When I was in India last year, I used UPI. Paying or splitting bills was as simple as scanning a QR code. Every shop had it, from street food stalls to restaurants. It just worked.
In Singapore, I saw how much could be done with the digital ID system. Filing forms, healthcare, banking—it felt like everything was one login away.
In the US, even a short hospital visit can cost thousands of dollars. It made me wonder why some basic things that clearly work elsewhere are missing here.
What have you seen abroad that felt obvious, but doesn’t exist where you live?
In other countries (eg australia), the ticket machines could only take a single coin at a time and would reject if you did it too fast.
I believe this is one (of several) reasons why cash has continued to be dominant in Japan.
I've seen people on YouTube using the U-Scan at Walmart like a CoinStar. Apparently if you lift where the coin slot is you can dump in coins and it will process it all. If the total is more than your bill, it gives you the money back.
While I'm not sure about the refund of an overpayment, there are also the toll booths that have buckets to throw change into. Though most tolls seem to be electronic these days.
US businesses are basically all wheelchair accessible - easily, too. Most sidewalks have curb cuts at street crossings. Ramps are commonplace.
This is NOT the cause in Europe, and not only in the historic old buildings.
Even using a stroller is noticeably different; I can’t imagine being in a wheelchair in some cities.
Has been for well over twenty years at this point.
It had a number of unexpected consequences, like making it much harder/illegal to rent flats over shops in much of the city centres.
Anyways, that is NOT the case in the parts I know of the US. Much less markings, much less signaling, much shrug, so what?
I guess the US are diverse too, uh?
What comes to mind for .de and its ADA-equivalents are:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behindertengleichstellungsgese...
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrierefreiheit
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrierefreies_Bauen
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodenleitsystem ( I like to walk on these! )
Also funny, in the middle of the night, when there is no traffic at all, are the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation 's the traffic lights produce.
Beeping or 'knocking' drifting slowly apart, to randomly come to be synchronized for a moment, then drifting apart again. I think I'd go crazy when I'd have to live near such things.
Otherwise, during daily life I tend to be annoyed by all that beeping.
Yes, of course Europe doesn't have any US laws but to suggest that it doesn't have legislation about accessibility is simply wrong. Guess what... the legislation generally applies to buildings and construction post-dating the legislation. Applicability to earlier structures will vary depending on feasability and justification (cost, traffic).
In Germany water is not free, but instead another income for restaurants. Also it needs a law (only since 2001) that the cheapest beverage must be non-alcoholic. (Yet water could be more expensive than beer, as long as e.g. apple juice costs equal or less.)
Even if you don't order anything, you can just drink it and leave.
Some fancy restaurants don't allow it though.
As a bonus there are no ticket barriers so no queues and no overheads of maintaining those machines.
Just as buying a ticket with cash is becoming increasingly hard in parts of Europe, I can see a near future where having a phone sending constant GPS updates becomes a requirement (a requirement in an strict sense, or the sense that the alternative is unreasonably cumbersome or more expensive)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2013...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_beast#Mark_of_th...
Furthermore: Nostradamus, Mühlhiasl, Alois Irlmaier, Baba Vanga
They all had something to say about universal tracking of movement in general, and payments especially. Depending on interpretation, of course. But visions and trips can be hazy and vague. As can be translations of very old texts.
For instance, that (mark of the) beast can also mean just a (new(emerging)) thing, not a literal animal.
Which in this context can mean anything from credit-/debit-/chipcard/smartphone/bar-, QR-code/(implanted or otherwise mandatory)RFID, where without that you can't do a thing.
The new passport, revokable anytime, for any reason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ID2020 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You'll_own_nothing_and_be_happ... , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Secrecy_Act , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspicious_activity_report , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer which on paper look all very good und justified.
But... when you are cought as bystander in some dragnet, or your accounts are canceled by some zalgorithmic system spasm, the banks have (mandatory)internal systems which forbid them to give any information about why to the affected person.
Which also can be (ab)used to silence/disable/cancel politically divergents/misfits, whistleblowers, etc. Triggered by their political enemies.
Brave new world, isn't it?
You can buy tickets to the trains and trams everywhere.
Compare that to Italy/France/Spain (those that I know) where, depending where you are traveling to, you have to download, sign in, and give your credit card details to N different apps in different states of disrepair/being barely maintained.
Virtual credit cards (I use Revolut) that I then delete mitigate that, but still, what a mess.
It's a code you generate in your bank app to pay for anything - no need to fill in card details etc, you just provide this one time code.
Also: physical lockers with PIN/Code instead of keys (in basically every country aside from Germany). It's just completely bonkers to me, that German train station lockers still use physical Keys EVERYWHERE.
But the service is owned by the greedy banks so it will probably end with me abandoning it because it will get too expensive when they have enough users.
Although some carriers will pick up outgoing mail in an apartment building if you leave it where they can see it and indicate it clearly.
1. Remove all mail from the mailbox
2. Place outgoing mail in the mailbox
3. Raise the outgoing mail flag
4. Carrier will empty the box and file outgoing mail during the next delivery before putting new mail in the box
Edit: here is a good example of a mailbox with that red flag https://www.amazon.com/Step2-541200-MailMaster-Mailbox-Black...
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I keep hearing that X wants to be the "everything" app. WeChat is _already_ the everything app. It's DoorDash, Venmo, Facebook, Instagram, and about 500 other apps in one.
I will say that I disliked the pattern of every restaurant using a WeChat "mini app" where it basically loads an entirely new app within WeChat just to see the menu or order. It felt much clunkier than just using a web page.