To hope that if Britain leaves the Eu so we can become the 51st State.

[GreenTeaMummy]

I love American culture so much and would love to be American, I visit every year and have lots of family who live in America.

I was thinking that since we can't be alone in the world (for various reasons) we would have to join the U.S.

Aibu to think we should have a second referendum to join America.

Well obv are just both pie in the sky musings but Australia is pretty untempting.

To the people asking what possible charms the USA could have, here are some I noticed while living there:

• property is cheaper and people's houses tend to be a lot bigger,
• low VAT and lower taxes makes you feel richer (I am in favour of higher taxes but can't deny that there is a pleasing psychological effect in feeling more cash rich),
• apart from in high crime inner city areas (which people don't go to unless they live in them), crime in the US is very low, much lower than the UK. In city centres and the suburbs it feels and is a lot safer than the UK,
• there's a lot less public drunkenness (eg on late night buses/trains etc) - this is actually one of the biggest things I noticed. Drunk people are not hostile (no real equivalent to drunk and aggressive football fans),
• although home cooking is weird (completely different tastes from in the UK) and obviously a lot of the food is crap, in 'foodie' towns restaurant food is a lot better and cheaper than the UK
• much less 'everyday sexism'
• much less swearing (might be a plus for some)
• no moaning (didn't realise how much English people, including me, do this, til I lived in the states, where it is really frowned upon)
• much more 'niceness' - less office drama etc (flipside is that it can feel a bit distant and fake)

Disclaimer: I completely agree with the comments made about how dire the situation is in the US with regard to institutional and cultural racism, healthcare, over-imprisonment (this is also linked with racism), gun control, woman's right to choose, funding of many local services with property taxes meaning that , ridiculously right wing government/media, hysterical knee jerk reactions to anyone who expresses views vaguely critical of the US/Israel, terrible conditions on farms (leading to public health disasters waiting to happen wrt immunity to antibiotics), and a general social pressure to 'conform' which is extremely wearing.

However on a day to day basis, I found the US a very pleasant place to be.

Two roast turkey dinners per year

Many (probably most) Americans have ham or roast beef as the main course for Christmas dinner.

f only they could be as advanced as the English and produce quality cultural explorations like Coronation St and The Sun.

And you accuse usof stereotyping?

Aren't you forgetting the red double decker buses and the SMOG?
And we ALL come from London dontcha know?

It is all moot anyway, as there is no way the US would accept the UK as a state.

Phew.

Dear Burke

Why the heck do we need guns for self defence? Our murder rate is dropping like a stone. Gun crime outside of inner cities is almost unheard of. The biggest threat to an armed American is themselves. They are a lot more likely to shoot themselves than shoot a burglar.

If your a parent and you keep a gun for self defence then where do you keep it? If you make access to it easy then there’s a good chance one of your kids can get hold of it and that can’t end well. If you keep it safely locked away, then when the burglar breaks in, you can’t access it in a hurry and it’s no use to you. The self defence idea is a fallacy.

Post Hungerford, semi automatic weapons were banned and post Dunblane pistols were banned. How many brits have done mass murder on that scale since then? I can think of two 7/7 and Shipman. Carrying a gun in either of those situations wouldn’t have helped.

If you want a gun be honest and just say “I want a gun because I like guns.”

And as for the idea that you can’t kill as many people with a semi automatic than you can with an automatic, it pretty much shows you don’t know much about guns. Am automatic rifle will empty the mag in a few seconds and after the first three rounds the rifle is wildly off target. A semi automatic gives the shooter just to adjust his aim after every shot. A professional soldier using an automatic weapon will fire three shots, release then fire another three shots to allow him to adjust his aim.

As for the yank bashing. It’s not fair. People tend to forgot that despite the common(ish) language we have two very different cultures. Slagging them off for their culture is like slagging off the French for being different.

No way, I'd much rather stay in the EU thank you very much. As a woman the crazy laws they make over there with regards to birth control etc make me very glad I live in the UK.

What crazy laws are you referring to? Birth control is readily and easily available everywhere in the US.

In the US they have poor laws for Maternity leave. You get 12 weeks.... Unpaid :/

Maternity leave depends on the employer. Some pay; some don't. I think you are referring to the Family Medical Leave Act which covers much more than maternity.

Burke "just how would would they be "defending themselves" against a man with a knife? Exactly it's next to impossible

Not necessarily. One of my colleagues was carjacked a few years ago - one of the carjackers had a knife and tried to stab him. Fortunately my colleague was able to grab at the attacker's wrists and fend the knife away from his body and head.They then pushed him out of the car and tried to run him over as they drove off. My colleague ended up with a fair few cuts on his hands and lower arms, but nothing too serious. If they'd had a gun, now, he really would have had a next to impossible chance at self defence if they'd decided to use it against him.

Maternity leave policies also differ according to state law.

I'm sure birth control is available freely in the U.S. but the bonus is that it's free in the UK.

Ooh yes birth control is so pricey in the USA! I paid $40/month for the pill. I dread to think what it's like without health insurance.

What's a good maternity 'package' then?

Because from what I'm reading, the 12 weeks is all that is guaranteed, anything else is a benefit. See link here:
(www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/dec/03/-sp-america-only-developed-country-paid-maternity-leave)
It says, for example;
"California now offers up to six weeks of paid leave for workers, at 55% of their regular weekly wage."

"The US federal government has guaranteed “job-protected” unpaid leave for both mothers and fathers since 1993 – as long those mother and fathers have been full-time employees for least 12 months at a company with more than 50 employees."

That's pretty shit.

Six weeks?

With insurance birth control pills range from $5-$40 per month. Without insurance, the cost generally ranges from $20-$50 per month. Most insurance plans in the US cover birth control.

I was responding to the poster who referenced "crazy laws," which suggested to me laws limiting the availability of birth control.

The amount of paid maternity leave depends on the employer and the state. But it is certainly no where as liberal as in the UK. It is complicated by the fact that employers also allow employees to use other types of leave as maternity leave. Where I work, most people take 2-3 months, with some, but not all of that, paid.

The USA is the only country in the developed world that does not have state funded maternity pay.
Let alone paternity pay.
It therefore has lower rates of female workforce participation than others.

The USA is alone in the OECD in not having VAT : hence it has a much more distorted tax net.

There are court cases ongoing where employers do not want their employees to have access to contraception on their health insurance.

Let alone the destruction of the right to a legal abortion.

I feel with the US, it's great place to visit - good fun, extraordinary natural wonders etc. But the realities of living there, compare to the UK, would be a bit depressing. Lack of annual leave, no real maternity/paternity rights, ridiculous healthcare system, weird 'at-will' employment rules that mean you can lose a job for no reason.

I am American and then became British. I have lived extensively in both countries. Can I just say that my American family would be just as horrified at the thought of becoming British/ European. This is their overall opinion of the UK: it rains all the time/ shit weather, awful food, everything covered in gravy and pastry and boiled to death, astronomical prices and taxes, lazy/ no work ethic/ always on holiday, people live in tiny, cramped houses on top of each other, no control over healthcare (what if I need to see a specialist and there's a 2 month wait?), gov't controls your life, and on and on. I'm saying that this is what this thread might look like if it were reversed. And likely many Brits would argue why all the above is wrong/ doesn't matter.

Frankly, going on holiday in a place isn't really enough time to understand what it means to be a citizen. American has its problems, as many pointed out, but it's not some shithole that you'd rather die than live in. It's just a different place than the UK. I wouldn't want US/ UK to be one country either, and it would never in a million years happen. I don't think America is a perfect place and many things need changing, but some here are judging hundred of millions of people and thousands of miles of country based on what they read in a newspaper or a two week holiday in Florida, or a friend of a friend who is related to an American. I'm not saying all things written on this thread are untrue, but that it needs to be taken in context of a complete life as an American, which most on here haven't experienced.

'UK people live in tiny, cramped houses on top of each other'
Ah but Bennybeans, not everybody in the US gets to live in those nice big houses, do they now?
I have never seen so many run-down trailer park type housing as I saw in the states.
There is a lot of poverty in the states.

I think the point henny is trying to make is, nether country is perfect, and people in the UK might easily get offended if an American came on this thread and started saying bad things about British People.

However, on the whole, I do think people have kept it polite and 'factual' with avoiding generic 'american people bashing'. :)

I agree with you 001, there are a lot of nasty comments about America.
There are good and bad points about each country.
We dislike it when Americans come out with stereotypes about UK, so we shouldn't do the same.

(I did see a lot of cramped, rundown looking trailer parks when I was traveling out there, but to be fair, we also have all our council housing which must look really depressing to visiting Americans)