Current Events > 31 Things Americans Think Are Normal, But Are Actually Reeealllyyy Weird

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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/american-things-seem-normal-actually-weird_n_65298189e4b0a304ff701a4d

"Having to pay an enormously large amount of money for college education."

"Not getting proper holiday time."

"The fact that swearing is such a big deal and you bleep out everything is so weird."

"How American towns and cities are generally designed so that you have to drive everywhere."

"The extreme polarization in politics."
"I'm used to having many parties, which gives more nuances. In the US, it seems politics became a team sport, and you end up with the 'you're either with us or against us' mentality a lot easier. I think that is very detrimental for the country, but I guess there's no realistic way out of that, nor any will from either of your leading parties to do so."

"Treating politicians like celebrities."

"Food portions."

"TV is hyper-commercialized to the point of being completely unwatchable."
"Even the news programs report and discuss stories on Starbucks announcing their autumn drinks menu two weeks ahead of schedule. It's ludicrous."

"People have lunch at their desks. And usually it's just a snack. Where I come from, lunch is the most complete meal of the day."

"The price on things in your stores is not the actual price, but the price without tax and such."

"The more credit you take the better for your credit score. Here in Germany, your credit score will suffer the more credit you take. Even if you pay it back on time."

"Repo men for vehicles and bounty hunters. Mainly the bounty hunters, thats some cowboy shit right there."

"How tipping is expected no matter what. Over in the UK, you tip for exceptional or good service; it's something extra. In American culture, it's expected."

"That you have extremely violent shows on daytime TV, but you sensor nudity. How will a boob harm you, but stabbing and blood splashing are normal?"

"Never listing the country name when they say a US place name, even if theyre talking to a non-American who might not know what the US state names are."

"So many tall buildings. Spider-Man loves 'em."

"The obsession with high school. I have friends who say their best years were spent in high school, and I think that's really, really sad."

"Homecoming. Who the heck is coming home?"

"Child beauty pageants. Frankly I would be wary of anyone who organizes or enters a child in one of those things."

"The doors on public bathrooms have a gap on each side so they're not completely private. I find that weird."

"The push for individualism and breakdown of families unfortunately."

"How big the country is and the amount of time you are willing to drive. I had a friend who drove for 16 hours to visit family for the weekend. It's baffling."

"All the pharmaceutical ads all the time."

"Parents demanding rent or any money from their kids who are living at home after age 18."
"In my country, adult kids who live at home will spontaneously contribute to the extent that they can, but most parents will do A LOT to avoid accepting those contributions. Allowing your kid to focus on studies/their early career and saving is a point of pride."

"That calling an ambulance is an expensive thing to do."

"Gender reveal parties."

"All the things you can do at younger ages before you can have a drink."
"You can get into lifelong debt with a mortgage or university fees, you can drive a car, you can buy a fucking gun, you can have kids, you can join the army and kill people, and you can get married. But at the wedding, even having done all of the above, when the father of the bride makes his speech and ends with a toast, you're sat at the kids table raising a glass of orange juice because you're not allowed champagne!"

"Standing and pledging allegiance to a flag every single school day from childhood into early adulthood is very odd."

"Using the imperial system."

"Wearing your shoes inside the house."

And finally,
"Flags are literally everywhere no matter what. The only time I would see that many Canadian flags would be Canada Day."

This one still baffles me. Why make grocery shopping so hard on yourself?

That one is simple logistics. Unlike most other countries, sales tax varies by state, county, municipality, and sometimes even sub-municipality. Compare that to countries with VAT set at the national level with no variance between locations within the country. Calculate that value once and apply it nationally.

The logistics of calculating and properly applying the correct display price of every single one of the approximately 100,000 different items in a Walmart makes it impractical, especially since every single store has to process their prices individually since their calculated prices could be different from the Walmart 3 miles away. It's much easier to display the retail price and have a database indexed with product categories (since not everything is taxed the same) calculate the taxes at checkout. It also means you don't have to reprice half the damn store when tax rates change by a tenth of a percent.

That one is simple logistics. Unlike most other countries, sales tax varies by state, county, municipality, and sometimes even sub-municipality. Compare that to countries with VAT set at the national level with no variance between locations within the country. Calculate that value once and apply it nationally.

The logistics of calculating and properly applying the correct display price of every single one of the approximately 100,000 different items in a Walmart makes it impractical, especially since every single store has to process their prices individually since their calculated prices could be different from the Walmart 3 miles away. It's much easier to display the retail price and have a database indexed with product categories (since not everything is taxed the same) calculate the taxes at checkout. It also means you don't have to reprice half the damn store when tax rates change by a tenth of a percent.

That one is simple logistics. Unlike most other countries, sales tax varies by state, county, municipality, and sometimes even sub-municipality. Compare that to countries with VAT set at the national level with no variance between locations within the country. Calculate that value once and apply it nationally.

The logistics of calculating and properly applying the correct display price of every single one of the approximately 100,000 different items in a Walmart makes it impractical, especially since every single store has to process their prices individually since their calculated prices could be different from the Walmart 3 miles away. It's much easier to display the retail price and have a database indexed with product categories (since not everything is taxed the same) calculate the taxes at checkout. It also means you don't have to reprice half the damn store when tax rates change by a tenth of a percent.

It does kinda suck though. The extent to which oil industry together with car manufacturers have been able to control and influence infrastructure and city planning is pretty sad.

It's just the framing of the quote that's a little off. It sounds like they're saying the person taking the car trip to see friends is acting weird when really that person is acting rationally given the system they have to work with. It's just that the system we have to work with as Americans is one that was designed to produce a reliance on cars over public transit.

"All the pharmaceutical ads all the time."

Or you could just have the same sales tax country wide like every other country.

Do you get used to just mentally adding the local sales tax to the price?

And do people travel to nearby places with lower sales tax for the reduced prices, or is the difference not worth the effort?

I think people outside the US are surprised how long people will drive for just a weekend visit. A 16 hour drive in Europe is going to involve an overnight stay and at least a week's holiday (like UK to South of France).

Most don't realise just how fucking huge the US is.

The EU can't seem to do that either, and the US is roughly the same size.

I'm sure some people have issues with it but most just accept it. Mentally add 10% or whatever your local rate is and you'll be close enough.

I'm sure it happens but see the bullet points regarding size and distance. I could drive more than an hour in any direction and not leave my state. Or three hours if I wanted to use Amtrak.

Only people living right next to a border with a significant tax difference could possibly benefit from that.

Lol bunch of Europeans trying to step to America

News flash: A bunch of Europeans call soccer "football" and that beats out every single thing in the OP by a mile lol

Or you could just have the same sales tax country wide like every other country.

Or just have the stores print off prices with tax included.

I understand the argumentation and I don't accept it.

Or just have the stores print off prices with tax included.

Bazinga.

"The doors on public bathrooms have a gap on each side so they're not completely private. I find that weird."

Do you get used to just mentally adding the local sales tax to the price?

And do people travel to nearby places with lower sales tax for the reduced prices, or is the difference not worth the effort?

What? Central European here, We have gaps at the floor of public restrooms too.

Like, yeah, if someone would put his head on public restroom floor (and risks a cruel death by a half dozen diseases yet undiscovered) he could look a bit into the next cabine

Yup, you get used to just adding it up on your own.

And I've never heard of anyone caring enough to travel to get a slightly reduced rate of sales tax. For me, the nearest state is about an hour and a half away and they have the same 6% sales tax rate anyway.

And I've never heard of anyone caring enough to travel to get a slightly reduced rate of sales tax. For me, the nearest state is about an hour and a half away and they have the same 6% sales tax rate anyway.

The EU can't seem to do that either, and the US is roughly the same size.

I'm sure some people have issues with it but most just accept it. Mentally add 10% or whatever your local rate is and you'll be close enough.

I'm sure it happens but see the bullet points regarding size and distance. I could drive more than an hour in any direction and not leave my state. Or three hours if I wanted to use Amtrak.

Only people living right next to a border with a significant tax difference could possibly benefit from that.

And I've never heard of anyone caring enough to travel to get a slightly reduced rate of sales tax. For me, the nearest state is about an hour and a half away and they have the same 6% sales tax rate anyway.

I think it's less we think it's normal and more that most of us can't really do anything about it.

Repo men for vehicles and bounty hunters. Mainly the bounty hunters, thats some cowboy shit right there

Open casket funerals, the idea of them weirds me out.

Yup, you get used to just adding it up on your own.

And I've never heard of anyone caring enough to travel to get a slightly reduced rate of sales tax. For me, the nearest state is about an hour and a half away and they have the same 6% sales tax rate anyway.

I have heard of people picking places with 0% tax for online digital purchases, though. Like if you're buying games from the Nintendo eShop.

My state just taxes us a flat fee each year based upon your income for any tax that might not have been collected online. It's a pretty good deal, tbh. Only like $32 for me. You could keep track of the tax you owe instead, but that's too much work. I wouldn't come out ahead if I did keep track anyway. Glad you have the option of which you want to do.

Do people not clean their floors in other countries? Honestly, if I have a bunch of guests over I want them to leave that shit on. I don't want to be walking through other people's foot sweat, nor smell anyone's rank ass feet, or look at some nasty feet. Like, what do people in other countries with foot odor do, just never visit people's houses?

supersized food and doubling down on sugar.

let's skip the middleman and just straight up inject me with diabeetus why don't ya? lol

32: Americans think its normal to have freedom of speech and not be arrested for speaking your beliefs.

You know the EU isnt a singular country right? And the price on the shelf is what you pay at the till EU wide right?

I see that. It's just that willythemailboy mention that taxes can vary even by municipality and sub-municipality, so I wondered if it was ever enough to be worth travelling for.

You know the EU isnt a singular country right? And the price on the shelf is what you pay at the till EU wide right?

Lol bunch of Europeans trying to step to America

News flash: A bunch of Europeans call soccer "football" and that beats out every single thing in the OP by a mile lol

How hard can it be to include taxes in the price?

B.b.but different states got different taxes!!!

Cigarettes are twice as expensive in France compared to Italy, and both uses Euro as currency.
Create an integer for each state that contains the taxes of the state, type your price, pick state, it will calculate the price and print it out, it aint rocket science!

Tons of E numbers in food/food being mostly artificial.

It beats inadequate holidays and overpriced college?

That's because we're enormous. Some of y'all don't see family because they're an hour away and that's just a daily commute for a lot of us.

By a mile, yeah

This is purely down to bad urban planning.