5 ms·

Americans have such a strange relationship with technology... the most innovative startups, and yet the worse infrastructure. here in Europe it's the contrary

by kome 6y ago

Americans have such a strange relationship with technology... the most innovative startups, and yet the worse infrastructure. here in Europe it's the contrary :) and btw: the service will be active in 2023 or 2024... while I enjoy immediate transfers bank to bank since years...

api 6y ago
Its because a generation or two of Americans were propagandized heavily that anything socialized will immediately lead to Soviet communism. If we build infrastructure Lenin will rise from the dead and transform into a giant mech warrior and wade across the Atlantic to destroy us all.
- pacaro 6y ago
  I would watch this movie
  - api 6y ago
    It's called Red Dawn and it's awesome.
qzx_pierri 6y ago
Germany?
kelnos 6y ago
Two things (probably more) contribute to this, I think: 1) Americans have been trained from birth to distrust government in all forms. Centralizing more and more services triggers a visceral fear response. (IMO it's nonsense, for the most part, but it's there nonetheless.) 2) Being "first to market" with new technologies often means you're just stuck with the sub-optimal first version, while other countries can learn from your mistakes when they do their first implementation. On the flip side, when I'm in Europe, I definitely run into more places that only take cash, which I find annoying to no end. It's rare for places in the US (at least in fairly well-populated areas) to not take credit or at least debit cards.
- Swizec 6y ago
  > On the flip side, when I'm in Europe, I definitely run into more places that only take cash, which I find annoying to no end. This is mostly for tax evasion reasons and sometimes for employees skimming off the top. The more “proper” a place, the less likely they are to encourage cash transactions. Happens in US too, of course. It’s always the shady places that are cash only and everyone else is digital.
  - chiph 6y ago
    Or it's Germany. They prefer cash over plastic for privacy reasons. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-cash-is-still-king https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-ca...
  - pfundstein 6y ago
    That's a bit cynical. While I'm not saying that doesn't happen, I would say that smaller businesses typically accept cash-only to avoid the fees of accepting card payments. And this is not only the 1-2% transaction fee charged by (e.g.) Visa/Mastercard, these fees also include things like * Fees for the rental and maintenance of payment card terminals. * Gateway fees. * Cost of fraud prevention services. * Fees or premiums to insure against ‘forward delivery risk’ All of this erodes the already thin margins that small businesses typically operate at. And then you have cash: no fees, instant payment, private.
    - Sander_Marechal 6y ago
      Most of those fees don't apply to e.g. Europe. It's pretty much just hardware (starts at 30 euro or so for the cheap versions) and some transaction costs (1.5% or less, depending on volume). It's often cheaper to accept electronic payments than cash. Handling cash costs money (bank deposits, buying change, vaults, cash registers, higher insurance cost). Even street and marker vendors in The Netherlands accept electronic payments.
  - nend 6y ago
    >Happens in US too, of course. It’s always the shady places that are cash only and everyone else is digital. The US is a big place. Maybe where you are it's like that, but that's not at all accurate where I am. It's either mom and pop places, or places that have been around for decades that "charmingly" never added support for cards. Both of which are probably less shady than average. Although the pandemic has forced some of those places to start accepting cards now.
phkahler 6y ago
>> the most innovative startups, and yet the worse infrastructure. Nobody in the US wants to pay for infrastructure. It's the governments role, but political figures want to spend our money in less critical ways.
- adventured 6y ago
  This isn't unique to the US of course: the US is spending a higher share of its GDP on infrastructure than the EU is at this point. The welfare state in both Europe and the US is consuming all available resources, and that's only going to get far worse over the next 20-30 years due to aging and contracting workforces. Most of Europe outside of Germany has zero available resources for big infrastructure spend. The US could divert $200 billion from its military spending (requiring a near total retreat from the rest of the world, including Europe, Japan and South Korea), however that would merely lessen the extreme budget deficit that already exists thanks to entitlement spending. That budget gap will grow dramatically over the coming decade. The US needs to raise taxes by $1.5 trillion just to break even.

by kome 6y ago

api 6y ago

Its because a generation or two of Americans were propagandized heavily that anything socialized will immediately lead to Soviet communism. If we build infrastructure Lenin will rise from the dead and transform into a giant mech warrior and wade across the Atlantic to destroy us all.

pacaro 6y ago
I would watch this movie
- api 6y ago
  It's called Red Dawn and it's awesome.

qzx_pierri 6y ago

Germany?

kelnos 6y ago

Two things (probably more) contribute to this, I think: 1) Americans have been trained from birth to distrust government in all forms. Centralizing more and more services triggers a visceral fear response. (IMO it's nonsense, for the most part, but it's there nonetheless.) 2) Being "first to market" with new technologies often means you're just stuck with the sub-optimal first version, while other countries can learn from your mistakes when they do their first implementation. On the flip side, when I'm in Europe, I definitely run into more places that only take cash, which I find annoying to no end. It's rare for places in the US (at least in fairly well-populated areas) to not take credit or at least debit cards.

Swizec 6y ago
> On the flip side, when I'm in Europe, I definitely run into more places that only take cash, which I find annoying to no end. This is mostly for tax evasion reasons and sometimes for employees skimming off the top. The more “proper” a place, the less likely they are to encourage cash transactions. Happens in US too, of course. It’s always the shady places that are cash only and everyone else is digital.
- chiph 6y ago
  Or it's Germany. They prefer cash over plastic for privacy reasons. https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-cash-is-still-king https://www.npr.org/2019/06/09/728323278/for-many-germans-ca...
- pfundstein 6y ago
  That's a bit cynical. While I'm not saying that doesn't happen, I would say that smaller businesses typically accept cash-only to avoid the fees of accepting card payments. And this is not only the 1-2% transaction fee charged by (e.g.) Visa/Mastercard, these fees also include things like * Fees for the rental and maintenance of payment card terminals. * Gateway fees. * Cost of fraud prevention services. * Fees or premiums to insure against ‘forward delivery risk’ All of this erodes the already thin margins that small businesses typically operate at. And then you have cash: no fees, instant payment, private.
  - Sander_Marechal 6y ago
    Most of those fees don't apply to e.g. Europe. It's pretty much just hardware (starts at 30 euro or so for the cheap versions) and some transaction costs (1.5% or less, depending on volume). It's often cheaper to accept electronic payments than cash. Handling cash costs money (bank deposits, buying change, vaults, cash registers, higher insurance cost). Even street and marker vendors in The Netherlands accept electronic payments.
- nend 6y ago
  >Happens in US too, of course. It’s always the shady places that are cash only and everyone else is digital. The US is a big place. Maybe where you are it's like that, but that's not at all accurate where I am. It's either mom and pop places, or places that have been around for decades that "charmingly" never added support for cards. Both of which are probably less shady than average. Although the pandemic has forced some of those places to start accepting cards now.

phkahler 6y ago

>> the most innovative startups, and yet the worse infrastructure. Nobody in the US wants to pay for infrastructure. It's the governments role, but political figures want to spend our money in less critical ways.

adventured 6y ago
This isn't unique to the US of course: the US is spending a higher share of its GDP on infrastructure than the EU is at this point. The welfare state in both Europe and the US is consuming all available resources, and that's only going to get far worse over the next 20-30 years due to aging and contracting workforces. Most of Europe outside of Germany has zero available resources for big infrastructure spend. The US could divert $200 billion from its military spending (requiring a near total retreat from the rest of the world, including Europe, Japan and South Korea), however that would merely lessen the extreme budget deficit that already exists thanks to entitlement spending. That budget gap will grow dramatically over the coming decade. The US needs to raise taxes by $1.5 trillion just to break even.