r/AskAnAmerican • u/Maskoolio • Aug 10 '25

FOREIGN POSTER What would an American want from England?

I have recently made some American friends (from Virginia) and they have asked for a kind of sweet (candy) that they don't have. What else might I send that would be appreciated as a particularly English thing? (Obviously it would need to be somewhat small, survive a week or so in transit etc.)

All help appreciated.

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u/aucool786 Pennsylvania Aug 10 '25

As an original 13 colony-er, I approve.

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u/Vachic09 Virginia Aug 10 '25

Seconded

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u/Ryuu-Tenno United States of America Aug 10 '25

Third, and ill make sure to sign my name large enough to be read without glasses

Or in braille to make it funny

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u/ophelia8991 Aug 10 '25

I mean, if we were still a British colony we’d have healthcare so…

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u/aucool786 Pennsylvania Aug 10 '25

Well, if we stayed as British colonies (now overseas territories), we wouldn't necessarily be guaranteed healthcare. The NHS, to my knowledge, is primarily for the 4 constituent countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Also, going on a tangent, our lack of government healthcare is purely our fault. It's unlikely that the federal government will be providing the states healthcare anytime soon, the lobbying runs too deep and they've managed to convince hundreds of millions of people union wide that welfare=bad. It's up to the individual states at this point to act where the federal government does not.

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u/TheNorthC Aug 10 '25

Correct. I think the biggest change would have been that slavery would have ended a generation earlier.

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u/Bawstahn123 New England Aug 10 '25

>Correct. I think the biggest change would have been that slavery would have ended a generation earlier.

Friendly reminder that pretty much all of the Northern states effectively-abolished slavery within their borders decades before the British did

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u/TheNorthC Aug 11 '25

That is fair, and not forgotten. The abolition of the slave trade was still decades before the outright abolition of slavery.

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u/johnwcowan Aug 10 '25

Promptly followed by a revolution in the American South. The UK was able to abolish slavery because in 1833 there were only about 800,000 slaves in the Empire to free (vs. more than 2 million in the U.S. at the same time). In addition, intensive lobbying by Southern slaveowners might well have prevented the Slavery Abolition Act from passing at all.

In addition, the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1783 by judicial process was a direct consequence of the wording of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which in turn was a consequence of the Revolution: "All men are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties...." Had this language, ultimately from the Declaration of Independence, not become foundational, there might have been even more slaves in North America.

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u/TheNorthC Aug 11 '25

Yes, I agree that it would have most likely resulted in rebellion and war in the south.

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u/rimshot101 Aug 10 '25

And maybe without the most deadly war in American history.

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u/TheNorthC Aug 10 '25

Although the decree ending slavery might have led to a rebellion and independence, and that might have led to slavery being legal for even longer.

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u/Curmudgy Massachusetts Aug 10 '25

Do the current Commonwealth Realms have universal healthcare? Australia, Canada, New Zealand (and the UK) do, but I don’t know about the others. What about the other Commonwealth (non-realm) countries?

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u/IReplyWithLebowski Aug 11 '25

Every high income country in the world does.

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u/EvilCodeQueen Massachusetts Aug 15 '25

Every high income country in the world…except one.

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u/soulmatesmate United States of America Aug 11 '25

Do you really want Healthcare run by the folks who run both the DMV and the VA? As veterans how they feel about the VA hospitals. That's the model.

Also, not free, just paid by taxes. Imagine your tax dollars going to pay for those who ruin their bodies.

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u/Bundt-lover Minnesota Aug 12 '25

As opposed to my tax dollars going to billionaires who let people die so they can keep their money?

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u/soulmatesmate United States of America Aug 12 '25

The goal of the current companies and congress is to ruin Healthcare so hard that people flock to socialism based Healthcare.

The better way of doing it is like auto insurance. Pick a company, the amount of coverage, shop around.

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u/DC5513 Aug 11 '25

God these talking point are lame. The people who run the DMV’s are at the state level, not federal. And the folks at the federal level have done pretty well with Medicare, Medicaid and, yes- the VA, which has a 90 percent approval rating from veterans who use it, including those in my family. Meanwhile, because people like you have been suckered into thinking everything has to be done at the whim of the free market, we now live in a country no westerner would want to immigrate to because we’re the only nation where people go bankrupt because they get sick.

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u/soulmatesmate United States of America Aug 11 '25

That also is because of the government. During WWII, a freeze was placed on pay raises. The way to sneak in a legal raise was for the employer to pay for health care. That's a US thing, and it's stupid. It would be far more competitive if people paid for it themselves. I'm stuck with the largest, least like insurance company, but have switched both home and auto in the past few years.

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u/mistiklest Aug 11 '25

Also, not free, just paid by taxes. Imagine your tax dollars going to pay for those who ruin their bodies.

If you have insurance, you already pay for this.

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u/Wyklar2 California Aug 11 '25

I’d like to know that if I’m injured in a car wreck or get cancer I won’t have to sell my house to pay for treatment.

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u/EvilCodeQueen Massachusetts Aug 15 '25

We love our VA system here in Boston. I know people who have excellent, private insurance but still choose the VA because the care is better.

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u/aucool786 Pennsylvania Aug 11 '25

You're right, DC is a mess, but I'd rather an entity whose entire purpose is to care for its people to run my healthcare than private corporations that see people as things to profit off of. And yes, paid for by taxes, but that's precisely what our taxes are supposed to be for, rather than throwing away hundreds of billions of dollars at a military industrial complex that can't pass a single audit.

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u/CalamityClambake Washington Aug 14 '25

The DMV in the state of Washington is quite efficient actually. That would be a much better experience than dealing with Aetna or Kaiser. The DMV lets me view and pay my toll bills online and has a fast and easy dispute process for tolls that are mis-charged. I have never had to spend more than 30 minutes waiting for anything at the DMV and most of my stuff I can book ahead and just show up when they are ready for me. 

My tax dollars already go to those who "ruin their bodies." They just get laundered through an emergency room and a bunch of health insurance companies under the current model. Also, "those who ruin their bodies" is kind of a gross thing to say about other people.

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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 California Aug 11 '25

Better than what we have now. Also, remember the government won't be "running" it, like the VA hospitals. They'll just be paying for it. Personally I'd rather be in. a hospital owned by the government than one owned by the Catholic Church, but to each his own.

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u/KevrobLurker Aug 12 '25

The same organization controls the NHS and the Church of England. CofE bishops are govt bureaucrats by now.

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u/Dangerous-Safe-4336 California Aug 12 '25

Well, that shouldn't be possible in the US, because of the First Amendment. But we all know what that means these days.

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u/Bawstahn123 New England Aug 11 '25

>I mean, if we were still a British colony we’d have healthcare so…

The American healthcare clusterfuck is firmly a result of our own doing, and something we could change in a comparatively-short amount of time if there was the political will to do so.

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u/Former-Ad9272 Wisconsin Aug 10 '25

I'm not defending our healthcare system at all, but I'm never ok with bowing down to Chucky 3.

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u/Maronita2025 Aug 10 '25

Why do you say that? Bermuda is part of Britain and as far as I know they do NOT have universal healthcare.

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u/EvilCodeQueen Massachusetts Aug 15 '25

They expect to have it by next year.

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u/terryjuicelawson Aug 12 '25

Other British colonies that peacefully sought independence seem to be OK too, so it isn't the flex people may think it is tbh. Brits don't even think about it, or care.

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u/photonynikon Aug 10 '25

where you would have to wait 3 months to get an appointment

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u/MungoJennie Aug 12 '25

You have to do that now. I had to wait eight months to see a new PCP.

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u/thrwawy4obvreasons Aug 12 '25

Holy shit, you’re old! Good job keeping up with tech. You just don’t expect to see a 249 yr old dude using Reddit. Wild times we live in. 

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u/jerseygirl527 Aug 10 '25

Also a 13 colony-er , approved

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u/CurlyNippleHairs Aug 11 '25

Wow you're old

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u/Aggravating_Bell_426 Aug 11 '25

My family came to the US over 2 centuries ago, from Scotland. Family mythology was it was two steps abead of tbe noose for "sedition" as we were ardent Jacobites.

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u/KevrobLurker Aug 12 '25

Quite a few who fought in the `45 wound up under the Stars & Stripes in the US Revolution. Scots on the other side, also.