Why cant we be more like Europe in these Categories? (1 Viewer)

[5-ish Finkle]

That makes me wonder about Barbados. What's the attraction there, low cost of hired labor?

Considering the source? Guessing it's "the natives there will poop on you for free."

 

[roadkill1292]

More vacation? If you read previous vacation polls half the people here do not use what paid vacation they already get.

No further evidence needed to prove that Americans are ####ing stupid.

"Oh, I've got free paid time off? Nah, I'd rather work."

A lot of jobs will allow you to cash it in. I suspect if you couldn't do that it would get all used up.

Or roll it over (not sure how it's accounted for in said polls), but nah....why spoil a good narrative, Americans are all evil, inferior, and stupid.

Easy there. We're all on the same team, trying to make things better here. We do a lot of things really well but that doesn't mean there aren't some good practices of others that we can't adopt.

 

[Scoresman]

Yeah our culture really doesnt value vacations at all. I went to Maui in May and then just got back from Cancun in June and when people at work heard my plans they were all taken aback. All they ever use their PTO for is to take their kids to the doctor or whatever. But guess who's back in the office not burnt out and ready to get back to it?

 

[cstu]

More vacation? If you read previous vacation polls half the people here do not use what paid vacation they already get.

No further evidence needed to prove that Americans are ####ing stupid.

"Oh, I've got free paid time off? Nah, I'd rather work."

A lot of jobs will allow you to cash it in. I suspect if you couldn't do that it would get all used up.

Or roll it over (not sure how it's accounted for in said polls), but nah....why spoil a good narrative, Americans are all evil, inferior, and stupid.

If you can roll it over (not sure how common this is) that's understandable, but yes, I do think taking the cash instead of a vacation is stupid.

 

[cstu]

FWIW, I'm looking to get my job down to where I work less than 40 weeks a year.

 

[renesauz]

3. Universal Healthcare - I don't think I even need to explain this one. I'll only add that Europe blows the US out of the water when it comes to life expectancy.

I agree with you on the others, but not this one. US life expectancy is 79.8. Portugal is 80. Germany, Greece, UK and Finland are all 81. Norway, Austria, France, Netherlands are Ireland are all under 82. I wouldn't call less than two years blowing us out of the water at all.

also, the majority of medical innovations come from the Us. Try getting a ct or MRI in Europe. Hope you have a year to wait.

Please....2/3 of our CTs and MRIS are given not out of medical necessity but out of fear of missing something and getting sued. And they get emergent scans done just as quickly as we do. In some places, they have to wait longer for NON-EMERGENT scans.

Waiting longer for a non-emergent study is hardly daming on it's own

 

[renesauz]

I grew up in Canada - born in 1975, moved to Kentucky in 1996. So I've spent about half of my life in each spot.

One thing people don't understand is that the healthcare isn't "free." The tax burden in Canada is brtual.

This year I owed about $4,600 in federal tax on my 2014 returns. If I punch my income and taxes paid into a tax calculator for Canada, I would owe $37,257 more after accounting for over 50k in taxes already withheld.

That doesnt even account for the higher sales tax, taxes on gas, liquor, etc etc.

This is the take I have had for a long time and I will stand by it - if you have a job in the US that provides you with health insurance, you are better off here. I paid about $5k for insurance benefits this year and pulled another $2k out of pocket for copays/scripts/etc. So I paid $7k basically to cover my family. That's better than handing the Canadian government an extra $30 grand a year to manage it for me.

1. Only stupid people think it's free.

2. If you paid more than $37,000 in income taxes in either country, I'm not really interested in your point of view. This isn't about you.

You are kidding right? without him all of the others would not have a system in place for healthcare. They are a net negative he makes up for it. Very odd post.

The problem is, and always has been, that those with money or a good job with great benefits already have good coverage, and feel no need to change things. They tend to argue that we have the best and most innovative docs in the world....and they're right. The problem is that only about 60% of our population has access to those systems and doctors via insurance or can afford out of pocket. Ask the lower middle class family who smetimes has insurance and sometimes doesn't, but when they do they can't afford the co-pays anyway. Ask them how our system is working.

And the argument about "get a better job" isn't just self-selving, it's plain dumb. We need people in low paying jobs. If EVERYONE was well educated, we'd still need burger flippers and drywall installers. They'd make the same income and have the same struggles re. health care coverage/costs but simply be better educated (with high student loans to pay off?!)

I'm more than amazed that any rational person could actually believe that Universal care isn't the best answer. HOw we set it up is debateable, but our system is antiquated and foolish.

 

[Scoresman]

Bumping my own thread after my latest trip to Europe to report on what they do better than us and vice versa.

Breakfast - Breakfast in Europe is superior in every way.  Each hotel we stayed at had the typical American breakfast (scrambled eggs/bacon, etc), probably set up to satiate American tourists, but I had the continental breakfast of fresh baguette, butter, ham, and cheese every time.  The charcuterie and bread in Europe is so good.

Showers - Europe still doesn't completely grasp the concept of showers over baths.  We still had to use the bath tub/"hold your own shower head attachment" routine in a few hotels.  

Public Transportation - Not even close.  We should really be ashamed of ourselves as a nation for having such poor infrastructure for transportation.  

Customs/Immigration at the Airport - The U.S. has this new system where you have to wait in one line to have your picture taken by a kiosk and compared to your passport photo, then waiting in another line to have the customs agent do the same damn thing.  This makes no sense and makes customs when coming home take forever.  The customs agents all have a power trip complex or something too.  I saw one of them hold up a little old Asian lady for at least 3 minutes grilling her over who knows what, which was holding up the line too.  Just stamp the ####### passport and move on, Colombo.  Also, in the past two years I've been through a few other countries' customs lines and they always had every booth manned during peak times, making getting through a breeze.  The US? You're lucky if half of the booths are manned.  Ridiculous in every way.

Asking for the bill at a restaurant - A minor one, but in Europe, you have to ask for the bill at the end of your meal or the waiter will be content to just let you sit there for hours.  I don't like having to do this.  Apparently, it's considered rude of them to bring the bill before the customer asks, but I'd just as soon be out of there after dessert asap.

 

[Thunderlips]

If someone's really knocking American beer these days....they obviously haven't sampled even a small amount of the quality and variety of good/great mid/small/micro breweries that we have in the states. 

 

[jon_mx]

Bumping my own thread after my latest trip to Europe to report on what they do better than us and vice versa.

Breakfast - Breakfast in Europe is superior in every way.  Each hotel we stayed at had the typical American breakfast (scrambled eggs/bacon, etc), probably set up to satiate American tourists, but I had the continental breakfast of fresh baguette, butter, ham, and cheese every time.  The charcuterie and bread in Europe is so good.

Showers - Europe still doesn't completely grasp the concept of showers over baths.  We still had to use the bath tub/"hold your own shower head attachment" routine in a few hotels.  

Public Transportation - Not even close.  We should really be ashamed of ourselves as a nation for having such poor infrastructure for transportation.  

Customs/Immigration at the Airport - The U.S. has this new system where you have to wait in one line to have your picture taken by a kiosk and compared to your passport photo, then waiting in another line to have the customs agent do the same damn thing.  This makes no sense and makes customs when coming home take forever.  The customs agents all have a power trip complex or something too.  I saw one of them hold up a little old Asian lady for at least 3 minutes grilling her over who knows what, which was holding up the line too.  Just stamp the ####### passport and move on, Colombo.  Also, in the past two years I've been through a few other countries' customs lines and they always had every booth manned during peak times, making getting through a breeze.  The US? You're lucky if half of the booths are manned.  Ridiculous in every way.

Asking for the bill at a restaurant - A minor one, but in Europe, you have to ask for the bill at the end of your meal or the waiter will be content to just let you sit there for hours.  I don't like having to do this.  Apparently, it's considered rude of them to bring the bill before the customer asks, but I'd just as soon be out of there after dessert asap.

Europe has better public transportation, but their infrastructure could not come close to handling our traffic.  Americans still love their cars. 

 

[Scoresman]

If someone's really knocking American beer these days....they obviously haven't sampled even a small amount of the quality and variety of good/great mid/small/micro breweries that we have in the states. 

What I noticed while in Belgium was how accessible the great beer is compared to over here. With a few minor exceptions, the great Belgian beers can be found easily wherever you are over there. If you followed my Brussels thread, you'll know that even the vending machines have the good stuff. 

Here, you're lucky if that great craft brewery makes their beer available outside its own area. 

 

[jon_mx]

What I noticed while in Belgium was how accessible the great beer is compared to over here. With a few minor exceptions, the great Belgian beers can be found easily wherever you are over there. If you followed my Brussels thread, you'll know that even the vending machines have the good stuff. 

Here, you're lucky if that great craft brewery makes their beer available outside its own area. 

There are lots of places in Europe where all you can get is crappy beer.  Sure Germany and Belgium have some feat brews, but not really readily available across Europe. 

 

[pollardsvision]

What I noticed while in Belgium was how accessible the great beer is compared to over here. With a few minor exceptions, the great Belgian beers can be found easily wherever you are over there. If you followed my Brussels thread, you'll know that even the vending machines have the good stuff. 

Here, you're lucky if that great craft brewery makes their beer available outside its own area. 

Isn't a great US craft brewery's "own area" generally the size of, um,....Belgium?

 

[Scoresman]

Isn't a great US craft brewery's "own area" generally the size of, um,....Belgium?

True, but the point stands that I can go to a vending machine in Belgium, a vending machine... and get great beer.  Here, I have to seek out a micro brewery.  If you're going to compare the US as a whole in terms of beer, accessibility has to factor in.  

 

[Tau837]

True, but the point stands that I can go to a vending machine in Belgium, a vending machine... and get great beer.  Here, I have to seek out a micro brewery.  If you're going to compare the US as a whole in terms of beer, accessibility has to factor in.  

You are comparing apples and oranges here. If you go to a vending machine, you are getting a bottle/can, not a draft. You can go to beer stores everywhere in America and buy good beer in bottles/cans.

 

[pollardsvision]

True, but the point stands that I can go to a vending machine in Belgium, a vending machine... and get great beer.  Here, I have to seek out a micro brewery.  If you're going to compare the US as a whole in terms of beer, accessibility has to factor in.  

The vending machine is cool, sure, but I don't see how the US lags behind in accessibility. Maybe it was the case 10-15 years ago, but it's just not hard to find good craft beer these days. 

I live in a small city (about 70K) hours away from any sort of real metropolitan area. Yet, great local beer brewed within 50 minutes of my house is everywhere. (Blue Mountain, Starr Hill, Devil's Backbone, Apocalypse). Every bar and restaurant, along with the local minor league baseball team, has a local craft or two on tap. Stores are full of their bottles, along with tons of bottles from all over the country. Then there's bottle shops with nearly any beer I want (outside of super special releases or stuff in such high demand it doesn't leave it's own brewery). Accessibility to great beer in America is awesome.

Then there's hops. I haven't been to Belgium in about 15 years, and have no clue what today's beer is like Belgium, but I have a hard time imagining Belgium can satisfy a hop-head like the US can. US brewers are firing out great IPA's right and left. I'm sure many think they've gone too far, but they keep making them because they are really good and people buy them. Admittedly, I just don't have much experience with Belgian beer (outside of being a college student over there drinking Chimay whatever color and really just eager to get up to Amsterdam to smoke a joint in a bar while my GF tried to convince me we should go to museums). I just know I really like American beer and there's a ton of it.

 

[Tau837]

USA beer > European beer > beer from the rest of the world