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>>That's what Europe will do - stick to letters, faxes and manual methods. I'm sorry, which parts of Europe have you been to, exactly? Many countries in EU are

>>That's what Europe will do - stick to letters, faxes and manual methods. I'm sorry, which parts of Europe have you been to, exactly? Many countries in EU are at the forefront of digitization, years ahead of US in most areas when it comes to banking and civil admin matters. And not to be rude, but when you go to US it feels like a museum - you see those things called checks that my dad used to tell me about that people pay and are paid with(!!!!), and people still swipe their payment cards like it's 1995. For a country that has the biggest tech companies in the world it's not even in the 21st century on some fronts. Oh and guess what Apple needed you to do to open a developer account just 10 years ago - that's right, a Fax with your details. I don't think there were any fax machines left in my country by then, I've had to use an online service to send it.

mschuster91 1y ago
> I'm sorry, which parts of Europe have you been to, exactly? Probably Germany. Even Austria phased out faxes a year or two ago.
- makingstuffs 1y ago
  I doubt it, unless you’re in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere Germany is very much technologically on par with/ahead of the rest of the developed world
makingstuffs 1y ago
Second this, my fiancé and I were flabbergasted at the seeming mishmash of 90’s tech and the occasional futuristic building when we were there. The thing that blew my mind more than anything was the archaic financial tech in place. No chip and pin and instead swiping cards, cheques etc. in one instance the ticket machine in the Chicago subway requested a US zip code to use my card. I was baffled, zip code? Surely this is a typo and it wants a pin. Nope. A zip is what it wanted. When I spoke to a police officer he informed me to just put 0 and it will work. Lo and behold, it did. It haunts me to this day.
GardenLetter27 1y ago
Mainly Germany in that case (I had to send a lot of faxes too), but I've lived throughout Europe and been to the US a lot. I agree the US is far behind on fin-tech. Actually "developing" countries like Turkey, UAE and China are really far ahead here. But the real issue is that Europe has no OpenAI (Mistral isn't as competitive) or Google or Microsoft or Anthropic or Amazon or Apple or Waymo - Europe is instead dependent on these companies (see the other post here regarding the sanctions on the ICC blocking all their Microsoft and Google accounts). While the US still has some way to advance in consumer tech (and is being outpaced by China there), there is at least the opportunity in those innovative, growing companies.

mschuster91 1y ago

> I'm sorry, which parts of Europe have you been to, exactly? Probably Germany. Even Austria phased out faxes a year or two ago.

makingstuffs 1y ago
I doubt it, unless you’re in some tiny village in the middle of nowhere Germany is very much technologically on par with/ahead of the rest of the developed world

makingstuffs 1y ago

Second this, my fiancé and I were flabbergasted at the seeming mishmash of 90’s tech and the occasional futuristic building when we were there. The thing that blew my mind more than anything was the archaic financial tech in place. No chip and pin and instead swiping cards, cheques etc. in one instance the ticket machine in the Chicago subway requested a US zip code to use my card. I was baffled, zip code? Surely this is a typo and it wants a pin. Nope. A zip is what it wanted. When I spoke to a police officer he informed me to just put 0 and it will work. Lo and behold, it did. It haunts me to this day.

GardenLetter27 1y ago

Mainly Germany in that case (I had to send a lot of faxes too), but I've lived throughout Europe and been to the US a lot. I agree the US is far behind on fin-tech. Actually "developing" countries like Turkey, UAE and China are really far ahead here. But the real issue is that Europe has no OpenAI (Mistral isn't as competitive) or Google or Microsoft or Anthropic or Amazon or Apple or Waymo - Europe is instead dependent on these companies (see the other post here regarding the sanctions on the ICC blocking all their Microsoft and Google accounts). While the US still has some way to advance in consumer tech (and is being outpaced by China there), there is at least the opportunity in those innovative, growing companies.