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Politicians from both left and right of the political spectrum often call the United States the best country in the world. And its citizens tend to agree. In a YouGov poll of more than 11,000 US adults, Americans tended to support the notion by 50% to 31%.

But one New Zealander living in the UK thinks the opposite. And he has made it his mission to argue the point. The man even has a TikTok account called 'America Is The Bad Place.' There, he posts videos addressing mostly social problems within the US, like the cost of healthcare and the quality of higher education, but also challenges American pride and the international image of the nation.

Continue scrolling to check out some of the points he's made and upvote the ones you agree with. Of course, feel free to share your thoughts on these difficult multi-layered issues in the comments—even if you think this guy is wrong.

@america_is_the_bad.place #universalhealthcare #education #USA #America #americaisthebadplace #thegoodplace #thisisthebadplace ♬ original sound - America_is_the_bad_place
#1

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Letting people die of a treatable illness because they don't have enough insurance. A country's first job is to protect its citizens, not to act like a fireman who just continues watering his grass while watching the neighbor's house burn down.

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#2

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre A country still arguing about whether women should have bodily autonomy.

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#3

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Your Senate filibuster bill. The fact that 41% of senators are representing only 27% of the American people can block bills supported by 70% of the American people is about as democratic as just letting Ken Bone be king.

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Random Anon
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And yet your leaders speak of democracy internationally like the crusaders in the Holy Crusade.

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#4

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Measuring your police training in weeks. Two to four years is the norm elsewhere.

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#5

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Gerrymandering. Democracy should have their voters choosing their representatives, not their representatives choosing their voters.

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#6

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Sending 18-year-olds to war. When your country doesn't believe they're mature enough to buy beer.

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Vasana Phong
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My brother got sent straight overseas when operation desert shield/ storm started, straight out of boot camp at 19

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#7

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Every minute an American is forced into medical bankruptcy. The only surprise cost in other developed countries is that some hospitals charge visitors for parking.

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Austin Hicks
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I was in my 20s I cut my finger really bad in a broken glass while doing the dishes. I went to prompt med that to get stitches because it wouldn't stop bleeding. They told me it would cost $680 with my health insurance. I was working at Kroger at the time and I was making only $7.25 an hour, in college and living with my soon to be wife in an apartment that cost a little over $1000 a month so this was something we definitely couldn't afford. So I told the people at the front desk "Nevermind, I'll just go home and bleed to death." I had already been waiting for my wife to get off work to take me since we only had the 1 car at the time, I had been sitting with medical tape, gauze and a wash cloth wrapped around my finger while propping it up in the air for 4 hours before she got home. I came back out to the car and she was flabbergasted and we had to shop around online for another hour in the car until we found a cheaper place an hour and a half away.

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#8

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Having military recruiters in school. It's especially with the biggest incentives to join the military are healthcare and affordable education, which are just considered human rights in normal countries.

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Fat Harry's Ghost
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm pretty sure our (UK) forces do send representatives to school/college careers fairs too. Of course they don't have to point out healthcare and education as benefits...

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#9

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Forcing you to use vacation days when you're ill. Some countries make employers change paid vacation days to paid sick days when you're ill on vacation.

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LAWLAWLAW
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I actually worked for a place in the UK where I was ill on my holiday so they GAVE ME MY HOLIDAY DAYS BACK, the USA is messed up

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#10

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Charging parents for their baby's delivery. Other countries consider it an investment in the future tax payers.

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Naesil
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Price for giving birth in US is absolutely horrible.. but what I find disgusting is that they bill for having a skin contact with the baby. The thing that is best for the baby they ask money for -.- even if the price is small portion of the whole operation, but come on let the parents hold their new born.

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#11

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Having TV ads for prescription medicine.

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Vasana Phong
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All the side effects mentioned takes up 80% of time, you know diarrhea, suicidal thoughts, death ect..

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#12

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Minimum wage not rising with inflation every year.

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Jerry The Joker
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But don't worry! Congress will always give themselves a raise! I think they're at $600 an hour.

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#13

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Not having paid maternity leave. 14 to 68 paid weeks off is the investment that the 15 countries above the US on The Human Freedom Index make in their future taxpayers.

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#14

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to worry about the cost of an ambulance.

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RaroaRaroa
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

New Zealand is a bit strange on this. We charge for ambulance rides, apparently, but in Wellington where I live we have Wellington Free Ambulance and you don't pay. The rest of the country has St John Ambulance and they do.

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#15

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to do taxes if you're an employee. Your politicians are bribed by the accounting industry to make your taxes difficult.

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Jyri Hakola
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's quite tragicomical thing that a country that have de facto invented computers, microchips, internet and so much more can be in some areas an actuallu a late stone-age 3rd world country. Here I just received my 2021 summary of taxes, logged online, corrected few reductions and submitted the form and all that took abut 10 minutes of time.

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#16

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre People getting married for the purpose of qualifying for health care through marriage is weird. So is people needing to divorce a dying loved one to avoid being responsible for their medical debt and all that for the low, low price of 53% more per person than any other country on Earth.

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Vicky Zar
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The first one is not that bad or strange. In Germany you get benefits if you are married too.

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#17

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Having healthcare through an employer. So are doctors needing to argue with companies for you to get what you're prescribed.

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Jiska Veldhuizen
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes that is one thing that makes the least sense to me. What if you get sick and lose your job? You''ll be without a health insurance then just when you would need it the most!

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#18

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Doing drills at school for something other than fires and earthquakes. Forcing kids to go through the trauma of lockdown drills. The fact that they're necessary is horrific.

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RaroaRaroa
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They have lockdown drills in New Zealand too. Have been used to some degree, just when there's a threat in the neighbourhood - never for something in the actual school - so more just staying inside rather than barricading doors and hiding. Touch wood.

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#19

Some of you think that voting should be made harder than buying a gun. Most prisoners in most developed countries can still vote. In some US states, an ex-felon will be blocked from voting, yet his neighbor on the terrorist watchlist will still be allowed to buy weapons.

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Andy Acceber
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We also have a disproportionately enormous prison population. Though prisoners still pay taxes, in 48 states, people can't vote from prison. Knowing this fact could certainly incentivize people with power to create laws that target and lock up people who disagree with them.

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#20

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Playing your national anthem before a sporting event that doesn't involve your country playing another country, especially when it involves kids at school.

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Andy Acceber
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's so weird. The audience often gets really into it too. Y'all, standing for 90 seconds with your hat over your heart doesn't actually support the troops, build community, strengthen our country, or whatever else you think you're doing. Instead, how about funding the VA? Volunteering for nonprofits? Getting involved in local government? 90 seconds of pseudo-patriotism doesn't cut it, y'all.

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#21

The US government banning itself from negotiating prices with pharmaceutical companies.

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#22

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Needing to post bail if you're not a threat to the public. It shouldn't be a crime to be poor.

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Andy Acceber
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If payment equals freedom, crime is only crime if you're poor. The rich can pay their way to freedom. That's not justice.

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#23

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Not getting guaranteed vacation days. 20 to 40 days a year is the norm.

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Jill Pulcifer
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Husband has had the same job for 10 years at this point, he now has the maximum days allowed, 14. His sick days and pto are all rolled into that number btw.

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#24

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Educational scholarships being a big deal. Education is normally free or heavily subsidized in the developed world.

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RaroaRaroa
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Free to the end of college (high school) in NZ, but not after that. Not all of these things are uniquely American.

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#25

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre The amount of people you lock up. 116 countries have an incarceration rate per million at under a quarter of the US.

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Naesil
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you make prison as your business then locking as much people up as possible is good for business.

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#26

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Liking guns. They never come up in conversations and it's rare to even see police with them.

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Arthur Waite
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's sad to see my love of shooting become such a political football. I was a fat kid with breathing problems, never could get into any sports - until I saw a tv special about the Olympic sports, and saw target shooting. When I was old enough, got my licence and went into competition. Won a few, lost a lot; met some great people on the range. And now my government thinks I'm a potential mass murderer, and an easy victim of stupid laws. Sad, really.

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#27

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Funding your schools through local property taxes. But it does go some way to explain how the US has dropped to 27th on The Global Social Mobility Index.

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Wilf
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Didn't know that. So the poorest areas get the least education funding? America really is some f/8cked up third-world sh)thole, isn't it.

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#28

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Making unlimited political donations legal, when you've created a fight to the moral bottom, where your elected officials live in constant fear that if they don't accept big money bribes, their political opponents will.

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Peter H
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In other countries that’s called “corruption,” but here in the U.S. it’s “campaign finance,” which is enshrined as “free speech.”

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#29

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre The amount your elections cost. Your five most expensive house of representative seats cost more than any election for any country in Europe.

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Hannah Edwards
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In UK there is a spending limit per candidate, it’s small compared to US standards.Less than £9000 per candidate, then 6p per registered elector. Spending and donations have to be logged. It doesn’t stop shenanigans though

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#30

You've reinvented the slave trade with your prison system - that's weird. So are your coercive plea bargains, allowing companies that profit off this exploitation to invest unlimited money in the politicians that agree to do their bidding.

The strangest thing is that it doesn't even cost much money to bribe a US politician, because if you have enough money to finance their entire next political reelection campaign, then all you have to do is threaten to spend that money on their next primary opponent instead.

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User# 6
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Andy Hamilton (British comedy writer) once uttered the brilliant idea that politicians, like footballers, should wear shirts with their sponsers on them.

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#31

30 Things About The USA That Other Countries Find Really Bizarre Hearing fireworks and thinking they could be something other than fireworks. Children should be running to the windows to look not questioning their safety.

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Richard Knox
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if you live in a city that banned fireworks and that you've never heard a gun would you mistake the two, MAYBE. I was straight up told by this little punk my neice just broke up with "I've got a gun don't make me use it". He left and then there was a little pop outside, he then called my neice and said "you heard that, that's my gun, you don't leave me if I say you can't". I took her phone and told him I've heard guns and fireworks before, he just set off a little blackcat popper and if he wanted to hear what a real gun sounds like he'll keep messing with my neice. With how big the US population is, there's too many dumb people.

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