What does the US have that does not exist in the UK?: originally appeared on Quora: The best answer to any question. Ask a question, get a great answer. Learn from experts and access insider knowledge. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Answer by Jeremy Miles, Brit living in the US for past 5 years
Oh my, lots of things. Here are a few:
- Free refills.
- A tipping culture. Tipping is rare, and 10% is generous.
- Guns. Well they have guns in the UK, but nothing like so many. And no real equivalent of the NRA.
- Large numbers of homeless people.
- A constitution that is known about and considered important.
- Free speech. People have been sent to prison for what they've written on Twitter. It's much easier to sue for libel in the UK.
- Megachurches. There are big churches in the UK, but they're mostly considered historical buildings, rather than places of worship. (Update from Thomas Johnson - apparently there is at least one megachurch.)
- Arguments about mixing religion and government. The queen is the head of the church. But she delegates responsibility to the prime minister.
- Deserts.
- Extremely long highways. The longest road in the UK is the A1, it's 410 miles long.
- Arctic regions.
- Volcanoes. Extinct ones, but nothing as exciting as Mount St Helens.
- Corn dogs. I never saw a corn dog until I came to the US.
- Real Mexican food. There are Mexican restaurants, but they're rare. And they're not very Mexican. I never saw a quesadilla in the UK. (Update: London now has Chipotle restaurants)
- Cellphone numbers that look like regular numbers. Cell phone numbers in the UK start 07, so you know if you're calling a cellphone.
- Police with guns.
- Huge empty spaces with very little in them.
- (American) football teams. Well, ones you've heard of.
- Baseball teams. Ditto.
- Basketball teams. Ditto.
- A large population of Hispanic people.
- Handball courts.
- 30 year fixed rate mortgages. Mortgages tend to be 25 years and tend to be variable rate. Sometimes they're fixed for a small number of years (10 would be a long time).
- Acetaminophen (well, they have it in the UK, but call it paracetamol). But you can't buy more than 24 in one go, and they come in blister packs, not bottles.
- Earthquakes. Small ones, occasionally caused by mining.
- Tornadoes.
- Hurricanes.
- Rocket scientists.
- Fire hydrants. They're called hydrants, but they look like this.
- Weirdly restrictive alcohol laws. You can give your five-year-old alcohol, as long as you're at home.
- Medicinal marijuana.
- Hot weather. I only know of one occasion when it reached 100 Fahrenheit anywhere in the UK.
- Cold weather. The lowest temperature ever recorded in the UK was -17 Fahrenheit.
- Illegal immigrants. Well, there are some, but not many, and it's not a massive deal. Australians are the most common kind.
- Private universities. They exist, but there are very few (one main one). I don't know anyone who has been to one.
- Grits. Never seen it in the UK.
- Iced tea. It exists in the UK, but if you ask for it in a restaurant, they'll think you're strange.
- Rabies. It's a big deal. Bringing a dog or cat to the UK from another country is hard work.
- Bankruptcy due to health costs. Bankruptcy is much rarer -- I've never heard a story of someone being declared bankrupt in the UK (although it's possible), but no one has ever gone bankrupt because of health problems.
- Cheese whiz.
- Pancakes. Most of the time. (Pancakes in the UK are rarely eaten on days other than Shrove Tuesday. They're also thinner than an American pancake).
- Ads for prescription only medicines to consumers (The only countries that allow this are the US and New Zealand).
- Sourdough bread (You can probably get it, but it's not common).
- Cheese on sandwiches. In the US (in my experience) every sandwich comes with cheese, almost by default. You want a ham sandwich, that's going to be ham and cheese. A cheese sandwich seems to be a rare thing.
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