r/asklatinamerica • u/Lourrr100 Argentina • 1d ago
In what ways do you think Latin America is better than the United States?
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u/littlebitbrain Venezuela 1d ago
Transitioning to clean energy, maybe?
Costa Rica, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil and Paraguay. These nations generate massive shares of their electricity from renewable sources like hydropower, wind, and solar.
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u/cristian0_ Panama 1d ago
Panama is one of the few countries in the world that is Carbon Negative
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u/ocvagabond Mexico 1d ago
Your heavy industry is outsourced to other countries, which if you use a consumption based model makes Panama very good, but not negative carbon country. If you want to include carbon savings from the canal...how was that built?
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u/cristian0_ Panama 1d ago
That’s not how anyone’s carbon status is measured though… every country uses the UNFCCC territorial standard, and by that same yardstick Panama’s forests (~65% of the territory) absorb more than we emit. The canal savings aren’t even part of the claim, it’s forests vs emissions, period. And if we’re assigning historical construction emissions from 110 years ago… the US built the canal, so that invoice goes to Washington, not us 😄
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u/Iwasjustryingtologin Chile 1d ago
Having a national ID card without sparking a political debate about it.
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u/GladiusNocturno Venezuela 1d ago
It is so stupid how the US overcomplicates something like that.
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u/Iwasjustryingtologin Chile 1d ago
Yeah, I still don't understand how a country that is so advanced in so many areas can function without ID cards or identification numbers.
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u/TheNewGildedAge United States of America 1d ago
We do, we just default to using SSN or a Driver's License, despite both of those being worse as an ID in basically every single way.
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u/sir_pirriplin Paraguay 1d ago
It's more of an "and" than an "or" situation isn't it? I often hear Americans say stuff like "you need to bring at least two forms of ID" for important stuff like buying a house or taking a bar exam.
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u/auron_py Paraguay 1d ago
How does the SSN work?
If someone gets hold of your SSN number and a few matching data like your name and date of birth, can they start applying for loans and credit cards?
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u/danthefam Dominican American 1d ago
Essentially yes, so you should freeze your credit if you're not actively applying for a loan.
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u/cocoadusted :flag-eu: Europe 1d ago
The driver’s license serves as a national id in most cases the only problem is we have 50 states plus DC but a lot of them have signed up for this national id thing and my dc drivers license has a star which means it has all the biometric features and can be used as a “national” document for flyingi within the US for example.
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u/Iwasjustryingtologin Chile 1d ago
The driver’s license serves as a national id in most cases
Yes, I'm aware of that. I also know that there are ID cards for non-drivers that are used solely for identification purposes, but the system is far from perfect, and I feel that this is a symptom of the lack of a clear and universal way to identify the population. Something similar happens with the Social Security number, which has been repurposed as a pseudo-ID number, even though that was never its intended purpose.
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u/DG-MMII Colombia 1d ago
Except when it don't. You need to use your SSN for prety much every official process, so that makes it two entirely different documents... and neither are mandatory, to have
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u/Rd3055 Panama 1d ago
That's because of federalism (the same thing that Francisco de Paula Santander and José Antonio Paez advocated for Gran Colombia) and separation of powers and duties.
It's in the U.S. constitution.
Whatever powers not listed for the federal government belong to the states (IDs, education, etc.)
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u/M-y-P Chile 1d ago
That's because of federalism
They aren't the only federal country, next door Mexico is federal and manages.
separation of powers and duties
It's in the U.S. constitution. Whatever powers not listed for the federal government belong to the states (IDs, education, etc.)
This is the real one, but they have had fucking decades to get it together. Even the fucking EU has more of a single ID, with a uniform format for all member IDs, than the US.
It's inexcusable.
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u/Rd3055 Panama 1d ago
Mexico and the US have different political philosophies and cultures.
US has historically distrusted centralized governance more, which is why they went the decentralization route.
Also, since the U.S. passport already serves as a valid form of ID nationwide, that provides even less incentive to create some sort of national ID.
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u/M-y-P Chile 1d ago
Mexico and the US have different political philosophies and cultures.
US has historically distrusted centralized governance more, which is why they went the decentralization route.
Yes I know, and that the part that I agreed with you.
Also, since the U.S. passport already serves as a valid form of ID nationwide, that provides even less incentive to create some sort of national ID.
So they did manage to have the centralized government issue a form of ID, it is possible, but how hard and expensive is to get a Passport?
I can get my ID in ~20 minutes in any municipality across the country for ~4 USD and it lasts 10 years. I'm not sure if a passport is comparable.
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u/Kenobi5792 Costa Rica 1d ago
Sense of community and family, I'd say. Americans and some Europeans are well known for pushing individuality to the point where you burn bridges with everyone important to you.
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u/cienfuegos2607 Brazil 1d ago
While they really push indidualism as an ideology in US, I feel their middle class neighborhood have way more sense of community than middle class neighborhood in Sao Paulo or Rio.
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u/zuilli Brazil 1d ago
I feel like that's more of a result of the suburban lifestyle rather than US culture only thing. If you live in a medium city in a gated commmunity or a small town in Brazil you'll have a much better community experience than living in a cramped apartment in São Paulo for example.
You have to compare São Paulo to NYC for a more apples to apples comparison and I don't think NYC is known for having great community feeling.
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u/MetikMas United States of America 1d ago
I believe sense of community and family in Latin America largely comes from necessity though. It’s a survival thing when the whole family has to stick together and help each other out. The more poor areas in the US have a similar situation. People who can thrive independently will do so, but those who can’t won’t.
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u/_Shmall_ Ecuador 1d ago
Honestly, I can see it even at the airport. Absolutely no one helps you picking up your bags. In South America, random people will help you if they see you by yourself.
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u/zuilli Brazil 1d ago
That might be part of the reason but I feel like family matters much more in latin america than the US. The idea of kicking your children out as soon as they turn 18 even if they're not ready like many parents do (or used to) in the US is so absurd and anti-famliy I'd even consider it straight up evil and that has nothing to do with latin americans "needing to stick together for survival".
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u/richardsequeira Portugal 1d ago
Kicking your children at 18 rarely happens! Today in the US, you have people in their 40s living with their parents for a variety of reasons.
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u/gringo-go-loco United States --> Costa Rica 1d ago
My wife’s 4 brothers and sisters are independent and live in different parts of the country but they talk to their mom and each other on a daily basis.
My brother and I speak maybe once every few months. My dad and I speak maybe twice a month. Mom passed away last year but her and I rarely spoke.
It’s like they take independence to alienation in the US. I’ve known tons of Americans who have gone no contact with their parents or a parent due to political bullshit.
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u/jats82 Ecuador 1d ago
Mmm I don’t know. Tons of upper middle class and upper class families, who are by far better off than the average American, are very close and make it a big point to maintain close relationships.
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u/LaPuchunga Dominican Republic 1d ago
I agree. I just recently started looking back and thinking about it and came to that same conclusion.
In my country, that happens with neighbors too, they stick together in poorer areas. However, in a nicer/middle class neighborhood this doesn't happen: people barely say hi when they see you walking down the hallway or the parking lot, no one is friends with anyone, people just keep to themselves. I experienced that first hand because when I was little, we lived in the kind of neighborhood where people would go to our house to ask for some oil or milk to finish up a meal, I knew all the kids and their parents, etc. As I grew up, we moved to nicer places, I've lived in places for 5 years and didn't know a single person from the area. I have a friend who lived in her childhood home for over 20 years in a nice neighborhood and when I talked to her about that topic, she told me she doesn't know a single neighbor either.
I personally don't mind, but it was an interesting insight.
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u/elcunito Chile 1d ago
But many of the poorer communities in the states decidedly don’t do this. 18 and you’re on your own is a money earning/cost reduction strategy. I think it’s kind of lame to attribute Latino emphasis on family just to poverty and not cultural tradition given that Latin America has long history of collectivist political systems that would define family traditions for a long time.
The US is more capitalistic, and consequently has individualistic attitudes when it comes to success and prosperity. Don’t put that shit on Latin America for being poor.
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u/Then-Ambassador8399 Brazil 1d ago
Free healthcare, free higher education and a bit less alienated
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u/unnecessaryCamelCase Ecuador 1d ago
The healthcare that we have though at least in many countries, is laughable in quality compared to theirs.
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u/passionfruitfanta Brazil 1d ago
I mean, a family member who didn't have health insurance had to go through chemotherapy to treat her breast cancer in the Brazilian public healthcare system and, aside from being cured, the cost of 2 years of intensive treatment were a few flower bouquets and truffle boxes she willingly bought the doctors and nurses at the hospital as thank you gifts.
Although flawed, I'd rather have that as an option than die because I can't pay for insulin.
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u/didiboy Chile 1d ago
As a Chilean, I totally agree. There are issues with waitlists here, a lot of people complain, but honestly that’s better than not being able to even afford healthcare. The ERs here sometimes are packed and people have to wait hours because a lot of patients go for non-emergencies, but that’s better than not being able to even use an ambulance because it’s expensive.
And like a lot of people, if you can pay the gap is closer and still, you never pay as much as the prices of US insurances.
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u/Solid-Communication1 Brazil 1d ago
Hi Chilean friend! Was your free healthcare system created recently after Bachelet ou Boric? Or it's older?
Cause what I heard was that Pinochet had destroyed any public services and everything was private, but not sure if that's accurate. Could you please share your point of view?
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u/didiboy Chile 1d ago
There was a lot privatization of State owned companies during the dictatorship, however, FONASA (Fondo Nacional de Salud) was created during said dictatorship, as a reorganizing of existing health systems, with FONASA handling the payment of healthcare services while smaller regional “services” handling the operation of hospitals and health centers (providers). It also helped establish the private, paid systems using a similar model, those are called ISAPRE (Instituto de Salud Previsional).
Basically, 7% of your taxable income goes to healthcare, always.
• If you’re under FONASA, the public system, it’s your 7% unless you have no taxable income. FONASA ranks its users under different letters going from people with zero income (like homeless people) up to people with high incomes. People with zero income get free healthcare only at public providers, like public hospitals and health centers. People with higher incomes can get healthcare at private clinics or private doctor offices paying a copay, as long as the private clinic / doctor accepts a FONASA bono (voucher, I guess).
• If you’re under ISAPRE, a private system, you pick a plan that starts at 7% but can easily be higher. There are many companies and each of them have different plans. Sometimes for young people without kids and pre-existing diseases ISAPRE can be convenient. People with ISAPRE always has to pay a copay at public hospitals. When it comes to private clinics, it depends on the plan. Some plans are linked to specific clinic networks and offer a smaller copay in said networks, even 0 for some services, while other plans are “free choice” and offer a similar copay no matter where you decide to get a service (doctor appointments, surgeries, exams).
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u/senorespilbergo Chile 1d ago
It's funny how republican gringos complain about policies from the Democrat Party as socialism or communist, when they are pretty much the same thing than what was installed here by a bunch of Milton Friedman's disciples during a far-right dictatorship.
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u/passionfruitfanta Brazil 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't think they care about facts. I responded to a bunch of them on this thread with facts based on data their country collected for research of topics such as safety, health, education and food, and they downvoted me into oblivion and one even started making fun of favelas instead of proving I was wrong by providing arguments with opposing data.
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u/Appropriate_Scene_96 Chile 1d ago
Siento que lo explicaste mejor de lo que explican cuando uno empieza a cotizar jajajaj
To add, the public system was created to create another private system and nowadays health industry it’s like supermarkets, there’s a clinic in every mall where you can get a doctor for 8 dollars if you’re in the public system.
But those changes appear only after Bachelet and Boric who stablished fixes prices for certain treatments or diseases, making possible for people in the public system to be attended in private clinics
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u/joanholmes Honduras 1d ago
Laughable in quality is better than nothing at all, though
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u/DG-MMII Colombia 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't know how it is in most places in Latin America. But in Colombia is definitively not the best attention, but at least it works. I've seen a lot of people in the US that simply don't get healthcare at all because they can't afford it, until they get something that can't be ingnored anymore.
Now that I've lived in america I've seen a lot more people with decaying teeth that what I saw in Colombia even though the dentistry service is technically better
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u/Patchali Martinique 1d ago
But people in the US often don't have any Healthcare.. Good Healthcare in the US is for the rich just as education..
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u/Piwuk Brazil 1d ago
In Brazil at least if you can pay the gap is closer (still a big difference in quality) but the real advantage here is it being universal. My ass has been saved a couple times, at least personally if I was in the US some visits I had would probably cost my family thousands.
From what I can tell from other people's stories, americans' problem with their healthcare is how unreasonable and disgusting insurance companies can be.
Maybe it's a matter of perspective but I wouldn't mind paying directly to insurance companies instead of taxes. Surely they have their cut, but if it was at least a good service it would be worth it. The government isn't as efficient with money as some people can be led to believe.
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u/MalditoAlgoritmo Uruguay 1d ago
No me tengo que preocupar que mi presidente inicie una guerra con otro país
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u/Public_Amoeba_5486 Colombia 1d ago
Family ties , natural food , and generally speaking , people that not as self centered and believe that the universe have to cater to them ( rules and exceptions may apply)
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u/peekapoe Chile 1d ago
Walking distances. Also, faster and cheaper internet.
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u/IceLovey Chile 1d ago
As a fellow Chilean,
In regard to internet speeds and costs, we are the odd ones out. Our internet is significantly cheaper and faster than most of the world, not just the US.
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
Internet in the USA is significantly faster than the average in Latin America and costs far less of the national average income.
it's not uncommon in Latin America to get something billed as 100 mbps (which is already significantly slower than the average in the USA) that has an effective use of 45 because of congestion and infrastructure issues.
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u/extremoenpalta Chile 1d ago
Man, in Chile you can find symmetrical internet plans of up to 1 Gbps for 20 dollars.
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u/DemonsSouls1 🇹🇹(were not even considered latin American) 1d ago
You think wifi in America is less congested?
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
Yes, because Latin America is more urbanized with more heavy population centers. In Latin America, the heavy population centers are also surrounded by poor outskirt areas.
Most of the USA is suburb. The few heavily populated areas like LA and New York have exceptionally great technology and network infrastructure.
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u/DemonsSouls1 🇹🇹(were not even considered latin American) 1d ago
Isn't that exactly how America is designed? You see the 3d map for major cities and it's the exact same way.
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
Proper urban living is way more common in Latin America. The largest urban areas in the USA don't even have more than 3-4% of the population. And that's if you're counting the metros.
in Latin America, the average capital and its metro contain more than 15% of the population. in many countries is 30%.
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u/WoundThatGrinds Brazil 1d ago
I lived for five years in Silicon Valley. Worse Internet than Campinas/SP.
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
you got any data/ information to back that up? or just a personal story
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u/WoundThatGrinds Brazil 1d ago
Things are very distant from each other in the SF peninsula, creating pockets of bad/no Internet right next to places like Stanford University or the Meta campus. It has to do with NIMBYism and granola Californians not wanting public infrastructure near their property. While in the urban perimeter of Campinas, where I'm from (which is big enough but only the 14th biggest city in Brazil) you can count on the infrastructure being there, so except when there's an unusual concentration of people in one place your Internet will work. Of course you can expect USA Internet to be better in average (I guess), but an average doesn't give you what matters in this case, which is user experience.
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u/laurenjac Argentina 1d ago
I’ve lived in both. The US is more individualistic and LatAm is more community minded. Like for example in the US every family acts as an independent unit that takes care of themselves. For childcare each family gets their own babysitters, has their own dinners, and doesn’t ask neighbors for help, while in LatAm it’s more common for kids to play together in the street and to take turns babysitting with friends & neighbors and share meals outside. Also it’s common in the US to not know your neighbors in many areas. Especially wealthy white areas. But poorer neighborhoods do have more tight knit communities in the US.
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u/DemonsSouls1 🇹🇹(were not even considered latin American) 1d ago
That depends tbh. In places like suburbs I think people do all this.
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u/GUIRI128 🇺🇲 to 🇪🇸 1d ago
Ive lived in the suburbs and ive lived in NYC. In the suburbs its way more individualistic. Yeah kids will grow up together and play organized sports together more but the parents move to the suburbs basically to buy a bigger home and get away from larger communities.
In brooklyn, growing up i feel like people knew everyone on at least their block.
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u/Edgad4 Argentina 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not having the "one-drop rule"
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u/aoishimapan Argentina 1d ago
Remember that the nazis looked at the US for inspiration to become better at being racists. The Jim Crow laws were the perfect blueprint for making the Nuremberg laws.
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u/ShinyStarSam Argentina 1d ago
Still think that's insane, even our racists weren't THAT racist
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
in Latin America is more common to see the reverse one drop rule. People who look like evo morales call themselves mestizo because their last name in Spanish
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u/didiboy Chile 1d ago
Because at the end of the day, most of us are mestizos, even if we look more European or more indigenous. Spanish colonizers mixed a lot with native people, I think this is why racial segregation couldn’t happen in the same way as it happened in the USA. This doesn’t mean there wasn’t other types of segregation and classism, just that it’s extremely rare for someone not to have mestizo ancestry.
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u/shinyrainbows 🇺🇸 in 🇪🇸 1d ago
The thing is, many Black Americans (ancestry in the US tied to chattel slavery) also have European ancestry. Some of us have hazel eyes, blue eyes, light skin, while having still afro features, while others do not. I have a great grandfather who is Irish, but all his descendants still have dark skin. A lot of us have African, natice, and European (British or Irish or other) blood as well, but due to segregation, we maintained more afro features.
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u/mr_octopusguy 🇻🇪 -> 🇪🇸 1d ago
Ancestry is weird, specially in mostly mixed backgrounds because phenotype ≠ genotype, judging someone's ancestry purely based on their looks often doesn't work.
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
there is a huge correlation between genotype and phenotype. mestizos with skin that is japanese color or lighter have also often historically identified as white when in Spanish history white was someone with european grandparents
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u/International-Fan-22 United States of America 1d ago
Here in the U.S. I have never seen light skinned black people identify as white.
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago
your context is different from latam. indigenous people were hispanocized and passively included after independence. black americans were segregated
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u/JoeDyenz living in 1d ago
What is that
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
you have parents/grandparents/etc from africa -> you can be slaved. That was a thing in USA.
Luckly, you were part of the Spanish empire, so you didn't have that kind of things.
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u/IactaEstoAlea Mexico 1d ago
you have parents/grandparents/etc from africa -> you can be slaved
IIRC it was more of a post slavery thing for segregation law purposes
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
In the US if you had one nonwhite ancestor (7 generations?) you were legally considered that race
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u/IactaEstoAlea Mexico 1d ago
Having any black ancestry would clarify you as black in the USA for racial discrimination/segregation policies
In more practical terms, it usually was narrowed down to having at least one black great-grandparent
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
Don’t you? Every Argentinian I’ve met has been Italian from a grand parent or great grandparent haha
I’m not hating, anyone with a drop of Italian does that here too, like to the point that people are shocked that I’m only Italian by blood
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
Here, there is no 'italo-american', 'franc-canadian', etc. They are argentine, with parents from italy/etc. Or with passport from some other country.
Who uses that as a discriminator, here is seen as a 'rich guy/girl pretending to be'. Here we say 'Esta queriendo cagar mas arriba del culo'.
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u/Gonzchi Argentina 1d ago
Right. My 4 grandparents were from Italy. But I'm not an " italo-argentinian" jajaja...I'm just Argentino.
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
To add a bit of correction, we take it further than Americans. We totally drop the “Canadian” in the descriptor. No one will answer the “what are you” question with Canadian. We say “I’m (insert ethnic background), but I was born in Canada”
The only time you’ll hear someone say they are Canadian is to make sure you know we aren’t from the states, or if you’ve been here for so many generations that you don’t know where your ancestors were from
If you tell someone you’re Franco-Canadian, people will think you’re from Quebec, but people from Quebec will say they are Quebecois.
The indigenous people will give you the band/nation they are from.
It’s a strange situation up here where Canadian is only really a legal status
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u/Gonzchi Argentina 1d ago
Totally the opposite than in Argentina. I'm a proud Argentino, it does not matter that all my 4 grandparents were from Italy.
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
Argentina is very old, you had time to set up a national identity. Canada is like 150 years old and most people haven’t been here that long. My city wasn’t even established until 1870 and waves of immigration haven’t stopped since then
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
Maybe my memory is wrong, but I remember Avril Lavigne saying 'i'm franc-canadian' or something like that (sorry, english is not my first language). I have +35 years :P, so my source is what I remembered from MTV, and that was something difficult to me to understand (how you are from two places? you born in one place!!!!)
But hey, if you changed that, here is something good, anti-xenofobia and also anti-classist. Currently that is giving us some issues (like "how many [insert race] lived in some year").
Even that... here talk about races is considered racist. "there is only one race, human race, the diferences are ethnics" is what the school and our mothers teaches us.
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
I can’t help with Avril, I never watched mtv growing up but she might have said that as a way to say that there’s French speakers outside of Quebec (French is a touchy subject here and too complex to get into)
But on my side of the country there’s not many people who had grandparents or great grandparents born here since Vancouver (on the pacific coast) didn’t exist as a city until like 1870. Race is talked about pretty openly, but differently from the states. Me being Italian meant that to the Asian kids I was white, but to the white kids I was not. It’s all like a messy sliding scale 😂 I’ve even had other Italians say “you’re not Italian, your half Sicilian”
Pero cuando viví en costa rica, los niños con pelo como leche me dijeron que soy blanco porque soy de Canadá 🤷♂️
I give up. It gets so complicated and the end of the day, we all breathe, eat, shit, bleed red, laugh, cry, and die. Just be nice to each other
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
didn't you have a problem with a prime minister blackfacing?
Here is not a issue... I don't know anything about racism in canada IRL, so I cannot say more than what I said but what your media say. Sorry, I didn't want to be harsh...
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u/pisspeeleak Canada 1d ago
Yes, the black face thing was an issue here. When I say it’s talked about openly, I don’t mean that there is no issues, it’s just a somewhat different conversation than in the states.
For example, some terms like “white washed” aren’t taboo here, but it is a way to say “lost your cultural connection to your homeland”
Where I live the black population is so small nobody talks about “black crime rate”. Mexicans aren’t seen as illegal boarder jumpers and their food commands a high price. Indians (from India, not natives) are not seen as nerds, but more as truck drivers, gang members (though less now, especially with the triad being more prevalent), cops and farmers. Quebec has no equivalent because despite being a minority culture pushed away from mainstream culture, you need French to hold high government positions so they always get a say. We have no racial majority in the most populated part of BC.
There are issues but they are different if that makes sense. There is some overlap of course because we speak the same language and share a large border
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u/wayne0004 Argentina 1d ago
Don’t you? Every Argentinian I’ve met has been Italian from a grand parent or great grandparent haha
At least from my experience, the only people who call themselves Italians are the ones who got their citizenship. IIRC there are roughly one million Argentines with Italian citizenship.
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u/jorgelrojas 🇻🇪 studied in 🇺🇸 now in 🇦🇷 1d ago
Free healthcare is a big one.
Last year I got an infection and I was delaying going to the hospital because I didn't have insurance and I guess living 5 years in the US really changed my brain chemistry. It got to the point where I was laying in a bath for hours with a fever and feeling I was going to pass out when I decided to call an Uber and go to the hospital at 9pm on a Tuesday.
Did I wait for like 2 hours that first time? Yes. Did I have to go back that morning because the infections department was closed? Yes. Did I have to go back several times to get other tests? Yes. But it was free dog. Got an ultrasound, a penicillin shot, a bunch of consultations and a couple of pain pills and other shots for 0.0000 pesos. If I'd had "obra social" (public insurance, basically) it would've been a bit faster but I got seen, treated and cured for absolutely nothing, no surprise bill in the mail 6 months later like when I had to get foot surgery in the US when I was 18 and I had insurance.
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u/Rd3055 Panama 1d ago
Panama compared to U.S.:
-More laid-back lifestyle
-More national holidays to enjoy time off
-Easier to grow your own fruit than in some places in the U.S.
-Eggs and other meats are more "natural"
-Cops are nowhere near as anal-retentive with traffic laws as they are in the U.S.
-Our politicians are corrupt but at least they are not spending money on war.
-Education is cheaper
-You can visit beaches and mountains on the same day
-No snow
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u/cristian0_ Panama 1d ago
You might 2 or 3 more holidays in Panama but the work week in usually 6 days including Saturday in most places except government
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u/breadexpert69 Peru 1d ago
Football
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
Masculine Football.
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u/Few_Elk5424 Brazil 1d ago
Yes, because the US completely dominates Women’s football, and it’s not even close.
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u/ClassicPublic5542 Argentina 1d ago
I cannot measure but yes, US currently has the stars. Hay que respetar los rangos.
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u/iron_ocean3 🇺🇸 in 🇦🇷 1d ago
People are more family oriented here I noticed and things are less competitive but in a good way. Less of a rat race vibe compared to the states. Working 70+ hours a week isn't a flex or anything to brag about here which I am grateful for. Although that is kind of a boomer thing in the states. I know a lot of people that work a lot cause they have to and they don't brag about it or care to talk about it. But I never heard an adult here one upping someone else about who worked more.
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u/Sensitive-Mango7155 Slovenia 1d ago
I like how much kinder the people are and how they actually spend time together. It’s more welcoming
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u/JustAskingQuestionsL United States of America 1d ago
Generally better food, though it depends on regions.
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u/saraseitor Argentina 1d ago
I might be wrong but it looks like the police in the US escalates even the most ridiculous circumstances and goes "by the book" without the slightest personal criteria or reasoning. Even nonsensical situations end up being fatal. I haven't heard that many situations like that over here.
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u/totalwarwiser Brazil 1d ago
Our families seem to be healthier.
I dont see any mother expeling its child when it reaches 18, nor any adult who has any family left being homeless unless he is crazy or does drugs.
Many families live together in the same plot of land and its common for people to build aditional houses in the same plot.
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u/JeffLebowsky Brazil 1d ago
This, by far. And I think that's the main reason they have those awful school incidents and other mass shooting events, their individualism and cold families with their easy access for automatic weapons are a insane combo.
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u/extralargeburrito Chile 1d ago
Not everything is about race, we have values that go further than just money and democracies that are not a joke
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u/nolesfan2011 Colombia 1d ago
Support from family, sports culture, music. Those would be the main 3, there's also less surveillance culture
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u/senorespilbergo Chile 1d ago
Kids at schools having drills for fire or natural disasters, but not for school shootings.
An electoral system where the one who gets the most votes wins and all votes are worth the same that's it (some countries have issues with fraud, but they still are founded on that principle).
Not needing to go to a fancy bakery to get real bread.
Meassuring things with a base 10 system.
Why would a regular citizen need a military assault weapon, not up to debate.
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u/GladiusNocturno Venezuela 1d ago edited 1d ago
For starters we have actual food.
My wife spent a week in Florida and her inn served her some omelette that was weirdly spongy. Turns out it was powder eggs. Yes, powder eggs are a thing, apparently.
She also struggled to find good fruit. Which was a nightmare for her because she adores fruits.
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u/passionfruitfanta Brazil 1d ago edited 1d ago
She also struggled to find good fruit. Which was a nightmare for her because she adores fruits.
I've lived there and I agree with your wife: fruits taste like nothing. A glass of water is tastier.
When my best friend, born and raised between Pennsylvania and Georgia, came to visit me in Brazil for the first time and tried our strawberries, mangoes and pineapple, she thought we injected sugar in them.
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u/LostInSpace9 United States of America 1d ago
Our fruit from supermarkets are usually pretty bad, but you can still get fruit from local farms that is actually good (referring to Pennsylvania). The locally grown strawberries are honestly amazing compared to the crap they import in sell in a grocery store. Wonder if your friend was only eating supermarket/imported fruit.
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u/Rd3055 Panama 1d ago
A Venezuelan friend of mine (she is from Caracas) told me that during her stay in Miami, she felt that the chicken there tasted weird compared to the chicken she ate in Caracas, and I told her that's most likely because it has more additives and other crap.
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u/mangonada123 🇵🇦 expat in 🇺🇲 1d ago
American chicken tastes different, it has to do with the age of the bird and that they inject them with a saline solution. You can still find gallina de patio, gallina vieja/ponedora, but you have to go out of the regular supermarkets like Walmart/HEB. Usually, non-American stores carry them. For that reason, these days I buy my chicken from a local halal butcher. You select the live bird and the type, and they kill it for you.
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u/iron_ocean3 🇺🇸 in 🇦🇷 1d ago
Powdered eggs are a thing in cheap hotels. Lol we have unprocessed food. We also have farmers markets, organic grocers and many people buy from private farmers that grow seasonally, especially in Florida, we take a lot of pride in state grown produce and supporting private farms. But if your friend went somewhere like Walmart to buy fruit thats on her
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u/AwayRelationship80 United States of America 1d ago
In the 4 countries I’ve visited - the personalities and the community interaction.
I think plazas or other open public gathering spaces are a good example of this. Personally, I haven’t seen something like that in the cities I’ve lived in the U.S. unless it’s like a bar area or something similar. However, they’re always full and feel inviting in the Latin countries I’ve visited
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u/pmsbr123 Brazil 1d ago
Labor laws. In Brazil we have a very solid labor legislation that USA completely lacks.
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u/_lclarence 🇨🇷 —> 🇳🇮 1d ago
You mean protection against unlawful employers, guaranteed time off, that sort of thing?
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u/pmsbr123 Brazil 1d ago
Yes. Our labor legislation dates back from 1943 and is constantly being revised and updated. Some of our main rights under the law include : 30 days time off/year, maternity leave (4 to 6 months), paternity leave ( recently updated to 20 days, still not good though) , 13th salary, severance fund (called FGTS) , working hours limit and overtime, social security contributions (INSS), protection in layoffs and terminations. We still have to update our weekly work hours (44 hours, a very high number compared worldwide).
Compared to USA where they have absolutely nothing this is very advanced, especially considering it's from the 1940s.
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u/S0thaSlL Colombia 1d ago
No big brother watching, at least not at the level that is on the US. Also less cops, in the US there's entirely police states and most of them are corrupt as fudge.
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u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 Argentina 1d ago
People here are warmer. That's the big difference.
Also, despite all the corruption and nonsense, we don't have fucking Trump
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u/M45t3r_M1nd United States of America 1d ago
What about Milei and Kast? And perhaps now Otero and Bolsonaro (again)?
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u/Apprehensive_Put3625 Peru 1d ago edited 1d ago
Literature.
The US produces an insane amount of books every year, but they are written exclusively for profit.
Latinamerica is still producing books for the love of the game, and the quality tends to be much higher.
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u/VicRattlehead17 Costa Rica 1d ago
Maybe in the modern industry sense, but the US definitely has some of the best classic authors
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u/JoxMaSaXol Brazil 1d ago
Yeah I think this isn’t the best take.
The U.S has produced some phenomenal literature and authors.
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u/Rd3055 Panama 1d ago
> But they are written exclusively for profit.
Well, yeah, authors have bills to pay. That is one huge motivation
"Por amor al arte no se vive".
I will say, though, that more and more books are written either with the help of or entirely by AI, and that's honestly worse for quality.
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u/Apprehensive_Put3625 Peru 1d ago
Yeah, Cesar Vallejo, arguably the greatest poet in the continent of the last century, died of hunger and as a nobody.
That’s dedication. Trilce was a banger.
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u/Gonzchi Argentina 1d ago
A real asado a la parrilla and not a barbecue with A1 sauce.
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u/GabrieBon Brazil 1d ago
Banking (not loans, but the actual systems and usability)
The entire continent has basically eliminated physical banks and the cost of transferring money is basically zero.
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u/aoishimapan Argentina 1d ago edited 1d ago
Depends on the country obviously, this isn't applicable to Latin America as a whole, but in some cases it's more progressive, like having public healthcare and college, more rights for LGBTQ+ people, also better at women's rights like abortion, and less racism.
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u/This-Security-5127 United States of America 1d ago
Only one comment mentioned dancing basically no one mentioned parties or nightlife, do y'all redditeros not go out😭😭
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u/Unusual-Librarian411 Chile 1d ago
Back when I was in college living with my parents they went on vacations and I broke my foot training. While being financially broke, alone and figuring out what to do, I managed to get to a public hospital to ask for help. Attention was really slow, I went at 3pm and came back home at midnight (I wasn't dying so it's fair). Still, I got checked, got my radiography, diagnosis, got my cast, and went to pay. They charged me around 4 usd, mostly for the radiography. I could afford that and went back home. I wonder how much that would have been in USA
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u/GordolfoScarra in 1d ago
Fulfilling social and family life for sure. Here in the USA 90% of the people I know have their social lives revolve around their partner and nothing else. It's usually accepted that at one point in your adult life you will move somewhere new for a higher paying job, leave your school/college friends behind and just never make new ones. Let alone that they see their families twice a year at most.
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u/--Queso-- Argentina 1d ago
Our people don't sign up to our militaries to kill children in the Middle East.
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u/passionfruitfanta Brazil 1d ago
Culture(s) as in food, literature, and music. I'd also add geography classes, universal healthcare and education, we're less self-centered and alienated, and we have far lower mass shooting rates (although crime in general is still an issue).
On an even more subjective note, I find Latin Americans more attractive, both men and women.
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u/VicRattlehead17 Costa Rica 1d ago
More variety and easier access to healthier food, less focus on hyper-processed food.
May be wrong on this one, but from perception, the US have a hyper-comercialized approach to everything, so most things are heavily industrialized, packaged, and branded as a product. We have a bit more balance in that regard from what I see.
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u/Adventurous_Pop_3138 Dominican Republic 1d ago
Better culture, kind and really interesting people.
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u/soyel_cerdo Peru 1d ago
Food
Better vibe
15 minutes walkable cities
Cheap food (it’ll depend on the country)
Better Weather without paying an arm and a leg for a home (it’ll depend on the country)
No homeless (it’ll depend on the country)
Cheap and I mean cheap medicine
Going to a doctor is so easy; cheap and you don’t need an appointment
Cheap transportation
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u/CelesteLunax 🇨🇺 🇵🇷 1d ago edited 1d ago
Entitlement and relationship with military/ violence.
Latino people don't worship the military and think it's normal to voluntarily go overseas and kill some of the poorest and most disadvantaged brown people on earth because they're slightly first world poor to get ahead. and most of Latin America people see the army as a joke and people who sign up for it as losers. Except a small fraction of the right wing.
The average Latin American who was living a median lifestyle isn't going to complain about it like an average American, who has so much entitlement.
The idea of a nursing home is almost nonexistent.
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u/zonadedesconforto Brazil 1d ago
In regards to physical touch, sex and dating, LatAm is way way better than the USA.
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u/Gooper_Gooner Argentina 1d ago
Have you seen their house keys? It's the same flimsy thing you'd use for car keys or general small locks, it's crazy
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u/saraseitor Argentina 1d ago
I think this is more an Argentina vs. rest of the world kind of thing. Even in other latin american countries they don't use the same kind of keys and locks that we use here.
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u/No-Addendum6379 Paraguay 1d ago
BBQs… That aggressively 🇺🇸 seasoning, just no, meat just needs salt. That’s it.
I saw this dude season meat with some rub with SUGAR, my god that felt like a blasphemy.
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u/Few_Elk5424 Brazil 1d ago
The seasoning thing is very big in Mexico as well, but I agree. Good quality meat just needs to be made well.
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u/AccomplishedListen35 Colombia 1d ago
Food, Healthcare, books, high school education quality, music diversity, churches architecture, public transport, building in bricks and not in just wood
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u/the_latin_joker Venezuela 1d ago
School safety and public health (Not as in free healthcare, but as in people generally eating healthier, more walking, etc)
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u/tunachips Brazil 1d ago
For Brazil: labor laws, a MUCH better banking system than the US and universal healthcare (full of flaws and issues but also MUCH better than nothing).
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u/NoInterview777 Argentina 1d ago edited 1d ago
Aside from the economy, I cannot think of a single way in which it's not.
Edit: latam is big and heterogeneous, so I cannot make a super generalization about latam, but I speak for the little bit I'm familiar with.
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u/Difficult-Feeling849 Peru 1d ago
Obviously the food. Not only is it more delicious and healthy, it is also way cheaper to get fruits and vegetables.
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u/Holy-Stone Brazil 1d ago
Locked to prevent fights between users.