re: Americans lazy? Greedy? Really?

Quoting Dr. Paradigm Shift:" I walk and bike many places, and people sometimes look at me like, "WTF are you doing?!Walking for transportation? That is to be done on a treadmill in front of a television at the gym!""

You are so on the money about this. Totally true.

I visited my SIL in San Diego a couple of weekends ago. I hadn't seen her in about 4 months or so and I couldn't believe how much weight she had lost. she was never "fat" but now.....she is TRIM. I asked her what she was doing in terms of diet and she told me that she didn't "diet" at all. Her eating habits hadn't changed! She lives downtown by the university and she is pretty close to everything so she (and my niece) walk EVERYWHERE. She walks her to school, walks here to ballet class, walks to the park.

If we simply walked more, we'd be in MUCH better shape!

Quoting ~Julie Blue Eyes~:" You are so on the money about this. Totally true. I visited my SIL in San Diego a couple of weekends ... [snip!] ... walks her to school, walks here to ballet class, walks to the park. If we simply walked more, we'd be in MUCH better shape!"

We're sort fed this idea that we need an expensive program, piece of equipment, pill, or super-specialty diet to lose weight. It's all part of the big excuse syndrome. "Can't exercise until I can get a gym membership! Healthy food is so expensive! I don't have time to cook!" We make it all seem so hard. It's never made as easy as "Buy a bag of apples and go for a walk. Do some squats while doing dishes. Scrub something."

America is all about convenience.

We may work hard, but we love easy smurf.

Gives us more time to work and make money.

I think we all hold stereotypes about other countries.

Quoting Back to Noob Status:" Inspired by another thread. Why are Americans often stereotyped as lazy bumpkins by many foreigners? ... [snip!] ... of us are working FAR more than the average non-American and gets very little assistance for the government. So what gives?"

I guess i have a different perspective. I worked for multi-national companies and our international counterparts ALWAYS thought americans were crazy for working so hard. The business community is well aware of the US being the most productive or close to the most productive of any country.

I think the image of the fat, dumb american gets plenty of play in other countries. I think they like to take shots at "the big guy" with more of the power.
BUT, we have plenty to work on. The drop-out rate in cities and rural areas is awful (and the reason our education numbers look so bad). There are WAY too many dipsmurfs that are clueless about domestic and foreign issues.
If i did a quick quiz here on BG, i doubt most people could tell me the right capitals for 25 states, where Benghazi is or what the "fiscal cliff" is. It's sad.
However, I'm sure there are PLENTY of clueless people in all the other developed countries. we just dont get to see them on TV all the time.