Dislike of Americans

[hc]

When I first got here in the United states I came with such an open mind. So many people dislike Americans these days its crazy. Most Canadians I know openly bad mouth Americans and were shocked we were coming here for an extended period. I have to be honest after 3 months, I'm starting to understand why. By the time my Visa runs out I will be more than happy to go back to Canada and never return. Are there any other Canadians on here who feel the same?

[gtoast]

i was there for 7 years.it only gets worse. i think it depends on were you are as there are undoubtedly some very nice places in the US, and some very nice people.
what did it i think for me was the constant undeserved arrogance, self promotion, and endless blind pride. along with american flags every 20 metres.
i do own a house in michigan, and feel the need to go back only to do some reparations. other than that i would be very happy never to return.
on a side note, the US actually IS the place everyone wants to be. however for the most part, immigrants from developed nations end up leaving.

[oohmercyme]

I lived in the US for 9 years and didn't realize how much it bothered me living there until I moved back home.

I visit my sister in a very conservative part of California several times a year and I often have to bite my tongue or leave the room when conversation turns political or rah rah US. When I lived in the US, it was also in a very conservative part of the country, my experience may have been different if I lived in a more liberal area.

I have friends here in the UK who are American (not "flag-wavers") and they have both been verbal abused when people have heard their accents. Last weekend one of these women was punched in the face by some idiot because she's American.

Instead of the recent rise in anti-Americanism making Americans re-think how they come across or how the world perceives them, it seems to have made things worse as they feel like martyrs. (And if I hear one more American say that they are treated badly because the rest of the world is jealous of them, I will scream!)

Whilst I often do not agree with America domestic and foreign policy and the in-your-face flag waving drives me bonkers, I have to say the there are very few Americans, who I know personally, who I dislike as people. I may not like their politics, but I like their person.

I did have many good experiences when I lived in the US (it couldn't have been *all* bad if I stayed there for 9 years!). So do try to enjoy the good things in your last few months there.

Good luck.

[Reba]

Well, most of the annoyances are caused by ignorance. Stupidity bugs the crap out of me, but Americans don't have a monopoly on it by any means (as evidenced by Lori's post above).

I would however give just about anything to be able to move back to Canada. After the 200th person says "you must just love this heat here in the South! Does it ever warm up in Canada?" I feel I could scream! But I don't, I grin and bear it because I'm pretty much stuck here, barring an unforseen divorce from my Amerian husband

I put it down to their school system and try to educate them as best I can. There are a lot though who refuse to give up their perceptions of the rest of the world, and you just have to learn to walk away. Really, there are some incredibly ignorant Canadians out there as well, and they have no excuse! I'd like to just poke them in the eye with a spoon.

I honestly don't understand how the media machine in the US managed to make the rest of the world both loathe them AND at the same time make everyone from "undeveloped" countries want to move here! Even before I moved here I knew that "land of the free" was a load of crap. Unfortunately, quite a lot of people still believe it. Americans mostly.

Except Kevin Smith. He'd rather be Canadian.

[Clapoti]

The experience I have with American is fairly limited. but being a member of a car forum with 99% of american members. I found out that they are kind of stubborn. Don't question how their country work and don't dare to say that they are not better than Canada or Germany or France.

They think they have a lot more rights and freedom than in Canada. the only one I can think of actually is the right to bear arms. but I don't think a lot of people in Canada want that. Except that I don't see what they have more than us. I can even think of rights that they have less but you should not mention those. like gay marriage for exemple. or censorship in the media.

They also don't understand why people hate them. and why they are targeted by terrorist. "What we didn't do anything wrong, we just force a country to adopt democracy even if they don't want to".

And I personnaly don't like the whole patriotic idea. Well it's nice to like your country, but there is a limit, somehow it reminds me of some kind of sect ideology. Land of the free. yeah right

That was my rant about americans

But I also keep in mind that they are not all like that and that I have some good friends that are American

[Reba]

after having lived here for nearly 3 years, and travelling back and forth for nearly 10 years before that, I can say that no, the US definitely does *not* have more rights and freedoms than Canada does. They just think they do. Point for Point, Canada is probably the "free-er" country, its just not argued every day on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC.

Gotta love Fox. Yesterday they had a news banner under someone's mug shot that said "Illegal Criminal" :LOL: Just unbelieveable the crap they come up with I'm tellin' ya. The news is more a sitcom than Two and a Half Men!

[hc]

I have to admit, I love Denver and have met some really nice people here. Some hopefully will remain good friends even when I return home.

On July 1st I went to the movie Sicko and realized I was a victom just like many americans of their government's properganda. For some reason when I was growing up, I thought american health care was the best in the world. I though even though they had to pay a health insurence, it was like our extended health insurence and you pay like $30/month or less.not a few hundred. I also though the line ups and waits at the hospital were a Canadian thing and that the people in the US could walk right in, cause they paid. I also had no idea that you may have to pay many thousands of dollars in deductables if your in an accident outside of your insurence. I thought the insurence covered all your fees. I mean, how can you pay your deductibles when you seriously hurt and can't work. Its insane. Health care here could drive you into destitution at a blink of an eye. I have a friend here in Denver who actually lives in Montana with his family, but had to come to Denver for a year where the wages are higher so he could afford his sons medical bills. He sees his kid/wife once or twice a month and lives in a hotel room. He's a family man through and through. What a damn shame. I watched that movie and left a proud Canadian, but very upset at Americans for not doing anything about it. Like the move suggest its best for the US gov't to keep the people down, especially the poor, so they stay quiet and easier to manage. That my friends is an illusion of freedom.not true freedom.

I was also under the illusion that Canadians paid much more in payroll taxes than Americans. Again.the properganda makers got me. The more you make in the US the more your taxed. I think there's like 5 tax brackets in the US and top off at like 40%. Canadians only have 3 and top off at 28%. Canadians pay Fed Tax and Prov tax, UI and CPP (UI and CPP are capped).Americans pay Fed tax, State Tax and FICA with no caps. The more you make the more you pay. I did a comparison based on $50,000 cdn yearly income between the two and the Americans pay approx. $3000 more dollars on that amount. Throw in health care costs, and as a base its way more expensive in the US.

The US is an government defined illusion in so many ways. Just like so many countries its supposedly trying to liberate. There's a very distinct have and have not society here. I'm glad, I've learned what I've learned. Knowledge breeds freedom and thank god Canada is the most free country in the world so that I can share what I've learned. This has and will be a great experience, but in the end I'll take my endless blizzards, dog sleds, igloos and moose and go back home when this experience is done One year will be more than enough.

[eddycurrents]

Yeah Americans are big-hearted and friendly, and I like 'em over all, but man these guys are something else. They are arrogant and ignorant of the rest of the world. They know how ignorant they are, and don't do anything about it. They joke about it instead.

Their arrogance they honestly don't see. They expect all foreigners to speak English and they expect a McDonalds in every foreign city. They firmly believe God is American and if you aren't with us, you are against us -- hence why many of them boycotted Canada Dry ginger ale (seriously) when Canada didn't join them for the second Gulf war. Never mind that Canada was in the first Gulf war, and was still fighting in Afghanistan, or that Canada Dry isn't even Canadian.

We are in the South, and people are nice here. They also support Bush. They make excuses for his apparent idiocy, and turn a blind eye to his foolish war while their sons and daughters go off to die in a hopeless cause. In their churches they pray (I'm serious) for Bush and Cheney. One church even told its parishoners to support Bush or leave. The fact that Kerry was religious all his life, and Bush discovered religion just before he discovered politics, didn't change the opinion that Bush was more pious than Kerry in the last election.

People were picketing Fahrenheit 911 before it even opened. They had never seen the movie, and they said they never would. They knew it was going to tell them things about Bush they would rather not know. Here, the movie was originally going to open in a dozen nearby theaters, and after all the protests, it only opened in one.

Canada sent thousands of people for a big love-in in NY after 911. It was never reported here. Canada sent millions of dollars in aid to New Orleans after the hurricane, along with ships and navy divers. It was never reported here. People were complaining that "we send so much in aid to countries around the world, where are they when we need help?" Well, Canada was right there, in New Orleans. On Day One.

We hear more about events in Colombia than Canada.

Americans always say "after we stormed the beaches of Normandy" and we "kicked the Germans out of France", forgetting there were three countries storming the beaches at Normandy, and another pressuring them from the East. Plus they were 2 years late joining the war in the first place.

It's that kind of willful blindness that amazes me. Of course, you can't mention any of this to them or they get upset. Americans do not take criticism well. At all.

Blame their education and blame their media. Their education is biased and completely lacking in world events. The media tells them what they want to hear, because if it doesn't, they change the channel. The only thing more newsworthy than the war in Iraq is Paris Hilton's last day in jail. France got a new President? Canada is our #1 source for energy? Who cares. What did Paris Hilton eat while she was in jail?

FYI you have the tax brackets backwards. Granted I have been out of the country for 5 years but the max tax bracket in Canada was around 50% with CPP etc. and you hit that early, around $65k. I was paying out around 33% of my income in tax, not counting 7% GST. Here in VA I'm paying around 20% of my income in tax and state tax is 2.5% to 5%. Remember in the US you can write off more things, like mortgage interest and home improvements. That makes a big difference. Overall Americans do pay less tax than Canadians. They also get less government services, but that's how they like it.

Health care is better here, if you can afford it. In Edmonton I couldn't find a GP that took new patients, and people were waiting months for surgeries. An MRI took six months, on average. Here, I had my pick of GPs and a wait of a week or two for a procedure is normal. Once I needed an MRI, and I got it *the next day*. I even got another one the day after that. Hospitals compete with each other for patients -- seriously. That's why rich Canadians go to the US for emergencies.

Doctors make a ton of money and they are treated like Gods, while nurses make less because they aren't unionized. (Same with teachers.) That's why Canadian doctors are moving to the US and Canadian nurses are moving back. There is a national nursing shortage here, hospitals are paying $5k signing bonuses and referral fees. but they won't increase the base wages for nurses.

Probably because they can't afford to pay more after paying for doctors and all that whizbang new equipment. Health care in the US has become so expensive that companies keep cutting back. Everything has a $15 or $20 copay. If you are in a rich company that pays good benefits, you're golden. If not, well, don't get sick or you could lose your house.