[Music] hey YouTube Alex here coming to you today from Bangkok Thailand in today's video I want to answer the question what are some myths that Americans believe about other countries I'll add a qualifier here and mention that this
is particularly bad in the southern us where I'm from where a lot of people are living in the past the past in which America was number one there are other parts of the country where this doesn't seem to
be as much of an issue number one all countries are dangerous every single country outside the United States is dangerous and should be avoided I've heard plenty of times from people in my hometown how could you go to
another country America is the only safe country in the world it is total Armageddon out there you can't leave the country and be safe this is the only safe place to be I've discovered after traveling to almost 20
countries at this point that this is totally false a lot of Americans believe in what's called a just World hypothesis where they think if they follow the rules everything will go perfectly they just stay within these lines they'll
be safe they go outside of those lines they'll be totally unsafe and at risk I tend to believe what's much more accurate is that every single country has safe places and unsafe places safe scenarios or circumstances or situations
and unsafe versions of those I found a fair amount of Americans think that all of America is Aon California which is one of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the world and that everything outside of America is Soto a
Township in Johannesburg South Africa and you point out to them various problematic American cities even cities in their state maybe they even live in a suburb of one of these dangerous cities then they start backpedaling and it becomes
oh no that's over there that's not my city that's some other city so they can understand that within the United States some cities are more dangerous than others but it just doesn't seem to click upstairs I suspect there's
some cognitive dissonance at play there only the things I want to believe are true right for me personally I feel much safer anywhere in Thailand than almost anywhere in the United States there's a few select areas that are
wealthy most other places do not feel safe you see that there are people going through various crises I've walked around this city at all hours 2 3 4:00 a.m. middle of the day rainstorm whatever the scenario may be
I've never felt like my life was in danger and yet in the United States depending on the airport you may not even be safe to exit the airport and walk around outside I don't mean in terms of crime
it could be just in terms of lack of infrastructure many cities in the United States don't have good public transportation say what you want about public transportation but while it may not be as comfortable as private Vehicles it
is safer driving a vehicle is statistically one of the most dangerous things that people do on a regular basis even within a city you have safe neighborhoods and unsafe neighborhoods the San Francisco area is notorious for this where
you have some of the most affluent areas in the country miles away from some of the poorest areas in the country or heard of or seen what I would call a no-go Zone in Thailand and yet they are
common place in all of the western democracies every single Western democracy has certain areas that most people avoid if they can help it now are all countries safer than the United States no not at all but we are
capable of doing research looking at statistics asking our friends hey what are the good places to go what are the not so good places to go and we can make our own determinations from there but in the United
States I can very much clearly tell you the places you should not go most people that live in those cities would agree with me the number two myth that I hear a lot is oh they're all poor they'll
point at GDP figures is an example of how America is super wealthy and everybody else is poor but in my personal opinion that's not the only valuable indicator you also have to look at Cost of Living people in
America are often spending close to 50% of their income just on housing maybe they spend another 20% on their vehicle they really don't have a lot left over you got 40% of Americans who cannot afford a $1,000 emergency
I think this is just going to get worse with inflation I think you're going to see more extreme poverty in the United States the country is going to go backwards into a Brazil likee State no offense my Brazilian
audience you have a beautiful country but there are some unique challenges in Brazil and it looks like America has more and more of them every day some of the other countries that I've been to when somebody has a
problem their family will step in and help hey you need a place to stay you can come stay with us hey you need a ride to work we'll figure something out in America a lot of families are broken
they're messed up my family is super messed up I'm not going to get into it in this video I can't rely on them for anything I'm better off not going to them for help cuz they're just going to
waste my time and lie to me and I think a lot of of Americans are in this situation where it's in every person for themselves culture and you don't even want to ask for help half the time because
that's just going to show the bad people that You're vulnerable potentially open to manipulation being taken advantage of being put in even worse situation there's numerous times in the United States where I've had a problem trying to get
help from somebody else only resulted in the problem getting worse now fortunately it's not every case I have some wonderful friends that have sacrificed a lot for me who are wonderful people I'm not talking about friends I'm talking
about family issues and when I go to other countries one of the things that offsets the lower incomes is being able to rely on family to spend time with them and you see this in immigrant communities in America
people are often wondering why the immigrants succeed well immigrants are much more willing to stick together than the local population they're willing to get together and be roommates they're willing to help each other out with loans I remember
one time when I was leaving Burning Man this was also Labor Day weekend we couldn't find a hotel I was with one of my good friends and he makes some calls and finds out we're both Indians by the
way he makes a call and finds a hotel room and this is Labor Day weekend around Tahoe every single hotel has sold out signs he manages to pull through and that's one of those situations where you see people
bringing that culture from their home country and being willing to stick together no we did have to pay for it yes it was expensive but it beat the pants off sleeping on the ground or in his vehicle so
finally yes in some ways they may not be as economically privileged as many Americans on the other hand they are often much wealthier than the average American in terms of relationships in terms of Family Ties people step in
and provide that safety net for their loved ones unlike in many cases back in the United States number three they are all uneducated for some reason many Americans get in their head that everybody outside of the United States
is uneducated well let me tell you I know a lot of Americans that are uneducated I don't mean formally educated I mean not only do they not have formal education which is fine I don't judge people in that
scenario probably at least half of my most successful friends did not go to college and yet have managed to build businesses or careers for themselves that are wildly successful but going around Bangkok you see all kinds of modern
conveniences that require an educated populace you see escalators all over the city that function very well you see modern infrastructure like the BTS or MRT system that requires the time of electrical engineers to build and maintain something that
Brett Dev said that I really agree with is that after you spend some time time in Thailand you start to wonder if your home country is the developing one and Thailand is the advanced country and I get that
sense every single day I see the way that people have this social etiquette this EQ this emotional intelligence for every scenario you find yourself in there's a set of appropriate and inappropriate responses regardless of the situation you're talking
to a loved one you're at work whatever the situation may be Tai people often respond in an affirmative way they know what's going on even people who don't speak English as their first language are able to figure things
out whether it be at a restaurant whether it be in the service sector and often you have at least one person here too that has some English skills typically the person managing is able to communicate effectively with foreigners
when I spend time here in Thailand I don't get the sense that there aren't educated people do some people not have a formal education sure I'm not here to comment on that only to say I feel in every
single country I've been to that there are educated and skilled people people I remember when I was down in Latin America in Colombia I met petroleum Engineers America does not have a monopoly on educated or intelligent people finally
while some Thai people may lack the extreme education debt in the United States which is at times the biggest evidence of a college education is this massive debt that we carry they more than make up for it in
terms of kindness civility carrying themselves with a sense of dignity and pride Point number four they all hate Americans they're all jealous of Americans they all want what we have they think about that all the time that's not
the case at all when you peel away the facade of Hollywood I haven't experienced anybody being nasty about me being American except for Europeans for some reason many Europeans don't like Americans but that's beside the point I don't
often travel in Europe and so most of the places where I travel they're curious about the United States they've watched Hollywood movies they use some American apps like Google or Netflix they're wondering what is it like to live
there what is the food like what are the jobs like but they don't s of around thinking oh I just despise the United States now I know there are some extreme examples in the world where they've made it
very clear they really don't like Americans but I would say that's the exception much more than it's the rule and in fact many people are indifferent I remember a writer on Kora I follow and he said oh these
people love to complain about Americans Americans don't think about them at all and what I respond to that with is many Americans think the whole world is thinking about them and then when I go out in the world
I find that most people aren't thinking about Americans at all if anything when I show my friends abro videos of rampant crime and homelessness in the United States I think a look of concern and maybe even pity comes
across their faces I found most people are far more concerned with their family than they are about anything outside of their country Point number five is everyone wants to live in the United States well I think about my
grandmother and if you're talking about World War II era Japan where the country is this smoldering pile of rebel and in the United States they have managed to avoid a lot of those issues then Yeah by comparison America
seems awesome and I reference the homeless crisis a lot if you think about a homeless person in America they'd be much better off in a Scandinavian country now I know that Scandinavian countries have small populations they have very
high taxes they're not better off in the United States just because they don't necessarily get arrested for being homeless they're kind of left to their own devices in many cases you can blame Reagan for that not everybody wants
to live in the United States there's plenty of other countries in the world that people are perfectly happy there I friends that have lived in Western democracies for say four or five years made some money for themselves and
then went back home because they didn't like the lifestyle they didn't like the weather they couldn't really understand the culture they didn't see it as a place they wanted to stay for the long term it's not popular to
talk about those people because that goes against the narrative it doesn't really feed into that America is always number one and everything idea that a lot of the media tries to push in fact I think about in my
own Community the number of people who have regrets about coming to United States I mean I look at my grandmother where she talked about how she did not like it at all when she came to United States she
missed her home country a lot she missed the order she missed food she missed being able to communicate easily with other people there was a lot of sacrifices that she made to live in the United States in a
time where it wasn't practical to live in her home country so it's like yeah if your home country is in terrible shape America is pretty awesome if your home country is actually doing decent or even middle of the
pack the the reasoning becomes less clear I see America as mostly being great for people who are either extremely desperate like my grandmother was or people who are already coming from an educated and Wealthy family and looking to
make even more money that's kind of the split I'm noticing moving forward is it's either super desperate people or people who would be successful wherever they lived in the world I have plenty of friends overseas that have no
interest in ever living United States and they're content with their lives overseas I find that some of the people I talk to abroad that really want to live in the United States are really unhappy with their lives and
they feel that solely changing locations would fix everything and I don't agree with that I think I've talked about that on this channel before becoming an expat or an immigrant great for some people and it's not a great
idea for others if you're in a position where your life stinks then the idea of moving to some far away land with different opportunities it gives people something to be hopeful about so I hope this video has been
helpful let me know what you think in the comments Down Below have you heard of any of these myths have you heard of any other myths it always helps to generate interesting discussion when we talk about these topics
give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this content finally subscribe to the channel if you want to see more content like this and we'll see you next time [Music]
