Is America Really That Bad?

Cannizzaro@feddit.ch to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 312 points –

Been seeing a lot about how the government passes shitty laws, lot of mass shootings and expensive asf health care. I come from a developing nation and we were always told how America is great and whatnot. Are all states is America bad ?

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It depends. I'm a Canadian who frequently crosses the border.

The cities close by the border seem perfectly cromulent, everyone's super nice and accepting. The gas is definitely cheaper, and there is a wider variety of products on offer than in Canada.

There are certainly areas of the US that I'd want to avoid (Florida comes to mind, I would get hate-murdered the very millisecond I stepped there), but the good areas are good. Like someone else said, just don't get caught being poor or with medical issues.

I think it also depends a lot on visiting versus living there. I'm also Canadian and the US is generally great to visit. There's some states I don't trust anymore nor want to give my money anyway, but the progressive states are great and for a large part, American culture doesn't really feel all that different from Canadian culture, especially as a non resident.

They are considerably higher crime, though, and the way they approach guns just makes me extremely uncomfortable. I've never seen places like convenience stores be as locked down in any Canadian city I've been to compared to many American cities I've been to. I had a long distance relationship with someone who lived in Atlanta and wow does Atlanta feel unsafe compared to really any Canadian city (and I lived in Saskatoon for years, which is one of the highest crime Canadian cities).

But as a resident? Ehhhh. I'd never want to live in the US, even though the opportunity has come up and I'd make so much more money if I did. Their politics can largely be ignored as a visitor, but as a resident, they'd actually matter a lot more. And their health care system is batshit crazy. Canadian health care has a lot of problems, but I wouldn't wish the American system on my worst enemy.

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