I don't understand how you can get "America sucks" from from my comments. I love this place. All the stuff you said sucks are things that suck in lots of other countries too. Why am I going to get upset about phenomena that's happening everywhere? The things I like about America are those things that are unique to America.

> being lonely is a function of your political affiliation (this was absolutely amazing to see - wow)

I was pointing out correlation. I didn't imply causation. You're reading causation into what I wrote. Loneliness or just general unhappiness is far less prevalent amongst those that lean conservative and very conservative. It's probably something worth investigating to figure out why this correlation exists.

> Tokio Japan - has kids riding metro by themselves, you should look it up.

Glad you brought this up. It was something I was thinking about when I wrote my comment. Japan has exactly that which the US has lost a LOT of in the past 30+ years. It's a highly cohesive, high trust culture.

You should go and look up the research of Robert Putnam, who has done the largest, most comprehensive longitudinal studies of the decline of civic engagement.

If you're so unhappy in the US, why are you here? Why not move back to wherever you're happier that has culture when you think the US has no culture? Reading between the lines, it sounds like you haven't made an effort to assimilate into the culture and that has colored your experience and negative view of America.

I'm not going to disagree that America is sick, but it has the potential to get healthy again and that starts with changes that prioritize increasing the quality of life for those already here, whether they were born here or became naturalized citizens. And the prioritization of finding commonality between those that are Americans by birth or chose to become America because they believe in its potential as a nation.

my wife likes money. she said 2 more years and then we are out to retire. I have been begging my wife to move for the last 11 years since my kid has been born as I consider the worst thing I ever did as a father was to subject her childhood to this environment. she is old enough now and has traveled all over the world that now she is doing more begging than I am. america is perfect place to make a boatload of money if you put in hard hard work but all else is really bad and we make excuses because money is sooooo great

What was your favorite city out of all those and what was your least favorite?

Are you and your wife from the same country? Did you meet in the US or came here together?

I digress; there is no culture except maybe the idiotic focus on sports (watching that is; everyone still obese!), although that's no different in AUS and for a large extent the UK, so actually, nope.

Disclaimer; lived and worked in the US; left the first time trump got the presidency.

what things are you interested in that are cultural?

> as hard times coming

This wouldn't surprise me, but unless it happens in 2nd to 4th year of his presidency, it's almost certainly going to be the bipartisan drunken sailor spending of Congress since the pandemic our country likely had a hand in causing.

Between accelerating national debt and our disastrous Ukraine war banking policies and international asset seizures that have undermined dollar supremacy, I'm expecting hard times unless we get a Milei-style intervention to course correct.

> Disclaimer; lived and worked in the US; left the first time trump got the presidency.

Hope that's working out for you. It's working out here for me.

Well, that is all that matters. We both will be dead soon anyway, so picking where to sit it out is important.

Washington DC - by far. I have been everywhere in the US as well except for Alaska, for business and pleasure. Washington DC is the only place that has some form of a soul :)

Are you and your wife from the same country? Did you meet in the US or came here together?

I am from Serbia, my wife is from Croatia. We met in Washington DC. We came under different circumstances, I came to play basketball and my wife came as a refugee.

I've always been curious about Washington DC. I've visited twice. Seems like it attracts a lot of the best people from all over the globe but the worst people from within the United States.

One of my biggest wishes for the US is to decentralize pretty much all the functions that Washington DC does today. In its current form, it doesn't exist to further the best interests of the United States. It only functions to further the best interest of itself. Classic case of the Shirky Principle applied to a city.

Curious to hear more about the soul you're talking about? My guess is it has more to do with the foreign presence in that city than the domestic presence.

I think this is disingenuous. You also heavily implied that feminism is at the root of many women's issues. You can't then pull it back and say "Oh, I didn't mean that, you just assumed that". So what -did- you mean?

You also blatantly ignore that conservative and very conservative community have a stigma against mental health issues. While someone "investigates" this, they should probably also investigate whether it is actually the case or whether conservatives with mental health issues are more likely to leave them untreated or deny their existence.