First of all let me tell you that I am European, have never been to USA and all I know about it is what I see in the TV and read on the internet. Please tell me if it is true, or if it's just American stereotype.
1) Most americans live not in appartments, but in houses, which usually have only 1 floor, they have some garage to park the car, and it is "owned" by the family living there, however they are heavily indebted to a bank to which they repay a mortgage, they don't have any savings, all of what they earn they spend to repay bills, loan, interest, products they bought AND they like using credit cards and end up paying high annual interest on things they bought. (They also like to place an American flag on their home.)
2) If they have a full time job, they work longer than 40 hours per week and have less than 25 days paid vacation. Their company can fire them without being forced to pay them a few months of wage.
3) The health insurance of most Americans doesn't cover anything serious, or they don't even have one, so if anything happens to them, they can simply die, or else it will cost them a fortune.
4) Studying at a university is VERY expensive for most Americans. Most Americans cannot even afford to study at a university without indebting themselves.
5) Americans think living in their country is better than in any other country.
6) Most Americans can speak only English fluently.
7) Most Americans in TV are quite slim, but many American tourists often weigh more than 100kg.
8) Even though 45% voted for Mc Cain in 2008 elections, 8/8 (100%) American exchange students I have personally met said that they support Obama and hate Mc Cain. Does it mean that leaving USA makes people more open minded and less conservative, or the most conservative Americans would never leave USA?
9) Most Americans aren't familiar with the metric system. Even if they are in Europe they will tell you(with a straight face) that at home it is 90 degrees in the summer (especially if they are tourists).
10) Americans don't like saving money and like to purchase goods and services at credit.
11) Most Americans CANNOT do simple MATH, which they need for everyday life. Example:
You and your spouse earn 3000$ after tax and you need to spend 1000$ per month for daily items (food clothes etc.)
You can rent a house at 1000$ per month, or instead buy a house for 300.000$. No matter if you buy or rent a house, you will have to pay another 200$ for upkeep, water and gas.
If you have already 100.000$ on your bank account and we assume that you receive 2% interest on all the money in the bank, but the bank can lend you 200.000$ at the interest of 7% to buy a house (and you will place a mortgage on the house)
a) Is it better to rent the house or buy the house? (Assume you pay the bank only at the end of each year.) Which one would you choose?
b) Assuming that interest rates won't change and you decided to buy the house, how many years will you have to repay your debt until you have paid all back including interest?
c) How many years will you have to pay back, if a financial crisis comes and the interest rates for your loan have risen to 10% one year after you have borrowed 200.000$ from the bank.
CAN YOU ANSWER THIS SIMPLE MATH QUESTION?
Type the answers and your age.
(You should be able to calculate this if you are at least 16 years old, maybe even earlier.)
Are these stereotypes correct, or it's all just bollocks?
