American observations

In my recent (long) posts I've been talking about the travel ordeals of my recent trip to the US. There have been the odd observations thrown in, but I really haven't added any since my post from Chicago. Well, here are some more random observations of NE Illinois (remember, other regions may be different):

When I was in Illinois, I saw many men (no women) walking around with Bluetooth cellphone ear pieces clamped to their ear. Most seemed not to be actually using them.

A White Castle hamburger joint has opened in my hometown. But my hometown has an ordinance that no business can have a white exterior (WTF?), so it's brown. Actually, if memory serves, there was also an ordinance that it was illegal to fire your canon on a Sunday. Whew, what a relief, eh?

Portions in cheap restaurants were gigantic, but in the more expensive restaurants they were small (or is that normal sized?). All of them had a lot of fat and not much from the vegetable category.

In diners, soup or salad is always a first course, while in New Zealand a salad is always served with the meal. I've only been gone a few years, but I thought the American way was weird.

To continue this food theme a little more, no one makes pizzas as good as Americans do, not even the American franchises now in New Zealand. Chicago is an especially good place for pizza.

Taxes in Illinois are astronomical. Property taxes are unbelievable, and that's on top of state and federal income taxes. Property taxes in NE Illinois are often ten times what we pay in rates—and again, that's on top of all income taxes.

I had to sign credit card purchases. Sure, the pen was usually electronic (and the signature looked nothing like my own), but it was still kinda archaic. In New Zealand I use a PIN for credit card purchases and can't remember the last time I signed a receipt. Only two retailers asked for a photo ID for a credit card purchase; both accepted my New Zealand Driver Licence.

People weren't as fat as I'd expected, given the media hype. But a lot of people were overweight to some degree (hey, I'm not criticising, just observing; I'm in that category, too).

Bad customer service is everywhere (as you know from reading my earlier posts). But almost without fail store clerks became friendly when I was friendly to them and treated them like humans (as I would here in New Zealand). The exception were grocery store cash register ladies who seem to be grumpy the world over. In particular, black and brown people were friendliest to me.

Jeez, ordinary people have a lot of American flags...

I detected a common pessimism among ordinary folk I talked with. I found no one—absolutely no one—who had anything nice to say about Bush, but all of the alternatives seemed to be disliked, too.

There's what I'd call a “lazy racism” that's common among many—not all—white folk. They're not really racist as that term is understood, but they find it easy to lace their speech with racist slang, especially against “Mexicans”.

I'm no xenophobic racist redneck, but the spread of Spanish seems to have gone a little too far to me. It's absolutely everywhere now, even in places where it's doubtful anyone speaks Spanish.

The number one concern of Americans I spoke with was the ability to afford healthcare, with ever-rising health insurance premiums and reducing benefits. Many people, it seemed to me, are virtual slaves because they can't leave their jobs because of health insurance: Their current conditions wouldn't be covered by a new policy. So, they're stuck. This was one discussion that would always make me think to myself—silently—“thank god I live in New Zealand!”

The morning network TV programmes in America are crap—nothing more than fluff and commercial promotion. I have new-found respect for what we have in New Zealand, which I used to dismiss. Not any more.

I already commented a bit on prices being comparable to New Zealand. I found out that also includes books. America is blessed with many inexpensive editions of classic works, but ordinary new releases (or newer releases, at least) were the same price or even more expensive than in New Zealand. This was a total surprise to me because I thought we paid a lot for books.

Despite it all, especially the past seven years, Americans remain on the whole a good, decent people who want the same things out of life as anyone else. The tragedy is that their politicians can't deliver it, big business won't and the people don't seem to know what to do about it. Maybe with a new president they'll be able to sort it all out.