What Foreigners Believe Is Wrong About America

The echo from most parts of the world is that "America is a country with the very best and the very worst." This article is about the very worst.
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The echo from most parts of the world is that "America is a country with the very best and the very worst." This article is about the very worst.

Egos. Nobody can't understand the selfish philosophy in America, why a young person or for example an unfortunate lady with a bad start in life is less valued than any others. Many people ask why there must be such a huge difference between rich and poor. Why doesn't everyone have the right to health care, to participate at schools, and to have food and a roof over their head? Where is the humanity and empathy in today's America?

Americans have more people in jail than any country in the world. Nobody understands why America needs to have so many people in jail, and what people are questioning is: Does the American society create more criminals than everywhere else? Or are the punishments in America so much harder than everywhere else? Either way, people think this is something America must deal with.

Before, a Coke and a burger were a symbol of success, youth and great living around the world. Now, American fast food is a symbol of obesity, illness and early death. While American fast food is killing people around the world, it also affects the local farmers who are no longer able to sell their local food, because people abroad strive for the American-Hollywood-illusion-life and therefore are eating American fast food. What they get instead is Western diseases. Luckily, people are starting to wake up in America and also in other countries around the world.

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Photo: René Zografos
Greed. People don't understand why American companies must grow into the sky? Why must they produce and sell all over the world? People think there is a never-ending greed to earn as much money as possible - no matter what comes in their way. The general opinion is that Americans don't care about the balance in nature, or if others are suffering or are forced out of business. Americans must get their hands on as much money as they can, no matter the consequences.

Earth pollution and consumption; the whole idea of "More and bigger is better" is generally viewed as a silly thought. That Americans and American companies and citizens for decades have destroyed a lot of our soil through exploitation of our mother nature is just foolish. Everywhere in the world, people tell me that we must leave our earth in a good condition when we depart, but at the same time many Americans don't seem to care.

American bullies and the new rage from the youngsters in the US. is something that is intolerant for people abroad; there is a fury people didn't see a few years ago. People around the world are bullied by American youngsters. I am not talking about common critical sentences, but hateful, sometimes racist comments and even death threats. It's a fact that an increase of net-bullying is growing in most parts of the world, but at the same time we see more of it from America, and there are more hateful aggressive words and expressions that come from the US than anywhere else. At the same time, people who meet Americans in person are saying that the American youngsters have become weird and not understandable. If there are drug problems or a harder society in America now than before is not for me or anyone outside to say, but we must at the same time look at the facts -- and that is that Americans are the new bullies in the world and people no longer understand or accept such behavior.

With so many people on drugs, desperate immigrants and poor people in a country, people feel it's quite easy to understand why there are so many accidents and attentive actions with weapons. Many think it's absurd that there is about a gun per person in America and that roughly 30,000-40,000 die or are injured by them every year. Australia has successfully tightened their gun-laws, so it should be possible to do the same in the U.S. as well.

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