59 Non-Americans Share What They Assume Americans Can’t Live Without

Cars and guns. Flags and freedom. Fast-food and air-conditioning. That’s what the United States is all about—or at least the stereotypical version of America, according to the internet. No matter how hard people try, it looks like there are some stereotypes that Americans just can’t shake.

Whether because of pop culture or anecdotal experiences with tourists, some foreigners have a very clear-cut picture in their minds of what American everyday life is like. Even though it actually varies so much. And redditor Pfl2020 wanted to find out what exactly non-Americans think that Americans can’t live without.

Check out some of the most interesting responses to their thread and remember to give the ones that you relate to a big ol’ upvote as you scroll down. We’d also love to hear your opinions on what you associate Americans with, dear Pandas. And if you’re from the US, share your thoughts and feelings about these stereotypes in the comments.

#1

The belief that they’re more free than the rest of the world.

#2

A house. Even if you can't afford it. No flat — a house. Big house with two living rooms: one for family, one for ????

Image credits: Iseult-benoit

#3

Flags. You f***ers really care about showing off flags. Pro tip: Any place with lots of flags has a national identity crisis.

Image credits: gullman

It’s best to think of cultural stereotypes as incredibly rough guidelines that sometimes help us navigate life, but you should never think that they’re completely accurate representations of reality. Life’s too complex and deep to be summed up in a couple of throwaway phrases.

For instance, I personally associate Americans with extremely warm and friendly people, delicious homecooked meals, great education, excellent four square skills on the playground, flags, and… powdered donuts (yum!). I’m pretty sure there are unfriendly Americans out there, but I’ve yet to meet one in person. (They could be a myth conjured up by jealous Canadians.)

Similarly, not all Americans are overweight, own a gun, only speak English, and tip their waiters all the time. Does the country have a problem with obesity? Yes, it does. According to the CIA, 36.2 percent of all Americans were considered to be obese in 2016. And the US ranked twelfth in the world by obesity. But it would be unfair to ignore that in such a vast country there are plenty of fitness enthusiasts and healthy eaters out there, too.

#4

Air-conditioning. That's usually the first complaint that American migrants have in Germany.

Image credits: HabseligkeitDerLiebe

#5

Fast food. I remember watching a piece about how fast food is sometimes the cheapest option for poor families. They literally can't afford to eat healthily.

Image credits: RyzenRaider

#6

Medical debt

Image credits: victorianfolly

Some stereotypes are nearly perfectly true, however. Like how much Americans love cars. They're not the only ones, though. The US really does have a car obsession and ranks fourth on Planet Earth by the number of motor vehicles per capita, but it falls right behind—you’ll never believe it—New Zealand. That’s right, our loveable Kiwis own more cars, on average, than Americans do. Who needs eagles when our hobbit protagonists could have headed to Mordor in a Volvo?

Plenty of Americans really can’t live without cars because they rely on them for their day-to-day lives. Those who argue against this would point to the fact that, in 2019, Americans also took a whopping 9.9 billion trips on public transportation. Which sounds very impressive...

...Until you realize that there were 328.2 million people living in the US that year and that they'd each end up using public transportation just over 30 times each, on average. All year. So there's some truth to the stereotype about loving cars after all. But it's not the entire story. Nor the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Not by far.

#7

A car. In European countries, it’s pretty common that you can get anywhere by public transport, but I haven’t heard about any properly functioning public transportation besides New York’s subway.

Image credits: avadakabitch

#8

Cheddar cheese, and jumbo everything

Image credits: -butter-toast-

#9

High Self confidence. Good thing in most people. Bad thing in flat earthers and antivaxxers

#10

Paper plates. Used in your own home? That’s quite bizarre to me.

Image credits: Notaelephant

#11

A microwave. It looks like 90% of Americans don’t know how to boil an egg.

Image credits: olliver_with_a_twist

#12

A credit card. Not sure why people use it over there, possibly because of their weird credit system that seems to be so essential to their lives, or because of their even weirder mindset of liking to spend money they don't have. Probably both.

Image credits: Joe-misidd

#13

Constantly reminding everyone that they are a free country

Image credits: plsendmysufferring

#14

The goddamn Imperial System of Units.
I don't even live in the US but a lot of content on the internet is American and it annoys me when I need to multiply miles by 1.6 to get kilometers.

#15

Material consumption. This is true in most places but from my observation it seems to go to another level in America. Everyone spends so much time discussing the latest thing they bought and how great it is.

Image credits: TauCeti2050

#16

Guns, walmart, and deep friers

Image credits: Hachater

#17

7/11's barrel-sized beverage cups of soda. What the [hell] is that about?

And how is it cheaper than a small cup in europe?!

Image credits: raasra

#18

Ice. What's the deal with ice machines and them being such a big deal in any TV show or movie set in a hotel or motel?

Image credits: halfshoe

#19

Soda pop. Spent some time in the southwest. Everyone had these enormous refillable beverage containers they would refill with soft drinks multiple times a day. While I agree it is important to stay hydrated, the jugs i saw held 1.75 quarts, and that much fountain drink could contain more than 200 grams of sugar.

Image credits: LOUDCO-HD

#20

Red solo cups, they are such an American thing

Image credits: IIIHenryIII

#21

Bumper stickers informing others of their opinions.

Image credits: AmJusAskin

#22

Sugar

Image credits: floreNzTARR

#23

Garburators, garbage disposal. Every time an American was house hunting on House Hunters International, the Americans always wanted a garburator and would be disappointed if the kitchens didn't have one.

Image credits: Queef_Quaff

#24

A sense of superiority and a denial of the truth of their own history.

#25

Drive-thrus.

Image credits: Blysse102598

#26

War? Jk but I read somewhere in all layout history you’ve only had 17 years when you weren’t at war with someone or the other

#27

Mentioning someones race/culture/sex etc. constantly

#28

Insurance. If they get sick without it, they're [screwed]. Meanwhile, if I have an health issue in Europe, I'll get free assistance in case of emergency and pay a small fee (usually between 30€ and 70€) for a routine visit.

Image credits: Zek_

#29

Buying expensive [crap]. Everytime I see someone talk about their bad living situation, I check out their profiles. Most of the time it´s people with Iphones, Macs, expensive 4K TVs, going out drinking every Friday (before the rona), high end fashion, etc. And they complain about how they can´t afford food, how they can´t afford assurance, to pay their medical bills, etc. Why the [hell] do y´all have to have all the expensive [crap], when there are cheaper options?

#30

Overly-fat-saturated and sugary foods.

#31

The believe that America is the greatest of all democracies while it is just another empire on its way down...

#32

Corporate products. Half the words out of your mouth are from advertising campaigns - and you don't see how f***ed that is. You glorify Oreos, when they taste like synthetic cardboard and fondant.

#33

Fahrenheit... it’s such nonsense. Celsius is where it’s at!

#34

Customer service. They love complaining. Which I truly understand now. Most of the service here is subpar. Everything moves around money. People working are stressed out and people who needs service mostly feels the same way. I’m surprised whenever I encounter a happy worker around here.

#35

Extra-large everything.

#36

Thanksgiving ritualistic family torture

#37

Fast food and complaining about politics

#38

Guns.

#39

Convenience. Where I am from all the shops close early, and things will take days to be delivered. From what I read on hear, it sounds like you can just get whatever you want any time of day.

#40

Loans or debts of some sort, especially in their younger years. And i think Americans literally can't live without insurance.

#41

"Justice". Like: "You did something I consider wrong, so f**k you, you deserve everything bad that could happen to you."

#42

Starbucks and Twitter

#43

High fructose corn syrup. ._."

#44

Butter and bacon

#45

Ice in their water or very cold water

#46

Toilet paper. Even before bidets became common in other countries, people used buckets and pails to clean down there with water. No paper, no waste. It's one thing not to know how cheap it is to install one, or how convenient it is. It's another to be aware of it but stubbornly refuse to even try it, even defending the 'superiority' of TP with bizarre justifications.

Image credits: AdvocateSaint

#47

Automatic transmissions.

#48

Ads, I see no other reason ANYONE would put up with being advertised to so aggressively

#49

Pick-up trucks.

#50

Amazon

#51

Corruption. It scares the [hell] out of me how the system overlook things when it's a judge or cops.

#52

Thermostatically controlled houses. I mean, I dislike being uncomfortably hot as much as the next person, but my aircon isn’t working right now and it’s annoying, but I can cope.

#53

News telling them who to be angry and outraged with this week.

#54

Military.

#55

McDonalds

#56

Americans seem to think that therapists are the answer to everything.

#57

Money.

If you dont earn any or inherited any you're basically [screwed].

#58

I experience Americans as very superficial (not sure if this is the right word to be honest). I think it might create turmoil if you take this away from American society and people actually would tell each other what they really think about each other. Just my experience of the "fake-smile"-syndrom.

#59

Their grass cutting machines and leaf blowers! Hahaha how are those a thing? Almost no one uses them here

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