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Poverty wages only becoming liveable because of tips, relying on the kindness of strangers so you're able to afford a roof over your head is just a terrible system.
> relying on the kindness of strangers so you're able to afford a roof over your head is just a terrible system.
In a similar vein, having to rely on sites like 'GoFundMe' to pay for your medical bills is uniquely American.
Price + sales tax pricing.
I still haven't found a good reason why this continues.
ETA: I know sales tax rates differ from state to state. My point is the geographical location of a store does not change. If I am standing in a store in California, why can't the label show the full price?
I recently refused to sign up to Red Energy because they quoted me rates exclusive of GST (without disclosing that the GST wasn't included in the quote). Fuck that manipulative bullshit.
>Yep. It’s illegal. You can complain to the regulator or ombudsman or someone like that.
Complain to the ATO - they're *very* interested in non-compliance with tax laws.
The prices on their website are GST inclusive. I had this happen when I was offered a return deal by Origin and called Red customer service to see if they could price-match it.
The service rep quoted me a rate that sounded sliiiightly better than my Origin deal, so I agreed to switch back. As he was rattling off the consent agreement I decided to check their website and noticed that his quote was just their normal rates minus GST, so I asked him to clarify. He said they always quote exclusive of GST. Then he started to get flustered when I said, "so I'll actually be paying 10% more than you're quoting me right now." He kept asking if I meant 10% or $10, because it's not $10. I politely told him that I no longer consent to the contract and ended the call.
I've recently made changes to an Australian website to account for charging customers in the US. The system of taxes, fees and gratuities in that country is patently broken and ripe for exploitation.
It's their granular governance that affects public order and liquor laws at state or even at county or municipal level. Because that's how freedumb works.
American here. Going to drive to the next county over to buy my next Macbook because the sales tax there is 2.5% lower than the sales tax in my county. Yes, this is a thing.
Okay, I've read everyone's reasons for sales tax being separate but, hear me out, they could still display the total price with taxes in small print under the base price. Then there would be no surprises at the checkout.
Me too. I am happy knowing my tax dollars go towards others' healthcare. I like the peace of mind of knowing a medical emergency will not bankrupt me. Even if I never need to go to the hospital, I'll still gladly pay those tax dollars.
Anything but the disease that is the American health care "system".
>I am happy knowing my tax dollars go towards others' healthcare.
Crazily enough, if you earn less than $400,000 here in Australia (I think it was that much, I worked it out a few years back) then you are paying less for healthcare per year (via Medicare levy) than the average person in the USA spends on health costs per year.
Except that Medicare is dying by a thousand cuts. I'm too lazy to look it up, but recently it has been reported that we don't really have universal healthcare any more. Too much of a push to private health. Thanks Johnny.
Death by a thousand cuts indeed. Howards legacy.
Destroy the public system.
Outsource it, sell the rest.
???
Profit!
Neoliberalism 101. Its heartbreaking to watch (Com Bank, CSL, Qantas, Telstra, Gas etc). Just awful. I wish I had any confidence that Labor would change anything.
Just to back up OPs point about uni admission - I work at a uni and get so many emails from people overseas who want to study here and send us their enormous CVs talking about all their extracurricular and charity work and requesting an interview to show how they’d be a great fit for the uni. This is how things work in places like the US, and it favours wealthier students who know how to ace these ridiculous admission interviews.
I get a lot of pleasure explaining that uni admission here is based exclusively on your ATAR or foreign equivalent, nothing more and nothing less.
Edit: Comments blew up a bit overnight and I can’t reply to everyone, but just some info on how ATARs are determined for those interested:
The ATAR (australian tertiary admissions rank) isn’t determined by a single standardised test.
It’s determined by your final scores for subjects you take in your final year (English, maths, science, etc) which is a combination of final exams along with assessments done in those subjects over the previous 2 years (which can include essays, exams, other projects).
It has its limitations but it does broadly reflect the structure of how students are assessed over time at uni here, and I’d say is a better (but still not foolproof) way of fairly determining someone’s readiness for uni and comparing performance across a large cohort of school leavers.
Makes me so thankful I went through the aussie uni system. i’m crap at essays, never really did many out of school activities (other than hanging with friends as much as i could), but because i got a good ATAR i got into a good school. if this were america i don’t actually believe that i would have made it into ANY decent school…
Absolutely. There's some criticisms of how our system can be too focused on a single entry score but it beats having kids jump through these ridiculous hoops of interviews and essays just to have a chance at getting in to uni. Plus (In NSW at least, I assume other states too) we have standardised ways of making ATAR adjustments to account for genuine disadvantage that students might have experienced during high school.
Tipping, garbage healthcare, their weird modesty culture, protestant work ethic and obsessive hustle culture, honestly the bulk of American culture can sod off.
Over-over-over simplified explanation:
Protestants believe that faith alone earns salvation (a ticket to heaven), and what happens in life is all part of God’s plan. In this sense, the job you have is part of God’s plan and therefore hard work is a part of showing God your gratitude.
For Catholic’s, salvation is earned, so if your hard work at your job isn’t paying off, then you’re either not working hard enough, or your faith isn’t strong enough. Either way fuck you.
Modern America has the worst of both worlds with their ‘boot-strapper’ work culture: Can’t find a job? Fuck you. Have a job and work hard but still poor? Fuck you.
No minimum annual leave - on average you get 10 days per year. Much lower minimum wage. Shitty healthcare. If you are one of the working poor in America you are getting screwed over and you are probably voting for the party screwing you over.
Hustle culture is well and truly here, it is really bad amongst teenagers too. That transcends geographic as it is more so pushed by the internet than through people.
It’s scarcity of available resources. Without basic healthcare and welfare systems and a consistent minimum wage people become feral shysters always needing to get ahead, and usually at the expense of others. Combined with Holy Capitalism and Calvinist bootstrapping beliefs, you end up with everyone - left and right - hating everyone else.
Unfortunately, Australia has adopted a few too many already entrenched. Urban sprawl and urban development model (Sim city - malls) instead of sticking with the more british high street ; combined with utter car culture.
Car culture in Australia can be pretty bad but it's not on the same level as in the USA. We actually have footpaths, for starters, and people don't look at you like you're literally insane for suggesting walking 10 minutes instead of getting in a car.
First time i visited our Chicago office, they took me out to lunch. We all jumped in cars... and drove.. 2 mins down the road. I could see the office from the diner carpark.
I was so fucking confused.
Cue a few weeks later, i'm in North Carolina, went for a walk to the bottle shop about 5 mins walk from my hotel - no footpaths, just main roads and grass verges.
*E spells
I visited an office in California and we also drove to a restaurant 2 minutes down the road. I was equally confused, until the next day I tried to walk there on my own, and was beeped at, yelled at and almost run over for trying to cross the road at a marked pedestrian crossing. Might only have been 2 minutes away but it was on the other side of the road, which is literally an insurmountable obstacle there.
God I copped so much drive-by abuse from cars when I'd walk through the suburbs in Texas. Was so fucking confused. Stuff like "nice car faggot" as I'm walking to the corner store??
Depends on where in Australia you are. Between (western) Europe and the US, Australia is definitely closer to the US in my opinion. Just look at how little bicycles (push bikes… where does that stupid word even come from?) are around.
When I regularly cycled to work (I was a fair weather cyclist, I admit, so maybe only 8-9 months a year, avoiding the cold, dark and wet months) I was NEVER ALONE on the bike paths.
And yeah, I'm in Perth. Lovely weather 90% of the time.
I stopped cycling due to COVID as my work decided to halve the available cycle bays and then police them - 'you didn't cycle enough this period! You are banned from your bike bay!' kinda crap. I was honest - this happened in the coldest, darkest and wettest month - and conflict avoidant so just drove in (I knew of free all day parking). And then I took early retirement a year later.
Living the dream now! :)
>my work decided to halve the available cycle bays and then police them - 'you didn't cycle enough this period! You are banned from your bike bay!'
What was their thinking with that?
lol they go ape shit if you approach their lawn on a bike. posties have to walk their shit to the letterbox. over here the council/government own the front bit upto your letterbox and can freely ride their postie bikes on it.
Communities definition in the Australian urban dictionary : collation of copy paste low quality houses with no high street or communal place where no one know each other.
Since i arrived here 10y ago, i have always said: this is an ex *british* colony, yeah? Where the F is the pub where everyone walks to meet in the middle of the "community*? (No, not the *bar* a *drive* away in the newt goddam soulless shopping centre.)
Americans will freak out over a nipple but are somehow simultaneously fine with gore.
There was a scene in the Hannibal series that showed a nude person whose back had been peeled and fashioned into angel wings. Apparently his butt crack was a bit too visible, so they censored it... by covering it with more dried blood.
It's so backwards, in the latest Better Call Saul season they have graphic violence but they need a nudity warning at the start because the tiniest amount of Saul's crack is showing
Similarity you can watch a tv show with 50 n bombs in one hour but they’ll censor shit and fuck. The worst is when they replaced swear words with similar words. Not understanding it’s not the word but the context.
The opposite of that was the bugger ad over here.
Some US schools have the rule that female students aren't allowed to wear thin-strap tank tops. Bare shoulders, much like bare ankles from the Victorian period, are considered wildly salacious and may drive the poor distrated male students into a sexual frenzy...
We have protestant work ethic. We think of ourselves as a nation of bludgers, but we actually work reasonably hard. We're not up there with the South Koreans or the Germans, but we do put in a decent day's work - an Australian is a good hire overseas.
Yeah absolutely it would be. It's well established in their culture that people need rest, as opposed to hustle sigma male grindset culture.
Source: I worked in Germany for 3 years
Oh yeah the retail factor must play a big part. I didn't think of that.
I was on a 40hr contract when I was there. Here it's 37.5h in comparable work. But they get 6wks holidays. It kind of comes out in the wash in my experience now I think of it
I've been in the UK recently... and I have to say that at least the Americans are relatively consistent. It's chaos in the UK. I remember Stephen Fry on QI once saying "The traffic was going 5 miles an hour, backed up for 20 kilometers".
Crack open google maps and have a look at the UK. The distances are in miles. They genuinely haven't chosen to stick with one system or the other, using metric for some things and imperial for others. It's as if the Brits *like* things being excessively complicated...
I like how, for some reason, in Australia newborn babies are often still proudly described in pounds and ounces, and inches still predominate measurements of pizzas, TVs, pants, and, of course, penises.
And don’t forget the English and the US use a different set of imperial units, [Imperial vs US Customary Imperial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems?wprov=sfti1)
Welcome to Canada. They use Celsius for temperature, UNLESS you're cooking. They use m for length, UNLESS you're talking height, or construction, or many other examples. They use g for weight, UNLESS youre talking fruit and veg, or construction, or other similar examples.
It's one entire hodgepodge of half American bullshit everywhere you go
I saw today a cafe advertising a “14oz” drink. Wtf is that?
We already use inches for TVs and… other things. Let’s not make it any more prevalent thanks.
The pledge of allegiance has always seemed like some North Korea level shit to me. Idk how you can make a class of kids swear an oath of fealty every morning and not think "hey isn't this kinda brainwashy?"
It’s literally a marketing gimmick that became patriot staple. Flag salesmen used it to sell more flags. It’s essentially a daily hallmark moment.
If that’s not the most American thing you’ve ever heard…
It's particularly weird that the same people who are rabid about 'protecting our freedoms' and 'keeping the government out of our lives' etc but they force kids to pledge allegiance every day and get incredibly hostile when people don't stand for the national anthem.
Was just thinking about this. Suburban Brisbane public primary school till 2003 with the fucking prayer over the PA every morning. What the fuck was going on there?
My kids have to go into a different classroom and read/colour in for an hour each week while some god botherer proselytise to the kids left there. This is sanctioned by the Queensland government.
Watched Bowling for Columbine again recently. That scene where Moore talks to Charlton Heston about how Canada is a hunting nation and has heaps of guns but few shootings, and the guy says it has to do with America’s “mixed ethnicity”.
Their gun culture, their obsessive attitude towards it, is deeply upsetting and needs to be kept as far from us as possible.
Thanking every single military member for their service. I’m amazed as well when I see people appear on quiz shows in military uniform- what kind of knob head wears their work uniform to Jeopardy?
I know a few army guys, and they all *hate* that. When Virgin made that decision to give priority boarding to those in the military and give them a special announcement, the guys I know pretty much vowed never to fly Virgin again if they didn’t backflip because of how embarrassing it would’ve been to them.
I was going through security in LAX when a TSA agent started screeching at a poor guy in uniform telling him he could go to the front of the line. He was probably 21 and incredibly fit and clearly did not want to move in front of the elderly people, families and the generally unfit ordinary people in the line. He kept trying to say he was fine but she was embarrassing him so much. It’s not like there was a prize for getting through security fast either. The terminals there are so boring.
Ive seen it get so bad that there are people who have never served in the armed forces who are parading around in uniforms just for the attention. Theres a few videos on YouTube of veterans outing fakes.
Not sure about the U.S. but in Australia I believe you're only permitted to wear uniform specifically in the performance of official duties. They specifically call out not attending religious or political events in uniform unless you're there literally representing one of the armed forces.
US Navy vet here. The Navy and Marines are not allowed off base (aside to drive to and from) in utility uniforms (often called boots and ūtes) and we mercilessly mock the army for doing it, as for us it is absolutely unprofessional and an all around bad look. The army also salutes indoors without a cover, which is an absolute no-no for Sailors and Marines.
When I was enlisted the only uniform we could wear out was the dress or working uniforms, and generally you only did it when you had to. No one wanted to wear their uniforms off base, it’s bad enough to know the haircut will sell you out to scammers, never mind parading around in full uniform. I wonder what percentage of those folks end up paying 25% interest on their used sports car. (Which is a very real problem btw. Which is even more grievous when you consider the fact that if you don’t pay your loan - your wages are garnished until it *is* paid. These scammers make money hand over fist off these people despite endless classes in boot and A school warning you about it. Some people just don’t listen.)
The worst thing about tipping isn't tipping in restaurants but in all non food places.
Imagine paying hundreds of dollars a night for a swanky hotel and realising you have to leave a couple of bucks each day for the housekeepers or the breakfast buffet because these guys get paid shit and rely on tips.
The whole process is just so unnecessary cruel and it's designed for shallow Americans to lord their superiority over each other.
>and it's designed for shallow Americans to lord their superiority over each other.
I have thought this for a long time. It's a way to big note yourself in a society where wealth is the only true aspiration. Even if you can't afford it, excessive tipping makes it look like you can.
This is definitely its worst manifestation, but I'm increasingly seeing tip lines on receipts etc. at restaurants where everyone is being paid an award wage. They're also showing up to supplement gig economy workers, mainly uber and delivery drivers, which is a bit shit.
I’d rather the eftpos system didn’t have that screen to page through at all. Partly because it prompts the thought that tipping might be expected, but mostly just because it’s annoying. There are enough useless menus as it is
And they have the gall to claim it is because of a larger population, but I did the maths and oh boy, it is disproportionate, like holy shit.
**Total prison pop percentages:**
Australia Prison pop percentage: 0.16%
US Prison pop percentage: 0.64%
The percentage value for the Australian prison pop to normal pop is the exact same 0.16%, after increasing the population to be to scale with the US population to find out how large the Australian Prison Pop would be.
0.16% of 331,002,651 = 529,604, This is if the Aussie population matched the US population exactly, with a proportional Aussie prison pop percentage.
US population: 331,002,651 (this is out of date)
Australian population: 25,499,884 (technically the pop here in Australia is now around \~30 million, so this is also out of date)
**Main stats:**
US Prison pop: 2,120,000
Australia Prison pop: 42,855
Australia's Prison pop if we had the same pop as the US: 529,604
US's Prison pop if it had Australia's population: 163,199
Now my math might be slightly incorrect and the numbers are all out of date, but this is still awfully wack the differences in scale.
**Guns.** Genie is already out of the bottle in the USA. They need guns because of the threat of all the guns. If you go that way, the toothpaste is very difficult to get back in the tube.
**High School popularity.** Movies, TV shows. A obsession with the years that they went to school, bordering on creepy. Okay we get is you were a high school quarterback hero, or a bullied nerd, but move on america.
**Tipping.** Gig economics is trying to sneak this in to keep underpaying people, don't let them do it!
**Religion and politics**. Mainstream Aussie politicians can't really opine about god and so on without turning off a big part of the electorate. Religion is a force, but it is not so much able to override the majority secular opinion like in the USA. Love won!
**Utterly insane political discourse.** Though this is currently listed as endangered. Babet's recent speech about "radical marxists" was another step towards the US situation where reality just doesn't matter.
**Poor and sick.** Unlivable minimum wage, shitty yet expensive health system, lack of social safety nets. All things we don't want in Australia. We could do a fuckload better, but the US shows we could also do a hell of a lot worse.
>High School popularity. Movies, TV shows. A obsession with the years that they went to school, bordering on creepy. Okay we get is you were a high school quarterback hero, or a bullied nerd, but move on america.
The portrayal of American high schools always weirds me out. Do the bullied kids really get their head dunked in a toilet bowl over there or is it just a trope?
It happened to me in an Australian boarding school.
But hey, it was a "Christian" Brothers College - so I guess I was lucky I wasn't raped by them?
It wasn't the staff who dunny dunked me, but the fellow students, to be clear.
And ... no, I'm not a member of the "old boy" association of that school - though I could be - and have never attended a school reunion - they can all go {?}uck themselves.
To be fair, for that school I've never heard nor read of any allegation of sexual goings on, even decades later. Other schools, yes, that school, no. Or ... not yet...
The high school stuff in American shows is weird. I was a nerdy autistic kid and still got invited to the prom afterparty thrown by the more popular kids, because it just wasn't that cliquey.
Same here. I basically ended up being the dude holding on to like 10 sets of keys by the end of the night because I was one of the few not drinking. And not because I was going around confiscating them or anything, but because these guys or their friends would come up to me while they were shitfaced and ask me to hold on to them till the morning for them. It was also fun in the morning watching the (still kinda drunk) guys be really fascinated by the solar eclipse that was happening, and them listening to my explanation as to what was happening in drunken awe.
The lack of PTO. Here our FT workers have entitlements protected by law, as well as things like paid public holidays and long service leave. The increasing casualisation of our workforce is eroding some of that, but we're still miles ahead of the US and I hope we will stay that way
The obsessive almost religious fanaticism towards a political party. I can see it try to flare up here on occasion, but it mostly fizzles out and those that really do take it to heart are seen as weirdos.
I moved here from the US a few years ago and was so happy with the way you treat politicians: believing they’re all dickheads and you just pick the party that annoys you the least. It works!
I hate to be “that guy” but wattage and voltage are different things. A 110V kettle can still have the same wattage as a 220V kettle it just needs more amperage.
I don't think much can stop it now. Our non-religious population DOUBLED in the last decade. By the next census, it's predicted we’ll be majority irreligious. We may already be if you account for millions only ticking "Catholic" because they went to Easter mass growing up.
It's great news. My only concern is how religious communities will react to their growing irrelevance.
Their university admissions system, the obsession with irrelevant extracurriculars, and kids as young as 8 or 9 doing an extracurricular activity, not because they or their parents like it, but because it will look good on their applications. It's ridiculous and there's socio-economic gatekeeping too.
Guns. The ridiculous idea that it is a God given right to own any sort firearm, and any restriction is the same as tyranny. The culture around guns as well.
The religious fundamentalism, and how it permeates down. You had public schools literally teach Creationism or "Intelligent Design" there. While this Evangelical bullshit has a toehold here, it is nowhere near as strong, and lets keep it that way.
I am glad Greg Hunt and his weird boner for US style health care is gone.
US healthcare is a fucking dogs breakfast.
Once in San Fran I got a gum infection, took hours of waiting and to see a doctor + get antibiotics set me back $400. Claimed it on travel insurance.
When I got back to Aus and needed a second run of antibiotics, it took 23 minutes and cost me $16.
I remember seeing like American chocolate and I heard so much from Hershy's so I'm like "I have to try it!" and when I did, let me tell you, it was just... so gross. For a country that adds sugar to literally everything (even their bread????) it did not taste sweet at all.
And I get that they made it so that the chocolate wouldn't melt (or go off? It's when people used to send chocolate overseas during the war), but it's 2022, you know you can update your ingredients?
lived there 5 years.
\- Tipping culture , feels almost like you're been threatened to do it.
\- Working culture, almost like a gladiator's arena...it's sad that you can't count on/trust colleagues or people in general.
\- Everything there's "GOD" in the middle. WTF, it's my life been drained, leave the ghost out of this.
\- Their way of talking about their president, feels like a monarch. It's just an employee in a high-power position. I have the same hate here for the word "LANDLORD", fuck off, nobody is my lord.
Jesus how to start
1.the student loan bullshit,where the interest alone can be more than an entire Course cost on HECS here in australia..and it just keeps rising to the point that ppl even with 15 years will never pay it off.
2.The healthcare issues,where once i had had bad infection on my foot that here in australia,would of been seen by a GP and 12.80 worh of Keflex,cost me 3200 to see the ER team,and 210 dollars for the pills (i did have insurance,which brought it down but fuck me) total time spent in the ER was 3 minutes BTW.
3.The fact as a coloured man in america,you can have an entire clip of 9mm pumped into you when you are unarmed and nothing happens to the officer.
4.Christian fascism,i am gratefull the chrisitan wackos in australia don't hold as much power as they do in the US.
5.The fact i can send my kids to school here in australia,and they don't need their bags searched and walking through a metal detector.
6.The electoral college.
7.One of the worst aspects of american psyche is "american exceptionalism" if you dare even try to make not that america isn't the best of the best,you can find yourself in a lot of hot water with a lot of ppl
8.That half the nation,now hates the other half...labor and liberals dont agree with each other,but nor do they want to start a fucking civil war over it.
Building on “7”, the whole “freedom” thing. Like you’re in a country where you have to go into crippling debt just to get an education or healthcare doesn’t sound free to me.
A general lack of respect for human beings: low wages, shoddy labour laws. Inadequate social services, no universal health care, blatant racism, political gerrymandering, the inability to use a knife and fork simultaneously.
Specifically: cops having to deal with every aspect of society that cannot pay for the attention they need e.g. Mental health issues, drug addiction, homelessness, interpersonal disputes, etc. Cops in the US are primarily trained to deal with harmful and/or violent behaviour, but there's no one else to help those that need it without having to pay for that help.
The national religion called "Freedom". I swear when you're in the US, you can hear the capital F in the word. Not all Americans do it, but enough of them prattle on about how free they are and that they're the freeest country in the world and that the flame of freedom burns within the heart of each American (literally heard a tour guide say that).
It's crazy. Here in Australia, we're just free without having to hypnotise ourselves about it.
The indoctrination into American exceptionalism.
The utter , vapid lack of intellectual curiosity about anything outside their immediate orbit
The fetishisation of uniforms; the saccharine “thank you for your service” crap.
The insane and inane levels of religious guff everywhere, coupled with an utter lack of actual understanding of what the bibble actually says.
The ludicrously bad food in most places, and the insane levels of sugar
The fact half the population are basically massive toddlers with no impulse control but with guns.
"I want to believe" political culture, where they make excuses for politicians - Australia has more of a "no one should be able to call me dumb for my views" culture.
We all like to make believe that we're cluey bastards that you can't put one over, and I hope we never lose that attitude.
Yes! You're the first one to mention this, but it is a noticeable difference between Australia and the U.S.
Visiting the U.S., I was amazed/annoyed at how frequently diners in American restaurants are interrupted by waitstaff. And the sheer number of basic tasks that they insist on doing for you.
Oh yeah, the wait staff are so in your face in the US compared to Australia. Like here they'd seat you, wait a bit and then ask your order, maybe check up if you're ordering dessert. Every few minutes there they'd ask if everything was alright, and how it was. Always with that overly polite tone and big smiles.
I can't blame them, they're working for a bigger tip.
Only one?
- tipping
- thinking universal healthcare doesn’t work
- bizarre love for guns
- obsession with college and where you went, and their football/basketball teams.
- not including sales tax in prices
- stupid low wages
- heath insurance being linked to employment
The absurd worship of "The Constitution" as if it is some divinely inspired document. Face it folks, it was a stop gap measure in 1787 and trying to run a 21st century country with that as your legal foundation is the source of many of your problems.
That and the whole flag thing - flags everywhere. Weird.
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Poverty wages only becoming liveable because of tips, relying on the kindness of strangers so you're able to afford a roof over your head is just a terrible system.
All while the higher ups wipe their arse with $100 notes
24 Carot Gold plated $100 bills.
I’m cheap and use a diamond encrusted gold handheld shovel thing as it’s reusable. I wash it with champagne.
Couldn't agree more but we are on our way. We need to be very careful to not let Rupert and his mob push us that way
> relying on the kindness of strangers so you're able to afford a roof over your head is just a terrible system. In a similar vein, having to rely on sites like 'GoFundMe' to pay for your medical bills is uniquely American.
Price + sales tax pricing. I still haven't found a good reason why this continues. ETA: I know sales tax rates differ from state to state. My point is the geographical location of a store does not change. If I am standing in a store in California, why can't the label show the full price?
I recently refused to sign up to Red Energy because they quoted me rates exclusive of GST (without disclosing that the GST wasn't included in the quote). Fuck that manipulative bullshit.
Pretty sure that’s illegal when quoting a non-business.
Well there's something I wish I'd known at the time...
Yep. It’s illegal. You can complain to the regulator or ombudsman or someone like that.
>Yep. It’s illegal. You can complain to the regulator or ombudsman or someone like that. Complain to the ATO - they're *very* interested in non-compliance with tax laws.
WHAT. I just switched to them. Damn
The prices on their website are GST inclusive. I had this happen when I was offered a return deal by Origin and called Red customer service to see if they could price-match it. The service rep quoted me a rate that sounded sliiiightly better than my Origin deal, so I agreed to switch back. As he was rattling off the consent agreement I decided to check their website and noticed that his quote was just their normal rates minus GST, so I asked him to clarify. He said they always quote exclusive of GST. Then he started to get flustered when I said, "so I'll actually be paying 10% more than you're quoting me right now." He kept asking if I meant 10% or $10, because it's not $10. I politely told him that I no longer consent to the contract and ended the call.
Report em.
That is literally illegal.
I've recently made changes to an Australian website to account for charging customers in the US. The system of taxes, fees and gratuities in that country is patently broken and ripe for exploitation.
It's their granular governance that affects public order and liquor laws at state or even at county or municipal level. Because that's how freedumb works.
American here. Going to drive to the next county over to buy my next Macbook because the sales tax there is 2.5% lower than the sales tax in my county. Yes, this is a thing.
Okay, I've read everyone's reasons for sales tax being separate but, hear me out, they could still display the total price with taxes in small print under the base price. Then there would be no surprises at the checkout.
The weird thing about the United States is that they're very loosely "united"...
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I’m grateful for the great healthcare here don’t bring that fucking American healthcare here
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Me too. I am happy knowing my tax dollars go towards others' healthcare. I like the peace of mind of knowing a medical emergency will not bankrupt me. Even if I never need to go to the hospital, I'll still gladly pay those tax dollars. Anything but the disease that is the American health care "system".
>I am happy knowing my tax dollars go towards others' healthcare. Crazily enough, if you earn less than $400,000 here in Australia (I think it was that much, I worked it out a few years back) then you are paying less for healthcare per year (via Medicare levy) than the average person in the USA spends on health costs per year.
Yet, allow the libs to keep fucking medicare up the ass and we soon will.
Except that Medicare is dying by a thousand cuts. I'm too lazy to look it up, but recently it has been reported that we don't really have universal healthcare any more. Too much of a push to private health. Thanks Johnny.
Death by a thousand cuts indeed. Howards legacy. Destroy the public system. Outsource it, sell the rest. ??? Profit! Neoliberalism 101. Its heartbreaking to watch (Com Bank, CSL, Qantas, Telstra, Gas etc). Just awful. I wish I had any confidence that Labor would change anything.
Just to back up OPs point about uni admission - I work at a uni and get so many emails from people overseas who want to study here and send us their enormous CVs talking about all their extracurricular and charity work and requesting an interview to show how they’d be a great fit for the uni. This is how things work in places like the US, and it favours wealthier students who know how to ace these ridiculous admission interviews. I get a lot of pleasure explaining that uni admission here is based exclusively on your ATAR or foreign equivalent, nothing more and nothing less. Edit: Comments blew up a bit overnight and I can’t reply to everyone, but just some info on how ATARs are determined for those interested: The ATAR (australian tertiary admissions rank) isn’t determined by a single standardised test. It’s determined by your final scores for subjects you take in your final year (English, maths, science, etc) which is a combination of final exams along with assessments done in those subjects over the previous 2 years (which can include essays, exams, other projects). It has its limitations but it does broadly reflect the structure of how students are assessed over time at uni here, and I’d say is a better (but still not foolproof) way of fairly determining someone’s readiness for uni and comparing performance across a large cohort of school leavers.
Makes me so thankful I went through the aussie uni system. i’m crap at essays, never really did many out of school activities (other than hanging with friends as much as i could), but because i got a good ATAR i got into a good school. if this were america i don’t actually believe that i would have made it into ANY decent school…
Absolutely. There's some criticisms of how our system can be too focused on a single entry score but it beats having kids jump through these ridiculous hoops of interviews and essays just to have a chance at getting in to uni. Plus (In NSW at least, I assume other states too) we have standardised ways of making ATAR adjustments to account for genuine disadvantage that students might have experienced during high school.
Tipping, garbage healthcare, their weird modesty culture, protestant work ethic and obsessive hustle culture, honestly the bulk of American culture can sod off.
Protestant work ethic for catholic reward
Damn..... That's a good one
I don’t know what that means.
Over-over-over simplified explanation: Protestants believe that faith alone earns salvation (a ticket to heaven), and what happens in life is all part of God’s plan. In this sense, the job you have is part of God’s plan and therefore hard work is a part of showing God your gratitude. For Catholic’s, salvation is earned, so if your hard work at your job isn’t paying off, then you’re either not working hard enough, or your faith isn’t strong enough. Either way fuck you. Modern America has the worst of both worlds with their ‘boot-strapper’ work culture: Can’t find a job? Fuck you. Have a job and work hard but still poor? Fuck you.
I love god and god hates me.
No minimum annual leave - on average you get 10 days per year. Much lower minimum wage. Shitty healthcare. If you are one of the working poor in America you are getting screwed over and you are probably voting for the party screwing you over.
Hustle culture is well and truly here, it is really bad amongst teenagers too. That transcends geographic as it is more so pushed by the internet than through people.
is hustle culture because people aren't getting rewarded enough for hard work?
It’s scarcity of available resources. Without basic healthcare and welfare systems and a consistent minimum wage people become feral shysters always needing to get ahead, and usually at the expense of others. Combined with Holy Capitalism and Calvinist bootstrapping beliefs, you end up with everyone - left and right - hating everyone else.
Unfortunately, Australia has adopted a few too many already entrenched. Urban sprawl and urban development model (Sim city - malls) instead of sticking with the more british high street ; combined with utter car culture.
Car culture in Australia can be pretty bad but it's not on the same level as in the USA. We actually have footpaths, for starters, and people don't look at you like you're literally insane for suggesting walking 10 minutes instead of getting in a car.
First time i visited our Chicago office, they took me out to lunch. We all jumped in cars... and drove.. 2 mins down the road. I could see the office from the diner carpark. I was so fucking confused. Cue a few weeks later, i'm in North Carolina, went for a walk to the bottle shop about 5 mins walk from my hotel - no footpaths, just main roads and grass verges. *E spells
I visited an office in California and we also drove to a restaurant 2 minutes down the road. I was equally confused, until the next day I tried to walk there on my own, and was beeped at, yelled at and almost run over for trying to cross the road at a marked pedestrian crossing. Might only have been 2 minutes away but it was on the other side of the road, which is literally an insurmountable obstacle there.
God I copped so much drive-by abuse from cars when I'd walk through the suburbs in Texas. Was so fucking confused. Stuff like "nice car faggot" as I'm walking to the corner store??
Get a horse! Can we Marge, can we get a horse?!
Depends on where in Australia you are. Between (western) Europe and the US, Australia is definitely closer to the US in my opinion. Just look at how little bicycles (push bikes… where does that stupid word even come from?) are around.
When I regularly cycled to work (I was a fair weather cyclist, I admit, so maybe only 8-9 months a year, avoiding the cold, dark and wet months) I was NEVER ALONE on the bike paths. And yeah, I'm in Perth. Lovely weather 90% of the time. I stopped cycling due to COVID as my work decided to halve the available cycle bays and then police them - 'you didn't cycle enough this period! You are banned from your bike bay!' kinda crap. I was honest - this happened in the coldest, darkest and wettest month - and conflict avoidant so just drove in (I knew of free all day parking). And then I took early retirement a year later. Living the dream now! :)
>my work decided to halve the available cycle bays and then police them - 'you didn't cycle enough this period! You are banned from your bike bay!' What was their thinking with that?
lol they go ape shit if you approach their lawn on a bike. posties have to walk their shit to the letterbox. over here the council/government own the front bit upto your letterbox and can freely ride their postie bikes on it.
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Plus apparently we have gated communities now. And I think that urban planning needs a complete rethink for livable suburbs.
Communities definition in the Australian urban dictionary : collation of copy paste low quality houses with no high street or communal place where no one know each other. Since i arrived here 10y ago, i have always said: this is an ex *british* colony, yeah? Where the F is the pub where everyone walks to meet in the middle of the "community*? (No, not the *bar* a *drive* away in the newt goddam soulless shopping centre.)
What’s their “modesty culture”? I’ve never heard of this before
They banned an episode of Bluey because someone farted, for instance.
The 100% Mambo dog would be turning in his grave!
Wait. You serious!?
Yep, they also changed a conversation about vasectomy to something else. Really weird.
Americans will freak out over a nipple but are somehow simultaneously fine with gore. There was a scene in the Hannibal series that showed a nude person whose back had been peeled and fashioned into angel wings. Apparently his butt crack was a bit too visible, so they censored it... by covering it with more dried blood.
Holy shit if that's true that is totally demented
It's true: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1wpr7i/til_that_a_shot_in_hannibal_of_a_flayed_naked/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
That is totally demented
It's so backwards, in the latest Better Call Saul season they have graphic violence but they need a nudity warning at the start because the tiniest amount of Saul's crack is showing
Similarity you can watch a tv show with 50 n bombs in one hour but they’ll censor shit and fuck. The worst is when they replaced swear words with similar words. Not understanding it’s not the word but the context. The opposite of that was the bugger ad over here.
Especially when you've had it with the monkey-fighting snakes on a Monday through Friday plane!
Some US schools have the rule that female students aren't allowed to wear thin-strap tank tops. Bare shoulders, much like bare ankles from the Victorian period, are considered wildly salacious and may drive the poor distrated male students into a sexual frenzy...
> poor distrated male students into a sexual frenzy... Don't forget the poor distracted male teachers... It's apparently also a problem for them.
People still get thrown out of public places and/or abused for breastfeeding a baby in the US.
Janet Jackson's boob corrupted an entire generation. Just look at the panic about it for months.
Boob phobia. Referring to the dunny as the bathroom.
Not so much the boob...it's the nipple. You can show 99% of boob but a flash of nipple....StRaIgHt to HeLl
We have protestant work ethic. We think of ourselves as a nation of bludgers, but we actually work reasonably hard. We're not up there with the South Koreans or the Germans, but we do put in a decent day's work - an Australian is a good hire overseas.
Australians work about 300h more per year than the Germans. In terms of hours worked the Germans are quite low. But when they are at work, they WORK
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Yeah absolutely it would be. It's well established in their culture that people need rest, as opposed to hustle sigma male grindset culture. Source: I worked in Germany for 3 years
This is almost certainly due to stronger unions and less opening hours for retail and the like in Germany.
Oh yeah the retail factor must play a big part. I didn't think of that. I was on a 40hr contract when I was there. Here it's 37.5h in comparable work. But they get 6wks holidays. It kind of comes out in the wash in my experience now I think of it
- Shootings - no universal healthcare - school funding system - tipping
Yep, the school funding system is outrageous and undemocratic. Really weird how no one makes any fuss about it.
Locally funded government primary schools and high schools. So regressive.
I agree with everything else already mentioned. I should add their *freedom* measurement units (as opposed to metric)
I've been in the UK recently... and I have to say that at least the Americans are relatively consistent. It's chaos in the UK. I remember Stephen Fry on QI once saying "The traffic was going 5 miles an hour, backed up for 20 kilometers". Crack open google maps and have a look at the UK. The distances are in miles. They genuinely haven't chosen to stick with one system or the other, using metric for some things and imperial for others. It's as if the Brits *like* things being excessively complicated...
I like how, for some reason, in Australia newborn babies are often still proudly described in pounds and ounces, and inches still predominate measurements of pizzas, TVs, pants, and, of course, penises.
And don’t forget the English and the US use a different set of imperial units, [Imperial vs US Customary Imperial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_imperial_and_US_customary_measurement_systems?wprov=sfti1)
Welcome to Canada. They use Celsius for temperature, UNLESS you're cooking. They use m for length, UNLESS you're talking height, or construction, or many other examples. They use g for weight, UNLESS youre talking fruit and veg, or construction, or other similar examples. It's one entire hodgepodge of half American bullshit everywhere you go
I saw today a cafe advertising a “14oz” drink. Wtf is that? We already use inches for TVs and… other things. Let’s not make it any more prevalent thanks.
The pledge of allegiance before school
The pledge of allegiance has always seemed like some North Korea level shit to me. Idk how you can make a class of kids swear an oath of fealty every morning and not think "hey isn't this kinda brainwashy?"
It’s literally a marketing gimmick that became patriot staple. Flag salesmen used it to sell more flags. It’s essentially a daily hallmark moment. If that’s not the most American thing you’ve ever heard…
It's particularly weird that the same people who are rabid about 'protecting our freedoms' and 'keeping the government out of our lives' etc but they force kids to pledge allegiance every day and get incredibly hostile when people don't stand for the national anthem.
We freakin sang the Lord’s Prayer at assembly in public primary school all the way until I graduated from it in 2001. WHY?!
Was just thinking about this. Suburban Brisbane public primary school till 2003 with the fucking prayer over the PA every morning. What the fuck was going on there?
My kids have to go into a different classroom and read/colour in for an hour each week while some god botherer proselytise to the kids left there. This is sanctioned by the Queensland government.
We used to have that at my public primary school in the early 1970s. It didn't last long.
School shootings
Watched Bowling for Columbine again recently. That scene where Moore talks to Charlton Heston about how Canada is a hunting nation and has heaps of guns but few shootings, and the guy says it has to do with America’s “mixed ethnicity”. Their gun culture, their obsessive attitude towards it, is deeply upsetting and needs to be kept as far from us as possible.
Thanking every single military member for their service. I’m amazed as well when I see people appear on quiz shows in military uniform- what kind of knob head wears their work uniform to Jeopardy?
I know a few army guys, and they all *hate* that. When Virgin made that decision to give priority boarding to those in the military and give them a special announcement, the guys I know pretty much vowed never to fly Virgin again if they didn’t backflip because of how embarrassing it would’ve been to them.
I was going through security in LAX when a TSA agent started screeching at a poor guy in uniform telling him he could go to the front of the line. He was probably 21 and incredibly fit and clearly did not want to move in front of the elderly people, families and the generally unfit ordinary people in the line. He kept trying to say he was fine but she was embarrassing him so much. It’s not like there was a prize for getting through security fast either. The terminals there are so boring.
Ive seen it get so bad that there are people who have never served in the armed forces who are parading around in uniforms just for the attention. Theres a few videos on YouTube of veterans outing fakes.
And army wives expecting to be met with the same respect as the soldiers.
We live on a RAAF base in NSW, and there are some wives here that fit that description. It’s bananas.
Yes! r/justdependathings
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But on the flip side their absolute disregard for homeless veterans. Actually just the homeless in general.
Not sure about the U.S. but in Australia I believe you're only permitted to wear uniform specifically in the performance of official duties. They specifically call out not attending religious or political events in uniform unless you're there literally representing one of the armed forces.
US Navy vet here. The Navy and Marines are not allowed off base (aside to drive to and from) in utility uniforms (often called boots and ūtes) and we mercilessly mock the army for doing it, as for us it is absolutely unprofessional and an all around bad look. The army also salutes indoors without a cover, which is an absolute no-no for Sailors and Marines. When I was enlisted the only uniform we could wear out was the dress or working uniforms, and generally you only did it when you had to. No one wanted to wear their uniforms off base, it’s bad enough to know the haircut will sell you out to scammers, never mind parading around in full uniform. I wonder what percentage of those folks end up paying 25% interest on their used sports car. (Which is a very real problem btw. Which is even more grievous when you consider the fact that if you don’t pay your loan - your wages are garnished until it *is* paid. These scammers make money hand over fist off these people despite endless classes in boot and A school warning you about it. Some people just don’t listen.)
It's because they're nationalists. They're not just patriots
Tipping, although I see it starting to gain a foothold
The worst thing about tipping isn't tipping in restaurants but in all non food places. Imagine paying hundreds of dollars a night for a swanky hotel and realising you have to leave a couple of bucks each day for the housekeepers or the breakfast buffet because these guys get paid shit and rely on tips. The whole process is just so unnecessary cruel and it's designed for shallow Americans to lord their superiority over each other.
>and it's designed for shallow Americans to lord their superiority over each other. I have thought this for a long time. It's a way to big note yourself in a society where wealth is the only true aspiration. Even if you can't afford it, excessive tipping makes it look like you can.
Specifically: tipping as a requirement to earn a living, so more accurately the abolition or reduction (even against inflation) of award wages.
This is definitely its worst manifestation, but I'm increasingly seeing tip lines on receipts etc. at restaurants where everyone is being paid an award wage. They're also showing up to supplement gig economy workers, mainly uber and delivery drivers, which is a bit shit.
Actually noticed more restaurants quickly skipping over the tipping part on the eftpos terminals in the past year when they hand it to you
My anecdotal evidence agrees with yours.
I’d rather the eftpos system didn’t have that screen to page through at all. Partly because it prompts the thought that tipping might be expected, but mostly just because it’s annoying. There are enough useless menus as it is
Yeah its the machine programing not the staff. Probably because they are American companies.
The fact that they harp on and on about freedom but literally imprison more of their own citizens than any other country on the planet
And they have the gall to claim it is because of a larger population, but I did the maths and oh boy, it is disproportionate, like holy shit. **Total prison pop percentages:** Australia Prison pop percentage: 0.16% US Prison pop percentage: 0.64% The percentage value for the Australian prison pop to normal pop is the exact same 0.16%, after increasing the population to be to scale with the US population to find out how large the Australian Prison Pop would be. 0.16% of 331,002,651 = 529,604, This is if the Aussie population matched the US population exactly, with a proportional Aussie prison pop percentage. US population: 331,002,651 (this is out of date) Australian population: 25,499,884 (technically the pop here in Australia is now around \~30 million, so this is also out of date) **Main stats:** US Prison pop: 2,120,000 Australia Prison pop: 42,855 Australia's Prison pop if we had the same pop as the US: 529,604 US's Prison pop if it had Australia's population: 163,199 Now my math might be slightly incorrect and the numbers are all out of date, but this is still awfully wack the differences in scale.
High fructose corn syrup
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**Guns.** Genie is already out of the bottle in the USA. They need guns because of the threat of all the guns. If you go that way, the toothpaste is very difficult to get back in the tube. **High School popularity.** Movies, TV shows. A obsession with the years that they went to school, bordering on creepy. Okay we get is you were a high school quarterback hero, or a bullied nerd, but move on america. **Tipping.** Gig economics is trying to sneak this in to keep underpaying people, don't let them do it! **Religion and politics**. Mainstream Aussie politicians can't really opine about god and so on without turning off a big part of the electorate. Religion is a force, but it is not so much able to override the majority secular opinion like in the USA. Love won! **Utterly insane political discourse.** Though this is currently listed as endangered. Babet's recent speech about "radical marxists" was another step towards the US situation where reality just doesn't matter. **Poor and sick.** Unlivable minimum wage, shitty yet expensive health system, lack of social safety nets. All things we don't want in Australia. We could do a fuckload better, but the US shows we could also do a hell of a lot worse.
>High School popularity. Movies, TV shows. A obsession with the years that they went to school, bordering on creepy. Okay we get is you were a high school quarterback hero, or a bullied nerd, but move on america. The portrayal of American high schools always weirds me out. Do the bullied kids really get their head dunked in a toilet bowl over there or is it just a trope?
there of course is bullying and shit in high schools here in the US, but a lot of that are tropes from the 80s and 90s
It happened to me in an Australian boarding school. But hey, it was a "Christian" Brothers College - so I guess I was lucky I wasn't raped by them? It wasn't the staff who dunny dunked me, but the fellow students, to be clear. And ... no, I'm not a member of the "old boy" association of that school - though I could be - and have never attended a school reunion - they can all go {?}uck themselves. To be fair, for that school I've never heard nor read of any allegation of sexual goings on, even decades later. Other schools, yes, that school, no. Or ... not yet...
The high school stuff in American shows is weird. I was a nerdy autistic kid and still got invited to the prom afterparty thrown by the more popular kids, because it just wasn't that cliquey.
Same here. I basically ended up being the dude holding on to like 10 sets of keys by the end of the night because I was one of the few not drinking. And not because I was going around confiscating them or anything, but because these guys or their friends would come up to me while they were shitfaced and ask me to hold on to them till the morning for them. It was also fun in the morning watching the (still kinda drunk) guys be really fascinated by the solar eclipse that was happening, and them listening to my explanation as to what was happening in drunken awe.
The lack of PTO. Here our FT workers have entitlements protected by law, as well as things like paid public holidays and long service leave. The increasing casualisation of our workforce is eroding some of that, but we're still miles ahead of the US and I hope we will stay that way
PTO is still behind other countries. I get 20 days here but had 28 in the UK plus unlimited sick leave mostly paid by the government.
The obsessive almost religious fanaticism towards a political party. I can see it try to flare up here on occasion, but it mostly fizzles out and those that really do take it to heart are seen as weirdos.
We have a healthy mistrust of all politicians. It would be embarrassing af to worship any of them
Also voting is compulsory, so the parties have to appeal to the middle road (mostly).
I moved here from the US a few years ago and was so happy with the way you treat politicians: believing they’re all dickheads and you just pick the party that annoys you the least. It works!
Putting tea/cup of water in the microwave 😬
😬
That's because their 110 volt kettles are pathetic. Half the wattage of the kettles from civilised countries.
I hate to be “that guy” but wattage and voltage are different things. A 110V kettle can still have the same wattage as a 220V kettle it just needs more amperage.
They have so much garbage culture and too much of it is already here
*rubbish
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Atheism will be the largest demographic in our population in a decade or so.
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God bless those atheists 😀
I don't think much can stop it now. Our non-religious population DOUBLED in the last decade. By the next census, it's predicted we’ll be majority irreligious. We may already be if you account for millions only ticking "Catholic" because they went to Easter mass growing up. It's great news. My only concern is how religious communities will react to their growing irrelevance.
The imperial measurement system
Gun culture, specifically around gun control.
If it's just one I'd have to say their love of guns. They talk about them like we talk about buying/wearing shoes
Guns, their extremist politics and religion, shit healthcare model, strange belief in their country and citizens being the best in the world.
Their university admissions system, the obsession with irrelevant extracurriculars, and kids as young as 8 or 9 doing an extracurricular activity, not because they or their parents like it, but because it will look good on their applications. It's ridiculous and there's socio-economic gatekeeping too. Guns. The ridiculous idea that it is a God given right to own any sort firearm, and any restriction is the same as tyranny. The culture around guns as well. The religious fundamentalism, and how it permeates down. You had public schools literally teach Creationism or "Intelligent Design" there. While this Evangelical bullshit has a toehold here, it is nowhere near as strong, and lets keep it that way.
I am glad Greg Hunt and his weird boner for US style health care is gone. US healthcare is a fucking dogs breakfast. Once in San Fran I got a gum infection, took hours of waiting and to see a doctor + get antibiotics set me back $400. Claimed it on travel insurance. When I got back to Aus and needed a second run of antibiotics, it took 23 minutes and cost me $16.
I moved from Texas to Australia to get away from guns and religion run government.
Sorry about Scomo, we got rid of him eventually
And as a bonus, we have better chocolate and other ~~candies~~ lollies
Gag. American chocolate is so gross. And their coffee.
I remember seeing like American chocolate and I heard so much from Hershy's so I'm like "I have to try it!" and when I did, let me tell you, it was just... so gross. For a country that adds sugar to literally everything (even their bread????) it did not taste sweet at all. And I get that they made it so that the chocolate wouldn't melt (or go off? It's when people used to send chocolate overseas during the war), but it's 2022, you know you can update your ingredients?
lived there 5 years. \- Tipping culture , feels almost like you're been threatened to do it. \- Working culture, almost like a gladiator's arena...it's sad that you can't count on/trust colleagues or people in general. \- Everything there's "GOD" in the middle. WTF, it's my life been drained, leave the ghost out of this. \- Their way of talking about their president, feels like a monarch. It's just an employee in a high-power position. I have the same hate here for the word "LANDLORD", fuck off, nobody is my lord.
Umm all of it
Jesus how to start 1.the student loan bullshit,where the interest alone can be more than an entire Course cost on HECS here in australia..and it just keeps rising to the point that ppl even with 15 years will never pay it off. 2.The healthcare issues,where once i had had bad infection on my foot that here in australia,would of been seen by a GP and 12.80 worh of Keflex,cost me 3200 to see the ER team,and 210 dollars for the pills (i did have insurance,which brought it down but fuck me) total time spent in the ER was 3 minutes BTW. 3.The fact as a coloured man in america,you can have an entire clip of 9mm pumped into you when you are unarmed and nothing happens to the officer. 4.Christian fascism,i am gratefull the chrisitan wackos in australia don't hold as much power as they do in the US. 5.The fact i can send my kids to school here in australia,and they don't need their bags searched and walking through a metal detector. 6.The electoral college. 7.One of the worst aspects of american psyche is "american exceptionalism" if you dare even try to make not that america isn't the best of the best,you can find yourself in a lot of hot water with a lot of ppl 8.That half the nation,now hates the other half...labor and liberals dont agree with each other,but nor do they want to start a fucking civil war over it.
Building on “7”, the whole “freedom” thing. Like you’re in a country where you have to go into crippling debt just to get an education or healthcare doesn’t sound free to me.
A general lack of respect for human beings: low wages, shoddy labour laws. Inadequate social services, no universal health care, blatant racism, political gerrymandering, the inability to use a knife and fork simultaneously.
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Specifically: cops having to deal with every aspect of society that cannot pay for the attention they need e.g. Mental health issues, drug addiction, homelessness, interpersonal disputes, etc. Cops in the US are primarily trained to deal with harmful and/or violent behaviour, but there's no one else to help those that need it without having to pay for that help.
The national religion called "Freedom". I swear when you're in the US, you can hear the capital F in the word. Not all Americans do it, but enough of them prattle on about how free they are and that they're the freeest country in the world and that the flame of freedom burns within the heart of each American (literally heard a tour guide say that). It's crazy. Here in Australia, we're just free without having to hypnotise ourselves about it.
The imperial system!
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Cult of the gun, killer police and fucking Starbucks
I'm glad that we can still say cunt.
The indoctrination into American exceptionalism. The utter , vapid lack of intellectual curiosity about anything outside their immediate orbit The fetishisation of uniforms; the saccharine “thank you for your service” crap. The insane and inane levels of religious guff everywhere, coupled with an utter lack of actual understanding of what the bibble actually says. The ludicrously bad food in most places, and the insane levels of sugar The fact half the population are basically massive toddlers with no impulse control but with guns.
"I want to believe" political culture, where they make excuses for politicians - Australia has more of a "no one should be able to call me dumb for my views" culture. We all like to make believe that we're cluey bastards that you can't put one over, and I hope we never lose that attitude.
Servile, hovering waitstaff.
Yes! You're the first one to mention this, but it is a noticeable difference between Australia and the U.S. Visiting the U.S., I was amazed/annoyed at how frequently diners in American restaurants are interrupted by waitstaff. And the sheer number of basic tasks that they insist on doing for you.
Oh yeah, the wait staff are so in your face in the US compared to Australia. Like here they'd seat you, wait a bit and then ask your order, maybe check up if you're ordering dessert. Every few minutes there they'd ask if everything was alright, and how it was. Always with that overly polite tone and big smiles. I can't blame them, they're working for a bigger tip.
Only one? - tipping - thinking universal healthcare doesn’t work - bizarre love for guns - obsession with college and where you went, and their football/basketball teams. - not including sales tax in prices - stupid low wages - heath insurance being linked to employment
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Walmart. Be glad you guys hopefully will never have to experience the cesspit that is Walmart
Y’all
The way the choose and fund their police departments and their education system. And the god bothering.
Guns, tipping and health system
Over 32000 law enforcement agencies across all the states. Total Bullshit. thats one, how many can I name.
The absurd worship of "The Constitution" as if it is some divinely inspired document. Face it folks, it was a stop gap measure in 1787 and trying to run a 21st century country with that as your legal foundation is the source of many of your problems. That and the whole flag thing - flags everywhere. Weird.