We all perfectly know what is good in America. But no place is absolute paradise??¦ I hope these notes will not seem prejudiced to you. They are just impressions of an author, who acknowledges that she would have been most grateful to know more about “the reverse of the medal” before coming to America, because such knowledge would have alleviated the shock of facing the reality, at least to some extent.

Translated from Russian by Womanspassions.com
 

The Reverse of the Medal

A bit of subjective truth about America
 
We all perfectly know what is good in America. But no place is absolute paradise??¦
I hope these notes will not seem prejudiced to you. They are just impressions of an author, who acknowledges that she would have been most grateful to know more about “the reverse of the medal” before coming to America, because such knowledge would have alleviated the shock of facing the reality, at least to some extent.
 
The author has already crossed the line of living in USA for seven months. It is not very long, but the hardest half a year is already over.
 
The author acknowledges that it is unfair to judge the whole country by several particular examples, but let America excuse the author. Negative has a right to exist too.
 
The most unpleasant revelation was the fact that the people, who especially openly and enthusiastically smile to you in America and take an active interest in your life, are often absolutely not interested in your answer, but are very interested in your money. It is just a working duty to ask every customer in a shop, bank or cinema “How are you?” And it is even indecent here to answer this question honestly. Have you ever seen that indescribable amazement of a shop cashier when in response to his never-vanishing smile and his most polite interest in your precious personality a customer sincerely or jokingly answers “Bad”?
 
It’s impossible! It can’t be “Bad” in America! It is a civil responsibility to always smile and to answer “Excellent!” to all questions about your life. And remember: almost no one in America, except for some very close friends, actually cares about how you are doing. It interests nobody. It is asked not with an intention to support you - it is asked just because it is a tradition.
 
Everybody knows that America is a country of selfish and adventurous people. Sometimes they are nice and ingenuous, sometimes impudent and slippery.
 
Do you think an American child will carry garbage out of the house without a money reward? No way! Moreover, he will demand to increase his reward for this hardest work right away and will deliver a lengthy lecture to his parents on cruel exploitation of child labour.
 
People here are brought up to love themselves above all and to seize up everything from this life that others have not managed to seize yet. That is why business, which is not always honest, reigns everywhere in America.
 
Why do Americans approaching the age of 35 promptly start making monthly deposits onto special pension accounts in banks? Because their own children will never help them in their old age, and will not even call their old parent more often than once in five years. Well, after all the parent himself has forgotten his child and stopped caring about him as soon as the child had reached the age of 18 and started his own life. There are no spiritual bonds between these people anymore. It’s all plainly simple: everyone is absolutely free and responsible only for himself.
 
Here is a phrase you will often hear from a worthy parent in America: “Why should I care that my son is broke and jobless? These are his problems. He is not a small child and has his own family - he should deal with his problems himself. I have been in situations harder than this. He will not get a single cent from me without an interest rate! We should all act like businessmen, like in a bank!”
 
This is not an absolute rule, of course, and has nothing to do with the way the immigrants live, especially the ones from Asia - they piously revere their family ties and help their children till their oldest ages, and the children do the same in return.
 
Once, surfing on the Internet, I registered for receiving a free sample issue of the “Money” magazine. The conditions were like this: if you like that issue - you send a check for annual subscription, if not - you just keep that free issue. To be honest, I did not intend to subscribe for the magazine, but why not look at the free issue? By the way, everywhere in America you can find special boxes and stands with all kinds of free and paid newspapers and magazines with enormous amount of advertisement to attract buyers. Moreover, mailmen even deliver such editions to all mailboxes in the city. This is called “junk” here. Sometimes all your mail consists of a huge amount of such junk.
 
But let’s get back to the story. I received a sample magazine with a nice stamp on it saying “Free” and soon forgot about the whole thing. But little did I know about what was to follow! In a couple of weeks my mailbox got flooded with bills from that magazine requiring to pay for subscription and for several other issues of the “Money” magazine, which were allegedly sent to me monthly - just in case I was very eager to subscribe but accidentally forgot to inform them about it. Needless to say that I did not receive any other issues of the magazine after that free one, and I had absolutely no intent to subscribe.
 
The thing is that complaisant employees of such companies make decisions “to your advantage” on such matters on their own, without your consent. And thus, please, be so kind to pay some cash for such tender, though unwanted, care and for a small trickery in the interests of the company.
 
That outrageous affair ended only after an angry letter I had wrote to the subscription agency. (There is another way - you should make a large diagonal inscription saying “Void” on the very first payment bill and return it to the sender, and afterwards you should continue doing so until the flood of requirements to pay for a non-existent subscription finally ceases.)
 
And now about the bills. An average American receives up to five bills daily, because following the advertisement he gets used to spend money without limitations. At that he often spends money he hasn’t even earned yet, which is even more interesting. That’s why credit cards were invented in America. They allow to earn on people who fall for the bait and like to make a new debt having not repaid the previous one. Why not buy a stereo system, if you may pay only a hundredth part of its price today and pay the rest in parts afterwards. Who cares that you will have to pay interest while repaying? This will happen later, and today I’ll come home with a new purchase. What a luck! Do I look like a fool to earn money before spending them? I have a new credit card! And here’s a shaver I’ve dreamed about for my whole life! Who cares that it’s expensive/ I have a credit card! Wow, a bike! The latest model. I should by it by all means. I’ll have to order a new credit card though, but that’s not a problem. They won’t refuse me, will they?
 
And this superficial illusion of a simple American’s financial power is, perhaps, the main reason why we in Ukraine/Russia consider America to be a country of the rich and compose wonderful myths about it.
 
Maybe you have already seen and heard about a widespread ad on American television, in which a character complains about the quantity of his credit cards, by which he is to repay money plus considerable interest. He turns to the audience with a question: “And how many credit cards do you have? Five? Six? How do you intend to repay all that money?”, and he finds a way - to turn to a special company that will help them, the poor customers of credit corporations, to manage their finances and gradually repay the debts. Have no doubt, such company will not remain profitless and will grab a bit of its careless customers’ money for itself. This is America! And after all, everyone needs something to eat.
 
New information (6 years later):
 
To my greatest shame, I have to admit that I am now like that guy from the ad with a bunch of credit cards. In addition to the credit cards, I unfortunately also have several student loans. I can’t bring myself to write “fortunately”. I have no idea about how I shall repay all that. Only one thing comforts me: other students have 5-10 times more debts, because they are Americans and did not have a chance to get free Ukrainian education like I did. Well, almost free. Moreover, not all of them have a husband or wife and, of course, attendant financial and moral support.
 
A saving mantra of an American student: I just have to complete my education, I just have to survive this period, and perhaps afterwards the things will come right somehow. Helps a lot, by the way.
 
There is a Russian saying: “If you want to live - be able to dodge”. For America I would make a little alteration to it: “If you want to live - be able to get credits”. And this in itself is not that simple - to make at least some credit history for yourself. Otherwise, without a credit, you will not survive here. All dreams about education, decent apartment and going anywhere on vacation finally come to this same question: “Where shall I find money for that?” You can, of course, work hard, spend nothing for about 50 years, go nowhere, deny yourself and your family in food and finally save up the necessary amount for the thing you desire (which usually is a house or an apartment), but inflation can easily eat all your savings. The other way is to get a lot of credits, graduate, get a good job position, work hard again, repaying the student loans for about 10 years, then to get a loan for an apartment and repay it for about 25-30 years. Or there is a third way - to get a loan for an apartment right away (in case of a considerable monthly income, which is usually reached if both husband and wife earn decent salaries) and enjoy the thought about “your own apartment”, working hard for 25-30 years to buy it from the bank. Maybe I am exaggerating, calculating everything on the basis of the enormous Hawaiian prices for real estate. Maybe things look brighter on the continent, but the principle is still the same.
 
To be honest, for Russia nowadays this approach is also becoming a reality. Is it good? I seriously doubt it. Anyway, the developing credit system it too similar to America and pre-revolutionary Russia with all its bills of credit and mortgaged property, which is sad in itself. Is it reasonable to copy the whole system of some country with all its achievements and errors?
 
Translated from Russian by Womanspassions.com