American "don'ts"

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dillon
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Re: American "don'ts"

Post by dillon »

Pdxfashionpioneer wrote:It is interesting how some people from other nations make so much fun of the US and us Americans when they and so many other people around the world try so hard to be as much like us as they can! … Except when it comes to healthcare; on that one we've got the most advanced technology and the most backward system.

Having spent some time in both Canada and France I have to say there is a LOT the US could learn from other nations!
Can’t dispute that. Don’t forget the highest costs too. It’s a mess.
As a matter of fact, the sun DOES shine out of my ...
pelmut
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Re: American "don'ts"

Post by pelmut »

Pdxfashionpioneer wrote:... so many other people around the world try so hard to be as much like us as they can!
[...]
Having spent some time in both Canada and France I have to say there is a LOT the US could learn from other nations!
There is a lot every nation could learn from every other - both what to do, and what not to do.  

Where it all goes wrong is when something is slavishly copied without considering the circumstances that brought it about and whether they appy to the new situation.  The spread of supermarkets to the UK is an example.  Most of our population lived within easy reach of a town centre or village shop and we didn't have the need for supermarkets.  We had insufficient land for city-centre supermarket car parks and an inadequate road infrastructure for large numbers of people to take their cars to out-of-town supermarkets.  Neither did we have the oil resources for the extra car journeys.  

We have paid enormous hidden costs, both financial and environmental, to allow supermarkets to flourish in the UK - and the small benefits for those with cars have been outweighed by a great deal of inconvenience for those who don't.  There is monopolistic pressure killing food producers and most of our town centres have a high proportion of closed-up shops.  Having destroyed local shops, either through direct competition or by whittling away at the other small shops who depended on the footfall of the grocery trade, the supermarkets now effectively dictate what we can or can't buy - and they won't stock anything that doesn't give them maximum profit.

At least the internet is begining to reverse some aspect of this stupidity, but it should be seen as a dire warning against copying ideas from other countries without first checking if they are appropriate.
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Pdxfashionpioneer
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Re: American "don'ts"

Post by Pdxfashionpioneer »

Great observation and explanation.

Unfortunately, even the internet won't open up the little shops in your small towns let alone restore that sense of place and community that you used to have.

Not all that's new is progress.
David, the PDX Fashion Pioneer

Social norms aren't changed by Congress or Parliament; they're changed by a sufficient number of people ignoring the existing ones and publicly practicing new ones.
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