system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: USA is not that bad of a place to live

I’ll preface this by sharing my background. I was born and raised in Germany to sub saharan African immigrant parents. I’ve only lived in Europe my whole life.

As such, I am wholly aware of my privileges compared to the US and how it may affect my bias. We have far better worker protection laws, far less income/wealth disparity, generally better govt support, cheaper education and healthcare, etc. And I’m not saying EU isn’t a better place to live in than the US.

I would say that in the “first world” as we know it, the US is one of the worse places to live. However, I think it is still one of the better places to live from a worldwide perspective.

I feel like a ton of Americans exaggerate how bad the country is sometimes, and as someone who’s heard countless experiences retold by my African parent, I know for a fact that it can get far far worse in the world. Is the US bad compared to other countries with similar amounts of money? Probably. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a far better place to live than a large portion of the world.

There’s countries where women often don’t even get the right to basic needs such as education, or are oppressed heavily in other ways. There’s countries where being gay or trans will have you locked in a prison or killed. There’s countries where your life isn’t even certain every day due to war and violence. (to a more severe degree than in the US) There’s places where clean water or food isn’t guaranteed for many. Just look at the average age in most of Africa compared to the US. Child death is immense over there and it’s tragic.

I feel like the amount of freedom of speech you have in the US is also massively underrated. The fact that so many Americans can even complain about their life is amazing and also a privilege. We’ve seen countries where that isn’t the case and people get jailed for criticising their governments.

The takeaway here is not “dont complain bcuz ppl have it worse” it’s moreso “be aware and somewhat thankful of the privileges you have in life over a lot of other people.” I often see Americans make large encompassing statements about how the US is one of the worst places to live ever, and.. that’s just insensitive to me. Many people would kill to live in the US, despite its many shortcomings, it can get a lot worse in the world.

EDIT: Okay, I think I ended up being convinced. I believe there still remains a small amount of Americans that do make their life out to be harder than it is; but I don't think that is exclusive to the USA. Largely though, I've reached a middle ground on this where I do start to slowly understand where many are coming from. The USA is not an amazing place to live, and it's not a terrible place to live either. However; the flaws that the USA suffers from are largely unique to the US, despite it technically being a rich country. I can see why that would be frustrating to many. The issues can be changed right now, but they're not. I feel like the conversation won't get much farther like this because we'd be going in circles, but I appreciate everyone who responded.
gpt
Things could always be worse. Things could always be better. Nowhere in the world is all bad for all people. Saying America, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, is not "that bad" to live feels like an understatement. But for some, it is that bad and worse. For some America is the worst possible outcome. It's different for everyone.