Comments by "Andy Dee" (@AndyViant) on "Things Americans Do That Confuse The Rest of the World - American Reacts" video.

  1. Tipping, if customary or nearly mandatory ends up being a direct subsidy from the consumer to the company so that the company doesn't have to pay a proper liveable wage. The solution to this is simple - pay a decent wage and then tipping can be given just to people who you feel went out of their way to really assist you. Tipping everyone, even when their service sucks is just plain wrong. Also, tipping is inherently unfair. When you tip, is it just the waiter/waitress that provides the service? Who cooked your meal, who cleaned the toilets, who scrubs the dishes after and so on. Tips seem to be based on the charm and the erm attributes of the serving staff, not based on who did the work. Does that money get back to all those other staff? Depends on the culture in the workplace. Tipping in the rest of the world usually amounts to a "round up" where say a $143 bill might become $150, and even that is purely optional. In some places it's even quite offensive to tip. I will admit American customer service is better, and probably because of this culture. But it seems a really high price to pay for people to be nicer to each other. How much does it cost? Well, the food ends up cheaper, but then you pay 20% extra... so it ends up the same. Some companies do well, and some people get rich off tips, while others work 3 jobs. Plus, there's a lot of money never traced or taxed by government, and that means less money to pay for schools, hospitals, infrastructure. All in all, I can only look on and shake my head. The world watches on and thinks it's crazy. Holidays/Sick Leave/Workplace Welfare. Honestly, it's nuts from the outside. It seems like the whole reason to exist of the American people is to be slaves for business. The tipping culture is bad enough, but the lack of holidays just makes it so much worse. That's without taking into account "gig economy" or "side hustle" stuff. Australia is pretty much a default 4 weeks leave per year, although some industries get more. Plus, usually 2-3 weeks sick leave, and another week or more long service leave accrued each year, so that after 10 years in one workplace you can actually take a decent 3 month holiday. Europe has crazy good holidays for some nations, way better than Australia. It's mostly to do with strength of unions and the political parties tied in with that. But there is a clear trade off and some nations get the balance wrong on either side, and are economically uncompetitive. America is super competitive in the corporate world but there is an enormous social cost.
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  2. Peanut butter. Satay. Toasted Peanut Butter and Cheese. Peanut butter whiskey. Not for pizza bases :( Healthy food. America's food availability is based on what is convenient to large supermarket chains. It's funny, because in many ways America (well maybe California) is on front of a lot of health food trends, but the problem is frankly affordability, because of those same supply chains. Portion sizes and massive amounts of Corn Syrup have a lot to do with obesity. Australia ain't far behind, but our portion sizes at Macca's are nowhere near as bad. Pro teams. Australia's biggest winter sport (AFL) has 18 teams and our summer sport (Cricket) just one third of that, so we have minor leagues too, but you guys get the same sized crowds as the NFL. Well done you. We used to get big crowds at our state league games, but not any more. Loved watching earthquake videos for Virginia Tech. That's true passion. Medications. We let trained professionals choose the right medicine to treat your condition. Not some marketing dude. This is one of the reasons why your health system is messed up, dude. Soccer. We call it soccer too. Soccer is called Soccer because we already had multiple codes of Football already in place well before Soccer became a thing. It may be "the world game" but it isn't as old as most people think. We do have people make fun (or should I say take the p*ss) of australian sport too. To soccer fans in Australia their sport is "foot ball" and rugby is "hand egg", because you handle it more than kick it and it's white and egg shaped. But hey, attendances don't lie, and no one likes a nil all draw. Taxes. There's VAT in Europe. Australia has a GST but that is inclusive on all quoted prices. Metric System, well, we've never heard THAT one before. It's always funny to me that the nation that rebelled against the British Empire still uses the Imperical (that is to say, the British Empire's) System. You really need to measure things in freedoms per bald eagle or something. We know imperial too, but we don't use it daily except for heights, and the common sizes where metric and imperial meet up close enough (eg 4by2 wood, 17mm spanners, 25x25mm square tube) Dates. YYYYMMDD is the only one that makes sense from a programming perspective. Not that I do that kind of work anymore, but no later date should ever have a lower number value. So until we go all "stardate" that's the best system we have and all others are wrong. Final mention. Toilets. You should feel safe in a toilet, and not need to draft in your mates to protect you from being seen around the door. That's crazy.
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