American Things Europeans Can't Understand [EUROPEAN REACTS]

[@tigeriussvarne177]

I guess almost every European kid wants to see the US some day, but as older you get, the urge either gets stronger or disappears completly.

[@TheBl4cKH4wK]

It was the same with me. When I was in my teen years I wanted to visit the US badly and thought about staying with relatives I got there. About 20 years later now it's more like "Oh hell no!".

[@Pelpe]

True. You really lose the respect for the US the more you know. Just a fucked up, guns and drug addicted country.

[@stampcollector74]

I think you are right - when I was a teen I wanted to see it (the US) badly; but now? year by year not really anymore. ...

[@SwissMiss138]

I’m American and after 13 years in Europe I never want to go back. My kids have a better childhood here!

[@bambina5604]

The fascination also disappears when you visit. I've started to appreciate Eastern Europe so much more after my visit to US.

[@ac1455]

The only reason to go to work in the US rather than developed European county is if you’re a worker in a very high demand industry, otherwise financially you’re better off in Europe.

[@starparodier91]

I have an arithmetic disability and when I learned all my cousins in Slovakia had this magical thing called a VAT I was LIVID! I used to anxiously just throw an extra $5 for whatever I purchased 😂🙃

[@micheleleimbacher5867]

In Switzerland, I think the rule is that you must keep your gun and ammo in separate places, not stored together and not allowed to have a loaded gun lying around, can only transport the gun if you are going to army training or rifle range.

[@SwissMiss138]

True. And when called in yearly you have to account for all the ammunition. They also just passed paternity time off. Maternity leave is 16 weeks and Paternity is 2 weeks, also for adoption.

[@andromedaspark2241]

That's very much not the case in the US. I understand why Europeans would not understand it. My Grandma kept a Colt 45 by her bed almost her entire life. We took it when she got dementia. I'd take the bullets when I was a kid, they were old & soft enough to draw with. I think maybe made of lead? Guns are just incredibly common. No license is required to carry concealed and no gun registration is required in my current state, Ohio. The difference is startling.

[@micheleleimbacher5867]

As for home owners fees, I live in Switzerland and the services that they are talking about are covered by taxes. If you pay taxes, shouldn't that cover parks, maintenance, garbage collection and police security?

[@Vendrix86]

Yes, as an American I ask the same question you have Michele. We have a stupid tax system, one of many stupid things in America. It makes things more complicated.

[@Gaehhn]

You can own semi-auto guns in Germany, even belt-fed ones. You just need the proper paperwork (and money). Also you can store your guns at home if you have a gun safe that's up to standard. Many people who only shoot for sport on the other hand opt to store their gun at the range instead of buying expensive gun safes for their home and their car. Especially since you need to securely store the gun and the ammo separately. I would guess that this is similar in Sweden.

[@AgentX2006]

As an American I can't recommend visiting. Maybe if our country hasn't imploded by then your great grandkids mind find it worthwhile to visit. I figure by then we'll either implode or get our shit together.

[@ac1455]

In the USA, we will pay more taxes as long as it doesn’t call itself a tax. Instead of paying appropriate wages for their productivity on a normal basis and just raising the price on food to account for their labor, we gladly pay 10-20% of tips along with a sales tax. Instead of a normal socialized healthcare system, we just pay exorbitant insurance premiums and subscriptions.

[@agamemnonpadar5706]

I just started two weeks ago in a company and was asked already by my boss to tell her when I want to take my 3 1/2 vacation days which I will have earned until end of December. Fun fact about my new job: it is an US company, the colleagues over there have not that privilege. How did the man with the small hand say "👌Sad 👌

[@kaivonneu-lich6327]

commercials in Germany. After 20h forbidden on public channels. Privat are allowed commercials all day but can disrupt the programme (film for example) only once every 45 Minutes (but for more than one commercial)

[@Andreas813]

You are right about the gun laws here in Sweden. Handguns are not allowed to be kept at home and must be secured in a pistol club's vault. It's also very hard to get a license for it. Hunting rifles are allowed to keep in your home but you must store the rifle and the firing pin in different secured boxes. It is illegal for a civilian person to posses a semi- or fully automatic weapon. My brother-in-law is American, when we were there he had to come home from work to drive us somewhere, and I noticed he was packing. I know the guy very well and I trust him, but it still felt very weird to sit in a car with a guy with a gun.

[@AgentX2006]

Do you have a different definition of semi-automatic there? Here in the US almost all handguns are semi-automatic meaning each time you pull the trigger a round is fired and a new one is chambered. Some examples of firearms here that are not semi- or fully automatic would be single action revolvers (you have to manually cock the hammer before each shot), bolt action rifles, and pump action shotguns.

[@Andreas813]

@@AgentX2006 Sorry, I meant semiautomatic rifles. The definition is the same here. That you don't have to manually put the bullet in the chamber to shoot. All hunting rifles here are bolt action or pump action.

[@starparodier91]

I’m an American and my family has zero interest in guns, but I do know a few people that own them. I know they’re very responsible with them but it always freaks me out knowing they could have a gun on them at any time.

[@raketensven3127]

Guns exist. Gimme me effing guns. It doesn't really matter if they are forbidden where you live. Like criminals care about laws...

[@Eternalsfan]

@@raketensven3127 BAHAHAHAHAHA! Easy there Yosemite Sam.

[@GroundZer0000]

NEVER go to the large chain restaurants in the US. There are local places/chains that have REALLY good food.

[@Savage.Doomer]

Most handguns are semi-automatic. Full automatic is very hard to get in the United States. You have to spend at least $10,000

[@MultiCookieFan]

Ay just saw you back :) Nice.

[@timothypage252]

Also, in places where the wait staff are given similar wages to everyone else, they STILL get upset when you don't tip them.

[@timothypage252]

Most of those meds that are advertised are available ONLY THROUGH prescription. I've always been confused as to how it makes fiscal sense to advertise to the non-prescribing public.

[@olsa76]

For an ordinary Swedish person to own a handgun, not only is a course required, but you are a member of a shooting association and compete in shooting. It is required that you participate in at least one competition per year to retain the right. You can store the weapon at home in an approved gun cabinet. The cabinet must be too large for someone to carry it away or bolted to the house. To own a hunting weapon, you must obtain a hunting license. The same rules apply to the storage of hunting weapons.

[@supercolinblow]

This video is factual, but some of its components are taken out of context.... "Ask your doctor about Sodium Pentathol....." LOL. (Even conservative presidential candidate Bob Dole did Viagra commercials after leaving office.) I agree with you about child beauty contests. Walmart and Amazon are well represented in some other EU countries. I hate homeowner's associations. Most places I do not think have them. When my parents bought the house, they specifically avoided this city called Columbia, Maryland because of the Columbia Association, as they call their HOA. It wasn't hundreds per month, but the rules are annoying so they were like f**** no, we're not living there. As far as paid vacations, the video is mostly right but it depends on what state you're in. I agree with you. You probably hear most of the information on the US which shocks you, and it's about FL. Florida might be technically part of the USA. But as a proud Marylander, I formally disavow the State of Florida. The reason for the adding on the sales tax is actually reasonable if quite annoying to foreigners. It varies state to state. In some states, it varies between different local governments. So you can go to the next town or city over and the tax on something is slightly different. There's also state and federal tax on fuel, on cigarettes, alcohol, you name it. State and local governments have the authority to raise revenue for their own coffers, pretty much any way they like; which is reasonable, since the US is a federation not a unitary state. Nonetheless, it's annoying, particularly for visitors to the US who weren't warned before hand.

[@gengar6969]

So just to pass on know what I know about Florida and the reason it gets such crazy headlines, it’s due to a law or lack-thereof a law regarding criminal privacy and the media. Basically, most states have laws preventing much of the crazy info you see in headlines being released publicly. Florida, on the other hand, basically allows all of it to be released to the public. This is just what I’ve been told so I may be wrong. Florida has always been very nice other than a few metro areas in my experience.

[@dropshot1967]

Great reaction, I had seen the original, but your reaction was great and closely matched my own. For your next video, check the settings for the image in image playback. In this video, the inserted video is a mirror image.

[@stonedmountainunicorn9532]

bc copyright reasons sonny

[@arnodobler1096]

11:00 watch Little Miss Sunshine 🤣🤣what a funny Movie about this

[@andromedaspark2241]

As a girl in the South (USA), a lot of my little friends in elementary and middle school wanted to be in pageants. It must've been for bragging rights & I recall their moms talking about "opportunities". That's sort of okay since they have a choice but the strangeness of putting makeup, tons of hairspray, and spray tan on the little ones who have no choice is so off-putting. They look odd. It's definitely a more southern and rural tradition than in the US in general. I think it's that girls were encouraged towards pageants and cheerleading and boys into sports. In conservative areas that's still really common.

[@andromedaspark2241]

And the movie is hilarious. Sorry, mentioning beauty pageants brought up memories.

[@Teiwaz111]

There's a reason (well, probably more like multiple reasons) why someone (can't remember who) called the US a third world country dressed in a Gucci belt.

[@baptistedubois673]

Hey, I love your videos. I found your channel through your reaction video to Rammstein's 'Deutschland'. Can I suggest you react to Rammstein's 'Adieu' now? They dropped the video clip a couple of days ago and it's a masterpiece.

[@SonOfMuta]

"Why are child beauty pageants a thing?" Why are adult beauty pageants also a thing?

[@vincentblack5078]

homeowner in alaska is on average 100

[@thumper84]

Restaurant servers make way more in the United States than they make in Europe that's why in areas where some restaurants have tried to do away with tipping they lost all their staff because they made way less money

[@Pelpe]

3:50 Wtf. That’s what taxes are for. Why pay extra for some Watchers and maintenance. 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@gengar6969]

Most people don’t live in places with an HOA, they are annoying and costly. They do make some neighborhoods much nicer but you can easily avoid moving into a place with an HOA. That’s mainly private and gated communities.

[@isacjungman7ckallebergskol24]

I love your content and just continue with it it is really fun to watch

[@SPEEDY4004]

german mcdonals is okay - except the special edition burger where the yellow cheese is actualls a semi-transparent green square but after the video about "10 food/ingredients" that are legal in the us but banned in the EU - if only a part of that is true I will hardly evereat anything in the us dont like to be experimented on... mfg Olli

[@adjudicator4766]

That video is completely false and is either pure fear mongering or they are trying to sell supplements or both. The FDA is extremely strict on its regulations in regards to what is authorized in food and what is not.

[@SPEEDY4004]

​@@adjudicator4766 maybe/maybe not - hard for us non-usa-ler to judge - thats why it is interesting to see other (us)-youtuber to commented on it mfg Olli

[@thumper84]

A paid vacation is the same as if you had to give money to a store when you didn't shop there. You get paid when you work not when you're on vacation

[@GCOSBenbow]

You get paid when you're giving benefit to a company. Taking a break is a huge benefit to every company. Turns out people don't work well when they're burnt out and over stressed.

[@andromedaspark2241]

Productivity advances in the past century should benefit workers as well, not just the wealthy.There's no reason workers should have to give most of their waking hours for decades to employers. There has to be time built in for people actually experiencing life. I'm American too, and it's bizarre that some people have no paid time off even to be sick. So many people work sick, like in restaurants where you don't want sick people working. I have 24 paid days off a year from my employer in the US and they do just fine. I'm just a call center worker, too. It's not some rare high value job. It's hard to realize most of the people around me never take vacations & travel isn't an option. It's such a waste of life. Employers do not pay enough in the US to make this loss of freedom to experience life worth it..

[@Nightcloak27]

don't buy into the tip thing btw: if the tips don't add up to minimum wage the employer /is required to make up the difference/, up to the federal minimum wage. www.dol.gov/general/topic/wages/wagestips#:~:text=If%20the%20employee's%20tips%20combined,wage%20amounts%20for%20tipped%20employees.

[@Dwarvenelf]

canada has some of these same problems, it is annoying

[@johnnygood4831]

I've never understood why people want to go to America instead of Canada. Canada is similar to Europe in worker vacation and health care. The result of having a capitalist country where money is more important than people.

[@Kamerian]

Sigh...An AK-47 is NOT a semi-automatic rifle...it is a FULL automatic rifle. Semi-automatic = 1 trigger pull / 1 shot fired. Full automatic = 1 trigger pull / mutilple shots fired.

[@antoniohacker8563]

As an European i cannot understand these

[@Chrizton]

you get 14 weeks of paid vacation, WTF. i have to fight to get a day off, and its not paid

[@Pelpe]

U live in the US?

[@Pelpe]

You have to remember, he is a teacher. 😅 In Germany 4 weeks paid vacation per year is the minimum by the law and the standard is about 5-6 weeks.

[@raketensven3127]

Imho you just have to regulate it. Look at 'unlimited paid vacation days' in US tech. People tend to not use them out of fear to fall behind coworkers etc. Also i don't think EU is less efficient caused by it. Quality of work is a thing too, not only quantity.

[@peterbondesson5481]

Move

[@adjudicator4766]

@@peterbondesson5481 it’s not that easy

[@WaechterDerNacht]

Regarding obesity: when i was in Norway in 2017, it seemed to me like they're either super sporty (like 99.9% of Norwegians) or heavily overweight. By now, i think here in Switzerland, the (over)weight gap also gets bigger.eaning that more are really healthy or really overweight. But not much in between.

[@ArstanWB]

I had a co-worker who took a one month vacation in America, when he came back, he had gained 5 kg of weight, was visibly more round cheeked and panted a lot. Just one month.

[@adjudicator4766]

@Lz150 His coworker has bad inhibition control and lacks dietary discipline? I’m not sure

[@112313]

If homes in usa are cheaper, there wouldn't be so many homeless ppl there.

[@adjudicator4766]

The reason for homeless is not just housing, it’s lack of a strong social safety net to fall back on, car centric infrastructure, excess of crime and lack of dense housing.

[@andromedaspark2241]

It's hard for people to get approved for a mortgage, and medical debt, job loss, disability, just bad luck can put you out on the street in a month or two. The majority of people live paycheck to paycheck - saving a downpayment for a house is out of the question. Even rent is getting so high that stories of people who work full-time living out of their cars are shockingly more common. Investors have been buying up properties too. The affordable homes are being grabbed up by the wealthy to rent out or flip.

[@gengar6969]

I live in a house 10 minutes from a major city downtown area and paid 140K, and there is no crime in my area. Just depends man. Every state is different. The homeless problem isn’t due to pricing much of the time. It’s usually due to addiction, trauma, etc. There are even quite a few who if given an apartment would still choose to be homeless. We’re working on it over here though.

[@armlegx]

If you came to the US as a teacher, they get ~12 weeks in the summer, ~2 weeks at Christmas, all the federal holidays and some other days for grading etc. The vacation situation really depends on the job here.

[@lauribleu7558]

That is all deceptive. In my experience, teachers' salaries are broken down to what you get per hour, with a specified number of hours you are required to be on campus, including attending certain events. Technically, you are not paid for summer, spring, and winter breaks. Your yearly salary is divided into paychecks. At my school, our paychecks were divided into 26 paychecks spread throughout the year. We did get an allowable 1.5 days per quarter to use as sick leave. In other jobs I've had, there were no paid sick or vacation days. A lot of that depends on whether you are full or part time (regardless of how many hours you worked). It has become harder and harder over the years to find full time positions. Same goes for employer provided health care. Except for the seven years I taught, I never received benefits.

[@armlegx]

With benefits being determined at the district level, it is impossible to say anything that generally applies. Teachers here get sick and vacation. Summers I guess are somewhat of a philosophical question. I know teachers who treat it as a vacation, others who get a seasonal job, yet others who do curriculum work. I've had benefits at several jobs. It's a big country: YMMV is the rule.

[@lauribleu7558]

@@armlegx At the end of the day, I asked myself, why am a working a job that didn't pay me enough to live on my own, that presented horrifying physical risks (am talking about now), that I spent about 11 hrs a day on campus working, not to mention all the work at home...Yes, the health benefits were good following so many years of working non-corporate jobs with no benefits. Everyone's experience is, of course, personal, but from my POV, the US is broken in so many ways.

[@ac1455]

We don’t have healthcare as tax funded as it is in Europe, so we don’t have any economic incentives to ban or limit the unhealthiness of certain products.

[@thumper84]

Which is a good thing because we are not children so we don't need the government telling us how to live you may want to live in a fascist society the rest of us do not

[@thewooddove2]

​@@thumper84 fascism is when good health is encouraged... sure, bud

[@rtbkbulliesandpitbulls1714]

I agree that all the employment rights Europeans get makes it near impossible to start and prosper a small business, I have family in Spain and I know how it goes, that full benefit paid vacation is no good for small businesses, I'm starting off and I gotta give my first employee all that, no way 😂😂💯 Usa system is much better

[@chrisserfass8635]

Every European person should have the right to own firearms as something like the 2nd amendment. And also keep them at their homes.

[@mixlllllll]

No, we don't want that here.

[@chrisserfass8635]

@@mixlllllll Don't you want to be able to defend yourself if someone decides to kill you or breaks into your home. And what about serving as a defense against a outside bad country ie what happened with Ukraine with Russia or even with a bad government inside your own country? Owning a firearm is a deterrent for the ultimate evil organization.

[@chrisserfass8635]

What European country are you from?

[@arnodobler1096]

for what? I feel save here. People with Guns around makes it unsafe - no pls! We are civilized Countries an People!

[@adjudicator4766]

@@chrisserfass8635 House break-ins are rare in the US and even MORE rare in Europe. You are either paranoid or you want to shoot someone, both of which would be automatic disqaulifiers to possess a firearm in any sane country except the good old US of A.

[@thumper84]

If you're not allowed to own and carry firearms you are not free. The only rights you actually have are the ones you can actually defend

[@leec6707]

Freedom is not constantly living in fear. So much so that you need to own a lethal weapon and have it in your home.

[@raketensven3127]

God, Vat makes me angry, that's just fishy false bait ads imho. Just show me what i have to pay.

[@thumper84]

Freedom Paying your own bills Not arresting people for jokes

[@GCOSBenbow]

You do realise the US has the highest % of pop. incarcerated while also having the highest fatalities caused by police. I'd rather get arrested for a "joke" than shot or crammed in with every other poor sod being kept in your for profit prisons.

[@thumper84]

There's not an obesity problem in the European countries because you guys can't afford to eat like we do because of all the taxes

[@8thinput80]

Not giving out paid vacations is not disgusting, if you aren't working why should you get paid?

[@8thinput80]

And also you can still have vacation days and just not get paid for them.

[@AgentX2006]

You do realize there is paid vacation time in the US. However it's generally reserved for those higher up the corporate ladder. Many CEOs have not only paid time off but the vacation itself paid for by the company. Like all of corporate America the people on top get all the benefits and the poor saps at the bottom get worked to death. Imagine a world where a minimum wage American worker could take a week off for vacation and not worry about whether or not they would have enough money to buy food.

[@arnodobler1096]

Because the employer also benefits: the employee is more rested, more motivated, more focused, more effective, mentally and physically healthier, happier, more loyal, ... Of all the OECD countries only the USA does not have this, and this continues with parental leave as well.

[@thumper84]

​@@arnodobler1096 if it benefited the employer the employer will offer it. You just want to get something for free because you're a child

[@adjudicator4766]

@@thumper84 Employers do offer it, at least those of successful companies, as paid time off has been scientifically proven to yield more efficient workers and therefore a more efficient company because high stress leads to high cortisol levels which impair judgement, increase anxiety, induce lethargy and even leads to osteoporosis. Can’t really have efficient productive and innovative workers if they are both losing their mind and body simultaneously. Not that you would be able to comprehend this due to your myopic thinking which enables you to equate “wanting paid time off” to “being a child”, ironically enough that thought process in it of itself is childish.