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Person Asks Non-Americans To Share “Scams” That Americans Think Are Normal, And Here Are 39 Of Their Replies
In an attempt to start an interesting discussion, Reddit user tycooperaow posted a question on r/AskReddit: "What is clearly a scam but Americans have been conditioned to believe that it is 'normal?'" And they succeeded. Even though the post has received 4.6K upvotes (far fewer than some of the most popular ones on the subreddit), it has accumulated over 5.5K comments. Non-Americans started sharing their take on the US, testing the definition of the word 'scam', and all the replies paint a pretty good picture of the way the rest of the world sees the country.
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#1
Tipping restaurant servers so the owners of the restaurant don’t have to pay them a living wage.
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
Decades ago, restaurant workers were paid "regular" wages, and got tips. A single mother could feed 3 kids AND buy a small house with those tips. Greedy restaurant owners hated the idea of their workers getting "money for nothing" (except busting their butts!) and changed the laws so the workers are paid obscenely low wages and then have to share their tips with EVERYONE employed at the restaurant whether they bust tail or not. It's disgusting. Especially because "tipping is optional", but those workers don't get their wages supplemented if diners don't tip!
BananaAnna 4 years ago
Personally, I prefer to have tips added by the establishment. This little old lady does not forget the tip or tip the wrong amount. Usually, a wait-person does not have a choice of workplace and they certainly work for their tips.
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Colin Mochrie At Its Finest 4 years ago
About 15 years ago I went to Hard Rock Cafe with a friend and she had a bunch of people with her visiting from another country. Service was horrid and they were aggitated. When the server said beforehand an auto tip would be applied-as he finally was raking orders-they got up and left. (We followed.) I am torn..I want to give gratitude and I would love it if I received tips, too, but I also disagree with tipping for several reasons.
Marilyn Ransberry 4 years ago
This practice needs to be stopped. Wait staff are usually obligated to share tips with busboys, dishwashers, hostesses etc sometime s even MANAGEMENT.
Isabel London 4 years ago
I really don't understand this at all. Where I live (Europe) the serving staff gets paid by the restaurant/bar/café for the job they do. Simple as. Most Europeans leave a little extra, like the change they get back after the bill has been paid. But IF the server does an exceptional job, we add a more substantial tip - this is our way of saying Thank You for going the extra mile and making this a great dining experience for us. But I'm not going to tip someone for (just) doing their job. In some cases servers expect tips when they've actually done a bad job!?! because it's "part of their wages". No, wages are paid by the employer, tips is the added extra from the customer, for the added extra by the server.
Tycooperaow came up with the idea for the question after noticing a similar tweet gain decent notoriety on Twitter. "My sister notified me of this by sending me a link to a video on TikTok in which someone did a react video about the subject matter. My sister and I jokingly started talking about this subject and discussed all the things we Americans interact with on a daily basis that is actually pretty scummy," the told Bored Panda. "As I read through the comments on this TikTok video, many people stated their frustration. I proposed the same question again on Reddit for the sole purpose to ignite a thought-provoking discussion where people can share their opinions and give more personal insight on this matter. I knew this was a perfect place to study this situation more and learn from people who experience certain things that I can be aware of in the future. So that's what sparked me to ask the question!"
RELATED:
#2
Megachurches are literal scams. They make a lot of money, saying it's for the church, then they buy 12 mansions.
Matheus Oliveira 4 years ago
I know the risk of being downvoted here, but just to bring another perspective... many financially questionable decisions may have taken place during renaissance, which led to having physically big churches all over Europe. However, things have changed and the Holy See’s finances are mostly for social programs nowadays, even in some partnerships with UN affiliates. The thing is: would anyone be able to sell Louvre’s art pieces or those from any other museum? Extremely unlikely. Same thing: even though the Church advocates for a leaner governance, separate from the State, there is simply no way those UNESCO heritage sites could simply be sold. From a Theo-anthropological standpoint, I believe every religion has the right of practicing faith as long as it does not harm other fundamental/constitutional rights. Sure, just as there are Evangelical Pastors who adhere to the theology of prosperity, there are Catholic Priests who do it too, but this is NOT the core teaching of Christianity.
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Full of Giggles 4 years ago
The only Americans who don’t realize it’s a scam are the ones who fill those churches on Sunday.
Maria Nadeau 4 years ago
I'm not religious but I do believe in separation of church and State. The churches should not dictate how LGBT people should live their lives or have any say in marriage laws, for example, but this separation would also mean not taxing the churches.
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deanna woods 4 years ago
I am an American Christian and I think that the megachurches are ridiculous. I have never understood asking people to send you their entire life savings and I certainly never understood how all I these "ministers" can make some outrageous claims and be surprised when people don't like what they said. Pat Robertson blamed Hurricane Katrina on abortions.
Miguel justino C 4 years ago
Deanna, I am a full blown Atheist and I agree with you 100%. Thanks for being a good Christian. You sound like someone I would love an educated conversation with!
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
To be fair, televangelists are a typical US type of scam with a lot of gullible people falling for it. American-t...b8c2cd.jpg 
Terry Smith 4 years ago
'megachurches' and greed among the leadership of a church are not always tied together. Sure there is a good chunk of them in the states, but there's plenty MORE large churches with great fiscal responsibility. Moreover, 'megachurches' are not a simply American trend.
Once the first couple hundred post replies came in, tycooperaow started reading and responding to as many as they could, asking people to further expand on their ideas to "get an overarching grasp of just how much stuff is wired into our everyday life that takes advantage of people." At that point, tycooperaow began thinking that there are a lot of fundamental problems that the culture of the US has.
"I am a US resident, and reading through the Redditors' comments I could tell that numerous people made it abundantly clear they felt strongly and passionately about these current issues that we have been conditioned into just accepting as normal. The majority of the responses were politically related issues as there's a strong distaste for the current government, but there were other answers that spoke about businesses socially engineering the public to perpetually buy a product that they ultimately have full control over."
As an example, tycooperaow mentioned De Beers and how they own nearly the entire diamond supply and push forth aggressive advertising, telling people they can't start a marriage without a diamond ring.
#3
Americans thinking that medical procedures are actually that expensive. Fun fact: In a normal country, you don't pay tens of thousands of dollars.
Mike Crow 4 years ago
Two things. 1) Citizens in most other developed countries don’t have to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket as Universal Healthcare provides. 2) Americans hospitals are businesses so they will try to charge more if they can.
Katinka Min 4 years ago
But Our Health insurances don't pay these prices either. The price of what a public insurance will pay for docotrs and hospitals is fixed and since most people are publily insured, that is what they can charge. it created a two tier system - with private patients getting fancier care (and being ripped off, more often) - but is has put a lid on prices. Yes, yes, oh-so terrible socialism, where being poor isn't a death setnence.
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Ozacoter 4 years ago
I have many illneses and luckily I was born in Europe so I can afford doctors. I have a hospital insurance that costs 120E a year plus my normal insurance (that is very cheap). I recently had surgery and spent the night in the hospital (in a comfortable double bed room). I paid 109E for the whole procedure (surgery, anesthesia, bed, food etc). So in total (counting the insurance) I paid less than 300 euros for my surgery. I am so extremely sad for all the women in my same situation in USA that either can afford the same surgery or get bankrupted because of it.
Steve 4 years ago
This is NOT true. The NHS is NOT free, You pay a fixed percentage of your income according to your income category, ranging from 2% for low income to 12% of your income, which is capped at around £4100 PER Month ($5500 per month). In addition, your employer ( or govt. if you are on benefits pays an additional levy of between 0 and 12% of your income including on bonus’s and expenses. Only those in full time education are free...
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Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
I know someone who needed oral surgery. She was from the Philippines. She flew to the Philippines, with her husband and two kids, visited family, got the dental work done - and it was cheaper than just doing the dental work in the US.
Allison Gilbert-Heron 4 years ago
Socialist Canadian here, thank you Canada for free health care and 100$ per year prescriptions since I am a senior! now if only dental was included!
Pamela Blue 4 years ago
Well Allison - not exactly "free." We pay for it with our taxes all our working lives. However, I never minded paying it, as I have no issue in helping people get health care who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise. It makes for a much healthier and happier populace. I'm 70 now, and am very healthy and have been all my life, due to yearly health visits to my doctor (and my genes, I suppose. LOL), but my taxes have paid for health care for many poor people, I should think. I'm glad for that.
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Maddie Star ⭐ 4 years ago
Dreadful, it's disgusting that if you can't afford to pay your heath insurance you're basically treated like trash and put out on the street. . I refer back to another post "American is the greatest country in the world" . I personally would alter the word country to another c word.
Alexis draskinis 4 years ago
US Healthcare Options in a nutshell: Option 1: get insurance. Pay so much, monthly, for insurance that you cant afford to actually get treatments or pay co-pays & therefore pay a lot for literally nothing... Option 2: dont get insurance. Get laughed out of every dr's office because they dont think you can pay (and you probably cant)... Option 3: go to ER. Pay 3x the amount (which you already cant afford) you would've if a reg dr had just treated you... Option 4: just suffer through it because you know you are the only one you gives a s**t about you & your health... I've ended at option 4 more times than i'd like to admit, regardless of what my insurance circumstances were.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Option 5: Book a vacation to Europe, get medical treatment, spend a few months to recover and return to the US having saved enough to buy a mansion.
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Tiffany Marie 4 years ago (edited)
I have no insurance and it sucks. I rarely go to the DR. Unless I'm dying. Can't even get the mental health help I need.
Xio in California 4 years ago
Our preemie son's bill for his first three days in the NICU: over $10k. He went home almost 4 months later. 24 years later and he's still unaware we declared bankruptcy because we just couldn't keep up with bills 3 years later. Thanks to President Obama, he's still in our insurance while in college, and he can't be denied coverage for his many preexisting conditions. We still pay a pretty penny for his coverage, but we have no choice. He cannot afford to go without coverage (due to an average of 2-3 emergency brain surgeries per year). I would give anything for "socialist" health coverage.
Carolina Fernández González 4 years ago
Colombia here, my mom spend 2 months in the hospital because she had a cerebral ischemia and a stroke a week after the ischemia. I had to pay 200usd when she was discharged because she was my beneficiary, If she was the owner of the "insurance" (because is not really an insurance) she would had to pay $0. Of course it wasnt the best hospital and she had to share the room with other person. I pay about 50usd monthly for that "insurance" and they charge depending on your income. It is mandatory for all of us the country to pay this service. So if a poor country like mine can do it why not in America? I don't get it.... Instead of that you have to pay thousands for a trip to the ER......
Tycooperaow would answer their own question by saying that a 'scam' that affected them personally the most comes from modern-day universities. "Many people in the post already covered everything there is to say about the barrier of entry of schooling and its relation to the future financial sustainability for the average person. It's very dissatisfying that even at the age of 14 public schools practically brainwash students by stating 'if they don't go to college or the military they end up as bums or delinquents.' Why should students get into thousands of dollars of student debt when [so many] of them do not have the right financial literacy to properly manage even $1,000 if it was gifted to them at 18. This issue itself I feel that places our country more at a financial disadvantage than it claims."
#4
"America is the greatest country in the world."
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
If you've ever traveled outside the United States (and, sadly, only a small percentage have), you will quickly find out that the United States is not the greatest country in the world.
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
I'm patriotic, a veteran from a family of veterans. I have to agree, America is not top of the heap.
Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
Yep. The "America is the greatest" propaganda is unrelenting and many, many people never question it. Which is weird, since the lie is so blatant. I do love the place where I live - the mountains in Virginia - but not the whole "America #1" thing. I'm hoping, voting, working for change.
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Gergely Kiss 4 years ago
Yeah, as much as I like to criticize the U.S. for their shortcomings, I'll take a hard "no" on this one. I'm pretty sure people from North Korea, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, or any war-torn or dictator-led country would agree. I'd also pick the U.S. over countries like Russia, Turkey or China where the populace might be okay with being oppressed, but I sure as heck wouldn't like it. I'd say they are definitely in the running for the most disappointing country in the world, but they are far from being the worst.
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WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
In the previous century people would say "Only in America" with respect and amazement. In this century they say it with disgust and pity. Trump and his gang of greedy old perverts have destroyed every bit of goodwill there ever was for the US.
Hugh Cookson 4 years ago
I lived and worked in the States for a few years back in the 80's / early 90's and I can say, hand on heart, that it was (mostly) a truly wonderful place (ok, I didn't visit everywhere, but NY, Florida, West Coast, Arizona, Texas etc were pretty bloody good) with forward looking, optimistic people. Fast forward to 2002 (ie post 9/11), the last time I visited, and I was struck by the amount of paranoia, aggression to anyone non American and just general angriness / fear that was shown by everyone from politicians to newsreaders to the general public. When I returned to the UK, I vowed that would be the last time I went to the USA and decided shortly after that to close two reasonably profitable businesses there due to the sheer bloody mindedness of officialdom towards non American companies. I must point out at this juncture that I'm a white, middle aged guy with a military background, so if I felt rather put out, how do you think someone of a middle eastern/ asian background felt
wandile dludlu 4 years ago
This is the worst lie ever... the sad thing is that Americans don't get world news, only american news
It's a chain reaction, the op said. "If you get into debt at 18 and get out of college at 21-22 then you have to put off buying a home, buying a car, and establishing assets. This slows down the economy. Heaven forbids if you have medical problems. If you can't pay, then you to go bankrupt. I can't tell you how many people resort to crowdfunding options just to pay for medical expenses. I don't think people should need to result to use GoFundMe as a health coverage option, nor use lottery tickets as a retirement plan. This is why we see such a transformative push for financial literacy among teens and young adults. It's the reason why eCommerce, Cryptocurrency, Forex, Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, etc.. are so idolized in our generation because the traditional methods essentially disbar proper progression. Sometimes it's not because people do it out of luxury, but do it out of necessity."
#5
Somehow, a person who works 65 hours a week at a minimum-wage job just to pay the rent "isn't working hard enough". At the same time, an executive whose "work" boils down to signing a few forms, making a couple of phone calls, collecting investment payouts, and playing golf is considered "a hardworking American".
Helen Haley 4 years ago
Right name, connections, or education and you can get through life with good money and almost no actual work.
Full of Giggles 4 years ago
And become the President of The United States.
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Julie C Rose 4 years ago
New Zealand has this scam too, although let’s not be disingenuous about what exec jobs involve.
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest 4 years ago
I think CEOs work harder than they get credit for, but people shouldn't have to work 65 hours at min wage.
Salty Old Woman 4 years ago
Once again, most of us know this. That's why those other people are the 1%. The other 99% of us know better.
Liz Tynne 4 years ago
In America, the harder you work, the less money you make. I say this as an American with a hard science PhD. As a grant-funded postdoctoral fellow in 2018, I made $50k/year, which was the industry standard. I saw a Verizon flyer hiring salespeople, and they made about what I did. America sucks.
"Lastly, the thing I would like to leave off with is that there are a lot of people who face challenges with our (if you live in the US) country and it will take some fixing," tycooperaow added. "I wish and motivate everyone to do not be afraid to speak on troubling topics. We have the power to change the narrative of how things are running regardless of how prominent they may seem. For example, once I started to learn about blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, this fundamentally shifted my view on governance and how something that seems so insignificant can have a huge impact. People have the power to do what is best, it all starts with just asking the right questions."
#6
Healthcare, all the way. All those heartfelt stories on people who raised 100,000 for their neighbors surgery, and it's great, but no one seems to question why that was necessary in the first place. The person in question has insurance and they're still struggling to pay for this procedure?
Even worst if it's life-threatening. People have to make GoFundMe's, petition, all kinds of stuff. To have the basic right to not have to go broke when you see a doctor.
Bacony Cakes 4 years ago
It's working how it's supposed to, it just isn't designed to benefit the patient.
cybermerlin2000 4 years ago
Wasn't there a story recently where some guy in America fell short of his gofundme goal to pay for his medical treatments and he died because of it?
Milord Cutter 4 years ago
The insurance companies are making OBSCENE amounts of money and paying off the corrupt politicians who control the industry in the individual states' regulations.
Pamela Blue 4 years ago
The insurance companies (of all kinds) is another subject altogether. I think insurance companies are the biggest scams on the planet, and the governments are actually backing them up, forcing people to pay these extortionists - for everything!
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Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
A LOT of the healthcare industry is inflated (not just in the U.S. but in Europe also) Generally Europeans don't complain as much b/c their taxes foot the bill, Kind of like how most Americans don't complain about how expensive it is to pay for the US military, b/c their taxes foot the bill. In the US insurance companies have become the necessary middle man. Using lobbyism they finessed themselves from optional to mandatory. There's no real competition in the healthcare industry, and honestly, pseudo capitalism, which drives up costs. It's very difficult to find out overall prices, and there's many hidden fees, and lack of transparency. The U.S. healthcare system is becoming a conglomerate monopoly. Big companies buy out private small owned healthcare providers, limiting competition and fixing pricing. Those that don't bow they find other ways of taking their business by teaming up with insurance providers, and by paying the healthcare professionals more money.
Salty Old Woman 4 years ago
Wtf do you mean " no one seems to question"? Millions of us question this all the time. If your going to talk about us, do your research first.
Son of Philosoraptor 4 years ago
Health care for profit (as the only option) is like holding some water in front of a poor guy who just crawled out of the desert and saying "oh, you don't have the $347.23 for this? Sorry! " And then just watching him die. It's evil. Civilized countries don't put up with that.
#7
The idea that you need to work endless hours and never have time off.
There are plenty of countries where people work reasonable hours, have five-week summer vacations and the economies don't fall apart.
You are not lazy if you don't eat at your desk or while driving.
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
I love using the “...other countries manage it though?” argument on businesses. New Zealand has a terrible sick leave allowance so our progressive party poked Jacinda with a stick about it and she agreed to up it. She’s coddling the effing HELL out of the businesses but a bunch of them are still like “How are we supposed to survive if we give our employees a less pitiful amount of sick leave?!?!” And I’m like “the same way companies in other countries do it?”
LuckyL 4 years ago
I can't wrap my head around the idea of even having sick leave days... How are you supposed to plan how often you will be sick this year. This only makes people come to work sick.
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Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
When all is said and done and you're on your death bed, no one is going to remember you met every work deadline, you attended meetings and were on time and prepared, or that you spent evenings and weekends at the office. On your death bed, your family and friends will remember when you attended your kids soccer/sport games, that you made a point to eat dinner with your family, that you kept in contact and were encouraging and supportive to your friends and family. And, here's the killer ... you could have spent 90 hours a week at work. After you're gone for a week, your "fellow employees" will not remember who you were. PERIOD! Set your priorities to benefit you and your family and not your employer.
Brenda Couvee 4 years ago
I'm lucky enough to work for a company where sick leave is on a case by case basis. If you are needing longer than 10 days in a year, your sick leave will be monitored closely, but as long as you don't abuse it, it works well for us. I live in New Zealand btw.
Kirsty Lyall 4 years ago
Same here, we are supposed to get a Doctors cert if more than 4 or 5 days but it is also case by case. Same for our bereavement leave. In NZ also.
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David Garcia 4 years ago
In the Netherlands, if you call in sick, the first two days are on you. After that you get 70% of the wages, partially paid by the government (We do pay taxes for especially that) and partially by the employer. This system works better than most, especially if we're talking about the US. There are safety-nets in place, so people won't cheat on the system. (It's not faultless, but in general it works. Far better than the US system.)
natie marie 4 years ago
all for someone else to make loads of money while they're playing golf
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
The mainstream culture in the US. is if you don't like that kind of environment try to find one where they give you good benefits, and a healthy amount of paid time off. If you can't then start your own company and do that. The good news is if you develop your skillset enough and have the value you can land into a company that provides those benefits . However, the old school work till you die trope is still around in several places, but employees are wising up and getting out of there. Those that usually hang around there that have value end up leaving for greener pastures. Another problem is greed in this country. We have a variety of things that we want and those things we want cost money, so some people will willingly work more to get paid more so that they can get those things they want. The U.S. has mastered pushing this marketing philosophy.
Tech Support 4 years ago
Plenty of other countries also haven’t been to the moon. Quit whining or move to another one of the countries that’s a better fit for how much you want to work.
Salty Old Woman 4 years ago
I'm so sickof people from other countries thinking that we don't already know all of this. The problem is that the rich and powerful are in charge.
sylvanticx 4 years ago
it's just normal to us at this point. we often find working with europeans hard cause they DON"T do that. british people do things like go out to a pub at 9 when we're still all working.
#8
College Tuition. Being in debt for thousands of dollars as a young adult just starting their life
Helen Haley 4 years ago
Any job over minimum wage now requires a college degree. Even for an interview. The exceptions are few.
F. H. 4 years ago
Many European countries are trying to achieve that too. The claim is always that some job needs more high-trained professionals. What's really happening is the destruction of established apprenticeship-based profession and pushing back the age at which young people start earing their own money.
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Zophra 4 years ago
Our two are in college right now. Stay in-state and its WAY cheaper. If you can possibly commute, it's even cheaper. Then take general ed courses at the community college if you know they will transfer and again, it saves money. They are also both working full time in the summer and PT during the school year so there are less loans needed, They'll have minimal loans to pay back. It is too expensive, I agree, but I think students need more guidance about what is affordable, what majors are easier to find employment with, and what is realistic.
Ozacoter 4 years ago
Sorry I thought that you ment it like 'we live in usa and it cost her nothing.'.
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k1ddkanuck 4 years ago
Canada is like this too. My student debt is in the 60k range, for a BA and most of an MA. I will probably never be able to pay it off.
Rannveig Ess 4 years ago
There are lots of options for those who don't choose to put themselves into debt. There is FREE education on FREE Government loans (Oh wait..those of us who work pay for it with our tax dollars...) and FREE job placement. There are many vocational, art, theater, labor, union jobs that train you as you work or are short term "degrees". Don't mean to rant, I just find threads like this (Let's all bash the U.S.) irritating. I've lived in 5 different countries and can also make long lists of what's wrong and screwed up about them, too, but I never see those posted here. A lot of these points here require too long and too detailed answers to explain why they're not correct, partly correct, or maybe the people posting don't know how things can or do or might work. And some are spot on. Please just don't assume these comments are 100% truth and "this" is what the the whole country or "everyone" is like. Any of them. Even the 5 I can rant about all night
Dave P 4 years ago
This was caused by a rise in govt regulations in the 70's-2000's. The average college has 7x more administrators per-capita than they did in the 60's to comply with all the govt regulations. Not to mention all the other things the govt did that raised costs. Deregulate higher ed and the price will plummet
James Arvidson 4 years ago
Useless degrees and no real management or accountability in these supposed bastions of higher learning. You just paying for their incompetence and accumulating obscene debt to keep it humming along.
#9
Getting limited days worth of annual leave per year and then being encouraged not to use it.
Ceredwyn Ealanta 4 years ago
Employers like this fail with diminishing returns. Their employees are too exhausted to work efficiently, and unable to come up with good policies to increase efficiency. You end up with people doing four hours worth of work in a twelve hour day because they're just too broken for more.
BlackestDawn 4 years ago
Right, they go for quantity over quality. Some countries here in Europe have toyed with the idea of 6 hour workdays and/or 4 day work-weeks basing it off of studies that strongly points towards that you barely loose any effective work (a.k.a productivity) overall.
Load More Replies... Full of Giggles 4 years ago
Not true. We know it’s not normal. We hate it. Unfortunately, employers don’t care.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
Encouraged?? How about denied... or granted until a week before you're scheduled to go away then told you can't go because the boss has a golf game etc.
Caroline Nagel 4 years ago
In Belgium you can take the paid vacation days you didn't use to the next year, to be used within the first three months of the new year.
B Jones 4 years ago
Also they do things that look good on the surface. Like some companies offer unlimited time off. Except research shows people are too afraid to use more because they don't want to be seen as abusing the "privilege" so they use less than normal. You know the companies did their own research into it first and knew it would make them look good but also be more beneficial to themselves than standard set days
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
The US is all about maximizing profits. They dangle the carrot of PTO (paid time off) and if you fully use it they will get upset. I think more citizens are starting to push back on this as culture changes, and hopefully this prevailing attitude held by management can change. However, I only see that happening if productivity remains the same. The good news is that companies that have such benefits usually are going to attract the higher quality talent , and hold better company morale., which correlates with better productivity.
Dragos Valentin Radulescu 4 years ago
In Romania they now pretty much force you to take your days off, so they wont pay them to you. They also expire if you dont take them at the right time.
#10
Millionaires/Billionaires are just like you and me, who just worked harder than everybody else.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
And that's how idiots like trump get elected: poor and lower middle class morons see themselves as businessmen like him (and he's a failure.)
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Kevin Hickey 4 years ago
Part of the problem is that a lot of people don't understand what a billion is.
Sean Harrison 4 years ago
Most of them didn't start out with nothing, like most of us. They already had money, or parents with money.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
What a load of rubbish. You will find 98% of the super wealthy come from super wealthy families, many made the high bank balances through slave labour.
Kevin Hickey 4 years ago
Nice work AlphaPuck!! Almost a millionaire at 32 years old! At that rate, you'll be a billionaire in 10,000 years. Better step it up, punk.
#11
Lawmakers allowed to invest in the stock market.
Curry on... 4 years ago
Those lawmakers have insider information, which is supposed to be illegal.
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
Politicians should create some law that once elected, all of their stocks/bonds and other investments they may have control over go into a blind trust. PERIOD.
Donna Troy 4 years ago
Politicians are the first to get in on insider trading and make millions on it.
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
Which countries don't allow lawmakers to invest in the stock market?
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Kelly Loeffler is basically an insider trader and is successfully running for reelection. Go figure. Indict the betch.
#12
"If you're not 15 minutes early, you're late."
B*tch, that adds up to 65 hours a year you should have paid me for. That is 8 full days of work.
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
Oh, there are t****r bosses in New Zealand who say that too. When I worked at one retail job, we had this lovely 16-year-old girl who worked her ass off. And our pompous ass of a franchisee scolded her for arriving only 10 minutes early for her shift. She was so upset about having her hard work thrown back in her face that she almost quit. I’d bet money that bullshit like this happens in minimum wage jobs in a lot of countries.
N G 4 years ago
Only "almost" quit? You wouldn't have been able to see my heels for dust if the boss pulled that BS on me.
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Hilary Rudd 4 years ago
Nurses in England have to be in 15 mins early to take hand over with no pay
Treessimontrees 4 years ago
"If you're early you're on time, if you're on time you're late, if you're late it's unacceptable". On the wall where I work.
M. Brown 4 years ago
While people in the U.S. (usually) expect you to be somewhat on time, I've never heard the expression nor the sentiment.
C.S. E. 4 years ago
And it's usually with respect for things like appointments or interviews.
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David Normand 4 years ago
I used to work for a large company that had meetings for top managers several times a year. Would schedule breakfast at 6:30 with the meeting to start at 7. Problem was, company president felt that starting meeting at 7 was a waste of time since everybody was there at 6:30 for breakfast so he would start meeting around 6:30 and ridicule those new to the company who did not get the informal agenda that the meeting was actually starting at 6:30 with breakfast at 6:00. Kitchen staff usually did not get the memo either so while he was talking they were trying to setup breakfast. Of course, he complained about that too.
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
This statement applies to usually highly important events or tasks. So a big business, or interview, you want to try to get their at least 15 minutes early so that then you can be best prepared for the event to take place. Also, certain careers and jobs require exact or earliness b/c of the impacts. Police, fire, healthcare response for example.
#13
The two party system
Nicolas Pilot 4 years ago
Its literally only one party at the top of the heirachy, devided in two, to give you the illusion of having a choice
AlphaPuck 4 years ago
We only have a 2 party system because the VAST majority of America is too lazy to investigate candidates and figure out what their policies and personal ethics are. If we all did that, you would just vote for a person, not a party.
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WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
A surplus of political parties isn't that great either. In the Netherlands we have 14 political parties including the "Party for the animals" "Party for Freedom" and "GreenLeft".
Leslie Jackson 4 years ago
USA and Canada are thousands of kilometers long and wide. Lower population density increases infrastructure costs dramatically.
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
Fun fact: you know New Zealand’s super famous covid response? The chain of events that led to that began with people in the early 90s getting irate about the two-party system and demanding an alternative. We ended up with MMP, where each of the big two parties forms a coalition with smaller parties and the coalition with the most votes wins. Jacinda only won in 2017 because of this system, so if we had a fully two-party system, the other party would have been governing during covid. And based on the things that party said in March and April, a lot more people could have got sick and died.
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
Aren't the majority of world governments dominated by usually 2 parties? I'm not saying that there isn't other parties present, but usually the top 2 are the ones running the show. Btw , the US isn't a 2 party system, it's just dominated by 2.
Jeff Christensen 4 years ago
Australia is dominated by two parties, but that is not the same as there being (effectively) only two parties. We know the Prime Minister is going to come from one of the two major parties, but if those two parties have roughly equal numbers in the House of Representatives or the Senate, and they vote opposite ways (as they often do) they cancel each other out and the minor parties have a lot of power.
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QuirkyQuokka 4 years ago
It is annoying. It seems to be ripping America apart these days. This is coming from an American.
#14
Working 50+ hours a week to barely make ends meet, no health care, and no future but you're 'free' so it's worth it.
Liz Tynne 4 years ago
This is America in a nutshell. People who think hard work matters aren't being objective. The hardest workers make the fewest dollars, and they're desperately praying for the day when their "American Dream" finally begins. It's incredibly demoralizing.
Emma Perkins 4 years ago
Lots of employers don't care what you think a full time job is
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WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Until that one day that your employer gets out of the wrong side of the bed and fires you on the spot for absolutely no reason at all.
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
These are the worst kinds of jobs! This is why its important to have a practical and effective game plan to get out of these kinds of jobs. The US is based on capitalism, and supply and demand. If you're in this situation you have to find a way to increase your economic demand so that employers or future employers will give better benefits and pay, b/c the market is dictating you as being higher value.
Andrea Giannatempo 4 years ago
But you can choose between a thousand diffrent kinds of carbonated drinks. That's freedom
Jon Melius 4 years ago
They are selling us on the idea of freedom not actually being free. Freedom is for those that can afford it and to afford freedom you need make millions. Otherwise get back to that sh-tty job and grind it out. Bezos still needs another 500 billion so he can live normally after the divorce.
Curry on... 4 years ago
That's why companies like to put employees on salary as opposed to an hourly wage.
#15
Trickle-down economics.
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
Here's the crime against humanity that Reagan made ... the elimination of state hospitals for the mentally ill. Every day I see people on the streets screaming at an imaginary person, covered in filth, cold, wet and alone. What's worse ... a mentally ill person in a place where they can get the medications they need, are safe from others abusing them, and have a safe and secure place to lay their head every night where they might be able to come and go at will or having the freedom to wander about screaming incoherently with feces filled pants. I feel for the family and relatives of chronically mentally ill people.
Terd Fergison 4 years ago
That's an awful crime, but there was his handling of the AIDS pandemic. He said that it was only a gay disease and was perfectly happy to let the gay people die for their "sins". It's also very much like trump's handling of the pandemic. Trump's team said COVID is mostly harming blue states (states that voted against trump), so they encouraged the spread of COVID-19. They didn't have the foresight to realize the disease would spread to all parts of the human population.
Load More Replies... Treessimontrees 4 years ago
Reagan's worst crime was closing or defunding state mental institutions.
Terd Fergison 4 years ago
That's an awful crime, but there was his handling of the AIDS pandemic. He said that it was only a gay disease and was perfectly happy to let the gay people die for their "sins". It's also very much like trump's handling of the pandemic. Trump's team said COVID is mostly harming blue states (states that voted against trump), so they encouraged the spread of COVID-19. They didn't have the foresight to realize the disease would spread to all parts of the human population.
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Dr Nostromo 4 years ago
Here's a Reagen factoid I read in Harper's Index. At the beginning of his presidency, we were spending $2 in the military for every $1 in education. At the end of his presidency, we were spending $31 in the military for every $1 in education. Maybe we needed the military but education was not the thing to sacrifice for it. Our educational system has never recovered since his administration.
Marilyn Ransberry 4 years ago
The beginning of the end of the middle class. And they still think he was great.
Dave P 4 years ago
you do know the term "Trickle-Down" has never been used by any free-marker economist to describe it. In fact the term in how Keynes described how his worked. It was dumbass journalists who mixed the terms up. Further when it comes to economic freedom rating, US is only 16, and 29 countries with less regulated economies. Those that outrank the US include Denmark, Sweden, etc.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
Yeah, it trickles from the uber rich to maybe their kids... sure as hell not to the working person.
Octavia Hansen 4 years ago
When this man was in office, there were homeless FAMILIES, not just individuals. And Ketchup became a vegetable on school lunches. Shame the bullet didn't kill him and the country could have moved on sooner . . .
#16
Really expensive funerals. People are charged astronomically high prices at a time when grief means they’re not prepared to make sound decisions.
Pamela24 4 years ago
Highly recommend the Youtube channel "Ask a mortician" to learn more - Caitlyn Doughty there offers some great education and information (and fun, too!).
Anne Reid 4 years ago
This isn’t exactly true though. Funeral homes MUST provide you with a price list. You don’t have to buy a coffin costing thousands of dollars! In February, I cremated my husband for $1800. Said I wanted the cheapest plan, was provided the cheapest plan. Included transportation from the hospital to the crematory, and would have included visitation in the funeral home. He didn’t want that, so we skipped it. Another key thing is pre-planning everything, too. Shop around, so you’re NOT doing it under the weight of grief, like I was. I was still prepared to get up and leave if the funeral home displeased me; there are tons of them around.
Emma Perkins 4 years ago
A lot of funeral homes break the law, and even those that technically don't usually use emotions to manipulate people in to paying for "better" caskets or whatever else their selling. Also, at $1,800 for a simple cremation, you definitely got ripped off. That should've been closer to ~$500
Load More Replies... cybermerlin2000 4 years ago
The dead don't need health insurance, so they need to make one last quick buck before they bury them
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
Yes. The very basic minimum for Dad, who already owns a plot, will be $10k. Unless we drive his corpse to the funeral home, then it's "only" $7500.
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
Cremation. There is always a "budget" funeral home (or a funeral director) that provides a direct cremation option and it'll be less than $1,000. I would rather my heirs get $25,000 from my estate than me paying a funeral director $25K to be embalmed and lie in the ground for eternity.
GirlFriday 4 years ago
This is a choice and probably one that is glorified by Hollywood. Funerals don't have to be expensive and most of those that I attend are not. Most people don't even have burials any more.
Aunt Messy 4 years ago
My mother's funeral was roughly $14,000.00. She could afford that. Most can't. I wouldn't bother.
#17
Advertising medicine. Seriously what the hell?
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
For some reason, New Zealand is the only other country that does it. Even though we have effing public healthcare. For what it’s worth, I always just kind of assumed that everyone finds those ads as boring and annoying as I do.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
In the Netherlands you can only advertise "over the counter" medicines, but there are very strict rules: you can't make any misleading claims, you can't say that the rest of the medical world isn't trustworthy, you can't lie about similar medicines from competitors, you can't use fake studies or fake researches to prove how excellent the medicine is etc. etc.
J. F. 4 years ago
That's another difference to the USA and the EU - In the USA they can throw stuff on the market and if something goes wrong they have to proof it's safe, here in the EU the companies have to prove that it's safe before getting it on the market
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Amber Cook 4 years ago
Here in the USA we have medicine advertisements. It's so weird to hear some of what the side effects are.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
I know, it's like people would rather risk growing a vestigial tail than change a behavior
Load More Replies... Curry on... 4 years ago
And showing happy people while playing soothing music as the list of harmful side affects roll across the TV screen.
Kevin Hickey 4 years ago
Tell your doctor about Lophuktomine. Do not take Lophuktomine if you're allergic to Lophuktomine. Side effects of Lophuktomine may include a**l bleeding and chronic nosebleeds. If I need to tell my doctor what drugs that I need, maybe it's time for a new doctor.
Pamela Blue 4 years ago
YES! Cracks me up that the ads always suggest you talk to your doctor. As if listening to all their garbage is more important than listening to my own doctor! I remember seeing one ad that they went on and on about, then suggested we talk to our doctor to see if we needed it, and at the end, they didn't even mention what the drug was for??? LOL!
Load More Replies... sylvanticx 4 years ago
i kinda like it. but i'm interested in disease. i love the side effects part. rheumatoid arthritis probably won't kill me, but your medication might. WHY SHOULD I TAKE YOUR MEDICATION!?!?
Marilyn Ransberry 4 years ago
Absolutely blew me away when we went to the US. 90% of advertisers are for drugs.
AMaureen Dance 4 years ago
There's two currently. I don't remember the names. One has somebody just seems to have take off, and the other is somebody hiding behind stuff. Then it says "Ask your doctor about...." Ooooookay 'Hey doc, what is this stuff? TV said to ask you'
#18
College text books, you pay $400 for a book because you have to have the newest version that’s rarely changed much, and the school might offer you $40 and sell it for $150 used
Michelle Anne 4 years ago
mine are electronic and I pay a $150 use fee every semester
Load More Replies... Sean Harrison 4 years ago
And may times the instructor will only use 2-3 chapters from the book you just paid $500 for.
Mari-Helena Toompere 4 years ago
Can't you lend them from library? In Estonia, it is actually forbidden in University to ask students to buy materials. If professor cannot give you free materials or they are not available in school library, you don't have to know material inside those books. And well, you can mostly study for free...
F. H. 4 years ago
And to think we complained about professors selling us their copied scripts for 15 Euro!
Natalie Bohrteller 4 years ago
Or even only 5 euros. I stopped complaining after having studied in the US and happily paid the 5 euros, telling anyone else that they didn't know how privileged they were. Should have seen their faces when I told them what students have to pay for books in the US.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Some nice reading about this: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/professors-selling-own-books
Bill 4 years ago
They now have an online component , so that doesn't work anymore
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Eric Lafleur 4 years ago
Why not go for an online version that can be updated with only a few keyboard strokes? With all those smartphones and laptops around in classes, paper books have no reason to be anymore.
Gabriel 4 years ago
Why do they have so many problems with previous editions that are the exact same copy of the preceding one? Here in italy they don care if your book is the newest edition or the one of 5 years earlier, also you dont have to buy books, some disciplines can be done without books
#19
The price for healthcare in America. For the love of God just travel overseas and compare, like, to any country in the world... And then realize how big of a rip-off it is in America. And it's all insurance companies fault.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
In other countries healthcare is considered a service and a human right. In the US the entire healthcare infrastructure is considered a business. And a very profitable business at that.
Catlady6000 4 years ago
Didn't one our reps actually say healthcare is a privilege? I think it was Cruz? Before the Healthcare act
Load More Replies... C.S. E. 4 years ago
Can we all agree that we're tired of the snobbery of the language in that picture. WE KNOW! It's like going to another country and they treat you like you're a suggestion box for America. 1) We're well aware of health care in other countries. 2) We know we're being ripped off. 3) Not a single person reading your little condescension is in a position to DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT, SO COULD YOU TURN DOWN THE SMUG, PLEASE?!
blixten1982 4 years ago
@C.S. E. I think that condescending tone comes out in these posts because people around the world find American patriotism to be so loud. Even though many Americans know and are aware of the problems, and aren't in a position to change things, what we hear around the world from America is "We're #1! We're #1" Even if it's not every American saying it, the Americans who are saying it are the loudest.
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Pamela Blue 4 years ago
Insurance companies are the absolute worst. They take all your money and find any excuse to give none of it back to you. That, my friend, is extortion at the highest level. And I'm talking ALL insurance companies here, not just medical.
Gregg Stevens 4 years ago
If Insurance companies didn't inflate the out of pocket costs things would be much more affordable and competitive, but when you have 3 big insurance companies running the US healthcare system and the pseudo compete, you get the monopoly we see today.
Nina Khmielnitzky 4 years ago
Problem is, when we have medical tourists who take advantage of the free (for us, Canadians) healthcare system and leave without paying.
#20
Your cellphone plans. In my country, I pay €20 for unlimited calls, SMS, and data. I work in phone sales, and whenever I speak to an American, they cannot believe how cheap our plans are compared to what they pay
Full of Giggles 4 years ago
It depends on your provider. I pay $35 for unlimited everything on two devices.
Ionut Tautan 4 years ago
lol, in Romania we can pay 5$ for most of that. I mean we get taxed for SMS, but few people use that anymore. Plus the internet speed is fantastic
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Diana 4 years ago (edited)
In Romania, I pay 5 Euros per month for unlimited SMS, calls and 20 GB data - phone purchased by myself You can buy the phone and have a monthly installment included in the subscription (no interest) or buy your phone from another provider/seller.
F. H. 4 years ago
The wages in Romania are quite low, though. Higher fees would probably not be profitable for the companies.
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CanadianaKa 4 years ago
Ha. Try Canada. Unlimited sms and calls domestic only, plus about 10 gigs data - for a MERE $85 a month. When I moved to Canada 10 years ago, my Verizon cell plan considered all of Canada and the U.S. local regardless of where in the two countries I were, for about $60 a month. It was so much better than what I could get up here that even Canadian service providers were telling me to keep my U.S. number!
Leslie Jackson 4 years ago
USA and Canada have population densities far lower than all European countries requiring hundreds of thousands of miles of infrastructure compared to thousands.
Curry on... 4 years ago
I'm just as frustrated with the costs of phones. Ridiculous, especially since I have vivid memories of one phone per household. Now with everyone in a house having a phone, the cost of equipment and services is off the charts.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago (edited)
Australia has some of the most expensive and slowest internet deals in the world. I pay $30 a month for unlimited local calls and texts with 8gb of data for my phone. My hubby pays $62 for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 12gb data and our home wifi we pay $70 for unlimited data. The average internet speed for our wifi is 42mbps. The average across Australia is between 40-50mbps which is slow compared to many other countries even though wifi was invented in Aus.
Roshan Dash 4 years ago
Are you sure that it's kbps and not mbps? That is probably slower than 2g internet here 5-10yrs ago.
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Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 4 years ago
I pay $45 a month for phone and $112 a month for internet and tv.
#21
The pledge of allegiance was actually an advertisement to sell flags.
A little Wren 4 years ago
And it’s extremely stupid that KIDS have to say what is basically “I understand that I am a person forever in debt to America because they gave us freedom that isn’t even real”
BananaAnna 4 years ago
Can't count how many times I have said the pledge, have never bought a flag.
Roxy Eastland 4 years ago
The first time I discovered that children have to do this pledge at school I was so creeped out. I'd only ever seen this type of thing depicted in communist China or Nazi Germany. I still find it weird.
sylvanticx 4 years ago
how bout the fact that we HAVE to say it at school and get punished if we don't. I DON"T CARE ABOUT THE FLAG.
Šu Ma 4 years ago
you get punished??? so much for advertised "free" and "democratic".. this is just sad to hear - i'd protest so hard if i was there :) just tell your teacher "f**k you i won't do what you tell me" hehehe
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Barrett Hansen 4 years ago
I think this is not so. The Pledge originally was written by Captain Balch of the Union Army during the civil war. It was then updated by Francis Bellamy. Adopted by US Congress in 1942, with the words "under God" added in 1954. Just can't believe everything you read, but most Americans do!
Don't Look 4 years ago
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..." as they face the Liberia.
#22
Tax Filing
For the majority of wage earners, the IRS can easily determine how much you owe and tell you, or tell you what you're owed in a refund. It's simple.
That they don't do so is only because tax preparation companies lobby lawmakers to keep the system as it is. Tax preparation companies only exist because they are legally allowed, middle men. They are slow, complicated, costly, and the opposite of free market efficiency.
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
It frustrates the HELL out of me when Americans blame their schools and say “Schools should teach kids how to do taxes!” Or, and hear me out here, the IRS could do what New Zealand does and calculate that stuff themselves. Even as a nonstandard worker who does have to do a tax return, it’s a short process where I just fill in how much money I made that year and set my provisional tax for the following year.
Carrie Laughs 4 years ago
Probably similar to the UK with Pay As You Go. Inland Revenue work out the tax, not the wage earner. I run my own business so have an accountant but it's still seems a lot easier to do the standard returns we have.
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Froganit Gamesy 4 years ago
In Israel we don't need to do this at all, the employer deduct the tax from the paycheck. You only do this if you think you are owed a refund.
F. H. 4 years ago (edited)
It's the same in Germany. But if you do it you _always_ get some kind of refund. The lowest I got was 200 Euro. So it's basicly mandatory, not doing them is as good as paying a hefty fine.
Load More Replies... Yeah, you heard 4 years ago
Seriously, every worker has to calculate their own tax?? That's nuts. I had no idea. Self employed people, sure, but employed people shoukd have it calculated and deducted automatically from their pay cheque.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Netherlands: You check your taxform online. The tax department has already filled out everything and all you have to do is answer some easy questions, and tell them why you should have to have a tax reduction or a refund.
LunaMendax 4 years ago
OK, so I live in Poland - a country that holds up with duck tape generally, but: I f*****g log on my personal governmental account where all my tax forms are (those my employers sent to the tax office - I'm a freelancer), I choose wright tax-form and... voila - it's self filled and ready to go! And even when that system wasn't ready yet, but online forms were available, I could use a free program to fill it - those programs were added as a freebee to newspapers! Plus - if you did, or still fill paper tax forms, you can go to the tax office and get it checked.
Marie-José Renaud 4 years ago
Ha! Try Québec where you have to file Federal AND Provicnial on different forms with different amount. Plus the Provincial one is more complicated than the Federal one.
Christina Eneroth (Eneroth3) 4 years ago
In Sweden we get an already filled in form from the tax authority and send a text to confirm if we don't want to make any changes. You can even enter a number on a landline phone if you don't have a cellphone. This was added recently to make the system more accessible for the elderly.
#23
Health insurance. Studied abroad in France for a year. When I went to the hospital for urinary retention due to an infection and had to spend the night. The only thing I had to pay for was the antibiotics they gave me to take home for a week which was about $10 for 7 pills. Ours is a joke.
Dave P 4 years ago
when you are a foreign student, you pay a fee to your American health provider for overseas care, then the Euro hospitals bill the heck out of it because they love American re-embursments. In fact they jump americans ahead of all the lines and give higher care, especially in places like france, because they want the American Insurance money.
Donkeywheel 4 years ago
Total bullshit. Universal healthcare means something in Europe.
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Helen 4 years ago
Posts like this keep coming and I honestly don't think they are real, sorry. I'm European, living in Europe. Whenever I travel, I have to pay for a travel insurance (which is on top of my health insurance), which even says, that I have to make sure to be able to settle hospital bills by myself and will get reimbursed after. Therefore I really question stories like this.
Sean Harrison 4 years ago
This is exactly why I'm trying to get my degree, so I can leave the USA. It's easier to get a job in another country if you have a degree, than without one.
#24
Politicians talk about the need for healthcare, but create legislation for healthcare insurance.
Those are not the same things. In fact, the latter actually is a barrier to the former.
cybermerlin2000 4 years ago
Stop the insurers completely and replace them with Private Healthcare. It's almost the same thing only cheaper, and you're guaranteed to get help paying for your medical costs. Better still, use some of the tax millions being frivolously wasted on falsely overly inflated costs for mundane things, and you could fund a free at access public health service.
M O'Connell 4 years ago
I did the math on this, if you took the largest insurer in the US (Anthem/Blue Cross) and took away their stock dividend payments and the salaries of their top 5 executives that would free up more than $900 million to use for actual healthcare!
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Legislation for healthcare insurance isn't a barrier for a affordable healthcare system. By setting rules and boundaries to insurance companies you can force them to stop using silly terms and conditions where you pay a shedload on premiums to find that your open heart surgery is only covered during the first 6 minutes of the operation.
Octavia Hansen 4 years ago
Put all politicians on the same medical care as the average citizen, don't let them leave the country for treatment, and things will change over night.
Jon Melius 4 years ago
The middleman needs to get paid. He wants to get the maximum he can. What does he offer in the cycle of care? Nothing.
#25
'Overdraft protection,' which actually allows the bank to charge you when you use a debit card, instead of just declining the transaction.
Helen Haley 4 years ago
Never understood overdraft fees or overdraft protection. Money isn't there, just decline. It is all done electronically, not like they're paying someone to look at each and every transaction to approve or deny. Money there? Transaction goes through. No money, no transaction.
Laura 4 years ago
My overdraft protection just takes it out of my savings account. Very convenient if I need something snd don’t realize my checking account has gone too low. Then I just pay back my savings account next time I get paid. It doesn’t happen too often, but I’m very glad to have the convenience of it when it does. And there are no fees.
Load More Replies... Eric Lafleur 4 years ago
I use a pre-paid card. If I need something that can't be paid for by other means, I transfer the money to that card and that's it, no interest, no fees and no way to accidently overspend.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
$36 dollar fee because you overdrew by $3.00! That's a great racket!
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest 4 years ago
I just noticed my credit union put a $25 monthly charge on my car loan for a nonpayment protection. They assumed I could not pay it despite paying it monthly. (due to me leaving my job at the start of the pandemic, unrelated, and I lowered payments, and my husband is paying them. They assumed I was laid off and I let them think that) I didn't have a reason to look into my account to know I'm too lazy to get it back. It was only like 3 months worth, so not much.
Brenda Couvee 4 years ago
A lot of these are not exclusive to America. I have a question for Americans though, does anybody still get paychecks? I hear about them all the time, stimulus checks for example, are cheques still in widespread use?
Sarah Luna 4 years ago
I don't get charged for overdraft protection, there was a separate account automatically added when I started banking at my credit union. And if I am tight during a week I can dip into it instead of my savings account, without interest because I can almost always pay it back within 2 weeks, max. In fact, it's never been longer than that for the last 20 years.
Sean Harrison 4 years ago
What's even more messed up about that is when you have that protection, and they take the money from your savings account to cover the transaction, you still get charged the overdraft protection fee because you used the overdraft protection service.
#26
The push that 'college is for everyone!' Also, you aren’t able to default on your student loans, so banks will give them to anyone. Coincidentally, society started telling people that they should all go to college, no matter their situation, right after passing the bill that made student loans impossible to hide from.
natie marie 4 years ago
I could have started doing the job I do now, 3 years earlier without debt had I not gone to uni. and I have friends who finished school at 18 and now own houses and are very comfortable. Uni is not the only way to succeed.
Dave P 4 years ago
Bad side effect of a well intention govt policy that no one wants to repeal because "college for all" sounds better than "We F-ed up the system, etc. You know 60% of all college expenditures (that are not luxury accomodations on campus that many have) are not on Education but rather govt compliance and admins for that.
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
We need plumbers, mechanics, electricians. Those jobs don't require college. Go to a trade school, make $40hr+ almost immediately, plus get work right away!
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
I routinely had employees leave work to go back to graduate school to get their masters in social work (I was the director of a non-profit serving homeless adolescents). Their salary when they left (this was back in 2000) was $36,000 for a supervisor position. After graduate school and $100K in debt, their starting salary was about $36,000 for a direct service social worker.
Full of Giggles 4 years ago
Most students loans aren’t from a bank. Federal loans are the primary source of financial aid.
lara 4 years ago
It may come as a big surprise to most people, but it wasn't UNTIL the government instituted "government backed student loans" that the price for an education sky rocketed. ANY TIME the government is "involved" it means that it will be more expensive and less available and totally screwed up. Before Medicare, the Johnson administration, medical care was very reasonable. Then all the massive rules and regulations caused everything to skyrocket. Our son was born in 1965, he was premature. He was in the hospital for almost a month and his bill was a DOLLAR a day. We had Blue Cross Blue Shield. My doctor quit practicing when Hillary put forth her "medical plan." Then my second doctor retired after the Obamanation's plan. BTW, I read that entire 3000 plus page "bill." You would NOT believe what was in it, INCLUDING how many MRI's are allowed, the government has to "approve" the doctor's prescriptions before you are "allowed" to have them, how many hours a resident is allowed
lara 4 years ago
to work, all doctors are supposed to "discuss" end of life "plans", the list of things that interfere with the doctor patient relationship is long and bureaucratic. I still have the "health destruction plant" if anyone wants to read it. BTW, you can also get it on line.
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NavyDave 4 years ago
Here in Sweden the college is paid by tax, it doesn't even cost an öre(pronounced UH-re, and no, the dots are there for a purpose, they make it into an entirely different letter.) The only expenses are for food and living, which can mostly be paid if you live in corridors and work part-time jobs.
Don't Look 4 years ago
For the past year at least I have been using the term "trade school" whenever someone mentions college. Think it'll take?
#27
Rent To Own products. (Rent-A-Center, Aarons, Conns, etc..) You end up paying triple or quadruple the value of the product for virtually no other benefit than you'd get if you just saved a little money and bought the product out-right.
Helen Haley 4 years ago
Everyone knows this is a scam. If people are resorting to rent to own, it is generally because they don't have a better option. If it takes you 3 years to save up for a bed, that is three years sleeping on the floor. Not really conducive to getting the sleep needed to work the 3 jobs you need.
Lemonclouds20 4 years ago
What super expensive beds are they selling in the US?
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Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
There are so many businesses that take advantage of the "working poor."
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
Was a time a single/divorced woman couldn't get financing to buy furniture. Even with 50% down payment, unless a man's name was on the lease, she was S.O.L. Took decades to pass a law against that sexism.
Eglė Bukauskaitė 4 years ago
I don't get it. Rent a car is amazing here considering how much car insurance is. Also there are seasonal tools that are used twice a year at most - the heck buying it and storing it??
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 4 years ago
Our dryer broke one day. Couldn't afford the $300 for a brand new one. Had to rent to own. But I had it paid within a month and I think I ended up paying the real cost since I did it in a short time. Same as cash price or something like that.
#28
Paying thousands of dollars for basic dental work
Missy Moo Moo 4 years ago
I paid $10000 for a front tooth implant in Australia. $2k to have the broken tooth removed, $800 for the fake tooth, $5k for the metal implant (surgery, hospital, anesthetist), $700 for the new fake tooth plate, $2k for the new tooth
Ligeia Raven 4 years ago
I'd say that dentists are expensive in general. Here in Poland I'd also need to have few thousand to go to one :).
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Aunt Messy 4 years ago
It covers cleanings and basic checkups and gives you a percentage back if you need work. Our dentist is out of network (because he's the best of the best), so if I have work done, I get between 60 and 70% of the money I spent back.
Load More Replies... WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Why do you (and many Americans with you) have this need to constantly lie about the most obvious things? A quick internet search proves you wrong. dental-5ff...24bf6f.png 
Ozacoter 4 years ago
Spain sucks for that too (but nothing compared to US). There are public dentists but they are super full and its basically imposible to get one so most people go to private. Mine used to cost me like 100 euros for a consult with a couple of fillings while it would be free in the public. But again, nothing compared to other countries.
Yeah, you heard 4 years ago
And yet Americans generally have perfect teeth. Just think how rich they could be if they could learn to accept natural teeth!
wandile dludlu 4 years ago
I pay the equivalent of 2 US dollar to have a tooth removed, even less for fillings... and that's in a 3rd world country
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
New Zealand sucks about this too. Yes, including Jacinda, although it’s not that she’s resistant to funding it per se; she just has major damage from when she was a member of the opposition and had to see Ponytail Puller* and his ilk repealing a bunch of stuff her predecessor brought in. So her thing with anything systemic is “If I move at a snail’s pace, maybe it won’t get repealed the next time the other party gets back in.” *https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KJJdB208ojQ
Pamela Blue 4 years ago
Dentists don't appear to be part of the general health care system in any country. To me, this is so backwards, as the mouth is part of one's anatomy and one's general health is very much related to the state of one's dental health. This is a well known fact, yet dental coverage isn't considered to be as essential as "health" care? This IS your health for goodness sakes!
#29
Charging $1 to add cheese.
chi-wei shen 4 years ago
This looks like Kraft "Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product" which cannot be called cheese due to the inclusion of milk protein concentrates. The FDA forced them to change the name.
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Penny Kemper 4 years ago
And it's not even real cheese.... processed cheese food, not real cheese!!
C.S. E. 4 years ago
To be fair, there are many chefs who like APC; it's meltability is unparalleled and, when heated, acts more like a sauce and is a nice, mild compliment to the beef used in a burger. It blends well with the individual components. That said, not the best but do you really want to use a Roquefort on a burger at a back yard grill? Plus, full cheese (Kraft APC is around 50% actual cheese; it's more of an emulsion than 'fake') usually gets tough, stringy, and/or separates and gets oily. Not saying fancier cheeses aren't good, but I'd rather eat them in another way than on a burger. It's a BURGER. I'm just not that pretentious or precious. That said, y'all do y'all. Also, charging $1 for cheese added IS bullshit.
#30
Identity theft. The bank fails to properly vet someone they gave money to, and now it's your problem. You did nothing, the bank made a mistake. How is that your problem? And look at credit monitoring companies, they claim they can detect fraud on your credit report. Yet, credit monitoring companies and credit reporting companies are one and the same -- literally the same company. So the real message is "pay us and we will not make false reports about you in our credit reports, we have the ability to detect falsehoods, but will only do so if you pay us". There should be a clear case of libel here. The credit reporting companies often report things that they reasonably know to be false.
Brandy Grote 4 years ago
Use credit unions. Don't just use the 1st bank you find. Get the best deal for your life. Every credit union we've used has bent over backwards to help us with fraud.
Michelle Anne 4 years ago
identity theft can occur with a credit union too. this is more about credit reporting
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Andrei Dragnea 4 years ago
I live in Europe. The ATM said on screen that it gave me X amount of money, but nothing came out of the machine. Called the bank and they told me that in their system it looks like i collected the money but they decided anyway to instantly refund my account and told me that they will investigate further the situation and that my money are automatically insured at their bank (you can't lie the bank about this because you'd be breaking the law). Everything related to my bank account (including my card) is 100% free because I get my salary there. No hidden fees, no taxes. I can extract money from any ATM machine without any fees from my Bank or the Bank owning said ATM machine.
Carrie Laughs 4 years ago
I was paid back the money within 24 hours with barely a question asked. In the UK this is the norm (Citizens Advice Bureau information) "Your bank should refund any money stolen from you as a result of fraud and identity theft. They should do this as soon as possible - ideally by the end of the next working day after you report the problem. If the bank thinks you might have acted fraudulently or were negligent, they can delay the refund while they investigate - this shouldn't take more than a few days".
Load More Replies... Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
Never use a debit card, carry a credit card and keep a zero balance (pay off your purchases) and always have a freeze on your credit.
#31
The war on drugs. Cheap informal pharmacopeia is what's left for anyone who can't afford or access doctors, psychiatric help, or prescription meds. Rehab for the privileged, prison for the rest. Political talking points, to get us riled up. A gray market with selective enforcement, like gambling and prostitution. Employment in the Informal Sector. Employment, asset seizure, bribery, and extortion opportunity for cynical Enforcers. Prohibition 2.0.
Julie C Rose 4 years ago
New Zealand is godawful about drugs too. Our organisation that helps addicts is absolutely furious about it.
Valerie Kirk 4 years ago
The sooner drugs are decriminalised, the better.
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Wim Cossement 4 years ago (edited)
Never forget how much cocaine and heroine the CIA allowed to be 'smuggled' into the coutnry while paying rebels and regimes that provided it with weapons to fight 'communists'! Even the army was involved at times!
C.S. E. 4 years ago
What's truly worse is they hyper focused on drugs they label 'illegal' while allowing the pain pill addiction to absolutely cripple the general public. Only now is someone being hinted at being punished; won't stop it, though. Marijuana is a hell of a lot less likely to kill you than Percocet and can better help mitigate pain. And this from someone who doesn't even imbibe. Also, microdosing 'shrooms is showing a lot of promise for PTSD.
Becca Gizmo the Squirrel 4 years ago
I saw a war on drugs documentary narrated by woody harrelson. I couldn't believe the billions and billions the gov has spent on the war on drugs. For nothing. It's insane. It was 20 years ago when I watched it.
lara 4 years ago
Personally I think all drugs should be legalized. I think the government should provide them free. I think people who wish to dope up their lives should be able to live in government provided housing with doctors, drugs, food, hospitals and no one is allowed to bother them. They would live in compounds and the only people allowed would be them, their fellow druggies, medical personnel, and caretakers. And if they want to OD that's fine. This will end druggies on the street becoming criminals to get their next fix, it will destroy the drug gangs, it will destroy the cartels and it will provide a safe environment for these people to destroy themselves. If they want to get clean then this environment will provide them with the tools and education to do so. But, if they go back on drugs on the outside, they will have to come back so that they will be safe. In addition, society at large is now safe from them.
#32
Commercialized medication.
#33
For profit health insurance. We still pay for other people's healthcare, we just do it in a much more bloated and expensive way than universal healthcare.
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
I have a good friend who works in the insurance industry. Every year their entire work group goes somewhere (Hawaii, Mexico) for a week all paid by the company. I'm guessing for 50 people it probably comes up to $150,000 (airfare, accommodations, etc.). When I explain to her that their trip is paid for on the backs of people/companies paying their insurance coverage premiums. She's adamant that it's paid for out of the her boss' "profit" for the company. There are million examples like this that inflates the cost of health insurance. And, speaking of the boss' profit, he lives in a multi-million dollar home and drives a Maserati. Capitalism is good to point ... until it leads to gross excess and severe income disparity.
#34
Water bottles Cost less than a cent to fill.
Anne Reid 4 years ago
What really needs to be addressed is that not every place in the US has drinkable water. Where I live in Florida, I’m ok. My friends less than a mile away? Their water is so heavily chlorinated that you might as well drink from a swimming pool. No water filter to date has been able to overcome it. Of course, that’s nothing compared to Flint, Michigan.
Tomek Sztuk 4 years ago
That is absolutely bonkers, I remember how awful tap water was even in NY compared to what flows from the pipe in literally any place in EU, even in the poorest of places.
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Brendan Boudreaux 4 years ago
Most americans don't drink bottled water anymore. everybody carries around a metal canteen (at least here in California). Only time one really sees people drinking bottled water is at festival/amusement parks when you are not allowed to bring your canteen.
Curry on... 4 years ago
People could 'purify' their own tap water, but they somehow believe that bottled tap water sold to them is better.
Luther von Wolfen 4 years ago
I carry a glass jar full of tap water. People who are carrying plastic bottles of water they paid $1-2 for look at me like I'm crazy.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Netherlands: 70 Eurocents per 1000 liters of water in a quality that's better than a lot of bottled waters.
Linda Jansen 4 years ago
the same water that comes out of my tab at home gets bottled up and sold. Yes also netherlands.
Load More Replies... #35
90% of ads you see in social media. Hair fruit gummies do not help your hair.
Katrina B. 4 years ago
First off, that's B12 which does other things, and you do need B vitamins. The one you're thinking of is biotin which has shown mixed results in helping in human bodies.
Linda Jansen 4 years ago
B12 in that form is only for vegetarians. if your body can not process B 12 by eating meat/eggs, a pill wont be processed neither. it follows the same path.
#36
Prescription eye glasses. They should be maybe $100 tops but we pay multiple times that for them.
Bill 4 years ago
This because of that Italian company that has a complete monopoly onthe industry.
Philly Bob Squires 4 years ago
YUP! One company owns mostly all the frame producers. Like diamonds... DeBeers has the market.
Load More Replies... Alexis draskinis 4 years ago
For anyone in need....i use eyebuydirect.com. The last time i bought a pair, i paid more for the exam & they were shipped to my house!
Carrie Laughs 4 years ago
I use Goggles4U. Partner paid £43 for a pair of glasses that had a complicated prescription and they chose the thinnest lenses possible, transition style (go dark in the sun) lenses and they were also varifocals. This includes shipping to the UK from the US.
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Julie 4 years ago
former optician with a conscience here. It is all about the lenses, that is where the money is made. In some shops, clear, single vision, standard CR39 plastic lenses, wholesale cost was less than 5 dollars a pair. Selling price would start at $39.95 a pair with add ons varying in price ex: $30 extra for scratch resistance, $30 extra for UV block, $30 extra for tinting ( standard tint, not photo chromatic, those would be hundreds more). It goes on and on. So for single vision lenses with all those add-ons, say you pay $149.95, for the lenses alone...that is a 3000 percent markup. Frames are not as bad, but still, their mark up is easily 300 percent or more. Progressive, bifocals, photo chromatic polarized lenses etc...cost even more. I left the businesses because I felt like a thief, charging $200 for simple reading glasses to little old women, when they cost under 20 to make. I get my single vision glasses, including frame from Eyeglass direct dot com for $30.00.
Aunt Messy 4 years ago
We buy designer frames - that's out choice, but if you have to put the things on your face every day, they should look good. So about 700 Euros for frames that we take back to the States to have lenses made. For the lenses.....about $1400.00. Lineless bifocals, polarized auto tint, anti-glare coating.... Yep. Glasses are expensive.
Carrie Laughs 4 years ago (edited)
£43 for exactly the same type of lenses in a non-designer frame. Though the company providing them does do designer should you want to pay more for the frames. Glasses don't need to be expensive. EDIT: No, most definitely not standardised lenses. Prescription and a complex one due to several eye conditions.
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Brandy Grote 4 years ago
I buy mine online. With my prescription, they would cost $400+ at a storefront for the cheapest ones. Buying online, they are about $150, but I can get 2 for 1. In 25 years, I've had 2 incorrect pairs, which were fixed at no cost. Sadly, Sears Optical is going away, taking the $45 exam. But Costco exams are ok.
Zophra 4 years ago
Asking a dumb question - how are you doing this without trying them on? Even at the over-priced glasses companies where I can actually see the frames, what I think I will look good in - often doesn't look right on me.
Load More Replies... Don't Look 4 years ago
if you mean the lenses, sure why not? If you mean the frames, you have to get away from the designer brands. Designers know what they are doing. They will continue to appeal to everyone through name alone.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
people have disrupted the virtual monopoly Luxottica has had on the industry with places like Zenni in the US, but it's a global scam. Designers have made BANK slapping their name on crap.
#37
Insurance. Sure it works as intended, but it could be non-profit so rates are cheaper and rebates are given, not so someone can get filthy rich. All the unused money at the end of the year should go back to the insured, not the insurer less a fair wage.
Kevin Donegan 4 years ago
I have a good friend who works in the insurance industry. Every year their entire work group goes somewhere (Hawaii, Mexico) for a week all paid by the company. I'm guessing for 50 people it probably comes up to $150,000 (airfare, accommodations, etc.). When I explain to her that their trip is paid for on the backs of people/companies paying their insurance coverage premiums. She's adamant that it's paid for out of the her boss' "profit" for the company. There are million examples like this that inflates the cost of health insurance. And, speaking of the boss' profit, he lives in a multi-million dollar home and drives a Maserati. Capitalism is good to point ... until it leads to gross excess and severe income disparity.
Saico Hipe 4 years ago
$150,000 is literally how much money I've made in the last 6 years. Six. F*cking. Years. I hate this place so goddamned much.
Load More Replies... Zophra 4 years ago
NJ - Car insurance; we are paying $2343.00 a year for three drivers, 3 older vehicles with minimal coverage. That's after shopping around too. NJ is crazy.
lara 4 years ago
The "unused" money is banked for future catastrophes, like hurricanes, tornadoes, and various other calamities. We are talking about insurance companies paying out billions of dollars for yearly catastrophes, like the hurricanes.
Saico Hipe 4 years ago
I almost want to create a new account to down vote this twice.
Load More Replies... Malinda Petersen 4 years ago
For certain thins there is non profit insurance, not just private party.
Curry on... 4 years ago
And goodness, if you dare have to use the insurance, your rates go up or they drop you.
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago
Or how about act less careless, try to avoid damages and take more responsibility for your share in damage control? Premiums wouldn't be so high if people weren't constantly defrauding the insurance companies. Insurance companies have to invest millions on fraud prevention. So there's not much money left at the end of the year. That's why the premiums keep going up.
#38
Car dealerships. They're literally just middle-man functions that do nothing more than raise the cost of the 'good' and produce taxation for the government on multiple levels of the transactions involved in purchasing a car through the third party.
Troux 4 years ago
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Car salespeople Make 100k+ for being no more knowledgeable about their product than other point-of-sale people. It feels like most of their training is focused on how to justify all the extra costs and add-ons that you never needed before but now you 'definitely need!'
WilvanderHeijden 4 years ago (edited)
In Europe car dealerships provide more security for the buyer when buying a second hand car. They are bound to more rules and have a greater responsibility in providing the buyer with accurate information about the car and its condition. When you buy a new car, they are liable for all warranty. You don't need to contact the manufacturer, the dealer sold you the car, so any problem with the car is his problem.
Attila Ángyán 4 years ago
Thats right! Beside, as for Hungary, there are a lot of dealers who provide expert, multi-point checks for used cars (things that only people with 10+ years of experience can see), in-house service before sale, background checks with warranty... of course the best is to buy from trusted friends or family, or other genuine resources, but dealerships here really have reputations. (Apart from the rare horror stories..) I think in my coutry they are legit and I give credit to them for trying to deliver good cars for genuine customers with a reasonable profit
Load More Replies... Saico Hipe 4 years ago
My father (who is a huge assh*le, to the extent that I haven't spoken to him in 7 years) worked for a car dealership for a couple of months. He said that at their monthly sales meeting, they had various 'awards' they would give out, such as for Most Improved, Best Attitude, Most Overall Sales, etc. He said there was one that they called the 'Break it Off in Them' award, so-named after the idea of stabbing someone with a knife and breaking off the blade into their body. Basically it meant an award for whomever had made the most brutally unkind sale. One month, a salesperson was given this award for selling his own mother (!) a car at 10% above the sticker price, whereas they were all quite aware that paying even the sticker price was almost literally criminal. Being a car salesperson was so demoralizing and greasy that even HE was too grossed out by it to continue. This from someone who chronically cheated on his wife and beat his children and otherwise terrorized all of us. Wow. 🖕
Arctic Fox Lover 4 years ago
This is why I love Confused.com... Jk, I love it because of its commercials and because of the domain name.
#39
Greeting cards cost like $5!
F. H. 4 years ago
But you defenitely can. A good office supply store has greeting cards for 10 Euro, too.
Load More Replies... BananaAnna 4 years ago
Companies that want donations send cards to me far too often. They are free, I use them. Trouble is when you walking on ancient legs a person has very few friends/family to send cards to. I have an overabundance of cards. And address labels.
Katrina B. 4 years ago
Not everywhere and not every card. Unless it's a specialty card that weighs more or is oversized, they cost under $3.
Don't Look 4 years ago
Yeah! When the hell did this happen? I used to pay about $2 for a birthday card and it was always a humerous card. Now it's $5, not funny and what the hell....
What do you think ?
mph seti 4 years ago
the entire human race is doomed unless we can collectively get rid of greed. The USA is one of the worst offenders, but the problem is species-wide.
C Hypercube 4 years ago (edited)
Do you ever have the feeling that the entire world isn't normal anymore? That we somehow slipped onto the realm of insanity so gradually that we don't even know it anymore? Yeah, me too.
blugeagua 4 years ago
Did it ever occur to anyone that MANY of us Americans do in fact know these things are not normal. A LOT of us want change.
Dl B 4 years ago
Most of these most Americans do not think are "normal". Any thinking American (yes I know that is a stretch) realize that these things are not "normal" but we are stuck with them until something can be done to change them.
ivan bolitekurac 4 years ago
Some things are the same in other countries too.Other countries have their own problems,like women cant drive or vote.Others don't let you speak bad about politics or you'll end up in jail.But bp doesn't give a s**t as long as the article can be #usabaaad..Cant wait for the next "why usa sucks" article tomorrow.I have never been to the usa but according to this articles it is a shithole.But then why do so many people wanna live in this shithole country?Bp please explain...
Sid Werner 4 years ago (edited)
Historically speaking, purely from a factual, and worldwide perspective, the United States is one of the absolute most successfully propaganda based countries to ever exist. Period. The Roman Empire very much used propaganda on every level, governmental, militaristic, and especially in it's ultimately corrupt, corporatist fueled economy, which is why anyone who actually knows anything about history makes comparisons between the two quite often. :D
Ionut Tautan 4 years ago
you forgot the countless wars USA still participates in under false pretence. They're all about selling weapons and getting oil
mph seti 4 years ago
the entire human race is doomed unless we can collectively get rid of greed. The USA is one of the worst offenders, but the problem is species-wide.
C Hypercube 4 years ago (edited)
Do you ever have the feeling that the entire world isn't normal anymore? That we somehow slipped onto the realm of insanity so gradually that we don't even know it anymore? Yeah, me too.
blugeagua 4 years ago
Did it ever occur to anyone that MANY of us Americans do in fact know these things are not normal. A LOT of us want change.
Dl B 4 years ago
Most of these most Americans do not think are "normal". Any thinking American (yes I know that is a stretch) realize that these things are not "normal" but we are stuck with them until something can be done to change them.
ivan bolitekurac 4 years ago
Some things are the same in other countries too.Other countries have their own problems,like women cant drive or vote.Others don't let you speak bad about politics or you'll end up in jail.But bp doesn't give a s**t as long as the article can be #usabaaad..Cant wait for the next "why usa sucks" article tomorrow.I have never been to the usa but according to this articles it is a shithole.But then why do so many people wanna live in this shithole country?Bp please explain...
Sid Werner 4 years ago (edited)
Historically speaking, purely from a factual, and worldwide perspective, the United States is one of the absolute most successfully propaganda based countries to ever exist. Period. The Roman Empire very much used propaganda on every level, governmental, militaristic, and especially in it's ultimately corrupt, corporatist fueled economy, which is why anyone who actually knows anything about history makes comparisons between the two quite often. :D
Ionut Tautan 4 years ago
you forgot the countless wars USA still participates in under false pretence. They're all about selling weapons and getting oil
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