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The intense income disparity.
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Healthcare bills.
I suppose these are cliche topics but as a non-american non-tourist the first thing that has stood out to me is that the highs are so incredibly high, and the lows are so incredibly low. Being a Canadian, it’s not like we don’t also have income disparity…but the gap is not as insane. The rich in the US have yachts that are 100’s of millions of dollars, and the poor literally carry their kids on their backs while selling fruit on the side of the highway. You can see both in the same day.
Also I don’t think Americans truly understand that you can get weeks of hospital care in Canada and not even receive a bill. Like a month in a private hospital room and i paid for a phone bill, a wifi bill, and some parking fees. In the US if you even so much as flash your eyelashes at a doctor you get a bill for hundreds of dollars.
While I agree with the essence of what you are saying. I want to say, if you have insurance the “bill” might be hundreds, but my share might only be 20 usd, if anything at all. If my “bill” was thousands, I might see my share be a couple hundred usd at most. It is possible for it to be far less then a couple hundred.
The other thing people don’t mention is, if I honestly can’t pay my share. I can walk into the billing office at the clinic /hospital and explain I honestly can’t afford my share. The hospital will bill the insurance what they can, then look for extra funding. Most hospitals have a charity fund. It is based on my income. If I am broke and make crap wages, my share might be reduced to 0 usd.
Should we have a better system? Yes, but many times there are real options out there.
User fees invoke a chilling effect on care usage, especially preventative care.
And when you’re seen as a cash cow and as a patient, there can be a conflict of interest.
As a Canadian it’s insane to me to have a bill at all after going through some sort of health ordeal the last thing you need is a big scary bill with something to do.
if I honestly can’t pay my share. I can walk into the billing office at the clinic /hospital and explain I honestly can’t afford my share. The hospital will bill the insurance what they can, then look for extra funding. Most hospitals have a charity fund. It is based on my income. If I am broke and make crap wages, my share might be reduced to 0 usd.
So the ask here is for someone who already need to work every waking moment, and then just lost a bunch of hours being hurt/sick, to then spend their time explaining multiple times to the billing dept that they cant afford it (this is degrading) and then their bill MIGHT be reduced but it also MIGHT go to collections and which further goes to damage the individual by hurting their credit. just seems like a burden on the poor.
But yeah i mean its a difference in systems. I think about how canada builds it into taxes - everyone pays in at a rate consistent with their income levels and benefits similarly - but the US way is donations. And I hope that works too. It seems to work from what i’ve seen so far. but it seems like a round about way to get it done.
I basically agree with what you are saying, just to clarify, it isn’t asking multiple times or explaining multiple times. The one time I had to ask for help, I talked to one person. They looked and said, don’t worry about the bill.
But yeah we do need a better system.
I appreciate having your first hand insight and appreciate the convo
Most hospitals have a charity fund. It is based on my income. If I am broke and make crap wages, my share might be reduced to 0 usd.
Currently working through this with the local hospital and about $8k of various visits over the last 4 years of so while we had some mix of no insurance, garbage insurance and Medicaid (federally funded low income insurance) and it’s literally all being wiped away. The lady who processes the applications explained to me that it’s on a sliding scale, so if you make $1 over the threshhold for 100% waiver, it might be a 95% waiver. Notably some of the debt turned out to be a billing error where they should have billed Medicaid in the first place, but that was one of the smaller bills in the pile of debt
I’m getting my shoulder repaired next week (I completely tore my supraspinatus tendon, wooo…). It’s going to cost me $16,000. That’s relatively cheap in the US; if I had insurance (which I don’t), I’d have to have surgery done in a hospital, and my insurance would be billed >$30k. I’ve looked into medical tourism, but I just don’t have the time; if it was still 80% torn, I could fly to Spain or something, pay cash, take 2-3 weeks to recover, do touristy shit, fly home, and still come out ahead. Unfortunately, once a tendon is fully separated, you need to address it ASAP.
And, BTW, I’m very, very lucky that I have $16k in a 401(k) that I can withdraw in the first place; if this had happened to me 10 years ago, i would have just lost partial use of my right arm for the rest of my life.
…And why don’t I have insurance? The only insurance available to me costs >$500/mo., and the annual deductible (the amount I have to pay before insurance covers anything aside from routine care and prescriptions) is $9000. My costs would be almost identical if I had the only insurance that’s available to me.
EDIT - OTOH, it’s generally a little faster for people in the US to get non-emergency care. E.g., if my supraspinatus was torn, but not completely separated, I would generally have a longer wait for surgery in the UK or Canada than I would in the US. But that’s a pretty small positive for the US system compared to a huge ton of negatives.
The statement for my wife’s first month-long hospital stint was upwards of $957k.
My auntie had 4 major surgeries to overcome a situation she found herself in. It was serious ICU and ER stuff.
She’s been there a month now, recuperating, and once she’s fully tapered off the morphine she can go home with a visiting nurse.
Only expenses so far are vending machines when she wants some Peak Freens.
My wife’s hospital had a taqueria
Drive through rural Mississippi. The wealth gap is nuts just from what you can see on the highway.
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It’s not the healthcare that bothered me most, although it did.
It’s the cognitive dissonance around the unavailability of healthcare in order to avoid anxiety over the fact that a traffic accident can bankrupt you with no relief. Ignoring the risk takes some serious mental gymnastics and basic math failure to get there, but when brought up in this environment - where a TV show about a teacher who has to cook and sell meth to get hospital money is actually a plausible plot where no one actually examines the mercenary care at all and the main character just pays it - it’s just a part of their existence.
Not understanding that few other people live like this - cubans don’t live like this - is absurd.
Shoes in the house
Do I just live in a weird bubble? I live in the US and I am rarely at someone’s house who doesn’t remove their shoes nowadays. I certainly grew up wearing shoes at home, but that’s changed significantly over the past 20 years or so.
Anecdotally this is also my experience. I grew up with shoes off in the house, but even up to the early 00’s it seemed to be a cultural outlier in the US.
These days I think the majority of people who I go over to visit have a shoes off rule. Seems like the split is between the older half of millennials and up shoes on, and younger half and down shoes off for the most part.
From my experience this varies wildly regionally. My family in LA will put on shoes as part of getting dressed in the morning, but in Wisconsin you take your shoes off at the door since theres a good chance they’re wet or even muddy depending on the season
I grew up in a home where we just never thought about wearing, or not wearing, shoes in the house. Like, we obviously didn’t track mud all over the place if our shoes were that dirty, but if we were wearing our shoes inside, nobody said anything or cared, it was just whatever. Married a Kenyan who put her foot down and was like, “Are you crazy?” It’s apparently a big thing elsewhere in the world. In Kenya alot of roads aren’t paved, things get dusty, and it’s just common sense that you don’t walk all over the house with dirty shoes, so I get it from that perspective.
Yeah that’s a huge part of it. Few Americans (me included) frequently walk outdoors on anything but sidewalks or paved roads in their normal day to day travels. When I go hiking I take those shoes off before I get back into the car, but my daily driver boat shoes which rarely touch actual dirt? I don’t have a problem leaving those on in most places, my house included. Same I imagine for Americans where their job is construction or something where your shoes are dirtied, take the work shoes off when you get home, but it’s fine to wear more casual shoes
Edit: what a strange thing to get downvoted about
Double edit: I guess the first downvotes were just from people who very much don’t like shoes in the house under any circumstances. That’s ok. If I come to your house my shoes will come off. If you come to mine, feel free to leave them on if they aren’t muddy.
I’ve been wearing moccasins indoors for decades.
Sooooo comfortable!
As soon as I get home, all of my outside items are exchanged for comfy inside items. It’s like a physical form of masking.
Yeah, I just got home and switched to loose running shorts (it’s hot here at the moment). Why would I wanna stay wearing jeans when I can relax?
Exactly! And socks/shoes, no less!
As an American this is gross to me too
Only place I’ve live where this is taboo is Chicagoland. And that’s to be expected with the muddy snow.
Here in the South we usually don’t have carpets, no reason to take our shoes off.
Ever walked into a public toilet? Well, that piss is now all over your floor at home.
As is spit from the street. Remnant dog poo, bird poo, etc etc.
Take your shoes off. Please.
Thinking that there is no reason to take your shoes off is the most American thing in the world. There is poop, pee, puke, pollen, pollution, parvo and prions out there, among other things.
In Japan the entryway of a house is usually a step lower than the rest of the house. It is considered part of the outside, where the shoes stay, as well as all of the dirty things from the outside that are on the shoes. And symbolically, your troubles from the outside world are not brought into the house either. It’s a major faux pas to wear your shoes in the house past this step and bring all that shit inside. Interesting contrast
yep, living in San Francisco made me a shoes off indoors guy, for every p you listed*
*except for prions. mmmm, delicious prions
Thinking that there is no reason to take your shoes off is the most American thing in the world. There is poop, pee, puke, pollen, pollution, parvo and prions out there, among other things.
you’re already breathing it, unless you’re literally licking the floor it’s probably not a huge concern.
Are you japanese? I know they generally have pretty strict social rules.
Yeah. No carpets, dogs coming in and out. I only take mine off if they are legit muddy, it’s a lost cause, I am not going to make everyone take off their shoes. We aren’t eating off the floor. I am also willing to sit on the ground outside, turn cartwheels, etc. Really just not that paranoid about dirt.
Up north I understand everyone has carpets.
Some places there is much more sitting on the floor.
It seems situational to me.
Nobody is putting their shoes on the furniture though, they are putting them on the floor.
It’s not carpets that I take my shoes off for - it’s so I don’t track public bathroom and outside street debris into my house.
Oh man YES
That is always a weird one for my brain to work around.
As an American, it drives me crazy. Then there’s those heathens who lay on the bed with shoes on!
American of asian descent, absolutely ludicrous! It would perhaps be more forgiviable if all of the floors were furnished in hardwood and tile, but they’ll wear shoes even on carpet! Immediately after entering one of these heathen’s houses, I long for the soft, lucious, kempt, carpets of my own abode, compared to the repuslive, stiff, flat and even crunchy carpets of my white friends. Frankly it offends me, deeply. I must slap my friends silly before entering my home to remove their filthy clogs.
That was a joy to read.
I’m sorry to tell you I am one of those people, as is my family. Every so often I have a moment of clarity about it, but it doesn’t last long.
Your existence is nauseating
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What shoes are those? Those are dope
Thanks!!
You’re welcome!
urp….i think I may vomit…
I wear my street shoes inside except winter. Both my work boots come off regardless. Also have house slippers. But I’ll be damned if me or someone put their shoes on a bed, or even a couch for that matter.
Both my work boots come off regardless.
No one asked, but now I need to know: when would you only take ONE work boot off?
I have two sets, one summer and one winter. Though not sure why put it that way lol
TSA, but I guess you know that this is not normal?
Also the constant humming of ACs in New York drove me crazy.
As an American, my top realization was… everywhere else in the world yall use electric kettles - Americans frequently only have a stove top kettle like it’s the fucking eighteenth century.
I thought this one was also to do with their power being on a lower voltage so Kettles take longer?
But it’s still super weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
not that much slower, it’s mostly dependent on the amount of water. We just don’t drink tea (the main reason for a kettle) and coffee makers are basically just kettles so…
It’s not. Boiling water with 110V power works just fine.
Electric kettles are are slower on 110 but way faster than electric(non induction) stove
We have keurigs now 🤡
(They can dispense plain hot water)
Ah the company that convinced people that adding DRM to coffee was okay because they made it “easier” to make coffee (meanwhile I’ve faught far more with every kurig I’ve encountered than any $5 drip coffee machine I’ve ever encountered)
We mostly use it like a regular coffee machine though, with the cups you can fill yourself. No DRM used here.
Looks like it depends on the model for if it has DRM of not. Here’s an article from 2015 where they said they were bringing the DRM back and this reddit thread has some users discussing their history of sometimes putting in DRM on the machines and sometimes not.
The same reddit thread also points out that Nestle got onto the bandwagon of disposable plastic cups with DRM tied to their brand of coffee maker, so as usual, fuck nestle too
Is there a generic (non-brand) name for these boiling-water faucets? (That’s not a mouthful like “boiling-water faucets”). I think we call them quookers here, which is also a brand name, and I slightly dislike that practice. I mean, “brand name for generic thing” is very common, but the brands and things differ per country, so it’s like a layer of jargon to decipher.
I dont think there is. There are, however, actual instant hot-water dispensers you can install as an extra sink faucet and they are amazing.
Yeah but anything that comes out of a keurig always tastes kinda sludgy.
Clean your keurig
Oh I don’t own one… they make crappy coffee anyway.
coffee makers (basically everyone has one) are basically just a kettle
I actually find this cute. Like we’re all out camping and someone wants to make a brew. Adds an element of magic to making a simple tea.
The stove top kettle might get a comeback since modern induction stoves are faster than an electric kettle. I’m about to get one and look forward to having one less appliance on the table.
I’m not sure it’s that much faster but we recently switched to a stove top kettle for our induction stove. It’s one less thing that needs to be plugged in somewhere. Also, the kettle makes a very cool sound! :)
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Also: Microwave. Apparently, lots of people heat their water in the microwave. (See pinned comment here.)
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But my electric kettle only cost me $10
+1 for the account name being on topic
You ever eat instant ramen? You enjoy boiling things? Do you drink tea multiple times a year?
The kettle is worth it.
you can boil water in a pot on the stove, or in the microwave, we have options.
This is sort of the point - it’s such a pain compared to an electric kettle and I just don’t understand why Americans are so dedicated to avoiding such a useful appliance.
is it though?
- kettle: fill it with water, turn it on, and wait
- stove: fill a pot with water, put it on the stove and turn it on, wait
- microwave: put a cup of water in the microwave and wait
- coffeemaker: press the go button, it makes hot water
it’s useful in the same way that a rotary hammer drill is useful for drilling through masonry, i’m going to assume you probably don’t drill through much masonry in your life, therefore you don’t need it.
Americans aren’t stupid or daft, we just dont fucking need them. 95% of the time we need hot water, its for cooking, or coffee.
If we had a kettle it would literally just be landfill.
you’re effectively asking someone who doesn’t eat toast frequently why they don’t have a toaster, it’s a silly question.
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Ramen is most commonly sold in sealed plastic bags in America. We just cook it in a pot like any other pasta. Lots of people I know don’t own any kind of kettle. If they need to boil water a pot or the microwave both work just fine.
Personally, I like tea, but I also have an induction cooktop, so I just have a kettle for that. It’s great. All the advantages of an electric kettle without having to put an electrical appliance by my sink.
They are common among US tea drinkers, but coffee seems more popular.
I never understood the need to display multiple US flags in your yard. We get it, you live in america. You love America. We get that too. Are you afraid someone will think you no longer wish to be American if you took your flags down?
It’s a political thing. Signals that you are a nationalist chud.
No, leave them up so I know to avoid you.
You know what’s a funny one? Flag pins. Every politician in America, take a look, they will ALL be wearing a little American Flag pin, always.
I have to assume other politicians in other countries don’t always wear a pin of their country.
You’re wrong. They also do this in North Korea.
I think for some it’s a mix of patriotism and having poor taste in decor. I know people who also have American flag swim shorts, sunglasses, etc. Also, it’s not exclusive to America. My British side of the family (especially the ones who’ve met the former Queen) have a weird amount of UK flag decor too, ranging from clock faces, throw pillows, and even an armchair covered in a giant union jack.
As long as it’s the UK flag, and not the English flag, I’ll give them a pass. Stay clear from anyone in an England flag, drunk or sober, football or naught.
Honestly I assume most people with an American flag in their yard are racist trump fans these days
ok so, i hate to do this to you, but have you ever considered that these people would probably just… Have a trump sign.
Funnily enough this is exactly how people think including our house.
I took mine down when Roe v Wade was overturned and the Progress Pride flag went up. I had been considering putting the American Flag back up recently if Democrats start winning again.
People from every country like to pretend that patriotism isn’t a natural part of living but will stick their heads so far up their own asses when talking up all their food, culture, teams, or any other number of arbitrary things.
And while there has been some divergence in Patriotism vs Nationalism, they’re essentially the same damn thing but with better connotations for one now lol.
And while there has been some divergence in Patriotism vs Nationalism, they’re essentially the same damn thing but with better connotations for one now lol.
ok to be clear, nationalism is generally a hinge point in a fascism/authoritarian political party. Patriotism is just being proud of the country you’re a part of. A lot of people are very patriotic about their states, or sports teams. Brits especially.
It took me (an American) going to Ireland and Northern Ireland to realize how odd the excessive flag waving is. Still odd, but those two have the US beat.
“Those two” have a few reasons to want to wave their flags.
Currently live in the Republic of Ireland and I have no idea what you’re talking about? Were you here on Saint Patrick’s Day? There’s a significant amount of Palestinian flags in windows here for pretty obvious reasons but other than that I don’t think I’ve seen a flag since, again, Paddy’s day.
But the Republic and Northern island need to fly those flags so you know where you are and whether it’s been taken over.
Okay, maybe not, but when I was in America for a few years we decided the ridiculous fixation was so people knew that they hadn’t been taken over … again.
Just wait until you start seeing the new combination flags where it’s divided diagnoally and displays two flags communicating opposing and incompatible values. So far I’ve seen American/Israeli, American/Trump and American/Confederate Battle flags. The irony clearly goes so far over their heads, not to mention how these flags technically violate the official rules for flag display
I do think it’s telling that I haven’t seen any American/LGBTQ flags for who the designers of these flags cater to
The flag patriotism and intense praise of military action was a lot for me. I remember going to a mall, and seeing what would typically be reserved as disabled parking was instead veteran parking?? And then the cinema in the mall loudly advertising its discount for veterans as well. We do have a general discount in my country too, but it’s not so… intense. Like no one else has to know it’s happening because it’s more of a state benefit than it is a form of patriotism.
Neighbourhoods in general are what I found the strangest when I stayed in the States. Flags everywhere as you say, but also just the intense size, and the lack of walkability (the kurb drops felt massive compared to my country). Beyond that I remember walking for around 20 minutes through a suburb and counting upwards of 10 different company logos on rubbish bins. This neighbourhood seemingly had 10 different bin days rather than one centralised service.
Non-stop televangelism channels are quite something. But probably you know that’s weird.
Your urban planning. Your cities are unwalkable, the scenery makes me depressed af, everything is scaled up for cars, even restaurants are for cars, the highways are huge, all I can see is tar. I don’t know how you can live like that.
The amount of sugar in any food of yours! It’s incredibly sickening and I’m not sure how you deal with that.
Fast food portion sizes. It’s out of control. Drinking 1 liter of soda for lunch shouldn’t be normalized. BTW most people are super friendly and nice, in Michigan at least.
Oh, and why is all the cheese orange ?
All of the ads for Medication on TV
Canadian, so it’s not all that different, but why. can. I. buy. liquor. in. a. PHARMACY?
Don’t know if this is just a California thing, but it was weird as fuck. What’s even weirder, in light of this, is they didn’t go whole hog and sell cigarettes too. 'Cause helf.
Side story: Went into a Dollar General and bought a can of Sapporo. Ok, not so weird, it’s functionally a super basic grocery store with a bunch of other cheap goods. Guy at the counter said, “Oh yeah, they make this beer in some place very far away”. Looked at the can - I’m pretty sure he meant Japan, not Guelph, ON Canada.
He wasn’t wrong but I did chuckle.
Juxtaposition of pearl-clutching Puritanism w/ a 21 drinking age against beer available in a 7-11.
Pick a fucking lane
You could probably sell Americans on lowering the drinking age in many States, but there’s some big legal hurdles and pretty much everyone agrees we’ve got bigger problems to deal with first.
Sizes for clothes, drinks and fries are all bigger than in Brazil. A medium size shirt in the US is easily as big as a large in Brazil. For drinks I would usually groan every time I forgot to buy a small drink since I literally can’t drink a medium soda in the US in less than an hour and I hate wasting food.
Extreme focus on sports, wearing sportswear (both men and women do this), always “exercising”, mentioning calories on a menu card (a Caesar salad contains 1200 calories!).
