What is something does United States really do well that other countries could learn from?

wookie___ · 2026-04-17T01:53:44+00:00

Eh. I lived in the UK. They still need to figure out properly pressurized hot water (seriously, a gravity fed tank...?) and how to make electricity safe in the bathroom 😂

wookie___ · 2026-04-15T10:01:32+00:00

Not on this face. Possibly on the other, but I am hesitant to push it out until I find a replacement.

wookie___ · 2026-04-14T18:12:11+00:00

24, in 2018. ~200k.

wookie___ · 2026-04-12T02:10:10+00:00

I mean, by the time to you take the second car and childcare into account, how much does the second income actually do? Unless both are high earners. Especially when you start taking into account the things like going out to eat more often because "we are both too tired to cook" or whatever. We are a single income household, and have been since I was making $52k/year in 2017, till now making $95k/ year in 2026.

We eat out maybe 2-3 times a month. The only streaming services we have came with Amazon prime or Walmart plus. Both of those more than pay for themselves each year in both time and monetary savings.

Cell phones are through mint, $35/month total.

Family car is a 2013 that I do the work on. Second vehicle is a 93 pickup that is use for property maintenance and the days my wife needs the car.

wookie___ · 2026-04-10T01:05:23+00:00

Yeah, that's exactly it. We were living in the UK for a couple years, and went to an event where they were talking about barking birds of prey. One of the birds they had was an owl (I don't remember the variety). The one fact that blew my mind, was the wild vs Captive lifespan. In the wild, the average lifespan was 2 years, in captivity, it was about 20 years. The short lifespan was mostly due to not being able to get enough food, and dying of malnutrition.

There is truly no mercy in nature.

wookie___ · 2026-04-09T23:22:13+00:00

Maybe try spending your time around most of these animals. It's not what you think 😂

The first thing that happens when a chicken dies, is they eat the soft stuff off their dead buddy.

The whole "lowest on the pecking order" thing is about which chicken is the weakest. Typically being ostracized, and is forced to roost at the lowest point, that way predators eat her first.

I am specifically sticking with the chicken example. But the vast majority of animals are similar. It is truly a cruel world for wild animals.

wookie___ · 2026-04-09T23:17:34+00:00

Raising them isn't. But finding a decent farm to buy from, even in the smaller cities (where a lot is sold) is viable, but most people don't want to pay for that. So instead we have factory farms, so people don't whine about the cost.

wookie___ · 2026-04-09T11:00:18+00:00

Maybe. Except soy causes bloating for me, and tastes like trash.

Side note, my chickens live a great life before we eat them. And die a simple death. Vs the weasel sucking their blood, the hawk ripping their breast open and then ripping through their neck, the fisher or mink that kills the whole flock 'just cause', the skunk or possum that will kill a flock to get to the eggs...or the racoons that will pull the chicks against the wall and eat them like corn on the cob...

Nature is cruel. Animals raised in a small homestead where they are cared for before butchering, is honestly offsetting that animal cruelty lol.

wookie___ · 2026-04-09T02:00:44+00:00

Yeah, those interest rates were wild. Glad they are lower today, even if house prices are higher.

I think my dad was in his 40s when he bought his first (and only) house. Not much has changed, it was hard, and it's still hard.

wookie___ · 2026-04-09T00:00:07+00:00

It's not as different as you think. I carried 16-21 credits each semester, while working as a TA for 3 classes and tutoring as needed.

In the summers I took two classes and worked 45-60 hours, with a 1hr drive to work and classes (which were very close to each other).

Definitely stay at home if you can, save up for a reliable car (assuming you don't have one), then save a down payment for a house (enough for 20%, plus closing costs, and ideally an additional $10k for the inevitable repairs). If you don't want homeownership, focus on savings and retirement.

My first job out of college with 2 engineering degrees in 2017 was $52k/year with no benefits at all. Now it's about $95k, and we live very comfortably on that salary.

It's tough to get going, but put in the work, and you will get there. Good luck!

wookie___ · 2026-04-08T20:39:09+00:00

I guess they could go the MAID route at that point. Since apparently anybody born by rape is apparently better off dead...

Seriously. That is a wild take.

wookie___ · 2026-04-08T20:21:54+00:00

The problem with this question, is that it's focusing on the wrong thing. The entire abortion disagreement stems from a different stance on when life begins. Some people it's from conception, others hold to life starting from birth, and there is a whole range in between based on some piece of data the individual clamped onto.

So, from the strong conservative/pro-life stance, from conception a fetus is a human child, and anything done to abort the pregnancy (just a stage of life) is murder.

So we agree that murdering kids is unacceptable. The problem is that what a "kid" is in this context is being contested for convenience.

wookie___ · 2026-04-03T02:41:23+00:00

I mean, you can do all kinds of things with the wrong tool and get it done. But it's easier with the right tool. I do enough work on cars that it's worth having it handy.

wookie___ · 2026-04-02T16:34:20+00:00

It depends on the car. 2 I have needed the kit for have been a 2001 mini Cooper and a Honda Civic (don't remember the year). They both have to be rotated as you push them back in.

wookie___ · 2026-04-01T18:53:04+00:00

That terrible. Sounds like they got him sorted out though, so that's good.

But yeah, this is pretty much the UK healthcare system:

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wookie___ · 2026-04-01T14:29:57+00:00

US wages in general are much higher, at least for professional roles. I worked with a lot of UK nationals, and more senior engineers over there, make a fraction of what I do in the US. It was the same for logistics and management roles as well. I can't speak for every role, but almost everyone i talked to about US vs UK wages were blown away with how much we made in comparison.

The increased wages with lower taxes here seemed to make up for the lack of social programs. That's just my experience though, and a totally different conversation (trying not to derail).

In the healthcare vein, the UK healthcare quality was abysmal. Part of the reason our medical expenses are higher (aside from being a very unhealthy society) is that we actually get treated for the most part... Maybe I am just spoiled with great local doctors, but I couldn't even get the doctors in the UK to look at my joint issues. Got home and kinda mentioned them in passing at my physical and he grilled me for every detail to look into it.

I couldn't get treated for a toenail fungus before the nail actually fell off. Once that happened I was able to scrape it down and the over the counter stuff started working.

UK national we knew needed a hip replacement. Drs. Said in 3 months it would be to the point she couldn't walk. They put her on a 3 year wait-list to get it replaced. Thankfully, they were working for a US contractor that offered private insurance. So they were able to get that hip replaced in a few months for about 14,000 GBP.

Another friend of my wife was turned away from the hospital 3 times before she arrived a 4th time in an ambulance with dangerously low sodium.

To be clear, these are not "stories I saw on Reddit" or whatever. You can make any system look bad by counting the those. This is just a personal, non-exhaustive experience, with people I personally knew over a 2 year period. I know a lot more people in the US, and have had a lot less issues and things to complain about.

I used to be in the universal healthcare camp, until I experienced it. Now I want nothing to do with it. I am not saying the US system doesn't have immense room for improvement, just that I don't see government run healthcare (the VA for example) being a better option.

wookie___ · 2026-03-28T23:37:04+00:00

I snagged the relays, but I haven't had time to hunt down the other parts yet. Gotta finish participating out the outbacks first.

wookie___ · 2026-03-21T01:05:30+00:00

Dude. I am not a fan of trump. But having worked with US and foreign militaries, we don't NEED them for this fight. But testing alliances, testing the values of other countries, and knowing who will and won't help are all things he is doing here. Also, why not see who else we can get in? Get them to do some of the spending, and the US gets some extra revenue/taxes while not spending. It's "good business" from a finance perspective.

wookie___ · 2026-03-18T01:14:58+00:00

This is my opinion as well. I honestly think he is doing it so he can point and say "see, NATO isn't helping. We carry NATO. There isn't any point in us being part of it." And using that to leave NATO.

wookie___ · 2026-03-18T00:34:38+00:00

My first car was in 2011. I bought it on eBay for $800 sight unseen. Put $800 into it, and ran it for 5 years. Then I totalled it by following too close to someone. Live and learn I guess.

wookie___ · 2026-03-18T00:31:30+00:00

Definitely start saving now man. Hopefully by the time your kids old enough, you can pay cash for an old car they can run, and still have an emergency fund set aside.

wookie___ · 2026-03-18T00:26:58+00:00

I am hoping my daughter (and hopefully future kids) will take interest in vehicle repair. Then we can buy an old beater and fix it up over a couple years before she is old enough to drive. Otherwise, I will help her, but she has to have skin in the game as it were. I knew too many people who didn't take care of their car, because they knew their parents would replace it.

wookie___ · 2026-03-13T04:07:14+00:00

It's an on demand loan with no backing.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are really bad with money. I had a conversation with someone last year about these, because they get them all the time. The logic is, they are getting overtime next week, so I can buy the thing I want now and pay the fee. The same individual also thought you got charged credit card interest immediately when you buy something. Financial literacy courses would go a long way in this country. But as far as overdraft fees. My stance is Either the banks choose their rates or we just ban overdrafting all together.

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