America: our mail system is. USPS processes 23.5 million packages per day, and processes and delivers 318 million pieces of mail every day, to every single household in America, 6 days per week (7 days per week for packages).
They will throw mail sacks onto the backs of donkeys and trek them down into the Grand Canyon to deliver to tribes down there. They will deliver by bike, plane, boat, truck, car, etc. Hell, name any other organization where you could hand someone a letter and $0.62 and ask them to take it to Alaska for you, and they’d say no problem.
“Post” roads in the U.S. are named as such because they were roads built specifically for the movement of “post” across the country, and people have even argued that USPS (then the Postal Service) created the layout of the country as we know it.
And despite what many may think or know, USPS is incredibly efficient when it comes to mail and delivery compared to other countries. I remember them telling us during our orientation (I used to be a mail carrier) that back around 2013, representatives from USPS were actually flown to Germany to teach and help them start delivering 6-days per week. USPS taught Germany how to be more efficient at something 😂
America: deep fried Oreos.
It was like a dark an unspeakable revelation out of a cosmic horror novel when I learned that some freaks in the states concocted deep fried butter.
IIRC somewhere over here someone offers Deep Fried Coke. I don’t know how one deep fries soda, and at this point I don’t want to ask.
It’s just a ball of plane batter with coke mixed in.
Look up a recipe for fritters made with flour, replace some liquid with coke syrup. Easy.
I live in a 10 million people European country which is the leading cork producer in the work.
Also the first European country to explicitly decriminalise drug consumption.
Those two things are unrelated.
Slovakia: corruption
Isn’t the party in power pro Russian? Would make sense then.
I will start. I’m in the United States.
Credit unions! Nearly half of all Americans are credit union members. They don’t seem to be popular in Europe and Asia. A credit union is a not-for-profit co-operative financial institution that essentially provides all the same services as a bank, except it’s run as a democratic institution with directors elected by the customers instead of as a profit maximisation machine for shareholders.
They’re common in Canada as well. In my experience, they’re much better than larger banks for things like fees and interest rates.
Historically the main advantage of a larger bank was having banks and ATMs everywhere, but lots of CUs have formed mutual agreements for ATM access, and internet banking being ubiquitous has rendered any advantage the big banks have had moot (in my opinion, at least).
The biggest problem I’ve had with My credit union is there an ability to fix problems, and they’re absolutely antiquated systems.
I went to Florida on vacation instantly tripped fraud. I had contacted them prior They put a note in my account because they had no other way to do anything. I tripped fraud on a Friday night and they were not able to answer a call from me until Monday morning.
A couple of years later I spent a few days in Niagara. The very first day I got up there I tripped fraud. I had already called them went through three different people to make sure there was nothing else I could do. I made sure that I didn’t arrive on a Friday this time. My big problem now was that I was looking at an hour-long phone call and I was roaming. I drove up to one of the higher points in town and managed to get a US Tower. I got them to unlock me which worked for approximately one day.
Their web portal the last time I used it required me to have a 7 to 10 character password uppercase lowercase only. Tell me you’re storing my data and securely without telling me your storing my data in securely.
You don’t always end up with the best management by having the clientele pick the management. And sometimes those really low rates end up making you suffer on the security side of things.
Still the best interest rate I’ve ever gotten on a car loan and the entire staff was absolutely sweet, They were just entirely incapable of keeping my card working whenever I left the state.
I ended up going back to a larger bank. 24-hour fraud unlock hotline, also capable of unlocking me via a link in email as soon as it’s tripped.
Apparently years later I find out that I possibly could have gotten by some of the fraud issues with the credit union if I would have used the card in debit mode. They apparently assume that a debit transaction is inherently secure. I have no idea if this actually works but if you’re having trouble it’s not a bad idea to try it. Just do at least one pin transaction every time you go to a different location.
Ah, that would definitely make a difference. A debit transaction uses some form of “password” like a PIN or the data embedded in a card chip. A credit transaction technically only relies on easily available data and sometimes a signature, much more common for fraud (it’s pretty easy to read and replicate the data from a magnetic strip–one of my classmates did a project to read magnetic strips, and they had to stop letting people swipe their own cards on it because it popped up tons of confidential data).
My CU’s website definitely looks like it’s from the early naughts, but they at least kept things up to date and security practices seemed legit, and I don’t think I ever tripped the fraud detector. I guess everyone’s mileage will vary a bit.
Yeah, I just got the impression that everything they were using was a canned service. And whatever service they bought for fraud protection was either poorly serviced or they weren’t properly trained on it.
The UK has building societies which sound like what you’re describing
Yes, they’re similar, but from what I’ve heard, most UK building societies are basically the same as or worse than banks in terms of fees, rates, and service quality. In the US, most credit unions will absolutely spank the big banks on at least two of those, if not all three.
The majority of UK building societies turned themselves into banks; maybe twenty years ago when the legislation was passed to enable it. A select few still exist though, but I don’t believe any are that large.
Not from the US but currently living here. I would say the Disability Act is the gold standard worldwide. The amount of consideration for people with a variety of disabilities that almost universally applies is exceptionally amazing. It’s kind of shocking to see the dedication to adhering to that law while otherwise abandoning that portion of the population (e.g. Healthcare, SSDI, etc.).
This isn’t a question about the US. I’m asking what your country does better than others.
They currently live in the US. So, whether they properly answered your prompt seems to depend on your definition of “your country”.
Oops, I didn’t see that. My bad. Guess I made a fool of myself here.
I’ve lived in America all my life. Thank you for this interesting outside perspective. I never would have guessed that the ADA is held in such high regard!
The ada is amazing. My husband grew up just as it was being put into place and remembers the protests (to get it, not against it). Without it, things are much more difficult. I know there will be handicapped parking, and cutins on sidewalks and bathrooms and stuff wherever we go without having to look it up.
Yeah it was surprisingly jarring going to Europe and seeing places that were completely inaccessible by wheel chair. I have never used a wheel chair in my life but I know there’s bars in my area that have mini elevators for peole on wheel chairs to access the lower level that’s only like 4 steps down.
Hold on, I’ll phone the Romans and ask them why they didn’t make the pont du Gard wheelchair accessible
Incidentally it’s a lot easier to take legal action against a business that violates the ADA than to take action against a government that insists on defunding programs like that.
Right, there are people and lawfirms that make all their money going around measuring doorway widths and bathroom counter heights and stuff, because the person who raises the complaint gets a reward… Sort of like bounty hunters?
US here. I don’t think we get enough credit for our anti-smoking culture, and given that Hollywood is a major culture driver…
Even in my poor little town, where the broke and uneducated smoke more, it’s getting to be where I’m a little taken aback when I see someone smoking in public.
All this coming from a guy that smoked for 20+ years. The culture shift has been dramatic and I hope we’re exporting it.
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I’m a smoker in the US. It seems like a hell of a lot less than 6% of people here smoke. I don’t think I have a single family member or friend who still smokes. Feels like it’s just me.
Also US, we’re definitely not exhibiting an “anti smoking” culture. I think you’re confusing what you’re exposed to to what is really going on in the world. It’s important to recognize the limitations of your perspective, and not confuse them for a national trend
I think I’d be more happy with my compatriots abusing cigarettes and not drugs. US has massive narcotic consumption problem and cigarettes I’d call the mildest of this subgroup.
It’s week and other tame drugs < cigarettes < alcohol and other strong shit I’d say.
Wait, you mean to say that strong drugs are less harmful than cigs and tame drugs?
And that alcohol is in the same category as cocaine or meth?
The other way around and yes, pretty much. I mean it’s probably a bit below cocaine but like yeah, that shit is bad.
First thing - you really confused the signs
Second thing - you really have no idea what you’re talking about.
Alcohol is definitely a menace to society, but the strongest alcohol a man can drink (like absinth, not methanol) will be much less devastating than cocaine or meth after one dose. Not to mention some other vile drugs like the russian krokodil.
The UK has seen a stratospheric drop too. Banned from all non-private indoor spaces, taxed through the roof. At least in the South, it’s rare to see or even smell someone smoking now, even on TV. Although in some cities it’s just as likely to smell cannabis as tobacco.
I don’t think you’re “exporting it” though - it’s not an American initiative. This was a pretty universal shift of “why the fuck do we do this stupid shit?”
When does it started ? Do you have law prohibiting smoking in public place like restaurant, transports, nigth club, office, etc ?
Because, while it’s true we see less smokers in movies, it’s the first time i hear US having a anti-smoking culture… Note that I include drugs like weed in the smoking culture and we heard a lot from it recently. And only from US.
On my country, since the 90’, it’s forbiden to smoke in public place, in the office, etc. They also increased a lot it’s price bia taxes, put labels on the packaging and the amount of smokers reduced a lot since. But hollywood still represent us as smoker ^^
When does it started ? Do you have law prohibiting smoking in public place like restaurant, transports, nigth club, office, etc ?
Pretty much this. From the late 80’s more and more smoking bans were put into place. Public buildings, any private business, public transport, etc.
It’s at the point now that the only places you can smoke are your own house (even the apartment buildings I’ve been to have no smoking rules. Like, even in your own apartment) or outside (as long as it’s x feet/meters away from a building’s entrance).
For what it’s worth, I’ve also noticed the same thing where I live in Tennessee. Smoked for 21 years (from 11 to 32), and while there are still a ton of smokers in my little hick town, it’s much less than before.
Poland: Blik.
Some would probably also say Paczkomaty and Żabka, but neither automatic parcel lockers or breaking labour laws are strictly Polish inventions, so I wouldn’t count then
Turkiye: E-Devlet.
We have this E-Government system that centralizes almost all relations with the State, I really don’t remember when was the last time I saw an official document in paper. With all 1000+ official agencies involved, you can access and manage over 8000+ services like GDPR permissions, analogue tv frequency infos, paying traffic tickets, state-backed escrowing, fraud checks, my kids grades, my medical records etc within an handsome mobile/web app.
It was shocking to see even my German friends still need to use their physical mailboxes to handle official stuff. I can imagine it’s even worse at the rest of the western world.
Not sure why you would think Germany is the best in this respect as I’ve often heard the opposite in my travels there. They are very anti-tech in government, privacy/cybersecurity reasons are what’s usually cited.
Same in Lithuania.
In fact it’s so good, that if you owe the state money, they’ll just take it directly out of your bank account…
That‘s nice. We have this forepayment discount with all our taxes and tickets instead :D
Much of the UK’s regular government stuff is online and very simple too - their website is actually very good. It doesn’t integrate everything though. The health service is particularly fragmented and communication is often by post and not that good.
Same in Spain.
Everything is digitalized and you have the right to do everything digitally. I’ve never mailed anything to the government.
Playing football in Australia. The Australian version AFL we are the best at it
Germany: We moved our power creation from 60% coal and atom-driven to 60% wind and solar-driven in the last 6 years. This change is fundamental and can’t be reversed. We stopped our atom plants and have a plan out of coal. Even though our geography isn’t in favor for renewables, our country is dedicated in becoming carbon neutral. This is supported by most of the population and industry. (Yes renewables are cheaper than coal, gas, and atom)
Still open is the transition of heat and cars to electricity. Rather an emotional debate - Germans are car-crazy. The car discussion is similar to the gun debate in the US.
By atom, do you mean nuclear energy? Why did you stop the nuclear plant?, assuming that’s what you’re referring to.
How does this relate to Germany relying using natural gas from Russia, before their invasion of Ukraine? My understanding was that Germany had energy issues at the offset, which I wouldn’t expect considering how much renewavles you use
Germans have massive phobia on atom, fueled mostly by conservatives. Also worth of note - the conservatives are for the most part either literal neonazis or pro-russian or both.
Amazing. Every single word you just said was wrong.
Deleted my comment because I was wrong, AfD does not lobby against nuclear plants.
However it does not change the fact that they are neonazi Putin enthusiasts
But they aren’t conservative, either.
And the conservatives weren’t the ones lobbying against nuclear. That was Merkel, who was a centrist.
Honestly, despite all of nuclears many benefits, there’s still no good action plan for the significant amounts of substantially dangerous waste it leaves around. Hard to figure out a storage plan for an invisible poison seeping from a rock for the next 50,000 years.
Does it actually seep? my understanding of chemical waste is: that it doesn’t generate a lot (the US has about a foot ball fields worth from all of our nuclear power plants in our total history, so nearly 70 years), and that they placed is secure, not leaking containers. You’re right that it will eventually be a problem, but probably a problem that we will have to deal with later than our current climate crisis. An argument could be made that maybe new nuclear plants shouldn’t be made, but if we have some up and running, that’s cheap energy that generates little carbon.
but if we have some up and running, that’s cheap energy that generates little carbon.
That is the great misunderstanding of nuclear. It isn’t cheap. It’s supported massively by tax money. In France with all its big nuclear plants for example, the power company went bankrupt. Nuclear is too expensive to run. The government took over the operations.
In Germany, the power companies refused to prolong the operations of nuclear at the beginning of Russian invasion. It was too expensive for them.
The only advantage that nuclear has, is that it’s independent of weather and doesn’t emit carbon. The drawback is the costs, inflexibility (always on), and reliance on cool water (which was an issue in France). That’s why MS, Amazon and all put there eggs into this basket for AI power - they shit money.
Nuclear is too expensive to run in the short term. Nuclear plants only start being profitable after like 10 years. But then they’re really fucking profitable. So it makes sense a company could go bankrupt when you’re 10 years in the red.
Also, on the topic of flexibility, this is only true for, like, 70s era nuclear. France has had load-following nuclear for some time now. Does it follow second-to-second variations? No, but it can load follow on the scale of the daily variations in demand.
I pasted some links, but the DoE says groundwater will most likely be contaminated. Depends on who you trust and how willing you are to suffer radioactive contamination. Granted, it’s probably a better risk profile than say… Coal… But that doesn’t change the fact we have no good longterm plan to store any amount of radioactive waste, and if history is your teacher, a plan will most likely not come to fruition.
We stopped our atom plants and have a plan out of coal.
Yeah you folks did this in the wrong order.
Not when you consider the maintenance costs of the plants they closed. Basically of them were beyond original design life.
I guess, but the Energiewende must’ve been really expensive already and by my best guesstimation those upkeep costs would have been small in comparison. What irks me more about the situation is wrapping shutting down the nuclear plants in a guise of green policy while simultaneously supporting a huge coal industry. Very happy for all the renewables, still.
Sudden culture shock from a Norwegian:
Still open is the transition of heat and cars to electricity…
Almost all electricity used by Norwegian homes goes towards heating (including cooking and hot water), and charging cars. So counting heating separate from electricity suddenly makes the electric transition sound less impressive. (And the transition away from nuclear more baffling). It’s still impressive to see Germany really follow through on renewables though. 60% renewable electricity is still a lot
Is there a plan to transition away from burning fossil fuels for heating?
German homes are relatively okay insulated. Very remote: burn wood or some sort of wood pellet stuff. Not clean, but it is local and renewable. Less remote: heat pumps, runs on electricity. Cities: many are planning/extending heat nets, those can be partially powered by left over heat from industry. And import nuclear electricity from France in winter I guess!
There are plans yes, but also corrupt politicians and unethical media who straight up lie to the public and keep this plan from going forward.
Why lump atom in with coal? Atom is great, coal stinks. You’re confusing the stats.
Try to dismantle a nuclear plant. It costs tons of money and time. Ask the people at Nagasaki or Tschernobyl.
Dismantle a coal power plant takes time, but one can reuse the iron and such. All the open mining fields and mining tunnels are the problem. In Western Germany, there are areas where house crack or cars fall down sudden openings caused by old mining tunnels.
Try to dismantle at wind mill or solar fields. It’s a quest of days and some bucks.
I prefer the easy way of living. So, my favorite are renewables.
> I prefer the easy way of living.
There is no such thing as “easy way of living”.
Renewables suck at energy density, predictability and control.
Nuclear gives you all three.
Also, look into the solar panel manufacturing costs to the environment.
Of course, renewables are a must. But by dismantling nuclear you kneecapped yourselves, guys, big time.
Just stumpled upon this BBC article https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/23/sellafield-cleanup-cost-136bn-national-audit-office Cleaning up Sellafield, Europes biggest nuclear dump costs now up to 136.000.000.000 £ That’s the cost of nuclear. The dangerous rests of the power creation.
@DrunkenPirate I’d accept this argument if it were still 1950s.
The year is 2024. Now we know better what to do with nuclear waste.
First, it’s actually crazy recyclable. You can separate plutonium and unreacted uranium from fission products and use it again, making your fuel cycle way more efficient.
Second, you don’t actually need to store the leftover fission products in an on-ground dump, that’s actually mighty dumb. Instead, the borehole disposal can be used. Basically, drill a hole several kilometers deep - that’s easy enough when you take the drilling equipment from all those oil barons - put your fission products in there (they’re quite compact by volume, if you separate it out) and then seal the hole with concrete. Nobody’s going to dig this up ever again. It’s a solved problem.
Cleaning up sites like Sellafield is just dealing with the wartime legacy, when nuclear research was less about energy production, and more about bombs. It doesn’t have to be this way.
You dismantled your plants because dismantling your plants is hard? 🤔 That seems backwards. Why not upgrade? Then you never have to dismantle. Keep it alive forever.
Upgrading would have cost way more. one of the reasons atom power is so expensive (without government subsidies) is the cost of the plants which needs to be recouped as well as the price of the uranium. not to mention that we haven’t found a suitable place to store the waste for those thousands of years until it’s harmless.
Who cares about cost. We should be willing to pay whatever it takes to end fossil fuel use.
That’s why we invest in renewables.
Then you will love this documentary. It even mention’s Germany a couple of time.
Recycling. In Sweden e recycle so much that we have to buy trash from other countries!
In Denmark our district heating is so great that we have to import trash to burn at our Combined Heat and Power plants. Bit ironic given that we’re also a market leader on windmills that are supposed to replace plants.
India: what India does wayyy better than others is digital payments. we have what is called UPI this is a open payments interface made by government (rbi) but their APIs can be used by any bank’s and any verified third party apps, and all you need to use UPI is just a bank account that’s it, and with this we can send money to any bank account through any other bank account with just phone number or QR code, the reciver and sender don’t even have to use same app because the backend is same for all, i just have to search for their number and send money, or i just have to scan QR code and send money, and it happens instantly with no minimum limit, this is so widely used that pretty much any shopkeeper keeps a UPI qr code even the ones in smallest and remote villages. infact i dony think I used single rupee in cash since like last 3 years, i don’t carry cash anywhere either, this is integrated with popular apps too like uber online food ordering apps , Netflix and basically any app that needs payment. upi is pretty much only reason why India has the most digital transaction in world even more than China and it’s not even close.
also public digital infrastructure, pretty much anything government related is done digitally, like our id cards, driving licence, income certificate, and even high school and degree certificate is digitised, infact even our college credits is digitised, like my college credits will be automatically added so it will be seamless to change college in between my degree, and ofc all this is verified cryptographically with an app, so it’s not just one pdf which can be forged or something. and recently a law was passed which made the cryptographically verified digital documents legally same thing as physical one’s, so now if you have a phone with the app installed ( government made app that store’s and verifies documents) and if you have all your documents in that app you are good to go anywhere. this is more than just concinence of not having to carry physical documents because now we can make bank accounts completely online because verification can be done through their APIs and cryptographically. and yeah it was super useful in covid times because we could do appointment for vaccination online in the app and we could get covid certificate digitally.
Wow that’s really impressive! I’m used to having a great online platform to transfer money, but having government issued documents be digitized is a step beyond what we have here!
I’m curious, how does that work for people from remote villages? India still have a pretty large population who live traditional lifestyles with limited access to the Internet, don’t y’all? Do they have the option of more traditional paper documents, or do they have to find a computer somewhere to use for certain things?
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even people from less developed places use digital stuff, you don’t need computer you only need a phone to use everything, mobile data is super cheap in india (3usd per month for 2gb per day), and smartphones are super cheap too, even people who don’t have access to electricity use digital payments. infact this was possible only because of cheap internet and many indians are comfortable with tech somehow. and connectivity is really good pretty much 100% of country get’s fast 4g and nearly 80% has 5g
Doesn’t “digital” imply “electricity”?
well that i meant 24/7 electricity
We use qr-based payments where I live too. I been the qr-codes have to work on all payment platforms which is super convenient.
The only minor gripe is that they charge a small transfer fee if going between banks. Do you have that fee?
there is no fee, the servers and bandwidth cost taken from taxpayers money basically
We have QR code based payments in the Netherlands via iDeal. Makes payment super easy.
is it as simple as " download an app and sign in through phone number and bank account is automatically detected and you are good to go" ans also there is no transaction fees
That’s way more convoluted than here.
Our banking apps have a QR scanner in them so no need for new apps or new accounts.
banking apps have upi too, even in banking apps you have to sign in with id and password and such with upi specific apps you don’t even have to do that, it’s just that you have more freedom here, the thing is any app can have it
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Can you expand on why UPI is horrible when it comes to privacy when compared to the other options you have mentioned?
I would not be doing any sort of digital transactions if I am worried about privacy as I don’t think one is better than the other in this matter. It would be naive to think so otherwise.
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I have gone through the links, and I still cannot find the answer to my question on what makes UPI “absolutely horrible when it comes to privacy” when compared to the other options in your original comment.
I still maintain that all practical means of digital transactions are inherently poor for privacy, regardless of the channel/medium. One is not less private than the other.
Of course, mediums like cryptocurrency exists which “promise” privacy while transacting. But they are not practical in India, and also do not operate at the scale of the options we are discussing about.
Also, I really appreciate responding back with links, but a line directly answering my question would have saved some time, especially since the links you shared are irrelevant to our discussion. None of the links actually do a comparison of the options or even state that one is outright better than the other. If anything, some of the comments in the linked forum posts only echo what I am saying about the lack of privacy across all digital transactions.
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the difference is this is unified and government maintained, alipay or any payment vendor’s you have to use their apps, and you can only send money to people who have accounts in their apps, here it’s maintained by government no need to make any account anywhere, just direct bank to bank transfer with just phone number and QR code. and more importantly no transaction fees
But it is absolutely horrible when it comes to privacy.
Reading OPs description, I did wonder.
it is indeed horrible, I’m pretty sure one of the biggest motivation to push for digital transactions was to track easily and tax easily
India has the BRO too.
Watching a guy called Joe Ryan on Youtube at the mo, who’s riding a motorbike around the Himalayas. The BRO are building roads there at an incredible rate in the most impossible landscape. I’m genuinely amazed at the scale and adaptability of them and how much they’re doing right now.
This is literally changing the lives of those who live in the area, although I do wonder how much this will trigger tourism and change everything as it has elsewhere. But still, those guys can build roads.
Austria 🇦🇹
You know those little CO2 cartridges? Most likely made by iSi
Ooooooh, that explains why the whippets weren’t kicking in.
Austria is good at producing CO2, got it.
Seems like a weird thing to brag about nowadays.
Australia: Consumer protection laws are better than most other countries, even European countries. For example:
- Products must last as long as a “reasonable consumer” would expect them to last, regardless of the warranty period. For example, at least 5-10 years for large appliances.
- If there’s a “major failure” (a big problem with the product), the customer has a choice of whether they want to have the item repaired, replaced, or return it and get a refund. Customers can also ask for a partial refund based on loss of value.
- The store you bought the item from must accept returns and warranty claims. They can’t tell you to go to the manufacturer.
- It’s illegal for a store to not offer refunds (unless the items are second-hand).
- Products must match descriptions in advertising, including what a sales person tells you. If a sales person tells you the product does something but it actually doesn’t, you can get a refund.
- Businesses get fined for breaking these rules. A chain of computer stores had to pay a $200,000 fine for showing an illegal “no refunds” sign and forcing people to go to the manufacturer for warranty claims, and were later fined $750,000 for doing it again: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/msy-technology-ordered-to-pay-penalties-of-750000-for-consumer-guarantee-misrepresentations
This applies for digital goods, too. As far as I know, Australia is the only country where you can get a refund from Steam for a major bug in a game regardless of how long you’ve owned the game for or how many hours you’ve played. Valve was fined $3 million for not following the law: https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/valve-to-pay-3-million-fine-for-misleading-australian-gamers/
Agreed except for the archaic rating system for video games. Gonna tell full adults they can’t handle seeing a drug in a game that’s called by its real name? That’s pretty ridiculous.
Yeah, video game ratings in Australia aren’t great. Australia didn’t even have an adult (R18+) rating for video games until 2013. Before then, all games rated higher than MA were illegal in Australia. Some games were banned, while others were modified to reduce violence, remove sexual themes, remove drug use, etc.
Another thing I learned from Australia is to use www.airbnb.com.au to check prices. If I got it correct in Australia is forbidden to have hidden charges, so, what you see is what you pay.
