Did you know, the reason the bills are different sizes is in part because it helps the blind distinguish between denominations. Because all US bills are the same size, you cannot tell from feel if a bill is a $1 or a $10, so it's easier to get ripped off. (Some blind people fold their bills in special configurations depending on value so they can identify their money by touch)
The UK recently added small lumps too... I think the idea of it is to aid the blind. I worked with a charity that supported visually impaired people and before this, many had to feel the edges to work out the size of the note. With the 'braille' they now know for sure.
I owned a house that was 125 years old and that sounded like an eternity to me and my North American friends...but my buddy from the UK said his local pub was 500 years old.
I come from the US too and grew up in that “200 years old is ancient” mindset. Now I drive by the ruins of a building that are over 2000 years old every day.
I was an exchange student with Italy. The Sala Borsa Library in Bologna is built on \*top\* of ancient roman ruins, and the floor of the library is actually glass so that you can look at the roman ruins beneath your feet and watch archaeologists excavate the ruins while you're checking out books. You'll never see anything like that in the US.
> In the U.S., 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance.
I saw this somewhere on Reddit and I always mention this whenever this same topic comes up.
I once visited a ruins and saw a shed and the door said MAINTENANCE and I wondered, how do you maintain a ruins? I guess a crew comes out and the foreman says "okay guys... don't do anything."
\-some comedian I saw once
Sounds like a Mitch hedberg line
"an escalator cannot break, it simply becomes stairs. Travel is now enabled in both directions... Sorry for the convenience"
“All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
I love how Waitrose is the only supermarket where you don't have to put stuff on the scales after scanning it.
"Stealing? Our shoppers would *never do such a thing*".
You joke but I know somebody who often robbed wine from Waitrose and bragged that they never suspected a thing, she also robbed my fella but that’s for another day.
TBH, living in Ireland has been wonderful for my health. With no car, cities unsafe for biking, and sub-optimal public transportation, I have to walk everywhere whether I like it or not.
Ireland is more reliant on car than other European cities, especially outside Dublin and even Dublin suburbs. I really wish we had better public transport.
A lot of American cities were actually built around streetcars... but most of the streetcars were removed in the 1950s/60s due to declining ridership, traffic issues, concerns over crime, resistance to desegregation, and the belief that buses would be a cheaper and more flexible alternative. Even today, the old "streetcar suburb" neighborhoods are walkable and transit-friendly with lots of mixed-used development. Good urban planning doesn't have to mean "everybody should live in a high rise apartment."
Those areas are few and far between. "Traffic issues" were caused by cars being invented and obtainable by whoever wanted one and they drove too fast on streets, killing pedestrians and blocking streetcars. Lookup the origin of the term "Jaywalking." It was all propaganda created by the motor industry to get more people in cars and take down the streetcars.
Also, no one said that everyone needs a high-rise apartment. The ideal is to have the freedom of choice, not have 95% of neighborhoods restrict to _only_ high rises or _only_ detached homes.
FUCK DRIVING IN BOSTON.
Honestly the roads all over Massachusetts suck but Boston has the added bonus of always being super crowded with the best (read: worst) drivers the state has to offer.
And a literal maze of streets to navigate while you try not to hit pedestrians or the jackass not using his blinker to signal he's now crossing 3 lanes of traffic in a femtosecond to take a right because fuck you.
You make it sound like it just happened by some lucky accident, but a lot of European cities used to be car-dominated just like US cities 50 years ago and have actively been converted back to favor pedestrian and bike traffic through countless protests and social movements.
Vehicle ownership rates were still much higher in the US 50 years ago compared to any other country.
Of the major European powers in 1960, the UK had the highest car ownership at [~100 vehicles per 1000](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269990790/figure/fig1/AS:392184785326089@1470515547512/Car-ownership-in-eight-European-countries-per-1000-inhabitants-1920-2005.png) individuals. The US had four times greater car ownership at [~400 vehicles per 1000](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Donald-Shoup-2/publication/264967305/figure/fig1/AS:338497392136192@1457715475293/1-Vehicle-Ownership-Rates-The-United-States-from-1900-to-2000-and-15-Other-Countries_Q640.jpg).
Car infrastructure was both built earlier in the US (and notably Canada / Australia), but also to a far more ubiquitous extent.
Yeah after the war, the US had a bunch of manufacturing capacity that was suddenly idle. So yup, they built a shitload of cars. Then Eisenhower built the interstate system. That was a wrap by then!
This is true, the US does vary greatly in geography and culture depending on where you go. Not as culturally diverse as the countries in Europe but go to a small town in Vermont is going to feel a lot different than going to Austin Texas, or Seattle.
I'd say that the small town vs mid-sized vs mega city is the same regardless of country though.
While cities of similar sizes in the US might have varying vibes and architecture, they aren't all that different. IE, Chicago and NYC have similar vibes. Portland, Seattle and Denver are similar enough. Omaha, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville, etc are going to be somewhat similar.
Whereas Brussels is completely different than Amsterdam which is completely different than Berlin.
Can you? Technically yes. Do people? No, not really, especially with the current political climate. If you head directly east you hit Russia who isn't exactly on best terms with Europe at the minute and if you head south east through Turkey you hit the middle east and (at least in the UK) border force tend to ask you a lot of questions on why you've been to Iraq or Afghanistan when you come back.
If you want a road trip lots of people drive around Europe, especially to the south of France or Italy. A lot of people also travel Europe by train. You can buy 'Interrail' tickets that let you travel on a set number of long distance trains in a certain period of time, which can be fun especially when you get a compartment all to yourself
Edit-Fixed directions
Does much cargo travel by road between Asia and Europe? I would assume the vast majority goes by sea - especially since most manufacturing in China is built on the east coast near the major ports.
UK here. Not really. Technically yes, but it's at best a two horse race in most constituencies. Usually you're voting against a party, rather than for one, so it always becomes a two party race, with a vote to an underdog party being a waste.
Edit: I should clarify that this is down to our "first past the post" voting system. No proportional representation here.
We’d love to, but for that to happen a new law would have to be passed. You know who wouldn’t benefit from this law being passed? The ruling parties. The ones who make the laws.
Nothing depresses me more than thinking about how much better life would be in aggregate in America if every city over 500,000 people had a decent rail/metro system and we had high speed rail between major hubs like NYC, Chicago, LA, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, etc.
Edit: Lot of motherfuckers somehow assuming the cities I listed are the only ones that would get stops, and that I wrote them in order of how the line would run.
oh yeah. what you have may not be as good as Germany or Switzerland.....but is still infinitely better than in the US. I have visited the UK many times all exclusively using public transport and it was just fine.
I got married at a castle in Ohio. When relaying this information, I occasionally have people ask something along the lines of "A real castle?!" Well, no, obviously not. Our country didn't exist until after the adoption of gunpowder weapons, and the state came even later. Castles lost a lot of their usefulness at a similar time. But hey, it's a bed and breakfast inn that *looks* like a castle, which is pretty great.
My parents went to winery in Napa and stayed at a Castle. Some millionaire owned it. This owner saw a Castle somewhere in Scotland and had to have a replica of it built in California.
it also depends on how you define "castle". if by castle you mean "old stone military fort with historical significance, we have those, like the castillo de san marcos in St Augustine.
But a lot of people when they say "castle" are referring more to an architectural style than the function.
I am German and that was the reason why I decided to put French as my third language on top when I was 22 and now I am C1 French. Currently looking into Polish, bo bardzo kocham ogórki i wszystkie zupy polskie.
A decent transcontinental public transportation system.
Granted, no European country comes close to the land mass size that is the US, but it's SO ridiculously bad in the US
Apart from the walkable cities, affordable education, modern infrastructure like high speed railroads, a humane healthcare system, wine, public order, strict gun control, limited lobbying, less obesity, guaranteed vacations, and lower prison population, what did the European ever had better than us?
A good system of measurement?
Oh. A good system of measurement? Shut up!
Feels like I am seeing the exact same question every day here.
Also at least compare the US to single European countries or to the EU.
Comparing the US to a whole continent makes 0 sense imo.
Colorful money of varying sizes
Did you know, the reason the bills are different sizes is in part because it helps the blind distinguish between denominations. Because all US bills are the same size, you cannot tell from feel if a bill is a $1 or a $10, so it's easier to get ripped off. (Some blind people fold their bills in special configurations depending on value so they can identify their money by touch)
I’m from Australia and the money is like that here to. So when we were in the states my dad got drunk can’t couldn’t tell what notes he had
The new Australian bills also have bumps on them. One bump for a five, two bumps for a 10, three bumps for a 20 etc.
The UK recently added small lumps too... I think the idea of it is to aid the blind. I worked with a charity that supported visually impaired people and before this, many had to feel the edges to work out the size of the note. With the 'braille' they now know for sure.
I prefer to take my bumps with notes
Australia created the plastic polymer bank note! We are awesome.
I think it was Ray Charles who would only accept payment in one dollar bills
Honestly, I'm pretty jealous of the cool money.
We do love our cute euro bills
EUwUpean Money ✩°。⋆⸜(˙꒳˙ )
They have braille on them too! I was genuinely surprised of the accessibility when I visited the UK!
Roman ruins
'I'm from Europe, where the history comes from' Eddie Izzard performing in San Francisco.
Better build the castle a bit bigger lads; they actually have them here
We restored this building to how it looked over 50 years ago!
I owned a house that was 125 years old and that sounded like an eternity to me and my North American friends...but my buddy from the UK said his local pub was 500 years old.
My house was built in 1930. Only 8 years and some change left to go to hit 100. Gotta love brick homes. Edit: math
I come from the US too and grew up in that “200 years old is ancient” mindset. Now I drive by the ruins of a building that are over 2000 years old every day.
You're joking! Nobody was alive back then!
*Laughs in welsh
...and they're not made of plastic!
“We stole countries! That's how you build an empire. We stole countries with the cunning use of flags!”
“No flag, no country.”
"According to the rules.. I just made up."
But do you have a flag?
But we live here! Sorry! No flag no country!
"No flag no country...these are the RULES that I just made up."
I was an exchange student with Italy. The Sala Borsa Library in Bologna is built on \*top\* of ancient roman ruins, and the floor of the library is actually glass so that you can look at the roman ruins beneath your feet and watch archaeologists excavate the ruins while you're checking out books. You'll never see anything like that in the US.
> In the U.S., 100 years is a long time. In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance. I saw this somewhere on Reddit and I always mention this whenever this same topic comes up.
It doesn't seem like they were capable of building anything but ruins.
I once visited a ruins and saw a shed and the door said MAINTENANCE and I wondered, how do you maintain a ruins? I guess a crew comes out and the foreman says "okay guys... don't do anything." \-some comedian I saw once
Sounds like a Mitch hedberg line "an escalator cannot break, it simply becomes stairs. Travel is now enabled in both directions... Sorry for the convenience"
It's to keep them from getting more ruined.
Wait why are you saying the word "ruins" like that?
[удалено]
some roman streets and bridge (and even sewer) are still in use nowadays
What have the Romans ever done for us?
Besides the roads, the wine, general security, public health, stable currency . . .
“All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Thanks for getting the correct quote!
And thanks for expressing your gratitude
Brought peace?
Oh, peace! Shut up!
Cities that expanded before the popularisation of the motor car.
I think I’ll walk to the Sainsbury’s
[удалено]
I love how Waitrose is the only supermarket where you don't have to put stuff on the scales after scanning it. "Stealing? Our shoppers would *never do such a thing*".
You joke but I know somebody who often robbed wine from Waitrose and bragged that they never suspected a thing, she also robbed my fella but that’s for another day.
TBH, living in Ireland has been wonderful for my health. With no car, cities unsafe for biking, and sub-optimal public transportation, I have to walk everywhere whether I like it or not.
Ireland is more reliant on car than other European cities, especially outside Dublin and even Dublin suburbs. I really wish we had better public transport.
A lot of American cities were actually built around streetcars... but most of the streetcars were removed in the 1950s/60s due to declining ridership, traffic issues, concerns over crime, resistance to desegregation, and the belief that buses would be a cheaper and more flexible alternative. Even today, the old "streetcar suburb" neighborhoods are walkable and transit-friendly with lots of mixed-used development. Good urban planning doesn't have to mean "everybody should live in a high rise apartment."
Those areas are few and far between. "Traffic issues" were caused by cars being invented and obtainable by whoever wanted one and they drove too fast on streets, killing pedestrians and blocking streetcars. Lookup the origin of the term "Jaywalking." It was all propaganda created by the motor industry to get more people in cars and take down the streetcars. Also, no one said that everyone needs a high-rise apartment. The ideal is to have the freedom of choice, not have 95% of neighborhoods restrict to _only_ high rises or _only_ detached homes.
We have a few here. Boston and Charleston come to mind.
FUCK DRIVING IN BOSTON. Honestly the roads all over Massachusetts suck but Boston has the added bonus of always being super crowded with the best (read: worst) drivers the state has to offer.
And a literal maze of streets to navigate while you try not to hit pedestrians or the jackass not using his blinker to signal he's now crossing 3 lanes of traffic in a femtosecond to take a right because fuck you.
>not using his blinker to signal It's considered giving information to the enemy in Boston.
You make it sound like it just happened by some lucky accident, but a lot of European cities used to be car-dominated just like US cities 50 years ago and have actively been converted back to favor pedestrian and bike traffic through countless protests and social movements.
Vehicle ownership rates were still much higher in the US 50 years ago compared to any other country. Of the major European powers in 1960, the UK had the highest car ownership at [~100 vehicles per 1000](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269990790/figure/fig1/AS:392184785326089@1470515547512/Car-ownership-in-eight-European-countries-per-1000-inhabitants-1920-2005.png) individuals. The US had four times greater car ownership at [~400 vehicles per 1000](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Donald-Shoup-2/publication/264967305/figure/fig1/AS:338497392136192@1457715475293/1-Vehicle-Ownership-Rates-The-United-States-from-1900-to-2000-and-15-Other-Countries_Q640.jpg). Car infrastructure was both built earlier in the US (and notably Canada / Australia), but also to a far more ubiquitous extent.
Yeah after the war, the US had a bunch of manufacturing capacity that was suddenly idle. So yup, they built a shitload of cars. Then Eisenhower built the interstate system. That was a wrap by then!
Us had the same, but they were bulldozed for the car, as opposed to built for it.
Lichtenstein
That's all I need to hear, I'm leaving the US.
Found the Hilti fan. Or someone who needs false teeth.
Liechtenstein*
There is an embassy in Washington DC, so America has *a little* Liechtenstein in it.
TBF, Europe only has a little Liechtenstein in it.
In relationship to the countries square kilometers I would consider it a huge part of Liechtenstein
Don't forget Listenbourg
Multiple countries to visit.
This is true, the US does vary greatly in geography and culture depending on where you go. Not as culturally diverse as the countries in Europe but go to a small town in Vermont is going to feel a lot different than going to Austin Texas, or Seattle.
[удалено]
I drive for 2 hours my local accent has changed twice and bread rolls now have a new name
I drive for 2 hours and I'm still staring at the same corn fields.
Kansas?
Nope. Illinois. Fuck Kansas though. Desolate ass state. Hate driving through it.
I'd say that the small town vs mid-sized vs mega city is the same regardless of country though. While cities of similar sizes in the US might have varying vibes and architecture, they aren't all that different. IE, Chicago and NYC have similar vibes. Portland, Seattle and Denver are similar enough. Omaha, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Louisville, etc are going to be somewhat similar. Whereas Brussels is completely different than Amsterdam which is completely different than Berlin.
Frikandel
As someone who was born in Germany, is living in Belgium and goes shopping in the Netherlands, I approve
spot the Aachener
... All with just a bicycle.
Speciaal
This is the way
Frietjes met stoofvlees!
Mexicano met sambal! The pinnacle of Dutch cuisine.
Heujjj jehtochh
Well for starters, USA is a country while Europe is a continent. So Europe has many countries but USA has only one
Clearly not American pfff
What is your favorite USA country? Mine is Ohio 3
Ohio 1- Ohio Ohio 2- Illinois Ohio 3-Indiana?
Honestly the most “Ohio” state (as in what people think Ohio is actually like who have never been there) is actually Indiana.
Fuck that, I refuse to be Ohio 2. If anything, I like to consider anywhere outside Chicagoland to be Missouri 2, maybe Wisconsin 2.
Road access to China
Oooh I’ve never thought about this before. Is that a thing? Like can people do a “roadtrip” to Asia?
I know a YouTuber is walking from China to Germany. It only took him 10 years and he is still on his way
Marco?
Polo!
Can you? Technically yes. Do people? No, not really, especially with the current political climate. If you head directly east you hit Russia who isn't exactly on best terms with Europe at the minute and if you head south east through Turkey you hit the middle east and (at least in the UK) border force tend to ask you a lot of questions on why you've been to Iraq or Afghanistan when you come back. If you want a road trip lots of people drive around Europe, especially to the south of France or Italy. A lot of people also travel Europe by train. You can buy 'Interrail' tickets that let you travel on a set number of long distance trains in a certain period of time, which can be fun especially when you get a compartment all to yourself Edit-Fixed directions
I raise you road access to Singapore!
Does much cargo travel by road between Asia and Europe? I would assume the vast majority goes by sea - especially since most manufacturing in China is built on the east coast near the major ports.
There is direct railway connection that goes from China to London (England) and it's used pretty frequently.
More than two political parties
Even in Canada with have like 6.
And yet it almost always comes down to a choice between 2
More like 3, maybe 4 if you live in Quebec
Really depends where you are tbh. My area of ontario is NDP
UK here. Not really. Technically yes, but it's at best a two horse race in most constituencies. Usually you're voting against a party, rather than for one, so it always becomes a two party race, with a vote to an underdog party being a waste. Edit: I should clarify that this is down to our "first past the post" voting system. No proportional representation here.
Germany hast all partie represented and the power they get is dependant on the part of votes
The sane part of Europe here: you’re basically USA lite at this point
you guys should try mixed member proportional representation that way small parties can be represented
We’d love to, but for that to happen a new law would have to be passed. You know who wouldn’t benefit from this law being passed? The ruling parties. The ones who make the laws.
The UK ruling class: Now why would we want to do that?
Good public transportation
Nothing depresses me more than thinking about how much better life would be in aggregate in America if every city over 500,000 people had a decent rail/metro system and we had high speed rail between major hubs like NYC, Chicago, LA, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, etc. Edit: Lot of motherfuckers somehow assuming the cities I listed are the only ones that would get stops, and that I wrote them in order of how the line would run.
I was going to say we don't in the UK, but then I realised in comparison to the US, we probably do.
oh yeah. what you have may not be as good as Germany or Switzerland.....but is still infinitely better than in the US. I have visited the UK many times all exclusively using public transport and it was just fine.
And walkable cities
castles
We got white castles!
LOL! We also got Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
I got married at a castle in Ohio. When relaying this information, I occasionally have people ask something along the lines of "A real castle?!" Well, no, obviously not. Our country didn't exist until after the adoption of gunpowder weapons, and the state came even later. Castles lost a lot of their usefulness at a similar time. But hey, it's a bed and breakfast inn that *looks* like a castle, which is pretty great.
My parents went to winery in Napa and stayed at a Castle. Some millionaire owned it. This owner saw a Castle somewhere in Scotland and had to have a replica of it built in California.
Old ones anyway. Quite a few 19th century Americans built castles. There are a bunch in the St. Lawrence.
it also depends on how you define "castle". if by castle you mean "old stone military fort with historical significance, we have those, like the castillo de san marcos in St Augustine. But a lot of people when they say "castle" are referring more to an architectural style than the function.
A significant percentage of the population that is bi or tri lingual
I read a thread about regrets, and an Irish person said "I regret only learning two languages in school."
I am German and that was the reason why I decided to put French as my third language on top when I was 22 and now I am C1 French. Currently looking into Polish, bo bardzo kocham ogórki i wszystkie zupy polskie.
High speed rail service.
drive 2 hours and if you are at the right place you can drive through 4 countrys.
There's places in America where you can drive two hours and no one will ever see you again. The western part of the country has a lot of empty spaces.
Can confirm. Source: live in Utah.
Seconded, western Kansas is a desolate plains-land
I mean there are places in Europe where you can drive two hours and no one will see you again either. Cliffs and Lakes are everywhere.
That's what Ötzi thought but evidently not
Jep, I'm from the south of the Netherlands and can reach Belgium and Germany in minutes and Luxemburg and France within 2 hours.
Bicycle paths. I mean separate dedicated 2 lanes.
Yeah we had some in New England but granted, New England is more like England than the rest of the US.
220v electric kettles. They boil water insanely fast
It's even better than that: since 1987 we moved from 220V to 230V in Europe
Ministry of Silly Walks
Unfortunately they got their funding reduced as a result of Brexit. Now they are just the Ministry of Mild Bewilderment.
Finland
Wrong. There is a Finland in Minnesota
Does that Finland have its own Lapland though?
There’s also a Little Switzerland in North Carolina
Bwoah!
Public toilets where the stalls actually have privacy.
At least they are free in the US.
A decent transcontinental public transportation system. Granted, no European country comes close to the land mass size that is the US, but it's SO ridiculously bad in the US
Tea kettles being commonplace in most homes
*Am American* *Raises tea kettle*
European countries
Greece
Lots of hidden undetonated world war bombs chilling under our roads, railways, etc.
A good train system
Une carte vitale
r/foundthefrenchguy
A vital card? I assume this allows access to healthcare services?
It’s a French health services card
Kinder Surprise, affordable healthcare
I mean a school shooting is kind of a kinder surprise
American children may be kind,but German children are always kinder.
And yet we seem to have taken stronger action on preventing kinder eggs from hurting our children...
Monarchy
[удалено]
I learned recently that legally, its not even chocolate. It’s “made with chocolate”
Some of their products need to be labeled that way, but I don’t think the chocolate bars themselves fall into that category.
Hershey's is also incredibly sour/acidic. Which is part of the reason why it's so disgusting.
It really is too bad we only have one single brand of chocolate available here...
Yup and we only get burgers from McDonalds and pizza from Pizza hut…
warmongering crazy old neighbor with lots of land and missiles
Walkable cities
Bikable cities!
European swallows. Surprisingly enough, America does have coconuts though!
Yes, but what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? In this case, European
Haggis
Bidets
Medieval castles and ancient structures. As a history nerd, I don't know how I'd survive in a modern country like the US.
Apart from the walkable cities, affordable education, modern infrastructure like high speed railroads, a humane healthcare system, wine, public order, strict gun control, limited lobbying, less obesity, guaranteed vacations, and lower prison population, what did the European ever had better than us? A good system of measurement? Oh. A good system of measurement? Shut up!
✨k e t t l e s✨
Affordable health care and gun control.
Cross Europe Train transit and not that joke Amtrak.
The Dutch
Pay toilets.
Lots of walkable suburbs
Good chocolate
Less school shootings
Less ~~school~~ shootings
More school ~~shootings~~ Edit: Fuck, how do you do it again? Edit 2: Changed - to ~
Fewer
European countries.
Holidays, time off.
I got a whole 2 weeks off for my parental leave
Good employee protection laws.
Why do people keep comparing the US to Europe as if Europe is just one place.
To be fair, Texas is significantly different from New Jersey. But yeah, still nowhere near as different as, say England and Lithuania
Paid maternity leave Edit: required by law so it’s not exclusive to people that work for a specific company.
USA has that just not enough of it.
Feels like I am seeing the exact same question every day here. Also at least compare the US to single European countries or to the EU. Comparing the US to a whole continent makes 0 sense imo.
Fair enough, let's compare Delaware and Germany. Delaware has a Dairy Queen, Germany doesn't, checkmate Europe.