# Things you've seen abroad you wish were adopted world wide **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094 "2021-05-28T14:31:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/464 "2024-02-19T13:21:14Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > Do you mean without running water or without any water supply at all? Because I don’t particularly care if the hot dog cart has running water - but I do want the vendor to be able to wash their hands. ( and NYC does generally require water but it can be in a tank ) At the time, Toronto authorities wouldn’t even allow a tank. They didn’t want any street food at all. Why, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/465 "2024-02-19T13:39:09Z")
I thought i read a few years ago about a plan for the irs to offer to calculate taxes for those people whose tax situation is simple (which is a significant majority of all tax filers) but the accountants lobbyists got it killed. Now I’m wondering if i made that up. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2024, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/466 "2024-02-19T13:44:51Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > They didn’t want any street food at all. Why, I don’t know. I’d guess it’s the combined pressure from NIMBYs who think food carts make the neighborhood “ugly”, and people who own brick-and-mortar restaurants, who hate the cheaper competition. In Ottawa, when I was in highschool, we had a pretty robust culture of Chip Trucks. Almost every block downtown, you could get a huge bag of cheap fries, and a few other such items. Then, all of a sudden, the City decided they didn’t like that, and passed new rules that shut down virtually all of them. Things have improved a little bit in the last few years, but we’re still no where near where we used to be in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/467 "2024-02-19T13:46:25Z")
Nope, you didn’t [make it up.](https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/468 "2024-02-19T14:40:17Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > real street-food We do have lots of food trucks in the U.S. I found by searching two claims about the numbers of food trucks as of last year. One says that there are 36,324 of them. The other says that there are 47,033 of them. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/469 "2024-02-19T14:43:57Z")
I’ve ordered a smart meat thermometer that says it uses open blue tooth, to make it easy to read. And that if you don’t want the neighbors to know the temperature of your food, you shouldn’t use it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/470 "2024-02-19T16:16:30Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > We don’t have that in Canada, but what is increasingly common is countdown timers for the pedestrian crossings, so if you look for the pedestrian signal as you approach, you can get a sense of how much time you have until the traffic light changes. That’s what I do when I’m waiting at a traffic light. > [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > It’s a stark contrast from filing taxes with the shamelessly dysfunctional, hopelessly retrograde IRS. Americans should be outraged at what they have to deal with. Americans do not _want_ a functional government. And companies like Intuit (which owns Turbotax) and H&R Block actively campaign _against_ the simplification of tax filing. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/471 "2024-02-19T16:32:58Z")
Beer vending machines like they have in Japan. But even better: an efficient, fast commuter rail system nationwide with dedicated tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/472 "2024-02-19T16:44:01Z")
The theory was physical restaurants pay taxes and don’t want competition from street vendors. But in some places the food trucks are an extension of existing physical businesses. They should follow sanitary practices and have access to clean water, but fine with me if this is in a big jug. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/473 "2024-02-19T17:13:45Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Something I saw today on a Russian TV seires is traffic lights that aren’t a solid color but are numbers counting down the seconds remaining until the light changes. I’ve never seen or thought about that before, but it seems like a great idea Pretty common around here for the pedestrian signal. I’ve never seen it on the vehicle signals, though. > [@kambuckta](#): > > I’m not sure if I’ve posted my druthers previously in this thread (apart from the post above) but I really wish that we had real street-food. Like anybody who wants to cook anything they like, sitting on the street and selling their fare. I’d be afraid to eat any of it. I’m not afraid to eat from a food truck, or whatever, that does meet food safety regulations. And it’s not going to be only educated adults eating from street stands – plenty of people are going to feed some of it to their kids. Some specific regulations may be overdoing it, yes. > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > For most of us in the UK income tax and National Insurance are deducted at source by whoever pays you, according to a “tax code” that indicates how much you’re allowed tax free and the relevant rate of tax. Makes sense. But what do they do about the self-employed? (Most people in the USA do have some of their taxes deducted by their employers through the year; but this is an estimate. And many people want it over-estimated on purpose, so they’ll get a refund – they’re using the IRS as a sort of forced (but no interest) savings account.) > [@Spoons](#): > > We had the same challenge in Toronto years ago. A food cart selling hot dogs, etc. was perfectly fine, as long as it was hooked up to a water source. That was probably about washing hands etc.: in other words, a cleanliness regulation. But there are other ways to provide handwashing (or equivalent) abilities. I do hope whoever’s selling your hot dogs uses them – but maybe what Toronto did was change to a better regulation, not decide to drop cleanliness standards entirely. (I see that @doreen had the same thought.) > [@Spoons](#): > > At the time, Toronto authorities wouldn’t even allow a tank. They didn’t want any street food at all. Why, I don’t know. Quite possibly because restaurants didn’t want competitors who didn’t have the expense of building rent/taxes/upkeep. Which is valid to a point; but a restaurant is really offering a different sort of experience. A street cart is more like grabbing dinner pre-cooked at the grocery deli (which possibility didn’t exist where/when I was a child as groceries didn’t do that; but has become gradually pretty much ubiquitous over the years.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/474 "2024-02-19T19:49:14Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Makes sense. But what do they do about the self-employed? Self employed people have to file a tax return. Its a fairly simple online submission - takes about half an hour to do, if your income and expenditure is already in a spreadsheet or something. You only submit totals (or at least that’s all I’ve ever had to do). ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/475 "2024-02-19T20:10:06Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > an efficient, fast commuter rail system **nationwide** with dedicated tracks. ![](https://media.tenor.com/Qd4db4rBIfgAAAAM/jack-nicholson-laugh.gif) ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/476 "2024-02-19T21:22:36Z")
I guess the tax laws themselves must be simpler. Here in the US, the problem is not fundamentally the forms, but the incredibly complex tax laws. For every basic statement one can make about taxes, there are always a zillion exceptions of different kinds, and then exceptions to the exceptions. The forms have to handle all those cases. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/477 "2024-02-19T21:26:47Z")
Yes, but there’s no reason to have the tax laws be quite so complex. It’s what I think the kids used to call “spaghetti code.” But there’s a lot of vested interests preventing an overhaul, including people who use the system and the understaffed IRS as a way to cheat the government. Canada, as usual, is about ⅔ stupid American system, ⅓ much more sensisble rest-of-the-world system. It’s _better_ than the IRS, but still altogether too complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/478 "2024-02-19T21:27:25Z")
Could be. There are a whole load of questions about whether you have received income from various different types of sources, and perhaps those open up complexities, but for a regular self-employed sole trader, you type in the amount of income, the value of expenses, a few other things such as charitable donations, pension contributions and gross bank interest, then submit, then wince at the tax bill. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/479 "2024-02-19T21:33:11Z")
Just one example I’m very familiar with. I have a moderate amount of capital gains from some mutual funds. Any capital gains means you have at least three more pages of tax forms to add to your return. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/480 "2024-02-19T21:34:35Z")
Yeah, maybe that’s more complex in our system too. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/481 "2024-02-19T22:09:43Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Something I saw today on a Russian TV seires is traffic lights that aren’t a solid color but are numbers counting down the seconds remaining until the light changes. I’ve never seen or thought about that before, but it seems like a great idea. Here in L.A., the signs that show the walk/don’t walk symbols also count down the time remaining before the light changes. They’ve been around for years. It doesn’t replace the traffic light itself but it’s right there easy to see. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/482 "2024-02-19T22:59:30Z")
A person can dream. . . ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094/483 "2024-02-19T23:06:33Z")
I’m not sure the complexity of tax laws actually affect that many people. Most people don’t have capital gains most years. Most people’s income consists of wages, tips, pensions , possibly bank interest , and it’s not complex to figure whether/how to report them on the tax return. Whoever is paying you will send you a form saying they paid this much in salary or that much in gambling winnings. Somewhere around 80-90% of taxpayers take the standard deduction. It was probably slightly fewer pre -2017, when the standard deduction was raised and the deduction for state and local taxes became limited but that means that 80-90% don’t have to think about whether something is deductible or not. I think a lot of times what happens is people in the US compare their complex tax returns to simple returns in other countries , assuming that their return would be just as simple in those other countries. But there are simple returns in the US as well and I’m sure those other countries have more complex forms for more complex situations. My tax return consists of 2 lines to report income , 1 line to take the standard deduction , 1 line for tax due , 1 line for taxes already paid and 1 line for the amount of refund/payment. The rest of the lines with numbers filled in are just math, like adding the two types of income to get the total income. I’m not low-income - but I don’t really own any stock outside of retirement accounts. I haven’t sold a house or any other property. I don’t have enough itemized deductions to exceed the standard deduction - and even when I did, it was mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable contributions and gambling losses. Record keeping was involved, but there isn’t any question about whether a payment for is for state taxes or not or what counts as a gambling loss. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youve-seen-abroad-you-wish-were-adopted-world-wide/943094.md?page=25)