I have lived close to 20 years overseas, in Europe and Asia. I don’t know how many countries I have visited but I’m on my 6th or 7th passport. I’ve learned a lot along the way, dispelled many stereotypes that I’ve heard, created many friends. To say that it has been a mind expanding experience would be an understatement. However, it is clear that regardless of nationality, faith or ideologies, we all want the same things: a relatively comfortable life, a decent job, a decent house and to raise our kids to higher levels than we have achieved.
Freedom is subjective. If we are talking about fiscal freedom (property rights, business rights, labor rights, etc), then no, we are not the freest. There are quite a few countries ahead of us. It is the same for social mobility, free press, healthcare, education, etc.
For day to day life, certain things are easier here. Anything that involves a governmental process (DMV, city/state/fed affairs) etc seems to be more fluid and better organized. On the other hand, I see lots of signs that prohibits from doing things. You go to the beach and there 25 items you can’t bring. I see lots of no trespassing signs despite being public property. Every year seems like there is a new wave of signs telling what you can and cannot do.
Our legal system is unique in that you can sue anyone for anything without any financial penalty if you were wrong. A drunk urinates on a power line and dies. His family gets awarded millions because the power company didn’t have a sign. So every private or public entity tries to prohibit everything to protect themselves from lawsuits. This is turn affects our personal freedom.
There are some stupid rules too. If I’m at a bar and decide to walk outside, I am prohibited from taking my beer outside. From a freedom perspective, it denies me the right to my personal property. I bought the item but I have not been given full right over it. It’s silly. Interestingly enough, in most countries, people talk about two of the biggest taboos we usually don’t talk about in public: politics and religion. I’ve always found that rather ironic.
Despite having countries that are freer then us, if you are from here, then you want to come back because it is what you know. What you are comfortable with. If you were born in Singapore then you would want to back there instead of staying here. Singapore is just a free, if not freer in many terms. That’s what you know.
Our biggest advantage is our size. We have a great country in term of natural diversity. We have the Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, the gulf, the great lakes, the great canyon, the Appalachians, the Rockies, and so on. All bound by the same language, the same McDonald, the same TV channels, the same sports…You have plenty of room to roam. If you don’t like NYC, maybe Vermont will suit you or Texas, or California… each region as its own sub-culture. So that’s a great asset that few countries possess. If you live in Lichtenstein and don’t like it,well, you don’t have much for in-country options.
I find us to be friendly overall. Maybe not so much in the biggest of our metropolis (NY,LA,etc) but that is true for most large cities in the world. Once you go in the country side, people are generally friendly, hospitable and inquisitive. While this also hold true to a certain degree worldwide, Americans are generally quick to say hello to a perfect stranger. I find us to be also straightforward. We tend to mean what we say and say what we mean. In some countries, getting to the bottom of things can be a very laborious process.
At the end of the day, we got good beer, good women, good hunting and good fishing… what else is there?