USA

The shops

The US authorities do not impose restrictions on the opening hours of retail establishments. Many shops are open around the clock. But most shops are closed on Sundays, and on other days they are open from 9:30 to 18:00. Large pharmacies and food supermarkets are usually open until late in the evening and every day of the week. The price (sales tax) in stores does not include value added tax; when shopping, you will have to pay another 8.25% of the cost of goods. The United States has strict regulations on the sale of liquor. For example, in New York, alcoholic beverages can be bought at liquor stores that have a special license. In other stores you can buy only beer. Persons under the age of twenty-one are prohibited from selling alcoholic beverages.

Medical service

Medical services in the United States are paid for immediately in cash or by credit card. Due to the high cost of medical care, it is wise to conclude an insurance contract before the trip. When traveling in the USA, it is recommended to take medical prescriptions with you, since many medicines are sold in American pharmacies (pharmacy and drugstore) only with a prescription.

Holidays

January 1 — New Year’s Day;

3rd Monday of January — Martin Luther King Day;

3rd Monday in February — George Washington’s Birthday

The last Monday in May is Memorial Day;

July 4 — Independence Day;

July 21 — President’s Day;

1st Monday in September — Labor Day;

2nd Monday in October — Columbus Day;

4th Thursday of November — Thanksgiving Day;

December 25 -Christmas Day.

These holidays are established at the federal level and are celebrated throughout the country. In addition, there are a number of local holidays. If a holiday falls on a weekend, the following Monday is considered a non-working day. On holidays, all state institutions, including museums, (with rare exceptions) do not work.

Additional Information

Countdown

The Eastern States of the United States are located in the Eastern Time Zone. The difference with Central European time — six hours. From the beginning of April until the end of October, daylight saving time is in effect in the United States — clocks are moved forward one hour. Americans divide the time of day into the pre-noon (ante meridiem, a.m.) and the afternoon (post meridiem, p.m.). Instead of 4 p.m., Americans usually write — 4 p.m.

Mains voltage

The electrical network in the United States is designed for a voltage of 110 volts and a frequency of 60 hertz. To use personal electrical appliances, a Russian tourist should purchase a special adapter in Russia. You won’t find such an adapter in American hotels.

Toilets

Public toilets in America are not widely used, and the existing ones are not kept in exemplary condition. You can find the toilets by the inscriptions — Rest Room or Ladies’ Room for women and Mens’ Room or Lavatory for men. When walking around the city, you can use the toilets of large shops.

Tips

Americans working in the service industry usually earn a minimum wage. It is understood that the client directly pays for the services of the attendants. The standard tip in the US is 15% of the restaurant bill. Tips are left on the table after paying the bill. The bartender is paid 50 cents for each order. In a hotel, when providing various services (calling a taxi, cleaning the room, ordering a taxi, cleaning a pair of shoes, carrying one piece of luggage), it is customary to pay one or two dollars. The taxi driver expects 10% of the bill. Many foreign tourists do not consider themselves obliged to “tip”, so Americans, when serving foreigners, often try to include the tip amount in the bill.

Population, its features

The vast territory of the United States is home to 261.7 million people, which is the third largest in the world after China and India. The population of the United States — Americans — was formed on the basis of a huge flow of immigrants, mainly immigrants from Europe. The first settlements of Europeans, immigrants from the British Isles, arose at the beginning of the 17th century in the northeastern part of the United States, which still bears the name of New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut).

Throughout the historical development of the United States, immigration has played an important role, supplying workers for a rapidly developing country. In the 19th century, the main streams of immigrants came from Great Britain, Ireland, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. By the beginning of the 20th century, the flow of immigrants from the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe increased, and at the end of the 20th century, from Latin America and East Asia. Failures in economic development and massive chronic unemployment in the United States led to strict state regulation of the flow of immigrants. Now only highly qualified specialists are admitted here. Between 1980 and 1983, 400,000–500,000 immigrants arrived in the United States annually, accounting for about 20% of the country’s total population growth.

The modern population of the United States is dominated by white Americans, among whom, in addition to immigrants from Europe, there are many people of Hispanic-American origin, Mexicans and Puerto Ricans (about 15 million).

A special position in the United States is occupied by the Negro population (African Americans) — the descendants of slaves who were forcibly brought from Africa in the 17th-18th centuries to work on plantations in the southern states of the United States. It makes up 12% of the total population (26.5 million). Due to the higher natural increase, the proportion of Negroes in the country’s population is steadily increasing. If at the beginning of the 20th century the overwhelming majority of the Negro population was concentrated in the South, where, even after the abolition of slavery, Negroes worked as laborers-croppers on farms, then by the end of the 20th century there was a massive movement of Negroes to large cities in the North and West. So, blacks make up more than 70% of the population, even in the metropolitan Federal District of Columbia. Centuries of slavery and racist terror to which Negroes were subjected in America seriously hampered their social and cultural assimilation. However, mass migration to the cities significantly changed the social and professional composition of the Negro population, opened up many opportunities for a variety of labor activities. If in 1920 45% of working blacks were employed in agriculture, then in 1974 — only 2.7%. Now about 85% of working Negroes are workers of various specialties, 2% are big businessmen and owners, 3% are managers of various kinds, and up to 10% are intellectual workers. As a result, blacks have become one of the most urbanized ethno-racial groups.

The Negro element has left a very peculiar imprint on the whole of American culture — from the specific American version of the English language to literature, music and other arts. In the last half century, a whole galaxy of talented writers and musicians, painters and sculptors, scientists and artists, athletes and public figures have emerged from the ranks of African Americans, actively fighting for their civil rights. One of the most prominent representatives of the mass African American civil rights movement was Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, who tragically died in 1968.

In the 1920s, jazz music became widespread in the United States. Jazz originated in the South, in New Orleans, and, in essence, was a folk musical creativity with peculiar rhythms and techniques of musical improvisation characteristic of Negro music. The famous black jazz musician Louis Armstrong was also a native of New Orleans. An important role in the development of jazz was played by such a musical form as the blues, originally associated with vocal improvisation, and then becoming an instrumental genre. A genuine combination of Negro folk origins and professional musical culture is characteristic of the work of the American composer George Gershwin, who used Negro folk themes and jazz techniques in symphonic works. His opera “Porgy and Bess” (1935) based on a story from Negro life, written on the basis of Negro melodies, is considered the first truly national American opera.

More tragic is the fate of the indigenous inhabitants of the country — the Indians. By the beginning of European colonization in the United States, there were about 400 Indian tribes with a total number of 2–3 million people who spoke almost 200 languages. The number of Indians living in modern reservations in the United States does not exceed 1.5 million.

As European colonies expanded in the 16th and 18th centuries, the most fertile Indian lands were expropriated along the Atlantic coast, in the Appalachians, and in the Ohio River basin (east of the Mississippi River valley). Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, Indians and nomadic tribes of horse bison hunters were also pushed aside from the lands of the Wild West (west of the Mississippi River) with rich fertile soils and good pastures. Deposits of valuable minerals were also discovered here. All this caused a powerful migration wave from the east. Through the steppes of the Wild West, roads were laid along which the colonists moved. For their protection, forts were built with garrisons of mounted guards. In the steppes, agricultural and cattle-breeding farms grew rapidly. As a result, in only a decade (1867–1876) herds of bison were destroyed on the steppe plains, the initial number of which was 30–40 million heads, and the Indians were driven into reservations located in the most arid and erosion-prone mountainous and northern regions that were the least convenient for settling.

The largest reservations in terms of area are located on the Colorado Plateau in the state of Arizona (the Navajo tribe), in the mountain valleys in the north of Utah (the Utes), on the Great Plains in the states of North and South Dakota, along the Missouri River (the Sioux Indian tribe), on the intermountain plateau in Wyoming and in the foothills of the Cordillera in Montana (Cheyenne Indians). A significant number of reservations are located along the US-Canada border.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Indian population in the United States was only about 200 thousand people and seemed to be doomed to extinction. But the 20th century was a period of gradual growth of the Indian population and a certain adaptation to the life of the modern United States. At the same time, the traditional way of life of the Indians, their tribal customs and rituals were lost. About 60% of Indians now live in cities. In the largest cities (Chicago, New York, Cleveland, San Francisco, etc.), Indian communities appear, numbering up to 10 thousand or more people. But urban Indians usually don’t break ties with reservations, because a piece of land on a reservation is an Indian’s last resort in the event of losing his job in the city. Meanwhile, the lands of the reservations, as natural resources are discovered in them, are increasingly being used by private and state enterprises, which neglect the interests of the Indian communities. And although the Indians received the rights of American citizenship back in 1924, numerous obstacles arise in the way of their implementation. Indians actively advocate for their rights. The central issue of all programs of the Indian movement is the struggle for the preservation of reservation lands. The most active part of the movement is educated youth and students, the number of which has increased markedly in recent decades due to the intensified craving of the Indians for education.

The exceptionally favorable natural and climatic conditions, the wealth of natural resources and the very active nature of the population, formed from numerous descendants of immigrants who brought their professional skills to the country, undoubtedly contributed to the fact that the United States in a relatively short historical period (about 400 years) became one of the most powerful powers of the world. In general, the structure of employment of the population also speaks of the high level of economic development of the country. Of the 106 million active population, more than 60% are employed in the non-productive sphere and in the state apparatus, and this share continues to grow. About 20% is employed in industry, and about 3% in agriculture.

Most of the national income generated by industry and agribusiness is controlled by a very small group of monopolists. The richest Americans (the property of each of them exceeds 500 thousand dollars) make up only 1% of the country’s population, but more than one third of the national wealth is concentrated in their hands.

The high level of economic development is also found in the outward signs of American life. One of them is the widest motorization. In the 1980s, more than 160 million cars were registered in the United States, and almost 150 million citizens have a driver’s license.

Well-equipped roads, especially automobile roads, can be considered a technical achievement of the country. The total length of extra-urban roads is more than 5 million km. They are based on a network of federal and interstate highways. At the same time, the number of high-speed multi-lane highways with intersections at different levels (freeways or highways) is growing. Truly technical masterpieces are many of the interchanges and grandiose bridges, for example, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The overall provision of the country with a transport network (roads, railways and river routes) is very high — for most of the territory the nearest road is less than 8 km away.

Technological achievements in the construction business are clearly demonstrated by the famous American skyscrapers. Such high-rise buildings, as a rule, are typical for the business centers of large cities, creating their original urban landscape. These are the tallest skyscrapers in New York — the 102-story Empire State Building (381 m) and the 110-story twin towers of the International Trade Center (400 m), as well as skyscrapers in the largest city of the Lake District — Chicago, among which two round towers stand out, dubbed “Corn on the Cob”, the round tower, a skyscraper in Atlanta, is also distinguished by its originality.

No less perfect are the buildings of “one-story” America — cottages scattered throughout the country and providing housing for many millions of Americans. Equipped with a variety of household appliances, these cottages are comfortable living conditions for people of all levels.

The USA is a highly urbanized country. The share of the urban population averages 73-75%, in some regions — 90% or more (all mid-Atlantic states, California). Large, mostly industrial cities, together with the suburban areas adjacent to them, form urban agglomerations (“standard metropolitan areas” according to American technology), occupying vast territories. Of the 318 such agglomerations, 38 have more than a million inhabitants, and 7 have a population of more than 3 million inhabitants. The largest agglomerations are concentrated on the mid-Atlantic coast of the country, where the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington form a continuous strip of urban and transport development, stretching along the ocean. More than 30 million inhabitants are concentrated in this metropolis. There are also very large agglomerations on the shores of the Great American Lakes: Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo on Lake Erie, Chicago and Milwaukee on Lake Michigan. On the Pacific coast, the largest agglomerations are Los Angeles, located on the coastal plain, and San Francisco, bordering the shores of the inner bay.

For many decades in the United States, there has been an intensive influx of population into large cities from rural areas and small urban settlements. However, since the 1960s, there has been a trend of migration of residents of large cities to suburban areas, small towns and the countryside. This process of “suburbanization” is associated with the widespread use of private cars, with lower land prices and better environmental conditions in the suburbs and rural areas, which in general implies a higher quality of life. This trend has led to a well-known slowdown in the growth of large urban centers and an increase in the role of small towns, as well as dispersal and more even distribution of the population throughout the country. As a result, in a large area, especially in the eastern plains of the United States, the growth of transport infrastructure is increasing (laying new roads when building new territories).