It is, in general conversation, entirely reasonable to say 'America' instead of the USA.

Argument I: It's a common tactic for shortening numerous names. "The United States of America is not the only nation that does this." **Argumentum ad populum - Just because it is commonly used by other nations, does not make it right. You can say that it makes it more convenient in communication to use it in general though, to which I will follow up soon with my rebuttal. "While USA is indeed shorter, many people feel more comfortable using the term America instead." **Here you say that 'USA' is shorter, while in the following sentence you contradict yourself when you say that the two are just as long. "The USA is just as long as America (The USA - America), but quicker to type or write because it is one word." "The complaints tend to only ever be directed towards the US, but here is a list of other nations that do this.: -list-" **The USA is a special case for two reasons. **For one the term 'USA' has been a lot more widely used to abbreviate the full name 'The United States of America' as opposed to other nations, with a couple of exceptions like 'The UK'. The term has been established to use in common everyday conversation by the people, not governments or other organizations. This is why it is more convenient to use than for any other nation, as it is understood by people today much better if one says 'USA' than if one would say 'FRB' for Brazil. Therefore we can see that the term 'USA' has established its place as an alternative to 'America' much more so than abbreviations are used for other nations. **Secondly, the USA is known for having a lot more versatility in its juridical system. We can see this in two examples. **The District of Columbia and the following 18 U.S. states currently do not have an enforceable death penalty statute. http://en.wikipedia.org... **In the following picture we can see the versatility in the USA's states' citizens' representatives' stance on cannabis. http://upload.wikimedia.org... **The USA is known for its patriotism. However, as we can notice from the term's 'United' connotation in 'the USA' the overall view is that people can both show their unity with the rest of the citizens, while still implying that they are in fact still in disagreement with various views about drug legality and capital punishment. This means that the term 'USA' both connotes unity and the needed separation between states' stances on drugs and major legal stances, which then does not put all the US citizens at risk of seeming like a nation that is not still having its internal disagreements about some juridically enforced stances on moral issues. **Furthermore, the term 'USA' makes a clear difference between the nations in NA (North America) that are a part of the USA, as opposed to other nations in other parts of the continent. The term USA also makes a difference between the nations in Middle America and South America. "In many of these cases, such as India and Mexico, the names (India, Mexico) are actually larger geopolitical areas. The land of Mexico, for example, includes all of Central America and Texas. The United States of Mexico only makes up slightly over half of all that, and yet we say Mexico instead." **Mexico does not include the land of Texas. It was a part of Mexico for only 15 years in the early 19th century. "We say Britain despite how the nation doesn't actually own all of Britannia" **The name Britain goes back to Roman times when they called England and Wales "Britannia". The term and your information is outdated. http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk... "or the UK despite how it leaves out North Ireland." **NI is a part of the UK. SI is not part of the UK. Even with taking your point with assumption of meaning SI though, I still cannot comprehend the significance of comparing the situation of SI and the UK with the USA and the term 'America', so I am going to leave this point without a rebuttal. "It's common to substitute the countries name for a shorter or more convenient phrase, even if that phrase doesn't completely represent it. To say it is wrong of the US to do, one must also acknowledge that it is wrong for every other nation as well. It would then be unreasonable to say Taiwan or Brazil." **This is similar to your first argument which I deemed as using Argumentum ad populum. At this point I can also refer to my previous points where I showed how it is specific to a nation and its people how they want to use terms - with all their implications that they may carry to their unity and segregation - to describe their nation, and the term 'USA' is the most enabled at serving the people's purposes. **As you say, the word 'America' does not completely describe the nation as opposed to the term 'USA'. The fact that you have failed to make up your mind about whether the terms 'the USA' and 'America' are really as short to say or not, further makes it hard to tell what your argument actually is. Argument II: Words are only meant to convey ideas. "Words, for the everyday person, isn't a part of technical language or jargon. Words have one purpose, and only one... To convey an idea. If they do this, they are as proper as normal people should require them to be. This is why when someone is improperly messing up a phrase or word to say something, we stop them and don't force them to say it right, because we understand the idea they are trying to convey. -- Since everyone understands exactly what place you are referring to, it's as proper as it needs to be for conventional conversation."" **Words are specifically meant to convey ideas, I agree. In the case of describing the United States of America the term 'USA' is used to describe three things. Firstly the geographical area of USA with respect to segregation from other nations with the term 'America', secondly the unity between the states of the patriotic nation, and finally the internal segregation between juridical systems between various states. **I would like to sum up how the two are not in controversy. The states are 'united' in spirit as a whole but like to make some differences in the fact that there are different states, in order to remind us that talking about the 'laws of america' does not imply the same thing as 'laws in the United States'. The latter reminds us that this specific state of the USA likes to be called the 'USA' for reasons that include the fact, that there are different regions with association to the term 'America' and some significant differences in laws in different states. "Shakespeare was famous for doing this. Even though he didn't use the "proper" terms, everyone understand what the image he tried to convey was." **Shakespeare, like most other poets before modern ages, created metaphors through context. Poets as well as regular people try to use the most definitive terms to carry out the most accurate implications of the word. Use of the term 'the USA' is only slightly, if at all, longer than the word 'America' in both typing and and speech. This extra effort is certainly worth the more precise connotation. **However as I have done, in many cases you can just type or write "USA" without the preposition 'the' which is arguably easier to type than 'America'. **Also, the term 'US' is not pleasant to some people's ears, especially in the USA, but it is still more precise than the term 'America', and this term 'US' is arguably virtually containing the same effort in speech and writing as 'America'. Argument III: "The USA is the only nation with the word America in it." - so no confusion? **I'll keep this one short by stating: Middle America, South America. **Since your remaining argument section (which is supposed to be IV, not VI, btw) are reliant on what I have already deemed false, I am going to go to my conclusions so far without addressing the fourth part. -- **The choice of the people in the United States of America and elsewhere has leaned towards the term 'USA' as opposed to 'America. Many other nations have settled with using the equivalent short-hands of 'America' as opposed to abbreviations like 'USA'. but the USA are a case that cannot be effectively compared to similar systems as the following summarizes. **The term 'America' could be marginally easier to type or write with respect to the term 'the USA'. However, the abbreviated terms 'the USA' and 'the US' are more effective in conveying specific meaning in two ways. The term makes a clear difference between other nations that have the word 'America' in them, as well as makes the difference between the continent 'North America' and the regions of the USA within North America. **The term 'America' is not more effective in implying that the particular region, within the continental landmasses of North America and South America, is being discussed. With its general unity, but with differences in juridical systems, 'the USA' continues to be a significantly better term to use than 'America', including even the most casual of conversations.