14 Things the USA Does Better than Europe (According to Europeans)
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- As we all know, there are plenty of differences between America and Europe. So Reddit and Buzzfeed recently asked: "What are some things the USA actually does better than Europe?" and since I love a little heated debate, let us know what you think of the European's responses!
🔎 Video Highlights:
00:00 Introduction
01:54 Pay to Pee
02:49 Salaries
04:19 Air Conditioning
06:08 Buying a House
08:17 Ice, Ice, Baby
09:14 National Parks
10:42 Ice at Restaurants
10:47 Multicultural Food
12:34 Technology and Innovation
13:43 Work Ethic in Germany vs USA
15:21 Free Water
15:59 Dryers
16:47 Friendliness
19:15 Bloopers
Episode No. 135
📷 Follow me on Instagram: / typeashton
🤳🏻 TikTok: / typeashton
🖥 Website: www.blackforestfamily.com
📧 E-mail: typeashton@gmail.com
S𝗨𝗣𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗠𝗘
👑 Patreon: / typeashton
Free Bathroom, free water in Restaurants, free refills = "SOCIALISM!!!" 😉 😂😂
the US are comunists? Shocking!
Besides that the free water in restaurants used to taste so much of chlorine that I found it undrinkable.
YES!
I'd rather have health care and clean public toilets than free tap water as I prefer bubbles anyway 😂😂
@@KloetenhenneWhat about health insurance?
14:52 in the Netherlands we have a saying: You don’t live to work, you work to live. I agree with that 😄
@@ThuglifeNYC Thats what they are tought since childhood - Get a Job, work hard, get rich, by stuff.
I love how normal it is in The Netherlands to work part-time. My company even regards 36 hours a full-time workweek. I love my job, but I also really like that by working part-time I also have plenty of time for hobbies, friends and volunteer work.
Me too. But it isn’t a problem to live by that philosophy in the US.
@@harrydehnhardt5092 and the constant narrative that being unemployed / homeless was a choice and they made a bad one and should be "punished" for it
@@svensulzmann4282 if you have the personal financial savings to be prepared / make enough to be "comfortable" dropping an amount for an emergency
That last point about Americans caring less if you’re an immigrant reminds me of a conversation I (a German visiting my former American host family) awkwardly sat at the Thanksgiving table for. They all complained about their South American yard workers suddenly demanding MINIMUM WAGE for cutting down their trees and how they should instead take however much money they gave them and count themselves lucky they were in the US.
I kept thinking to myself, “You’re really talking openly about this with a foreigner right next to you?” But I guess I was the right kind of foreigner. Absolutely agree with your differentiation on this.
Here in Switzerland I've had to sit in Taxis and hear the driver complain about these foreigeners. I've come to understand, that there are "good" and "acceptable" foreigners and then there are the others. Being an old white ex-American male, I fall into the "good" catagory. Yes, racism exists here too. Doesn't mean, that all Swiss think like that, rather only that it exists here too. But racism exists everywhere from every race towards any other race. It's a way of separating the "us" from the "thems". A couple of lovely, very interesting man-on-the-street channels here based in Tokyo and Seoul and now and again he interviews someone who is overtly racist. Doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
Holy crap
@@musicofnote1 IMHO as a Canadian I think a lot of the "GOOD/BAD" comes from how well that group is integrating into the existing society / how visibly are they "taking" jobs ETC
there are a LOT of south Asian immigrants in Canada and they do NOT "integrate" with the existing society and demand / receive exceptions to rules the rest of us MUST abide by creating a "natural us / them and a good scapegoat for whatever issue you can pin on them IE trucking being so bad because of all the ... drivers
where as some other groups try to "fit in" and live amongst the "native" population and are more likely to be accepted
Americans are famous for exploiting workers.
My wife is an Italian-American, born in Canada. I have “friends” who make disparaging remarks about immigrants and when I say something, they always say: oh, she is different. Brain dead is all I can say.
I‘ve got a no.15: Accessability. I‘m handicapped and use a rollator. In October we travelled to the southeastern USA. I never had so little problems to enter buildings etc. Every restroom area also had accessible toilets, every shop and building had stepless entrances. Due to the „American with abilities“-act every building that’s open for public has to be barrier free. Germany is very far behind regarding accessibility.
Totally agree. It is more difficult to retro-fit it into hundred year old buildings. A problem America doesnt have. But with all new buildings? Official buildings tend to use their chance when they need to be renovated but it is such a slow process. We are far behind.
@@franziskabertram3286We have plenty of older buildings in many parts of the United States, but not so many in the Southwest. Not as many people lived there before air-conditioning.
I agree that there will generally be worse accessibility when the buildings are older, but most of the points here also wildly differ over Europe. I mean you probably won't have a problem with accessibility in Switzerland while it would be a completely different story one country to the south.
Das war auch in Australien viel besser. Aber am meisten regt mich auf, das es keine behindertengerechten WC auf Kurz und Mittelstreckenflügen gibt! Gerade wenn man sich nicht oder nur eingeschränkt bewegen kann, sollte man viel trinken, geht aber nicht, weil man je nach Flug mehrere Stunden warten muss, bis man auf das WC kann. Also bleibt nur sich einen Katheter in den Blaseneingang legen zu lassen, was weh tut und eine Blasenentzündung erzeugt, das gleich mal der Urlaub ein paar Tage verkürzt wird, weil man flach liegt. Vor wegen jeder ist vor dem Gesetz gleich
Americans: "OMG, I need to pay the bathroom 50 cents?" Also Americans: "Sure, I will pay the waiters myself. No need for the store to do that." Just look at it as "tipping" if you are from the US and suddenly it is pretty cheap. That said, the last time I had to pay for a toilet was many, many, many years ago at the train station. If I need to go, I just go somewhere I can have a drink. So I use the facilities and then sit for half an hour or so, watching the world go by. Work to live, not live to work. And that includes enjoying life when you need to go to the bathroom. Just have a coffee, or a beer and just sit and look around. Not on your phone.
USA is better for entertainment
@@ThuglifeNYC Not quite to the same degree as Chinese and Vietnamese though.
Pay thousands for healthcare in US and complain about 50c in Europe for a clean toilet🤦🏻♀️
@@lumina9995 Frankly, you don't pay thousands for healthcare in Europe. You may pay a bit more for healthcare insurance than in the USA, but you won't go broke like in the USA if you need healthcare.
I'm American, & I don't tip unless the service is excellent, otherwise, we don't give it a second thought🥱
Interesting topic. I agree with about 12 of your 14 points. To preface my comments, I sometimes find that lumping "Europe" together as one entity is not good or in some ways fair to both sides. I have lived for an extended time in both Germany and Spain and find, as an American, that they really are not the same for comparison. Many factors such as salaries, work-life balance, customary norms, diversity and healthcare vary greatly between countries here in Europe. Saying "in Europe" as a comparison is like saying "North America". Putting Canada, Mexico and the US together as a single unit would skew things in a different way. The three are as different as the three countries in Europe with the three largest cities (London, Paris and Madrid) and make comparison much more difficult. For example, here in Spain ice and iced drinks are the norm. A bar or restaurant always puts ice in your glass (except water with your meal) for a cool drink, not the warmish, un-iced coke served in Germany. You can even get iced lattes here. Another factor is salaries. Spanish workers are paid much less than Germans and, in many cases, expected to work a six day week much of the time. The healthcare systems and vary a lot as far as how they are funded, managed and the level of service provided. There is a divide between northern and southern Europe in many areas and this is comparable to US regional differences.
Like you, in your previous video, I spent part of the holidays in the US visiting. And yes, I did see a contrast between the US and Europe in a lot of ways, not just food prices. By coincidence I was in Kansas too. Customer service was much more friendly, there was ice in my drink, they had a clothes dryer (a fairly unusual item in Spain), the variety of food choices was vastly better and the "restlessness" (always have to be doing 'something') was notable. Like all things in life, everyone has preferences and makes trade-offs in life and what makes your life better, or worse, in a particular place is a result of those preferences.
Agree for the most part. Also regarding the iced drinkins ... except when I order something like a KiBa (DE: Kirsch-Banane, EN: Cherry-Banana juice) where they always try to give me the drink with ice cubes in summer at my local Biergarten. I have to tell them that I want it without ice because I don't want it waterd down and less juice because the ice fills the glass to much with cheap ice cubes. It is cold enough anyways since it is stored in a fridge.
As someone who managed a club when I was younger, let me tell you that ice cubes are mostly for more profit for the business. Less of the more expensive drink in the glass replaced by cheap frozen water.
As a customer I prefer to pay the same price for a full glass of what I order without ice cubes while paying the same price.
@@raythevagabond3724 , ahhhh, but I ENJOY that weaker, colder, drink more than an intense warm drink. I think it is more about what you enjoy than what might be more economical, or just get the ice on the side and add it yourself, but I will always prefer with ice (unless it is apple cider).
Haha. USA people think knives are weapons, thats why.
I guess this is a good assessment if we interpret Western Europe under the word Europe like most Americans probably do. While Ashtons answers generally more German specific, she also used numbers from Europe as a whole. Comparing the US to Germany, to Western Europe, to the EU or the whole continent will all lead to different answers, which of course is important to remember.
For more meaningful comparisons, it should probably either be with one country or with a separation like central Europe, Nordic Europe, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Balkan, Russia/Belarus.
I could watch a whole video just of your bloopers. You two just chatting was so fun to watch.
hahaha awe, thank you. Hand us both a glass of wine and we loosen up a bit. 😉
❤😂
@@TypeAshton take-a-sip-everytime-you-hear the word *Like* -challenge...
the more the video went on (and the more wine I consumed), the more I cringed at myself during editing.
@@TypeAshton you could research the wine intake-to-cali'-valley-girl ratio. Maybe an idea for a rainy day/filler video 🤔
In Germany I also notice poor service in the stores compared to the Netherlands. But in the US I think the service is exaggerated, there I was often "harassed" by the staff.
Greetings from Rotterdam!
It's a different mentality. Most Germans feel irritated when they are talked to without asking for it. And exaggerated cheerfulness from service personal is often interpreted as pandering and fake.
Agreed, when you’re eating I don’t have to be asked if everything is oké every 5 minutes 😂
I think Most germans will ask for Help, If they want Help, instead of waiting for someone to come to them. In the other Hand, If you are looking for someone, No one is to be founs 😅
I agree that at least in Germany many shop assistants and waiters/waitresses could be friendlier .That relates to the beige stores and restaurants rather than to small shops.
@@Funaru I'm not sure. There is always a way in the middle. '"Der Kunde ist König" used to be a mantra but that was long ago. I agree that I hate the American way of service in restaurants when you will be interrupted every few minutes being asked if you want anything. I think that's because service staff is underpaid and reliant on tips but still...
As an American, I would say that the "friendliness" thing is a facade that we have mostly all been taught to uphold. It doesn't mean that there aren't nice and kind people here, there are. But that "Hi, how are ya? Nice to meet you!" thing is something we say but don't generally mean anything by it. We're not really listening for your answer as if we actually care. That sounds mean, but it's 100% true.
I know this American woman that whenever I see her will say "Aaamagaaaawd it's so nice to seeee you how have you beeeen? We should catch up!" and then I can literally see her think about reasons not to catch up right at that time. Just say "Good morning" instead and be done with it. I'll greet you with a "Good morning" as well and you don't need to lie to me about anything.
@@atropatene3596You don't have silly, shallow people in your country?
@@llywrch7116 sure we do but there's no need for them to fake shit. So then you know which ones are shitty and shallow. Or just don't like you, that happens too. A woman i talked to regularly when waiting to pick up our kids from school once said to me "look i really tried to like you but i just don't. I'd prefer not talking to eachother anymore while waiting". And now we greet eachother but don't talk to eachother regularly.
100 percent! Europeans tend to dislike insincerity.
Yes, and no.
That cultural friendliness allows you to build up more acquaintances from which you are easier to build up real friendships so long as you are outgoing and extrovert. For introverts, it might be a hinderance.
Both extremes are bad, I mean, I get the stares in Europe for asking a direction to a business that GPS just doesn't know a correct entrance to in a massive shopping mall.
At the same time, if you can't get through the fake politeness you cannot get into the real and important intimacy with people.
I'm an American (from Long Island) expatriate to Germany that regularly goes back for visits. I find that my list of what's better in America is quite short and mostly has to do with regional access to comfort food--24 hour diners, sandwich-making delis, NY style pizzerias, clams, lobster and hot breakfasts. Concerning friendliness--I think it's more American than German to scan faces, and being ready to nod to or greet strangers. Once a conversation is initiated, I find the same percentage of friendly people everywhere. Apropos American technical innovation, I suspect this has more to do with American success at building capital formations around ideas no matter where they come from than with actually being more innovative than others. The idea of American ascendancy in anything always comes down to money or the quality of our immigrants. In many things though, we have also needed to learn that our money doesn't automatically lead to ascendancy.
And salaries are higher in USA
@@hasinabegum1038only in some professions. As the video also pointed out.
@@svenmuellerSalaries are almost always higher but she mentioned that after taking into accont things like health insurance,College fees etc
Europeans skip salary and become self-employed, I think much earlier in their career compared to Americans. It is maybe bkz of taxes.
@@hasinabegum1038 But the cost of living for a family is also much higher. From healthy food and childcare to education and healthcare costs, not to mention the cost of cars (usually two for a family), even if you live in a big city. Not to mention that there is no "social safety net" in the US if things don't go well. If you get seriously ill, you'll be ruined in no time, and the marginally higher income won't help.
The risk of losing your job (no employee rights, loss of health insurance) and completely slipping away as a result, is many times higher in the US than in Europe.
Don't even get me started on things like the right to paid vacation from day 1, unlimited sick days, paid parental leave, etc.
So what is the higher income worth in the end?
For #7, I saw another video from a European reacting to videos about national parks in the US. While watching that video, I decided to look up how much land area the US dedicates to just the US National Parks (not counting state, county, or municipal parks). The land area was so large that only 63 countries are larger than just the US National Parklands. As it turns out, the nation that ranks 63rd in total size of the entire country is Germany. So it would be kind of like designating the entire country of Germany on behalf of Europe to be a massive park. When you think of it that way, it makes more sense that they charge admission fees, since it costs money to take care of a land area the size of Germany.
We dont have trespassing at all. By that Germans and the rest of us can we be all over.not being arrested or shot at . We do.
I think it is too much about money and not so much to support wildlife.
Maybe it has changed now, but I speak from 1985 when I visited the Grand Canyon. Difficult to enjoy the scenery or to try to spot an eagle. Because the constant helicopter flights with tourists, the sound echoing on the rocks, it was unbearable. There were also other National Parks with too much motorized activity.
Luckily, especially in Utah, there were smaller National Parks where you could be alone.
Other problem with the National Parks: closed during one of the USA's political lockdowns. More to come if Trump returns.
I really thought the number 1 would be confidence, optimism or something like that. We could really use some of that in Europe. This is a much more pragmatic list, but I guess the most things people have encountered in order to compare Europe and the US are tourist-related, i.e. toilets and restaurants....
Similar thoughts from me - like a) enthusiasm, b) being a good sport (not sour if you lose), c) giving praise for effort and excellence, d) sharing-mentality, for example I've learn a lot from US-Americans on-line - examples: Type Ashton, Plant Chompers, Prepper Princess, Bob&Brad, Timothy Ward (beautiful landscape views), The Asher House, Bookish... and so many more!
Same here.
I live in a provincial city (population ±260K) in Belgium which population size wise makes it equivalent to Toledo OH or Lubbock TX and it's true we have a limited choice of restaurants.
We only have :
Thai
Korean
Japanese
Chinese
Vietnamese
Mexican
Italian as well as a specific one for Sicilian
Greek
Libanese
Turkish
French
Belgian/French
German
Indian
Irish
Spanish
Swedish
Isralian
Ethiopean
West-African
and that's not counting those that specialize in local cuisine
or even franchises of USA and European chains
or restaurants that don't specialize in one cuisine but serve dishes from the mediterranean or even from all over the world
or the ones I forgot to mention
but to be fair, indeed if you are in a city/town/village with only 50k population your choices will be far more limited.
Living in a US city with half that population in a small state with minimal diversity, we still have nearly all that you listed. Hundreds of restaurants.
@@cd2290I can't imagine you will eat true Italian cuisine, Greece or the French in the US. When I lived in the US it felt like they are trying to copy it without knowing the soul of the food. Also the ingredients are totally different.
Whereas I go to Italy and get Mediterranean food I go to a US restaurant in which they need to us their Atlantic Ocean catch to imitate the food. I know the Mediterranean sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean, yet the fish diversity is way different.
@@BlueFlash215USA has better Mexican food,Indian food,Chinese food etc.Medetertian food aren’t that delicious
I don’t know Ghent that well but what about the choices in the suburbs of Ghent? At least that’s where it gets really spare in cities like Berlin. Yes, there are restaurants downtown but if you’re living more towards the outskirts of the city the choice are very limited.
I'm from a provincial village in the Netherlands 25.000 inhabitants) we have most of the cuisines you mention. We lack Irish, West-African, Israeli and Swedish cuisine (and Belgian), but we make up for that with Surinam, Indonesian, Dutch and Caribbean cuisine. Some are only takeaway/delivery. But still not bad for a village this size (and no, its not one of the tourist hotspots along the coast, just a village in the middle of the country)
As a European (specifically, Dutch) here's my takes: [12.5 points to EU, 1.5 points to US, but of course its just my opinion.]
1. EU preferred, you're paying for them to be cleaned frequently and I've never been to a paid toilet that wasn't clean yet. Free gas station toilets though? Yikes.
2. EU preferred, yes "higher wages" but in an environment that charges more, wants to squeeze money out of you at every turn and you need much larger buffers due to there being no real protection from unexpected layoffs or an insane medical bill.
3. EU preferred, or more specifically, the Netherlands. I enjoy the cold and my brain likes sun, so I'm all good with our climate, plus it hurts the utility bills, no thanks, I'm good.
4. EU preferred, buying a house here isn't easy but I'd not want to work the hours it takes in the US to accomplish it, or live in the places where it's doable without working insane hours (like 5K on the condition you spend 10k on revamping in some areas in Detroit). Plus the US caused the housing and financial collapse in 2008 with how they handled mortgages, no thanks.
6. EU preferred, ice waters down the flavor of the drink if you aren't quick with it, besides, some things even lose flavor when extra cold, try a red wine at 5c/41F, yuck.
7. USA preferred, their national parks, the vast amount of beautiful land kept pristine? Absolutely breathtaking and something amazing, easily my fav part of the US.
9. EU preferred, I can get food from many different cultures here just fine. Hell, Amsterdam houses like 175 nationalities? And quality is higher here due to more stringent food regulations.
10. US does do amazing on this front! That said though, Philips, ASML and University of Wageningen? I feel like every country contributes something to global knowledge and advancement. But yeah I'd say the US has a hand in a fair percentage of that.
11. EU preferred, work smarter, not harder. Is it work ethic or the only way to survive a system that offers you no protections, requiring insane hours or multiple jobs that you can get fired from at a moments notice? If you WANT to work 80 hours a week, more power to you, but in too many cases people work 2-3 jobs to survive, not for the fun of it. Here you just don't have to.
12. EU preferred, at least where I am the tap water is so clean you can just bring your own, and any time I ask in a restaurant specifically for tap water, I get it free of charge. But branded water, yeah, of course, that costs something. So idk what this one is about lol.
13. EU preferred, we have dryers and heated hanging racks AND if there's not much of a rush and the weather is nice, hang it up in the yard and just let it dry naturally. Also dryers use a lot of power, so if I don't need my stuff dry too quickly, I tend to just let it airdry.
14. EU preferred, I'm friendly with my friends, polite with strangers, authority and service workers but I enjoy being left alone. And here when someone asks 'how are you?' they actually want to know and if you aren't doing well you can talk about it, instead of it being brushed off with a 'sucks to suck, good luck with that, bye'. US friendliness feels quite fake to me, like companies requiring that you smile or wear shirts with 'I love my job'. Or the incessant buzzing around the table to remind you of their existence so you leave a tip because their boss can't be bothered to pay them. Leave me the hell alone, I want to order, hang out with the people I'm at the table with, and if I need something I will raise my hand to ask for a drink, don't offer. I guess it's just different person to person. I can imagine people like the bubbly and smiley attitude, I personally hate it. Smile only when you're truly happy/amused, if you can help me politely, I don't need you to pretend to enjoy that you're helping me.
On point number 2, I do need to point out that there are employers in the US that forego the employment at will and do have protections in place.
On point number 4, it actually saddens me that an easy mortgage is seen as a plus after the 2008 financial crisis.
On number 10, as I pointed out elsewhere, it's often the money available in the US that allows them to buy up tech from abroad
On 11, work ethic. I do feel that that is more about how hard they work than anything else, being proud of long, hard workdays away from home is wrong. Fanily and a good live are more important than the job
On point 14, what you are describing is more a cultural difference than anything else. The waitress dropping by so often is a normal thing in the US and doesn't bother the people over there. It bothers you because you're not used to that over here.
Reference point 4: Then, there is also the case of what I experienced in the USA...buying a house with so many hidden problems (I even had it pre-purchase inspected). I had to put THREE new roofs on the house within 5 years, because the work done by the contractors was so bad. First one on there, leaked within a month and the contractor told me it was MY fault, because I didn't keep my roof shoveled of snow. Next one put a 20cm hole in the middle of the roof and instead of buying the materials for repairing it, he took the money to put a down-payment on a new car. Third one, finally put the rubber roof that I wanted on there in the first place that the original contractor told me was only warranted for 20 years, but the asphalt roof would be warranted for 30. Well, THAT was only if they were put on correctly, which they did not do. Then we also found out that the reason why our kitchen appliances kept going out so soon, was because we had a whole wall that was wired with reverse polarization. That was from the original electrician that installed when the house was built. Then, there was the constant flooding we had in the basement.
A/C hurting utility bills all depends on how cold you have it. Sure right now in Florida we haven't ran our A/C since early November, but it only saves us $50 a month. This is for us and only us. We have our thermostat at 26 C where a lot of "normal" people have it at 20 C. 6 degrees makes a big difference in your energy bill.
@@CabinFever52did you get your own inspector? You NEVER EVER use the inspector from the home owner. The home owner could pay off the inspector. You as the home owner want to take pictures of the house before the inspector comes because the inspector could break things. This happened to my mom when she was selling the house I grew up in. The inspector broke her glass cooktop and punched 5-6 holes into the eaves.
@@jessicaely2521 if my electricity bill increased with $50, that would be about a 50% increase. Furthermore, electricity is expensive in Europe and we try to use less because of that. Also one of the reasons we use dryers less.
9:09 Haha... That's a classic! One of my two so called "sister from another Mister" is an American as well. She wanted an _iced coffee_ and not an _ice coffee_ but to be fair, the _ice coffee_ with vanilla/ chocolate ice inside, is mich better than adding frozen water in a coffee.
To me the "friendlyness" of the USA is the exact same as it is in Korea. Sure they might say hello how are you, but that does not mean they care. It is superficial and the friendlyness is only maintained due to social pressures.
It's easier to make friends in USA.
@@hasinabegum1038 because People there call anyone that they knew for 5 min a "friend"
@@Jabbawock1972No lol.College life in USA is much more fun with friends
@@hasinabegum1038have you been living in another country?
The main reason not many Germans have AC built in is the cost of energy. The same relates to dryers. I for example own a dryer which I mostly use during the winter months. In the summer I hang my washing outside to dry - that saves energy and makes my clothes , towels and bed sheets smell fresh and clean.
As far as free drinking water I agree that it is ridiculously expensive in bars, coffee shops etc in Germany, especially when you know how cheap you can buy it at the discounter. I find it even hurtful that it sometimes costs more than beer in clubs where teenagers go but that's another story.
I mostly use my dryer in spring and autumn, when it is too warm to heat my apartement but to cool for the clothes to dry quickly. Otherwise, I just use it for bedcoverings and towels. Too rough on other clothes in the long run.
@@insulanerin7601 true.
The main reason is that you don't have nearly as many hot, humid days in Germany as in the US. The past few years have seen a spike, but still far fewer hot days. I am not going to buy an air conditioner if I need it just 15-20 days per year.
Many of the "advantages" of the US would not be advantages for me. I don't want free water which tastes like a swimming pool and has tons of ice cubes in them. In summer, when it's hot, I always have a small bottle of water with me, so I don't need to rely on finding a place where I can buy something to drink. Air conditioning is useful when it's hot, but my experience so far has been that they make rooms waaay too cold so that you always have to take a second set of clothing with you in summer. Air conditioning also makes my eyes burn, so I'd rather do without. I would not want to have a food variety from all over the world available all the time. The dryers I saw in Germany and Austria all functioned very well, and I'm also very happy to live in rented apartments as I like the freedom of not having to care about maintenance and being able to change homes with little effort.
As usual an extremely fair and unbiased analysis.
However, I would like to comment on the variety of food available. We live in Reno (we’re originally from the UK) and we often comment on the lack of variety of food available here. With fast food it is very noticeable. With restaurants there is slightly more choice available if you search hard enough, but it comes at a high price. We also find that a lot of ‘non-American’ and ‘non-Spanish American’ restaurants open and close quickly as they cannot sustain profitability. Recently an Eastern European deli and cafe we loved closed because, to quote the owners, their food was not fried or covered in cheese. In a conurbation of nearly half a million, this is a sad reflection.
Yes, there is a lot of variety in the large cities here, but not everyone lives in large cities. And there is huge variety available in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, etc.
Quality of life has always felt lower here - partly health costs, partly oppressive working conditions, etc. We’re here because our kids married Americans and our grandkids are here, but, if they were not here we’d be straight back across the Atlantic.
On the subject of food and restaurants:
1. Over 90% of the time I cook my own food, using recipes that I have from my mother, my grandmothers and have picked up from somewhere else. Cooking yourself is not only incredibly fun, it stimulates the mind and - very important - that is where the food culture of a country can essentially be found, not in the variability of the restaurants!
2. I go to restaurants occasionally, primarily to spend a nice evening with friends. What we then eat is absolutely secondary!
3. When I go on vacation, be it to the North Sea, Greece, the USA or somewhere else, I want to eat local food; I'm not going to the Dutch or German North Sea coast and then complaining that there's not enough international food on offer!
4. In the USA I was "invited to dinner" by a colleague. I was looking forward to home-cooked, typical American food (food culture!): instead I was invited to a Mexican restaurant and in the end I had to pay for it myself!
I agree, the food versatility comparison is skewed because of culture - more Europeans cook their own meals than Americans, so there are less restaurants overall and thus less room for variety.
Also possibly food preferences matter - many Europeans simply prefer their traditional national food, which is often quite good whereas I'm not sure US has anything like that. it's almost feels as if they want food from different countries because they don't have any satisfying "American" food.
@@jwhite5008 I mostly agree with you, except that more restaurants equals more variability! I think the opposite is true: nowhere are there as many differences as in local kitchens!
Regarding number 10: I believe that perspective is somewhat skewed. Many of the innovations in the USA originate from startups outside of the country. As a Swede, I can readily recall three examples, such as the color screen, the computer mouse, and Lync, all of which originate from Sweden. Moreover, when considering innovations from the rest of the world, this trend becomes even more evident. It's worth noting that the investment primarily comes from the USA, which is one of the reasons why companies tend to relocate there.
The microwave mentioned in the video is a good example of that, the technology came from the UK. But when it comes to making it onto a useful (and commercially successful) product the USA for sure is really good at that.
So was the rocket. It was based on the V2.
Americans are far superior in industralizing idéas and building world wide corporations, something we in Eur shoud learn from.
@@foobar8894False. The microwave (or MAGNETRON) was accidentally invented by Raytheon (Percy Spencer). In the US.
The color TV was invented in Germany in 1908. The mouse was invented in the US. And I don’t know what Lync is. It is telling that you have to go 100 years back to name three things invented in Sweden. Do things come from Sweden? Sure but not in that density as it comes from the US. It’s tough enough to name some leading tech companies from Europe. Only ASML and SAP come to my mind. It’s undeniable that the US is THE technology power house in the worlds. And that by far. It comes at a cost but the outcome is is unmatched by the combined rest of the world.
on the tech section of this vid: the united states tbh has never been leading tech innovation, the original innovation came from other countries and was bought out by america rather than actually creating things in house for the most part, all these large companies keep buying all the little companies and take whatever workes and throwing out the rest. america just kinda ignores how much they import and feel like all their exports are their own
edit: also you missed what america is best at, propaganda
Google,Apple,Microsoft,Facebook all These things are originated from USA
If you combin european countries, the have much more invention per year then the us. This is easy to google
the way those companies exist is by buying up all the little tech companies taking a few things that dont even really work well and they dump the rest, its gotten so common and widespread that it has become the norm in the tech industry to just make something that you can advertise to sell off and let someone else figure out how it wont work, the amount of things google has bought and killed is staggering that they used to have a dedicated website for it before they killed that too. The entire internet runs off of canadian tech apple's big idea (the iphone) was stolen from a canadian company facebook is horrifyingly bad idk why facebook is regarded as a win for anything seeing as they have made children's attention a game for them to play, creating some of the most addictive and harmful platforms to have ever exist. these companies all stand on giants even if they want to pretend they dont exist, and at this point, those are just the big names buying things, just because america has money does not mean they created the wealth for themselves, this is what old slavery made money looks like in the background of an economy. @@hasinabegum1038
@@hasinabegum1038 and none of them would be anywhere if not for Asian and European advances in chip technology. Or the European inventions done to eventually create the internet. Everyone is dependent on eachother for most things. Just saying. Also, I wouldn't call Facebook as an example of cutting edge technology.
@@atropatene3596Europe is Falling behind and behind in terms of technology.Only Dutch ASML is considered cutting age technology.Most cutting age technology are from Asia
air condition is not a solution to the heat waves, its a part of the problem. how many energy goes to creating cool air? and wher does the warm air go from the heat exchanging device? good insulation, airing out in early hours and keeping the the rollladen down does a very decent job.
I think it is unfair to compare the US and Germany in this, as the US is further south. Florida is at the same latitude as northern Africa.
And how much people died from air condition. I'm usually never sick, but when I stay to long in airconditioned places, I'm sick afterwards.
@@justhanan_official Well, people die from heatwaves in Europe now. It would be sensible to have air conditioning in hospitals and senior care homes.
@@insulanerin7601 Yes, but those facilities often fight with high costs, yet. And they are not built with/for AC. So it would be very costly to change that. And who would and could pay for that ?
@@insulanerin7601 i wonder how many nomad people in the sahara uses ac or in traditional north african buildings. back in the days the people know to adjust to the surrounding temperature. the problem is not the hot temperature, the problem is that people dont want to adjust and go the easy way instead the right way. there is a reason why traditional clothing, buildings and other things done like this in thouse areas for long time.
Dryiers are pointless in dry areas like most of Spain. You hang your clothes out to dry and they're ready quite fast
I dry clothes outside all year in the UK. As long as it is above freezing and dry for a couple of days most things will dry. Things like coats and heavy wool may be a problem in winter. In summer things like t shirts are often dry in two hours.
@@johnclements6614clothes dry also in freezing temperatures. Pretty well and fast actually. The low humidity evaporates the water relatively quickly. Russians do it.
@@ph3733 I am close to the sea. It is 6C today with a 80% humidity. I could see that being away from the ocean would make a difference.
In California and many other Western states they are not necessary either only in the winter. Or if you need you cloths dry fast.
I hang the cloth inside my flat all year, no problem at all. In the very rare cases I would need a dryer (washing my sleeping beg) I could use the communal dryer of my estate. I would say that that not using dryers unnecessarily is a plus for Europe.
I worked at music venues, festivals and a lot of restaurants and hotel in The Netherlands and most of the time we would try to sell people bottled water instead of tap water. But if people are asking for tap water specifically we should provide it to the customer without asking money for it. I never worked at a place were we were not allowed to give people tap water for free. During heat waves festivals should also have infrastructure in place just to give people tap water to prevent heat related injuries.
Ah, that's good to know. Nobody ever told me that before. Thanks!
In the UK any place that sells alcohol must give free tap water.
@@johnclements6614Good chance that's also true in the Netherlands. I think they ask you weather you want water if you order an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant, but beyond that...
Same for Germany. I worked in the German Gastronomy
@@erwindewit4073 There were some deaths in night clubs about twenty years where the owners had turned off the water in the toilets. People who had taken some stuff needed the water to cool down.
Buying houses in Denmark is a lot easier and normal in Denmark, than in Germany. Norway and Sweden are almost national parks all over. Things are different Europe, apparently more than you have noticed so far.
American national parks are very diverse in terms of landscape and much bigger
People only mentioned minor things: free water, free toilet, more ice, more AC ... in non of the big points like social security or health care or labor politics the US came out on top. So i'd rather pay for toilet and water than to get laid off all of a sudden or be broke by medical bills.
Well yeah, trying to think of things the US does better doesn't come with many big things, but tiny 'Gotcha!' things. I just figured we let them have these few nuggets of hope that their life isn't the worst it could be, they could be unemployed on a whim with 300k in medical debt due to a random mall shooting BUT they do have Airconditioning. Go them.
Old George Carlind said it well. The American dream is only when You sleep.
But here in Europe many are born into it
I am not so sure about the technology. I feel like while the big tech companies often sit in the USA, the actually innovations are also often developed in other places like Europe. So, I wonder if it basically boils down to America being better in investing a lot of money into new existing technology to make it big and available to everyone, but not necessarily in inventing new technology in the first place. (I am wondering if this could be somehow evaluated with real data. Probably not that easy.)
The internet and GPS - I guess you could say America was pretty good at investing money into its defense department which later shared its inventions with the world.
I agree on this. Take for example Spotify & Skype. Both were started by Swedish and or Scandinavian companies and then bought out by Microsoft or someone else. As far as I know Sweden is very tech tight. Alot of computer games are developed here as well as the internet infrastructure is really advanced and ALOT cheaper than in the US. What I pay in Swedish crowns for my Broadband Americans pay in dollars.
But Europeans are way behind Americans when it comes to comerzialising inventions.
@@jojje3000-1 no, when something is becoming successful, American companies either try to buy it or quickly use their large user base to push a quickly developed alternative and push the foreign originator out of the market.
@@Hans-gb4mv But the American company then grows and generates jobs and ROI, we’re not good at this in the EU.
We live in Gainesville, Florida and Wiesbaden, Germany, so can compare constantly between day-to-day experiences. US salaries are higher in many areas and the German state has confiscatory taxes for high earners, but cost of living is generally lower in Germany. In certain regards, for example insurance and health care, the higher salary in the US won't help. For instance, our homeowners insurance in Germany is a pittance compared to Florida, and in Florida we are in constant terror of having insurance cancelled completely.
Though there is much free nature in Germany, YES! to the awesome American national parks. Though of course some federal lands are constantly being threatened by the "drill at any cost" crowd.
And just a remark about food diversity: though Germany has some improvements to make in that regard (excluding the major cities which are well provided), it is unthinkable to have an experience like the one on a recent car trip we took through the Southern US when we drove through a number of smaller towns where there was not a single dining option at all, not even a fast food outlet. Sure, dining out in New York or New Orleans can be glorious, but America is also full of blighted towns that are food deserts.
Why anybody needs to live small desert town's anyway
To be fair, Florida's property insurance costs are the exception, not the rule.
@@hasinabegum1038 Because having hundreds to thousands of acres of farmland in the middle of a city doesn't really work. Nobody said anything about desert.
OECD has data backing up that US income is much higher. Median equivalised disposable household income is about 1/3 higher than Germany.
This number is adjusted for cost of living and government transfers(like free healthcare).
Yeah talking about insurance in a place with common hurricanes as a comparison lmao
Yes water is usually not free at events in Europe. BUT: at least in Germany they have to sell one non-alcoholic beverage at a cheaper price than all alcoholic beverages.
Plus: if I have to choose between all beverages costing €2 to €7 in Europe, vs. costing $10 to $30 in the USA ("but water is free")... it's no simple choice.
In my family, and from what I've seen, if you don't want to pay for water, bring your own. Most drink carbonated water anyway, wich isn't always sold.
Plus I usually drink water from the tap? Bring an empty bottle and there you go?
@@Parciwal_Gaming Bring your own is OK for visiting a city but mostly not allowed at concerts and such.
I have never seen free water at a sports or concert venue in the USA. It is hard enough to even find a water fountain. They normally charge $6 for a pint of water.
Number 12: In the UK (Not sure about the rest of europe) if a place serves alcohol they are legally required to give you free water if you ask. Most places that dont have alcohol will still do this anyway if you ask for 'tap water'
Must be a UK thing.
Same in Sweden, there is almost always a bottle of water put on your table on arrival. Not always with ice thou.
This varies country to country
With regard to admission charges to US national parks, the big problem in the US is that with lacking the right to roam and other intermediate grades of open space, it puts a great deal of pressure on those national parks that are close to major cities as an outlet for people seeking open space, and admission charges and permit systems are the only way those parks can avoid being overwhelmed as a result.
The U.S. is full of city, county and state parks and forests, preserves managed by non-profit organizations, as well as federal recreational land managed by agencies other than the national park service (mainly the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management). In my local area, there is an embarrassment of riches in lakes, rivers, and hiking and mountain biking trails. There would be little point in a 'right to roam', since the large parcels of privately owned land are generally flat, open, boring farm fields where nobody would want to hike anyway when there were already so many nearby parks and nature areas. As for the cost of admission to National Parks? It's about $75/year for an annual pass that covers access not just to National Parks, but all federal recreational land. It typically costs MUCH more to travel to national parks than it does to get in.
What I expected to be on this list is marketing and propaganda. That's for me the field in which the USA is "great" at this moment in time. Good to see you two together in a video again! Kind of feels like the "old" days.
thanks! It was fun to sit down together again.
Agreed, I think the creation of entertainment and marketing the best in the US, but I have to say that BBC and 'Bollywood' has been making a lot of great strides as well.
Every country has its propaganda and they are all really good in that.
Your government doesn't even do propaganda right? At least not anymore?
@@chickenfishhybrid44 Would be nice if I was German, now wasn't it?
Gday Ashton lovely to see you both again. Thanks for your take on the 14 things America does better than Europe. I always enjoy your balanced and unbiased thoughts.
Happy new year and looking forward to following you again in 2024. Keep up the great work x
Thank you for another great video!
Nice to see you together for this week's video!!!
What stood out to me most was NATIONAL PARKS. Yes, it's true that the US does a great job with National Parks, and as a former resident of Silicon Valley, we could reach some of the greatest. The state parks and national forests were great too.
BUT…
The "right to roam" is everything to me. I only really know Baden-Württemberg and Bayern, but to me, I live in one giant national park. I can go practically anywhere, wandering almost without restriction, riding my e-bike through towns and villages, along the rivers, up and down the hills, through the valleys and forests and farmers' fields. I have never felt so free to roam as I do here, and it feel never-ending. And it is soooooo beautiful and clean here. It is worth so much more to me than the handful of times that I actually reached Yosemite or Lassen or Mt. Hood or Zion or the Grand Canyon or Rocky Mountain National Park. They are all treasures, but the FREEDOM TO ROAM is worth more.
I probably wouldn't comment if I would think intensively about first. So, this is more for supporting the channel.
1. I don't really care at all but thought about for a second when I read the title - my result:
1.1. Landscape (oceans, mountains, rivers)
1.2. Nature (plants and wildlife ... even it isn't as good as it was in the past. But this is true for nearly every country)
That's it for now for me ... because ... first we need to define "better". Next we have to keep in mind that the U.S. is a country and Europe are many several countries where each has it's own development status, rules/laws and very different habits/cultures aswell as politics/regulations/bureaucracy (e.g. Lithuania might have much better IT services for its residents and better cyber security than the U.S.).
And ... many of those points depend on each other and influence the outcome and here comes the definition of "better" into play. Like, better diversity of food. Yeah, maybe, but this might be based on less regulations and are they really "original" or also made for the American taste? And what about food security because of less regulations? Just something to keep in mind. So, better or not? Hard to tell, that would need a much deeper diving into each point made and to make.
And generalisations also don't really makes sence ... at least in general. I mean, is there the same food diversity in Bismarck/North Dakota as it is in New York or LA or do the residents there need to take a plane to get really good Mexican or Chinese food?
But for the sake of peace. Give the U.S. ... let's say 10 ... you know what, give them 20 points where they are better if this question so desperately needs a positive answer.
And to be honest, not everything that comes from the U.S. is bad (or what the government does ... just still too much ... like every countries government has its flaws). And to keep the peace - at least here - let's not ask how many things the EU does better. Just leave it with the answer to the question as it is. And let them keep their "Murica best". Just nod as an approvement and keep your thoughts politely by yourself - don't hurt feelings and pride, that never ended well.
Thank you , again, you guys are really great! Would be fun if we crossed paths some time. COme visiti in Italy any time!
Most of the mentioned benefits are based on consumerism. So all in all it's only one advantage: you can consume better in the US.
That's okay for me, living in Berlin
You also can earn better in US.Median household income is significantly higher in USA compared to Germany
@@hasinabegum1038 Hours worked at minimum wage needed to reach 'living wage': 100 hours in Germany(12,40 an hour, living wage is 1240 for a childless individual) vs 425 hours in the US (7,25 an hour, living wage is $3080 for a childless individual). So you have to work 4x as many hours to survive, the safety net is weak, the health insurance and whole healthcare machine is so busted and expensive that you will also be stressing about getting sick or not, as you can be fired on the spot for no reason.
I understand you like the US, but if you look at it honestly, you are getting a far worse deal unless very specific cases. Are you a highly skilled single engineer without any health problems at all? Yeah, the US might be better, just don't ever need any help. US Median being higher without taking into account the living wage is just wilfully ignorant.
@@hasinabegum1038 That's true if you only look at the numbers. But you for sure need more money in the US for higher spending on health care, housing, transport and groceries. So all in all it's quite the same.
czcams.com/video/DWJja2U7oCw/video.htmlsi=K2elYMhIHZmbtuAH
@@peterparker219Housing is cheaper in USA compared to Germany.Gas prices are half the Price in USA about 1 dollar per liter and in Germany It's like a 2 euros per liter so driving a car is not expensive in USA. Utilities Are cheaper in USA.Health insurance is paid by employer.
About Innovations: you should check the innovations europe inventors made in history - INCLUDING the hundrets of thousands the US took from germany for free after WW2 (plus the scientists they also took wirh them)
Agree with most of the points made, but the air conditioning thing is part of the problem. There is a huge energy consumption for wich we burn fossile fuels and warm up the globe even more.
Same with the dryers, they pointed it out but most people do have dryers but why use them if it's better for the clothes and environment just to hang it out. I only use the dryer for bed sheets and towels and stuff like that.
even bedsheets and towels smell better when dried outside. I had a dryer for 20 years and only used it for my down jackets. When it broke I never replaced it
A dryer would be nice for a family with children and washing all the time in the winter. I only have my own stuff and even in winter I wait for a nice day and have my clothes dry outside. I got a dryer with an appartement and gave it to my mother who only very rarely used it in winter or if the weather was too bad.
Nice to see you two in a video again. I started viewing video's about people who moved countries as I moved from the Netherlands to Denmark. Out of curiosity how others experienced their move I started but only hang on to a few and watch not all that often as topics begin to run in circles.
Interesting though is that people always want to know what is 'best' in one country compared to another. Often leading to many comments driving up the viewing rates and sometimes hitting the viral scale. For me it is not all that shocking, I don't care too much about x being better than y as there are disadvantages for every advantage. If you like the eastern way of thinking, in the end the world will be in balance yin-yang, so if you excel at one thing you will be less competent in something else.
For me the interesting thing is our differences and how do celebrate those. The world would be a boring place if everyone and everywhere would be the same...
Ice in drinks is pretty common in Malta and Ireland and they're both in Europe. In Malta you often have to beg them not to put too much ice.
Your No.10 (technology) is very much debatable. One would not think of American cars, machinery, high speed trains or the general infrastructure as being top notch. Someone already mentioned the stone age system of paying employees via cheques instead of wire transfer like in Europe. Surely the USA has the most advanced weapon systems and the most successful address traders based in Silicon Valley.
Iced latte exists here, it's just less popular than in the US. And when I have ice in my drinks, I want the ice to cool my drink, not dilute it. Otherwise I could just order water instead...
4:48 the map shows a temperature of 42.6° C for Germany. This measurement of 2019-7-25 has been declared erroneous later. The highest temperature ever measured in Germany was (at the same date) 41.2° C.
Having lived and worked in Germany and the US i think the question of work ethics is tricky. Just because one works lot of hours for a company that doesn't mean one gets a lot done or that the worrk is valuable/valued. Hours worked and work performance are different. Salaries do tend to be higher in the US for many sectors but one should keep in mind that a serious illness or accident in US will completely wipe out that higher US income. I had a couple medical issues (nothing serious) last year and with above average health coverage I was still left with thousands in medical bills.
Nice to see both of you together;-)
Well, interesting list with some very good points. 1) Hit or miss in both parts, and, btw, you pay to pee in Asia too;-) 2) That is true for tech driven jobs. Regular jobs you are way better off in EU. 3) Air con, while true as standard in the US, it's also a huge waste as you cool or heat the whole house even though you only need 1-2 rooms, plus due to cheap construction, the insulation is so bad that most of what you cool or heat is going nowhere. Currently in Las Vegas (Winter 23/24), my sister in law pays $500 to heat her 1300SF house! 4) While it is easier to buy a house in US, many of them should just not do it. My colleague just bought a $450,000 house in Las Vegas with $19,000 down payment! That is not even 5%. His mortgage is over $3000 a month for 30 years, bringing the total cost to over $1 Million for that house! So, it is not that in EU it is like in the 20s, it is so people don't get scammed. 5) True, but I never liked to much ice anyways. 6) True, had a US park pass and visited many of them. When living in Florida, we could go to Canaveral National Seashore with that pass every weekend. 7) True. 8) True, however, most of the time the food has been "Americanized" as these different cultures do not get the fresh ingredients as they are at home. 9) Not true! While the US innovates in stuff that nobody needs to please the consumers, the rest of the world innovates in things that are important. Examples: Trucks, a current US semi truck is in many ways technologically at a point like EU trucks were 20 years ago. Housing is like the same as 30-40 years ago. Trains, like 50-60 years ago. If there is no competition in the US, cheap is king. Just do it as cheap as possible and don't bother, so innovation is left behind. 10) LOL, I have to laugh at that one. Go to any restaurant in EU and you see minimum half the people working there doing the same job as in a US restaurant. And that is true in EVERY industry. I worked for many large corporations and they just throw people at projects with such a big overhead and everybody is doing something, but with no clear vision. It is mostly, try till it works, whereas in Germany at least, you first figure out how to fix it and than do it once, DONE. 11) Never gotten free water at a festival in US. However, I can see where that is coming from. The festival much rather provides free water if it is hot than risking that people get heatstrokes and sue them. 12) False. You can have a dryer in EU as you can in US. In EU it is just not seen as important. However, in US in some states there are laws that you are NOT allowed to hang your clothes outside, so a dryer is the only option, thus standard. 13) Yep, people are friendly and helpful, at least compared to Germans, and yes, Germany is a nightmare when it comes to customer service! Thanks and have a great week
I don’t think that I would get more than the 26k$ annually I get as a motel front desk agent in Germany. I work for that 4 days a week.
Nice to see Jonathan back in a video. Kinda missed him.
I mean I was impressed with the food scene in Düsseldorf, a city I would describe as medium sized and I would say it's the same diversity as London or Berlin, maybe a little less variety. Even Brussels or Amsterdam gives you plenty of options. And all those cities (not Berlin) are just a couple of hours away by high speed train.
It shows that our ideas of a medium sized city differ. Düsseldorf is Germany's 7th biggest city.
Nice one, thank you guys! Loved the one about not having an opinion on the water price at concert venues! Sure... who knows..? (I don't..!)
I think this list (both ways) is really hard to make since lumping all european contries into one like this just doesnt work. There are SO many differences between the different countries in europe that even comparing some of your experiences from Germany seems totally foreign to me in Denmark (even if we share a border).
15:58 that is true. But it has been so established in german culture that it's seen as your price to pay for not bringing your own water.
When I saw the headline, the very first thing that came to my mind was the State and National Parks. I grew up in the Netherlands in the 1970's and we traveled all over Europe and later moved to the US and traveled all over here. Camping in much of Europe is pretty awful unless you have a camper (the Dutch have the highest per capita ownership of camper trailers). Everyone is put close together because space is at a premium. You come to America an the camping spots are often apart from each other. Many times we have had full schurbs between camp sites. Also each site gets a picnic table and fire ring. The facilities have been underfunded the past few decades, but none the less they are good and the activities can be amazing. We camped with my then 10 year old daughter outside Albany NY. We were just a few mile (as the crow flies) from the heart of the capital, but we were in rolling hills. It felt like we were "way" out in the countryside. The facilities were good and they had so many activities in the weekend for campers (all free). Pony rides and guest speakers. They had local amateur astronomers come in on non-rainy nights and they would lecture on what you could see in the night sky and brought along various telescopes. So many ways to not only enjoy the "great outdoors," but also help people be better educated. The bummer is that this is a BIG country. You can't just pop in your car and a few hours later you are in another country / climate zone / cultural area. You have to travel for days to get from the East Coast to the big parks like Yellowstone. I've been there as well, didn't camp due to mode of travel, but what an experience. Size wise, Yellowstone is three times the size of the Dutch province of North Holland that I was born in. We can't even imagine a park that big.
15:52 I've not even been to a Kelly concert (Angelo, Paddy or the sibling reunions) ... I don't know either.
Sure Americans are leading in marketing innovations, but I am not sure how many of these innovations were actually developed in other countries.
I bought a house in Belgium with mortgage, process was pretty easy and straight forward. Notary did most of the hard work. Compared to what my American colleagues has described my process was super easy.
Yea, I think the main point here is Europe is not a country, laws and bureaucratic procedures in Sweden are nothing like those in Poland, etc. EU regulates some things among their members but things like real estate ownership is varied quite a lot.
Mortgage procedure are very different from bank to bank. So I think that isn’t a country issue at all.
15:22, when it comes to water at concerts I don't have that much experience as i haven't been to that many concerts and on the two that i've visited (both in Norway, I'm from and live in Norway) I didn't really check so I don't know. But I've been to one festival in Norway and one in Sweden and both of these had plenty of water taps with free, drinkable water (as far as i know, all municipal water supplies have to be drinkable, and they taste good aswell in both Norway and Sweden) .
It was great to see Jonathan again. Long time no see😂 welcome back to the movies😂
Ice, free water and AC - 100% yes! The rest really depend on location. The USA is so large and every day feels a little more divided, though maybe that’s because it’s an election year and I live near DC. 1 thing I do appreciate about the USA is the attitude of “why not,” rather than “why” for different ideas or views of the word. Living in southern Germany and outside London there wasn’t a lot of questioning why things are the way they are. Maybe because the cultures are sooo much older. Good video. Love thinking about these topics.
I think you are right that the US is very diverse. I think being divided is normal in a democracy.
Katie van Nuys , Dutch ancestry ?
@@willvangaal8412 it’s my husband’s last name. I was a Roberts originally (British isles and German ancestry).
@@katie.r.vannuys He Katie , the Netherlands just in between .
I think US customer service is very mixed, on an individual level its usually great. But US Airlines are famously bad, US banks are awful...
I'd say on an individual level it's great but at a corporate level its bad to awful
I'd say UK diversity in medium to large town matches US.
2:28 I recognise those from the Autobahn and similar in Belgium.
#9 - this is so dependent on where a person lives. Where we live there is lacking diversity of food. It is something we miss. We lived in Oklahoma City and Austin, TX and the food diversity there was so much more than where we currently live. Denver, CO and the Atlanta, GA area is a great area for food diversity. From your bloopers section; our city just got an Andy's. They opened late fall so hopefully they can hang on until spring and summer and get their grove. :)
#11 - I regard this as employers making workers feel like they need to do more for the same amount of money (salaried positions); some requiring workers to work 50, 60, or more hours per week. Reducing staff and forcing the remaining staff to work more. I saw this starting in the 2000's with tech layoffs and people being required to pick up the tasks of their former coworkers without additional pay or consideration and still responsible for their original work.
#13 - We would love to hang laundry out but where we live there is high humidity so there are issues with getting the laundry dry. There is also an issue of the wild life doing things with your laundry. In Oklahoma City we did dry our laundry outside when we could.
Cook for yourself, then you can decide for yourself what you eat and are not dependent on others!
What I experience in the Netherlands with dryers is that when a second child is born families buy one due to the large amount of clothes constantly needing to be washed. When it eventually fails the children are of an age that they do not produce that much laundry anymore and the dryer is not replaced. Off course there are always exceptions.
Well that's why I bought a dryer anyway. Incidentally, my kids are 4 and 6. When will they stop producing so much laundry 😅
Funny to see the Moon Landing in the "innovation" topic, which wouldnt possible without the german engineer v. Braun. America was always good to attract people who invented something. Like Asia was genius in copy something and make it better, "Work Ethic" hooray to a system that depends on employees spend their work time so a realy sick co-worker can stay at home.
50% of all Novel price winners in USA are Born abroad
It's hard to say, but.... would all those foreign people have been just as successful in their endeavors if they had stayed in their own country? I think that's what people are implying: the US offers more opportunities to those people with some talent or knowledge to become so successful in their field. All of those technologies have been invented somewhere (usually at universities, whether it be US, Europe or elsewhere), but the successful companies that changed the world with those technologies were often in the US.
18:57 Root beer.
+ Logans Run (I was over when it was on TV, same year as Star Wars came out.
I'm not yet sure about Disneyland, I've not been inside the one East of Paris yet.
I love your videos! I was just in your neighborhood this past October and Freiburg was impressive. I was stationed in Germany for six years and have been all over Europe but it was my first time there. I was discussing with my German ex wife about us both coming up on retirement soon. She lives in Würzburg and I live in Florida. Our grandkids are here in Florida. Since we are still friends we actually discussed getting married again. I told her I’d like to retire in Germany and she said she’d like to retire in the states. She’s coming to the states this spring and I’m going back to Germany the following spring. Anyway I think our solution will be we will spend the summers in Germany and winters in Florida. Neither one of us has ever remarried our had any real relationship with anyone else since our divorce 21 years ago so a few years down the road I should be spending some great times together in the two countries we both love.
my theory about the dryer had always been that its bad for expensive high quality clothing and since the US is using much more cheap clothing that they change frequently its not an issue for them
Wrong. Ever heard of the cleaners? That’s where we Americans go for our expensive clothes.
No. We've always had a dryer and we still also hang things up. People generally aren't too worried about drying their socks or underwear for example.
I was intrigued by the technological innovation points. It seems to me that America is good at coming up with ideas but then slow to make them available to their general public. I can think of several areas where America seems to be slow to catch up. For example, chip and PIN credit card payments, online banking apps, paying with your phone, the high cost of mobile phone contracts and slower internet speeds. Yet so many of these things probably originate from the USA in the first place.
Actually, no. They don't originate from within the US. Chip and PIN is a choice by the way. American companies prefer the speed of swiping a card and trusting the owner over the delay that a transaction with chip and PIN would introduce. The small cost in fraudulent transactions is less than that of the extra personnel they would have to hire due to the slower processing of payments. The high cost of mobile phone contracts and slower internet speed can be explained by the much lower population density in big areas of the US that makes building and maintaining the infrastructure a lot more expensive.
@@Hans-gb4mv
I find that funny. On a recent business trip to the US I was really shocked that they are going away with the cards and swiping them in most places instead of the much faster and more secure contactless payments. And swiping is in no way faster then even PIN and Chip.
@@Hans-gb4mv slower internet and expensive phone tabs are due to LOW competition and massive consolidation
as for chip-pin why spend the money when the "customer" can be made to foot the bill
fraud will be born on the VICTIM not the bank but upgrading would be a cost the bank would have to endure
Canada uses chip - pin because the BANKS have to cover fraud due to there systems so they have all the reason in the world to upgrade to far better an faster systems
@@Hans-gb4mv but it's not faster. Here it takes you literally 2 seconds to pay contactless and maybe 5 more seconds if you need to put the PIN number in. Plus, I would not give my card to anyone to walk away with, I think I would just go with them if they did not have the possibility for me to pay at the table in a restaurant
If anything, it's the opposite. They're very slow to come up with anything new, but very quick at introducing them once somebody else did. Very little of it originated in the US. US technology development is mostly incremental improvements rather than innovation.
From what I heard the oldest woman in the world at the time, Jeanne Calmont, who was reportedly 122 years old, died in a heatwave in France, August 1997 . She had no air conditioning or central air.
Nice video with Jonathan 🥳
Ice? Ice in a drink? 50 percent or more of the contents! That's a lot of savings for the vendor. In some places you pay 50 cents more, if you don't want ice.
Yes yes! Looking for this one. Please no extra water in my drink.
It is different in the US with free refills. Which may be nice if you drink a lot. Otherwise you pay for the others. Socialism !!!
I'd rather pay than have dirty and "present on the platter" bathroom stalls.
I wouldn't want to work in the US. Defining myself as a person almost exclusively by my job is ridiculous. And working too much without balancing this out with relaxation is unhealthy. It almost cost me my life - never again.
I'd rather pay a little bit for water at a concert than hundreds of bucks more for my healthcare.
Yes, Americans are friendly and welcoming (to Europeans at least) but most of the time it's quite superficial.
Yes, customer service is more attentive, esp. in restaurants and retail, but it's overbearing too. I've often felt pestered by waitstaff, which interrupted our lively conversation or presented us with the bill before even deciding about having dessert, cheese, or coffee. And sometimes, I just want to browse in a shop without any immediate intent to purchase sth. I want to get information and maybe come back at another time. But being asked three times within ten minutes by the same salesperson if they can help me doesn't make me want to come back at all. Just leave me alone. If I want help I'm woman enough to ask. And if I'm polite and friendly when I do so, the person that I'm asking will be polite and friendly to me.
Salaries of highly skilled professionals are much higher in USA compared to Europe but If You're a minimum wage earner then you maybe live better in Europe
@type ashton: would you consider air conditioning worth the invest where you live? Like: how many days per year do you feel your house is too hot?
and are you keeping your main southern and western windows shuttered? and do you went early in the morning? :-)
but in general I do agree. when I was a kid in the 80s there really were maybe 3-5 days a year when it was a bit too warm. now that can be weeks.
I am building a new house and at least it has a central ventilation system so it can be upgraded to air conditioning without making a mess.
in the meantime we will test the cooling function of our floor heating that can be used to cool via the heatpump in summer ….
We bought a portable AC when I was pregnant and we lived in an attic apartment in the city. The building was 200 years old and south facing... So things got TOASTY.
But since moving to our new house we haven't used it once. We face north (with a hill behind us) and our house is much better insulated. Where our old apartment used to heat up after a day... It takes 4-5 for temps to reach uncomfortable levels.
@@TypeAshton yeah old apartments get hot, especially under the roof and then Freiburg is really one of the hottest cities in Germany. I think the death toll due to heat is really more in the south (spain, italy, …) where air conditioning isn’t that uncommon, but old houses often do not have it I guess.
This was fabulous! Ex-pat Californian, living in Germany for 12 years. I do agree with you on most points. Although the ice thing - I jsut don’t get it. I’ve never been an ice-person, so I don’t miss it here. We have a couple silicon cube thingies and when the need for a chilled cocktail hits, we’re covered. In fact, I‘ve been know to spoon the ice from an otherwise delicious Aperol Spritz into the hedge at a local restaurant as it made the drink rather diluted and too darn cold!! The biggest issue to me is the work ethic - as you pointed out, working a lot of hours doesn’t necessarily mean working well or efficiently. When we first moved here, I was just shocked when people talked about taking vacations and were, like, PROUD of them! As a self-employed person in the US for over 30 years, taking a vacation was almost more stressful than never having a break. Here they look at you like you are nuts if you don’t take time off - and having just read an email from a colleague in the US about us taking THREE FULL WEEKS off (mind you, spread over four months) as if we are committing a major crime, I’m feeling particularly sensitive about it right now!! Never mind that time off, as well as regular family time is so important - and instead of ending up in the hospital with stress-related problems, we have time to relax and recharge, and work smarter. Thank you once again for a great video - loved the bloopers at the end!! (Oh, for me, REAL Mexican food is what I miss the most - other than that…? Eh, not much.)
Customer service is in some sense “better” in the US than Europe, but it often feels false and I can find it irritating. Overall, I’d rather not have to tip an exorbitant amount than get an ersatz smile.
Good morning Ashton and family.
What America is definitely better at is running up debt, both private and public.
But we are catching up. We are learning from the Americans. :)
Interestingly your comment touches on next week's video.... I'll be doing the calculations for "what it means to be middle class" in the US and Germany... looking at incomes, savings, debts, assets, property... etc.
@@TypeAshton then maybe you might want to look at the middle class over time. I think it means something different to be in middle class today, than it did a generation or two ago, because the differences the class "one below" have a much greater IMPACT than they did back then. As they always say here: "Die Schere hat sich sehr viel weiter geöffnet!".
I consider myself middle class and when I "reached" that point my life got much easier permanently from one month to the other. (changed circumstances that brought the decisive advantage in terms of income and time and allowed me to build a safety cushion). It really felt like swimming against a river and then reaching the safe shore.
@@TypeAshtonWhat's to say about technology is that a lot of it is originally from Germany. LCD screens, first computers, rockets, jets and more.
@@user-fn8nw8ft9f1st computers are from USA
@@TypeAshton Ich kann es kaum erwarten. Dein Videos sind wirklich gut, nicht dieser Müll den uns die "medien" so erzählen wollen. Die Ansichten eines Normalos sind so bodenständig.
Salaries. This is an interesting topic. I'm a recently retired software engineer (usa) and remember reading an article about usa vs. europe with regard to this. There are so many costs here such as healthcare and transportation that reduce our supposed advantage. I mean, I worked in the industry in the Boston area for nearly 40 years and much of that involved one hour+ commutes each way. Not only did that cost a lot of money for fuel and vehicle maintenance, it cost a lot of time. This is a sort of intangible that's hard to filter into the discussion but it's certainly not free.
My place has about 12.000 inhabitants - and available restaurants are
Asian/Chinese
German
Greek
Italian
„International“ (the owner is Iranian and offers a mix of modern dishes he likes)
Portuguese
Turkish
All except Asian and Portuguese at least twice, with at least one restaurant and one take-away option.
I do not think that‘s too bad.
Oh, and I forgot about 2 places where there are only cake and sweet things to be served.
Now in the countryside where I come from, there are, post COVID, only 4 restaurants left in the surrounding places - 2 with German food and 2 with a mixture, in one case covering everything from German to Indian with decent quality.
But you can get almost everything from a lot of places in a distance of about 1 hr. Point is that with a population density of 1/10th of where I live now, businesses tend to be a bit more widespread, too.
One thing Americans seem really good at is wastefulness. The dryer remark is a good sign fo that. I have manny guests form the USA. I alsways have to explain that its a bit waistfull to only punt one pair of paints a sweater and one sock in the washingmachine that can handle a 9KG load. And even during a heatwave they insist on using the dryer while it only takes 15 minutes to dry outside.
That's because energy in the US is a lot cheaper. We have our own natural gas and oil and thus don't need to rely on OPEC
When you say that Americans are good at 'waistfullness' are you ironically referencing the general obesity or did you mean waste?
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv so therefore it makes more sence to turn on the dryer for 90 minutes instead of hanging out the laundry f0r 15 minutes outside???
In terms of tech, the US feels backwards. Still using cheques and very slow in terms of moving to contactless. There are many more examples of where the US is backwards. Still using SMS based messaging
Not as backwards as Germany though!
My experience in Germany is definitely that they are more advanced in terms of technology. For example, people make more intelligent choices in terms of smartphones and so a lot of people don't use iphones.
@@martinspedding4210Germany is still very bureaucratic.You need to go and fil lup many papers to open a Bank account.In Denmark you can open Bank account online very easily
Hey, Jonathan is back! 👏👏👏👍👍👍
You are always very kind to your German audience. As a German I dare to be a little more.... blunt. Of course there are quite a lot of things in America that (depending on the State) are "done better". And often "better" means that problems are being solved less bureaucratically, that solutions rather follow the principle of common sense than the principle of having principles. Being born here as "biodeutscher Michel" I can definititely state that Germany tends to...... overdo finding solutions to more or less rather simple problems.
On the other hand living and working in the US for good would be difficult for me because I value things like the health system. Moreover: The fact that the public and their willingness to pay a higher amount of taxes made it possible for me to study a quite expensive academic course without having to take out a loan for insanely high tuition fees. So, now it's up to me to pay the same taxes to enable my children (and other peoples' children) to have the same possibilities.
All that being sad: It's quite ok here... despite all the current problems and at the same time I'm looking forward to travel the west of the US for two months next year. 😄
Thanx for the polite and well-balanced analyses!
I have a dryer (had one for decades) and most people I know have dryers. I use it most during late fall, winter and early spring. Whenever possible I dry my clothes outside. Why should I pay for energy when the sun and wind dry my clothes for free. Most people I know in Germany do it that way.
I think that is more a personal thing
I can't help but suspect that the comment about "a dryer that doesn't work" is more of a dig against the British than against Europeans in general. The build quality of British-made things is known for its, er, "character". (Although I'll confess to preferring glass baby bottles made in England over those made in China. Chinese manufacturers are known for chronically cutting corners in quality, where British workers are too bloody-minded to do the same.)
4:19 I’m quite satisfied with customer service in France 🇫🇷 where I live since 2013, coming from Switzerland 🇨🇭.
I prefer a fan,it doesn’t heat the outside even more… AC is bad for my respiratory system… 11:29 In Mulhouse I can eat Alsacian- French- Indian- Italian- Algerian- Lebanese- Moroccan- Chinese- Thai-Greek- Spanish- Russian- Tunisian- African (Ivory Coast)- American or Vietnamese…
If you take off the inventions brought to America by Europeans the picture is a bit different…it’s funny that you show the Saturn V -built on the works and by Freiherr Wernher von Braun and the V2.
15:56 Isn’t it a European law ,venues have to sell at least one non alcoholic beverage cheaper than the cheapest alcohol?
This was SUCH a fun video😊.
I come from the UK, left for Germany at 24yrs old, but have lived in Germany for 27yrs... I agree on a several points.. but not all!
America and UK definitely are 1) friendlier and more polite and open and 2) customer service is definitely way better (probably because of the hire and fire systems there). Germans are more secure in their jobs which leads to arrogance and lack of willingness to help eg in shops, on phone etc
The US NPs are just amazing!.. but the US is geographically HUGE so of course there is more geographical space to dedicate to huge nature parks. But I love "the right to roam" in the UK.. so basically nearly everywhere is free to walk and enjoy.. coasts, mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, beaches etc. Right from your doorstep. Germany has nice NPs.. but much smaller than the US of course because Germany is a smaller landmass. I don't like that you are not so "free to roam" in Germany. So you do have to go to the designated areas to have long walks, like in the US. But I will say Germany cities are very green, so quick daily walks can be pleasant.
With American cities diversity of food I agree and disagree... American has a lot of food diversity in their cities... but I found it often didn't taste at all "authentic" ie. Not like the original I had experienced in the "said" countries in eg Europe. I felt a lot had been "adapted" to American taste buds. The worst was the big chain restaurants. But this is similar in Germany... it is very hard to find really good Asian and Indian food here.. they tone it down, reducing the spice and heat to fit the Germans taste. As a Brit, with very diverse authentic Chinese, Indian, African, Caribbean etc food available in the UK due to our Commonwealth, I find Germany disappointing. I even import my spices from the UK, especially Indian curry spices.. because in Germany they don't have the variety, and certainly not the heat!.. it is true that your best bet for diversity and authenticity is found in Berlin..which is down to history.
But I would "hands down" prefer to live in Germany/Europe and just enjoy the US (mainly the NPs) on holidays because 6week (in Germany, which is great) is holidays, the rest of the year is "every day life" and the German system is way better for the things that affect your "every day life" eg quality of housing, job security, quality of food, healthcare, social system, sickness security, etc..
I wish there were more such high quality videos on CZcams. Nice, open, intelligent, warm-hearted people like you will always be in my ♥.
Appreciate that. Thank you Arno ♥️
@@TypeAshton I thank you!
@@TypeAshton Drücke uns die Daumen für die Handball EM in Deutschland.
Yeah this is so true I always thought they make so much more in the US compared to here in Germany, but also they work many more hours as well.
Americans still earns more adjusted for working hours
Your comment touches on next week's video.... I'll be doing the calculations for "what it means to be middle class" in the US and Germany... looking at incomes, savings, debts, assets, property... etc. So stay tuned! :-)
Just with vacation and paid holidays you can easily say the US works a month more than in Germany.
@@hasinabegum1038in germany you earn earn for cleaning toilets the minimum per law. This is around 14 Dollar. And you have minimum 24 Days paid vacation and you will also be paid, uf you are ill. How is this in the US? I am really interested?
@@thomasmaier9109 minimum wage in Germany is 12 euros per hour or like 13.1 dollars.In Washington where I am from its 16 Dollars per hour and will increase to 18 dollars per hour in 2025. Most rich States has high minimum wages
Can I say that foreign food in the US is awful? As an Italian I'd eat at an Italian restaurant in Germany or England, but I would never go to one in the US, aside from a couple gems in big cities they are disgusting 😅
4:29 The thing is, it's a bit like a rare snowfall in parts of the US. People might die from cold in some parts which are not much cold in the rest of the winter, and in Paris the pretty much same thing happens in summers, certain of them.
1) I highly agree about the customer service point. You might know that even Germans use to call it "die Service Wüste Deutschland" (For those who don't understand German: "the service-desert Germany"). I remember times early in my childhood when it was far better! But somehow we've sadly lost that on our way to today! Since we have a very direct and frank mentality, I even sometimes ask the service "Would you hang me for disturbing your gossip about the weekend or may I put a question?" It doesn't happen very often, but when you have eye contact and they still seem to ignore you........ then I really can be angry!
2) The toilets...... well....... to me hygiene is more important than 50 cents or one Euro. But we have to keep in mind that most Europeans at least carry a minimum of cash in their pockets, whereas US Citizens rarely have cash, so - maybe this is the main reason for the complaining about paying for the use of the washrooms, and that would be at least understandable!
3) AC - yes, we are not used to the extremely high temperatures which are coming up due to the climate change. And we should get ourselves prepared by thinkin about ACs. But concerning the death rates - I guess we have to keep in mind the differences of how many people use public transportation or walk to reach a place in Europe. Most busses and trains don't have air conditoning, and when walking you simply have to cope with the heat. The majority of people dying because of heat are elderly people. They tend to drink less and sadly most of our hospitals and senior residences don't have AC! And last not least we should not forget how cheap electricity is in the US compared to Europe, in which Germany has the highest costs! Some people could simply not afford an AC when it costs an arm and a leg!
4) Smoking. I checked a few sources and most of them say that the amount of smokers in both societies is roughly about 20%. I guess the difference is that in Europe smoking takes way more often place in public than in the US, so it is easier to detect smokers. In fact, at least in Germany smoking has strongly decreased during the last 15 years. (The laws about smoking in restaurants and pubs were changed in 2008, about smoking in public places like train stations, vehicles and authorities in 2007. Before that, we had a lot more smokers, when I was young they were everywhere. The places where smoking was not allowed were rare! Hospitals and alike, but that was it!)
5) The person you've quoted should have visited an "Eisdiele" and ordered "Eiskaffee", that would have given them what they desired. And imho lots of ice cubes in beverages are not healthy for the stomach and they water down your drink until the flavours are gone..... moreover the ice displaces the beverage so you will get less for your money :)
The rest of the topics are "yes noddable" for me, hehe, without having additional things to comment. Nice vid as always!
On everything you find better in the US you compare them with mostly continental European countries. If you compare the US with the UK, you’ll find they outscore the US on all 14 comparisons except tech. By the way, as a person who regularly eat in Michelin star restaurants, I found that your quality of food in your restaurants was by name only. So your French restaurants would be called French but was as far removed from French food as it could possibly be!😂
Having lived in England myself for 2 years and traveled pretty much coast to coast, while it's filled with a lot of natural beauty, you have to forfeit on point 7 too, due to their size they are bursting with natural beauty, and the national parks protect it quite well. But yeah, I think UK and Mainland (at least for me as a Dutch European) have the US beat on 12+ of 14. Hell, the UK provides quite a few people to the international progress, they may be employed or funded by America(ns) but that doesn't mean you can disregard that part. Hell, there would be no United States without the UK ;)
USA has better Mexican food.Better chinese food better better middle eastern food.Most people Don't go to Michelin Star restaurants.and salaries are higher in USA.US Parks are also much better.
Dryers - yes, I considered them for a long time unecological and true, 20 years ago they were electricity suckers and performed from bad to dreadful, so many poeple wouldn't even buy them, or use them scarcely. But I was surprised to learn about inventions in that field, the heat pumps and invertor scroll compressors and smart control of the process makes them a lot more efficient these days. And during the winter we had to run dehumidifier in the utility room, so I bought a modrn dryer and we're using it throughout winter and occasionally during the rest of the year too.
yeah a lot of devices like that (like dishwashers for example) have gotten way more efficient... but honestly... you still cant beat the 0 electricity cost of hang drying
though that significantly depends on what space you have available to let them dry like that... for example my house has a shared space under the roof available specifically for drying clothes... so that makes dryers kind of superfluous
but when you have a small home and little extra space available (or no place that can handle the added humidity)... a dryer becomes a more sensible option, because its more space efficient
@@SharienGaming Well, in most cases you can't vent rooms during winter with opened windows. My ERV unit is not smart yet and I have no boost for utility room (only WC and bathroom rooms). So dehumidifier is a must and it runs between 400 - 600W, since it's smart I programmed it to turn in for half an hour every like 2 hours after a wash load was hanged. It then removes roughly 5 to 7 litres of water. So comparing that to a good modern dryer, I think it's still more ecological, but the difference is very small and the comfort is much higher. From spring to autumn, it will become a question, since I have solar system with excesses I don't return to the grid. So it may be still OK to dry with a dryer, with basically 0 cost too. Just to save on space that a drying rack takes and the speed of drying.
@@oakld yeah a situation like that is one where the dryer very much makes sense... you really dont want your regular living rooms to become too humid - too much risk of mold - and as you said...if you need a dehumidifier, you might as well use a dryer right away, because it literally does the exact same job... just more targeted
less of an issue if you can use space in a cellar or a larger area under the roof or on a balcony, where the moisture either doesnt matter or can easily be absorbed
as with many things... what the best solution to a problem is depends on the situation
Not a huge fan of festivals, but I like to go to concerts. And fortunately live very close to Hamburg. Last year, I saw Floor Jansen, I saw Halestorm and lately Elles Bailey in a rather small venue (about a 150 guests?) and the prices for drinks where quite moderate. Insider tip: opening act for Elles Bailey was the band Morganway. With only 4 of 6 members, they still blew our minds. Look i.e. for their song come over (Live in Cambridge) and proceed from that.
When I looked them up on YT the day after the concert, they had only 920 subscribers. Ridiculous.
I live in a 12k small city in Germany, we have a ton of restaurants, Vietnamese, Japanese, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Persian, local of course, Bavarian, high dining and burgers and i probably forgot something.
oh and maybe try an air dried Mettwurst (not the one to spread) it looks like it's very close to the American breakfast sausage
I really have trouble here but i hear you telling us about what you do really well, yet i would think better of your country if you could show us how you are dealing with homelessness, drug abuse, obeasity,and your medical structure, successfully. So that you could show the world that is what you are proud of.
How can you compare a continent and a single country? Especially if you count in the huge differences between western and southern Europe?
The United States of America is a single country. Germany is a single country.
What's your Point?
There are free toilets in many European countries as well, even in the ones where you often have to pay.
The observation about free water on concert venues is true. I visited lots of concerts in Germany , there never was free water supply. But it´s legally mandatory to offer at least one non-alcoholic drink cheaper than alcohol (mainly waater)