran up the escalator and then ran down the stairs to him. Not a single person helped him up in the time it took me to get to him. In fact, someone was stepping over him as I got down to him. He seemed shocked that I was helping him. If he had fallen literally anywhere in America, 10 people would have stopped to help him immediately.
#36
Lots of excellent answers like the ADA and the National Parks system there that are to be commended, and of course the quality of the film and television that comes out of there, but honestly of the contributions America has made to my life as a British person, the one that always jumps to my mind is your **mustard**. I find the English and French varieties to be too strong for most cases but the flavour is excellent, and I think American mustard has hit that perfect balance. Thanks for that one.
#37
American healthcare is unaffordable, but genuinely very high quality if you can pay for it.
Americans are honest and willing to discuss difficult issues. Some nations have worse issues with violence or racism or whatever but don't discuss it as openly.
American culture does not stigmatize failure as much as other cultures and encourages people to try new things and potentially fail.
America gets a lot of attention for our s**t quality high schools, but our elementary schools are actually high quality, and our colleges are the best in the world.
#38
Work. Credit to Americans. It comes at a high cost but when I worked along Americans I have to say they were very professional.
#39
D**n there are some bitter a*s sorry people out there
Optimism
Having an opportunity to make a great life for yourself and your family.
#41
Civil rights. When I see the way Black people-especially dark-skinned Black people are treated in other countries where they're the minority, I thank the universe for my Black American ancestors' fighting spirit and our continued refusal to quietly tolerate racism and discrimination. There's a reason the Civil Rights Movement is taught in history and sociology classes all over the world.
#42
As someone living on haze-filled Borneo right now, it’s national parks and their conservation efforts. So jealous.
#43
The food. Other countries dunk on the US constantly and as someone who has traveled a lot, the food in major US cities is among the best in the world.
Also, we make the best pizza in the world.
#44
Resilience, I would say. I don’t mean in that nonsensical “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of way, but more like if something’s not working for us, we won’t hesitate to pick up stakes and move 3,000 miles away. We haven’t been Irish for a long time, but we’re big fans of the Irish goodbye. 👋
Those among us with the least amount of resources will be the first to share what little they have with someone who has even less. When I was a case manager for individuals and families struggling with multiple challenges, I was moved to tears many times by people’s extraordinary generosity. The vast majority of Americans always pay it forward.
🎶We get knocked down, but we get up again - you’re never gonna keep us down. (Don’t cry for me, next door neighbor) 🎶
We love you 🇨🇦 and 🇲🇽. This too shall pass.
#45
Observation from my husband who is Panamanian: The amount of jobs that are accessible to differently abled people. He has a cousin who is deaf and because of it, he’s stuck at home. I’m not sure of the level of the cousin’s education, but at least here in the states he could’ve had an education and a career.
#46
Canning. I was in the canning subreddit awhile back and saw someone using an old sealing technique that led to their food spoiling. In that discussion it was brought up that the USA has done way more research into guaranteed safe canning techniques than a lot of other countries.
#48
You guys are great at a lot of things. The bad s**t gets more press and does a lot of damage because of how influential you are to the world, but your good stuff does a lot of good due to the same factors.
#49
Milkshakes trust me I did not know how bad Denmark made them until I got to the US even the Macdonalds milkshakes tasted good!
#51
My Dad worked as a software developer in the 80s/90s and travelled alot and I always remember him saying "The Yanks are brilliant at explaining things". It always stuck out as a very nice compliment but I think it still rings true.
#52
Compared to other countries I've lived in (UK and Iceland) there's less stigma for having ASD/ADHD and being open about it in SOME STATES. (I live in Washington state, would not be as open when I lived in Arkansas, for example).
#53
Pick any scientific subject matter, and the US has a world leading expert. Whether it’s in the government, our university system, or private industry, the US genuinely has experts in everything.
#54
Imo ice cream! It might not be on par with the best gelato places in Italy, but overall American ice cream is fantastic and the baseline is very high.
I love mint chip but I’ve almost driven myself to madness trying to find it in Scandinavia….
#55
Freedom of religion. Which I know a lot of people will disagree with, and I totally agree that religion has forced its tentacles WAAAAAY too hard into American politics, particularly in recent decades.
It just blows my mind when I’m reading about some other country and some religion or denomination is just flat-out illegal there. The state decides whether or not your religious beliefs are allowed to legally exist. Even if it’s a cult, to have the government step in and say “No, you’re not allowed, we’re afraid you’ll have more loyalty to your cult than to us” is just horrible to me.
It’s what allows the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Catholic Church to co-exist in the same country. Not always *politely,* but peacefully.
It also helps that we’ve never had a state church or religion that you’re assumed to be born into, and you have to file paperwork to get out. If you don’t want to be a member of a religious group and/or you want to stop supporting that group, just…stop. You’re not getting money taken out of your paycheck to pay your minister’s salary. The only time the American government ever sends money towards a religious organization (on an official level, anyway) is if they’re doing some charitable or community work outside of religious belief, like running a school or a food bank. I do believe we need to stop pretending that crisis pregnancy centers are something that needs government funding, but at least they’re getting it under the *guise* of community service and not because “We’re a religion so you need to give us tax money, there.”.
#56
Self reliance and a (often irrational) belief that they have a unique and valuable perspective. That combo has brought a lot of innovation, good and bad.
#58
Am in Germany. The other day, I was waiting for lunch to end outside a government building. The address on Google said that this was the correct door and there were no other signs indicating anything else. Other GERMANS started to gather with me. Lunchtime ended, but no one came to unlock the door. I was the ONLY one who took ANY initiative to find someone who could direct me to the correct entrance. Once I found out the correct door, I had a train of Germans following behind me.
We Americans have moxie. We have the mentality that we CAN...that WE can. We have gumption.
One of the Germans in the group even said "Americans don't get enough credit for taking the initiative without hesitation."
Do we charge in and f**k a lot of things up because we leap before looking? Yes. But sometimes, there isn't time to take the safe route, to take the time to fully analyze and test a situation before sticking one toe in. Sometimes you just gotta dive. .
#59
Publicly available clean and free water for drinking. Water bottle fillers and water fountains all over the place.
#60
Dedication - towards work, towards their nation, towards helping and volunteering in crisis, towards changing their life around and dreaming big.
#62
If you eat at a restaurant: a perpetually-refilled cold glass of water. I hate to complain when I travel outside the U.S., but it's a service that I really appreciate and miss when I'm abroad!
#65
Americans are disproportionately generous with their time and money compared to other cultures. It’s not uncommon for complete strangers to come to your aid if need be.
#66
Every brit I know that's visited the states is always surprised by how friendly people are at local dives. They're always so taken aback that random people will strike up conversations with them.
#68
Spreading ideas.
200 years ago, we were an upstart backwater. Current day, and the entire planet has been influenced by America in some form or another.
#69
Tolerating culture.
Calm down CALM DOWN. But the fact we have 50 states each with its own unique culture that then have about 50-100 subcultures within it without even TOUCHING any racial and or religious side of things is massively impressive. You won’t find that level of cultural difference anywhere else in the world.
#70
Military logistics.
Roman Arendt 12 minutes ago
Yes, the money can all go to military logistics because they save so much of it by treating their veterans like shît.
#71
Breakfast. I’ve lived in several countries and traveled the globe. No one has a tastier breakfast when done right.
#72
The ability to make other peoples food better, and also worse in some cases lol
We have the best comedy in the world
The ability to find and use loopholes.. this can be anything from exiting then reentering the highway to skip a portion of traffic, to legal work arounds.
#73
Every American I've dealt with both online and in person is lovable, nice and a very good friend.
#75
Proficiency with firearms. I'm not being facetious, and all politics aside, Americans that choose to exercise their right to shoot are usually pretty good at it.
Here come the downvotes.
#76
Americans get a reputation as racists because they actually call it out and condemn it more vocally than most countries (thus bringing more attention to racism issues in America), while many other countries have worse systemic racism but forcibly keep it under the table, and some even enforce the silence through police and the military.
What do you think ?
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