Perspective on the US from an expat working in China

[Riddil]

I'll do my best to keep this brief (more from the fact I'm trying to do this during my lunch break, rather than spare the reader my rambling message) ;-)

After living in China for the past 1.5 years on a work assignment for my company, I've gained a lot of insight into how the US is perceived abroad, my owns gripes against my homeland, and even opened my eyes to a lot of the misperceptions of China. (I'll save perspective on China for some other post).

The strangest part is that many of these points I've already known from my time in the US, but actually living this way has really driven the point home.

First part... media. While I miss a few programs, the biggest thing I love being away from is the inundation of media-for-the-masses. I can't tell you how relieved I was to be AWAY from the Anna Nicole and OJ Simpson media frenzies. As an American I felt embarrassed that they were covered at all. While in China I mostly read media from Hong Kong and Australia, and they tend to focus more on issues that really matter. World economy, the war in Iraq, corruption, etc etc. OJ and Anna were a single headline, for a single day, then the world moved on. Whenever I read American headlines I want to scream at every last American, "Are you blind?? Can't you see there are real issues that need attention?"

Which brings me to the 2nd point... the lazy, short-sighted nature of Americans. The rest of the world is catching up... FAST. India, Korea, and China is full of people that are motivated to do whatever it takes to get to the top. In college I was a software guy. Like all software guys I looked on with detest as software projects moved from highly skilled American coders to crappy Indian firms that churned out... crap. But that's not the reality for most out-sourcing. The reality now is that jobs being moved overseas are being done as well or better by younger kids that are DRIVEN to get ahead.

You may get angry when your Dell support agent has a terrible accent. But you don't complain when your neighborhood pizza house sets up an online ordering service built by Indians, and you pay pocket change to have your taxes completed handled online for you... by a guy you never realized was sitting in Mumbai.

The problem is Americans are lazy. They don't want to study hard or work hard. We've built a public education system designed to make no one "feel bad" if they get a low score, so everyone gets A's. In China and Japan, the jocks are the least popular guys in school. If you're the kid that has your name published at the top of the list every year for top score you're the most popular guy in school.

As I interview new engineers in China, I actually have to FIGHT to keep them from trying to work 12+ hours a day. They feel if they don't keep their skills on the cutting edge then they'll fall behind in the industry, and get walked over. And that's the reason why so much R&D isn't done in the US anymore, it's all going overseas. Currently the US has innovation, but how much longer can that keep up as more and more engineering positions move overseas?

Why do we make it so hard for educated people to emigrate to the US, but roll out the red-carpet for poor Mexicans to flood across the border? If we want to stay competitive we NEED to get the educated people moving to the US, not lock them out where they'll build up a competitor overseas.

Third point... the political system is a MESS. Seriously. The system worked fantastically 300 years ago when it was first set up. But in the modern world it's a travesty when you have a mass of Neanderthals able to vote someone into positions of power, and you have special interest groups able to buy political clout to get things put into law.

It's sad that things that should be a no-brainer, like net-neutrality, have to resort to getting a mob of people FIGHTING to keep it from happening? Shouldn't the government be able to realize what's the RIGHT thing to do, and just do it?

I used to think Bill Hicks was a coot. Now I think he was a visionary.

Fourth... not a single item, but a dumping ground for minor gripes...
- American eating habits are awful folks. Seriously. Too big, too greasy.
- We always preach about "family values", but honestly it's the farthest thing from reality. We're only OK at maintaining the core family, but for most people the extended family isn't anything resembling the tight-knit sense of FAMILY that I see in China.
- Seriously, we could tone down on the extremism. If you're Christian stop preaching about how you're being oppressed. If you're atheist, stop crying that the world is shoving religion down your throat. Don't put so much violence and sex on TV, and stop crying about all the violence and sex on TV.
- I HATE TIPPING. It's a stupid system, and it needs to be scrapped. If you're a great waiter, then get a job at a good restaurant, and that place should pay you $20-25 dollars an hour. If you're a crappy waiter and you work at Pizza Hut, then you should earn a lousy $8 an hour. The rest of the world has this figured out. Why not the US?
- Not a gripe, just a comment... don't worry so much about consumption. The rest of the world is just finding something to complain about. The Chinese waste WAY more food than any American, and the Japanese buy WAY more crap.

Hrm... I think that's most of it. I'm sure I've missed a few, but it's good enough. And before anyone tries to yell and scream and tell me to "stay the hell out of America if I hate it so much"....

I DO NOT hate the US. I love my country, and trust me, I'm very much looking forward to moving home in 2008/9. If I list out my complaints about China you will see very clearly that choosing between the two is really no choice at all. The US is great, but seriously, we could stand to do a little more introspective soul-searching about what it takes to keep the country great.