15 Things Normal In America That Europeans Consider A Luxury
Countries and continents differ from each other in significant ways. That’s why we love to travel, so we can experience the various lifestyles on offer in various parts of the world.
Recently, a Reddit thread discussing the differences between America and Europe went viral. With loads of folks sharing their viewpoints, there’s a lot of information and knowledge that has come to light on the topic especially comparing the everyday things that Americans take for granted that Europeans view as a luxury.
More info: Reddit
#1
You can pretty much choose to live in any climate you like when you live in the USA and still be in the same country. You like 4 seasons: Move to the Northeast. You like humid ocean climate – move to Seattle. You like dry warm weather – move to Los Angeles. You like deserts, move to Arizona. You like warm and humid weather – move to the Southeast.
As a German who loves warm weather I am always jealous because of those options. If I wanted to try to move somewhere warm I would have to move to a new country and learn Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, Greek or other southern European languages.
#2 The size of your homes in places like Utah and Texas. There’s a dedicated room for everything. Kids play room that isn’t the living room or the kid’s bedroom, walk in pantry room, a laundry room.
#3 Free refills
#4 Extensive national parks
#5 American here visiting Germany right now. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say fuel cost. The station down the road here sell petrol for 1.75 Euro/Liter, that’s about $7.20/gallon if my math is correct. For comparison, I’m from Phoenix Arizona and just paid $2.85 per gallon last week, which is about 0.75 Euro/Liter. Gas is even cheaper than that in the Midwest US.
#6 Air conditioning. Americans pump it all summer long
#7 Disability access everywhere. I can go to any place — theatre, store, office, school, whatever — with confidence that I’ll be able to navigate fine in my wheelchair, they’ll have ramps and/or elevators
#8 One thing I really noticed is the lack of escapism in Europe. You wanna go on a long drive to clear your mind? Well, there’s nowhere really to go – you’re always going to find yourself in pretty well developed areas. It’s hard to find true serenity or wilderness.
On a related note, yes there’s traffic in America, but once you’re out of the cities and on open road, good lord… nothing even remotely compares in Europe. Driving is just way more pleasant in the US. There’s a reason Americans would prefer a long drive over a long train trip, but vice versa in Europe. In Europe they also have TONS of speed cameras, so you’re constantly on edge looking down at your speedo to make sure you’re compliant. Americans are anything but compliant ?.
#9 Free use of bathrooms
#10 Space. America is f*****g enormous.
#11 The two most peaceful neighbors ever Mexico, Canada
#12 Icemakers in the freezer?
#13 Real Mexican food. We have Mexican restaurants in my home country but the owners are usually not Mexican and it’s just not the same. Now, I’m living in Japan and it’s the same problem… Mexican food is so delicious.
#14 Big kitchens and big refrigerators/ freezers. Even in my student apartment we had a pretty good sized kitchen. I was dating a Czech girl and her parents came to visit. When they went to my apartment for a dinner, the mom was just amazed at the size of my fridge. They were amused when I dumped the scraps in the sink and turned on the garbage disposal. They’d heard about it but had never seen one.
#15 There seems to be more nature in the US.
Shanilou Perera
Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.
