Unboxing America: What It's Like Living In America

Hello Merica. Is everybody feeling pretty good about yourselves? You should. While SOME people in this country are notoriously negative, like all the damn time, they shouldn’t be. After all, America is pretty much the best country you can live in the whole world.
Hopefully you’re thankful for that. You could have been born in or live in a place like this.
So what makes America great? And, conversely, what are we lousy at? And, what do other countries think of us? Today, we want to answer those questions, and take a look at a bunch of different things that make America, America.
So put on your fat jeans, throw on some BBQ and make sure you’re packing your sidearm, as we set out to unbox America.
If you lived in another country, and you watched American television back in the 80s, you’d probably think Americans lived like people in TV shows like Dallas. Or, you might think everyone in America lived at the beach and had great hair.
In reality, most of America is more like….Roseanne.
Across the globe, there’s many stereotypes about Americans. Here’s one just one list I found in about 5 seconds on Wikipedia. Apparently, we’re all fat, gun toting, materialistic, stuck up workaholics.
Does that ring true, fellow ‘Merican?
Well let’s begin this unboxing by taking a quick peek at a few of these stereotypes.
First off, are we the fattest country? Well not exactly, there are a handful of really tiny countries that are fatter than us, but, let’s be real folks. We’re pretty beefy. More than 7 in 10 of us are considered overweight.
No that’s not all. Why are Americans so fat anyways? A lot of it has to do with our portions and the type of food we eat. Americans eat 20% more calories than we did a long time ago, and a lot of that has to do with our fast food consumption.
The other reason? Lack of exercise. As Americans, we work harder and longer hours each week, which means less time to get out and sweat.
Especially the kids these days. They’re pretty much video gaming, don’t want to go outside and play kids today.
Okay, so we looked it up, and we’re pretty fat. Now, do we own the most guns? Uh yeah. Americans own double the number of any other country in terms of guns per person. Actually if you do the math, Americans own more than one gun per person on average. That’s just crazy.
In Taiwan, there’s only an estimated 10,000 guns total in civilian possession. A real big difference.
The reason we have so many weapons is there are like people who rob and steal all the time. We like need to protect ourselves from people here who are really bad. If we didn’t have so many felons and losers in this country, we wouldn’t all need to keep a sidearm under the bed at night.
How many people are locked up in America? Two million one hundred thousand. We have a ton of people locked up. Look at Brazil prisons are way overcrowded.
England only has 80,000. Probably because people in england are boring.
Moving on, okay so yes we’re fat, and yes we have more guns than anyone else. Two other stereotypes to address: Americans are materialistic and workaholics. Is that true?
In terms of hours worked, we, as Americans work the 14th most number of hours each year. Look at Mexico. They’re some really hard workers down there. You’ll notice at the bottom of this list are European countries, who notoriously work far less hours than Americans.
And yes, we’re materialistic and shallow. We have the most plastic surgeons per capita than any other country. But is all that hard work paying off?
Ok, so, we’re nowhere near the top when it comes to per capita income per household. Liechtenstein is.
But we’re working really hard, and we’re averaging just about $54,000 a year, annually per household. That says a lot about how poor many people in America really are. In fact, 3 in 4 Americans lives paycheck to paycheck.
Now. we talked a lot about what America ranks as the best at, but is there anything that America is the worst at? Nothing really. Unless you count having the most jerks on black friday.
I wonder what other countries think of americans? Are we loved by everyone or do they think we’re all a bunch of jerks? Well, they definitely think we’re shallow.
One major news reporting agency went around the world and asked people what they think of Americans. For the most part, our reputation isn’t all that bad – we’re seen as generous, friendly, uncomplicated, rich, and protectors of freedom and equality.
Hey that’s pretty cool. Thanks world.
Of course, lots of people think we’re arrogant. This random person says we’re materialistic and overweight and a very violent country. Whatever dude. You’re just jelly. Don’t hate us cause you ain’t us.
One person said when he thinks of America, he thinks of Major League Baseball.
America invented baseball way back in 1869, and for a long time, it was considered the American past time. Baseball WAS America for a long time, especially in the early to mid 1900s when people turned out in droves to watch games.
Today, baseball is the second most popular American sport. Football is the most popular sport in the US.
In terms of our other three major sports, basketball is the third most popular sport, hockey is the 4th most popular, and soccer is 5th. Soccer’s gaining in popularity in America though, and might pass up baseball soon – since baseball stadiums are so empty these days.
Our women’s national team has won 3 of the first 7 women’s world cups after all, so the sport is very popular among American girls.
Our men’s national teams, though, can’t seem to figure out a way to get to the top of the top.
Two niche sporting leagues that have blown up in America are MMA and video game sports leagues. The MMA broke onto the scene with the brand name Ultimate Fighting Championships in the 90s, and TV audiences loved it. However, it seems that sport has peaked in popularity, as viewership is half of what it was just a few years ago.
While fighting leagues are losing popularity, what’s growing SUPER fast are video gaming leagues. It used to be that American kids who grew up playing video games would get yelled at for wasting their time. Now, esports leagues pack arenas coast to coast.
Yes, people sit in their seats and watch people play video games. And they go absolutely nuts.
Now I looked at all the major sports around the world, and Americans were always in the top three when it comes to international basketball, baseball and hockey.
Go ‘Merica!
But what about the olympics? Well, we’ve won the most medals overall, and by quite a bit – especially in the summer olympics. Our winter olympic athletes have won the 2nd most medals of all, behind Norway, which skies like their lives depend on it.
Of course, we have to talk about pop culture for a minute. Here’s a little breakdown of how American pop culture has changed over the years.
TV shows were wholesome a long time ago. Now, we have Netflix and Hulu. Who watches TV anymore?
Our news used to talk about actual news. Now, our news is fake and distractive.
American kids grew up playing video games like this. Today, games have advanced quite a bit. This is Fortnite. It became the most popular video game in world history, with 250 million users.
Is America a video game leader? Well, if you look at the top 10 video games in streaming history – games you play online like Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft, 8 of the top ten video game companies are based in the US.
So there’s lots of innovation in America when it comes to technology.
Besides technology, where do we stand in terms of the exports and other things we’re good at?
Well, we’re the second leading exporter of all countries, just behind China. Our leading exports are planes helicopters and spacecraft. And it looks like we’re the second leading exporter of crude oil, so that’s cool, go ‘Merica there. We also export a lot of cars, computer and car parts.
Okay, so Merica produces a lot of oil, wins most sporting competitions, and many of us carry weapons. Got it.
So, we’ve looked at some stereotypes, analyzed our sporting history, and touched on pop culture. But there’s so much more to cover. We could go on and on and talk about American food, values, religion and even politics. But we promised a 10-minute summary, and we’re just about out of time. Perhaps we’ll save those topics for another video. What you say, ‘Merica? Let us know in the comments below.