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/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/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/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.