# Non-American Dopers, what is your country's bullshit? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 13, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101 "2022-06-13T13:53:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/21 "2022-06-13T18:38:44Z")
Canada, Honour the First Nation treaties, settle the land claims, teach the whole ugly truth, make the church pay the settlement. Force Trudeau to live up to his promise of fresh water to every First Nation. Stop letting mega companies like Nestle outbid small local communities for fresh water resources. ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/22 "2022-06-13T20:09:58Z")
Interesting replies. I left out a huge US-made bullshit: 1. **Defense Spending.** There is no reason we spend so much money on “defense”. We spend more than the next ten countries **combined.** It is absolute madness. I’ve been on military bases where there are huge buildings were no one works and paved parking lots where no one parks a car. The DoD has so much money, they can’t come up with enough ideas on how to spend it. But, no politician can talk about cutting the defense budget. So, it continues to eat our country alive and no one will stop it. The idea of China or Russia invading Canada made me laugh. If such a thing were to happen, all out war would occur and Canada, with or without its military, would be utterly decimated. The United States will NOT have Russia sitting on its front door like that. We will blow Canada to Kingdom-come before that happens. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/23 "2022-06-13T20:16:59Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > 1. **Defense Spending.** There is no reason we spend so much money on “defense”. We spend more than the next ten countries **combined.** It is absolute madness. I’ve been on military bases where there are huge buildings were no one works and paved parking lots where no one parks a car. The DoD has so much money, they can’t come up with enough ideas on how to spend it. But, no politician can talk about cutting the defense budget. So, it continues to eat our country alive and no one will stop it. I would argue that healthcare is the bigger problem. We spend a rapacious 17 percent of our GDP on healthcare because of horrific bloat and inefficiency that is purposefully built into the system for the sake of profit and un-transparency. A universal single-payer healthcare system could deliver the same quality of healthcare for perhaps half the GDP. Imagine all America could do with those extra freed-up trillions of dollars. It would be a sum of spared money that would be double the defense budget. Blaming the defense budget for America’s ills is a bit like a husband blaming his wife for her $5,000 spending when he has a $20,000-a-year running expenses with something else. Sure, both are problems, but the $20k is the bigger one. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/24 "2022-06-13T20:41:11Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > **The Little Englander dreaming of a lost empire** - This is what I blame for Brexit - this idea that we were once so great that we don’t need anyone else, our way is the right way, foreigners don’t deserve to live here, and the problems we’re in now are someone else’s fault. The irony is that the people hankering for Empire, would have been impoverished servants and miners with ZERO life opportunity back in ‘the good old days’. It’s why the current shambles of a government wants to bring back ‘Imperial’ measurements and blue passports. It’s nostalgic bullshit Just don’t let them get red MEGA hats… ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/25 "2022-06-13T20:48:07Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Sure, it would be great if Canadian TV and movies were far more prominent in our culture, but almost all of us live within broadcast range of the US border, and they’ll always have 10 times the money to spend on producing movies and TV shows, so we’re always going to be inundated with their culture. Ok… I have to admit to a chuckle there. A lot of the time it feels the other way around here in the US, with all the Canadian actors and actresses and all the shows filmed in Canada that we have. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/26 "2022-06-13T20:57:31Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I would argue that healthcare is the bigger problem. We spend a rapacious 17 percent of our GDP on healthcare because of horrific bloat and inefficiency that is purposefully built into the system for the sake of profit and un-transparency. Yes, considering by comparison, we only spend about 3.5% of GDP on defense. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/27 "2022-06-13T21:02:08Z")
The difference on what we waste on healthcare is oddly 7%. Twice what we spend on Defense if the 3.5% is correct. [Average of first world nations for healthcare is 10%](https://www.statista.com/statistics/268826/health-expenditure-as-gdp-percentage-in-oecd-countries/) and generally they have better overall coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/28 "2022-06-13T23:20:04Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > If such a thing were to happen, all out war would occur and Canada, with or without its military, would be utterly decimated. The United States will NOT have Russia sitting on its front door like that. We will blow Canada to Kingdom-come before that happens. If such a war could happen, what I’d expect is that they would have to land on the East and/or West coast, and fight their way across the width of the country. Invading from the north would merely be a matter of letting the polar bears and mosquitoes get them. The US, of course, really only needs to drive a hundred miles north at just about any point along the entire border to seize all the important infrastructure, and they’d be doing it with Canadians cheering them on the whole way. China and/or Russia would blow the shit out of Vancouver and/or Halifax, and then run smack into the buzz saw that is the entire US Army, with open supply lines back to their home bases. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2022, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/29 "2022-06-13T23:31:00Z")
**The Bush** Aussies are infatuated with the wide open spaces eg Dorothea McKellar’s iconic dirge: \*"I love a sunburnt country _A land of sweeping plains,_ \*Of ragged mountain ranges, \* _Of droughts and flooding rains."_ Which is a bit rich when you consider that Australia is the most urbanised culture on the planet. 85% of Australians live in cities/towns within 50km (30m) of the ocean. **Egalitarianism** Everybody’s a mate. Everybody gets a fair go. Welcoming 30% of Australians who were born overseas. Except if you are first nation. Then in exchange for a smoking ceremony and welcome to country at the footy we’ll accept a 10 year shorter life expectancy among our most disadvantaged and incarceration rates with 28% of the total adult prisoner population being aboriginal, while being just 3.3% of the population. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/30 "2022-06-14T00:08:51Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Every study tells us that by establishing a speed limit (of 130 kph) Since I live in the USA, I don’t have much to add, but I am enjoying reading this thread. But this post makes me think “damn! I wish the US would adopt that speed limit! “Only” 130KPH?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/31 "2022-06-14T00:11:34Z")
Portions of the **Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming** road networks have 80 mph (129 km/h) posted limits it’s a real bummer and a drag when you have to drive 500 miles and your truck is governed at 65 mph This may fall into the category of healthcare generally, but for me, mental health care specifically. It sucks hugely here in the US ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/32 "2022-06-14T00:17:18Z")
They do, and I appreciate them when I am traveling, but the majority of the roads I have to travel long distances are 60-70 MPH. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/33 "2022-06-14T00:31:27Z")
Americans are touchy about race. Britons are touchy about class. Canadians are touchy about language. Irish are touchy about religion. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/34 "2022-06-14T01:05:19Z")
Argentina We have lots of problems but they don’t seem to have obvious solutions, so I’m not sure which of the to call bullshit on. But there’s one sure candidate: Football Violence: Enforcing the laws against the “Barra Bravas” would probably solve the problem pretty quickly, but the aforementioned “Barras” are involved in ALL political parties as ready-made thugs when needed, so nothing is done and the problem persists. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/35 "2022-06-14T08:30:43Z")
Japan The Law Almost everything that looks like a modern law upholding people’s rights and following the standards and practices that are generally followed in the developed world, is bullshit. It’s a facade to make it look like Japan is playing along with everyone else. 1. Japanese law stipulates a very generous paid paternity leave, but in fact if you try and take it there is a good chance your company will fire you or demote you and you have no legal recourse. Courts will side with the employer because its a Confucian system. 2. Many Japanese highschools have a rule that students cannot dye their hair. That is because they want everyone to have the same hair color (black). But if your hair is naturally brown they will force you to dye it black. Totally ignoring the no hair-dying rule. Courts have again upheld the rule, and the actions taken in the name of the rule, as proper. 3. Here’s where I first came across the facade. In trademark law, it is beneficial for a country to be a signatory to the Nice Agreement, as Japan did, and that requires them to adopt some rules as to how they designate trademark rights. But they just adopted the names and the pattern. Underneath that the old system still remains. To someone who doesn’t know it looks like the Nice classification, but just dig a bit and you’ll find out it’s not. So many other stories. Judges aren’t judges, police aren’t police. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/36 "2022-06-14T08:47:56Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > For this discussion, I am defining bullshit as a serious, chronic problem with a known solution That cuts out a lot of South African problems, like corruption, gender-based violence and the like, where there are no obvious solutions, and unfortunately the ones that have known solutions, like lack of housing (build houses) or our shitty power infrastructure ( build nuke plants and renewables), are heavily affected by that first one, so as a country we just don’t have the money to implement the solutions. One bullshit problem, though, does have an easy solution: **Failing [parastatal enterprises](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-owned_enterprises_of_South_Africa#Financial_troubles_and_corruption)** (like the national airline, the railways, the national broadcaster, or the national power company): Privatize them/sell them off. And I say this as one of the most far-left people on this board. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/37 "2022-06-14T09:42:39Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Ladish, hard-drinking bad behaviour I agree, I hate that we have a substantial minority that do this and it has a disproportionate effect on others. > [@SanVito](#): > > The consistent, underlying class system It is a complex issue this one, I don’t feel any effect from this in my life personally but I’m sure others do and it is a factor. I just don’t think it is a big one. incidentally. > [@SanVito](#): > > I can’t find any other reason for the fact that the Conservative Party - the party of the wealthy elite - has by FAR the biggest electoral success of any party of the past 100 years. People are voting for their ‘betters’, who must know what they’re doing because they’re the upper classes. You say that, and yet when you look at the list of Tory leaders from Heath through to present day, with a couple of notable exceptions, they are not people from massively privileged backgrounds. It would be equally valid to say that the conservatives show that anyone can rise from modest background to be the leader of the country. > [@SanVito](#): > > **The Little Englander dreaming of a lost empire** - This is what I blame for Brexit And I pretty much never heard any of that in the Brexit debate, In my experience it was almost _entirely_ based on an unwillingness to take orders from people we didn’t directly elect. Which is related to something that could be seen as a “Bullshit” issue. That we are _very_ resistant to political change generally. The problem of Brexit, I think, is connected to that and stems from having been sold the European “project” as something that didn’t greatly change our constitutional situation and then having it morph slowly into something that did. The implications of that were kicked down the road until the point when they couldn’t be ignored. “Brexit” could have been avoided by actually confirming with the population that this is indeed what they want. (like other E.U. do and have done)…that is a heck of a diversion though. Perhaps we don’t want to go into that here. I think our housing system is broken though. Too expensive, not enough available and not of a good enough quality. To much power in the hands of big developers. I’d love to see building land reform and the ability of people to build more and build locally with a huge reduction in planning restrictions. We are a small country but not _that_ small. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/38 "2022-06-14T09:51:17Z")
> [@naita](#): > > - Few stores open late and/or on Sundays. > - Only one, government owned, [retailer of alcoholic beverages with more than 4.75% alcohol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinmonopolet). With particularly restricted opening hours. > - Little variety and low quality for produce, except for strawberries a short period in summer. I was in the Bergen area for a holiday just last week. I was expecting a lot of shops to be closed on Sunday but there were still plenty open. The supermarket beer cabinets had covers and blinds put over them on a Sunday. I found it quite funny. (the prices weren’t funny, about £14 for six-pack of 500ml cans, very nice though.) The strawberries were in season and were everywhere, and indeed were delicious. The roads however? being used to fairly high UK speeds it seemed to take forever to get anywhere with the vast majority of speed limits I faced (even out into the countryside) were 60 and 70 kph, _sometimes_ 80. Even on roads that were open, wide and straight. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/39 "2022-06-14T10:15:27Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I have a lot to complain about German politics, but the one subject that has the deepest parallels to THE irrational policy of the US is our nation’s stand on the speed-limit on the Autobahn. That’s what I came here to post. Cars are our guns, but they don’t just kill people, but also the climate! ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2022, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101/40 "2022-06-14T10:35:35Z")
> [@veryfrank](#): > > Our telecom rates. With a near-monopoly, what we pay for cell, TV and internet connectivity is stunning. I was in Cardiff a few years back and one of those street kiosk guys approached me to pitch cell service. I told him thanks, but I’m not from there, but asked what the charges were, out of curiosity. When I told him what my monthly Bell bill was, his jaw hit the sidewalk. How much do you pay for broadband/Mobile/TV out of interest? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-american-dopers-what-is-your-countrys-bullshit/966101.md?page=3)