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> In Western Europe

Fixed that for you.

Edit: Reply to bsoqk as I am rate limited and can't comment directly:

> nothing to show for it

It goes to the PM's brother, who got a job working for the government without even knowing where his office is.

Most wonderful part of living in Spain is paying taxes and not even having access to the public healthcare system. You have to pay extra for that.


In Spain you pay taxes through the nose and there's nothing to show for it. Motorways look like they are you are in Congo.

I don't know what part of Spain you live in - Galicia is chock full of beautifully-maintained autovias.

yeah cause in Spain some are more "equal" than others

I'm just surprised the most far-flung, depopulated region would have better infrastructure than the rest

It’s less used so it’s in much better shape. Try coming to the touristy places of the south.

-Post removed as rate limiting does not allow me to comment and keep the discussion going-

It's kind of a pain that you still have to file US taxes in this case. You may well end up paying zero in the US, but it's up to you to provide the necessary paperwork to show that your overseas income tax was high enough to cancel out the US income tax.

-Post removed as rate limiting does not allow me to comment and keep the discussion going-

Maybe it's translated, but it's definitely not localised. Captchas are nonsense in the UK, and a lot of Europe browses in English even if not their first language.

In the UK the captcha uses crosswalk, which isn’t the common name here.

-Post removed as rate limiting on HN does not allow me to comment and keep the discussion going-

Edit: Please stop commenting below as I can't reply anymore


The fact that it can be deduced in some cases by some people is missing the point that a test of humanity shouldn't be country specific at all.

>The ones with liveries on the side that are all the same color.

Which is also not true for some countries...


Not really in some countries taxis are specific vehicle types and clearly branded. American ones are ordinary cars with slight modifications.

"slight modifications" it's entirely

In most places taxis can be identified as: having a specific color/color pattern and/or a ceiling fixture

It is by design because you want taxis to stand out from other vehicles


And in that case the CAPTCHA would still work, as the vehicles are of the same type and have clear branding.

Is 'identify all the similar cars?' a valid capcha though? Surely knowing that something is a taxi is the important part of the test, and a good capcha would through in a branded car that isn't a taxi, which non-Americans are far more likely to fail.

Remember that the goal here is to test that a request isn't coming from a computer, and 'identify all the similar things in these images' is really easy for a computer.


You just need to keep your customers alive long enough.

70% of food in the supermarket is ultra processed. But as long as people make it to 65 years old they are still good customers. That is still 50 years of sales.


> 70% of food in the supermarket is ultra processed.

Yes. And 70% of Earth atmosphere is nitrogen.

The two figures have about the same relevance to health.


A property loses ~30% of its value when rented out and maintenance cost and insurance cost goes up significantly. Plenty of landlords rather have their property be empty and just collect on the equity gains over the years without putting in any effort.

The Netherlands is phasing out open air transit because it doesn’t work. Aggression towards public transit service workers is at an all time high. Most stations have moved from no barriers to barriers over 2 meters tall. Refugees have their own bus lines.

Society is going backwards in rapid pace I’m afraid.


That is factually incorrect. The Netherlands is not phasing out open air transit (barriers are only a thing at the high-volume stations) and the barriers are rarely 2 meters tall (at most stations they are waist-high).

The "refugee bus line" is a single ferrying route between a rather awkwardly-placed arrival center and its nearest train station. The main issues were caused by refugees being unable or unwilling to pay the bus fare, and considering all of those refugees are living off an allowance anyways, having the arrival center itself pay for the buses and making them "free" really is a no-brainer solution.


The Netherlands used to have open air-transit. But in the last years, barriers have been installed at nearly every train station. There are 1700 barriers according to Thales. 90% of travelers encounter at least one barrier during their trip. A lot of them are two meters tall. Some are only waist high.

Segregating refugees onto their own bus because they are aggressive is what South Africa did during apartheid. Even the United States isn't doing that anymore. It is a disgrace. Just give the refugees a card that you load with €50 every month. You can automate that and they can pay for the bus with that card.

And no, it is not a single route. I guess you are referring to the Ter Apel to Emmen line. That is indeed one of the segregated bus lines. There is also the line from the DISA building to the night shelter. There are taxi services for underage refugees. There is arranged bus transport between locations.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2026/07/13/extra...

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/site/binaries/site-content/coll...


From high-trust homogeneous populations to low-trust heterogeneous populations.

I really hope we don't get a California situation. If you look at the addicts at the Frankfurt train station, that is starting to look like Skid Row.

"Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" probably rings a bell for you. With respect to drug addiction, in Europe/Germany at least, I'm more inclined to say "little has changed in 40 years" than to say "things are worse now".

It's sobering to think we've not made much inroads into giving addicts a better perspective (or getting "preemptive" messaging across) in all that time.


The Netherlands has one of the best healthcare systems in the EU, 30% social housing, treatment programs, one of the best drug policies...

And still has a yearly 6 to 8 million euro in damages from copper thieves just on the rail system alone. And that doesn't include economic damages from people being late for work.


I can only imagine what it would be without that! I was told once that in said country (and probably other lands) police tolerates some kind of small petty crimes so that things do not escalate to bigger things

Probably not much worse.

I can't confidently refute your claims, but all of those socialist policies have backslid over time; social housing (i.e. affordable housing with eligiblity for government support to pay rent) has a 10+ year wait list in a lot of places, because there's not enough. Non-social housing is unaffordable and unobtainable for a lot of people with housing prices having gone up 2x or more since 2010.

And the social systems don't reach everyone, in part thanks to 20+ years of conservative governments. People can't find jobs, if they're entitled to one (i.e. are nationalized) they can apply for government subsidies, but those come with strict conditions including a requirement to apply to jobs on the regular (and provide evidence, and you get cut on your subsidies if you don't).

On paper it still looks good ish, but in practice it sucks if you're in the system. Health care is becoming unaffordable (creeping to 200/month just for the insurance, plus 375 or so copay which the new government wants to increase even further, which means poor people will avoid seeking health support because who can afford up to 375 on top of 200 / month, and that's not even the essentials?)


Healthcare is €145 a month with a €385 deductible and can be lower if you raise your deductible voluntarily. If you are low income you get €129 a month in allowance towards your health insurance. Various municipalities have their own allowances for low income people to help them pay for healthcare. The deductible is for all healthcare in the entire year, not per procedure. It has not gone up with inflation for years hence why government is talking about raising it.

Healthcare is already income based in The Netherlands. I used to pay €5000 a year as a high earner. My neighbor paid €0 per year as he didn't have a job. If poor people avoid seeking healthcare over cost they are doing things very wrong as they can seek financial help and get it.

Also I think it is good that you need to actively look for a new job in order to get unemployment benefits. It's a safety net not a hammock.


No SIM slot. Seems like Apple is only thinking of the US market. Will not be getting the Duo as I will not be able to browse the web outside my home.

Edit: Rate limited so can't reply to the comments. I live in Spain, can't switch to eSIM. I know that the US has 100% integration of eSIM across all providers but outside the US it's not that great. I use eSIM and SIM a lot, have lots of cards and subscriptions. For my main subscription I can't switch to eSIM (yet).


Where do you live that eSIM isn't an option?


Don't your country telcos have esims?

Even mainstream operators in my country have those these days, so you can sign up online without getting to a shop.


Why do you think eSIM is a US only thing? Common in Western Europe and Japan and South Korea and Mexico and Canada and Australia and Thailand as well. China and India are the big outliers, but that can change.


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