There’s a peculiar kind of stubbornness baked into the American psyche. It’s the belief that if something works everywhere else, it must be unfit for “the land of the free.” While other advanced nations adopt policies that lower costs, extend life expectancy, and strengthen families, Americans are taught to sneer at them as “socialism.” What we really mean is: we’d rather cling to our suffering than admit anyone else might be doing it better.

Here are the top things Americans refuse to let their government do, even though they’ve already been proven wildly successful abroad:

1. Universal Health Care

Every peer nation provides health care to all citizens. The U.S.? It’s tied to employment, middlemen insurers, and endless bills. We spend nearly twice as much as others for worse outcomes — and defend this catastrophe as “freedom.”

2. Paid Parental Leave and Childcare

France, Sweden, Canada — all guarantee time for new parents and affordable childcare. American parents go into debt, patch together babysitters, or drop out of the workforce entirely. Our “family values” mean telling moms and dads they’re on their own.

3. Affordable College

Germany and Finland treat higher education as a public good. America turned it into a financial death trap. Young adults start life tens of thousands in debt and are told it builds “character.”

4. Paid Sick Leave and Worker Protections

Most developed nations mandate vacations, sick leave, and protection from arbitrary firing. America proudly embraces “at-will” employment and shrugs when sick workers spread flu and COVID because they can’t afford a day off.

5. Housing First

Finland has effectively ended homelessness with a simple idea: give people homes first. The U.S. prefers criminalizing the unhoused, then spending more policing them than it would cost to house them.

6. Drug Price Negotiation

Canada, the UK, France — their governments negotiate drug prices. Americans pay two to five times more, sometimes rationing insulin to survive. But hey, at least Big Pharma is free to gouge us.

7. Public Transit and High-Speed Rail

Japan, Spain, and China knit their economies together with modern rail. Americans crawl in traffic, spending fortunes on gas and car repairs, while politicians joke about trains as if they’re a communist plot.

8. Subsidized Internet

South Korea and much of Europe treat broadband as essential infrastructure. The U.S. treats it like a luxury — slow, overpriced, and monopolized.

9. Dignified Retirement

Other countries guarantee pensions tied to average wages. Americans are told to bet their old age on 401(k)s and pray the stock market smiles on them.

10. Gun Regulation

Australia acted, Japan acted, the UK acted — and mass shootings evaporated. America buries children and shrugs, defending the “right” to slaughter.

The Exceptionalism Myth

What Americans call “freedom” is too often just freedom to fail alone. We confuse suffering with virtue, debt with discipline, and insecurity with patriotism. Every one of these policies has been tested, proven, and normalized across the developed world. Only in America do we reject them — not because they don’t work, but because we can’t stand admitting that others might be right.

That’s not freedom. That’s masochism dressed up in red, white, and blue.