Some Very Good Questions

Questions for Americans from abroad

A while back, someone in Slovakia was watching a video about American suburbs on YouTube and took to Reddit to post his or her questions. The post went viral. I think the reason is because the post clearly didn’t have any sort of hidden agenda behind it besides genuine curiosity, yet it perfectly illustrated the insanity of America's built environment. Here is the original video, and here is the Reddit post in full:

Disclaimer: I'm from Slovakia, Eastern Europe, so bear in mind, I'm confusion

He keeps on talking about how cities and suburbs have to meet certain types of regulations. For example the parking lot size, the road width, etc. Then he says there can be only one family houses. There can't be any businesses inside these residential suburbs and also no schools.

My questions are:

What do you actually do? Are you always stuck inside? What did you do when you were a child and couldn't drive?

Why do you have these sorts of strange regulations? Are your officials so incompetent? Is this due to lobbying from car or oil companies? I don't get it.

Why is there no public transport? It seems like the only thing is the yellow school bus, idk.

He says there can be only one family houses. Why? Why can't you have idk a commie block in the middle of such a suburb? Or row houses or whatever.

Why are there no businesses inside these? I mean, he says it's illegal, just why? If I lived in such a place, I'd just buy a house next to mine and turn it into a tavern or a convenience store or whatever. Is that simply not possible and illegal?

These places have front and backyards. But they're mostly empty. Some backyards have a pool maybe, but it's mostly just green grass. Why don't you grow plants in your yards? Like potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes or whatever. Why do you own this land, if you never use it?

Whenever I watched an American movie and saw those suburbs, I always thought these streets were located somewhere in a small village or something. Turns out these are located within cities up to 30 km away from Downtown...

The thing about it is, this just scratches the surface. I mean, if we're asking these sorts of questions, I've got a few of my own. I'm going to phrase these questions as if I were someone from another country like in the original Reddit post. In keeping with this, I’m going to deliberately act a bit naïve and make a few minor factual and grammatical mistakes on purpose, so keep that in mind.

So here are some questions from a genuinely curious and well-meaning outsider from, well, pretty much any normal, sane, developed country outside the United States:

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Hello everyone, I have the following questions for Americans:

1.

According to this article I read, there are over 13,000 school districts in the United States. Why so many? That doesn't make any sense. I thought you guys didn’t like bureaucracy.

For reference, I looked up that there are only 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the 50 states and District of Columbia.

Texas has 254 counties (the highest number of any state) but 1,227 school districts. You could get rid of school districts all together and have cities and counties play no part in them. Schools could all be administered and funded at the state level. You could do the same for police. That’s how other countries do it. And you fund schools through local property taxes I guess. Doesn’t that mean that people living in richer areas get better education?

2.

You vote on a Tuesday. Why? Most people work from Monday through Friday. That means people have to go after work unless they are retired or unemployed. Why not have a voting holiday like other countries? You already get less time off than anyone else in the world (see my other question below).

And you vote for your president in November. Why? Much of the United States is in the north where the weather is very bad and cold outside at this time of year. Why not vote in idk, July or August? Do you even want people to vote, lol?

Are there really no national voting standards? Why is this left up to the states even for national elections like for President? It seems like states just do whatever. Every ballot looks different. Some are confusing. Some places use paper ballots while others use electronic voting machines. Some places let you vote by mail, others don’t. This is the world’s #1 democracy? Is this why people don't trust elections? In my country we usually know the result the same day.

It seems easy to fix. Just pass a law I guess.

And why do you have to register to vote? Why is it opt-in? You don't have to do that in other countries. What happens if you move or live in a dorm?

3.

You say that fast food outlets are just training jobs for teenagers. So why are they open during school hours? Do people not deserve to make enough money to support themselves and their families? I read that U.S. minimum wage is too little to afford an apartment in any state. Where do the people who do these jobs live?

And what's up with all the tipping? Why don't you just pay people decent wages? Why should people have to depend on the kindness of strangers just to make enough money to survive? That’s weird. It's not like you need this to have an economy—most countries don't have such tipping.

And why is sales tax not included in the price? How do I know if I have enough money to pay? Do I have to walk around with a calculator, lol?

4.

How come your colleges cost so much? Students in other countries don't have to go into so much debt to get an education. U.S. is the only country where you have to do that.

According to what I read, American students owe 1.6 trillion dollars in total debt. How is that even possible??? That's bigger than the entire economy of my country!!!! Who gets all that money?

How do people become doctors, lawyers, engineers and scientists when school costs so much? Do they just have to borrow so many thousands of dollars in loans? What happens if they don't get a job?

And what's up with all the sports? US college has like every sport—even tennis, golf volleyball, etc. What does that have to do with education, haha? Why do you give free education to people who play sports? In other countries, universities are for learning, not for playing sports—that’s what amateur and professional leagues are for.

5.

Why so many guns? You are surrounded by the the world’s largest oceans in the east and the west. You have friendly neighbors to the north and the south (Canada is like the nicest place on earth and doesn't half of Mexico already live in U.S. lol?). Your have the biggest army on earth. Yet you have ten times as many guns per capita as the next country. What are you so afraid of?

Are people really that scared of the government? Why? America has always been a democracy. That's not the case in most other parts of the world where people don't walk around with guns all day. Why don't you just, I don't know, vote? (maybe cos it’s so hard—see my question above). It seems like you mostly kill other Americans:

Is it true that schools in America have active shooter drills? Does everyone just think this is OK? Do your kids really carry bulletproof backpacks to class?

And why are there so many people in jail? You have most of the world's prisoners—more than even Russia and China!!! Are Americans just so much more wicked than everywhere else? Seems kinda odd with all the talk about freedom, idk.

6.

Why are your cars so freaking big? Do you need a 1000-kilo tank to buy a carton of milk, lol?

And how come no high-speed rail? You say you are too big, but China is just as big as you are. According to this article, China has built 42,000 kilometers of dedicated high-speed railways since 2008 and plans for 70,000 kilometers more by 2035. Meanwhile, the United States has just 375 miles of track cleared for more than 100 mph. I read that something like 70-80 percent of Americans live in urban areas. You are the country that put a man on the moon but you can't make trains go fast? What happened???

7.

How come you have so few vacations? You don’t get any holidays from January 1 to the end of May. That's like half the year! Other countries have bank holidays and stuff, why don't you have those too?

In the U.S. you are not entitled to any holiday at all. That’s crazy!!!! Is it true you guys only get ten days off per year? And you have to wait a whole year to get it? How do you stand it? What happens when you get sick? Do you have to use vacation time? What happens if you change jobs?

In my country, everyone gets at least four weeks off by law. When you are sick you don't come to work. If you are out for a long time you just need a doctor note.

And I heard you still have to pay for health care even though you have insurance? I constantly hear stories about ambulance rides costing a thousand dollars or having a kid costing like ten thousand dollars yet you guys just shrug all this stuff off. I don’t get it.

Like, everyone hates the politicians but you keep voting for the same ones over and over again. Why is that? You pay almost as much taxes as in my country but you seem to get very little in return (education, vacation time, health care, unemployment, etc.). Why aren’t you guys more mad about this? Where does all the money go? Everybody in the U.S. always seems to get angry about stupid stuff (abortions, guns, trans people, racism, banning books, etc.). In my country we would fire all the politicians and burn down the capital, hahaha!

8.

I keep seeing all these articles about how rich people in America don't pay any taxes. Donald Trump paid like, what, $20.00? Some even get money back from the government like Amazon. Like, WTF??? Now I see now that you are seriously talking about defaulting cos of the debt ceiling. Why don't you just make rich people pay taxes? You have more billionaires than anywhere else. Seems like an easy solution to a lot of your problems, idk.

Anyway, those are just some of my questions. Thank-you and sorry for my English. I don't mean to be rude—I love Americans and I want to visit your country someday!