<div dir="auto"><div><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mar 2, 2017 8:08 AM, "Alvin Starr via talk" <<a href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org" target="_blank">talk@gtalug.org</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="m_7819752875970313900quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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On 03/02/2017 07:31 AM, Russell Reiter via talk wrote:<br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Mar 2, 2017 3:51 AM, "ac via
talk" <<a href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org" target="_blank">talk@gtalug.org</a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
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<div class="m_7819752875970313900m_5987874775678714088quoted-text">On Wed, 1 Mar 2017 17:30:33
-0500<br>
Alvin Starr via talk <<a href="mailto:talk@gtalug.org" target="_blank">talk@gtalug.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
> Heading out on a trip a little while back we
asked our credit card<br>
> company if we needed to notify them.<br>
> The response was we only needed to notify them if
we were heading to<br>
> the U.S. because it is just about the last place
on earth that still<br>
> uses magstripe credit cards.<br>
> A guy I worked for years ago with seeing people
with "will work for<br>
> food" signs on the side of the road in California
said.<br>
><br>
> "America is a third world country. They just
don't know it yet".<br>
><br>
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dude, you are soooo funny!<br>
<br>
I was so surprised to be able to pay with my mobile in
Walmart (and<br>
even at Dollar Store etc) on my last trip to the US<br>
(so, it was almost like home (and I live in a small town
in Africa, -here<br>
we cannot swipe either - you either have to have a smart
phone or<br>
a chip card, etc) but, yeah, most people in the US still
swipe....<br>
maybe it is also the cost of re-issuing cards as every
consumer<br>
seems to have at least 50 cards (I only have one) so I
had "card<br>
envy" :)<br>
<br>
ymmv but Americans love swiping :)<br>
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<div dir="auto">Wow this reminds me of some of the early issues
around energy conservation. When Energy Star started
operations in Canada they offered trade in rebates to upgrade
appliances like fridges & ac's etc. </div>
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<div dir="auto">They would then ship those energy hogs to needy
developing nations as a charitable contribution. I guess they
actually did that until someone crunched the carbon and said,
all things considered and from a global perspective, it would
be better to ship ES units instead. lm not surprised that
developing and lesser populated areas would chose perminance
and retention of sustainable technology over disposability and
repetive wastfullness.</div>
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<div dir="auto">The US has always been the third world; in post
columbian discovery, after Eurasia and Africa. Typically, like
the youngest in a clan it is favoured, demanding, petulant,
selfish and envied. Just like its current president.</div>
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That is not completely fair.</div></blockquote></div></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Quite so. Just a talking point.</div><div dir="auto"></div><div dir="auto"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="m_7819752875970313900quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<br>
For a time the U.S. lead the world in progressive thinking.<br>
For example the idea of rebuilding things after WWII instead of
seaking huge war reparations.<br></div></blockquote></div></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Yup, lend, lease .. all that, worked out ok for the banking and real estate industries. Of course the most severe critics say, but the US never fought a large scale war on their own soil, so they could never grasp the true cost. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I'm a Canadian and the only real threats I face day to day are economic. Now that Canada is a net exporter of war technology, I'm ashamed and aware of the possibility of reprisals here at home for our shipping that technology abroad, instead of peacekeeping. Following the leaders instead of leading the followers to safety, so to speak.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Turning tank production into refrigerator production also worked out well for a society craving low cost consumer goods but that boom ended in the 70's, as you point out.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="m_7819752875970313900quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
I would argue that the 50s to the 70's were the summit of
progressive U.S. society.<br>
<br>
In that period they managed to screw a lot of things up but the
general trend was for a more open society and that has clearly
reversed.<br>
<br>
Now the best you can say is "America. The longest life expectancy of
all third world countries" .<br>
If you want an eye opener take a look at the CIA world statistics
web
site(<a class="m_7819752875970313900m_5987874775678714088moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/" target="_blank">https://www.cia.gov/libra<wbr>ry/publications/the-world-<wbr>factbook/</a>).<br>
Its their own facts not something cooked up by those "lefty-leaning
U.N. types".<div class="m_7819752875970313900quoted-text"><br>
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<div dir="auto">As for america not knowing it yet. That too is a
condition of the young.</div>
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</div><div class="m_7819752875970313900quoted-text"><pre class="m_7819752875970313900m_5987874775678714088moz-signature" cols="72">--
Alvin Starr || voice: <a href="tel:(905)%20513-7688" value="+19055137688" target="_blank">(905)513-7688</a>
Netvel Inc. || Cell: <a href="tel:(416)%20806-0133" value="+14168060133" target="_blank">(416)806-0133</a>
<a class="m_7819752875970313900m_5987874775678714088moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:alvin@netvel.net" target="_blank">alvin@netvel.net</a> ||
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