On 03/02/2017 07:31 AM, Russell Reiter via talk wrote:
On Mar 2, 2017 3:51 AM, "ac via talk" <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
On Wed, 1 Mar 2017 17:30:33 -0500
Alvin Starr via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:
> Heading out on a trip a little while back we asked our credit card
> company if we needed to notify them.
> The response was we only needed to notify them if we were heading to
> the U.S. because it is just about the last place on earth that still
> uses magstripe credit cards.
> A guy I worked for years ago with seeing people with "will work for
> food" signs on the side of the road in California said.
>
> "America is a third world country. They just don't know it yet".
>
dude, you are soooo funny!

I was so surprised to be able to pay with my mobile in Walmart (and
even at Dollar Store etc) on my last trip to the US
(so, it was almost like home (and I live in a small town in Africa, -here
we cannot swipe either - you either have to have a smart phone or
a chip card, etc) but, yeah, most people in the US still swipe....
maybe it is also the cost of re-issuing cards as every consumer
seems to have at least 50 cards (I only have one) so I had "card
envy" :)

ymmv but Americans love swiping :)

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. 

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.

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.

That is not completely fair.

For a time the U.S. lead the world in progressive thinking.
For example the idea of rebuilding things after WWII instead of seaking huge war reparations.
I would argue that the 50s to the 70's were the summit of progressive U.S. society.

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.

Now the best you can say is "America. The longest life expectancy of all third world countries" .
If you want an eye opener take a look at the CIA world statistics web site(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/).
Its their own facts not something cooked up by those "lefty-leaning U.N. types".

As for america not knowing it yet. That too is a condition of the young.



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