The quaintness of America, the backwards superpower

Telegraph - UK ^ | March 10, 2012 | Peter Foster

[hattend]

Really

Last check I wrote was probably 2 years ago.

Online banking and a debit card which helps avoid ATM charges by taking $100 in cash at checkout.

Only way to go.

I was stationed in England. I could complain about the road tax, the annual car inspections (what a racket!), the roads, the 50HZ electricity, the food... but hey, that’s part of the experience of living outside my culture. It was great fun.

[hattend]

Oh MAN! That is the truth! Ugh.

My German landlord actually liked renting to Americans so he went out and bought an American toilet to install in the rental apartment. I was so glad to not have to view yesterday’s corn.

[x]

He does have a point. I was reading about texting in the British papers some time before it really caught on over here. Not sure if that's such a bad thing, though.

I'd imagine it's easier for a smaller country Britain to maintain a few important highways than it would be for a large country like the US to keep all its arteries in top shape.

And I guess it's easier to introduce changes and apply them uniformly in a smaller country, especially if bureaucracy is more entrenched there.

[bootless]

I like this comment:

“I expected America to be the land of free commerce, but just about everything you try to do is a bureaucratic nightmare. Although, on the plus side, the booze is cheap and there aren’t many Muslims.”

[Oatka]

". . . and there aren’t many Muslims.”

Yet. :-(

[bootless]

I know.

[Billthedrill]

Funny - I'm pretty much out of the check - er, "cheque" - business and glad of it. And I agree that ATM fees are class oppression for which somebody - preferably a random liberal - should be stood up against the wall when the Revolution comes. Oh heck, why wait?

But the Brits have their own problems. For one thing, a ridiculous leveling effort that has underrepresented letters like "u" tacked on to perfectly adequate spellings such as "color" and "favor". That one was done solely for votes from minority letters for the Labor - er, "Labour" - party if you ask me.

I realize they were our friends once - they burned down the White House in 1812 - but just try to get them to do that for us these days! You'll just hear a bunch of guff about special relationship and all that. One little, tiny napalm strike - is that too much to ask?

[redhead]

Gosh, I’m sorry, Peter. Feel free not to let the door bang you in the butt on the way out.

[redhead]

"Last routine checks I wrote were installments on a car I bought from a relative. Everything else os on-line."

I use checks for charity and taxes, and to pay the maintenance service people who come to my house. Otherwise, debit card and online, and I know I'm not alone in this.

[Mad Dawgg]

Hahahah iPad mentioned in the same sentence as the Moon Landing as equal in level of accomplishment.

That tells us right there how much credibility the article has.

[21twelve]

I’m surprised that he didn’t find it quaint and backwards that so many Americans own firearms. Maybe I can add it.

“And why so many guns? Are they still in fear of Indian attacks - or fighting off rustlers, or protecting the chickens from wolves? Thank goodness that China and England have taken care of the cattle rustlers so no one needs guns anymore.”

[chesley]

Bitching about our use of non-metric systems. Ouch!

When I defended my PhD dissertation, one of my professors asked why I used English units rather than metric. Well the real reason was that all my instrumentation was in English units, and I felt no need to convert them.

However, what I said was, "This is America, and this is what we use here". I guess it worked because, I got the PhD.

[redhead]

And I noticed he didn’t mention that there’s a dentist on every corner. Hint, hint...