America’s Too Proud to Learn from a Country That Works

They got beaches, kangaroos, and working healthcare. America’s got guns, debt, and church freaks. Time to take some notes.

I have a strong readership from my Aussie friends. I’m genuinely humbled, and I want to thank you. So today, we’re digging into Australia—and what America (and others) can learn from this country of beaches, kangaroos, and working healthcare.

If you’ve read my work before, you already know I refer to all peoples in my writings as “they,” whether I’m talking about Americans, Australians, or anyone else.

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America Thinks It’s the Smartest in the Room

Let’s start with American exceptionalism.

If you watch American TV, you’ll quickly realize everyone talks about the country as if it’s the only one on Earth. Problems are talked about, solutions are offered, and examples from other countries are never, ever given. America is special. America has special problems with special solutions. That may mean inventing the wheel all over again—who cares? What matters is feeling special.

So today, we’ll commit an act of heresy in biblical proportions. We’ll look beyond America’s borders and examine how people in the Southern Hemisphere actually live—and whether there’s anything America could learn from a country it usually ignores.

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Lesson #1: Healthcare Shouldn’t Make You Homeless

In America, you break your leg and end up $80,000 in debt. You get cancer and you’re screwed unless you’ve got gold-plated insurance—and even then, you’ll probably still get billed for “breathing room air” in the hospital.

In Australia? Universal healthcare. It’s called Medicare, and it covers everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, employed, unemployed, hungover, or upside down with a sunburn—you don’t get kicked out of a hospital for not having a credit card.

Yes, you can pay extra for private care if you want to skip lines or get a fancier doctor. But nobody goes bankrupt because they got sick.

Imagine that: a country where getting ill doesn’t mean choosing between chemo or a GoFundMe.

A system where the rich get better treatment and the poor suffer isn’t the mark of advanced capitalism—it’s how things work in developing and underdeveloped countries. America needs to decide whether it actually wants to be an industrialized nation.

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Lesson #2: Guns Are Not a Religion

In America, the Second Amendment is treated like sacred scripture. People treat their AR-15 like it’s their third child. You say “gun control” and half the country starts crying about freedom like someone just burned the Constitution.

Australia? Different story. In 1996, after a mass shooting killed 35 people in Tasmania, they said, “Enough.” The government bought back hundreds of thousands of guns, banned a range of assault weapons, and tightened licensing laws.

Guess what? Mass shootings dropped. Gun deaths dropped. And Australia didn’t turn into a dictatorship. Nobody lost their liberty. They just lost a few unnecessary weapons.

Meanwhile, in America, we barely made it into 2026 and the numbers are already staggering.

Roughly 473 gun deaths have been recorded so far, with 938 injuries, including 15 mass shootings and seven children killed as of mid-January.

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Lesson #3: Voting Shouldn’t Be a Maze

In America, elections are like solving a riddle inside a puzzle wrapped in red tape. You’ve got gerrymandering, voter ID laws, broken machines, missing ballots, and shady rules that change depending on your zip code. Some people wait eight hours in line just to cast a vote.

In Australia, voting is mandatory. You skip it, you get fined. But don’t panic — it’s not a dystopia. They actually make it easy. You can vote early, by mail, or in person. No tricks. No suppression. No circus.

And turnout? It’s around 90%. People actually vote because the system isn’t rigged to stop them.

In America, politicians have long realized they don’t need to win over the hearts of the entire nation, just the people who are actually able to vote.

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Lesson #4: You Don’t Need Religion to Be a Good Country

America is full of Bible thumpers trying to turn the government into a church. They want creationism in schools, Jesus in courtrooms, and laws written straight out of Leviticus. They scream “freedom of religion” but really mean “freedom for my religion only.”

Australia? Way more relaxed. Religion exists, but it doesn’t run the place. Prime Ministers don’t get elected by talking about Jesus. And nobody’s getting arrested for buying beer on a Sunday.

Even census data shows the shift. In 2021, nearly 40% of Australians said they had no religion. And guess what? The country didn’t collapse. Hell didn’t open. Life just kept going.

In fact, Julia Gillard—who served as Australia’s prime minister from 2010 to 2013—was an atheist, a sin that ranks even worse than being a woman in American politics. And she had the audacity to be both.

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Lesson #5: Education Shouldn’t Be a Debt Trap

In the U.S., going to college feels like signing a loan contract with Satan. You spend four years studying and forty years paying for it. Student debt is a trillion-dollar crisis, and graduates leave school chained to monthly payments that suck the life out of their future.

Australia? Different setup. You go to uni (that’s what they call college), and you don’t pay up front. The government covers it. You pay it back later—but only if your income hits a certain level. Can’t afford it? If your degree turns out to be useless and you’re not earning enough, you don’t pay until you do. Simple.

No student loan sharks. No bankruptcy threats. No crushed dreams just because someone wanted an education.

That’s what a civilized country looks like.

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Lesson #6: Climate Change Is Real — Act Like It

America still has politicians who think climate change is a hoax. Or they admit it’s real but then approve another 500 oil pipelines. The whole place is either on fire or underwater half the year, and they still think recycling plastic is the big fix.

Australia? Not perfect either. They’ve had their share of climate denial, especially under conservative governments. But when the country literally caught fire in 2019–2020—burning millions of acres and killing over a billion animals—the message hit home.

Now they’re investing more in renewable energy, banning coal power, and pushing for net-zero targets. And state governments are moving even faster than the federal one.

In Australia, you can’t deny human-induced climate change and expect to be taken seriously as a politician. It’s not a valid career strategy.

Meanwhile, Americans still fight over whether windmills cause cancer.

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Lesson #7: Public Safety Doesn’t Mean Police State

In America, if you call the police, you might end up shot. Doesn’t matter if you’re the one asking for help. Police raids, tasers, chokeholds—it’s like a war zone in some communities. And the justice system? Good luck if you’re not rich or white.

Australia? They’ve got cops too—but they’re trained differently. There’s more focus on de-escalation, fewer people in prison per capita, and far less deadly force. Yes, problems exist. Yes, racism still happens (especially toward Indigenous Australians). But compared to America? It’s a calm Sunday picnic.

At any given time, the U.S. has about four times more adults in prison per capita than Australia.

You can have law and order without turning the country into a battlefield.

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Lesson #8: A Real Safety Net Helps Everyone

Australia doesn’t leave people to rot. They have a minimum wage that’s actually livable. They offer rent support, family payments, public transport, and childcare subsidies. If you fall on hard times, the system doesn’t tell you to “try being rich instead.”

In America, if you need help, you get shamed. You’re a “moocher.” A “leech.” Billionaires pay less tax than teachers, but somehow it’s the guy on food stamps who’s ruining the country.

Australia taxes the rich more. Shocking, I know. And they use that money to build a system where people don’t die poor just because they got sick, fired, or unlucky.

It’s not socialism. It’s what being an industrialized country looks like. If you want the opposite, you don’t need capitalism. Being a poor country works just fine.

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Lesson #9: Cities Are for People, Not Just Cars

Except for areas like New York, try walking in most American cities. Good luck. Half the roads don’t even have sidewalks. Public transport is a joke. Everything’s built for cars, and if you can’t drive, you’re screwed.

Australia? Better design. More walkable cities. Real public transit—buses, trains, trams. You can live in Melbourne or Sydney without owning a car, and people actually use the system.

And public transport isn’t just for the poor who can’t afford a vehicle. It’s for everyone—because it works.

Because guess what: people like cities that don’t try to kill them with every step.

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Lesson #10: Politics Shouldn’t Be a Freak Show

Australian politics has its drama—they’ve had leadership spills, scandals, and plenty of dumb moments. (To be honest, in recent years they’ve had more than a few conservative prime ministers who really got on my nerves.)

But overall? It’s not a circus. They’ve got multiple parties, ranked-choice voting, and actual debates about policy instead of conspiracy theories.

America? Half the politicians can’t name the three branches of government. The other half think JFK Jr. is coming back from the dead. People vote based on vibes, cults, and YouTube preachers.

Democracy doesn’t have to be a screaming match. It can be boring — and that’s a good thing.

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Final Thoughts

Australia’s not perfect. They’ve got racism, housing crises, political messes, and a colonial history as dark as any Western nation.

But they’ve also got healthcare that works. Education that doesn’t bankrupt you. Gun laws that save lives. Elections that include people. And a system that, at the very least, tries to care for its citizens.

America doesn’t need to become Australia. What works there might not copy over cleanly. But America should stop acting too proud to learn—especially when it could take those same systems, make them better, and show the world how they can be improved.

American exceptionalism isn’t unique. It’s just empire syndrome. The British had it. The Romans had it. The Ottomans had it. They all thought they were too advanced to learn from the people they looked down on.

They were all mighty empires—until they weren’t.

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