[skeptikal]

As a Canadian who’s (very) thankfully becoming American I can guarantee you that American government is very incompetent. At least in comparison to a Commonwealth one. The wait times, the level of uncaring, the general attitude was jarring when I first moved here.

I even worked as for a few years for the gov, and the bureaucracy is even worse inside!

[pkaye]

The IRS support line used to be pretty good about 10 years ago. I once called their help line to to clarify some complexity in filing and they routed me to a tax specialist who knew exactly how to resolve my issue and saved me $5k vs what the tax preparer did. But since their budget has been cut back a lot so that rich people have a harder chance getting audited. So its not incompetency but a deliberate effort to weaken is powers.

https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-need-to-rebuil...

[philliphaydon]

Serious curious question. Why would you want to become American if you’re Canadian?

[skeptikal]

Ive grown to love Americans (of all walks of life) in way I have never loved the people of any other country I’ve lived in. Not even the people of my parent’s country - the loss of which I still mourn.

Canadians, Ive loved least despite having a best friend and close family.

[UncleEntity]

Hell, Canadians usually correct me by saying ‘Canada is in America too’ when I tell them I’m ‘Mercian.

[skeptikal]

I have never heard a Canadian say that, in fact as a (also) Latin American immigrant it was made clear to me that “Canada is not America you retard” in high school.

I agree with Latin Americans, for what its worth. USA is “United States of America” not “United States, America”. But its a useless fight. In Spanish Ill be precise.

[cesarb]

> Canada is in America too

Even Brazil is in America. This is why I dislike using the term "American" when referring to US citizens, it's hopelessly ambiguous: are you talking about the country or the continent?

[leephillips]

Among native English speakers, “American” almost always means someone from the United States. That’s partly because, unlike every other country, the US doesn’t have a convenient adjective for its residents.

However, after a few years in Central America I’ve broken myself of this usage. Spanish has an adjective for US people (aside from gringo, etc.) that I can use in Spanish, and when speaking English I find some other phrase. Note also that for many people in South and Central America “America” is what US people call “the Americas”: one continent, not three.

[skeptikal]

The problem is that the adjective “United Statian” is a mouthful; Yankee (my dad’s favorite) unfair; gringo refers (used to?) to Italians in Argentina.

United States doesn't have an adjective. Colombian would be nice, but its also taken and now problematic.

[notch656a]

>The problem is that the adjective “United Statian” is a mouthful

Even that can be confusing. United states could also refer to Mexico, which has the actual name "United Mexican States". Someone from Mexico can rightly call themselves from united states.