20 Things That Make America Unique Compared To The Rest Of The World

A lifetime of exposure to American TV may have made you impervious to quite a few cultural differences between the United States of America and the rest of the world. However, if someone ran around in a bikini that’s actually the flag design of your country, how would you, or your countrymen perhaps, react? Clearly there’s many traditions that are uniquely American and the rest of the world would not follow suit and Netizens have discussed the most popular of those observations in these reddit threads here and here. We’ve combed through them to bring you the crème-de-la-crème as it were, of the most interesting insights and opinions on things that are socially acceptable only in America, and not the rest of the world. More info: Reddit 1 | Reddit 2

#1 Wearing the flag as a bathing suit.

Image source: SPQC, tipsyelves

#2 Cheese in a can.  What the s**t America.

Image source: MichaelMoore92, Arnold Gatilao

#3 Our portion sizes. Other countries literally have "American" as a size option.

Image source: SlightlyDarkerBlack2, Geraud pfeiffer

#4 The price tag on items is not the actual price.

Image source: usernameistaken02, Image-Source

#5 Carrying visible guns in public

Image source: Donald_Bin_Trump, OnPhotoUa

#6 I love explaining to non Americans that we can go buy beer, food, televisions and guns at the same store.

Image source: lacripa, Rido81

#7 Waiters bothering me while eating. And bringing me the bill without asking for it.

Image source: LeSpatula

#8 The car as the priority on the road.

In the U.K. We have a policy that the more vulnerable the road user, the more rights they have. Therefore, people have the most rights, then horse riders, cyclists, bikers, cars and so forth. Image source: Arcaue

#9 Saying: "How are you?" as a greeting, not a question.

Image source: usernameistaken02, Media_photos

#10 Collecting money for election campaigns.

Image source: gronkspike25, Prostock-studio

#11  You can get fired for any reason. Or no reason. Just if the boss feels like it

From an external point of view, that's f****d up, going to work must be terrifying each day knowing that something like wearing the wrong shoes or whatever could get you sacked on the spot Image source: RobbenTheBank

#12 Driving a car at 16 years old.

Image source: Edu100, Ron Lach

#13 Sueing.

Image source: MultiHacker, joaquincorbalan

#14 Going to the store in your pyjamas

Image source: sybaritic_footstool, Emile Guillemot

#15 Mobility scooters and wheelchairs for obese people who are capable of walking.

Image source: Flash-Lightning, Charlie Griffiths Went to disneyworld and people were using wheelchairs becuase they were lazy. They'd literally wheel them up to a shop get up walk around the store and then back to the chair. You could say well that was one person so it doesn't count but there were multiple people doing the same thing, even entire families sometimes.

#16 Ads that compare one brand to another openly, like Duracell vs Energizer, rather than Brand X.

Image source: maenadery, Anthony Rosset

#17 Having ~~100k+~~ debt as 18 year old just for going to school.

Image source: WhitneysMiltankOP, Dom Fou

#18 I am English and have lived in America for over twenty five years.

As a nosy person I ADORE the way Americans will show you the interior of their houses. In England the deeply curious usually find them selves in a locked bathroom examining the contents of the hosts cabinet. This is the last resort for the nosy person as access to the rest of the place will not be encouraged. Americans will walk you around the house from top to bottom and show you everything. In England you only get to do that when you know your host very well indeed. Image source: Poullafouca

#19 I don't know about every single place in the world, but compared to a lot of Asian cultures, the way Americans treat moving out of our parents' home as a huge achievement is pretty weird. 

Image source: oishster, seventyfourimages Adult kids still living with their parents isn't embarrassing in Asia. In America, it's still considered somewhat weird, although it's getting more common for financial reasons.

#20 America was influenced heavily by the post WWII "nuclear family" model where everyone should be independent and own their own houses, live as a family unit etc.

I married a Filipino and it changed my world like they have everyone in one baller house going back to great grandma. And it's amazing like when you have kids it's so much easier, if your car breaks down and need something it's easier, if you need a loan they pool all the money and give micro loans among their extended family with virtually no interest. I'm like wait, we've been getting f****d in America. Ultimately we decided to embrace it and pool together with my mom who lived next to us anyways and buy a baller a*s house for us and the kids and it costs us nothing because we share the cost. She left and now I'm stuck living with my mom in my 30's until I can refinance or sell but still was worth it. Image source: SoTiredOfWinning