#1
One of the more obvious signs of “American excess” is, of course, the massive, breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, a regional specialty of the Midwest. Now, the eagle-eyed among you may notice that it bares a very close resemblance to the classic Wiener Schnitzel (Wien is just the German spelling of Vienna), however, the American variant uses exclusively pork loin, while the traditional Austrian variant uses veal, though these days one can find variants using almost any meat or meat substitute.
After all, deep frying isn’t rocket science, but American cuisine has gotten pretty good at it. One can find nearly everything cooked this way, from pickles to whole sticks of butter. Of course, it must be said that the origin of many of these items comes from European cooking traditions, where settlers took methods from the old world and applied them to the more readily available American food items. For example, Scotland can boast of creating the deep-fried Mars bar, which spiritually seems like an American food item.
#6
Another question many have about the United States is why they love pickup trucks so much. Most people are not actually transporting things regularly, but will happily trade half the space in their vehicle for the ability to hypothetically transport an ATV or some firewood. It’s important to understand that Americans don’t just like pickups, they like vehicles in general. The United States is a big, open place, where one really needed a horse and/or carriage to get anywhere.
It’s no surprise that the first, readily available and mass-produced car, the Ford Model T, was invented precisely in the US, as there was a great deal of demand for something that could get you across great distances pretty quickly. While in this day and age, most people are not doing manual labor and trucks have replaced smaller vehicles as a means of overland transportation of goods, the popularity of the pickup has not diminished. Modern models still have enough space for your family, for example, as the design shifts to meet contemporary needs.
A more annoying part of living in the United States is the constant reminders of safety, “warning, hot coffee, do not eat this sandwich wrapper” and so on. Many point to this as representing some degree of public stupidity, but this isn’t accurate. Americans simply love to sue companies that have done them harm. Americans spend roughly 310 billion dollars a year suing someone, making it easily the most litigious country in the world.
#14
The result is that most businesses will do their utmost to limit their liability. There is an abundance of lawyers in the US and the nation's common law system and the use of “juries of your peers” give regular people the ability to demand compensation from corporations, if they can prove some form of injury. So when McDonald's tells you that coffee is hot, they don’t think you are dumb, they are just trying to prevent another Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants.
While not unique to the US, Americans do love their highways. As a nation where the car is more accessible and common than in most places worldwide, the US built a massive amount of public infrastructure allowing citizens and visitors alike to go all over the country from the comfort of their motor vehicles. However, this over-dependence on cars has made transportation lopsided, so car-based infrastructure gets the majority of resources which continues the cycle of car dependency.
