Some Things That Are Great, and Not So Great About my Country

Our education system, outside of the poor urban school districts, is very good. We have USC, and other great universities, and the job and business opportunities are incredible, as long as you are at least of average intelligence and are willing to work a little harder than the average person. And if you are very talented or very smart, the U.S. has more opportunities for you that almost anywhere else in the world. If you are a tick slow or don't really like to work that hard, life as a cog is going to be less rewarding.

We have access to a lot of goods and services at very good prices. We have great cities, most of which have mild to awesome weather. Most places are fairly safe and it isn't that hard to find information about which ones are not and when they are not. Our natural parks and natural diversity. We have everything from tundra to the hottest desert in the world. Great surfing and snowboarding. Mountains to climb and jungles to explore. There isn't a road trip in the world that doesn't have an equivalent in the U.S.

We work too hard. We take too little vacation. We eat too much. We watch too much TV. Too many of us live alone and in a lot of places, we do not know our neighbors. We tend to spend our last dollar every month, and often we borrow a few on top of that. Our government services are inefficient. We get taxed a lot and unless you have a low income, you don't really get a lot of value back for those taxes. We spend way too much on military. We spend too much on healthcare, although it's very good healthcare. Our cops are too violent. Our public transportation system in most big cities is average to weak, and outside of the big cities, it's usually pretty bad. Most of us drive our own cars everywhere. We're really myopic and a little paranoid.

And the pet peeve most of my friends from other countries have mentioned: Our price tags always reflect the pre-tax costs. If the price tag says "$1", and you have exactly $1, sorry, but you can't afford it.