Some of us are born with more common sense on how to navigate the ins and outs of this emotional rollercoaster called life better than others. Some folks, on the other hand, seem to need an instruction manual on how to best avoid instances of pure, unadulterated, entirely avoidable failure.
With that being said, the United States can be just a bit more confusing to navigate for anyone who is visiting (and even for some folks who live here), and it would sure be helpful if there were more clear and easily digestible pro tips on what to not do when you’re in the United States.
Thank goodness for this AskReddit thread-inspired list that can help avoid some of those potentially disasterous social pitfalls.
Never Try To Bribe the Cops.
You’d think that a matter concerning how it’s generally not advisable to try to bribe the cops would be common sense, but alas, there are plenty of places in the world where bribery speaks louder than any other way you might go about reasoning with a police officer that could very well be corrupt.
Don’t Try To Act Funny With The Border Patrol.
As will be told to you by numerous kind and helpful Canadians, you might assume that it’s all fine and dandy to keep things light and even err on the side of joking when crossing the border into the U.S., but resist the urge. Basically, when border patrol asks you a question, don’t complicate matters and just answer it.
Don’t Try To Cheat The IRS.
There are a fair number of folks that love to navigate the game of life by living on the edge when it comes to taxes and doing what they can to “cheat the system, rig the game, etc.” Well, while there are certain low-risk ways you can go about keeping yourself entertained enough, don’t play around when it comes to the IRS.
They can end up seizing and liquidating all of your assets, and there are enough stories from folks that have said they’ve been able to set up more than agreeable payment plans with the IRS after just facing the music. You don’t want to end up in that situation, but if you do end up stamped with a big fine, it’s not game over.
Take what Redditor, Sean_Ornery wrote, “I have never done anything tax-related wrong on purpose, but I have made small errors in filing a couple of times over the years. In both cases, the IRS reached out to me a year or two after the fact and we quickly resolved the issues. Both times it was some silly mistake.”
“They accepted my explanation as the truth and there was no penalty. I was asked to pay what I owed with a few dollars of added interest and that was it. Overall, they were very professional and easy to work with.”
Don’t Take “How Are You Doing?” Literally.
While it can be a profound emotional release to simply dump your personal life story’s series of struggles on a perfect stranger with a kind face a seemingly open disposition that all but invites you to do so, when they ask you how you’re doing, it’s often intended to inspire a brief, pleasant answer, such as “Good, and you?”.
Save the baggage for your close friends or family or therapist. That’s part of what they’re there for.
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Unless You’re Fighting For Your Life, Don’t Take The Ambulance.
The amount of money that it could run you to take an ambulance ride could literally make your bones quiver. It’s insane. It can end up costing you thousands of dollars. So you might end up dealing with emotional and physical trauma, in addition to financial trauma.
