As an American I can tell you that it's better to just beat that dead dog. Well, horse really. Elephant. It's definitely an elephant. Now get out your flail and go to town at that bitch. And continue the beatings until the problem is resolved.
Serious question: If the american health care system (which may be the most prominent thing stopping migration currently) would become a socialized-financed commodity how much %GDP would America loose?
Probably none, because the people wouldn't go bankrupt because of a broken leg and be able to spend the money and be able to keep spending money on something worthwhile instead. Breaking people's necks financially by means of medical bills is not a great thing in the long run for the economy.
The current healthcare is a net loss for the country. The only people losing money would be private medical industry, and its share holders, but it wouldn't off set the losses caused by the crushing expenses, and bankruptcies as far as the general GDP is concerned.
I don't speak the language, but my guess is that the Portuguese equivalent of "beating a dead horse" uses a dog instead?
That’s why I don’t travel to the US even though I’ve only been to Hawaii so far. Food is a huge problem, either you poison your body with chemicals or you’ll have the most stressful time of the day eating because of the waiter nagging you every two minutes if you like your food or want anything. Because they think that constitutes “good service”. No other country’s restaurant culture is like this, wtf??
Seriously I'm here to spend money. My drink being empty is waste on your business' part. For a minute or two, sure.
either you poison your body with chemicals
One huge reason why I'm considering getting out. My immune system is very angry because of this.
nagging you every two minutes
I make no apologies for anyone on this: we lost our way. My best guess is that at some point, we had this down pat by bringing a "touch of class" to dining establishments through emulating servant culture of the early 1900's. This is well portrayed in costume drama as near-psychic level ability to anticipate the diner's (master's) needs in a well-choreographed experience. That only works if you can anticipate people through a long-term working relationship, or diners have very well-rehearsed table manners. I think it got corrupted over time as a lot of this fell out fashion, and what we're left with is diners that are wholly unpredictable and wait staff that have no idea what they're emulating.
Local Korean restaurants around town brought their dining culture with them, and it's loads better. Wait staff have their head on a swivel from the waiter's station, but only engage when flagged down. This is immeasurably more pleasant.
Brazil has >3x the murder rate of the US. I get that dunking on the US is super fun but theres a gulf separating the two countries
Not really clever. And as this is posted in a .UK, I’d like to remind you all that the UK isn’t doing too well, and they’re the laughing stock of the EU.
Enjoy Brexit!
As as EU citizen I have zero interest in moving to the UK.
But I would still much much rather live in the UK than the US.
That country is straight up fucked on a fundemental level.
It could be worse. Russia lost many of its highly skilled workers who fled the country, while their criminal vets now exact retribution if they lived though the meat grinder.
China has a massive gender imbalance and has a yawning generation gap that cannot be filled. Not to mention an economy that will take serious gymnastics to fix.
Some others like Iran are trending in a slightly better direction, but are far from free and brutally repress anyone that speaks out.
Despite our struggles, everything we have is worth fighting for. Remember to vote! It's what separates us from authoritarians and managed democracy.
I briefly considered moving to Toronto, because I loved the time I spent there a decade or so ago. Then I saw the cost of both renting and owning there, and couldn't believe it. I'm in a very privileged position, but fuck me I wonder how many manage to raise a family there!
Modern medical advancements take time to come to former world powers. You’ll get there some day!! ;)
Isn't doing too well because of 14 years of Tories. Who have just been removed from power and replaced by what looks like, so far, quite a competent Labour government. Devolution of more powers is being looked at, and both left and right wing parties are talking about proportional representation. We'll see what happens, but I'm optimistic about our future.
America, on the other hand...
Say it. America is about to become The Handmaids Tale. I know.
How do you feel about skilled worker immigration? 😇
Don't worry, Brexit is a self-fixing problem.
Mostly old and poorly educated vote for Brexit -> UK leaves EU -> skilled EU citizens with no personal commitments to UK (family, spouse, wanting to not return to previous country anyway) will leave including doctors, nurses, and elderly care staff -> NHS struggles -> care homes struggle -> old people die off faster -> ratio of young to old voters rebalances -> in 20 years time vote to rejoin EU -> rejoins EU.
The murder rate in the USA is very high compared to its peers, at 6.383 per 100,000. Canada, for example, has a rate which is almost three times lower at 2.273 per 100,000.
Brazil has a murder rate of 20.606 per 100,000. I think I'll stick with our tipping culture and lack of public health system.
Pretty sure Brazilian GINI is higher than US even. Not a good comparison. But most of Europe is better than us, we rank with the former Soviet Slavic countries in terms of HDI when adjusted for GINI. Canada as you mentioned, probably Australia.
Thank goodness this was downvoted! It’s so offensive. Or something. 🙄
Why so high here vs. Canadia?
That's an interesting question. People like to blame guns, but
The United States’ homicide rate of 3.8 is clearly higher than that of eg France (1.0), Germany (0.8), Australia (1.1), or Canada (1.4). However, as per the FBI, only 11,208 of our 16,121 murders were committed with firearms, eg 69%. By my calculations, that means our nonfirearm murder rate is 1.2. In other words, our non-firearm homicide rate alone is higher than France, Germany, and Australia’s total homicide rate.
That's from here, which is an interesting but long discussion of the topic:
https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/06/guns-and-states/
https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/01/10/guns-and-states-2-son-of-a-gun/
Edit: I'm not saying guns aren't part of the explanation, but they don't appear to account for the majority of the difference.
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Ah, SSC. I was going to make a joke about how it'll get blamed on black people Human Biodiversity, but Scott actually does
And this is murder rate by state correlated with percent black population:
This would seem to support the “culture of violence” theory.
I think it mostly has to do with all the brain damaging chemicals in our water, soil, and air.
A massive percentage of yous have been huffing leaded petrol fumes almost directly from exhausts for decades and yous are still wondering why you're a bunch of murderous warmongering cunts? 😂
What do you mean yous? That was global lead contamination baby! Hence the last ditch far right swings internationally. I also attribute it to brain damage from COVID. And microplastics. And the Teflon in all our blood. I just hope there was enough education along the way to diffuse some of those violent tendencies with democratic principles.
But yes, in general, I agree. We are a bunch of pollutant filled war mongers on our worst days.
I'd say something about throwing stones in glass houses but most brazilians can't seem to afford glass windows.
20.606 per 100,000
Bro either you converted something wrong or you're saying a fifth of the population dies every year because of murders
I'm using the notation where a period indicates a decimal and a comma separates three digits. The murder rate is twenty and six tenths per one hundred thousand.
Tipping everywhere didn't pop up until square cash started dominating the POS terminal market, and leaving tipping on by default. People being the huge pushovers that they are and tipping everywhere instead of rejecting it is what allowed it to stay. It'll happen in your country too.
Good luck trying that shit in France. I think the fact that the actual word we use literally means "for drinks" (pourboire) hammers home the fact that this is extra money you are giving a "service" employee because you like them, and not because their employer is not paying them enough
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Might be more of a cultural difference than just the word, because we use the same word in Québec and unfortunately we have a very similar tipping system to the US. We even have different wages for employees that are considered doing a tipping job (salaire au pourboire), just like the US.
And more and more, it's unfortunately common to go in a place where tipping was not expected, and now they are showing tipping options on the terminal, or they leave little jars in front of the cash register.
I went in France a few months ago and it was so refreshing not to have to bother with this BS.
It happened in the UK too.
All the bar staff I know will hit the "no tip" on your behalf before handing you the POS anyway.
No you don't have to accept it.
I know a chick who moved here from Brazil when she was 18 or 19. She moved away a couple of years ago at 35 and is a lot happier for doing so.
Sadly that stupid shit with tipping is coming to brazil slowly, most restaurants in my city ask for 12% or 15% tip. Still optional ofc.
Some of them absolutely will judge you, remember you, and make sure you get worse service the next time you eat there.
As long as employers cheap out on labor by making the customers pay for it through tips, you will rightfully be judged. You're not going to change tipping culture by stiffing your server.
Or as the Dude would put it, you're not wrong, you're just an asshole.
The joke is on the Brazilian. We don't beat dead dogs in the US. We get cops to shoot the living dogs, because they're "scared".
It's not a comeback because the original reply had nothing to do with being in the US
Maybe with context this is different but by itself this isn't clever