I guess Finland is like Europe's America for credit cards.

I don't see why a retailer should distrust a credit card. Unlike a check, the card issuer has already assumed the risk.

How dare you compare your dirty country to my wonderful one!

Finland is like a sore dick

Wait, you're serious? They take bank cards but not credit cards? What the hell? They're like the same goddamn thing, it's just a matter of where the money is coming from! At the very least, they're a helluva lot better than checks!

There's nothing wrong with being opposed to usury, CM.

I have not read any of this thread yet...i'm adding my opinion now.


Occupy Maine, the offshoot, is ****ing stupid. Hippies. I tried having a conversion with some protesters. "ummm...yea.....man...." Was pretty much it. Jamming on guitars and hoola hooping...not sure what that means.

Most of these protesters are collecting unemployment, from my tax dollar. **** em.

Anyway, everyone's going to be paying with their smartphones eventually anyway, so who cares.

From the business's standpoint, there's no reason for them to care one way or the other. It's not like such companies have problems with morality on any other topic.

In cases of credit card fraud the retailer always eats the losses. The only thing the retailer can do is call the police. There are risks with personal cheques for sure, but at least when the retailer gets their money they get to keep it.

Yeah, seriously, all you have to do to reverse a credit card charge is call the cc company and claim the retailer wrongfully charged the card. They literally take the money back from the retailer. I dealt with that several times with a company I used to work for.

Ugh. We can thank more government medelling for that.

The establishments that accept bank cards also typically accept credit cards. I think that I may have misunderstood your question. If a retailer is selling things that are of high value (e.g., $1000+), it's likely that they accept both bank & credit cards (although there are limits on which ones can be used & automated systems often require a chip), since they function in much the same way, from said retailers point of view. There's not much of a difference when it comes to the retailer end of things.

I suspect that the differences that are present has more to do with how differently businesses run here. For instance, in the U.S., every doctor that I've ever visited accepts bank or credit cards. I've been to several here & none of them do. It's probably because here the doctor is his own receptionist & doesn't have time to bother with the problems that can occur with that sort of thing.

Note: I must say how impressive the doctors are here. I've been to dozens of doctors in the U.S. & several hospitals for surgery & have never been taken care of like this. They appear to be far more knowledgable, far more patient (they'll easily spend an hour with you, explaining things in-depth) & you truly get the sense that they really enjoy their work. It's such a relief after experiencing such horror in the U.S.

The difference lies in the percentage of people actually having credit cards. I don't know all of the specifics yet, but France doesn't have a "credit" system anything like the U.S. Loans & things of that nature are entirely based upon debt, salary & references. They're not going to run a credit check on you when you apply for a home or vehicle loan & they're not interested in the debt or bad credit that you've acquired in foreign countries.

Things like getting a loan or renting an apartment are far more difficult here. I always lived alone in the U.S & while I did have a good credit score, I rarely had a lot of cash. I had several apartments & they were rarely interested in how much money I made. As far as they were concerned, if I signed the contract, I would pay it or they'd just evict my ass. Over here, you can't evict people as easily (not at all during Winter), so renters must jump through some major hoops in order to land a decent place. The owners go out of their way to make sure that their tenants are reliable. It's a very competitive process. I assume it's probably like this in many major cities. The only reason that we're able to rent an apartment in Paris is because several members of her family were willing to co-sign & even they had to jump through quite a few hoops.

No, it's always been like that. Credit cards were originally created as a prestige item for the most reliable and trustworthy customers.

I think we're on two different wavelengths here. Most places accept credit cards and debits cards, it's just that a lot of people choose not to get credits cards because they don't need them.

Also I haven't seen a cheque in the flesh in about 5 years.

You should start a fact of the day thread, I always learn neat little tidbits from you like this, just something random everyday with you as the only poster. I like to know tidbits.

http://the53.tumblr.com/

ahahahahaha, five pages of white people talking about how they get the **** kicked out of them, but it's okay because AMERICA IS GREAT.



Edit: I like how these people call themselves the "53%" when it's obvious that most of them do not have to pay any income tax. Why are Americans so masochistic about this ****? Working 3 full time jobs, working 20 hours a week of unpaid overtime,... that's not normal or healthy at all. This is "masturbating with a cheese grater" level of masochism.

Hey, rape victims! You're a bunch of lazy whiners. You wouldn't have gotten raped if you had tried harder to not get raped. It's your fault for wearing skimpy clothes. Stop sitting around all day *****ing about it, having a bad attitude won't make you un-raped.



Yeah! Stop whining and get a job, you hippies! I didn't collect welfare and food stamps for years so you could sit around *****ing!

And the tumblr feed's comment:



Thinking this is okay is a mental illness!

You are not an impressive person if you work 3 jobs to break even. You are society's *****. You are a weak-willed, subservient *****. The reason employers can get away with cutting benefits, cutting pay, and cutting hours, is because you are a spineless simpleton with no sense of self-worth and nothing to live for outside of work.

Yeah! There are lots of jobs for anybody who wants one! **** you, lazy unemployed poors.



You might also want to consider McDonalds.

Working three unpaid internships with a master's degree? That's what you're SUPPOSED to do.

I'm about to make one of those signs, this could be fun!

I think the ultimate moral/message of their stories is that they were in far worse places than the people on wall-street, and found were motivated by what they believe is "personal responsibility" as stated in one photo, to reach a higher status in society.

Just hearing a demand of free college education alone makes me sick with worry. Of course a well educated utopian society would be glorious and the goal to strive for. But the fact that I am certain without a doubt such a minute percent of people would actually cherish and make that educational opportunity worthwhile makes me wish this whole "occupation" will fail outright. The majority of lower-middle class and lower class families that I know who do go to school are generally trying to get degrees in: general studies, criminal justice to be a cop, ...art..., nursing. A lot of them don't go to their classes, have GPAs below 1.0 and have no passion or ambition to learn what so ever. I don't want to contribute any of my money towards their education because it will not be worth my investment at all.

I work at a nursing home kitchen with people of all ages that are almost all lower class or lower-middle class citizens. While some of them are victims of misfortune, most are in the place they are because they are because they neglected to see the value of education. Most of them are ghetto trash. Working as many jobs as possible not because the system is corrupt but because they decided to have 3 children from 2 different men at age 20. Great choice. They even try to impose it on the younger workers, for example, trying to convince them to skip class to come to work. They even try to convince high school students to skip school to come in from time to time, which from what I am told, is illegal, but I can't find a source to confirm that but a supervisor told me that once.

It is really easy to get sympathetic with these people because everyone wants the under-dog to win. But all I can think about in the end are all the ******* druggies and jocks in middle-school and high-school that pushed me around for being the nerd or the geek who didn't want to "rebel against the system" and instead I play the game as best as possible to earn all my winnings. I want to see these kids bagging my groceries some day.

I went into physics so I could learn about how this grand and mysterious universe works. I don't expect to be a millionare at all, because its not about being a rich superstar. It's about furthering humanity. That is, in my opinion what it all comes down to, the human factor. We can't have a utopian society because the majority isn't ready for it, most don't have passion or responsibility. I'm not the biggest John F. Kennedy fan in the world by far, but the quote "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country" comes to mind. In one of those photos above there is an Ayn Rand quote:

"It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master."


Thank you for your time.

Really? I think the ultimate moral/message of their stories is that they want very badly to convince themselves that their culture is not sick, diseased, and dying.

You're working on a physics degree and you work at a nursing home kitchen with high school drop-outs? Why aren't you a research assistant or a Wall Street intern? You're, what, third year? Why aren't you published yet? I guess you just didn't just want it badly enough.

Was that cutting enough for you? Probably not, because at least you still have school and a job. My point is that these people are deranged and sick, and see nothing wrong with blaming the victims.

Edit: by the way, a quote from Ayn Rand is not likely to prove a point to someone above the high school level.

That's interesting, because I have heard the exact opposite from probably close to a hundred people. While in the USA, doctors often do seem in a hurry (as they're usually over booked), the quality of the doctors is ridiculously better, especially for less-common medical problems. In fact, in the case of my leg's syndrome, many Europeans (and Canadians) fly to America just to get treatment.

Also, Baconfish, that makes me feel better, knowing they take them, they're just not used as often. I just couldn't comprehend the thinking behind taking one type of card and rejecting the other!

I have a credit card for the convenience, and I've never paid a single cent of interest or fees for it. I could use a bank card (debit as they call it here), but those often have severely low spending limits, which I am uncomfortable with in the case of an emergency (not to mention, if I don't have x thousand dollars in the bank to cover said emergency, I do want that ability).

I'm a junior undergrad now, almost all of my professors won't except lower classmen to work under them and the only available opportunities are open next semester. In the meantime I need a job that pays me well. I make 10 dollars an hour which I realize is much better than most. I have never missed a day of work, I've gone in even when I was beyond sick, contrary to those who call in when they have the most insignificant cough because the union will cover their ass. The majority even abuse this to call in when they arent sick. I believe in honest hard work.

I DO want it badly, but the fact is, there are more talented and clever people in the world who in the future will have jobs above me. They earned them, I can't deny that. The strongest and smartest should be above me. I just don't see how a society where everyone wins could survive. What really upsets me is that the kind of attitude that the members of Occupy Wallstreet have are shown to us at such a young age. Who played little league baseball or soccer? I did. EVERYONE won a trophy no matter how your team did. What kind of system/attitude is that? Do we grow up learning that we should expect to have equal earnings regardless of how we performed? When I was in middle school, we won the local "world series" between all the small towns for little league baseball. The other team got the same trophies. The entire league got the same trophies. At first I thought it was going to be so cool to accomplish that, we would be the coolest kids in middle school (for a week or so). But to be honest I remember feeling like it didn't mattered, like in the end no matter what I did everyone was a winner. It was horrible. I don't want to work my ass off to get into a good grad school, then work my ass off again to earn my degree to get a good job only to feel like everyone below me who put in less effort or less attitude gets the same benefits and a wage closer to mine.

And to those above me, like you JonC, who are dazzling brilliant and hard-working yourself, when you are above me in the system you have my full promise that I won't complain, I will know you have earned it and I would feel hypocritcal and guilty if I ever expected to indulge myself in your earnings. You by all means are the winner, I can't deny that fact, well played, no hard feelings at all.

The only reason Canadians go to the United States for treatment is because many experimental procedures and drugs are available which have not been approved here. It's not because you have a better healthcare system. You don't.

I think Couchman needs to get laid.

I'm working on it, this thursday I'm seeing my ex-gf I think shes DTF, should I PM you the results/details of what happened?

no thanks, heard enough already

speaking of that sab u fancy dinner and a movie on friday

ugh.

Yeah, there are crazy people in OWS. There are crazy people in every movement like this. Conflating the opinions of the communists and burn-outs with the entire group is as much a mistake as calling the Tea Party a white supremacist organization* just because of the survivalists.

There are many people in this movement raising issues that concern me deeply as a potential future businessman and employer. It's not all about government hand-outs.

That's really surprising. Most labs want to get an intern as early in their education as possible, so they don't have to break in new ones as often. The NSF REU is even open to high school students as long as they've been accepted to a program. Ehh... some advice: any professor I've talked to is generally willing to accept anybody with the right background, as long as they don't have to fund you. You might want to think about volunteering in a lab. Maybe track down a postdoc who's working in an area of interest and ask him about it.
Definitely make yourself known to the faculty somehow. Don't know what you want to do, but if it involves grad school you're going to need very strong letters of recommendation and proof of research potential.

(* I'm guilty of doing this, but honestly most of it was just to troll Wookie06. I'm being serious now.)

Yeah I already have saved a lot from working so I am willing to work for free as long as they give me recommendation, with the hope that it will pay off in the future. I don't know what field I want to go into yet, the majority of professors here are condensed matter which is neat, but isn't probably what I want to do. I was thinking nuclear. But as long as I get some sort of experience with how general lab proceedures operate and a recommendation I'll be satisfied. The GREs..now that is a whole different animal to tackle.

In some professions it is.

ok so other than a rather hilarious yet obvious fake... what is this?

oh god i've seen so many of these in the last few weeks of job searchin.' thankfully, i've ran across fewer 'unpaid internship' ads than i've expected.

Satire of real job postings out there. It seems that most companies want to fill entry-level positions with people with 2-5+ years of experience. experience that is impossible to get because all the entry-level positions have the requirement of 2-5+ years of experience!

yea mang wanna go halfsies on my plane tick't to Edinburgh? Are there are good abbreviations for Edinburgh?

the e-burgh homes

It's true that the doctor to patient ratio is worse in the U.S. & that it's probably a factor. However, it's not that different & the doctors in the U.S. certainly aren't performing as their own receptionists, so I'm going to guess that it probably balances out.

I can only speak for myself, but I must admit that I've always felt that the U.S. healthcare system was a joke & experiencing the French healthcare system has only re-enforced that opinion. The doctors here have been a great help to me already & have done in a matter of months what a multitude of doctors (including specialists) in the U.S. couldn't do in 15 years. It's an odd feeling knowing that the doctors are putting my well-being above that of an insurance or pharmaceutical company.