To be so intrigued by America?

And not "as".

It is quite a complicated political system to understand and I doubt many UK citizens are that interested to look into it as I doubt many Americans care that much about our constitution.

People like quick soundbites that are easy to understand.

Such as "Trump banned abortions" and "there is no medical care for the poor in the US".

In reality the actual situation is a lot more complex than this but unfortunately it requires some significant time and effort to dig into it and actually understand whats going on.

Because UK people don't really have a "state system" (we have counties but the power devolved to them is relatively limited and invariant compared to what happens in the US states) there is also a real lack of understanding in the UK of how US governance/law works and why it works in the way it does. For example you really have to look at things like why the US states historically have so much devolved power from the Federal government to understand why some laws might vary on a State by State basis and not on a Federal one.

I would say about 90% of the posts re the US on here are incorrect and show a lack of understanding of US governance and politics and how it works. More jumping on the "we want to hate so and so" and "we want to do down the US" bandwagons than actually understanding the greater issues involved.

@Goldenbear Thanks for the information. I always appreciate being given facts and statistics, rather than personal anecdotes and opinions. Too many people are too willing to believe one thing they read about or base their opinion on just one person's experience.

in the US, travel insurance is different to the UK and is just is just for covering things like missing bags or having to cancel. Medical insurance overseas is covered by our usual domestic policy. The only time I get travel insurance is when I am going on a cruise (in case we need airlifting off or something)

A couple of things I cannot get my head around with regard to the US are the gun culture and their lack of decent maternity leave. Workers’ rights seem quite poor, and their annual leave allocations seem to be horrendous.

Not according to this data, in fact: "More than one in five children aged 0-17 were living in poverty in the United States, according to this data, placing it as one of the countries to stand well above the 38-country average of 12.6 percent."

https://www.statista.com/chart/4191/global-child-poverty-rates-in-perspective/

I know this is pedantic, but please don’t confuse the continent of North America with the country of America.

It is more of a cultural attitude I'm referring to, which is somewhat less present in Australia and definitely much less present in (most of) America. The idea that the state should not just step in for emergencies but is the default provider of all services. It should not just provide funds but actually supply the services too.

I have met a few people from California and NY who are all in on social democracy or democratic socialism or whatever term they are using now. Some of them are really radical - like "let's abolish property rights" level of radical. (I really disagree with people who say the American left is further right than our right-wing.) But I don't know, the difference to me is something like, they know what they are proposing is radical. It's not their default way of thinking.

There isn't an entrenched idea across the entire country that of course the state is your landlord, teacher and employer, and why would it be any different. This to me is actually quite "odd", and is more than just a safety net.

The UK is very socialist. I didn't have this impression at all coming in when I moved here, having spent my life in several different former British colonies so influenced by an older form of British culture. But today it is undeniably so.

I assumed maybe it was like Australia in that there was a social safety net but mostly capitalist society.

I don't think this is based on "centuries of collectivism and community spirit" but something that changed concretely post-WWII.

There is just a desire for the state to control everything, everything is the state's problem to solve and not only that, it should ideally be illegal for anyone else to try to solve those problems privately. It's suspicious if you try to do things outside the state way, e.g. private healthcare, education, even housing.

Places like America are heavily influenced by being frontier colonies that valued a certain type of spirit, but most of the founders of America were of British stock to start with... They say American spellings trace back to an older form of British spellings and sometimes I wonder if the same is true for other cultural aspects as well.

That doesn’t help the genuine cases those does it? They could’ve asked for the mum to come down with her baby and they will see what they can do.

As PP's have said it's impossible to overstate the size and diversity of the place. I lived in Oklahoma for 3 years and having "been to America" before was bowled over by the culture shock at first. A holiday in Florida or NYC is as similar to living somewhere like OK as a holiday in Portugal would be to moving to Latvia.

Much I loved about the place and much I would never be able to fathom in million years!

“They would be out one can of baby formula” - this is how scammers test people. “Oh, please, she’s so hungry. I just need one can of formula.” They get the formula, which establishes that these people will give them something free without any vetting. Then they start their slow-boil escalation. Next week - “I’m so sorry, I really hate that I have to ask you, but we just had to pay for new car tabs so my husband and I can drive to work, and we’re short on money now. I just need one or two cans - one is fine if that’s all you can do…”

A canister of powdered formula sells in stores for about twenty dollars. Now every time a scammer wants some money for herself, she gets the free formula and sells it to someone with an actual baby for a few dollars less than in the store. Let’s say seventeen dollars. Get three churches to give you a free canister, and bam, you just made fifty bucks. (Fifty-one, actually…)

Baby formula is a frequently stolen item for people who plan to resell it. Like this guy:

https://www.wpbf.com/article/florida-officials-crack-down-on-organized-retail-theft-in-major-baby-formula-case/68022534

Most churches in the US organize at least a couple food drives a year. Mine has an ongoing food drive, with a push for donations around holidays and in the summer when kids aren’t getting any free food at school. If churches only do specific help-on-demand for church members, it’s probably because they actually know those people and their situations.

We are British and live in the UK and have been to America loads and love it.
I am always surprised at how many people in the UK criticise Americans and America and we find out they have never even been there! I find it really annoying and rude. There are good and bad things in America and in Britain.
Please everyone have respect for others and their country. It comes across as very unpleasant.
My experience of Americans and America has been fantastic. The people have mostly been very helpful and friendly. So many people watch a program and believe everything they hear. Everyone is allowed to have opinions but it’s always better if you have actually been there rather than believing everything you see on tv or the internet.

Also I think another misunderstanding is how vastly complicated the US is in terms of systems. It's a federation, so there is the power of the federal state over certain things (and this is where the Trump power grab gets very un-American), but at the same time every state has different laws, tax regimes, education systems, healthcare etc. Moving states will absolutely affect how you live as an individual on pretty much all levels. In terms of the US being less socialist - again, depends on how you define that term. Depending where you are, communities can be very powerful for example. Take the idea of tithing among evangelicals (essentially a religious tax whereby a household will donate 10% of their income to their church). That allows for community projects to be funded (and for greedy pastors to get rich!) and also explains why some people push back against federal or state taxes because they're already donating a large amount to their community and they'd rather decide themselves where their money goes. The point isn't so much that it's more individualistic as a culture (although it largely is) but it's really about deciding what power the federal state has over states and communities around the country. If you look at it that way, the whole place makes a bit more sense. The irony of Trump and MAGA is that he ran on a deep-seated sense of distrust against the federal state. To caricature: it's the cliché that one man and his gun will look after his family better than any suit in DC ever will. That's going back decades if not centuries. Now though, DJT and his ilk are turning that federal power into a tool to subjugate the entire country. Can't see how that will end well to be honest.

What did she do after the 3 months?

Asking because I've just started mat leave (in the UK) and my colleagues in our US office have been telling me repeatedly how lucky I am to get 12 months, how in the US women take 3-4 months and then the vast majority return to work full time because if they want to take longer, even on unpaid leave, their employer will fire them with no repercussions. Baby starts daycare whilst barely out of the newborn phase and mum has to crack on whatever state she might be in post partum.

I literally don't know how American women do it.

But the extent of that coverage is under threat if the Democrats completely cave and the funding bill passes as is. I'm not American but it's a country I do know well. I have close friends who are very anxious about losing their health coverage next year. And I know quite a few who are directly helping acquaintances with food parcels so that their kids have something decent to eat. It's meant to be a wealthy nation but the economic vulnerability of the lower 30% is totally understated outside the US.

It's no surprise, and nothing new.

A few people have claimed American healthcare is the best in the world. I think that slightly sweeping statement needs a bit of unpacking. I would say that while truly excellent healthcare is certainly available to you in the US, as a system it leaves an awful lot to be desired. Did you know that per capita, US citizens pay more for Medicare/ Medicaid, which most of them have no access to, than we pay for the NHS? Not to mention the spiralling costs, insurance battles, it being normalised that terminal illnesses have the ability to force a person into destitution. Even Joe Biden, while Vice President, was considering selling his house when his son was dying, because his son’s treatment was not covered by insurance.

I think as part of the Anglosphere we look at the US system and the NHS and forget there are excellent systems within Europe. And speaking of Europe, the answer to why we’re culturally different to the US lies there. We are European. Our centre of historical and cultural gravity, for centuries, lay there. Hollywood and the sense that the US is on the doorstep is comparatively new.

im shocked at how many of them seem to think things like travel insurance is just completely useless
So you experienced and dealt with one event, with people who chose not to take travel insurance complaining at what seems to have been poor treatment and you decided that this applies to Americans as a whole.

Do you know how many Brits travel without health insurance?

Honestly, talk about how to label a whole society based on nothing!

We’re not doing this.

Don't base your views on one video or one anecdote!