Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
Politicians from both left and right of the political spectrum often call the United States the best country in the world. And its citizens tend to agree. In a YouGov poll of more than 11,000 US adults, Americans tended to support the notion by 50% to 31%.
But one New Zealander living in the UK thinks the opposite. And he has made it his mission to argue the point. The man even has a TikTok account called 'America Is The Bad Place.' There, he posts videos addressing mostly social problems within the US, like the cost of healthcare and the quality of higher education, but also challenges American pride and the international image of the nation.
Continue scrolling to check out some of the points he's made and upvote the ones you agree with. Of course, feel free to share your thoughts on these difficult multi-layered issues in the comments—even if you think this guy is wrong.
@america_is_the_bad.place #universalhealthcare #education #USA #America #americaisthebadplace #thegoodplace #thisisthebadplace ♬ original sound - America_is_the_bad_place
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Letting people die of a treatable illness because they don't have enough insurance. A country's first job is to protect its citizens, not to act like a fireman who just continues watering his grass while watching the neighbor's house burn down.
RELATED:
#2
A country still arguing about whether women should have bodily autonomy.
#3
Your Senate filibuster bill. The fact that 41% of senators are representing only 27% of the American people can block bills supported by 70% of the American people is about as democratic as just letting Ken Bone be king.
Random Anon 2 years ago
And yet your leaders speak of democracy internationally like the crusaders in the Holy Crusade.
#4
Measuring your police training in weeks. Two to four years is the norm elsewhere.
#5
Gerrymandering. Democracy should have their voters choosing their representatives, not their representatives choosing their voters.
#6
Sending 18-year-olds to war. When your country doesn't believe they're mature enough to buy beer.
Vasana Phong 2 years ago
My brother got sent straight overseas when operation desert shield/ storm started, straight out of boot camp at 19
#7
Every minute an American is forced into medical bankruptcy. The only surprise cost in other developed countries is that some hospitals charge visitors for parking.
Austin Hicks 2 years ago
When I was in my 20s I cut my finger really bad in a broken glass while doing the dishes. I went to prompt med that to get stitches because it wouldn't stop bleeding. They told me it would cost $680 with my health insurance. I was working at Kroger at the time and I was making only $7.25 an hour, in college and living with my soon to be wife in an apartment that cost a little over $1000 a month so this was something we definitely couldn't afford. So I told the people at the front desk "Nevermind, I'll just go home and bleed to death." I had already been waiting for my wife to get off work to take me since we only had the 1 car at the time, I had been sitting with medical tape, gauze and a wash cloth wrapped around my finger while propping it up in the air for 4 hours before she got home. I came back out to the car and she was flabbergasted and we had to shop around online for another hour in the car until we found a cheaper place an hour and a half away.
#8
Having military recruiters in school. It's especially with the biggest incentives to join the military are healthcare and affordable education, which are just considered human rights in normal countries.
Fat Harry's Ghost 2 years ago
I'm pretty sure our (UK) forces do send representatives to school/college careers fairs too. Of course they don't have to point out healthcare and education as benefits...
#9
Forcing you to use vacation days when you're ill. Some countries make employers change paid vacation days to paid sick days when you're ill on vacation.
#10
Charging parents for their baby's delivery. Other countries consider it an investment in the future tax payers.
Naesil 2 years ago
Price for giving birth in US is absolutely horrible.. but what I find disgusting is that they bill for having a skin contact with the baby. The thing that is best for the baby they ask money for -.- even if the price is small portion of the whole operation, but come on let the parents hold their new born.
#11
Having TV ads for prescription medicine.
Vasana Phong 2 years ago
All the side effects mentioned takes up 80% of time, you know diarrhea, suicidal thoughts, death ect..
#12
Minimum wage not rising with inflation every year.
Jerry The Joker 2 years ago
But don't worry! Congress will always give themselves a raise! I think they're at $600 an hour.
#13
Not having paid maternity leave. 14 to 68 paid weeks off is the investment that the 15 countries above the US on The Human Freedom Index make in their future taxpayers.
#14
Needing to worry about the cost of an ambulance.
RaroaRaroa 2 years ago
New Zealand is a bit strange on this. We charge for ambulance rides, apparently, but in Wellington where I live we have Wellington Free Ambulance and you don't pay. The rest of the country has St John Ambulance and they do.
#15
Needing to do taxes if you're an employee. Your politicians are bribed by the accounting industry to make your taxes difficult.
Jyri Hakola 2 years ago
It's quite tragicomical thing that a country that have de facto invented computers, microchips, internet and so much more can be in some areas an actuallu a late stone-age 3rd world country. Here I just received my 2021 summary of taxes, logged online, corrected few reductions and submitted the form and all that took abut 10 minutes of time.
#16
People getting married for the purpose of qualifying for health care through marriage is weird. So is people needing to divorce a dying loved one to avoid being responsible for their medical debt and all that for the low, low price of 53% more per person than any other country on Earth.
#17
Having healthcare through an employer. So are doctors needing to argue with companies for you to get what you're prescribed.
Jiska Veldhuizen 2 years ago
Yes that is one thing that makes the least sense to me. What if you get sick and lose your job? You''ll be without a health insurance then just when you would need it the most!
#18
Doing drills at school for something other than fires and earthquakes. Forcing kids to go through the trauma of lockdown drills. The fact that they're necessary is horrific.
RaroaRaroa 2 years ago
They have lockdown drills in New Zealand too. Have been used to some degree, just when there's a threat in the neighbourhood - never for something in the actual school - so more just staying inside rather than barricading doors and hiding. Touch wood.
#19
Some of you think that voting should be made harder than buying a gun. Most prisoners in most developed countries can still vote. In some US states, an ex-felon will be blocked from voting, yet his neighbor on the terrorist watchlist will still be allowed to buy weapons.
Andy Acceber 2 years ago
We also have a disproportionately enormous prison population. Though prisoners still pay taxes, in 48 states, people can't vote from prison. Knowing this fact could certainly incentivize people with power to create laws that target and lock up people who disagree with them.
#20
Playing your national anthem before a sporting event that doesn't involve your country playing another country, especially when it involves kids at school.
Andy Acceber 2 years ago
It's so weird. The audience often gets really into it too. Y'all, standing for 90 seconds with your hat over your heart doesn't actually support the troops, build community, strengthen our country, or whatever else you think you're doing. Instead, how about funding the VA? Volunteering for nonprofits? Getting involved in local government? 90 seconds of pseudo-patriotism doesn't cut it, y'all.
#21
The US government banning itself from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.
#22
Needing to post bail if you're not a threat to the public. It shouldn't be a crime to be poor.
Andy Acceber 2 years ago
If payment equals freedom, crime is only crime if you're poor. The rich can pay their way to freedom. That's not justice.
#23
Not getting guaranteed vacation days. 20 to 40 days a year is the norm.
Jill Pulcifer 2 years ago
Husband has had the same job for 10 years at this point, he now has the maximum days allowed, 14. His sick days and pto are all rolled into that number btw.
#24
Educational scholarships being a big deal. Education is normally free or heavily subsidized in the developed world.
RaroaRaroa 2 years ago
Free to the end of college (high school) in NZ, but not after that. Not all of these things are uniquely American.
#25
The amount of people you lock up. 116 countries have an incarceration rate per million at under a quarter of the US.
#26
Liking guns. They never come up in conversations and it's rare to even see police with them.
Arthur Waite 2 years ago
It's sad to see my love of shooting become such a political football. I was a fat kid with breathing problems, never could get into any sports - until I saw a tv special about the Olympic sports, and saw target shooting. When I was old enough, got my licence and went into competition. Won a few, lost a lot; met some great people on the range. And now my government thinks I'm a potential mass murderer, and an easy victim of stupid laws. Sad, really.
#27
Funding your schools through local property taxes. But it does go some way to explain how the US has dropped to 27th on The Global Social Mobility Index.
#28
Making unlimited political donations legal, when you've created a fight to the moral bottom, where your elected officials live in constant fear that if they don't accept big money bribes, their political opponents will.
Jerry The Joker 2 years ago
Looks like Mike Lindell is fixing to be in trouble for giving $800,000 to Tina peters, the crooked voter clerk in Arizona.
#29
The amount your elections cost. Your five most expensive house of representative seats cost more than any election for any country in Europe.
Hannah Edwards 2 years ago
In UK there is a spending limit per candidate, it’s small compared to US standards.Less than £9000 per candidate, then 6p per registered elector. Spending and donations have to be logged. It doesn’t stop shenanigans though
#30
You've reinvented the slave trade with your prison system - that's weird. So are your coercive plea bargains, allowing companies that profit off this exploitation to invest unlimited money in the politicians that agree to do their bidding.
The strangest thing is that it doesn't even cost much money to bribe a US politician, because if you have enough money to finance their entire next political reelection campaign, then all you have to do is threaten to spend that money on their next primary opponent instead.
#31
Hearing fireworks and thinking they could be something other than fireworks. Children should be running to the windows to look not questioning their safety.
What do you think ?
Remi Flynne 2 years ago
I'm not in the US and even I'M bored with all the US bashing. There isn't anything new here so why do we have these ALL the time? Week in, week out... Bored Panda, you are actively BORING a lot of us. Trouble is, people click on these and it keeps it going. We need to boycott US bashing posts if we want to stop it.
Caro Caro 2 years ago (edited)
I only posted one thing (gerrymandering) because it's the same old same old AGAIN. I did downvote in the hopes not too many would open the thread. Jeeees
Load More Replies...
Beth S 2 years ago (edited)
I live in the US and I get it... It sucks here a lot of the time, but must we be beat over the head with it with posts constantly, BP? I don't know about everyone else, but I get on sites like this to forget my troubles. LOL
XenoMurph 2 years ago
US bashed the world with its culture since 1920s. "Justice freedom, and the American way" "Land of the free" etc etc etc. Most people have nothing against most Americans, it's just a reaction to the propaganda that the US has been pouring itno the world.
Load More Replies...
Anony Mouse 2 years ago
When you were copy/pasting this crap-on-America article together from the other ones you post every week, you forgot to complain about bathroom stall gaps. This is really boring guys. Get some new material.
Remi Flynne 2 years ago
I'm not in the US and even I'M bored with all the US bashing. There isn't anything new here so why do we have these ALL the time? Week in, week out... Bored Panda, you are actively BORING a lot of us. Trouble is, people click on these and it keeps it going. We need to boycott US bashing posts if we want to stop it.
Caro Caro 2 years ago (edited)
I only posted one thing (gerrymandering) because it's the same old same old AGAIN. I did downvote in the hopes not too many would open the thread. Jeeees
Load More Replies... Beth S 2 years ago (edited)
I live in the US and I get it... It sucks here a lot of the time, but must we be beat over the head with it with posts constantly, BP? I don't know about everyone else, but I get on sites like this to forget my troubles. LOL
XenoMurph 2 years ago
US bashed the world with its culture since 1920s. "Justice freedom, and the American way" "Land of the free" etc etc etc. Most people have nothing against most Americans, it's just a reaction to the propaganda that the US has been pouring itno the world.
Load More Replies... Anony Mouse 2 years ago
When you were copy/pasting this crap-on-America article together from the other ones you post every week, you forgot to complain about bathroom stall gaps. This is really boring guys. Get some new material.
You May Like 50 Truths That Make Life Unbearable For Today’s 'Lost Generation' (New Pics) 30 Women Share Screenshots Of Cringy Men Hitting On Them, Then Not Taking "No" For An Answer (New Pics)
Dominyka
Simona Kinderytė
Related on Bored Panda
