Bob can be your uncle... but not Sam!

 ALLAN:

What is preventing the U.S. and Canada from merging?

It seems to me that the American people who post on here are either totally unaware of how alien their culture is to the rest of the world... or this type of post is trolling.

For the purpose of this reply, I assume that Americans are ignorant of how they are perceived by other nations.

We often see America as a failed or failing state because:

It is run by corporations, foreign countries and religions who own the political class.

The American education system is somewhat behind the rest of the world and rather than having an enforced national curriculum, it seems each country can change what is taught at a whim. 

Furthermore having school children pledge allegiance to the flag each day and teaching them “facts” about American history and achievements is much the same brainwashing technique used in North Korea. So please forgive us if we don't trust your indoctrinated “free citizens.

Americans seem to be taught that freedom is about having a gun/guns and killing people. When Trump was president he said something like everyone should carry a gun so that in the case of a shooting they can shoot the “bad guy.” (interestingly I didn't see Trump pull out a gun in the recent assassination attempt, I am sure that he will have an excuse) 

My point is that the rest of the world doesn't see having armed citizens as a good thing, in fact, most of the public in the non-American world don't want the proliferation of guns among the citizens. As a result, the only people in very many countries that have access to guns are those that can prove a need for them, school shootings are not accepted as a valid reason.

In the rest of the world, we care about the lives and well-being of others both from an ethical and economic standpoint, sick people can't work and that affects the economy. Also as I mentioned we are ethically concerned about the health of others.

The American healthcare system seems based entirely on schadenfreude and profiteering.

I started by saying this is the perception of non-Americans about America. Maybe it's wrong but it is the face you chose to show the world. It's anathema to what everyone else considers civilized so you can't expect any other nation to merge with the USA if for no other reason than you seem to be a country of politically corrupt, morally bankrupt, crazy people.

Ian Ellis