To wonder why anyone would want to live in America?

[allergon842]

I follow a woman on Instagram who moved from England to the States and someone commented "America is only great if you're white, rich, and healthy".

Putting aside Trump/politics, I've always found it weird why anyone would want/would have wanted to live there. I understand if you're from a developing country, but I don't see the appeal for anyone who comes from Europe. The lower taxes and opportunities are enticing, but if you can't make it, you can fall very easy with the lack of a safety net. It seems to be only decent if you're a top earner ($100,000+).

What, all the food in the whole country!! Honestly, the sheer ignorance of some posters on here is astounding.

As an American who has been on MN for a decade or so, I find these threads about the U.S. both horifying and heartening. They used to be more frequent and goady, with subjects like "Why don't Americans cook properly?", and were clearly just an opportunity for British MNers to big themselves up by rubbishing the U.S. And, as you point out, those doing so had either never been there or never made any effort to try what was on offer beyond McDonald's. Can you get awful, cheap supermarket-branded cheese here? Of course you can. Can you get high-quality artisan cheese here? Of course you can.

So it's lovely to see more nuanced, fact-based, real-world experience-based views here when discussing the U.S. Thanks for that.

It's incredibly reductive thinking. As an American who has been resident in the UK for fifteen years, I can say, hand on heart, that both countries have their issues (and to the superior people who think 'it can't happen here', just look around you, all the signs are there), but the quality of the food one is laughable. The two countries are very similar in that, if you have money, you can eat very well. If your time and/or budget limits you to cheap or processed food, you won't.

It's true, there is some great cheese in Europe, but I'd put Humboldt Fog up against any of them. It might amuse posters here to know that I can get that plus Godminster Vintage Cheddar very easily in the small New England town where we spend our summers.

The one thing I'd say is that unless you live in a western or southern state, good produce is more limited there than here, and it doesn't seem to travel as well from coast to coast as it does from Europe to the UK. While I have seen shrink wrapped lettuce from Venezuela in the supermarket in the US in the dead of summer, I've seen some equally baffling dodgy produce swathed in numerous forms of plastic packaging in Waitrose.

https://www.cypressgrovecheese.com/usa/en/cheese/soft-ripened-cheeses/humboldt-fog

Hating Americans, like hating working class white English people is the last acceptable form of bigotry for middle class left leaning British people. It is embarrassingly stupid.
I just say "wow, would you say that about "Indians" or "Chinese"" and when they tell me how utterly different it is I get even more confused.
Or I wait for ages then say "my mums Amercian" (not even true!)
Makes me laugh anyway 😂

You don't think people in the US are at higher risk of being the innocent victim of a gun shooting than in the UK ?

@user678435

The one thing I'd say is that unless you live in a western or southern state, good produce is more limited there than here, and it doesn't seem to travel as well from coast to coast as it does from Europe to the UK.

I think it depends a lot on where you shop. I'm in an area called the Hudson Highlands, in southern New York (about 50 miles north of NYC), and the produce selection here ranges from just okay to fabulous, depending on the store.

Two years ago, I was on a thread identical to this one, and a MNer moaned that she could never live in the U.S. because Americans don't eat fruits and vegetables, so there would be none for her to buy in the stores. So I posted a few pictures of the produce department at my regular Italian-themed supermarket. It was less dire than she was expecting.