'Going to the US Is More Unpleasant Than Going to Soviet-Era Russia'

As I've noted here and over at Financial Armageddon, I gather information from a wide range of sources (check out my blogroll in the right-hand column if you don't believe me). Sometimes the views come from bloggers and commenters who keep their identities secret for any number of reasons. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with anonymity, there's probably a greater risk that what is being said is false or misleading, or that reality is being distorted for some less-than-honorable ends. Under the circumstances, I tend to scrutinize such commentary more closely. However, in the case of this posting from reddit, "Why I Stopped Travellig to the US and I Largely Stopped Doing Business in the US," what I and others have experienced first-hand gives me little reason to doubt that the views expressed are accurate -- and reflect a more broad-based perspective:

With every trip I've taken to the US over the past 30 years, things have gotten a little worse every time. Things are now so bad that I have stopped visiting the US and i no longer have any clients in the US. Mostly because having clients in the US means having to go there. And I've grown to really dislike going to the US.

I'm a photographer. I mainly do street photography now, but i still do the odd bit of contract work. I travel with expensive gear though not that much of it. I like to travel light. The INS do not like that. If I turn up with just my camera backpack and a small bag of clean underwear for a one week stay I usually have to spend a lot of time being interrogated for my lack of a huge suitcase. (I guess they suspect I live in the US illegally. Which borders on comical since nobody knows more about my travel patterns than the US government. Besides, my passport is usually filled with stamps that should tell them that I travel a lot and that even if I lived in the US, I spend most of my time flitting around the world)

Paranoid as the INS are, the TSA are even worse. Mostly because they are a huge bureaucracy where nobody seems to be accountable and their on-the-ground personnel are mostly people who had to choose from a range of other low paying jobs. On several occasions I've had expensive gear disappear from my carry-on during security checks and last year a TSA agent dropped my Canon 1D Mk3, smashing both the lens and the camera body. No apology, but more importantly: I was never compensated. I'm not rich and that camera (and the lens) was important to my livelihood. An expensive piece of kit lost that meant that I basically didn't make any money that month.

Oh, and of course, now you have all this nonsense with pat-downs and backscatter X-rays which increases security with exactly zero percent and makes an already tense atmosphere even more tense. Well played.

Taking pictures in the US is another hassle. After 9/11 everyone is utterly paranoid and everyone from security guards to police, and even random passers-by, have hassled me. Claiming that I am breaking the law (I am not) or demanding I explain why I am taking pictures. Believe me, I have spent a lot of time figuring out what laws apply to photography in various states, but on the ground and with a camera in your hand, that means absolutely nothing. Explaining the laws in effect to a law enforcement officer only gets you into more trouble.

I've been to Russia before the cold war ended. I've been all over the middle east. I've been to China. I've travelled all over Europe. I've been to Cuba and I've been to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Nicaragua.

What all of these places have in common is that going there was a far more pleasant experience than going to the US. Yes, you read correctly: going to the US is more unpleasant than going to Soviet era Russia or even Iran 10 years ago. Sure, you sometimes have to bribe people, but at least I've not had gear stolen off me during security checks or had people break my gear without at least compensating me.

And taking pictures. Well, let me put it like this: you are 20 times more likely to get hassled for whipping out your camera anywhere in the US than in, say, downtown Teheran.

I offer this as an observation from the outside. The US is isolating itself and it is becoming a very, very unpleasant place to visit. I often talk to fellow travellers and even a lot of business types in nice suits often relate how they'd rather not travel to the US if they could help it and that they'd rather work with people in Europe or Asia. I can relate to that.

Comments

[dearieme]

And yet... it's written in American English. It's not just individual Americanisms (gotten worse, I guess, figure out, law enforcement officer) that give the game away, it's the cadences.

I have an NZ friend who also avoids the US whenever he can - the phenomenon is quite real, I'm sure. But that posting doesn't smell genuine to me.

[dearieconcerntroll]

Not so well played.
All of these "Americanisms" are commonly used by anglophone Canadians. Who are, far, far more likely, per capita, to have traveled to Cuba than any of us.

[kwark]

I know expat Americans living in various places in Europe who voice similar opinions about visiting "home". Although mostly their grumbling is about our third-world transportation systems (and TSA). Even my daughter had similar comments after a recent trip to Asia. I know a woman who has completely given-up traveling by air because of repeated seriously unpleasant interactions with TSA. Wherever the writer hailed from, I don't doubt the sentiments (and probably the experiences described)are real.

[dearieme]

That he's Canadian is an interesting suggestion. Would a headline "Canadian Disparages US" surprise anyone? Everyone knows that the Canadians are a finer, nobler people.

[Ungaro]

It is not only the ICE and TSA. Traffic cops all over the country are looking for the smallest thing to cite, municipalities are that revenue hungry. The USA is rapidly becoming a police state. I recall an old Chinese proverb "Choose your enemies with care for they are what you will become." Has the USA become the "Evil Empire"?

Having decided that I can neither fight nor change the system (as it is corrupt from top to bottom, but mostly the top), I have expatriated to SE Asia. There is corruption here, too but personal freedoms far exceed those in the ol' US of A. You cannot imagine the influx of Americans moving here. I live in a large city where the new arrivals are lining up to rent apartments, buy condos, etc. The malls are teaming with "foreigners" and it is the same all over the region. I hear the same story from Ecuador, Uruguay and Central America as well.

No wonder the city of Chicago has reached the level of population it boasted in 1920!

[dearieme]

Not precisely on topic, Mr Panzner, but perhaps your sort of area.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/liamhalligan/8335699/The-West-is-deluding-itself-over-the-extent-of-Chinas-growth.html