5 Crazy Things About USA

If you have followed my other blogs, you might already know I spent about 5 years in the USA between 2013 and 2018. Let me share 5 crazy things about USA.

The US culture had always intrigued me, and the charm of Hollywood and American sitcoms always made me feel that the US was the place to be, where all the cool kids hang out.

I am not going to lie, for a gamer and tech enthusiast like me those 5 years are one of the best days of my life, and I truly miss my days living there.

But I cannot deny, that the US is crazy in some aspects, an American might not understand but some things in the US are the polar opposite of how the rest of the world lives.

Below are the top 5 crazy things in day-to-day life which as an immigrant I found to be strange.

Tipping Is Mandatory

I don’t get this at all. We used to tip in India, but it was solely for an extraordinary service. And trust me in India the people who do provide service are extraordinary.

I have rarely found one being rude. The waiters and servers in India are so nice and accommodating that sometimes you feel bad for the shit they go through because some Indians can be obnoxious to them. They are tipped not because they are not paid enough, they are tipped for their service.

During my time in the US, I was surprised when I learned that tipping here is mandatory. More so when I heard that this is a server’s main source of income. So you are telling me some of the biggest restaurants in the world, which make millions, and have thousands of employees, are not even willing to pay sustainable wages to their employees. If I am paying $15 for a dish you had to spend $4 for, I expect the restaurant to pay the waiter their cut, I don’t need to spend another 10% so the waiter can make ends meet.

What is even more surprising is when the government wants to increase the minimum wage people make a scene saying this will shoot up prices everywhere.

This has largely got to do with many unaware of how things work outside the USA. I have now permanently settled in Australia, we do not tip here, the minimum wage is 23 $(AU) and the prices are not that different from the US, because the employer is supposed to pay the wages by cutting their huge profits.

Your employees are your lifeline, respect them.

Wastage Of Electricity

I remember when I landed in Boston the first time, the whole city was lit at 11 PM. I spoke to my friend on my way to Woonsocket, RI which was to be my home for the next few years, about how all the shops are still open, and when do they close, he said they are all closed.

I was surprised beyond measure, coming from India where we are very conscious about waste I could see so much waste, and wondered if the most powerful country is even worried about its carbon footprint.

What angered me more was the audacity of their diplomats questioning India about its carbon footprint while they did not give a F*** about theirs.

I decided to do some research and was told the reason is keeping the lights on ensures that there is no theft. I thought, Theft? your irresponsibility is destroying the planet, and you are depriving future generations of a livable life for an assumed safety by keeping your lights on

Also why the f*** do you not have switches at power points?

None of the places I lived in the 5 years I was in the USA had wall switches, My TV and consoles were draining phantom power 24 x 7. Phantom power accounts for about 10% of electricity usage, and no one cares.

WTF USA.

People Are Encouraged To Spend Money

Being from India we were always encouraged to save. All our TV shows on economics talk about Fixed Deposits, Term Deposits, Saving Rates, and long-term investments.

In the US it was the opposite. Come to the Tax Times and everyone on TV is pushing consumers to use the tax rebates to buy unnecessary things. I was so surprised when everyone on TV was saying Buy Buy Buy this tax season.

Americans owe $986 billion on credit cards, surpassing the pre-pandemic high of $927 billion. They owe $11.92 trillion on mortgages, $1.55 trillion on vehicle loans, and $1.60 trillion on student loans. The US has the largest debt in the world at more than $30 trillion.

The hyper-consumerism pushed on TV in the US is destroying not just the middle class of America, but has a huge global impact due to generated waste and high carbon footprint.

The funniest experience I had was when I went to get myself a credit card assuming it would be easy as I had a decent salary.

They looked up my credit score. They said it was low but they will still give me a credit of about 2k, based on my salary. I was like great. Then I checked with them how much should I save to improve my credit score. The answer baffled me.

‘You need to take more credit and pay it to improve your credit score’

HOW DO U NOT SEE THE PROBLEM HERE AMERICA?

Medical System

I was lucky I had employment-based insurance which was pretty decent and I never really had to use it except for a hairline fracture I had once. But the horror stories I have heard are scary.

I had a friend who had to get his appendix removed in an emergency procedure. I asked him sometime later, how much it cost. He said he did not know yet. So my man had a body part removed, was at the hospital for a couple of days, and had all these tests being done on him and he did not even know how much they were going to cost.

I thought okay, if they did not tell him beforehand maybe it wouldn’t be much.

I checked again a few days later, he said the first bill that arrived would be 80k after insurance. For comparison the same procedure in India costs at most $1000. So he could have gone to India to get the procedure done, bought himself an investment property in one of the tier 2 cities, travelled around, and returned still having some change to spare.

I asked him how would he pay for it. He said he won’t. So this is something that many people do, they do not pay these high bills and then the hospital sends it for debt recovery, and the cost is negotiated. This clearly shows the costs are super inflated.

I have heard stories of people sitting in hospital parking in extreme pain due to whatever ailment they have, waiting for it to stop on its own. They are in parking so that if there is an emergency they can be rushed in to be attended to, if the pain goes away they end up saving substantial medical costs.

These horror stories surprise me, since if I see this to be a problem how come nothing is being done about it?

Guns

Well, this is the most controversial topic. America and its love for guns.

The world knows about the horror stories of mass shootings in concerts and schools and the thoughts and prayers afterwards. Most of the world works fine without access to guns, but for some reason, conservative America believes gun control or checks are impeding their rights, the right to bear arms.

I won’t delve into this topic much, since this specific issue is something that almost everyone knows about. In a study published in the journal Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, they found that firearms overtook car crashes as the single largest cause of traumatic death in the U.S. in 2017 and 2018, with suicide responsible for the most YPLL from firearms deaths. Considering it is way tougher to get a driving license in the USA than getting guns, I am not sure how people do not see the problem.

Most of the world is surviving fine, even thriving with strict gun laws. Americans need to understand this.

Conclusion

As I stated our stay in the US was the best time of our life as a young couple, we loved every moment of it. But now as I have grown up I see all these issues and wonder why one of the greatest countries in our generation is so casual about the needs of the hour. Why is it that they do not care about their people and the world as much as they are supposed to?

Although some of the impacts of things above are restricted to just the US, they have to realize many countries look up to them as a leader. A change there can often be looked at as a blueprint of growth across the world. When Trump becomes president the whole world takes notice. The tactics used in American politics do inspire politicians across the world. This was so visible with the way the 2016 and 2020 elections were fought, and then how the right wing in India and Australia got influenced. The US needs to buckle up and fix things to help the world become a better place, and the time to do so is now.