1. Immigration
As of 2015, the United States has a net migration rate that is higher than Finland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, France, Belarus, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. Yea, we are still popular!
Outside of Israel, the United States has the most Jews than any other European country! Hmmm... let's look at why. Europe was notorious for persecuting the Jews. The United States is a safe haven for the Jewish people. Europeans may blame all they want on American black-white racism, but Europeans have a long history in anti-Semitism.
2. Cuisine
The United States has a global dominance in the food industry. Fast food may be most striking, but even more influential are the hyphenated American dishes, like General Tso's chicken or chop suey. The Search for General Tso (2014) is a documentary that looks into the history and development of General Tso's chicken and Chinese-American cuisine in general. Basically, early Chinese-Americans were discriminated against in most jobs, so they just looked into the cooking and cleaning fields. They spread throughout America to start their own restaurants and move away from possible competition (other Chinese-Americans). White American palate pretty much shaped Chinese cuisine to form the Chinese-American cuisine you see today.
3. Religion
America was founded on and currently tries to protect religious freedom, as stated in the Constitution. America also has a large share of religious people, and so the impact of religion on everyday life is pretty obvious. Religion has sparked big changes in American history, like Martin Luther King's speech in the 1960s or the freedom of the slaves; alas, religion has been used by the other side too! (Humans are complicated creatures, so their religions will be complicated as well.) But the most important thing is, regardless of politics, many people in America are religious to some degree.
I think it's important to note that the two dominant belief systems are either Christianity and irreligiosity. There may be a few people of other religions, but those people are so minuscule that their numbers most likely reflect the number of immigrants we have. Also, the numbers of reported Christians and non-religious people are not mutually exclusive. People are complicated, so some self-reported "Christians" are non-religious; and some self-reported "non-religious" people have some kind of spirituality in them.
4. Productiveness
Americans work more than Europeans, as reported in this article, which is based on an economics study. I conjecture that the high American GDP is the result of American productiveness. Americans dedicate more time for their companies. Their companies make more money, which then turns into more products and services. As of 2016, the United States has the largest GDP. The second largest is the European Union, but considering that the European Union is composed of various countries, each country's GDP is much less than the USA. Alas, we may be a bit too productive, generating too much food waste and polluting the environment. That just shows the tremendous capability of American agriculture. But if we have the ability to over-produce, we should have the ability to clean up and avoid over-pollution.
5. Healthcare
Americans have clean running water and a working sewage system. Without them, we will live in our own waste, and cities won't be possible! Life expectancy would be short, forcing people to marry and get pregnant earlier. However, pregnancies would be highly dangerous and risky, as women would die from pregnancy complications, like post-partum infections. Americans also have Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. But sometimes, our cleanliness can backfire on us, as suggested by the hygiene hypothesis. We are just too clean and thus our immune systems overreact to harmless things, like food or a bug bite. Some people suggest helminthic therapy as a way to treat people with autoimmune diseases and immune disorders. As you can see, we need bugs. Bring back the "bad" bugs!
7. Science
The dominant language in the United States is English, which also happens to be the lingua franca of science. Although using Latin as the language of science would be ideal as it is traditional and no one's native language, using English may have the benefit of not only communicating with educated people in academia, but also the not-so-educated populace. In an era where the Internet is the epitome of instant communication and gratification, it's necessary to learn some kind of language that fulfills both roles - academic and casual - so that information can easily spread, pushing ignorance away. As you can see here, the United States has the most citable documents, compared to any other country.
We also have a good public library system. Patrons may check out books and other materials, as well as use online resources. If the local lending library doesn't have the material in circulation, then the patron may request the material through the Interlibrary Loan, and because the material is cataloged somewhere, the book will be shipped free-of-charge.
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