Politicians from both left and right of the political spectrum often call the United States the best country in the world. And its citizens tend to agree. In a YouGov poll of more than 11,000 US adults, Americans tended to support the notion by 50% to 31%.
But one New Zealander living in the UK thinks the opposite. And he has made it his mission to argue the point. The man even has a TikTok account called 'America Is The Bad Place.' There, he posts videos addressing mostly social problems within the US, like the cost of healthcare and the quality of higher education, but also challenges American pride and the international image of the nation.
Continue scrolling to check out some of the points he's made and upvote the ones you agree with. Of course, feel free to share your thoughts on these difficult multi-layered issues in the comments—even if you think this guy is wrong.
@america_is_the_bad.place #universalhealthcare #education #USA #America #americaisthebadplace #thegoodplace #thisisthebadplace ♬ original sound - America_is_the_bad_place
#1
Needing to do taxes if you're an employee. Your politicians are bribed by the accounting industry to make your taxes difficult.
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#2
Forcing you to use vacation days when you're ill. Some countries make employers change paid vacation days to paid sick days when you're ill on vacation.
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#3
Not having paid maternity leave. 14 to 68 paid weeks off is the investment that the 15 countries above the US on The Human Freedom Index make in their future taxpayers.
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#4
Having healthcare through an employer. So are doctors needing to argue with companies for you to get what you're prescribed.
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#5
Every minute an American is forced into medical bankruptcy. The only surprise cost in other developed countries is that some hospitals charge visitors for parking.
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#6
Minimum wage not rising with inflation every year.
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#7
Charging parents for their baby's delivery. Other countries consider it an investment in the future tax payers.
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#8
Needing to worry about the cost of an ambulance.
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#9
A country still arguing about whether women should have bodily autonomy.
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#10
Having TV ads for prescription medicine.
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#11
Letting people die of a treatable illness because they don't have enough insurance. A country's first job is to protect its citizens, not to act like a fireman who just continues watering his grass while watching the neighbor's house burn down.
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#12
People getting married for the purpose of qualifying for health care through marriage is weird. So is people needing to divorce a dying loved one to avoid being responsible for their medical debt and all that for the low, low price of 53% more per person than any other country on Earth.
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#13
Needing to post bail if you're not a threat to the public. It shouldn't be a crime to be poor.
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#14
Not getting guaranteed vacation days. 20 to 40 days a year is the norm.
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#15
Sending 18-year-olds to war. When your country doesn't believe they're mature enough to buy beer.
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#16
Measuring your police training in weeks. Two to four years is the norm elsewhere.
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#17
Some of you think that voting should be made harder than buying a gun. Most prisoners in most developed countries can still vote. In some US states, an ex-felon will be blocked from voting, yet his neighbor on the terrorist watchlist will still be allowed to buy weapons.#18
The amount of people you lock up. 116 countries have an incarceration rate per million at under a quarter of the US.
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#19
Hearing fireworks and thinking they could be something other than fireworks. Children should be running to the windows to look not questioning their safety.
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#20
Educational scholarships being a big deal. Education is normally free or heavily subsidized in the developed world.
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#21
Liking guns. They never come up in conversations and it's rare to even see police with them.
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#22
The amount your elections cost. Your five most expensive house of representative seats cost more than any election for any country in Europe.
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#23
You've reinvented the slave trade with your prison system - that's weird. So are your coercive plea bargains, allowing companies that profit off this exploitation to invest unlimited money in the politicians that agree to do their bidding.The strangest thing is that it doesn't even cost much money to bribe a US politician, because if you have enough money to finance their entire next political reelection campaign, then all you have to do is threaten to spend that money on their next primary opponent instead.
#24
Your Senate filibuster bill. The fact that 41% of senators are representing only 27% of the American people can block bills supported by 70% of the American people is about as democratic as just letting Ken Bone be king.#25
Having military recruiters in school. It's especially with the biggest incentives to join the military are healthcare and affordable education, which are just considered human rights in normal countries.
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#26
Playing your national anthem before a sporting event that doesn't involve your country playing another country, especially when it involves kids at school.
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#27
Your military budget being larger than the next 10 countries combined. It looks like the US is running a protection racket, but it's forgotten the first rule of running protection rackets, which is to extort money from the ones you say you're protecting, not to force your own gang members of your own gang to cover all of the operating costs.#28
The amount of murders you have. 49 countries have a homicide rate per million at under a quarter of the US rate.#29
Gerrymandering. Democracy should have their voters choosing their representatives, not their representatives choosing their voters.#30
Banks charging you for bank transfers. So is being charged to use another bank's ATM.
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#31
Doing drills at school for something other than fires and earthquakes. Forcing kids to go through the trauma of lockdown drills. The fact that they're necessary is horrific.
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#32
Putting people in prison for being unable to afford fines. Simply docking pay is the norm.#33
Making unlimited political donations legal, when you've created a fight to the moral bottom, where your elected officials live in constant fear that if they don't accept big money bribes, their political opponents will.
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#34
The US government banning itself from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.#35
Funding your schools through local property taxes. But it does go some way to explain how the US has dropped to 27th on The Global Social Mobility Index.
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#36
Your debt ceiling. Your representatives approve a budget but then months later your representatives have to agree to spend money on a budget your representatives had already agreed on.#37
Counting the amount of people in a county. Normal countries simply count the number of people. The US first counts the number of people. Then adds the amount of corporations. This is because in the US corporations are legally people and donating money is free speech.from Bored Panda https://bit.ly/3uiOlSt
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