-Americans are extremely proud about their history/country.

Yes, I am a very proud American, and mix it with the German/Texan in me, and you get a very proud man of his heritage man.

-Huge difference between poor and rich.

We have our rich people, and our poor people just as all nations all over the world. it veries greatly, you go from people who own 20,000 sq. ft. to people who have 2 ft. to call their own. then you have the middle class. (my family)

-Those that don’t have money have few possibilities to attend an education.

Not true. from all i understand of our system, you can get schooling up to the high school years. What it is, is how hard you push yourselves to get good grades, the better you get, the more chances of schollarships you get. It is all on how hard/much you work and value life.

-1. Government doesn’t really do much about internal issues (the mess after Katrina was all over the news and esspecialy how long it took before something happened),
2. the high number of poor people, the high number of people who cannot read or write (remember, this is the image I get by watching certain thing shown at TV, I’m not saying this is actually true)

1. I live in Texas, meaning we are close the Katrina victims and have more news probably. Shortly after the hurrican hit, and the storm cleared up, a state of emergence was issued, the National guards were imployed, search and resque missions were started up, and clean up projects/aiding projects were activated. the response was immediate.
2. That is fairly true, the problem is that alot of people may have ’pride’ in their country, but not in themselves. they just are on the wagon of fun, and are not wanting responsibilty, and they want things handed to them. (some people, not me and my friends)-Insurance is expensive and without a good insurance they don’t offer good healthcare...meaning people suffer a serious healtrisc.

-What you have is what you are, meaning people are driven by the need to own as much as possible, the newest cars and so on.

Being a Christian I say no very strongly. however, a large group would say you are what you have. fortunatly there is a good group who stand for higher qualities.

-people don’t care much about evironment, US didn’t rectify Kyoto for example. If something is said about evironment it is experienced as nonsens from people from the left.

gosh no. people are all over ’protect the enviroment’ however, even more than they value people and unborn babies like i believe SoP said. It is sad to say people are so wrapped up in the enviroment. just like all over the world.

-If the word socialism is used everyone is almost scared of a communism invasion.

Myself and my friends are not worried about the word so much, or an invasion. We don’t flip out about it, but we feel strongly about our freedom, and don’t want to loose it.

Alltogether I’ve got a rather negative image from the US. Again, I’m not saying this should be the truth, this is an image I’m getting. And I’m not trying to offend people if they agree on some things I’ve written above, but I would surely like to discuss certain things.
If somehow people don’t understand what I mean, please say so, because this is not ment to offend people, I just want ordinary American people to share their thoughts concerning this subject with me!

The media is very crazy now days, and probably just tell mainly the bad stuff. You have a pride in you nation, and it makes your land worth living in. We have freedoms, pride, and freedom of religion. this isn’t a touchy subject to me, it is ok.

But about the first republic, we beat you guys..back in 1581 we formed the Dutch Republic and it lasted until 1794....

I think most of you guys are Americans. I’m really wondering what you’re like. You might think: huh? What is this dude talking about? Well I mean this. Because I’m from the Netherlands, we seem to get little real information about America. Let me outline the general view I’ve got about the US.

-Americans are extremely proud about their history/country.
Well, I am. The US is certainly not perfect, but we’ve accomplished a heck of a lot.

-Huge difference between poor and rich.
Yes. But that’s not unusual, since the two terms are exactly the opposite thing. Also, these are realtive terms. Some people who could be considered "poor" in the US would be middle class in some other places.

-Those that don’t have money have few possibilities to attend an education.
Depends on what exactly you’re asking here...
On the public school level, the free education available is often pretty low quality, often (but not always) regardless of the amount of funding the school receives. There are private schools which are more expensive, which can be good or bad. Homeschooling is gaining popularity, and can be done relatively cheaply, but it can add up to alot of $$ fast if you don’t plan well.
On the college level, there are numerous ways to get money from the government, industries, or the college itself to pay for your education, often times based on your own financial means. For example, one very expensive private college in Viringia offers 100% tuition to the top teams in a particular speech and debate leage every year.

-Government doesn’t really do much about internal issues (the mess after Katrina was all over the news and esspecialy how long it took before something happened), the high number of poor people, the high number of people who cannot read or write (remember, this is the image I get by watching certain thing shown at TV, I’m not saying this is actually true)
Well, our government is a pretty convoluted beast. We have a federal government, 50 individual state governments, and countless county and city governments. So just because the Feds aren’t messing with somethng doesn’t mean that the City, or County, or State aren’t. Actually, they all seem to have a fascination with dealing wth the other group’s problems, and not their own, so the States end up messing with the Fed problems, and the Feds mess with the state problems. It’s chaos if you try to figure it all out, and it can give an impression of inaction, even when the government is working like heck to do something.

-Insurance is expensive and without a good insurance they don’t offer good healthcare...meaning people suffer a serious healtrisc.
Yeah, but that’s because of our screwed-up tort law system, not the insurance itself.

-What you have is what you are, meaning people are driven by the need to own as much as possible, the newest cars and so on.
For alot of people, yes, sadly.

-people don’t care much about evironment, US didn’t rectify Kyoto for example. If something is said about evironment it is experienced as nonsens from people from the left.
Not quite true.... We care very much; but no-one here can agree what the problem is, (if there is one) and hat to do about it. But several thousand (i think 17,000 or so, I could find out...) of the world’s leading scientists determined that the Kyoto treaty wouldn’t accomplish anything, so the US didn’t sign it, given that it would cause disadvantages internally, without any advantages. That’s part of the reason we didn’t sign, whether you agree with the scientists or not....-If the word socialism is used everyone is almost scared of a communism invasion.

Alltogether I’ve got a rather negative image from the US. Again, I’m not saying this should be the truth, this is an image I’m getting.
Alot of the image of the US is exported by two groups: the news media and hollywood. Oly trust about 5% of what the US news media says (regardless of whether its left or right wing news....), and *never* trust anything hollywood says or depicts....

And I’m not trying to offend people if they agree on some things I’ve written above, but I would surely like to discuss certain things.
If somehow people don’t understand what I mean, please say so, because this is not ment to offend people, I just want ordinary American people to share their thoughts concerning this subject with me!

Alot of the image of the US is exported by two groups: the news media and hollywood. Only trust about 5% of what the US news media says (regardless of whether its left or right wing news....), and *never* trust anything hollywood says or depicts....

Conclusion: Stereotypes are worthless.