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@lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nzOn recent visits to the US (where I grew up) I was amazed at the friction I felt in most transactions. Having to add sales tax to everything mentally, paying tips, and literally every online transaction, e.g. renting a car, getting a phone SIM, was crowded with scam operators from every conceivable angle: service consolidators, speculative insurance providers, etc. The US 'system' is a chaotic mess. Every transaction seems prone to extra gotchas & not getting ripped off is exhausting there.
Being back in Aotearoa is *so* refreshingly benign. It's so simple, straight up, and *frickin' honest* here. Very few people are 'on the take', except where you're dealing with the NZ reps of US corporations (yes, renting a car here is prone to rip-offs, too. Don't buy the insurance if you go to a 'car rental broker' site offering 'the best deal' from among rental agencies. *It's a trap*).
Suspect it's the business analogue to 'derivatives' in the finance world: an abstraction. Adding little value, but creating pointless cognitive load in hopes of exploiting the desperate & ignorant. I'm quite convinced this is why capitalist societies are doomed.
@lightweight Oh no, I forgot about tips. Maybe I just won’t go out…
There’s also so. Many. Ads.
@mez yeah, true.