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Original poster

Does everyone want to live in the US?

846 replies

AteRiri · 22/12/2016 19:43

I was talking to an American friend and he made this blanket statement, "Everyone wants to come here!"

Is this true?

OP posts:
OVienna · 25/12/2016 10:02

Too all the Americans getting huffy and offended on this this thread- we are really the only country where a sizable portion of the population genuinely believes it's the greatest nation on earth AND bangs on about it then wonders why people think they're obnoxious and irritating. And xenophobic. And blah blah blah. I cant believe this theead has run to this many pages. Not e eryone wants to live there - get over it.

Billben · 25/12/2016 10:16

No, definitely not. A visit, yes, but to live there, no way.

Headofthehive55 · 25/12/2016 13:33

want2b
I think that's the same attitude we are talking about. The absolute disbelief that not everyone wants to live there. Not everyone has the same values, or likes. Telling someone that it's great weather - it's only one opinion and not necessarily true for everyone.
Not everyone has good prospects working there either - it depends on what they wish to do. It also depends on what you have in your own country that you value and would not like to give up.

SenecaFalls · 25/12/2016 14:39

Different queue at the supermarket if using food stamps. How unnecessarily divisive and humiliating!

I've been grocery shopping in many different states for almost 50 years and have never seen this. The benefits are on a debit card so the payment looks just like any other card.

SenecaFalls · 25/12/2016 15:11

Maybe this is the reason I have never seen it:

From the food stamp (SNAP program) guide for retailers:

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program. ”

Meeep · 25/12/2016 15:25

If DH got a transfer to work in America for two years I would probably stay here with the children.
Five years I'd probably go, but I'd cry a lot about it.

GoLightlyHollie · 25/12/2016 16:50

Yes, yes, yes. I'd live there tomorrow. It's the best country in the worLd and they know it. There are definitely issues there but i would live there in an absolute heartbeat. (The coasts anyway, probably not the middle)

CoteDAzur · 25/12/2016 18:04

"It's the best country in the worLd"

According to which criteria? Confused

DarthPlagueis · 25/12/2016 18:17

www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/20/these-are-the-worlds-best-countries-sorry-america-youre-number-4/?utm_term=.3643ba580cd1

Well according to Wharton School its not. Its Germany, with the UK ahead of the US.

The US also doesn't have any cities in the top 20 of the world's most liveable cities.

So no, by all judging criteria its not the best place to live. Its also highly unequal using the gini coefficient.

See that is what gets up people's noses.

BelladiNotte · 25/12/2016 18:20

Surely no country can be "the best country in the world"? Utopia as a one size fits all doesn't exist, surely?

But this thread's done one thing for me, it's made me homesick and heartsick for North Carolina, and particularly for the chapel hill area. SO I've been playing going to Carolina in my mind by James Taylor, on a loop. He grew up in the area my folks live and was thinking of that when he wrote it. (Sniff, gulp)
I've lived in the uk for 15-16 years now, and it's still not 'home' to me. Sigh...

CoteDAzur · 25/12/2016 18:26

This just had to be posted here re Is US the greatest country in the world?

unicornlovermother · 25/12/2016 19:44

I'm not an American getting huffy. I am British and I happily live in the US where I feel safer than I ever did in the UK, and have always noticed this weird superiority complex the UK has about the US. I am glad lots of you don't want to move here frankly because I like people positive and optimistic and I have met so many friendly Americans since moving here.
There are very few Americans on here getting huffy- I assumed this was just another of those- let's slag the US off threads because so many people in the Uk seem to have a chip on their shoulder about the US. Who is asking you to come and live here? No one? It is very hard for Brits to actually get into the US on a visa and then as a permanent resident so most of you don't even have the choice of coming to live here.
I moved from a major city in the UK to a major city in the US and it is such a better life here compared to what we had in the UK so lucky us and lucky all of yo who don't want to live here- it wasn't ever a real option for you anyway.

ocelot41 · 25/12/2016 19:54

Oh God no! Have you seen their annual leave allowance? Canada maybe, NZ maybe, America nuh-uh. Crazy consumerist work-until you-die society.

CoteDAzur · 25/12/2016 19:55

"Who is asking you to come and live here? No one?"

Erm you might like to read the OP. This thread is in response to the assumption that everyone wants to live in the US.

"lucky all of yo who don't want to live here- it wasn't ever a real option for you anyway"

Again, sorry to rain on your parade but it is not that hard at all to move to the US. You find company who wants to employ you or you set up a business of your own. Or family members already living in the US sponsor you.

I was offered a job in the US and have family members living in 3 different states. I haven't lived there because I don't want to.

Serin · 25/12/2016 20:11

No.

The cousins that I have out there are applying for English citizenship and want to move here. Their parents were English but they were born in the USA.

DarthPlagueis · 25/12/2016 20:16

"lucky all of yo who don't want to live here- it wasn't ever a real option for you anyway."

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I can go back any time I like, permanently, just because I wouldn't choose to doesn't mean I can't. As others have said it isn't that difficult.

OVienna · 25/12/2016 21:39

I am American myself living in the UK and only ever get asked by American relatives if I am raising my children to think America is "the greatest." Deny all you like but the outlook most definitely exists, it is unique to the US, and it is a strange and puzzling outlook.

PS - yup, still huffy!

QueenLizIII · 25/12/2016 21:45

Hell no.
No NHS. 10 days annual leave. Sod all maternity leave. Bad food. Vast swathes of the country are religious zealots. President Trump. If you can breathe you can buy a gun.

Why would anyone want to live there.

OVienna · 25/12/2016 21:54

Obsessed by the Royals too. Hilariously so.

OVienna · 25/12/2016 22:22

I mean, last April I was seriously asked as if it were a rhetorical question whether the UK had 'the same sort of immigration probkem we have in the US'. There is a fundamental belief the US is bursting at the seams in certain quarters- as we all know well know. 'Are you aware there is a Referendum to leave the EU in June and that in fact this is one issue peoplw are tslking about night and day?' No but I know who Cressida Bonas is. FFS.

And don't evrn get me started on the religious radio broadcasting Ive heard on road trips which is presented as real news.

No - this thinking isn't universal. But for sure it exists.

No one is saying Britain or anywhere else is perfect. The OP encountered an American who believed that given the choice most people would want to live there. It's not a unique view by any means. The answer for many people is no, for legitimate reasons. Sorry they're hard to hear.

TheInternetIsForPorn · 25/12/2016 23:02

Nope. Not even a little bit. Gun crime stats are just the starting point of the many reasons why I wouldn't want to live there.

pinkiponk · 25/12/2016 23:22

I lived there and loved it! The no NHS thing was bloody annoying but I loved the friendly people, the weather and the optimism!

I think it depends where you go- where I lived no one cared for guns or being dogmatically pro life or any of that carry on.

GloriousHarpy · 25/12/2016 23:54

No. DH and I lived in Boston for a couple of years in the 1990s and had permanent residency visas under the Morrison scheme. We enjoyed our time there in some ways, but simply didn't like it enough to want to live there long term.

And yes, when we lived there first, we kept encountering people who chirped 'Wow, you guys lucked out to get to live here!' Which we both found odd, and some people were absolutely baffled when we announced we were moving to France. We've lived in quite a few places since, and have never repeatedly had natives of that country tell us how lucky we were to live there. Not a decision I've ever regretted.

unicornlovermother · 26/12/2016 01:48

No this is based on one opinion of one person was jumped upon by the OP keen to start a US bashing thread-I do not know anyone who thinks that here. I don't know anyone who knows anything about the royal family but wow so many people eager to be negative about the US- we do not miss that negativity that a lot of people in the UK excel in and frankly I met more British people who thought the UK is the best place, when I lived there. I met more smug people in the Uk than in any country in the world.

Starting a business requires considerable savings- go to any expat forum (the US section) and find all the people struggling to find a way to get into the US-OZ NZ all easier to get into. No country is perfect but I have nightmares about returning to the UK with its horrible weather and lack of affordable housing-you are welcome to it.

Original poster
AteRiri · 26/12/2016 02:02

No this is based on one opinion of one person was jumped upon by the OP keen to start a US bashing thread

I have explained myself previously. I don't have any reason to bash the US, I am not from the UK, and like I said, I myself would want to live in the US if a career opportunity comes up. I came from a third world country where people would jump at the opportunity to migrate to a first world country. I was curious if people from developed nations feel the same way, hence, the thread.

OP posts: