triky wrote:i dont live in the uk anymore. i have though. i've also lived in the US, in the middle east, in italy, france and now in switzerland. from my short-lived US experience (and from the contact i have from my family over there and having worked for an american company in the past), it's a dog-eat-dog world. everythings about money, doing better than the next man, talking louder than everyone else (what i do is so great and better than what you do). people don't seem to give a shit about you. they're nice to your face, but if you say something out of the ordinary, they think yoú're putting yourself forward and bragging.
now i've met a lot of nice americans abroad and some in the US. but for the most part, and that includes some members of my family, quite frankly they scare me. stabbing each other in the back to get on top of the social ladder. they don't talk to you unless they want something from you and they are always trying to pin you down in this or that social class. at least the french tell you right off they couldnt give a toss about you, or are downright rude. i prefer that to hypocrisy. i'm not saying people here are perfect. but they certainly see life in a different way. sure i wanna be a millionaire. but i'm also content to live in a caravan for ther est of my life. i only work so i can have money to eat and have fun in life, but i'm not striving for social acceptance through my career or strting a fmaily and getting married, doing the right thing.
but hey, thats my opinion (and experience).
definitely your opinion. because of the minuscule amount of the 200+ million people I have met living here, that is definitely not the opinion I have. If anything, the dog-eat-dog world you describe is a vibrant culture for the major cities.....but since the major cities still don't come anywhere near close to the majority of people living here in the country, I'd say that assessment gave a lil short shift to regular, everyday working people who happen to live outside NYC/LA/MIA, etc.
Besides the notion that if you live in a capitalist economy, competition is part of your daily life, whether or not you believe yourself to be enlightened or less cutthroat in expression...
Or the idea that based on your racial/gender/economic demographic in an entirely large country, the ideals might be different completely...
Most people I know don't want to be a millionaire. They want to be comfortable. Most people I know don't even want to be rich, they just don't want to struggle anymore. Enter any field where competition is promoted and you will have the same thing, unless I am a bit misguided and think that its truly an American condition to compete for top honor when there is a prize at stake. I mean.....when people watch soccer matches, are they going for comraderie and joy of the match or for the team they support to win? How is that any different?
I think you should maybe spend more time in the US off the beaten path? Maybe a road trip through New England or the Southern states? I'm hoping to do road trip from the Southeast to the Southwest in a few months. Should take a few days to get my car cross country. I hope to meet many different kinds of people on the way. Then again, you might be satisfied with your opinion of the US, which I think only winds up being bad for the people you'd have negative opinions of before you had the chance to meet them.
Thats also kinda scary as a US person in terms of traveling outside it. If this is a common idea about Americans.....and that comes nowhere near close to my experience because that pretty much takes into account one type of American.....how would anyone who is not in the US suggest getting around that?
