Dutch traffic infrastructure. It’s incredibly safe, promotes walking, bicycling and public transport, well maintained and easy to understand. There’s a reason the largest Youtube channel on urban planning center around the Netherlands experience (and how other places could learn): https://youtube.com/@notjustbikes
America: our mail system is. USPS processes 23.5 million packages per day, and processes and delivers 318 million pieces of mail every day, to every single household in America, 6 days per week (7 days per week for packages).
They will throw mail sacks onto the backs of donkeys and trek them down into the Grand Canyon to deliver to tribes down there. They will deliver by bike, plane, boat, truck, car, etc. Hell, name any other organization where you could hand someone a letter and $0.62 and ask them to take it to Alaska for you, and they’d say no problem.
“Post” roads in the U.S. are named as such because they were roads built specifically for the movement of “post” across the country, and people have even argued that USPS (then the Postal Service) created the layout of the country as we know it.
And despite what many may think or know, USPS is incredibly efficient when it comes to mail and delivery compared to other countries. I remember them telling us during our orientation (I used to be a mail carrier) that back around 2013, representatives from USPS were actually flown to Germany to teach and help them start delivering 6-days per week. USPS taught Germany how to be more efficient at something 😂
Germany: bread
Was learning about the requirements it be a baker in Germany - something like 3 years of school to work at a bakery, 6 years to own one. Crazy.
US here. I don’t think we get enough credit for our anti-smoking culture, and given that Hollywood is a major culture driver…
Even in my poor little town, where the broke and uneducated smoke more, it’s getting to be where I’m a little taken aback when I see someone smoking in public.
All this coming from a guy that smoked for 20+ years. The culture shift has been dramatic and I hope we’re exporting it.
Falconry is set up really well in the US and several foreign countries clubs are petitioning their government to emulate us.
- It’s difficult to get into on purpose. This reduces impulse buys of raptors by completely inexperienced people which reduces raptor harm.
- Self regulated for the most part through an apprentice / sponsor system.
- Clearly defined as a hunting sport with “pet keepers” kept to a minimum as they can lose their license for not hunting. Raptors make shit pets and need to fly and hunt for their mental well being.
- Wild take of raptors. This is a huge one, pretty much no other country that actually has wildlife protections allows this. Falconry in the US is basically built off of wild take as an exclusion to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
- Very difficult to monetize. A falconer cannot use their license to make money. Educational programs can be done but they can’t be paid more than gas money and if they are doing more programs than hunting they can lose their license. Doing abatement (using a raptor to chase off pests at an airport for example) is a separate license which requires 7 years as a falconer minimum.
- Each state has their own club that works with their state government and then there is a national club that works with the feds and other countries.
It’s difficult to get into on purpose.
Had to read this a few times until it clicked that it doesn’t mean as opposed to getting into accidentally.
“Hi honey, how was your day?”
“Terrible. I accidentally became a falconer and you know how hard I’ve been trying to avoid falconry recently. I thought I was safe.”
France - treating people the same no matter what they do for a living.
It’s really nice to be respected even if you’re a cleaner or a bin man, and very much deserved
I’ve only spent a couple months in France, but I agree from my experience. I think that foreigners that complain about the French being rude were just expecting special treatment, didn’t put in any effort themselves to be friendly, then shocked that the storekeeper/waiter wasn’t kissing their ass, even though they didn’t even manage to say ‘bonjour’.
French people are nice. Parisians are a special kind of hell.
I lived in Paris for a year, speak french and respect people who work extremely difficult jobs in the most tourist-heavy city on the planet
I think I met three or four grumpy cunts in that year. Considering everything, that’s a miniscule percentage
Bear in mind these people aren’t being false-nice. They don’t rely on tips to feed their kids
Who complains the most about the so-called french “attitude”?
Brits and Yanks, the ones that think cleaners and waiters are beneath them and need to dance to earn tips
Makes sense
I’m currently living in the Netherlands and I found some awesome, (for me) novel things, like ATMs all being from one company that all the banks in NL share ownership in. That means no matter your bank you dont pay for getting cash. Which is ironic cos I dont need cash as much anymore since non-cash payments are so much more prevalent here compared to Germany, for example.
Canada: we’re the best at being annoyingly modest while simultaneously feeling smugly superior.
Billiard balls and playing cards. Belgium is world leader in both.
Edit: forgot to add pigeons. Belgian competition pigeons are the most expensive in the world.
Edit 2: Belfries. Clock-O-Matic is a Belgian company and world leader in the automation of Belfries. It’s not that hard because most Belfries are located in Belgium and France, if not all of them.
Edit 3: It never ends. Roller coaster wheels. Let that sink in. No their country produces more roller coaster wheels nor is as good as we arr at it.
Australia: Consumer protection laws are better than most other countries, even European countries. For example:
- Products must last as long as a “reasonable consumer” would expect them to last, regardless of the warranty period. For example, at least 5-10 years for large appliances.
- If there’s a “major failure” any time during that period (a big problem with the product, if it stops working, if it differs from the description, is missing advertised features, or you wouldn’t have bought it if you knew about the problem beforehand), the customer has a choice of whether they want to have the item repaired, replaced, or return it and get a refund. Customers can also ask for a partial refund based on loss of value.
- The store you bought the item from must accept returns and warranty claims. They can’t tell you to go to the manufacturer.
- For repairs, returns and replacements of large items (like appliances), the company must pick it up and drop it off for free.
- It’s illegal for a store to not offer refunds (unless the items are second-hand).
- Products must match descriptions in advertising, including what a sales person tells you. If a sales person tells you the product does something but it actually doesn’t, you can get a refund.
- Businesses get fined for breaking these rules. A chain of computer stores had to pay a $200,000 fine for showing an illegal “no refunds” sign and forcing people to go to the manufacturer for warranty claims, and were later fined $750,000 for doing it again: https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/msy-technology-ordered-to-pay-penalties-of-750000-for-consumer-guarantee-misrepresentations
This applies for digital goods, too. As far as I know, Australia is the only country where you can get a refund from Steam for a major bug in a game regardless of how long you’ve owned the game for or how many hours you’ve played. Valve tried to avoid doing this and was fined $3 million: https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/valve-to-pay-3-million-fine-for-misleading-australian-gamers/
Germany. Bicycle parts.
Sure, the market leaders for drivetrain components are Shimano from Japan and Sram from the US.
But look into the higher-priced niches and there’s:- Bosch, market leader for e-bike motors
- Schwalbe and Continental, market leaders for bicycle tires
- SKS, market leader for bike accessories like fenders
- Ortlieb and Vaude, market leaders for bike bags
- Rohloff, makes the best gear hubs in the world
- Pinion, makes the best bottom bracket gearbox in the world
- SON, makes the best hub dynamos in the world
- Busch & Müller, makes the best bicycle lights in the world
I’m still using a (Son) dynamo Busch and Müller light from a decade ago on my touring bike. It’s so reliable and the beam pattern is better than on my car. I also have schwalbe marathons and ortlieb panniers on that bike. Such a good setup for a bike built like a tank. It might be fully German if it wasn’t a Fuji with a Shimano groupset and Brooks saddle.
Turkiye: E-Devlet.
We have this E-Government system that centralizes almost all relations with the State, I really don’t remember when was the last time I saw an official document in paper. With all 1000+ official agencies involved, you can access and manage over 8000+ services like GDPR permissions, analogue tv frequency infos, paying traffic tickets, state-backed escrowing, fraud checks, my kids grades, my medical records etc within an handsome mobile/web app.
It was shocking to see even my German friends still need to use their physical mailboxes to handle official stuff. I can imagine it’s even worse at the rest of the western world.
Not sure why you would think Germany is the best in this respect as I’ve often heard the opposite in my travels there. They are very anti-tech in government, privacy/cybersecurity reasons are what’s usually cited.
India: what India does wayyy better than others is digital payments. we have what is called UPI this is a open payments interface made by government (rbi) but their APIs can be used by any bank’s and any verified third party apps, and all you need to use UPI is just a bank account that’s it, and with this we can send money to any bank account through any other bank account with just phone number or QR code, the reciver and sender don’t even have to use same app because the backend is same for all, i just have to search for their number and send money, or i just have to scan QR code and send money, and it happens instantly with no minimum limit, this is so widely used that pretty much any shopkeeper keeps a UPI qr code even the ones in smallest and remote villages. infact i dony think I used single rupee in cash since like last 3 years, i don’t carry cash anywhere either, this is integrated with popular apps too like uber online food ordering apps , Netflix and basically any app that needs payment. upi is pretty much only reason why India has the most digital transaction in world even more than China and it’s not even close.
also public digital infrastructure, pretty much anything government related is done digitally, like our id cards, driving licence, income certificate, and even high school and degree certificate is digitised, infact even our college credits is digitised, like my college credits will be automatically added so it will be seamless to change college in between my degree, and ofc all this is verified cryptographically with an app, so it’s not just one pdf which can be forged or something. and recently a law was passed which made the cryptographically verified digital documents legally same thing as physical one’s, so now if you have a phone with the app installed ( government made app that store’s and verifies documents) and if you have all your documents in that app you are good to go anywhere. this is more than just concinence of not having to carry physical documents because now we can make bank accounts completely online because verification can be done through their APIs and cryptographically. and yeah it was super useful in covid times because we could do appointment for vaccination online in the app and we could get covid certificate digitally.
I’m curious, how does that work for people from remote villages? India still have a pretty large population who live traditional lifestyles with limited access to the Internet, don’t y’all? Do they have the option of more traditional paper documents, or do they have to find a computer somewhere to use for certain things?
even people from less developed places use digital stuff, you don’t need computer you only need a phone to use everything, mobile data is super cheap in india (3usd per month for 2gb per day), and smartphones are super cheap too, even people who don’t have access to electricity use digital payments. infact this was possible only because of cheap internet and many indians are comfortable with tech somehow. and connectivity is really good pretty much 100% of country get’s fast 4g and nearly 80% has 5g
That’s really interesting! In the us, I lived extremely rural, without running water or electricity for several years. If we needed to do anything, we had to crank up a generator and use shitty satellite Internet in the beginning. After a while we got a few small/cheap solar panels and a couple car batteries we ran stuff off of.
Doesn’t “digital” imply “electricity”?
well that i meant 24/7 electricity
Australia: carrying out elections.
Voting is compulsory and you will be fined if you don’t vote without an acceptable reason.
But because voting is compulsory, it’s extremely easy and accessible. Waiting in line for more than 15 minutes is a long wait. Even in the suburbs you’re not usually more than a five minute drive from a polling place.
If you think you’ll have trouble getting to a polling place on election day (a Saturday), you can request a postal ballot or vote early at a different polling place.
We have an independent electoral commission federally and in each state/territory to organise elections (depending on which level of government you’re voting for). They also handle district boundaries to remove gerrymandering.
All ballots are marked and counted by hand. The counting process is open and transparent: any candidate can send people to inspect the counting process and ensure there are no irregularities.
This is all true, but there’s more:
- Our election campaigns are six weeks by definition. No political ads filling the airwaves the rest of the time.
- We have preferential voting. You don’t have to choose only between the shit and shit-lite parties. You can vote for someone else, and still put shit-lite as your preferred option if the independent you voted first for didn’t get in.
- The electoral commission will help pay for your campaigning if you secured 5% of the vote. Evens the field a bit for not-rich people to run.
- Political signs on houses are pretty rare. Maybe a couple of diehard fans.
- Nobody gets real angry at you if you vote for someone different.
You don’t have to vote. As long as you show up and have your name marked off, you can leave the ballot paper blank.
Slovakia: corruption
