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Edgar Allen Ho posted:I imagine regional differences are at the core of this- in most of Canada there's 3-6 months of the year where you're probably wearing some kind of winter boot and walking into the house in them would track in gross mud/snow slurry. in the parts of the US where it snows a lot we generally just take off our boots when they are covered in gross mud and snow. in my experience I've known more Americans who habitually remove their shoes at home on the west coast (where the weather is more mild) than on the east coast. but almost all of the Americans I know who do so are Asian, so I always figured it was a cultural thing.
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Apr 13, 2017 20:57
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Deceitful Penguin posted:Bourgie part: There is nothing historical there except the indians and no-one cares about them. Even in younger countries like mine we still have like, public toilets older than your settler-colonial state. So anyone with any interest in that will never wanna go there. Fun anecdote: The early development of the American identity involved differentiating the "historic" grandeur of Europe from the "naturalistic" grandeur of North America. I work in conservation, and I've used this to succesfully communicate with more conservative pro-development folks or the "duck dynasty" sportsman types. The implication being that by neglecting our natural assets, rivers, and wild areas, they risk ruining what's left of the American identity and turning us into pinko-commie Europe. 
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Apr 14, 2017 12:58
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my impression is that the US looks like a good place to live if you have enough money and probably the worst place in the first world if you are poor
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Apr 14, 2017 15:10
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LogisticEarth posted:Fun anecdote: The early development of the American identity involved differentiating the "historic" grandeur of Europe from the "naturalistic" grandeur of North America. I work in conservation, and I've used this to succesfully communicate with more conservative pro-development folks or the "duck dynasty" sportsman types. The implication being that by neglecting our natural assets, rivers, and wild areas, they risk ruining what's left of the American identity and turning us into pinko-commie Europe. So... If I litter more it's a victory for socialism?
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Apr 14, 2017 21:12
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DOA posted:my impression is that the US looks like a good place to live if you have enough money and probably the worst place in the first world if you are poor
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Apr 15, 2017 09:45
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As a completely untraveled American I have a (probably) oddly weird question. How do you all treat time? Do you turn your clocks back and forth every 6 months or so? How many hours do you work a full-time job? How long does it take to do your errands each week? Do you dedicate as much effort scheduling how long to do things as doing them? I've always found our concept of time and time management odd and was wondering if it's similar around the globe.
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Apr 18, 2017 05:36
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himurak posted:As a completely untraveled American I have a (probably) oddly weird question. Australian here. DST is a thing but these days the internet does it manually. I personally enjoy it because it's nice to be able to go to the beach or a park at 7pm and still have it be sunny. I used to work 9-5, which is a fairly average job. People who work weekends, overtime or holiday shifts get paid more.. although our government is trying to shred the weekend payment rate because us serfs don't need money in exchange for our weekends. I will say it surprised me to hear American friends I know had shifts on Easter Sunday because over here every single goddamn chain shuts down for the full day.
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Apr 18, 2017 06:30
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himurak posted:As a completely untraveled American I have a (probably) oddly weird question. Icelanders work long-ish hours but we get overtime and you know what here's an article about it written by a yank My errands take me only a few hours because I live in a fairly centralized part of town, so groceries aint no big deal. Cleaning is more a matter of willpower than time though. And I don't generally schedule things longer than a week ahead in time, unless it's something big like a vacation. That's pretty Icelandic. LogisticEarth posted:Fun anecdote: The early development of the American identity involved differentiating the "historic" grandeur of Europe from the "naturalistic" grandeur of North America. I work in conservation, and I've used this to succesfully communicate with more conservative pro-development folks or the "duck dynasty" sportsman types. The implication being that by neglecting our natural assets, rivers, and wild areas, they risk ruining what's left of the American identity and turning us into pinko-commie Europe. (Note you better love cold and desolate landscapes if you wanna dig this place)
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Apr 18, 2017 15:10
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This thread got a bit weird in the middle. I'm from New Zealand but have lived in the UK for the past few years. I have not been to America. Pretty much every American I've met has been very nice and friendly, and certainly very loud. During the elections I saw some horrible attitudes on TV - at first it was easy to dismiss the population as deluded and racist, but I was here during the Brexit fiasco, so I kind of realise how... muddled things can get with media misinformation, economic troubles and the rest. I think American's stubborn individualism/patriotism is both a strength and a weakness. Confidence is great, sure, but when it blinds you to the virtues of things like universal healthcare then it's also a problem. People at work (small business, mostly British) love to joke about how awful America is. One was visibly upset about Trump. We probably talk about it more often than most places as one of our staff is American and a card carrying Republican. They all give her poo poo which she takes admirably but I think she's nice. We both got drunk once and talked politics, we just ended up agreeing to disagree and respected each others views, which is a bit of a novel experience I suppose. I dunno, its a loving big, complex place. The larger you are, the bigger your problems seem, and vice versa for your accomplishments.
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Apr 18, 2017 20:34
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LogisticEarth posted:Fun anecdote: The early development of the American identity involved differentiating the "historic" grandeur of Europe from the "naturalistic" grandeur of North America. I work in conservation, and I've used this to succesfully communicate with more conservative pro-development folks or the "duck dynasty" sportsman types. The implication being that by neglecting our natural assets, rivers, and wild areas, they risk ruining what's left of the American identity and turning us into pinko-commie Europe. This is funny, considering that one stereotype of Americans is that they drive absolutely everywhere and are less likely to be physically active. Also, "naturalistic grandeur" is hardly exclusive to NA. Aside from Iceland, the thinly populated northern countries (primarily Norway, Sweden, Finland and arguably Russia) all have that as an important part of their national identities.
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Apr 18, 2017 21:05
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Kopijeger posted:the thinly populated northern countries (primarily Norway, Sweden, Finland and arguably Russia) all have that as an important part of their national identities. as do many other European countries, and I don't think the average American - conservative or otherwise - thinks of Europe as being a place lacking in it, places like Italy or Scotland or Switzerland or Croatia are popular tourist destinations for many of us for that reason. but I think that poster's comment is referring more to a 19th century mentality?
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Apr 18, 2017 21:14
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Earwicker posted:as do many other European countries, and I don't think the average American - conservative or otherwise - thinks of Europe as being a place lacking in it, places like Italy or Scotland or Switzerland or Croatia are popular tourist destinations for many of us for that reason. but I think that poster's comment is referring more to a 19th century mentality? Yeah, a 19th century mentality used to convince rednecks not to sell off all the public land in America to corporations.
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Apr 18, 2017 21:54
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Kopijeger posted:This is funny, considering that one stereotype of Americans is that they drive absolutely everywhere and are less likely to be physically active. Also, "naturalistic grandeur" is hardly exclusive to NA. Aside from Iceland, the thinly populated northern countries (primarily Norway, Sweden, Finland and arguably Russia) all have that as an important part of their national identities. For the benefit of any non-americans reading this who might visit, driving everywhere and natural grandeur are not incompatible! It's worthwhile to drive pretty much any american highway labelled a "scenic byway". All the ones I've been on provide a lot of wonderful small towns and amazing views and vistas, and often have hiking trails at some stops if you want to, you know, get out of your vehicle. The most memorable one for me was somewhere in northern Colorado. The road got pretty high up in the mountains crossing the continental divide, but there was a trail and a parking lot and I had a subway. So I'm walking uphill on this trail chowing down on my fast-food sandwich lunch and before I know I'm lightheaded and the trees are knee-high. I push on, drunk on footlong, and before I know it I'm at the summit of a 14-thousand foot mountain with Utah visible on one side and Colorado on the other. I loving love hiking and mountains so it was crazy to just stumble my way up top. That trail was directly attached to a smaller highway, no way to find it without driving out.
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Apr 18, 2017 22:12
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el dingo posted:I'm from New Zealand but have lived in the UK for the past few years. Why on earth did you do that?
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Apr 18, 2017 22:50
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Earwicker posted:as do many other European countries, and I don't think the average American - conservative or otherwise - thinks of Europe as being a place lacking in it, places like Italy or Scotland or Switzerland or Croatia are popular tourist destinations for many of us for that reason. but I think that poster's comment is referring more to a 19th century mentality? Correct, I was talking about the earlier movements that formed American naturalist/conservationist ideals. Hudson River School, Emerson, & Thoreau, etc. Along wjth other ideals about frontier-ism, westward expansion, monumentalism, etc it is (or at least was) much more ingrained in the formation of an "American" identity unique from it's European roots. Here's a decent write up on it from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/runte1/chap1.htm It's also a differentiation between "natural beauty" and "wilderness". Italy, Switzerland, etc. are certainly beautiful but I wouldn't really call them "wild", at least in any way comparable to 19th century America, or even large swaths of the country today. Northern Scandinavia and central Russia are a different story, but these are sort of on the fringe.
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Apr 19, 2017 03:07
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deathbot posted:I used to work 9-5, which is a fairly average job. People who work weekends, overtime or holiday shifts get paid more.. although our government is trying to shred the weekend payment rate because us serfs don't need money in exchange for our weekends. You get weekend bonus pay? 
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Apr 20, 2017 02:53
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:You get weekend bonus pay? In many industries work on Saturday or Sunday will attract a premium on the ordinary hourly rate. Sunday work is usually paid at double the ordinary rate. However some workplace agreements have averaged out the weekday/weekend difference in rates. In some industries when working on the weekend the employee is entitled to extra paid work breaks. Except the government is trying to cut that out! But yes, I know people who get double on Sunday.
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Apr 20, 2017 03:05
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deathbot posted:In many industries work on Saturday or Sunday will attract a premium on the ordinary hourly rate. Sunday work is usually paid at double the ordinary rate. However some workplace agreements have averaged out the weekday/weekend difference in rates. In some industries when working on the weekend the employee is entitled to extra paid work breaks. This is not that uncommon in the U.S. for people working in non-exempt jobs. (Construction trades.) Anything over 40 hours is typically 1.5 rate Anything over... 60 hours or holidays is.... 2x rate, I think. Different states also have their own laws, as well as certain cities. Senor P. fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 05:57
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deathbot posted:In many industries work on Saturday or Sunday will attract a premium on the ordinary hourly rate. Sunday work is usually paid at double the ordinary rate. However some workplace agreements have averaged out the weekday/weekend difference in rates. In some industries when working on the weekend the employee is entitled to extra paid work breaks. I meant to ask more specifically if weekend pay applies to Australian service sector jobs.
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Apr 20, 2017 13:53
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Teriyaki Koinku posted:I meant to ask more specifically if weekend pay applies to Australian service sector jobs. A bit of a blank space for me as I am no expert on the dark mechanics of wage and taxation, but I know some fast food, retail and hospitality people have special weekend pay because it's been all over the news lately that the government's slashing as much of it as they can get away with.
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Apr 20, 2017 14:17
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Senor P. posted:This is not that uncommon in the U.S. for people working in non-exempt jobs. (Construction trades.) Laffo, unless you're in a lucrative field it's more likely you'll be required to work weekends for standard pay.
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Apr 20, 2017 14:23
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deathbot posted:A bit of a blank space for me as I am no expert on the dark mechanics of wage and taxation, but I know some fast food, retail and hospitality people have special weekend pay because it's been all over the news lately that the government's slashing as much of it as they can get away with. See, I've worked plenty of different service jobs over the years and that's something I'm not familiar with in the States; here, it's just a given that you work weekends especially to deal with customer demand. Just another way the proles get screwed and don't even know how people live in other developed countries, I suppose. 
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Apr 21, 2017 00:16
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Australian goon here. I'm yet to meet an American here that isn't either subtly and slightly-to-moderately racist, or weirdly angry about feminism. It also seems to me that my American friends hop jobs very frequently and for some reason they don't find this anxiety inducing. I work in web design and from what I hear/have come across, people I meet in this industry think that Americans get paid peanuts and don't give a poo poo about their jobs. Probably due to the impressively lovely pay.
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Apr 24, 2017 01:25
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