The American Lifestyle

[pphaneuf]

The American lifestyle frankly sucks. The media is generally shit. The food stinks. We spend too much time in traffic and too much time taking care of a badly built McHouse that has the ergonomics of a coach seat on a discount airline. Add to that the lack of health care (just listened to a Stanford lecture about the American Couple that cited a study that determined that the single biggest predictor of long-term marital happiness is whether both partners have health care), the enormous wealth-gap between the rich and poor, blisteringly expensive tertiary education, an infant mortality rate that's straight out of Victorian England, and a national security apparat that shoves its fist up my asshole every time I get on an airplane, and I don't think that this country is much of a paragon of quality living.

America has lots going for it -- innovation, the Bill of Rights, a willingness to let its language mutate in exciting and interesting ways, but the standard of living is not America's signal virtue. — Cory Doctorow

That said, most of Canada has health care, much cheaper education, I didn't get too much fisting (to azrhey's dismay, it would seem), the media isn't good, but not nearly as bad, and decent food can be found in the bigger cities... And from what I can see around France, being stuck in traffic is hardly exclusive to the Americans.

Comments

[vierge-en-trop.livejournal.com]

Most of those claims are pretty broad generalizations.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Of course! Where would we be without sweeping generalizations?

And I maintain I didn't get fisted, I'd remember that!

[azrhey.livejournal.com]

Maybe you were asleep...

Not sure it would wake you up!

[(Anonymous)]

hahaha, i love this text, it is sooooo true and at the same time so wrong! i lived in the US for 10 years and my life in general there was waaaaaaay much easier than it is in Canada!! but i agree with the plane thing... (http://moussu.net/lulus-life-in-cornland/)