[Mitch]

Typically only US citizens are called Americans. Things get done by the cheap foreign labor we import or by outsourcing jobs to other countries that hae a cheaper labor force.

[mike]

By outsourcing your labour do Americans feel they are getting a better quality product or worse? In Australia we have lots of support to buy "Australian made" products etc. Australia has quite a skilled labour force so we know we are getting a quality product if it is made here and not overseas. I guess what I mean is does cheap labour mean cheap quality American products and are Americans happy with this?

[pantone159]

Typically only US citizens are called Americans.

This is a sore point for many citizens of all the nations from Mexico on south...  From their perspective, 'America' means the continents of North America, Central America and South America, and is *definitely* more than the USA.  For a USA citizen to call himself an 'American' is to either dismiss the rest of the hemisphere or claim it all for the USA, either of which are annoying.  If you tell somebody in Mexico that you are an 'American' (when you mean from the USA) you are likely to offend them.

That said, I think that Europeans (and probably many others) freely say 'Americans' when they mean 'USA-ans'.  There actually isn't any convenient word for 'United States-ian'.

[mike]

This is a sore point for many citizens of all the nations from Mexico on south...  From their perspective, 'America' means the continents of North America, Central America and South America, and is *definitely* more than the USA.  For a USA citizen to call himself an 'American' is to either dismiss the rest of the hemisphere or claim it all for the USA, either of which are annoying.  If you tell somebody in Mexico that you are an 'American' (when you mean from the USA) you are likely to offend them.

This is what I thought when I wrote my first post. I have alsways been taught that the Americas included North, Central and South too.

There actually isn't any convenient word for 'United States-ian'.

It would be convenient to use American if people from the USA didn't feel they were somehow different to the rest of the Americas

[Borek]

That said, I think that Europeans freely say 'Americans' when they mean 'USA-ans'.

Confirming