Many of us have heard this phrasing before, usually made to mock our country and often exaggerated to make a point. These are some examples that I have seen over the years:

Only in America……can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance; Only in America……are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink; Only in America……do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front; Only in America……do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight; Only in America……do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

Also, I have witnessed people use this phrase when they notice something illogical or not matching what they had in mind. For me, the phrase “only in America”, has a negative connotation. Why don’t we hear people say, “Only in America do we get to earn a sustainable living and know where our money is going and support our kids through school and retire comfortably.” A lot of the problems we have in our lives, people tend to isolate and make it all about them. They feel like they are being targeted with bad fortune so they look to their surroundings for an explanations. Because of this I feel that the phrase, “Only in America” can in some way be found in any other nation by simply substituting the name of the country. In fact I have seen it in other countries. However, I also feel like this phrase and any sentence following it can show the level of development of a country. If our only problem is the positioning of the life-saving medicine or an overlooking of where to put a  Braille keyboard, then I think it is safe to say, we are a well developed nation and people.