To be so intrigued by America?

And this is all absolutely spot-on

I’m not American and I’ve not visited BUT I read an account by a man with a heart problem and no money. Every time he had a heart issue, a hospital would do the bare minimum to get him back out of the door. They would only sort the problem properly when the man was literally at death’s door and there were no other options.
if true, I don’t fancy that system at all.

I’m from the UK but now live in the States and have done for about 20 years. Any preconceptions you might have about the US are probably wrong. Mine certainly were. It’s a foreign country, it’s very different, I think peiple expect the two countries to have more in common because of the shared language.

I don’t know what you mean about no right to housing or benefits.

There’s a lot I love about the US and then some I can’t and will never be able to wrap my head around.

Im here currently and travel here frequently for work! The thing that struck me the most about the USA is that you are either a “ have” or a “ have not” there is no other option! Wealthy or poor! There really is an attitude of get out there and earn your money, unlike the UK where to many are content to live off the taxpayers. There is also a massive correlation between how vile and full of all sorts of chemicals reasonably priced food is and the fact that they have to pay for healthcare!

I get that but the point is that it's so culturally different. People just wouldn't turn up to work in Europe without pay, they'd be riots, everything would grind to a halt.

Just a few points from someone who adores the USA.

• huge range of states; governance and culture really vary from state to state.
• Americans are much, much more structurally generous than Brits. Giving to charities, social organisations etc, both in money and time, is stratispherically higher than it is over here. What they don’t choose is to have the federal state as involved as the state is here. That has positives and negatives, but there is absolutely no lack of sharing, caring and giving, much more locally and flexibly than we do.
• American healthcare is the best in the world, and it is freely available to those without any money at all. It’s the low income worker that struggles, and a tangled range of vested interests keeps costs high and public health variable.
• What is presented to us in the media is of course distorted. The US is presented as ‘anti-vax’ but they have much stricter standards on vaccination than we do, or as ‘anti abortion’ when a big proportion of states have much better abortion laws than we do in the UK.

Good summary

Because ultimately they will get paid. The banks will pay their wages in the knowledge they’ll get back payments.

I always think you need to look to history to understand a lot of this sort of thing. Fundamentally America is full of people who are literal pioneers, chasing the dream of a new life. They believe in self mastery and shaking off state institutions and over reach. The UK is surprisingly innovative. We punch high for our size, we’re just not very good at commercialising the things we invent. Again, I think that’s a function of being much earlier in the game to shake off the feudal system and reduce the monarchy to a symbolic role lacking executive power, and then one of the earliest industrialise, thereby freeing people up to better themselves and chase ideas

I don't understand why they are still turning up to work whilst not being paid during the government shut down. That would never happen in the UK, everyone would down tools.

Its a very different culture and outlook even those whom appear more left wing have views that are not really inline with what we consider left wing here

its a new country and country built on self reliance and violence and its a country of extremes, for all the bad there are some amazing things about the US, to me it seems it has the best and the worse of the western world

we as a country really do not have a socialist heart