I have been to the USA 5 times, including three major road trips. On the first trip, I first crossed all of Arizona, Utah, then from Virginia to Washington DC. I then went twice to NYC for more than two weeks each time. On my 4th trip to the USA, I did a road trip from Atlanta to Montreal and back along the coast on the way out and the Midwest on the way back. Finally, my last trip dates back to last summer when I returned from Vancouver to Montreal, crossing the entire American Midwest.

On every trip, I've been with Americans, slept with Americans, or camped with Americans. I love the USA, I am part of this generation that grew up with the American model as the standard-bearer for a prosperous society. I count among my closest friends many Americans. I would go back to the USA many times because it is a beautiful country and it takes more than one lifetime to see everything, but it is absolutely out of the question for me to go and live there for many reasons.

Racism. Racism is pervasive in American society, so much so that it is worrying. I met people in the American South during the controversy where Obama banned Confederate flags. They had just stolen their flag, so they installed new ones, but they hid hooks in them and said to me “I hope these niggas come back and try to steal them and get hurt”. All with a revolver in the belt in the middle of the street and when I had just met them.

Lack of debate. Debating is just not something done in the USA. In any case, this is not the norm. I have friends with whom we have good discussions full of mutual respect. But I have met more people who simply reason by “I have my opinion and you have no right to contradict me”. The idea for them is the American 1st Amendment which protects the freedom of speech, and which therefore allows them to say whatever they want.

Social Security. Everyone knows the American malaise on the subject. But it is one of the reasons that will always prevent me from settling there. Again, I have met countless numbers of people who are suffering from huge debt for idiotic accidents. Some spend $500 a month on private insurance only to find that the insurance company is scamming them when they need it. Imagine, you contribute $500 a month for 30 years, and the day you have cancer you are told outright that you will only be reimbursed 20% of the $800,000 the hospital is asking you for… It's revolting.

I traveled a lot in the States when everything was quiet there…in the 80s–90s. Then it's all messed up. There is a lot of violence, insecurity, extreme poverty (what we call crass poverty), racism... even towards Canadians and especially French speakers... I have already been insulted in a store because I had inadvertently given a Canadian .25¢ instead of an American one… crime of lèse-majesté there now. It is now a police state where individual freedoms melt and shrivel like a trickle.

Yes, there are beautiful landscapes and there are fantastic Americans… but… but… the rest becomes very, very dangerous. Their government claims to be the last bastion of free civilization, they claim their wealth (which they take from other countries such as Canada) but when you look closely, the poverty there is terrible, the elders abandoned, blacks and Amerindians live there on crumbs, millions of people live in their cars or crummy campers because they can't afford housing even with 2 jobs, the food there? We don't talk about it because it's so chemical that it makes you obese and sick. Then, their damned habit of bombing other countries illegally and taking themselves for the masters of the world. For them, there is only their country,

Well, I could go on like this for a few pages but I think you get my point. Sure, there are still a few little corners that are quieter but they are becoming increasingly rare.

I have lived in the United States for 20 years with the greatest satisfaction.

I lived in France for 30 years with the greatest satisfaction.

I lived in Belgium for 30 years with the greatest satisfaction.

We have subjects of bitterness and revolt everywhere. I have a very long list of what is despicable and revolting in each of these countries.

My father used to say that if you don't like something where you live, you have to change it. A little nerves, gentlemen, it's three democracies. Work on changing what you don't like instead of giving 1914 war speeches.

I am Colombian and would never go to the United States because of the discrimination other Latin Americans face for speaking Spanish or being a little darker. Not even for tourism.

This country has done a lot of damage to our countries: they have supported extremist groups on the fringes of the law to get rid of leftist opposition and maintain their hegemony over the entire hemisphere; all in the name of democracy.

The health system is also not the best and education is too expensive for the poorest people, so I prefer to stay at home.

Excuse me for my frankness, but the Americans are developed only in good materials because their political and civic culture is painful.

I went 3 times to the United States for work and several times to visit my family of French origin.

What does not support:

First is the ignorance of Americans towards the outside world (of course this is not the case for all). They are terribly influenced by the pressure of pseudo information and permanent publicity. The vast majority are incapable of reasoning on their own. You don't see that in Europe.

The advertising pressure is terrible. In the public school where my nephew could have gone, there was a television session with advertising that the children had to watch in the morning. Mandatory sessions because educational programs are paid for by advertisers!

One day an American asked me how the houses were in France if there was Electricity everywhere. I replied that there was electricity in my city long before New York, which is true. The first dams were built on the rivers around Grenoble and the towns along the Isère were the first to be electrified. He believed that Airbus was an American company, again he didn't want to believe that it was European. The guy was an engineer at General Electric. We were training with a software vendor in New York State. It was in the early '80s. He was certainly competent in his work but had no general culture and his less talkative colleagues seemed to be the same.

Second, junk food: is widespread. Practically at home, they eat only processed junk food, and anytime. There is apparently good meat, but the standards in my opinion leave something to be desired. The chicken must be treated with bleach, the meat is of good quality in high-end restaurants, but how can you be sure that it is not stuffed with antibiotics? The water is in many places officially undrinkable. It's fashionable to have a super-equipped kitchen… Which they don't use or don't know how to use! From what I've seen, families of foreign origin eat much better.

There are many South Americans who, in my opinion, eat healthier and are much more open to the world.

I found it very funny (but better not tell them) to officially answer "if I came to the USA to commit a terrorist act and if I was part of a terrorist movement" when I had to waste my day for go up to Paris to get a visa for me.

The judicial system seems insane to me even though I only know it from television. Ruining a person's life because he is a witness and his written testimony does not count and that he must therefore be protected so that he can testify is incomprehensible to me. In France, written testimony is enough and it is fortunately rare to have to protect a witness by destroying his family and professional life.

This has been and will be mentioned again: the exorbitant cost of health.

The other thing that annoys me and discourages me in advance is the procedural aspect.

It would be hypocritical of me to say that these two reasons would stop me since I am likely to immigrate to the United States in the future. But they give me and will give me a hard time.