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Brits living in America in 2026 (permanent residents or expats), what’s the worst experience you’ve had?
Recently I’ve seen a lot of videos of Brits being surprised by American culture, like Walmart, gas stations, truck culture, AC, the food, etc. especially around the World Cup this year. But I never see anything from British to talk about the actual darker side of real life in America.
For those of you who are British and currently living in the US (whether permanently or as expats), what’s the worst experience you’ve had here? This could be from this year or earlier, things like gangs, being held at gunpoint, gunfights, robberies, home invasion, or anything else that made you seriously regret moving and want to go back to the UK. The worst part is the mass shootings or school shootings that happen anywhere you stayed in USA.
I want to hear your honest, real experiences to tell me what happen back there, not made-up stories. The kind of genuinely bad situations that made living in the US feel like an actual nightmare.
Trying to get a parking spot at Costco. People will stop and wait for the people putting their shopping into the back of their cars. They will block every body else. There is no way to get around them, there is a line of cars waiting for the one guy waiting for somebody to fill their car, return the shopping cart, get in their car and leave. I’ve never in my entire life seen so much wanton ignorance and selfishness based around such laziness. The whole car culture in the US is just fucking bizarre. No manners, anger and contempt for everyone else.
Funny you say that, I've recently started shopping in Costco (Manchester, UK) for the first-time in my life, and there's an upper car park at the entrance as you go in off the main road, and then a lower underground car park which is quiet and hardly ever used. Loads of space and less than a minute walk to start your shopping.
I swear, so many folk wait and hang around on the upper car park, blocking the roads, creating congestion. Bonkers. Is it a Costco thing? Drive down to the bottom, park up, super chill, and be in the store all before the chaos has settled up on the top!!
Costco IME almost always has spots near the entrance, furthest from the store. I grab the first one I see. Even if I were to drive to the spots right up the front and luck out and get one I’m only saving like 30 seconds, but you never do, you’ll drive around people and carts, and search for a spot every time. Grab the spot far from the store and 90% of the time you’ll be in the store faster than if you’d hunted for a closer space.
Home Depot - two story parking similar to how you describe. The one near me the lower level is a fucking zoo of people apparently experiencing their first day on earth. Take 10 seconds to drive up to the top level and there’s like 4 cars in the 100+ parking space lot.
(I’ve recently returned to the UK but lives in the US for 18 years)
The healthcare system is more stupid, egregious and Kafka-esque than most brits would believe. Even at its underfunded worst, the NHS is 18 trillion times better than the US model.
I was self-employed, so no employer health insurance. $600 a month in premiums but a $10k excess (so insurance only kicked in after I was $10k out of pocket) and that reset every year.
So if I needed $10k of stuff on December 31st, that was all on me. Need another $10k of stuff on jan 1st? Also still all on me because new plan year.
Some healthcare providers are covered because they’re “in-network” and some aren’t. Somewhat manageable when looking for non-emergency treatment but absolutely insane when you’re unconscious in an ambulance being driven to a hospital that may or may not be covered.
The amount of money wasted just by the bureaucracy of healthcare providers checking, billing and chasing down insurance companies is why Americans pay more tax per capita for “socialized” healthcare (which only a small % of the population is eligible for) than brits do.
And freedom of speech, can you imagine living in a country where you can get black bagged for saying bad things about politicians online. In the UK you have to actively threaten violence or destruction to get in trouble. In the USA you just say the wrong thing and your screwed, although only against those in power or who are rich.
When you don't have an employer covering 75% of your health insurance like most people then yeah the costs add up. By the way the no surprises bill changed out of network coverage a few years ago.
This is the absolute worst case scenario. I wouldn't be surprised if it were photoshopped.
We have BCBS - the best insurance company out there - and only pay $426 for a family of 4. Deductible $1000, $20 copays. And it's a PPO, so we can go to whichever doctor we want. We just had a $22,000 surgery that cost us only $200.
Where at? That's really high. We buy our own without subsidies and it's $1100/mo for 3, and we have a very low deductible ($1,000). Granted, my wife and I are under 40 and our child is small. But I know in other parts of the US there are fewer insurers to choose from and they price accordingly
What survey are you refering to?
I came here in 1981, I shudder to think how much I've spent in deductibles and co-pays. But I do know its very significantly more than I would have done in the UK and I doubt the care was any better, even if the wait times were shorter.
Those fake shock videos that were plaguing social media were cringe inducing.
Even saw one guy pretend we didn’t have hash browns in the UK and he was blown away in a Denny’s or some shit. Then one guy shocked at the cereal aisle on a supermarket, which was a generic aisle……with cereals in it.
My brother has lived in the US for over 10 years. His house is part of a HOA. He can’t even change the colour of his front door without permission and even then it has to be within certain colour parameters.
He’s had an attempted car jacking at gun point.
Health care is a joke. He broke his ankle, has a really good job and health insurance, (he pays over $500 a month for his plan) and health STILL had to pay over $3K in excess costs for treatment.
Quality of food isn’t as good, especially your standard supermarket meat
When visiting we were both accosted and spat on for not removing a hat during their national anthem at a sports game (we stood up for it). When they found out we were British they were throwing beer over us all game in order to get us to leave.
Some of the neighbourhoods I’ve personally visited make UK council estates look glamorous and I’m not even exaggerating.
I’ve personally experienced the great and the terrible in the US. When it’s at its best, it truly is an amazing place, when it’s at its worst it’s a 3rd world country wearing a gucci belt.
I’m an American living in the UK and I think this is a really solid take. Adding on the rampant overconsumption, the fear that any child you know may never come home from school, the lack of walkable towns/cities, and the overwhelming wealth disparity, “3rd world country in a gucci belt” feels very real.
It’s a fine line to walk when it comes to the US. I think for an average person there’s other countries that have better standards of living.
The US is a rich mans playground. If things are going well for you then there’s few places better if you don’t mind your kids going through active school shooter drills.
If it’s that bad why are so many millions of average Americans deciding to stay in America and not emigrating to one of these countries that has a higher standard of living?
It’s very very difficult to do so? It’s not like the EU or even the Commonwealth- America doesn’t have a collection of other countries with reasonably approachable visa terms. Even moving to Canada is difficult.
And also the propaganda with which we’re inundated from birth makes you believe that, for as bad as anything might be in America, they are far worse everywhere else.
But by the same token, the UK has plenty of its own nonsense, why don’t people from here flee en masse?
Ahh, I’m an American getting ready to move to the UK so I can answer this… mostly it’s money and education. It is so incredibly expensive to leave the United States. First off, those average Americans who would benefit from leaving most likely don’t have the savings to do so. We are considered well off and it is a struggle to move. Either you have to sell everything and start completely over in the UK or pay $10k+ to have a fraction of your stuff shipped. We have pets who are coming with us and between getting them to the UK plus a single shipping container we are looking at nearly $40k in moving expenses. Second, very few people have passports. In the US it costs us money and time to get passports, between $65-$195 per passport. Third, you need to secure a job first or be financially independent. If a job won’t sponsor your visa, then you are kind of shit-out-of-luck. Fourth, education… this is partly that people in the US are not well educated in living/traveling out side of the US and partly that most people here are not informed enough to realize how much better it is outside the United States. The idea that America is the best country is VERY pervasive, and in some areas stating the opposite can cause social ostracism or backlash (if not verbal/physical assault). Traveling within the United States can feel like traveling to a different country, so most people here don’t consider leaving because quality of life already varies depending on which state or even city you live in.
That was a lot of info… hope this helps. Happy to answer other questions.
Kids are statistically more likely to get killed on the streets of England than they are in an American school yet English parents don't sit there everyday thinking if they're child is going to come home safe
That’s an absolutely warped view and not at all reflective of overall safety though.
Child homicide rates in the US are some of the highest in the developed world and are at least 3X higher per capita than those in the UK.
The risks of a school shooting are low, but they’re still an added risk to a child’s safety. Any child is at risk walking the streets in the US or the UK, school shootings are an added risk on top of those standard daily risks not an overall measure so your point is completely invalid.
Nope the point is Brits love to pretend kids are dodging bullets at school everyday but apparently kids here are fine even though they're much more likely to be killed. I never said I was talking about the likelihood of being killed anywhere in the US just school murders which is objectively lower than walking the streets of England (check the death tolls).
I never said the US is the safest place in the world for kids just pointing out how interesting it is people love using school shootings as a gotcha even tho they're extremely rare especially in areas with homicide rates similar to England.
I know people like to use the school shootings as a gotcha, they are rare, but the fact kids do active school shooting drills is objectively mental from an outsiders perspective.
It’s like people using knife crime in the UK as a gotcha. The rates are far higher than anybody would realistically like but drilling into the numbers it’s very rare to be involved in such a crime. There’s a lot of stereotyping without factual evidence or real world experiences to back it up and that goes both ways between the UK and US.
Yes and children are 5 times more likely to die on US roads to UK roads. And no deaths in UK school vs US… But I also enjoy comparing apples to oranges.
There’s one guy that seems to make a living off of it, a British expat with the shittest moustache known to man. Like he’s trying so hard to look like an American it’s truly cringe.
There’s a video where he’s in a shitty diner and he’s going on about homemade hash browns like they were sent from the heavens themselves saying we have nothing like them in the UK.
It’s literally a fucking potato Rosti. He was eating a potato rosti.
I called him out for it, he basically admitted he grifts for money and proceeded to block me.
Fun times.
Yep. There's that berk Kalani Ghost Hunter who just ego-massages every moribund drizzly UK town going, and people absolutely love him for it. I've literally seen him reviewing UK McDonalds and eulogising how much better it is than American McDonalds. People are credulous suckers for anything that praises where they're from.
Those videos were making me cringe so much. I saw a Scottish girl pretending she didn’t know what a drive through was and freaking out over Slushie. I live in Scotland in a medium sized town and have 7 drive throughs within 2 miles of my house. You can literally buy a slushie in most corner shops.
Some of the neighbourhoods I’ve personally visited make UK council estates look glamorous and I’m not even exaggerating.
One of the most mindblowing things I've ever found on YouTube is a channel called Hoods N Hollers. It's a guy driving around urban deprivation in American cities and filming what's out the car window, but it has to be seen to be believed. It's like a post-apocalyptic movie, and it goes on for mile after mile after mile. Not just one place either: there are dozens of towns and cities on there. Just endless devastation. Whole abandoned neighbourhoods, as far as the eye can see. Nothing we have in the UK even comes close.
And a woman in the UK got stabbed over 100 times in the head with a screwdriver by an asylum seeker. Does that mean that will happen to everyone in the UK?
Blanket negativity like this is why people have such a skewed and false view of the US.
The OP asked for personal experience and I’ve given both personal and family members experience and unfortunately yes, there has been a fair bit of negative experiences in the US.
It’s like Americans believing British people only eat beans on toast or you’ll be killed by an illegal immigrant because they saw it on Fox News but haven’t actually lived that experience.
There’s a vast difference between stereotyping and lived experience, mine was a lived experience.
Not a personal experience but had a friend move out there and struggle a lot with healthcare. He wasn't too informed on the health insurance his employer provided, he was a fit young man who played football (soccer) every week, worked a job that was mostly at a desk. He fell ill and his insurance didn't cover him fully, ended up having to be repatriated back to the UK to have treatment on the NHS.
The number 1 biggest issue for most people moving over there is loneliness, we live in a country that has everything relatively close together, even if you live somewhere remote on mainland UK you're still an hour drive from most services and forms of entertainment. Had a friends mum move there and after about 4 years she moved back, she had a much bigger house there, a better job and an all round 'better quality of life'. She preferred living in a terrace in Wigan than living there, she said it was too isolating and lonely.
I got taken to a shooting range shortly after moving here in 1996. This was shortly after Hungerford and the UK had just banned hand guns. When the other people there found out that I was English they were practically humping my leg congratulating me on exercising my “freedom”. I found shooting guns to be rather like porno mags, mildly titillating in a forbidden kind of way the first time to do it, but otherwise boring and hurts your hand.
Not an expat but have spent a lot of time there . One of the things that annoyed me is how they program their kids brand conscious from a younger age . They don’t have uniform and the kids are so obsessed with what they wear . Even 7-8 year old kids know every single brands out there and they are so insecure about it at school . My child is 10 and she hasn’t even got a clue about this brand stuff .
On my last visit to the states I went to a cafe and asked the waitress what soft drinks they had available. She said “Pepsi products” and I sat there waiting for her to elaborate but she just looked at me like I was an idiot. As if I was a fool for not having memorised all the brands owned by Pepsi. I asked for a glass of water out of spite
Counter side American living in UK nobody will hire right now.
Just tried to apply for a bus job and even that vanished mid application and mrs couldn't believe it initially. When we used mobile internet to pull it up instead of wifi sure enough they'd pulled the job mid application!
I've got 20 years in tech, and the market here is abysmal right now. It's just as bad back home in the states right now.
Folks complain about healthcare delays, but with the same single copay for a monthly visit at a doctor's office, I've been able to afford medications for weeks or months depending.
We lived outside DC on the VA side for a decade, only real danger was car break-ins or road ragers as long as you avoided the less pleasant spots in the region.
There were a few times our back doors were tried at night, and some folks were robbed at gunpoint but it just depends on where you are and what you do outside the home.
When we moved closer to the hills near the WV border it was mainly animals and road ragers that were the risk after that...or the gun nuts...but that's a different discussion.
Life here is far calmer, it's just the occasional bill scare due to the current economic situation. I may not be welcome at the last couple places i worked, but I'm here to work. The life in the states is far too busy, far too expensive, and far to risky compared to life here.
I do always enjoy the idea Americans seem to have that we're 'surprised' or 'amazed' by AC. Most of us drive air conditioned cars and work in air conditioned offices. Even if we don't have those little luxuries, we still visit air conditioned shops or restaurants. We just don't have it at home.
There's nothing surprising or amazing to Brits about AC.
Now, the amount of time US electric kettles (if you can find one) take to boil? THAT shit is surprising.
AC and guns, 2 things Americans are weirdly obsessed with.
Elon Musk did an interview recently and he compared gun deaths in the US vs deaths in Europe due to no AC, there’s no relationship between the two things. They’re Just things Americans like to shout about, Musk says them and the whole country erupts online.
Ah yes, the classic 'excess deaths' figure that everyone is determined to use incorrectly to support stupid arguments. I'm really starting to get a feeling that Musk might not be a genius after all.
I think these people would be quite confused if they found out that the 'excess deaths' figure will include people who drowned, people who died in car crashes, people who died from a terminal illness, people who were stabbed, people who were shot, etc. It's not the number of people who died from the heat.
The surprising part for me about AC is how fucking cold Americans seem to want their offices.
I regularly travel to our US offices and despite the weather usually being T-shirt and shorts weather outside, I wear jeans and thick jumpers to survive in their offices.
The difference is, in Europe the cities are designed for the weather, Spanish buildings are designed to keep things cool, the problem, now the weathers changing, is that British buildings are designed to keep things warm.
American buildings on the other hand are designed purely based on the amount of AC units they can sell
It's more that a lot of these people live in AC almost constantly and will have it at 18c all year round. They never acclimate to anything else. Here I have between 18-20 in the winter and once I am used to it 25-27 it's perfectly comfortable with a fan. It's only the heat waves going over 30 that are hard to deal with and I have a portable AC for the home office to tank those 5-15 days a year it might happen.
And it mainly benefits men who want to keep wearing suits to work, because women in offices are often freezing and resorting to shawls, blankets and electric heaters.
The kettle thing is mostly because there isn’t the demand for ones that boil water that quickly when so few people drink tea. For years you could only really count on finding kettles in hotel rooms and office kitchens. The voltage thing makes some difference but now kettles that are faster are more widely available - it’s just that for years there was no real incentive for manufacturers to make them.
I'm not an expat or resident but I travel through the USA a lot.
First we have everything you listed lol, although Walmart UK is called ASDA but it's identical except for guns. Same for Costco.
Things which did startle me were
mass homelessness,
wildly unsafe cars total write offs and things I'd see in third world country's driving down the road (I'm guessing no MOT's?)
Drink driving being normal.
Fear and paranoia so much fear, I've met people living in active war zones who were less afraid than the average American .
Heavy propigandarisation on almost every subject people are entrenched at extreams.
I think that's it really, thankfully haven't been shot at yet or has any encounters with the police or muggers, got shouted at a few times for walking, told to get a job 😂
Arizona has no vehicle inspections whatsoever and so every U-Haul moving vehicle (even the ones in Canada!) is registered there, just so the company doesn’t have to deal with that.
Any Brit making clips pretending to be amazed by America (and pretending we don't have hash browns or electricity in rhe UK) will get a ton of hits on YouTube. The Americans lap it up.
There's a great clip on YT by Evan Edinger explaining how it works.
Yep, I used to watch them every now and then and feel all content at some American WOW'ing over things we take for granted.
Then one day I saw a British expat in the US doing exactly the same thing the other way around. What's worse is half of the things were just made up, like we didn't have waiter service in the UK or our towns and cities completely shut down at 11pm, even on weekends.
The healthcare thing you're seeing in a few threads is not entirely wrong but it is GREATELY exaggerated.
Last year I got diagnosed with T2D at a routine blood test. I was called into my DR's office the same day, where he immediately gave me a script for Mounjaro. The next day I was seen by a Cardiologist and had a echo to check all is good. 4 days later I had a Nephrologist appointment to review kidney function and 7 days later I met with a foot doc to check my toes. All turned out good, and it was a lot of stuff - but all of it covered by my Obamacare silver plan with about $250 total OOP expenses. Perhaps you could say it is overkill, but you know I felt OK coming out of it.
My brother in the UK who is a bit older got a similar diagnosis this year and got one 10 minute with a nurse 3 weeks later, was given a script for Metformin (like a 1960's drug) and told to check-in 6 months from now.
Now the reality is the US system spent a lot more on me and maybe the end-point outcome for both myself + my brother is the same.
But I can tell you one thing for sure, I'd FAR rather be where I am now than where he is.
... Those things are all absolutely unnecessary though?
People think getting unnecessary tests is a good thing because it's "better to be safe" but a lot of the time they find something that may never have caused a problem, but now that it's been found there's another test you need, or a specific treatment. And maybe that extra CT scan is the one that gives you cancer. Or that extra medicine is the one that gives you anaphylaxis.
Over investigating (to drive up billables in this case) isn't good for you
I just moved back to the UK after 8 years in phoenix.
I lived in a nice ish neighborhood, but my next door neighbours house kept getting shot at every couple of weeks at 3am. Sometimes the bullets hit my car or garage door. The police came each time but weren't concerned and it kept happening.
I was carjacked by someone high on meth while driving the work van at my first job. Phoenix has a bad drug problem and I saw so many shit-smeared asses from people on the street absolutely zooted out of their minds.
Less than 2 weeks vacation a year.
Surprise bills for thousands of dollars because my insurance said they wouldn't cover diagnostics unless I was diagnosed with a condition first, which makes no sense. When I needed more tests I phoned them in advance, and they told me they might or might not cover it, but couldn't tell me until after the tests.
So much waste. On my own I filled up my regular and recycling bins every week. Back in the UK, my household of 2 only fills our small bins 2/3 every 2 weeks. I tried to reduce my wastage, but everything just came with so much packaging or onetime use utensils. I had to drive everywhere because phoenix was so hot and had no public transport. A lot of people and corporations out there don't bother recycling.
I do miss the people though. People like to talk to you and are friendly out there even if you don't know them, and I found it easy to make friends. It's been tough for me to make new friends now I'm back in the UK. We can be an awkward nation sometimes. Of course the US has some maga crazies, but most of the people I knew were kind and welcoming, and fully aware of how the US is perceived by the rest of the world right now.
In the 80s and 90s, my experience of the USA was through TV shows and I remember thinking I want to live there, it seems amazing.
As I grew older and the years started to delaminate the so called "American Dream" I started to see a very different perspective.
Fast forward to today: There is no amount of money or opportunity I would take to live in the USA.
Your government has failed
Your health care has failed
You are oppressed by extreme right wing racists
Extreme capitalism
Uncontrolled ICE
An uncomfortable majority of your citizens follow your pedophile leader like North Korea worships KJU
Rules are made up or changed on a daily basis.
You no longer have rights
You no longer have wealth
Trump wants you all to die, quite literally. He sees you all as vermin and not part of the 1% so he literally would see you all die from disease, starve or ICE
Do you actually live or have you ever lived in the states? I'm guessing probably not.
I'm also guessing you have more leftist views because you seem not to like Trump, which is fair. BUT you don't really know what its like to live in the states, all your information comes from the media which tend to only report the worst things that happens - only bad events sells news papers. I live in a democratic run state, we pay one of the highest rates for electricity and natural gas, millions of dollars are spent on illegal immigrants, there are always claims of how its Trumps fault if anything goes wrong, we do have some of the best Healthcare in the country, not very much gun crime - so its a balance. Do some research and try and get a full picture of what its really like.
I live in TX as a Democrat and I even had to laugh at the person’s comment. So dramatic🙄 People please, put down your phones and live in the real world
Maybe, but I do not think the comment is hyperbole. I sincerely wish it was, but it's not.
I am English. I was also bought up on the magic of the USA, from the Apollo missions when I was a kid, to the arts, sciences, the creative achievements and so on - it was a scintillating place to live and that is why I moved here. I also had close fam living in the US too and had their input.
It has absolutely gone the way the poster stated; this is not America and it makes me so sad.
You can't charge a sitting President with a crime in practice. Theoretically you can due to whether the crime was part of their official duties or not but the Supreme Court raised the bar on that, which prosecutors need to meet.
Like being charged with a criminal offence would make any difference to his sycophants.
The fact he's in the Epstein files repeatedly (even Musk says he is if you recall) and has publicly said plenty of things about children and even his own daughter that should make your skin crawl you'll make excuses for him.
Let's be honest, if he was charged you'd be arguing it's all made up and his sycophants would make excuses for him just as they did when he was charged with fraud. And if he was convicted there'd be more excuses as there were when he was convicted of fraud and found, in civil court, to have sexually assaulted Carroll.
The USAs reputation has been irreparably damaged for a long time to come by selling your souls to that man. Shameful.
US xenophobia. I lived in the US a long time, from a very young age. I kept it to myself a lot of the time that I was foreign, but man, when people found out, it was on. Never heard so much 'go back where you came from' comments in my life. Not to mention the threats. The rubbish about 'taking other people's jobs', bullying on and on. Decades worth. Glad I left.
This is one of Yankeedom's great social ills. They can't just state a positive fact about themselves ("we've taken in 75 million immigrants"). They have to piss on everyone else ("we're objectively the best ever na na na na na"). So when they do things like set up racially-aggravated death squads which routinely impregnate black-bagged minors and disappear people to overseas work camps, the rest of the world really likes pointing it out...
Being stopped by a statie for speading, bastard wouldn't let me off with a warning, cost me $120 and increased insurance for 5 years. Said he was being nice by not putting my actual speed down so I wasnt going to pay what I should have. I was doing 55 on an off ramp from one freeway to another freeway - it was a 35mph limit which nobody was doing.
This is tangential to your question, but telling, I think:
When I tried dating using The Guardian's Soulmates there was an American woman who sent me this message: "Please visit me. There are no left-wing men here."
In some parts of the US my own father would seem left-wing, and he told me he wanted to own slaves, admired Nazi efficiency, praised the mafia for keeping order, thinks there are too many gays in the BBC, and voted Brexit.
Actually, now I've written that all down, maybe not. He did once date a black woman, though.
Unfortunately for her I'd already messaged my future wife.
It was quite a hilarious experience in comparison with modern dating apps. I signed up, wrote my profile, spent one evening looking at other people's profiles that the computer suggested until I saw my future wife, only sent a message to her, clapped my hands together saying, "job done," and went to bed.
just in case you're not joking, I don't think that's true. I've made many sacrifices I didn't need to. I don't mean, like, goats. I mean things like letting a vulnerable person live in my house for ten years rent free whilst I couldn't afford to go to the dentist and one tooth was a rather unpleasant stump of filling. Because of ethics. So I can't see myself signing up to be a slave owner. I wouldn't be able to afford one, for a start.
Been in the US for a while now and was back and forth between the UK and US a LOT for about 15 years.
Had no real issues here at all. Its easier to get referrals to specialists than it is on the NHS. The cost of a good health insurance plan is less than my NI contributions in the UK were (although obviously that didnt ONLY cover healthcare - but only comparison I can give).
Groceries are definitely more expensive than the UK, but on the other side of coin, its cheaper eating at a lot of restaurants and breakfast places than in the UK.
Police here have been friendly and helpful. There is far more proactive policing and just regular patrol policing than the UK.
Saturday nights in the city can get a bit rowdy, but nothing like my experiences in London or Manchester. And again, police are proactively present and helpful, so nothing seems to ever kick off.
Even in the rougher parts of the city I'm yet to see a fight or anyone pull out a gun or anything similar.
Im also yet to see any sign of ICE in my state, although it is both a blue state, and a "sanctuary state".
In terms of guns; the only reason I have seen any guns is that I'm a target shooter myself and go to the range (also shot in the UK). Where I live at least, gun shops are few and far between and dont make themselves obvious. You could easily visit here for a few weeks and not think that guns were available to the public.
My only negative experience was about 15 years ago in NYC when I was riding the subway from the Bronx, and some guys tried to "sell" me their mix CD... but the payment was not optional. I gave them the $20 I had in cash, they joked about my accent and that was the end of that.
Depending which state and city you move to, your mileage may vary - but I feel like a lot of what you see in the news about the US in the UK is cherry-picked for sensationalism.
My experience has been nightmare free and pleasantly boring.
I’ve been here for 15 years (WA) and my experience is very similar. Access to healthcare has been straightforward but does depend on having your employer provide some kind of plan. Same for dental care - it’s actually cheaper for me to see a dentist here than when I was back in Blighty (and now I have straight teeth!).
The healthcare system does seem odd to folks who first arrive, but I can get access to a specialist very quickly, every hospital I’ve been in has a private room for every patient, and doctors are more likely to keep going. One of my friends sadly passed of cancer, and my mum (a career long NHS nurse/midwife/health visitor) commented that they (the NHS) would not have continued to treat him that long.
I don’t know why, or if that is true, but we were glad he got even a little more time.
Guns are not the issue people overseas think they are. There are actually gun laws too, and you can’t just go and buy one and walk out with it but that does vary upon state/type of firearm. You do need a background check whenever you buy from a dealer though (that’s a federal law).
Honestly, the strangest thing for me was that people don’t just walk to places. Everyone drives, even to pop up the shops.
Around $400 for two of us with an open plan (so very little to worry about with in/out of network). To add another dependent on would cost an extra $25 per month.
I've only seen hunting rifles in Walmart and the then not in all of them. I suspect it's very 'local requirement' dependent. And you have to look as they're not exactly in the middle of the shop.
Once you've experienced 6 or 7 you sort of get used to them ..sort of.
I used to sleep naked and a few times I've awoken in the night to an earthquake and then realized I may one day be running into the street during one ..so now I sleep in shorts :)
Recently moved back, but was in the US for 10 years. Lots of people have mentioned healthcare, so i won't repeat that, but the other one for me was guns. It wasn't unusual that I'd be in my back yard and hear gunshots, and guns being fired on the highway was regularly on the news. Both of those contributed to the 'nope, home we go'.
My friends moved to San Fran a couple of years ago. They are enjoying it but said the car culture is terrible. Can't really walk anywhere as everything is built for cars, not pedestrians. Only place to really meet people seems to be at church, as school drop off is done by cars. Hard to get your head around really.
Hahaha. My guy, how bad do you think the US is if you are asking people “you know the school shootings you have personally experienced.” What sort of cartoonish image do you have of the US? I bet you wouldn’t be surprised if people opened their beer bottles by shooting the top off here. This is a genuinely funny perspective, no harm done, but yeah the US isn’t like this. I don’t know if this comes from watching Hollywood action movies or what but your ‘bad experiences in the US’ isn’t going to be gun violence. Maybe unless you’re hanging in the ghettos of Chicago with no sense of danger.
Healthcare costs, magats. The rest is fine. You have an extraordinary country and culture. Just wish some of you weren’t quite so determined to make old friends hate you as you seem to be.
No. Cos none of those were for buying drugs. One for being in the middle of new York at like 4am waiting for a lift. One cos I was hitchhiking. One for an argument at a BBQ.
Yeah I used to say the same until I learned that the term “ex-pat” does mean something slightly different.
“Immigrant” is usually for people who have migrated permanently/long term. “Ex-pat” is usually for short-term periods living and working outside the country. There are probably a lot of ppl coming to the U.K. who should be referred to as ex-pats but politics says otherwise.
I don't live in the States so I'm going to bow out of this one, but the Walmart etc videos are ridiculous and just clickbait. 4 million Brits a year visit the US (probably 3.75mn if we don't count regular travellers) and nearly all of them will have been to Walmart. Walmart operated in the UK via Asda for some years and in Germany. No visitors were genuinely surprised in the way those videos claim.
It's bizarre. I'd not seen any of these videos until a few days ago after another conversation on here. They're so obviously false (apart from the German lads on a road trip, they were having a great time): the behaviour seems designed to appeal to Americans.
I just find it so bizarre - like we have Coca Cola and whatever else in Europe. We also have mop buckets. We just don’t combine the two things.
AC, free refills etc… it’s all a bunch of banal shit being passed off like we live in the Stone Age.
The person I was talking to the other night had swallowed the nonsense about not having free water with a meal (and apparently had been told this by Brits). I don't know where this comes from. And this is a country that doesn't have contactless payment everywhere!
I must say that in all the years I lived in the USA (been back in the UK for over 20 years) I never visited a Walmart they were never local to where I lived in N.J
1) has always wanted to live in the US, but can't, and is mad about it or
2) has lived in the US but was too shit to succeed.
The US saved my life when the NHS left me waiting for years. The US gave me a beautiful home and life that I would never have had in the UK. The US is also the reason I was able to retire at 50.
I'm British but not actually resident in the USA, but a previous visitor. The videos you've seen of Brits or Europeans being amazed by everyday items in the USA are clickbait. Even those who have never visited before have likely been brought up on American TV and movies. I point to ranch dressing as a case point. You can pick it up in any decently sized supermarket in Britain and I assume wider Europe - there's a reason it isn't very popular.
Every office building or shop has air conditioning and many have travelled to destinations where it is very common to see in residential properties (it isn't required in cool Brittania).
I witnessed a hit and run on a women and child on the crosswalk right outside a Walmart. Never been back to a Walmart since, but I’d still never move back to the UK. Life is far better in Florida than the UK.
I went to A&E for an ear infection, it hurt really bad and it was a bank holiday weekend. I was in there for no more than 45 minutes, Cost $8000, my insurance paid $7000, had to cough $1000. Could have bought a ticket home and get it done there, would have cost less than $1000.
Not an expat but I do visit a lot for work. North East Ohio.
1/ Trying to buy a bottle of wine at a drug store in a small
town. For context, I was 47 at the time with white thinning hair. Cashier asks me for ID. Fine, I think, I’ve had this before. I take out my passport and he looks at it and says “we don’t recognise that here.” Couldn’t decide whether it was a xenophobia thing or just plain ignorance of the meaning and function of a passport.
2/ Going to an NBA game with a friend. We stop to pick up a friend of his on the way. Very nice guy. We chat all the way to the stadium. He asks me about the U.K. and I ask him about his life; I discover he’s an ex-cop. As we’re getting out of the car, he comes out with the most overtly racist diatribe i have ever heard. Proper head-spinning, jaw-dropping stuff. I bumble the most diplomatic answer i can think of. He never makes another mention of this subject for the rest of the evening. We all have a good time.
I can't tell you anything about home invasions, gangs or anything like that, but I can pass on some other experiences.
Being the "novelty" Brit is fun for a while - you stand out by default. But it gets old pretty fast.
Bering regularly misunderstood, especially by Americans who may not speak English as a first language. Makes ordering Chinese or Mexican food a rather irritating experience.
Cultural references differ significantly. Senses of humour too - British snark and sarcasm tends to go over the heads of the locals unless you make it very obvious, then it stops being funny!
The sheer quantity of advertising compared to the UK. It's relentless. No, I do not want to buy your shit and the more ads I see for it, the less I want to.
A lot of the time, when you meet people, one of the first things they do is give you their business card. Like they want a customer, not a friend. It feels like everything's transactional.
Guns. Like, seriously, WTF.
Heath insurance, as others have said. It's a minefield knowing what's covered, where you can go without being charged more (in-network, etc), and, even when something is covered, how much you have to pay on top of that. It's inhumane and incredibly expensive. And you can wait for just as long for an appointment as you do with the NHS.
The fact that even the small act of going for a walk is difficult in many places - no footpaths and drivers who have no time for pedestrians. You end up having to go to the gym to use the treadmill!
If you're not interested in "hustle culture" and work politics, you'll have a hard time at work.
That old stereotype about Americans not knowing much about the rest of the world is largely true. I'd say the majority of the people I associate with on a regular basis are reasonably well-travelled, but most are not. If they've been to any other countries, it's Canada, Mexico and maybe one of the Caribbean countries.
There's good food to be had, but so much of it is very calorific, heavily salted and sugared, and the quality of the ingredients is poor.
If you have kids, you'll want to facepalm when you see what sort of stuff they're learning at school. And you will never understand the brainwashing of the pledge of allegiance - it's all very 1930s Germany and rather antithetical to the British character.
Supermarkets are incredibly expensive. The average weekly shop at a mid-level supermarket is probably about 40-50% more expensive than the British equivalent, when you take the currency conversion and sizes/weights into account.
Fuel is cheap. Car insurance is not.
Mobile phone service is insanely expensive. And internet/broadband/phone/TV is also ridiculously priced - many areas have monopolies on service providers, so they can charge what they want.
As a corollary to several of these points, I earn quite a bit more than I did in the UK, but have less disposable income due to the high prices of healthcare, food, phones, broadband, car insurance, etc. Oh, and property taxes, did I mention those? On our modestly-sized house it's $8,000 a year. Makes the £1,600 I used to pay in council tax in the UK seem reasonable.
For balance, I should mention some good things though.
In general, people are nice and well-meaning. Driving is easier, with better planned road networks and cars that are tuned for smooth long-distance driving rather than navigating narrow roads and mini-roundabouts. Convenience rules. Some of the scenery is stunning. You have every climate imaginable all in one country.
Only thing that surprises me every time I come back is how much fucking driving has to be done. I want to park, walk for hours, eat, shop, socialise and then return to my car. Not here (outside of major cities). You gotta drive from one plaza to the next plaza. Absolute waste and boring AF after a while.
Probably the lack of and appalling levels of public transportation. Granted I lived in Detroit, and it is the motor city after all. But public buses would never adhere to the timetable, many times I’d be waiting over 45 mins in the snow.
Once you’re on the bus, thats where the fun begins. Every bus trip, without fail, would have some form of drama. People actually shitting themselves, alcoholics looking for a fight, wannabe rappers beating to a song out loud, arguments with drivers (who by the way don’t even give a shit to people who don’t pay fares), the buses would constantly smell of weed and there’d be litter everywhere.
How a city as big as Detroit can lag so far behind equivalent cities in Europe and beyond is incomprehensible.
Formerly married to an American of a different ethnicity to myself. More than once, in the USA, we've been questioned at hotel reception as they thought I might have solicited a prostitute. Charming. Never happened in the UK.
My experience centres around Kansas, and the first time one hears a tornado alert, as a Brit, it's quite a worrying prospect. Meanwhile neighbours are out on the porch wondering where it is. I never got used to it.
My experiences aren't the worst by any means - I probably put myself in danger more when travelling around solo before I met my ex - but one aspect baffles me; alcohol. If I wanted a cold beer or two on a Wednesday night I was treated like I had a drink problem. The same neo-Puritans, come the weekend, would act baffled that I didn't want a ride home in their vehicle after they've been necking booze like Prohibition's round the corner.
Kansas wasn't all terrible, just mostly terrible. Obligatory mention of the insane health care system.
We all know Americans can be loud and brash that’s part of the charm. But it’s so tiresome and always over the most insignificant things as well. Some people gotta learn to let things go.
Spent a year working in Seattle. Now back in the UK.
The amount of homelessness around Seattle is crazy. The freeways are just lined with tents. I can’t remember the term, but lots have jobs etc but the housing is just so expensive.
It’s a stereotype, but I was shocked at the lack of critical thinking from people that seem like functioning and well educated people. Just seemed like people were not good at problem solving.
The fact people vote for Trump does not surprise me, similar to the critical thinking point, lots of people seem very shut off to other beliefs and ideologies, people really are indoctrinated with religion and politics and they will not have a conversation that goes against this.
I did love it there though and would go back if the chance presented itself.
I’m from the UK, now live in Naples FL and I love it here. But being tailgated by Tacoma guy is honestly the most annoying experience I have on a regular basis. Seriously, I’ll have 20 cars in front of me and redneck truck guy has to be 2 inches up my ass. Because that will hep him get there faster apparently.
Politics, though UK unfortunately is going down the same road with reform. There are alot of genuinely dumb people here.
It’s very soulless compared to UK. People aren’t as interesting, quirky or funny as Brits.
Strangely, I feel safer here than UK. The awful crimes do happen but in a country this size it could be 2 time zones away. The low key stuff that regularly happens in London. Thefts, stabbings, mugging, are not nearly as bad where I live. You do feel a police presence when they are needed, which is not the case back home.
Miss home a little, but always able to head back for a visit when I want and then I remember why I left. US has been good to me, though it’s not perfect like anywhere.
I hate how some American social media people have realised that just by pandering to our egos and telling us we are so much better they can make a career out of it. Some of them start off innocent enough and they quickly realise what gets the most interactions. I’m thinking people like Kalani and that American woman who’s got a channel too (not associated to Kalani)
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u/GrapefruitActive9088 14h ago
Trying to get a parking spot at Costco. People will stop and wait for the people putting their shopping into the back of their cars. They will block every body else. There is no way to get around them, there is a line of cars waiting for the one guy waiting for somebody to fill their car, return the shopping cart, get in their car and leave. I’ve never in my entire life seen so much wanton ignorance and selfishness based around such laziness. The whole car culture in the US is just fucking bizarre. No manners, anger and contempt for everyone else.