What's the one thing you hate most about your home country?

[Danny]

Out of curiosity, if you had to pick the one thing you dislike most about the country you live in, what would it be?

Very interested to hear how people see the faults with their individual home countries. Maybe it's societal, governmental, political, logistical etc. Question is intentionally vague so go nuts.

 

[Azure Flare]

The ONE thing!? It's hard for me (Damn nearly impossible) to choose just the one thing I hate most about 'Merica.

 

[Aquarelle]

One thing? it would have to be the way the Maori are being handed everything on a silver platter. Our government is bending over backwards giving back land that was traded by their ancestors long ago.

I don't see how it's acceptable for them to be receiving millions of dollars worth of land that was fairly traded for goods a couple hundred years ago just because they threw a tizzy.

Hell, in a job seekers course my ex is currently attending they outright said "Now if you're from this ancestry, you can give these people a call and demand royalties from these properties"

Like???? It's blatantly not about integrity - they're outright just penny pinching because the government is handing them all this money on a platter - all the while selling our assets overseas and cutting pentions and medical benefits so in 5 years we're gonna be scuppered.

And for what? to give people perfectly capable of working but refusing to (Using excuses such as "oh I can't get a job" all while showing up to interviews in raggie clothes and acting like a slob) more money to spend on alcohol.

So yeah, one thing would definitely be the way the government is treating the Maori populous - it's so bad that even the Maori people (at least the ones who can see that it's just a money grabbing scheme) outright refuse to partake in this nonsense and decry those who do.

 

[Turbo_snail]

I hate that everyone thinks I ride my Kangaroo to school!

 

[Jimlaad43]

I hate the fact that there are people who think Scotland becoming independent would be a good thing.

 

[Turbo_snail]

Fail

 

[Bopop4]

French.

 

[Wolfe]

Nationalism, specifically how people here pervasively think of ourselves as "america", instead of "the united states." We are a collection of diverse entities (each with rights!), not a single glob of red, white, and blue.

 

[DG_Silva]

Jimlaad, I'd quite happily see the Scots gain independance, as long as it's not our door they come to with the begging bowl.

What really annoys me in this country is that it is far too easy to live do nothing than to work. The benefits system is out of control, thanks mainly to the Labour government of previous, with far too lax suggestions of what a disability is, and the fact that it is financially beneficial to sit on your arse and do nothing than to get a job and work hard. 'm not suggesting that all people whoare registered disabled are not, but a little bit of balance is required, and it's not an exaggeration to say the system needs an overhaul.

 

[Dean]

Definitely tax. The minimum tax procent here is ~37%.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Jimlaad, I'd quite happily see the Scots gain independance, as long as it's not our door they come to with the begging bowl.

What really annoys me in this country is that it is far too easy to live do nothing than to work. The benefits system is out of control, thanks mainly to the Labour government of previous, with far too lax suggestions of what a disability is, and the fact that it is financially beneficial to sit on your arse and do nothing than to get a job and work hard. 'm not suggesting that all people whoare registered disabled are not, but a little bit of balance is required, and it's not an exaggeration to say the system needs an overhaul.

I'm in Scotland at the moment, and I have not seen or heard any good things that would come out of independence. Both Scotland and the rest of the UK would lose so much and gain almost nothing. So many people and companies have raised concerns about the independence, but Salmond has not listened and seems to thin that he's right. If the vote is yes, then this island is smegged.

 

[The Bman]

The poor ethics of the people who live here. I'm not calling out everyone in the United States, but there are countless instances where I've seen people act so arrogant, rude, and stupid. It makes me feel embarrassed to be American.

 

[Lizard]

The food.

Apart from fish and chips it is just disgusting.

 

[GranTurismo916]

The amount of people here that make our country look terrible.

 

[Argon]

I think we're losing our identity and whilst some of that is not a bad thing the extreme political correctness policies of spineless and unthinking politicians and civil servants have gotten way out of hand.

I welcome diversity of culture having spent all of my life travelling this wonderful planet and visiting so many places but in each it was always, and I do mean ALWAYS, me who conformed to the culture and traditions of the country I visited yet,. Immigrants come here and expect the whole country to conform or provide to meet their ideals and traditions even to the point of insisting long standing British traditions are discarded because they cause offense or are contrary to their religious beliefs.

We now have whole communities where even the road signage is now in a foreign tongue and no I don't mean Wales, Scotland or even Northern Ireland where the various forms of Gaelic are as much a part of who we are but in long standing rural and industrial communities that had real tradition and values that have been all but wiped away.

Makes me sad

 

[DG_Silva]

I'm in Scotland at the moment, and I have not seen or heard any good things that would come out of independence. Both Scotland and the rest of the UK would lose so much and gain almost nothing. So many people and companies have raised concerns about the independence, but Salmond has not listened and seems to thin that he's right. If the vote is yes, then this island is smegged.

It's not that I want Scotland to split from England, of course I don't. Like you said, both countries, but in particular Scotland which would have much less money to spend, will suffer from this independance. But if it were to be voted in and moved away from the union, Scotland should be raising it's own money from it's own currency, and not trading off the back of England, or asking us for money.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Hard to pick one thing. That's not to day i wholeheartedly dislike England but there's a lot I would change. As I don't want to be too controversial on a public message board I will go with:

Politics. Now, I know every country has its issues with politics. The thing that grinds my gears in England/UK is the bare faced cheek that they show. The latest Tory budget shows this, appealing to what regular average Joe's would benefit from the most, cancelled fuel price increase, money lopped off and frozen on alcohol, lowered income tax band etc. And it's not because they want to do it because they want to. They are doing it to win votes at next years general election. Which is fair enough it is a competition, but I can't be the only one expecting this generosity to be reversed when and indeed if they win it next year. Yes Labour didn't help with the deficit when in charge but hey, I'll take my chances.

 

[Stotty]

The biggest issue affecting my life in the UK is the amount of road works on the M1... every Monday I trek from Surrey up to Yorkshire and every Thursday back again. It's a journey I've been doing for 27 months - 221 miles that can take anything from under 3 hours to 5.5 hours.

The 1st year I had the widening of the M1 around Milton Keynes and the M62. My utter joy when these finished was quickly replaced by despondency as another 15+ miles of cones appeared on the M1 north of Mansfield, all average speed camera controlled 50mph, plus another section where the M1 and M6 intersect.

Please make it stop!!

More seriously, the thing that really pisses me off is the alleged 'immigration issue' and the way people use this as an excuse for all their personal problems.

Hard to pick one thing. That's not to day i wholeheartedly dislike England but there's a lot I would change. As I don't want to be too controversial on a public message board I will go with:

Politics. Now, I know every country has its issues with politics. The thing that grinds my gears in England/UK is the bare faced cheek that they show. The latest Tory budget shows this, appealing to what regular average Joe's would benefit from the most, cancelled fuel price increase, money lopped off and frozen on alcohol, lowered income tax band etc. And it's not because they want to do it because they want to. They are doing it to win votes at next years general election. Which is fair enough it is a competition, but I can't be the only one expecting this generosity to be reversed when and indeed if they win it next year. Yes Labour didn't help with the deficit when in charge but hey, I'll take my chances.

Conviction politics dies the day the Tories ousted Maggie.

If you think there's any real difference between the parties nowadays you're deluded

 

[Kitten]

Well Canada is my "Home Country". The stupid tax amount on Electronics. The amount of cost of food, drink, 8$ Gallon for milk. . Nothing else to complain..

 

[MagpieRacer]

Conviction politics dies the day the Tories ousted Maggie.

If you think there's any real difference between the parties nowadays you're deluded

Oh don't get me wrong, I know there's no real difference between them. I only used that as one example, they are all as guilty as each other regarding my dislike for them. It's picking from the best of a thousand evils. Even the green party have their own set of issues. They have the Brighton seat (where I live) and have done bugger all to improve anything. They have put more bus lanes in Brighton to ease congestion, ok that's fair enough, parking is ludicrously expensive to get people onto said buses, ok cool, understandable, but then they charge through the butt for the buses and make it too tight a gap between using the car and using the bus.

Using a working day for an example. I was paying £35 a month to insure my old car, 20 odd quid of fuel was getting me in the region of 150-200 miles, more than enough for around about 3 weeks of commuting. So looking at around £62 per month (not including tax which was £123 for the year so add a tenner to roughly break it up to £72 per month) to travel via car to work, in relative comfort, park at work for free, not have to wait around for buses and so on. The bus, costs an alarming £75 per month, takes almost an hour from where I am to get to work (it's only 6 miles), is always late, and have to wait too long in the evening for one to come home again.

Its appalling that it costs more to use public transport in a city that is meant to be green. They even bought hybrid buses, which cost them £4 million, and don't benefit anyone who doesn't use route number 7 which is a central Brighton route, so those outside of Brighton foot the bill for a hybrid bus they will never use on top of constant price increases to counter fuel increases which have actually been decreases yet the ticket prices still rise. Make sense of that?

 

[Danoff]

Self loathing (how's that for leveling in this thread?)

Americans hate America. They vote constantly to take it away from its identity, and preach endlessly about how stupid, fat, and lazy we are and how every other society is a model we should be striving toward. From my vantage point, we've done halfway decently for ourselves.

 

[Slash]

Obama and Cuomo.


I don't need to say anymore.

 

[Jump_Ace]

Republicans.


Jerome

 

[sems4arsenal]

Everything

 

[Adamgp]

Obama, Harry Reid, and Pat Quinn.

 

[Ryanswannell]

Some of the chavvy/lazy/scummy/workshy and many other people of that nature.

 

[Thematic]

Overpopulated like every other country.

 

[MoLiEG]

Edit:

1.- Insecurity
2.- Overpaid Politicians
3.- Low Salaries overall

Pretty much :/

 

[Brend]

The fact that everyone suddenly knows all about independence and it's merits/demerits because it happens to be the flavor of the month.

 

[Jimlaad43]

The fact that everyone suddenly knows all about independence and it's merits/demerits because it happens to be the flavor of the month.

Has anybody ever said anything to you that would make independence sound good?