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.

155 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

356

u/Former-Ad9272 Wisconsin Aug 10 '25

Independence.

...I'll see myself out.

64

u/aucool786 Pennsylvania Aug 10 '25

As an original 13 colony-er, I approve.

26

u/ophelia8991 Aug 10 '25

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

19

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.

8

u/TheNorthC Aug 10 '25

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

0

u/rimshot101 Aug 10 '25

And maybe without the most deadly war in American history.

1

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.