What is your opinion of the United States / Americans?

Question

What is your opinion of the country itself...e.g. New York City and Small town USA...

What is your opinion of its people...

Please list the country you are from and be descriptive with your responses. Thanks.

Answer 1

America is gay.

Answer 2

I think the USA is a good country, founded on solid principles, but the politicians that get into the government have been slowly corrupting the foundation over the years and taking more and more liberties in interpreting their constitution to the point that it doesn't mean what it used to mean. I think that the people are generally a diverse group of interesting and good persons. New York City is a great place. Washington DC sucks, San Francisco is nice, and you can find good people and crazies in any of the large cities or the smaller towns. I think the less pretentious people live in the smaller towns, but like I said before, you can find good people anywhere you go, and not so good people too.

I'm from Wales, U.K.

Answer 3

I am from England and now live in Florida, IMO on the whole the American people are very kind and have been most welcome, the town I in live in is pretty large and ever expanding but I would not live in a BIG city for anything, ie New York, LA etc I spent several years living in both places years ago and whilst fun as a young person nothing could make me go there and bring up my kids.............

I find that people are how you treat them period and even when its the 5th person that day ask if I am from England I do not snipe at them after all at least they are being nice about it.

I also for one LOVE the way that Americans are patriotic, for the English out there tell me the last time you saw the union jack fly ANYWHERES and unless the rules have changed in the last couple of years we all KNOW we can not fly our own flag in our own country as it just MIGHT pi$$ off some bloody visitor / foreigner, so to see your flag fly freely is VERY nice to me.

Answer 4

It isn't fair to generalise - especially when you consider how close the last presidential election was.
HOWEVER, any nation who can elect George W Bush twice, has some real problems.
Too much influence from religious zealots.
Too much influence from big corporations.
Too much power in too few hands.
Too little open-mindedness.
Too many people who think they have nothing to learn from the rest of the world.
Too much money spent on weapons.
Your rampant consumerism.
Your lack of respect for the ecology of the planet.
I love New York and will visit again soon.
Your range of food/restaurants is excellent.
I love American music of many types.
The Simpsons!
Bill Gates/Warren Buffett - you restored some faith in humanity, well done.
Great literary achievements, Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, Lionel Shriver.
Bill Hicks - legendary.
If I could change one thing about Americans (remember I know not everyone is the same) it would be to force you to stop thinking about the USA, and start thinking about the rest of the world.
Bye, from the UK.

Answer 5

Never having been to the USA myself I honestly cannot say what America is like, what I have seen on here are a lot of Americans who praise their own people and disrespect everyone else, that is pretty bad and bigoted in my opinion, I thought America was the land of the free, no so where other peoples feeling are concerned, I hope when I do come to America I meet decent people and not some of the bigoted ones I have come across on here.

Answer 6

I relocated from the UK to the USA in 1993. I've lived in Arizona most of the time since. I do prefer Americans.

Rember that in a foreign country, most of the news and information you get about another country, is about it's government & it's political leaders - how much can you learn about a country of 300,000,000 people from the couple of hundred you see on TV - BTW, ignore the movies & TV shows.

Answer 7

All countries have a mix of good and bad. I fortunately have had the privilege of knowing allot of amazing Americans. I am a Canadian, some of my fellow citizens are afraid of being swallowed up by our neighbour. I think they suffer from small fish syndrome. I like our OHIP system but prefer more of the freedoms that I witness across the border. Heh! Must be some reason so many immigrants are willing to sneak in.

Answer 8

"Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."
- Pierre Eliot Trudeau (1919-2000), former Canadian Prime Minister

I always liked Trudeau's analogy, but also my own: Living next to the USA is like being at a dinner party. People may be impressed by a suave-looking and expensively dressed person from across the room, but sitting next to you, we experience and hear your every disgusting table manner. And when you start throwing food at people you don't like - across tables and across the room - you still expect others to think highly of you and wonder why they don't.

The USA is a country that thinks highly of itself. It thinks it's the bastion of democracy, while the world knows it's a bastard. It sticks its nose in where its not wanted (eg. Iraq), but runs away when it's needed (eg. Darfur). It talks tough, yet when it comes time to put up, it's afraid of getting hurt (eg. running away from Vietnam and Lebanon, and soon, Iraq and Afghanistan).

The USA used to aspire to lofty ambitions of freedom and democracy, at least trying if not always succeeding. Now it thinks it lives those ambitions without trying, and oft times, talks about freedom and democracy while doing all it can to prevent it.

The USA has become the very sort of country it once opposed: a disgusting, self-serving, hypocritical, brutal, imperialist and fascist oppressor. The "American dream" has become the world's nightmare.

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"At the dawn of the 21st century, the global village is finally complete. At last it has a global village idiot."
- The Guardian Newspaper (London, England) January 2001


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Answer 9

I am from Canada. I could write a small essay on this topic, but I won't. Personally, I like most of the Americans that I have met and have to say that there are some FANTASTIC things about the USA, but I also have to say, in my opinion, many Americans are misguided, overly influenced by their sense of patriotism and fundamentalist religious beliefs, and, ultimately, misled (in every sense of that word) by their government. God Bless America, though!

Answer 10

I think there is good and bad in all people in all countries and America has its share of ordinary folk as well as the odd and the angry the same as we do in the UK, but i guess thats the human race and the way it has and always will be and i dont really think its the country but the inhabitants that make it what it is.

Answer 11

I am from the USA,

I think people are people no matter where your from
Some parts of this country people are very laid back and polite, and others parts its fast paced and people are more uptight..
But all in the same everyone has an opinion and thoughts of how people should be !!