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30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre

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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

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#1

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

217points

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#2

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre A country still arguing about whether women should have bodily autonomy.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

204points

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#3

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

195points

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#4

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Measuring your police training in weeks. Two to four years is the norm elsewhere.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

193points

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#5

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Gerrymandering. Democracy should have their voters choosing their representatives, not their representatives choosing their voters.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

174points

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#6

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Sending 18-year-olds to war. When your country doesn't believe they're mature enough to buy beer.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

171points

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#7

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

160points

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#8

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

159points

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#9

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

156points

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#10

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Charging parents for their baby's delivery. Other countries consider it an investment in the future tax payers.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

154points

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#11

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Having TV ads for prescription medicine.

america_is_the_bad.place , unsplash Report

Final score:

128points

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#12

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Minimum wage not rising with inflation every year.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

126points

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#13

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

124points

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#14

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to worry about the cost of an ambulance.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

121points

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#15

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to do taxes if you're an employee. Your politicians are bribed by the accounting industry to make your taxes difficult.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

111points

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#16

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

111points

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#17

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Having healthcare through an employer. So are doctors needing to argue with companies for you to get what you're prescribed.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

110points

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#18

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , unsplash Report

Final score:

108points

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#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.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

105points

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#20

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Playing your national anthem before a sporting event that doesn't involve your country playing another country, especially when it involves kids at school.

america_is_the_bad.place , unsplash Report

Final score:

99points

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#21

The US government banning itself from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

98points

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#22

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to post bail if you're not a threat to the public. It shouldn't be a crime to be poor.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

96points

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#23

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Not getting guaranteed vacation days. 20 to 40 days a year is the norm.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

95points

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#24

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Educational scholarships being a big deal. Education is normally free or heavily subsidized in the developed world.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

92points

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#25

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre The amount of people you lock up. 116 countries have an incarceration rate per million at under a quarter of the US.

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Final score:

88points

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#26

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Liking guns. They never come up in conversations and it's rare to even see police with them.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

87points

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#27

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

82points

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#28

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre 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.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

73points

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#29

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre The amount your elections cost. Your five most expensive house of representative seats cost more than any election for any country in Europe.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

71points

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#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.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

71points

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#31

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Hearing fireworks and thinking they could be something other than fireworks. Children should be running to the windows to look not questioning their safety.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

70points

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#32

Your military budget being larger than the next 10 countries combined. It looks like the US is running a protection racket, but it's forgotten the first rule of running protection rackets, which is to extort money from the ones you say you're protecting, not to force your own gang members of your own gang to cover all of the operating costs.

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Final score:

29points

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#33

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Banks charging you for bank transfers. So is being charged to use another bank's ATM.

america_is_the_bad.place , pexels Report

Final score:

23points

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#34

The amount of murders you have. 49 countries have a homicide rate per million at under a quarter of the US rate.

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Final score:

23points

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#35

Putting people in prison for being unable to afford fines. Simply docking pay is the norm.

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Final score:

20points

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#36

Counting the amount of people in a county. Normal countries simply count the number of people. The US first counts the number of people. Then adds the amount of corporations. This is because in the US corporations are legally people and donating money is free speech.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

17points

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#37

Your debt ceiling. Your representatives approve a budget but then months later your representatives have to agree to spend money on a budget your representatives had already agreed on.

america_is_the_bad.place Report

Final score:

13points

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 300 million people have read the posts he's written, which is probably more than he could count to.

Mindaugas Balčiauskas

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

I'm a visual editor at Bored Panda. I kickstart my day with a mug of coffee bigger than my head, ready to tackle Photoshop. I navigate through the digital jungle with finesse, fueled by bamboo breaks and caffeine kicks. When the workday winds down, you might catch me devouring bamboo snacks while binging on the latest TV show, gaming or I could be out in nature, soaking up the tranquility and communing with my inner panda.

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.

32points

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

5points

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Sanchi 2 years ago

Cmon, the us has taught me one thing: if you want change, you need to take action. Let’s boycott it.

2points

K Witmer 2 years ago

Why are you so upset w the truth??? I'm American idc bc it's the absolute truth. People should know what's happening here

-3points

AleonSu 2 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

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

20points

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.

3points

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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.

12points

Carrie Laughs 2 years ago

PLEASE get some new material.

12points

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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.

32points

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

5points

Load More Replies...

Sanchi 2 years ago

Cmon, the us has taught me one thing: if you want change, you need to take action. Let’s boycott it.

2points

K Witmer 2 years ago

Why are you so upset w the truth??? I'm American idc bc it's the absolute truth. People should know what's happening here

-3points

AleonSu 2 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

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

20points

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.

3points

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.

12points

Carrie Laughs 2 years ago

PLEASE get some new material.

12points

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