Why Does The USA/Why Do Americans…

Eggs in the USA have to be refrigerated because the way U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set up guidelines to clean eggs before they go on sale. These eggs are often put right next to or in the dairy isle.

The majority of people in the USA know that eggs come from chickens. It’s a fact that they most likely learned before they were put into school. However, I would argue this disconnect of knowing eggs come from chickens, and knowing they aren’t dairy, comes from a general separation of people in the USA from their food. A lot of people from the United States have probably not had chickens or been in an area where anyone kept any chickens. Many live in places where there are not farmer’s markets, so they have to buy food from a grocery store.

Learning and knowing come from not only telling and teaching someone a concept, but also reinforcing it. So you can tell people that eggs come from chickens, but when they do get eggs from chickens, and buy them in the dairy isle of the grocery store, the concept that eggs are dairy gets more ingrained than eggs are not dairy. A similar process happens with milk. A lot of people do not think of dairy products as just stuff that comes from milk, but of products that are in a certain section labeled dairy.

Are people a bit dumb for thinking this? Yeah, but that’s my theory of why it happens in the first place.

Honestly, I think it’s habit. In the United States, it is very common to ask people where they are from and mean what state do you live in or grew up in. This might be because of your accent, the way you dress, to give context to stories you are telling, or even as an icebreaker. Especially when you are in places where people all over the country travel to be to like University.

You also need to remember that people traveling abroad answering the “where are you from?” question from a local, might be outside of the United States for the very first time. It’s also very possible that it is the only time that they may travel outside of the USA. So they just answer the question like they normally do, not being used to answering that question in the context they are in. It’s just kinda a brain fart tbh.

I think another component to this is that even though people in the United States stereotypically have strong national patriotism, most people identify with their state, rather than being an American. There’s a joke that the USA is 50+ countries in a trench coat, but it’s true.

There is a main few reasons, but the biggest one is money. The price to get a passport for the first time is $165. It is a hefty price for the majority of people in the United States. Especially compared to the price and other forms of ID like a driver’s license.

In addition, a lot of people in the United States don’t travel outside of the country, so getting a passport is unnecessary. Work places are only required give two paid weeks off. A lot of people use that time to go to medical appointments, their children’s events, emergencies, or hell even just a day off to do nothing. It is uncommon for someone to take the full two weeks just go on vacation.

The United States is also huge and varies wildly in geography. So if someone in the United States wants to go on vacation, it is hard to justify all the extra costs of going abroad, when you can go vacation in the USA. It’s a staple of American life to go on long road trips to other states. Personally, I have been on four cross country road trips, coast to coast (though note the average person from the USA does not do this more than once in their life). On average the trip takes about a week one way.