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Message: [QUOTE="Arnox, post: 13186, member: 1"]IntroductionMany videos on this subject don’t really broach subjects that I feel are actually pretty important about this country, for better and for worse. Especially the cons. In this video, we’re not gonna pull punches here. The United States is definitely the country I love the most dearly for sure, but I’m not gonna do it any favors if I lie to you about it. Now, a quick introduction as to who I am. I’ve been an American for a pretty long while. I was born here. Moved around a fair bit. Most of my relatives are born in the US as well. We all know this country relatively well. I mean… We better since… You know… We live here. But yeah. This video is mostly aimed at those interested in visiting or living here. Hopefully it will be a great resource for you. First though, let’s get the bad all out of the way first, ranked in order from most awful to least awful.Con: Medical BullshitGot a health problem? Need cheap medical care? Then don’t come here ‘cause you’re gonna get screwed between the hospital administration and insurance fees! This also contributes heavily to the United State’s bad mental health situation where many people are in need of therapy and counseling but cannot afford it, or can but simply just don’t want to pay the fees, creating a culture of putting off or even flat out trying to ignore burgeoning mental issues that need to be addressed. The best way to cover medical expenses right now by far is Medicaid, which is basically state-funded medical insurance, but that’s not available at all for many people.Con: Political ‘Us vs. Them’ AttitudesWe’re gonna get into the why of this in the Pros section later on, but the gist of this is that the country on a national level, politically, is heavily cut down the middle between liberals and conservatives, and extremism has begun to creep in. There’s now starting to be a bit of a spotlight shed on this, but it’s still nowhere near the state it needs to be in. Because of this, there’s now these two massive parties that control almost everything, and they can feed drama and outrage to the public all while sneaking in all manner of crap into bills. Now thankfully, there are some checks here and it’s not a total political corruption free-for-all. More on that later in the Pros section as well. Even so though, this Red-vs.-Blue-Us-vs.-Them attitude is slowly beginning to eat this country. If this continues to get worse into the future, we will definitely be heading into Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo.Con: Expensive EducationOk, let’s be honest here. It’s 2023 and we’re in the digital age. If you want to learn something, in most cases, you can do so online completely for free, or just look it up in a public library. Community colleges and universities are for getting certified. And for a long while, if you wanted a good job, you went to college. Simple as that. But nowadays, college costs are starting to get out of hand, and what’s worse, educational loans cannot even be cleared with a bankruptcy. Because these colleges can now ask whatever they want and get it guaranteed by the government, they’re now asking for incredibly high amounts of money. Now thankfully, community colleges are still a viable option, but that won’t do for every profession, and because of the exorbitant costs for education with some professions, the available labor force in those areas is steadily beginning to shrink.Con: Corporate BullshitThere’s starting to be a lot of oligopolies in the United States and it’s really starting to show. It feels like every year or two, there’s some play on a specific market of goods by some massive corporation simply in order to increase shareholder profits, and the government just sits there and doesn’t really do anything about it. Sometimes this happens in a market where there’s at least some competition left, so consumers can at least tell these giant corpos to screw themselves and buy from the competition, but that’s not always an option. A good example of this is AMD and Nvidia during the major graphics card shortage artificially driving up prices and selling in bulk to cryptominers, or many internet service providers having complete control of, say, all fiber in an area and being able to deliver only shoddy quality at incredibly overinflated prices for years. Now, in fairness, other countries also have this problem sometimes, but I do at least feel like it can get particularly bad in the United States.Con: Finding a JobThis heavily depends on a lot of factors, admittedly, and those factors may allow you to get a great job incredibly easily. Nevertheless though, if those factors don’t pan out, you’ll find yourself pulling your hair out in frustration and depression. Just for starters, the mere act of applying for a job officially is long and repetitive and annoying and long and repetitive and annoying. Instead of just submitting a resume, you will probably also be asked to fill out these redundant special snowflake job applications for every single company you apply to. Job listings will sometimes not be accurate at all and may also list requirements that may be overly hard to meet or even occasionally downright impossible. This is because many companies have an HR department that is too often absolutely clueless, forcing prospective employees to jump through all these hoops and then maybe denying all the applicants anyway because they decided to give the job to their brother Ronald across the street.Con: Family Life Is Beginning to SufferAnd finally, our last con deals both with the financial situation and cultural situation of some families in America. It’s just not doing good right now as raising a family is getting financially tougher, and some of the parents that are out there are disregarding their kids too much, creating not just tough school situations for other kids and also teachers to say the very least, but also creating other future issues as the last generation gives way to the new generation. There generally just needs to be more stability in American families, both financially and socially.Con: Public Transport Isn’t GreatMany countries have public transport pretty much figured out by now, but the US is lagging behind in this. Some cities have great public transportation and some don’t. If a city is small enough, it may even be utterly non-existent. This is because the US definitely has a big car culture. Unfortunately, the cost of this is that it has resulted in public transportation not being taken seriously for a long time, and even today, it’s still looked at skeptically. Alright, now let’s move on to the pros.Pro: The Bill of RightsOk, that’s a large list of problems. So what’s the best thing about living in the United States then? Is it the scenery? The tech? The wide variety of restaurants? No, actually it’s the Bill of Rights (though, we will be going over all that other stuff too). Now, listen up everyone. The Bill of Rights are the first 10 amendments made to the Constitution of the United States, and they were made literally right after the Constitution was ratified. And these first 10 amendments established to every citizen in the United States the rights that many, MANY other countries absolutely wipe their ass with in one form or another. This part is gonna be a bit of a long one, but this is incredibly important to go over, and if you plan to live here, you absolutely 100% NEED to understand what this all is.In the UK, you can and will be prosecuted with vague hate speech laws. In China, you can and will be jailed for speaking out in any way against the government. In certain parts of Africa, you can and will be searched and your stuff seized at any time for any reason. In many parts of Europe, you will be fried if you own any firearms without a license which is also expensive, and also regularly expires. That is if you are even granted a license in the first place, and even when you have it, you are restricted from owning many types of firearms and are further restricted in how you can carry them.Now, I don’t know what your current attitude is towards each of these rights. Maybe you agree with all of them, or maybe only some of them, or maybe you even hate them all. I don’t know. I do know though that if you wanna live here and not just visit, then you need to accept that the Bill of Rights is NON-NEGOTIABLE, and it is both your privilege to exercise them as you see fit, and your duty to protect them both for yourself and for others. The Bill of Rights is key to our identity and is the biggest advantage of living the US by far… Alright then, I’m gonna get off the soap box now.Pro: National Defense is Insanely StrongMilitary wise, the United States is one of, if not the most overpowered country in the world. With the most well-trained and disciplined military along with the biggest defense budget of any nation, it makes it rather easy to sleep good, knowing that if another country ever tries to start shit with yours, your country will be more than ready to meet it at any time and to lock it down. It’s something you don’t ever really think about or appreciate until you lose that protection.Pro: Mostly Solid InfrastructureThe big caveat to this is that it’s a flip of the coin as to whether you’ll be in an area with solid internet service provider options. Beyond that though, things are almost entirely stable here. You shouldn’t ever have to worry about the safety of the food or the cleanliness of the drinking water, or the quality of your medications, or the consistency of power to your house. It should just work without a hitch. There are a few oddball areas where some of this doesn’t apply, but it’s definitely pretty rare. So rare in fact that it usually makes the headline news.Pro: Easy Access to Tons of ProductsThe United States is one of the core trade hubs in the world, and because of that, we’re one of the countries that enjoy priority access to almost every kind of product made in the world. And the things that we don’t have easy access to can usually be shipped over for comparatively cheap. This also links directly with the incredible food scene here in the United States. We have such a wide variety of foods available in even semi-large cities and tons of grocery stores that stock all manner of foods. Whatever your taste may be, we’re bound to have something you like over here.Pro: Easy Access to The Latest TechRight along with our general access to products, we are also one of the leaders in technological development. Japan sometimes eats our lunch in this regard, but beyond that, you name it, we got it. And this extends even further into the used market. There’s so much older but still perfectly good electronics and PC parts just floating around in the US. We got electronics coming out of our ass. Desktops and laptops that would be rare or cost a lot in other countries will be sold here for nothing. Like yesterday’s news. If you’re a nerd and you love your gadgetry and software, the United States is one of the foremost places to be, without a doubt. Again, only Japan sometimes beats us in this.Pro: Incredible Beauty and Variety in NatureThe United States is a very big place and it’s got so much variation in its areas, from the tropical South to the snowy North to the grasslands of the Midwest to the scenic rocky beaches of the Pacific Northwest to the thick forests in the East. Even further, many of these beautiful places are fully preserved by the national park service, which means you don’t ever have to worry about these lands getting bought out by some rich old dude who plays golf in the Virgin Islands and uses his Lamborghini as a golf cart.Pro: The Freedom to Move AboutBeyond the scenic wilderness though, there’s also another benefit to the size of the United States, and that’s the ability to just simply drive and move between states without a care in the world. Point at any place on a map of the US, and if you got the gas and your car is, of course, reliable enough, you can go there and stay as long as you want. Wherever you want, whenever you want. It’s all in your reach.Pro: Easy Access to Foreign VisasBeing a citizen of the United States in good standing seems to guarantee that your passport will be accepted in damn near every country. Double points too if you work in a high-demand profession like medicine or engineering. Of course, there’s actually a fair few countries that are the same in this regard as well, but certainly not all, and either way, the US is definitely one of those privileged countries. Getting citizenship in another country though is usually a whole other can of worms and even with US citizenship, you’ll still very likely find it hard to meet the requirements to be recognized as a citizen in another country, so just be aware of that.Pro: Incredible Variety in EverythingAlthough I think this has been demonstrated by the other points to an extent, I really want to emphasize that the United States very very likely has your particular brand of poison, whatever it may be. Cars, massages, flowers, food, drugs, sports, competition, weapons, history, conventions, buildings, leading professors, books, supermodels, technology, clothing… We got it all. Even if you really don’t like many aspects of this country, if anything else, it’s hard to turn away from having all of this at your fingertips.Pro: Passion and DriveSome Americans will argue for one thing, and others will argue for another, but one thing you usually can’t say is that Americans don’t have fire in them. Ladies and gentlemen, the fire is real. The hussle is real. Although this aspect can definitely be a negative, it’s also fueled a ton of innovation and change for the better in this country. You’ll find Americans usually respect and strive for personal power. Trying to be better people and to increase their independence. Of course, the United States is a big and diverse place, and this isn’t always the case, but I think you’ll find this is the rule rather than the exception.Pro: Quick ServiceMany island nations have this notorious issue where things are usually done at a snail’s pace. In the US, that speed of service is almost completely alien to us. Stores and restaurants actually respect your time and will usually get things done at a very appreciable pace. This way, you’ll find yourself spending much less time waiting and more time getting to do what you want to do.ConclusionThe United States is a place that costs a lot in more ways than one to live here, but in return, you get so much out of it as well. The United States comparatively moves fast and hard. For better and for worse, things here are less stable and more active. We are passionate, sometimes for the wrong reasons, but still, that drive is in us. If you come here, you will probably grow to have that too. Or not! And that’s okay. The US is not for everyone, but of course, there really isn’t another country like it.[/QUOTE]

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