Is the U.S. the most “convenient” country in the world?

33 comments

1. It is until someone else’s convenience ends with you in the hospital/morgue

2. Yes.

   I can order food and have it here in just a few minutes. I can order groceries to be delivered same day.

   I am outside thinking I wish I had a blue tooth speaker – just ordered one, and it’ll be here tomorrow.

   There are plenty of 24 hour convenience stores.

   Electricity, food, water, internet, etc. all readily available.

   I can get in my car and go anywhere I want. No waiting for public transportation.

3. I haven’t been to enough other countries to say that we are or aren’t the “most convenient,” however the US, in general, seems to place a high premium on convenience.

4. America has a habit of “showing up” at “convenient” times, so yes

5. Stores open late night and on Sunday

   Trains, buses , planes running at all times

   Drive though pharmacies, restaurants , banks

   Near cashless society

   Can see a specialist without a GP approval

6. I choose to interpret “convenient” (as per your rules) as the nation with the most buildings made out of cheese and as such no the U.S. is not the most convenient nation on earth

7. Absolutely. Everything can be delivered, and fast. Super Bowl winner merchandise is made for both teams, what happens to the merch of the team that lost? Nobody cares!

8. Depends on whether you want carry out or medical care.

9. No, that’s subjective and for me it would be japan based on what’s convenient to me.

10. We got a lot of drive throughs and delivery drivers

11. It definitely used to be the most convenient when the other countries were at competitive and financial disadvantage to us in the WWII era.

    But now the other countries have caught back up and in quite a number of places surpassed us. I recently did a big project in the UK to open a new company office and the transportation and logistics and delivery services I used as well as the public transportation were miles and miles ahead of what we have in the US.

    I will say one place where we do have an advantage is the insane selection of things available to buy at very competitive prices. If you need weird parts to fix something or some really fancy custom electronics etc, the only other place in the world that has the kind of inventory of manufactured products you can buy here is Southern China.

    And there’s no way I’d move there from here right now because the hardliners are in charge and sending China backwards right now. Tons of expats have had to leave the place because of it.

    We also don’t offer the greatest convenience for the everyday working class person that’s not very well off. Too many ways to end up destitute or homeless if you slip through the cracks of our social system due to technicalities. Though we do offer a very good experience for immigrants compared to many places which perhaps offsets that a bit.

12. I’ve been to 11 other countries and the USA is the most convenient besides Europe’s awesome rail system

13. As a non driver Amazon Prime has changed my life. Their price points beat out Best Buy electronics store, their selection beats out Target home goods store, and I can get same day or next day delivery on many items.

    A few weeks ago I went to a large hardware store, Home Depot. I ordered a bunch of stuff to do gardening. I was able to get next day delivery for $30. Then the weather went to shit for a a bit 🙁

    The weather can be very inconvenient, see Denver’s snow storm this week and the heatwave in eastern USA also this week.

14. Yes and no. It is convenient for the people that can afford convenience, but if you can’t afford it, it’s fucking impossible. Other countries have a much better baseline for their less fortunate people. We just leave ours in the dust.

15. No. I’m an American but living in Sweden. Sweden has all of the same conveniences, like food delivery and Amazon, plus a great train system. I can do an over night train to the Arctic circle or Berlin.

    Speaking of basic needs, universal healthcare, free school, paternity leave and daycare are a few more conveniences you can’t get living in America.

    America is a convenient country compared to developing countries, but not compared to developed countries.

16. Yes, it absolutely is.

17. No, it takes forever to get from one side to the other

18. Japan is pretty darn convenient.

19. For myself, yes, the United States is quite convenient. There are safe parks and schools, there are a shitload of restaurants nearby, lakes, ponds, plenty of stores, etc. Many thing are open late, so if you really need something, you can get it.

    However, convenience varies from place to place. My wife’s from middle o nowhere west Texas. It’s harder to just do anything over there, you gotta drive a lot. Amazon and the like fan ease some of the frustration.

    All the things like healthcare, daycare, schooling, incomes, jobs, and housing are all quite subjective depending on the person, so I won’t get too deep into those.

    I needed an anchor for my kayak, shopping to get all the shit for it would’ve cost double what Amazon sold a complete package for. It arrived the next day, with some options same day…

20. Depends on what you want it to be convenient for. Convenient for easy travel? Not really. If you’re in a city, public transportation can be shoddy. Anywhere else and it’s basically nonexistent. But If you have a car, it can be pretty convenient especially in the country and small towns/cities.

21. I’m not saying we’re *inconvenient*, but no, we’re not the most convenient country in the world. If I *had* to give that label to a country, it would be Japan. East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea have a decade on us.

    It’s a good thought experiment. Off the top of my head, convenience to me is the effort it takes to acquire goods and services. That could include transportation infrastructure, methods of payment, availability, among others. On that front, convenience is in good supply here.

    One of the major conveniences that I think most Americans overlook is that of the USPS. We have one of the highest ranked postal systems in the world which our economy relies on, but it is relatively very cheap to ship goods across the country and world.

22. No. In large swaths of the country you need heavy machinery to be able to get necessities and to function in general. These are expensive and dangerous and restricts freedom of those that are young or disabled. Not only that but they have negative impacts on mental and physical health.

    It’s not convenient to have to take time out of your day to exercise because you ordered delivery or drove to work instead of walking or biking. It’s not convenient to wait in traffic instead of living close enough to a market to walk by it on your way back from work or being able to take a train to see a show in the next city over.

23. Not if you don’t have a car

24. As an American who had a lot of work assignments away out of the US, I got in the habit of making sure I had extra supplies of certain things like decongestants in my travel kit. Lots of extra packing for things I *might* need and would have trouble finding in a pinch. Then I was switched to assignments far away from home, but still in the US. It took me like three trips to realize that “f*ck, they have CVS stores on every other block here too.”

25. Probably.

    Americans place a premium on convenience much more so than other countries do.

26. As far as 24-hour businesses go, I would say that we probably still are. Although even that’s a bit up in the air, especially as many stores are no longer open 24 hours.

27. I don’t know if the US is the most convenient country in the world because I haven’t been to them all, but I can say with certainty it absolutely is not France.

    I feel like both times I’ve visited the UK the convenience factor was very similar to the US, though

28. In what sense? In that tech tends to come out first here and shipping and stuff is the shortest here? Then yes. In that we have the best convince stores, and it’s very easy to get whatever you need? Japan has us beat. In beaurcratic red tape being minimal to normal people and effects people negatively more rarely? Nearly every country in Europe is better at this.

29. It’s the only country where I can live and see my extended family with nothing more than a short car ride, so that’s already put it about a gazillion miles ahead of any other country. It’s also the only country where I’ve got citizenship, making it really easy to handle stuff like working and buying property and anything else where a country might want you to have special status like citizenship or residency.

    It’s also got reliable electricity, good transportation, above average safety, education, and government services, features which it shares with the other top 10 or 20 richest countries, which are less personal factors I’d add in. But those things would have to be terrible to outweigh the convenience of family and familiarity that makes America so convenient, not some of the best in the world.

30. No, not really. Most American cities aren’t walkable and have terrible public transportation. Things are spaced pretty far apart compared to most other countries and running errands usually requires taking a car. I live in NYC, which is probably the most “convenient” US city, but even then, there are plenty of other countries with big cities that are easier to move around in and get things you want.

31. Canada or Mexico since we can walk there.

32. Singapore.

33. We have a strong convenience culture, but so much of our population lives in remote areas that are distinctly *inconvenient* to basic things like grocery stores and common services, I’m not sure how you can compare us to the other countries with strong convenience cultures, that have more concentrated populations.