1. Obesity.
My own observations recently were chronicled in this post. I believe the condition is actually contagious. When so many people are obese in your daily comings and goings, it's that much easier to accept a bit of overweight in yourself. Over time, this leads to ever more cases. It's a terrible spiral going down with no indication of letting up any time soon.
The real problem, I suppose, is the fast food industry, and the hormones and additives they put in processed food. More recently there's the controversy of genetically modified foods. The portions in restaurants and diners are incredible large. The waste is awful.
Everything is geared towards more and more obesity.
2. Prescription drugs.
The drug addiction among young adults and teenagers seems to be worse than ever. Several documentaries I watched explained how the new synthetic heroin-like painkillers are so prevalent that entire new demographic groups are being affected. When the prescriptions run out, buying the pills on the street is extremely expensive. Many turn to heroin which a 10 times cheaper.
We already knew about the when assigning The Crown to Florida, partly because it is the hub of this deadly business, but on my recent visit I saw the devastation with my own eyes.
3. Gun availability.
The dreaded phone call from school that there's been a shooting is about 100 times more likely in the US than it is in Italy, for example. Easy access to guns makes life there a little bit more risky than it should be.
In one thing I agree with the gun-rights folks. It's the violence of the people that's the real problem. When walking down the street in the US towards a group of young men, the potential for violence is there. This has nothing to do with guns. But, to use that as an excuse for making guns easily available is insanity. Guns make whatever violence is already there that much worse. What could be more obvious than that.
One of the funny things about the gun control argument is that most of the vocal gun-rights guys are jingoistic rah-rah Americans, yet they embody these problems, in some cases all three.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Does this mean that you're going to shut up and stay in Italy? No? If you hate America so much, that's fine. You've made your choice. How about you stop trying to force us to make the same choice? Leave us alone, will you?
ReplyDeleteI don't hate the US at all. IN fact, I may very well live there again after my kids grow up a bit.
DeleteWhy? You'll just get injected with a dirty needle, crushed by fat people, and shot.
DeleteActually these "scourges" of American society may actually be side affects of our prosperity.
ReplyDeleteBecause our citizens can afford food (and due to the historical and prehistorical scarcity of food, our species has evolved to be gluttons) we naturally eat as much as we can stuff our faces with. Historically, obesity was a disease of the wealthy, as is still the case in many countries. Modern Americans can afford food sources which they find appetizing, and this only worsens the obesity problem.
In many impoverished countries, many people cannot afford expensive designer drugs, and those drugs (such as cocaine byproduct) which are available are far more dangerous than the drugs used by wealthier Americans. Many countries which produce drugs (which become a leading export) because of the drug market in America, which is due to our relative wealth. A drug problem exists in those countries, largely as a byproduct of drug production, for the American market.
In many other societies, gun ownership has largely been reserved for the few wealthy, landowning elites. As has been the tradition in Britain, subjects (the proper use of the term, "E.N.") of the crown (not citizens who have rights, and to whose interests government is subservient) may bear arms appropriate to their status. The upper caste in most societies where allowed (and where the only who could afford) to personally own small arms. Because of our prosperity, and our value for equality and human rights, all levels of American society (except for the criminal and deranged) may enjoy this right.
I can think of some reasons not to live in the US, but none of those three made my list.
ReplyDeleteInteresting you would overlook problems like the US becoming a police state, it is a warmongering nation, it is run by corrupt politicians bought off by special interests, it kills its own citizens, etc. Why you would give a ahit if someone is fat is just unfathomable to me, but then again, I'm not a gawddamn liberal who wants to tell other individuals how to live.
orlin sellers
All those bother me too, but they wouldn't really be reasons to leave.
DeleteSo you find fat people to be so offensive that you can't stand being around them, but a police state is merely an annoyance to be tolerated?
DeleteBy the way, Mikeb, gun availability isn't a problem. It is one of the many good reasons for being a citizen of this country.
ReplyDeleteThree reasons Italy sucks
ReplyDeleteBerlusconi, racist and mob connected who gets elected PM three times.
Italian culture is misogynistic, and views domestic violence as "a private matter", something the US discarded decades ago and kills more Italians than the mob.
Other than Fiat, only rich people can afford their cars.
All true, but they don't impact on one's daily life like the three reasons I mentioned about the US.
DeleteNeither do the three that you named. I've lived here my whole life, and none of the items on your list has harmed me.
Deleteyes, yes, America is such a horrible place. It's so de rigueur and such fun to bash the U.S. Especially if you're an enlightened expat whose words carry extra weight because you've been there, done that, as they say.
ReplyDeleteOf course Europe is now the pinnacle of social evolution and only a deluded fool wouldn't recognize that. Ignore the fact that the EU is getting sucked into the vortex of economic and social collapse because of their feckless leaders and decades of insanely spendthrift policies. Policies, by the way, that were subsidized by post-war U.S. aid and defense, which in turn enabled the Europeans to act like spoiled teenagers.
All that's true, but it doesn't address the three problems I mentioned. They are negative things which impact on daily life.
DeleteMaybe you're so nasty and sarcastic because you suffer from all three. You sure do sound defensive.
You mean the way that Democommie, Dog Gone, and Laci are constantly nasty and defensive?
DeleteMike you are one nasty, racist, ignorant, hypocritical piece of crap. People like you are a disease that can't be eradicated fast enough. Does the Italian government know about your self-admitted criminal history? I think it's time someone sends them a message to let them know what kind of leach they have in their country. The Italians don't need someone like you hanging around.
ReplyDeleteThere's another reason I enjoy not living in the states and that's the perpetual immoral wars they keep fighting.
DeleteAnd then there are people like you, my anonymous friend. I revel in the fact that you or someone like you is not my next door neighbor.