AU V USA An interesting comparison

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AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by Oldbloke » 09 Jan 2023, 8:55 pm

I found this today on a US site.

AUSTRALIA: AN AMERICAN VIEW...
Interesting set of observations from a visitor from the other side of the Pacific. ‘Value what you have and don't give it away.' There's a lot to admire about Australia, especially if you're a visiting American, says David Mason. More often than you might expect, Australian friends patiently listening to me enthuse about their country have said, ''We need outsiders like you to remind us what we have.'' So here it is - a small presumptuous list of what one foreigner admires in Oz.

1. Health care. I know the controversies, but basic national healthcare is a gift.
In America, medical expenses are a leading cause of bankruptcy.
The drug companies dominate politics and advertising.
You can't turn on the telly without hours of drug advertisements - something I have never yet seen here.
Obama was crucified for taking halting baby steps towards sanity.
And your emphasis on prevention - making cigarettes less accessible, for one - is a model.


2. Food. Yes, we have great food in America too, especially in the big cities. But your bread is less sweet, your lamb is cheaper, and your supermarket vegetables and fruits are fresher than ours.
Too often in my country an apple is a ball of pulp as big as your face. The dainty Pink Lady apples of Oz are the juiciest I've had.
And don't get me started on coffee. In American small towns it tastes like water flavoured with burnt dirt, but the smallest shop in the smallest town in Oz can make a first-rate latte.
I love your ubiquitous bakeries, your hot-cross buns. Shall I go on?


3. Language. How do you do it?
The rhyming slang and Aboriginal place names like magic spells.
Words that seem vaguely English yet also resemble an argot from another planet.
I love the way institutional names get turned into diminutives - Vinnie's and Salvos - and absolutely nothing is sacred.
Everything's an opportunity for word games and everyone's a nickname.
Lingo makes the world go round.
It's the spontaneous wit of the people that tickles me most.
Late one night at a barbie my new mate Suds remarked, ''Nothing's the same since 24-7.'' Amen.


4. Free-to-air TV. In Oz, you buy a TV, plug it in and watch some of the best programming I have ever seen - uncensored.
In America, you can't get diddly-squat without paying a cable or satellite company heavy fees.
In Oz a few channels make it hard to choose.
In America, you've got 400 channels and nothing to watch.


5. Small shops. Outside the big cities in America corporations have nearly erased them.
Identical malls with identical restaurants serving inferior food.
Except for geography, it's hard to tell one American town from another.
The ''take-away'' culture here is wonderful.
Human encounters are real - stirring happens, stories get told.
The curries are to die for. And you don't have to tip!


6. Free camping. We used to have this too, and I guess it's still free when you backpack miles away from the roads.
But I love the fact that in Oz everyone owns the shore and in many places you can pull up a camper van and stare at the sea for weeks.
I love the ''primitive'' and independent campgrounds, the life outdoors.
The few idiots who leave their stubbies and rubbish behind in these pristine places ought to be transported in chains.

7. Religion. In America, it's everywhere - especially where it's not supposed to be, like politics.
I imagine you have your Pharisees too, making a big public show of devotion, but I have yet to meet one here.

8. Roads. Peak hour aside, I've found travel on your roads pure heaven.
My country's ''freeways'' are crowded, crumbling, insanely knotted with looping overpasses - it's like racing homicidal maniacs on fraying spaghetti.
I've taken the Hume without stress, and I love the Princes Highway when it's two lanes.
Ninety minutes south of Bateman's Bay I was sorry to see one billboard for a McDonald's. It's blocking a lovely paddock view. Someone should remove it.

9. Real multiculturalism. I know there are tensions, just like anywhere else, but I love the distinctiveness of your communities and the way you publicly acknowledge the Aboriginal past.
Recently, too, I spent quality time with Melbourne Greeks, and was gratified both by their devotion to their own great language and culture and their openness to an Afghan lunch.

10. Fewer guns. You had Port Arthur in 1996 and got real in response. America replicates such massacres several times a year and nothing changes.
Why?
Our religion of individual rights makes the good of the community an impossible dream.
Instead of mateship we have ''It's mine and nobody else's'.
We talk a great game about freedom, but too often live in fear.



There's more to say - your kaleidoscopic birds, your perfumed bush in springtime, your vast beaches.

These are just a few blessings that make Australia a rarity.

Of course, it's not paradise - nowhere is - but I love it here.

No need to wave flags like Americans and add to the world's windiness.

Just value what you have and don't give it away.
The greatest invention in the history of man is beer.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by deye243 » 09 Jan 2023, 11:21 pm

While it was a good read he definitely was not here 40 years ago it definitely is not the country that I was born into so sad .we have lost a hell of a lot more than we have gained and we are about to lose a hell of a lot more I see a very uneasy future for this country
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by bladeracer » 10 Jan 2023, 12:14 am

I think he's trying to paint two very large countries with very diverse population groups based on just the small sections he saw. There are places here that would've turned him off ever wanting to return here if that was all he experienced, other places would have him applying to stay here permanently, and the US is the same.

He missed our better income and standard of living.
Our vehicle rego includes insurance to cover _other_ people, not ourselves - that surprises Americans.
And I think our unemployment support is much better here?
And we include taxes in our retail pricing on goods, if you see a rifle for $1000 that's what it costs, you don't get charged $1080 when you pay for it (yes, I know it's because each state sets their own sales tax rates).

I had a hernia repair a few months ago. A few days later a video popped up on my Youtube from a woman that had the same operation and what it cost her. US$85,000, of which their insurance (that they also have to pay for) covered all but US$10k of it, just ridiculous. It cost me $195 for the initial consultation then nothing further, and I don't have to pay for insurance. Pretty sure I got most of the consult fee back under Medicare as well and the follow-up wasn't charged at all.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by deye243 » 10 Jan 2023, 12:40 am

bladeracer wrote:I think he's trying to paint two very large countries with very diverse population groups based on just the small sections he saw. There are places here that would've turned him off ever wanting to return here if that was all he experienced, other places would have him applying to stay here permanently, and the US is the same.

Alice Springs and Townsville would be 2 he should of went to
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by bigpete » 10 Jan 2023, 12:52 am

He kinda stuffed up re the free camping I feel.

And he missed the biggest bonus of Australia....its not full of Americans!
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by JimTom » 10 Jan 2023, 12:54 am

deye243 wrote:
bladeracer wrote:I think he's trying to paint two very large countries with very diverse population groups based on just the small sections he saw. There are places here that would've turned him off ever wanting to return here if that was all he experienced, other places would have him applying to stay here permanently, and the US is the same.

Alice Springs and Townsville would be 2 he should of went to


With the obvious exception of the current juvenile crime rate in Townsville, what else would turn someone off Townsville Sir?
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by bladeracer » 10 Jan 2023, 1:10 am

deye243 wrote:
bladeracer wrote:I think he's trying to paint two very large countries with very diverse population groups based on just the small sections he saw. There are places here that would've turned him off ever wanting to return here if that was all he experienced, other places would have him applying to stay here permanently, and the US is the same.

Alice Springs and Townsville would be 2 he should of went to


Meekatharra might've coloured his views to the negative :-)

For the nicest places it will mainly depend on whether they offer whatever he prefers as a lifestyle, what he prefers is probably very different from myself.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by bladeracer » 10 Jan 2023, 1:21 am

bigpete wrote:He kinda stuffed up re the free camping I feel.

And he missed the biggest bonus of Australia....its not full of Americans!


I don't believe I've ever paid to camp anywhere. We have rented dongers a few times when we stayed in towns for several days but I don't consider that camping. I've never stopped in an actual campground as they're often where drunks stop for a few cans, and you can't walk into the bush without stepping in somebody's turd. We just drive off the road and stop somewhere out of sight of passing traffic.

I'm sure there are Americans that say the same about Aussies.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by wanneroo » 10 Jan 2023, 10:06 am

The whole thing makes me think if the author is even American or been to America, there is some suspect stuff in there. A lot of these little generalized homilies get created and passed around social media and blogs and now that we have ChatGPT it's gonna get worse.

Australia and the USA in a lot of ways it's hard to compare as it's like saying compare Australia to Europe. Greece is as different to Finland as Finland is to France. People forget the entire population of Australia is the size of the Los Angeles, California metro area and we've got 50 individual states, all with their own laws, rules, taxes, way of life, geography, weather, food, language, etc. The way people live in Minnesota is different from those in Alabama and different from those in Connecticut. Trying to fit 50 states and 350 million people into one square box is impossible. Yes there are a few common things like McDonalds, Wal Mart, football but that is where it ends. I know this because I have lived all over the United States and traveled to 47 of the 50 states.

I spent 7 years working with Australians and over the years as we cycled hundreds through the company every ski season, the biggest issue I found with young Australians was most, not all, but most had formed a cartooney type view of the USA before traveling to the USA, it was an entirely media created view of the USA, not grounded in any reality. And quite a few were very surprised at what the USA really was, not what they were told it was. And in the end some moved here permanently or married Americans.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by wanneroo » 10 Jan 2023, 10:09 am

bigpete wrote:He kinda stuffed up re the free camping I feel.

And he missed the biggest bonus of Australia....its not full of Americans!


The USA has tons of free camping or camping for a very nominal fee of a few bucks.

Federal BLM land can be camped on for 14 days and depending on the state, there are usually tons of state parks.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by womble » 10 Jan 2023, 11:55 am

We don't have Latino women or anything that compares to them.
In fact in NSW there are no attractive females.
But there's no women here that have that degree of bootylicious
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by bigpete » 10 Jan 2023, 12:43 pm

womble wrote:We don't have Latino women or anything that compares to them.
In fact in NSW there are no attractive females.
But there's no women here that have that degree of bootylicious

And thank f*** for that
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by deye243 » 10 Jan 2023, 7:22 pm

JimTom wrote:
deye243 wrote:
bladeracer wrote:I think he's trying to paint two very large countries with very diverse population groups based on just the small sections he saw. There are places here that would've turned him off ever wanting to return here if that was all he experienced, other places would have him applying to stay here permanently, and the US is the same.

Alice Springs and Townsville would be 2 he should of went to


With the obvious exception of the current juvenile crime rate in Townsville, what else would turn someone off Townsville Sir?

I figured it that would be enough knock off a car in the morning get picked up by the coppers be out in the afternoon and do it all over again .
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by Shootermick » 10 Jan 2023, 9:32 pm

I’ve been to America three times, on three completely different trips. I love it here, but I’d visit the states again tomorrow, great place in my opinion.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by ederlezi » 11 Jan 2023, 5:03 am

deye243 wrote:While it was a good read he definitely was not here 40 years ago it definitely is not the country that I was born into so sad .we have lost a hell of a lot more than we have gained and we are about to lose a hell of a lot more I see a very uneasy future for this country


I had the chance to call Australia home 15 years ago, and for many reasons, it is a country with its people that I deeply love. However, I wasn't here 40 years ago, could you please share more details on what has been lost and what do you think is going to be lost in the future? Thanks,
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by womble » 11 Jan 2023, 8:12 am

We're basically becoming too much like the US, with globalisation and corporate giants asserting power and influence.
But then, it was the hard times we faced 40 years ago that led to us selling the farm colloquially to overseas investors
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by animalpest » 11 Jan 2023, 2:28 pm

Australia is becoming more like the USA - food, politics, language, you name it.
40 years ago, the only thing we had in common was the English language :sarcasm:
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by Soopyyy » 12 Jan 2023, 2:03 pm

womble wrote:We're basically becoming too much like the US, with globalisation and corporate giants asserting power and influence.
But then, it was the hard times we faced 40 years ago that led to us selling the farm colloquially to overseas investors


We're getting all the bulls**t from the US and none of the liberties. Basically California 2.0.
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by rossfrb » 13 Jan 2023, 8:54 pm

womble wrote:We don't have Latino women or anything that compares to them.
In fact in NSW there are no attractive females.
But there's no women here that have that degree of bootylicious



Sorry womble - there is at least one enclave (probably more) of Latino women in NSW - ya just gotta know where to look.
Kensington, Sydney and likely surrounding environs - but is a very busy noisy (expensive) suburb.

Oh yeah - and they like to wear "active wear"
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Re: AU V USA An interesting comparison

Post by womble » 14 Jan 2023, 3:49 am

Oh my safe search is off don’t be sorry
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