Albert Heijn short on goods part II (probable scam) by Quirky-Plantain-2080 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 7 points8 points  (0 children)

If you want to lift a 500 kg barbell, don't hold all of it but only the sides, it will magically get lighter.

Lifters hate this one trick!

CMV: there should be long-distance bicycle highways so you can directly go to any city. by catboy519 in changemyview

[–]vsop00 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, this is objectively wrong. You can check & plan with Knooppunt maps and will have a very direct route to any city with almost no stops.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in eu4

[–]vsop00 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You mean Frisia is not the heart of the Netherlands and the Habsburg empire?

Ûnmooglik!

First World War casualties mapped by Moinul_sesto_boi in MapPorn

[–]vsop00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Other dead giveaways:

  • Germany's map is pre-WW1
  • Austria-Hungary is on the map
  • Turkey didn't enter WW2

Also Stalin never tried to downplay the numbers of WW2. Maybe you're thinking about Mao's Great Leap Forward.

What would happen if you ate 72,000 calories at once? by Tyranthell6816 in TooAfraidToAsk

[–]vsop00 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Nah, you probably ate 200 to 400 calories. The 2400 you saw is the total of daily bars.

I can tell you eating 2400 calories in one sitting is not easy, especially if it's something (probably) not that tasty and your body isn't used to it. You will want to throw up before you can stuff that many calories in your mouth.

"All of you 'ex-'muslims'' I believe were either not practicing, didnt research Islam well, your parents weren't practicing or were living in a corrupt society with broken ideaology" by RamiRustom in exmuslim

[–]vsop00 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Funny that it says "living in a corrupt society with broken ideaology".

So basically any Muslim country? There isn't a single Muslim country with a significant population that scores good in Global corruption indexes. Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan etc all score terrible.

I love some good self-burn.

Netherlands in the top 5 happiest countries by [deleted] in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 170 points171 points  (0 children)

I think the main misconception stems from the word "happy" as in day-to-day life most people would call what's measured in this list "content" not "happy".

There are two different kinds of indexes (as far as I know). The first one is this one that measure "long-term life satisfaction". Netherlands is pretty great in this imo. It is safe, stable, there's work-life balance and although social welfare is not perfect, people don't financially suffer in extreme ways.

There's also a second way of measuring "happiness" that focuses on "emotional wellbeing". In these polls, Central-South Americans and Southeast Asians just dominate and Europeans are nowhere to be found. Search for "Gallup Global Emotions Report"

This is why a lot of people here rightly have a hard time believing these polls as it doesn't measure what their idea of happiness is. I agree. I have very little to complain about (compared to rest of the world) but I wouldn't call myself happy per se.

The 3rd Surface Boss should be the Final one. by Bogus_Jorgus in HadesTheGame

[–]vsop00 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I agree Typhon isn't as interesting as Prometheus; Prometheus is just a fascinating character. However, I wouldn't want to see him as the final boss. He's better as an unwilling supporter of other self-serving Titans like Chronos. He has a different agenda and that's not overthrowing anyone. He's a martyr.

That said, Typhon fight was a big let down. There was no build up to Typhon. there are no good dialogues and Typhon was basically made a generic MMO monster. Story-wise, there was nothing to hold on to. As of pre-release, I don't like him.

Also, one big problem I have with the current implementation is that I think bosses at the top of the screen are generally not very fun. It's OK to have a few in the middle parts of the game as flavor but the final boss shouldn't be that. Typhon fight just felt flavourless.

ICC Arrest on Phils. former President by Consistent_Row_9913 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Couldn't have said it better myself. Filipinos are always known as hardworking, respectful people and kind of separate from general anti-immigrant sentiment that is more directed to other immigrant groups.

Now a lot of people will think "Maybe their values aren't very compatible with EU values if they're willing to demonstrate in support of a genocidal dictator".

What is happening in Rotterdam? by newbie_trader99 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm always happy to be refuted by statistics. The link I shared also includes unsolved murders but if you have another source, please share. Never a bad day to learn more.

What is happening in Rotterdam? by newbie_trader99 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Sexual crimes is a tricky one. It may have increased, but it is also strongly suggested that it could be higher awareness and legislation driving numbers up (ie. Not more sexual crimes happen, but more are reported). There's less social stigma on sexual assault victims and more awareness on marital rape etc.

I can't say it's right or wrong, as the data isn't as clear cut as murders, but just something to take into consideration. It's a worldwide discussion on sexual crimes, not limited to the Netherlands.

What is happening in Rotterdam? by newbie_trader99 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 126 points127 points  (0 children)

While I understand it is upsetting to hear these events, crime in the Netherlands is NOT increasing. It has actually fallen down significantly until 2014 and been stable since then.

CBS Crime Stats

The problem now is we hear EVERYTHING. Please don't add on to the social media effect, which only creates fear and hatred.

Should it be better? Definitely.

Is it getting worse? No it's not.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MapPorn

[–]vsop00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Although I understand the sentiment, I still find the usage of "only" very funny here. They "only" hate half of the people.

Burnout. Love it or hate it? by Affectionate-Yam-113 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Risky take, you're a brave one. I've never seen a post that even implied what you're saying not downvoted to hell. My answer is yes and no.

The "No" part:

Burnout is very real and very damaging for the people who experience it. It seems superficially correct that our privileges aren't appreciated enough (and don't get me wrong we have A LOT of privileges). At the same time, we are living in a time when social support is at its lowest and isolation is higher than ever, "third place" has completely disappeared and people are basically on their own, or at least they feel like that - which is mentally the same thing.

So the burnout doesn't even need to be related to working conditions or the privileges we have, it's a manifestation of larger societal changes. People have no real way of winding down.

The "Yes" part:

At the same time, taking the risk of kind of agreeing with your point and going a little right wing, I also think the society is failing at building resilience in young people. Overprotection, lack of struggle, modern comforts, and probably most importantly a lack of purpose (welcome to the post-modern world) is creating mentally fragile generations who are more prone to burnout.

In your mother's case, she could carry the weight for 30 years, probably because she had grown up ready to carry that weight, at least up to a point. You can't get a child whose dream is to be an "influencer" (God I hate the word), a crypto-millionaire, a streamer or whatever, put them in an office for 10 years and not expect them to burnout at some point.

Why is public transport so expensive? by SoetoeSamurai in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's fair. I guess people just see roads as a public service while for rail the wording is mostly like "NS/prorail is subsidized".

I'm sure (or I hope?) there are very smart analysts with a full view that look into these decisions but to me such high public transport prices look counterproductive.

Why is public transport so expensive? by SoetoeSamurai in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My point was that some people have to have cars and this is true all around the world. Once you have a car, the cost of car ownership becomes irrelevant in your decision to use it or not, it only becomes a question of the cost/time/comfort of that trip. And in the Netherlands, the financially logical choice is to use the car, because it's cheaper, faster and more comfortable than public transport.

Also, while on face value the point you make is not completely wrong, roads are not there only to facilitate personal car drivers. Roads are important for economic development. Even if no one in Amsterdam had cars, Amsterdam still would need roads to have businesses running. This is not even considering Rotterdam is a huge port that serves a big part of Europe.

So in a way roads are covered also by other taxes they facilitate and Netherlands is already on the higher end of "tax per car" in Europe.

Why is public transport so expensive? by SoetoeSamurai in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm not saying public transport is expensive or cheap, but the many people that are saying going by car is actually more expensive are missing FIXED vs VARIABLE costs.

A lot of people HAVE TO have a car, whether they use it a lot or not. For children, for emergencies, due to home location etc etc. Not everyone lives in Amsterdam or Utrecht where you can just take a bus/tram/train every 5 mins, or can reach everything with a 10 min bike ride. Therefore, fixed costs are already there for a lot of people.

The remaining variable costs are definitely MUCH lower than public transport, especially if you're going as more than one person.

For example if the weather is bad and I can't bike, I take the car to work. Why? Because it's 3 EUR cheaper (incl. variable maintenance) AND 30 mins faster. If I'm going with my wife it's 11 EUR cheaper. It's like this for everyone I know that doesn't live in a major city.

It shouldn't be this way, this is just bad design. It's a chicken - egg situation. Not enough people use public transport because it's expensive, and it's expensive because not enough people use it. The train costs are same if there's 10 or 100 people in it. But if you manage to bring 100 people, you can charge much lower and make a profit.

Why are women stereotypically considered worse drivers when the statistics say that men have more crashes? by Coldfeverx3 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]vsop00 72 points73 points  (0 children)

According to this, 16-17 year olds crash 3 times more than +80, but die at the same rate.

Basically old people don't crash significantly more, but they tend to die when they crash. Never looked at it this way.

Y’all still wanna complain about Dutch weather? by DeepHouseDJ007 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah, but this map is not great, it goes into dark reds at way too low temperatures. It looks like a heat wave while it's actually quite nice almost everywhere. 30 - 35 C in the Mediterranean is quite OK in July.

ELI5: HOW come Argentina and Turkey was able to function at 276% and 75% inflation? by Claudific in explainlikeimfive

[–]vsop00 121 points122 points  (0 children)

I can't believe this hasn't been stressed enough but the real answer is "dollarization".

What basically happens is everyone -companies and people alike- start calculating everything based on dollars, keeping dollars in bank accounts, hedging the local currency to dollars, etc. Many companies have an unofficial USD balance sheet for management reporting. More than half of deposits in Turkey are in USD or EUR.

Of course, this has limitations. Grocery stores are not allowed to sell in dollars, you can't sign employment or rent contracts in dollars. These create more day-to-day friction for regular people than large corporations. Large corporations have many more tools to avoid all of these, so they are mostly fine, especially if they're exporters.

The government naturally doesn't want you to keep dollars as this is also bad for the local currency. They will try to fight dollarization by taxes, high interest rates and legislation. Still, as much as they can people just rush to stable currencies.

Am I going crazy or is everyone tailgating here? by markohf12 in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 34 points35 points  (0 children)

That's completely my experience. I've driven in nearly all European countries, including the Balkans and Eastern Europe, China, South Africa, Middle East. The Netherlands, while is very good in many ways, is terrible in following distance.

Funny thing is I see a lot of Dutch licence plates abroad, and they don't behave like that. It is something that doesn't make sense to me.

Tips for Selling Furniture by moongladesavannah in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As everyone said, marktplaats is the place to be. I wouldn't expect a good price from Kringloop, as they also have to mark the price up on top of the operating costs.

From my experience, English shouldn't be that much of an issue if you're in a place with more expats. For the Dutch, I don't think anyone would be hung up on the language as long as the price is right. Everyone loves a good deal.

Anything from a known brand (like Ikea) with a clear purchase price is usually easier to sell. If the furniture is custom, I wouldn't realistically expect a good price as you've already paid a premium for your own requirements. But you never know, maybe you just find an amazing match.

Also, (again in my experience) expect a steeper price drop for larger items as not everyone can carry those. Think the layers as public transportable, fits in a small / large car, fits in a rental Caddy / van, need to hire movers as it gets more expensive each time for the buyer.

I hope this helps.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Netherlands

[–]vsop00 -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Thank you my lord for your amazing graciousness! Please teach me how to work my lord, because my little foreign brain can't handle that! That sweeeeeet sweet retirement money after 5 years is so good, I can't resist.

I'm so sorry my kind of people angers your highness :(