Gasoline prices are heavily subsidized in the US, the gas price you complain about is cheap compared to other countries.
The commodity price for gasoline right now looks to be about 2 USD per gallon. Retail gasoline in the USA is at least a dollar more due to taxes and markup.
Subsidies may play a role as well, but the taxes in some countries are extreme by American standards. My take on it is that a fuel tax is effectively neutral if it brings in enough revenue to pay for the road system.
The fuel tax isn’t enough to cover the damage to the environment and quality of life, though. That’s why taxes are that high in many other places. Same way cigarettes are taxed to help discourage use and to help cover the increased healthcare costs it puts on everyone
International rankings of the US are abysmal https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_rankings_of_the_United_States
Peace:
“Vision of Humanity 2024 Global Peace Index ranked 132nd out of 162 countries”
…yup. sounds about right. We’ve been at some kind of war for pretty much the entirety of our existence…
USA could be, but isn’t the greatest country in the world.
To some Americans, it is that the US isn’t the pinnacle of democracy but far from it. To others, that the EU isn’t better policy wise than the US, it just has far more competing interests which mean lobbyists have to hand out more than a lump sum of sucking up to people. To some Americans, that your health care system is really shit, to others, that their public health care is increasingly under attack in some EU countries by an industry pouching and locking down medicine through the profits their greed has allowed them to accumulate in countries like the US to such an extent that there are real tradeoffs now to the for-profit alternative.
The gun rights y’all have?
Now, most people would tell you that Gun Control Works and that you should just do that and get less dead kids per month which is a generally good thing.
… But here’s another thing to consider. As long as you’re allowed to purchase weapons for cheap and easy.
You do realise you can in fact do something about the assholes in your government and your oligarchies with those guns, right? That they can be used for more than just killing children?
Luigi Mangione seemed to get it.
We can’t understand how millions can vote for a senile, convicted sexual predator as president…
Dude half of us don’t understand it either.
It’s amazing what decades of defunding education will do when you mix it with a healthy dose of conservative talk show TV and social media algorithms.
I dunno, i understand it pretty well. Lack of education, lead paint/gasoline, nationalism, fascism, racism, sexism, economic disparity, lack of healthcare to deal with neural degeneracy common in trump supporters, and finally lower borth rates among the more educated. America is a shithole, and has been for the past 40 years at least. Until we finally grow a spine and start “adjusting”, things are going to continue getting worse until were all dead and the olligarchs own everything. Then theyll move on to fucking the rest of the world (harder than they already are)
We exist as much as you do. You’re not the main character.
!AskUSA@discuss.online for USA questions
Say that to the aliens who are going to make first contact with us.
In either New York or Los Angeles, because those are the only places that exist, clearly
Affordable healthcare
Public transit
Civilian oversight
Prisoner rehabilitation
Universal income
Free education
Separation of religion and state
Wealth taxes
Law enforcement accountability
Environmental regulations…
Where is this magical place?
Scandinavia.
Was guessing so. Thanks for your reply,
You need a second civil war
out of curiosity, how many wars have you been caught in the middle of?
Just my own personal hell. 40 years in the making. You?
none, and gods willing that will always be the case. Civil war isn’t just “good guys vs bad guys”—hell, it wasn’t even that the first time around, despite union propaganda trying to make it seem like their intentions were pure. War is also starvation and loss of access to clean drinking water and constant blackouts as supply chains get interrupted; it’s many people dependent on uninterrupted health care dying off because they can’t get their meds or do their testing; it’s r*pists and pedophiles and nazis and sociopaths having their way with others while society gets distracted; it’s your loved ones dying, not because they were fighting for what’s right, but because they were “acceptable losses”; it’s constant anguish that destroys lives for multiple generations as trauma gets handed down like an heirloom.
Living through a war is about the most extreme form of hate I could imagine wishing upon someone. If someone who lived through one is willing to say “it’s time,” then I’m willing to listen. Otherwise, please excuse me if I don’t.
I’m gonna go ahead and assume that you are talking about Americans in the sense of the Americans who live in the USA.
God-damnit guys, not everything is about you.
Now, I don’t know if USA inhabitants are not ready to hear it, but certainly Lemmy USA residents are not.
Like it or not, you guys have a GREAT COUNTRY in the USA
Worldwide, people envy you. The poorest inhabitant of the USA has rights, possibilities and duties that only the richest in any other country can only dream of.
For God’s sake, people are literally willing to kill themselves trying to reach your country, to have an atom of freedom that you guys squander with petty squabbles.
No USA proper citizen has ever been in the need so dire to escape the USA that they need to build a raft to risk their lives to go anywhere from their Homeland.
For that same reason, collectivists worldwide hate you and your country with undying hate. Because you (as in your society) don’t need them. And they do need you. And they resent this so much, that they’re willing to destroy you all just to stop that from being true.
You guys have lived so cozy and accommodated lives, thanks to the disrespected sacrifices made willingly by millions that you are bored out of your minds.
So much in fact, that with a little nudge from the collectivists worldwide seeking your destruction, you yourselves plunge willingly into the chaos of unmaking by allowing the collectivist mindset to pollute your youngest.
Make no mistake, the USA will keep growing and thriving, like it or not.
But not thanks to your internal or external enemies. That’s for sure.
Edit: the upvote to downvote ratio tells me I followed the post premise to a T
People in poorer countries are scrabbling to get to the USA, risking life and limb doing so, because the USA is good at advertising they are an amazing and free country.
In reality the US is a complete shithole, and in many ways just like a third world country.
Where to begin…
But I’ll touch on something no one else has here.
Shopping carts. It’s mindblowing to me that the country that sent men to the moon still hasn’t figured out that its easier for everyone if they turn on all 4 wheels rather than the 2 front ones.
That way you can slide your cart sideways to make room for other shoppers. And turning it takes no effort.
And even… even if it is some weird cost cutting thing. Why not make them turn on the rear wheels? That would still make it easier than in the front. Since you steer the cart from the rear.
Get your shit together. Put gun controll aside, put your dumb ass two party politics aside and focus on what matters. Your godawful shopping carts.
Maybe add the coin slot to them too, zero unreturned carts would exist. There would be a cottage industry of people returning free carts for the 50c coin if people won’t do it themselves
Nah we’d lose the free litmus test
Ok, so I’m going to do one that’s actually likely to be downvoted by the Americans here.
Sometimes censorship is necessary for a safer society.
All of your sitcoms are crap. The same recycled gags over and over. Unpleasant people who hate each other snarking, saying “oh my god” and then explaining their jokes.
I saw something like 15 or 20 years ago saying the average “adult” (not in a sexual way) show is designed for 14 year old viewers. Our media has made so much more sense to me since then.
The USA is neither the best country nor the worst country. It’s just one of the countries.
From all the comments, this is one of them
You should do this for other countries too. America isn’t the only country with an idealised view of what other people think of them.
Start a thread for that instead of commenting on one specifically for America
Then I’d have someone else accusing me of ripping off this guy.
