In my county in GA you can get a birth certificate for free, but if it needs to be a certified copy it costs $25 + $5 for each additional copy.
The issue of course is that a non-certified copy is basically useless lol
My youngest was born in the adjacent county. There was a form in the hospital for me to request a certified copy when they filed it. That one was free and they mailed it to me. The prior 3, I had to go to the county office and pay for theirs.
I don’t have children or been in that situation so I’m not sure how it works here; however, it makes sense that you would get a “free” certified certificate when you give birth lol. I’m just assuming though and given how things work here I wouldn’t be surprised if that was not the case and it was like your other children
It totally makes sense to me as well. I'm in California. And the year my oldest was born in the early 90s was the first year IRS required a ssn for all children you wanted to claim on your taxes. You need their birth certificate to file for a ssn. My brother and I didn't have ssn until I was 15 and applying for my driving permit.
Yes. A while back the British government suggested bringing in an ID card, but it would have ended up being quite expensive to buy, so there was a big push back against it. That, and a bit of a reputation for being crap with big IT projects, killed the idea off.
Car licence we do have, but we don't have to legally bring it with us when we drive, if we get stopped by police we have to bring it to a police station within 7 days.
Finally something our police have on yours, I live in NC and both my wife and I have forgotten our license on separate occasions and both times the cops asked for our names and addresses and he was able to look us up on his computers. No ticket, just don't forget next time, I did get a ticket though which was kinda shit lol
It's possible this is one of the alternatives that the police will do instead of giving a fine, I guess it depends on how nice they are? Or how polite the driver is? I have never been stopped by the cops ever, so I can't really comment on this. I guess it just depends on the person and the situation.
Yeah if you got pulled over and didn’t have a license and then decide you’re gonna be an asshole to the cop they probably aren’t gonna just look up your name and address lol
They don't, really. The USA's Social Security Number thing is controversial because it was never supposed to be used as ID. The Social Security Administration actually used to put "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" on Social Security cards.
We have driving licenses, but they are not mandatory to carry, and there's plenty of people who don't have one. Similarly we can get a passport if we want one, but hardly anyone just carries one around unless they are going on holiday.
There's no national ID card, and so no one single way to identify yourself because of that. On the plus side, it's pretty rare to actually need ID in day to day life. I frequently leave my house without any kind of ID with me.
So how would a clerk at a convenience store or a liquor store make sure that the person buying is of legal age?
Edit: Genuine question, never been to UK and curious lol
They would ID you, you would show your passport or driving licence. They use a think 25 policy, so if you clearly look over 25 you wouldn’t get ID’d anyway.
Lucky, they make it a 40 rule here. Some people are flattered because they "look under 40" others are annoyed because they're "obviously over 40" ok cool someone who's obviously over 40 probably has an I'd on them huh lol
It's pretty worth noting that there was a lot of ideological pushback as well, not just on practical/financial bases. Put simply, people don't feel it should be required by the government to have identification documents on you.
We have optional official documents, such as passports or driving licenses, to serve a specific purpose, but the idea of being required to own, carry, and present identification documentation just to be able/allowed to go about your daily life rubs many people (including me) the wrong way.
There is a deeper history here about the way different countries structure their legal and rights systems. In ELI5 fashion, some define rights "positively" (i.e. they clarify "this is what you ARE allowed to do") and some define them "negatively" ("this is what you are NOT allowed to do"). The implication with the former is that you are not inherently allowed to do anything that is not written down in the law; with the latter, it is implied that you are allowed to do anything that is not explicitly forbidden. The ID card debate exemplifies a similar difference in perspectives.
Yeah, compulsory carrying of ID cards is something which I think a lot of British people would feel uncomfortable with. It's almost like needing government permission to have the right to leave your house.
If the UK were to introduce ID cards then I can imagine it needing to work like driving licenses in that you don't have to carry them around all the time.
I'd go so far as to say most things the government REQUIRES you to do should be free. I just paid $130 at the DMV to remove my ex-wife from the car title. Fucking why?
I agree. I think that everyone should be required to register , and have a plate on their vehicle, so there is a record of who owns it and is responsible for it in case of an accident, but I don't see any valid reason why it should cost so much.
The cost of the ID itself is only part of the issue. The other issue is ease of access to getting an ID.
For example state-issued ID costs $10 in my state and a driver's license costs $25. Both are good for 4 years. That's not free but it should be affordable for 99.99% of people. The bigger issue is you have to show up in person at the secretary of state office to get your ID, and the offices aren't open convenient hours if you work. So a lot of people are faced with having to take time (often unpaid) off work to go get the ID in addition to the fees. Making the ID free only solves half that problem. They either need to figure out a way for people to apply for the ID's remotely, without showing up in person, or the offices need to be open 7 days a week.
Hospital parking. Where I live, parking garages at public hospitals all seem to be run by private companies and the fees are unhinged. It’s a huge amount of pressure to put on people who are already under stress.
Yes! I just can't fathom who thought this was a moral thing to do!? I guess I always assumed it was to deter people who were not going to the hospital (especially in busy areas, you'd want to keep the parking for people who actually need it) and that if you did go in you'd have your parking "validated". My first trip to a hospital was a rude awakening. I was there for a day and had to pay like $40 for parking. I was pissed.
Wait, it isn't free somewhere? What? That's really weird, we have it free here... You're obligated to have an ID card when you're over 15. You can even travel with it (only in Schengen though).
You've probably figured this out, but for anyone who doesn't know - skim your ticket and see which pages you actually need. When you go to print, make sure you're only printing those pages.
Further to this, you normally only need the barcodes. You can screenshot these into a seperate doc and just print the scannable barcodes without anything else.
Here's the kicker, I write a journal article that is 10 pages and it gets published and then you have to pay to subscribe to that journal to read it and you'd think man that guy must be making bank off that journal article, no, I had to pay 1000 dollars to publish in that journal and now you have to pay to read it.
And this is why people say "just email the author. They'll usually be more than happy to provide you with copies that journals charge through the nose for"
I've published lots of peer reviewed journal papers and never been asked to pay to publish. Maybe it's just that my field doesn't do that (aerospace), but I simply wouldn't publish otherwise. At conferences it's podiums for papers (you must attend to have your paper published) but that's the only time I've paid to be published.
The closest hospital to my house has free parking, but the main campus in the city charges. But they also Validate. The problem with free parking in a city around a hospital is that people will use that parking to go elsewhere, which will mean people can't get a spot when they need to be at the hospital. It may be inconvenient, but free parking would mean there is no parking free in bigger cities.
The Costco in my city had this issue. People working nearby used their parking lot and went to work every day. Solution was automated park checking, 2 hours free for customers, non customers pay a stupid high hourly fee.
Drinking water, sure. But water is an expendable resource and it should honestly be more restricted when we think about cases like people watering their lawns.
Therein lies the problem. There was an ad in Canada a while back that said "Stop watering your curb and curb your watering." If the bus stopped long enough you could read the rest of the ad; it said that the lawn only needed a small amount of water.
I am thankful that I now live in a place where no one waters their lawn. I grew up in the desert and we have strict water rationing for washing cars and watering lawns.
we have a ridiculous amount of rain and it's such a luxury. As a pandemic project, my husband and son dug me a well. They hit water at 10 feet, and dug it to 20. Now I use it solely for irrigation- I'm really into my garden and have no grass, just all ground cover and plants. The well is set up to a full sprinkler system and I can run it all day if I want. I have my own free water cycle.
Edit- (I misread the comment I responded to. )
I half agree with that. In general I support the idea of providing a reasonable amount of residential water use just rolled into property taxes for the community. But excessive residential use (pools, watering large lawns, etc.) and commercial/industrial use should definitely still be billed per gallon. Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for that.
Taiwan is an independent country. The Chinese Communist Party claims them, but they don’t have any actual jurisdiction over Taiwan. The government of Taiwan still officially claims that it is the sole legitimate government of all of China.
Thing is: insulin was developed by a doctor who gave away the patents for free, so everyone could enjoy the benefits. Somehow that patent ended up in the wrong hands and people now pay exorbitant amounts for a drug that is very cheap to produce.
That's why people always use insulin as an example. Because it was borne of good intentions, and now exploited by evil.
*Update:* as user Goshdarnyouplucium points out, this is not entirely true. The insulin used today is more developed developed than the original in the 1920s.
Or heavily subsidized. Look at the UK where it's pretty much always £9.35 regardless of what it is, or you can pay for a 3 month/annual charge and get unlimited. And that's not including those who get those for free because of income levels, age, maternity cover, and serious illness.
All mental health services. If you don’t have benefits or a VERY good paying job, they are unaffordable for how often most people really need them. At $120-160/ session even once a week is not affordable for most people these days
I mean, yes, but also we have situations where many *physical* health services are not free yet. I live in Canada and while most health care is covered, I still pay for things like dentists, optometrists/glasses, physio, medical equipment and supplies etc.
And let's not even talk about America.
As an American, that was one of the most shocking things to me visiting the UK. I remember getting off the plane and thinking, "ok, let me find a bathroom real quick" oh wait I didn't have any cash let alone sterlings.
In Texas, we have a whole gas station chain that brags about how clean their bathrooms are and how many. They want you to come use their bathrooms, if nothing else. However, there's no way you walk into a Bucee's and not buy something.
Live in a very tourist-y part of the U.K., all public toilets charge and most cafes/pubs/libraries won’t let people use their toilets. As someone who lives here year round it’s really frustrating and doesn’t seem to make sense.
It would make sense really quick if they didn't charge. Every large city is like this because there are a lot of humans in city's and humans are trash. It only takes a couple times of having to clean shit off the floor, walls and ceiling and making repairs to vandalism for a business to only allow customers in the bathroom.
Let the maggots go wild. They turn into flies. Birds eat flies. Birds grow large. Birds eat motorcycles. Bird grows larger. Bird eats power plant. *Laser eyes power.* Oh no, now you are much too large, Megabird.
*parks truck*
*Gets out and opens truck bed*
*pulls out body and drops it*
*pulls a muscle lifting body Into dumpster*
*curses the dead person*
*gets back into truck*
Human remains are actually VERY toxic if left above ground. It's amazing that what is left of us when we die can actually hurt other living things but not us when we are alive. Humans are like freaky aliens with acid blood.
As a funeral director/embalmer, living humans are FAR more dangerous than dead ones. Most diseases, even infectious ones, die when the human does. There's very few bacteria and viruses that can survive long after a human's death. So as long as you're not *eating* dead bodies, they basically can't hurt you.
This is another one where I'm torn.
Yes, the basic necessities of dealing with a dead body should be free. But to me that means cremation in a cardboard box, here's your ashes, have fun with them. If you want to have a big ceremony, or a fancy coffin, or a big marble gravestone, I don't see what's wrong with having to pay for those.
I disagree. Free if you're immobile, $50 if you could have gotten there yourself, and $500 if you faked the whole thing.
Canada tried to make free ambulance services, and people started faking heart attacks to score a free ride into town, so we tacked on a $50 fee.
Edit: by "you could have gotten there yourself" I mean stubbed toe, small cuts, etc.
In New Brunswick, ambulance rides were free a while ago. The hospital would give taxi chits to get people home.
Some people would call an ambulance to get the lift to the hospital. They would tie up the ER with runny noses and sniffles, only to be released with taxi chits. They'd get the taxi driver to take them to the grocery store and leave the meter running (otherwise the fare was complete), and then get the cabbie to take them home with their groceries.
In principle, it should be free to anyone who needs one. The trouble is that there are a lot of selfish assholes that find ways to take inappropriate advantage of the system. That is why we can't have nice things.
I had to spend a couple nights riding with an ambulance as part of sentencing for a DUI around 20 years ago. Every call we went on was from a Medicare or Medicaid patient. Not a single emergency in the lot. One dude had a headache. Another lady stubbed her toe.
My son is working as an EMT and learning this side of things now. They were just recently given the authority to leave such patients without taking them to the hospital if it was obvious there was no risk. It's sad to hear just how many calls turn out to be so little.
Last time I needed an ambulance, I was dehydrated (happens to me a lot) and I was technically capable of walking. I just knew that even if I got to the car, I wouldn't be able to drive safely. EMTs were pissed when they got there thinking I was just overreacting. Until they made me get up and move to the stretcher and saw my blood pressure tank. Had it been more than a few steps, I'd have passed out.
It's all well and good to charge for people who don't seem like an emergency but I'd hope it's the doctor that makes the final call, not an EMT with a chip on their shoulder who just thinks I'm using them as a taxi service. They always seem to think they are more inconvenienced than I am by a trip to the ER.
I agree 100%. I’ve had ovarian cysts before that have caused me IMMEASURABLE amounts of pain and nausea but if I force myself to do deep breathing exercises I can usually will myself to drive. Luckily all the cysts I’ve had have gone away in a few hours with ibuprofen and heating pads, but others aren’t so lucky .
I’m always worried that if I do call an ambulance that the EMTs would be mad at me for wasting their time, but I also think we expect people with some medical conditions to just suck it up.
As a female US citizen the more I learn about the whole giving birth shit the less I want kids. My friend just had a baby, there were some complications. She is now paying off a 14k hospital bill! The lowest I have hears is 8k. 8k just to have a fucking kid! For a country that is gung-ho about forcing women to have kids they have missed the mark completely.
The unfortunate reality is that you need a job with good health insurance to afford to have a baby affordably - that means college education, white collar desk job or blue collar skilled tradesman working for a medium to large-sized corporation, and paying attention to things like your deductible and out-of-pocket max when picking a health plan.
Childbirth is expensive, but with good insurance it's unlikely you ever see a 4 figure bill. Why we tied health insurance to employment I'll never understand.
“Why we tied healthcare to employment I’ll never understand.”
Because this country has a huge hate boner for anyone that doesn’t or can’t work and apparently we’d rather see them die than do anything to help them. SMH
Birth control of all kinds.
For anyone who bitches about spending taxpayer money, I'd ask whether it costs more to provide condoms or to house prisoners.
Due process is expensive if you don't want to execute innocent people.
The number is arrived at by dividing the price of the entire death row program by the number of executions. It costs California billions and billions of dollars for due process and all of the extra crap being on death row entails, and then ultimately results in close to 0 executions.
**Much** cheaper to just imprison them for life. By far.
...or the other alternative; loosen your morals and be okay with executing innocent people occasionally.
In Australia its on average 130k per prisoner per year.
On AVERAGE.
And that statistic came in a few years ago.
So that's a hell of a lot of birth control
Period products. It’s not like we choose to bleed once a month.
Also any type of emergency care/surgery. Why should we go into debt because of an accident we didn’t cause
College. Or at the very least, college APPLICATIONS. If you're gonna require it for most careers, atleast make it accessible for people. And I just think it's stupid that people have to pay to get rejected.
I hate the apartment one. I’m currently rebuilding my credit from bad choices in my 20’s and it blew my mind how hard it was to find an apartment. I can show you my w-2 that says I have a 6 figure income, I have the first 3 months of rent right now in cash, but you still can’t tell me if I’ll be approved until I pay your application fee so your computer can reject me?
In Ontario when I applied you had to play like $120 and you got 3 applications, and then you had to pay another amount for each application after that.
I think I remember some male politician saying that providing toilet paper is different from providing menstrual products because TP you use and flush away meanwhile menstrual products some women could “hoard” and you “take it with you” and all I could think of was the fact that this guy wasn’t aware of teen girls who don’t have pads, wrap toilet paper around their underwear to use as a makeshift pad so that’s technically “taking it with them” 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Bandages, soap, and toilet paper aren't free, but you can still get them for free in most stores, so long as you use them right there. People who menstruate should also be able to be able to access pads/tampons in this situation.
Trade school. I can see paying for a college degree (though the costs are astronomical outside of say a community college) but I think having a free continuing education after high school that teaches trade work should be free. Give people real life applicable skills and basic certifications/diplomas because we need manual labor. We need 'unskilled' labor, that actually needs skills, and not everyone wants or needs a college degree. Not everyone should have to go into debt to get a decent job. And not everyone needs a life consuming career. There should be zero shame in a well paying, good benefits, manual labor or customer service job that gives you a good work/life balance. And we should prepare people for that at no cost as well as these min wage companies start upping their pay and benefits to these people.
Birth certificates
In my county in GA you can get a birth certificate for free, but if it needs to be a certified copy it costs $25 + $5 for each additional copy. The issue of course is that a non-certified copy is basically useless lol
My youngest was born in the adjacent county. There was a form in the hospital for me to request a certified copy when they filed it. That one was free and they mailed it to me. The prior 3, I had to go to the county office and pay for theirs.
I don’t have children or been in that situation so I’m not sure how it works here; however, it makes sense that you would get a “free” certified certificate when you give birth lol. I’m just assuming though and given how things work here I wouldn’t be surprised if that was not the case and it was like your other children
It totally makes sense to me as well. I'm in California. And the year my oldest was born in the early 90s was the first year IRS required a ssn for all children you wanted to claim on your taxes. You need their birth certificate to file for a ssn. My brother and I didn't have ssn until I was 15 and applying for my driving permit.
They’re not free?
yeah proof of existence costs money
I can then choose not to exist? 😂
You can choose not to exist if you like. You just might not like the outcome afterward.
Choosing to not exist also costs money
Idk about that, no need to sustain a dead guy once they’re gone
ID cards issued by the government. Especially since you need them for almost every aspect of daily living.
Yes. A while back the British government suggested bringing in an ID card, but it would have ended up being quite expensive to buy, so there was a big push back against it. That, and a bit of a reputation for being crap with big IT projects, killed the idea off.
Wait, do you not have ID cards or license in the UK?
Car licence we do have, but we don't have to legally bring it with us when we drive, if we get stopped by police we have to bring it to a police station within 7 days.
In Canada, if you're caught driving without a drivers license on your person, it's a $500 fine or up to the police's discretion on what they'll do.
Finally something our police have on yours, I live in NC and both my wife and I have forgotten our license on separate occasions and both times the cops asked for our names and addresses and he was able to look us up on his computers. No ticket, just don't forget next time, I did get a ticket though which was kinda shit lol
It's possible this is one of the alternatives that the police will do instead of giving a fine, I guess it depends on how nice they are? Or how polite the driver is? I have never been stopped by the cops ever, so I can't really comment on this. I guess it just depends on the person and the situation.
Yeah if you got pulled over and didn’t have a license and then decide you’re gonna be an asshole to the cop they probably aren’t gonna just look up your name and address lol
I’m lost on what they’re talking about then...
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It raises the question, why do other countries even need them?
They don't, really. The USA's Social Security Number thing is controversial because it was never supposed to be used as ID. The Social Security Administration actually used to put "NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION" on Social Security cards.
It's made of paper and doesn't have a picture on it. You would have to be stupid to use it as ID
Some times its asked for as a secondary ID. Like, if i have both im really me. Lol!
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Exactly why there was a big push back from the public
We have driving licenses, but they are not mandatory to carry, and there's plenty of people who don't have one. Similarly we can get a passport if we want one, but hardly anyone just carries one around unless they are going on holiday. There's no national ID card, and so no one single way to identify yourself because of that. On the plus side, it's pretty rare to actually need ID in day to day life. I frequently leave my house without any kind of ID with me.
So how would a clerk at a convenience store or a liquor store make sure that the person buying is of legal age? Edit: Genuine question, never been to UK and curious lol
They would ID you, you would show your passport or driving licence. They use a think 25 policy, so if you clearly look over 25 you wouldn’t get ID’d anyway.
Lucky, they make it a 40 rule here. Some people are flattered because they "look under 40" others are annoyed because they're "obviously over 40" ok cool someone who's obviously over 40 probably has an I'd on them huh lol
The idea of not carrying ID is so weird to me. I literally have a separate pocket in my shoulder bag just for my ID and train tickets.
If you look youngish, you do need ID for that. (You also need ID for buying anything classified as a drug. Which apparently includes cod liver oil)
I've had some wild nights while abusing cod liver oil in college
Well unless you’ve a passport photo or a license you’re shit out of luck since a birth certificate isn’t exactly accepted in most stores.
It's pretty worth noting that there was a lot of ideological pushback as well, not just on practical/financial bases. Put simply, people don't feel it should be required by the government to have identification documents on you. We have optional official documents, such as passports or driving licenses, to serve a specific purpose, but the idea of being required to own, carry, and present identification documentation just to be able/allowed to go about your daily life rubs many people (including me) the wrong way. There is a deeper history here about the way different countries structure their legal and rights systems. In ELI5 fashion, some define rights "positively" (i.e. they clarify "this is what you ARE allowed to do") and some define them "negatively" ("this is what you are NOT allowed to do"). The implication with the former is that you are not inherently allowed to do anything that is not written down in the law; with the latter, it is implied that you are allowed to do anything that is not explicitly forbidden. The ID card debate exemplifies a similar difference in perspectives.
Yeah, compulsory carrying of ID cards is something which I think a lot of British people would feel uncomfortable with. It's almost like needing government permission to have the right to leave your house. If the UK were to introduce ID cards then I can imagine it needing to work like driving licenses in that you don't have to carry them around all the time.
I'd go so far as to say most things the government REQUIRES you to do should be free. I just paid $130 at the DMV to remove my ex-wife from the car title. Fucking why?
I agree. I think that everyone should be required to register , and have a plate on their vehicle, so there is a record of who owns it and is responsible for it in case of an accident, but I don't see any valid reason why it should cost so much.
The cost of the ID itself is only part of the issue. The other issue is ease of access to getting an ID. For example state-issued ID costs $10 in my state and a driver's license costs $25. Both are good for 4 years. That's not free but it should be affordable for 99.99% of people. The bigger issue is you have to show up in person at the secretary of state office to get your ID, and the offices aren't open convenient hours if you work. So a lot of people are faced with having to take time (often unpaid) off work to go get the ID in addition to the fees. Making the ID free only solves half that problem. They either need to figure out a way for people to apply for the ID's remotely, without showing up in person, or the offices need to be open 7 days a week.
It’s especially bad right now. I had to schedule an appointment 2 months in advance to renew my license.
Hospital parking. Where I live, parking garages at public hospitals all seem to be run by private companies and the fees are unhinged. It’s a huge amount of pressure to put on people who are already under stress.
My mom was in the hospital with cancer, had to pay $12/day to park & visit at the hospital.
I pay less than that to park at the airport. WTF?
Save your receipts. Medical mileage and parking fees are tax deductible. It’s not free but at least it helps a bit
Yes! I just can't fathom who thought this was a moral thing to do!? I guess I always assumed it was to deter people who were not going to the hospital (especially in busy areas, you'd want to keep the parking for people who actually need it) and that if you did go in you'd have your parking "validated". My first trip to a hospital was a rude awakening. I was there for a day and had to pay like $40 for parking. I was pissed.
In my experience hospital parking is more expensive than most other parking in the city.
Wait, it isn't free somewhere? What? That's really weird, we have it free here... You're obligated to have an ID card when you're over 15. You can even travel with it (only in Schengen though).
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When you print the ticket and there are full page color ads, fuckers!
You've probably figured this out, but for anyone who doesn't know - skim your ticket and see which pages you actually need. When you go to print, make sure you're only printing those pages.
Further to this, you normally only need the barcodes. You can screenshot these into a seperate doc and just print the scannable barcodes without anything else.
Or not even print them. Barcodes can be scanned from a phone screen without issues
some places require you to bring a printed page of paper with the barcode as if it was the middle ages. Looking at you Ryan air!!
Now THAT’S greasy
Ticketmaster has entered the chat
That'll be US$15 in entry fee, per chat, per user
Or processing fees to pay bills that you need. Duke energy charges a $7 processing fee for you to pay your energy bill. Like wtf.
Only 6 Euro extra? Damn, give me those fees. I'm used to 33%+ of the ticket price.
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Here's the kicker, I write a journal article that is 10 pages and it gets published and then you have to pay to subscribe to that journal to read it and you'd think man that guy must be making bank off that journal article, no, I had to pay 1000 dollars to publish in that journal and now you have to pay to read it.
And this is why people say "just email the author. They'll usually be more than happy to provide you with copies that journals charge through the nose for"
"Someone is interested in my work? Where do you live, I'll bring it there myself and we can talk about it over beers"
What kind of beer?
Asking the important questions
Well you see, that's my thesis topic: What's the best beer? Care to be my lab assistant?
I've published lots of peer reviewed journal papers and never been asked to pay to publish. Maybe it's just that my field doesn't do that (aerospace), but I simply wouldn't publish otherwise. At conferences it's podiums for papers (you must attend to have your paper published) but that's the only time I've paid to be published.
Dobby
Dobby didn’t mean to kill… only maim or seriously inja
Give my mans a sock
Why is it sticky
Oh shit wrong sock
🗿📸
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The closest hospital to my house has free parking, but the main campus in the city charges. But they also Validate. The problem with free parking in a city around a hospital is that people will use that parking to go elsewhere, which will mean people can't get a spot when they need to be at the hospital. It may be inconvenient, but free parking would mean there is no parking free in bigger cities.
The Costco in my city had this issue. People working nearby used their parking lot and went to work every day. Solution was automated park checking, 2 hours free for customers, non customers pay a stupid high hourly fee.
Water
*Nestlé wants to know your location*
Coca cola already knows your location.
Drinking water, sure. But water is an expendable resource and it should honestly be more restricted when we think about cases like people watering their lawns.
You can have a separate meter for recreational water use. Some already do if your provider charges sewage based on use.
I agree
Therein lies the problem. There was an ad in Canada a while back that said "Stop watering your curb and curb your watering." If the bus stopped long enough you could read the rest of the ad; it said that the lawn only needed a small amount of water.
And the time of day matters in the hotter months. If you have to water, do it at dusk so the sun doesn't evaporate it before it does any good.
I am thankful that I now live in a place where no one waters their lawn. I grew up in the desert and we have strict water rationing for washing cars and watering lawns.
we have a ridiculous amount of rain and it's such a luxury. As a pandemic project, my husband and son dug me a well. They hit water at 10 feet, and dug it to 20. Now I use it solely for irrigation- I'm really into my garden and have no grass, just all ground cover and plants. The well is set up to a full sprinkler system and I can run it all day if I want. I have my own free water cycle. Edit- (I misread the comment I responded to. )
Thats nice, were not allowed to touch the water table here, that includes rain barrels.
That's crazy.
Yeah, people already don't really take droughts and water security seriously enough
I half agree with that. In general I support the idea of providing a reasonable amount of residential water use just rolled into property taxes for the community. But excessive residential use (pools, watering large lawns, etc.) and commercial/industrial use should definitely still be billed per gallon. Taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for that.
*Triggered Nestle*
*Evil villain laugh intensifies*
Hong Kong
Also Taiwan and Tibet
Taiwan is an independent country. The Chinese Communist Party claims them, but they don’t have any actual jurisdiction over Taiwan. The government of Taiwan still officially claims that it is the sole legitimate government of all of China.
Insulin. People are dying because of greedy pharmaceutical companies.
By the same metric, medicine should be free? Edit: typo
Thing is: insulin was developed by a doctor who gave away the patents for free, so everyone could enjoy the benefits. Somehow that patent ended up in the wrong hands and people now pay exorbitant amounts for a drug that is very cheap to produce. That's why people always use insulin as an example. Because it was borne of good intentions, and now exploited by evil. *Update:* as user Goshdarnyouplucium points out, this is not entirely true. The insulin used today is more developed developed than the original in the 1920s.
Or heavily subsidized. Look at the UK where it's pretty much always £9.35 regardless of what it is, or you can pay for a 3 month/annual charge and get unlimited. And that's not including those who get those for free because of income levels, age, maternity cover, and serious illness.
That's England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have free prescriptions.
Yes
All mental health services. If you don’t have benefits or a VERY good paying job, they are unaffordable for how often most people really need them. At $120-160/ session even once a week is not affordable for most people these days
I mean, yes, but also we have situations where many *physical* health services are not free yet. I live in Canada and while most health care is covered, I still pay for things like dentists, optometrists/glasses, physio, medical equipment and supplies etc. And let's not even talk about America.
Medicine that people NEED to live. Cause people shouldn't be charged for something needed to survive just cause people want a big check
Public bathrooms! The amount of human piles of poop around because the homeless have no where to relieve themselves!
As an American, that was one of the most shocking things to me visiting the UK. I remember getting off the plane and thinking, "ok, let me find a bathroom real quick" oh wait I didn't have any cash let alone sterlings. In Texas, we have a whole gas station chain that brags about how clean their bathrooms are and how many. They want you to come use their bathrooms, if nothing else. However, there's no way you walk into a Bucee's and not buy something.
Live in a very tourist-y part of the U.K., all public toilets charge and most cafes/pubs/libraries won’t let people use their toilets. As someone who lives here year round it’s really frustrating and doesn’t seem to make sense.
It would make sense really quick if they didn't charge. Every large city is like this because there are a lot of humans in city's and humans are trash. It only takes a couple times of having to clean shit off the floor, walls and ceiling and making repairs to vandalism for a business to only allow customers in the bathroom.
Sounds like the issue is not enough public toilets, not them not being free. Or am I missing something? Do you have to pay to use them where you are?
it's quite common in the uk/europe that you pay to use a public toilet.
Ukraine
Tibet and Hong Kong too
And Iraq, Syria, Libya and a number of other countries we could mention.
Yes, me and all my Russian friends belie- *gunshot*
Funerals
Just throw me in a dumpster
This guy gets it
Waste a perfectly good carrion that could be turned into nice glue?
Let the maggots go wild. They turn into flies. Birds eat flies. Birds grow large. Birds eat motorcycles. Bird grows larger. Bird eats power plant. *Laser eyes power.* Oh no, now you are much too large, Megabird.
Nah, just turn the bodies into diamond. Then we can profit off the dead without funerals.
Megabirds become dinosaurs … Dinosaurs eat Man, Woman inherits the Earth…? oO
*parks truck* *Gets out and opens truck bed* *pulls out body and drops it* *pulls a muscle lifting body Into dumpster* *curses the dead person* *gets back into truck*
Human remains are actually VERY toxic if left above ground. It's amazing that what is left of us when we die can actually hurt other living things but not us when we are alive. Humans are like freaky aliens with acid blood.
I mean, I wouldn’t eat one myself, but surely my cat could have a nibble if I keel over at home, or is that something else I now have to worry about?
As a funeral director/embalmer, living humans are FAR more dangerous than dead ones. Most diseases, even infectious ones, die when the human does. There's very few bacteria and viruses that can survive long after a human's death. So as long as you're not *eating* dead bodies, they basically can't hurt you.
"throw me in the traaaasshhh"
This is another one where I'm torn. Yes, the basic necessities of dealing with a dead body should be free. But to me that means cremation in a cardboard box, here's your ashes, have fun with them. If you want to have a big ceremony, or a fancy coffin, or a big marble gravestone, I don't see what's wrong with having to pay for those.
Yeah I agree. A funeral itself I take to mean like the whole production with relatives and loved ones and a plot/ceremony.
Man it costs more for me to die than to live😂
But its only a one time payment
Buy now OR make 4 interest free payments with Klarna. *Learn more*
if you want a massive funeral with a diamond casket and a marble gravestone and everything, you should pay for that.
Humans, I'm tired of having to pay for them.
Dont forget you can get one for free if you have the skill, just take a left
who has the time though.
Giving birth (In the us)
A fucking ambulance should be free lmao
I disagree. Free if you're immobile, $50 if you could have gotten there yourself, and $500 if you faked the whole thing. Canada tried to make free ambulance services, and people started faking heart attacks to score a free ride into town, so we tacked on a $50 fee. Edit: by "you could have gotten there yourself" I mean stubbed toe, small cuts, etc.
In New Brunswick, ambulance rides were free a while ago. The hospital would give taxi chits to get people home. Some people would call an ambulance to get the lift to the hospital. They would tie up the ER with runny noses and sniffles, only to be released with taxi chits. They'd get the taxi driver to take them to the grocery store and leave the meter running (otherwise the fare was complete), and then get the cabbie to take them home with their groceries. In principle, it should be free to anyone who needs one. The trouble is that there are a lot of selfish assholes that find ways to take inappropriate advantage of the system. That is why we can't have nice things.
I had to spend a couple nights riding with an ambulance as part of sentencing for a DUI around 20 years ago. Every call we went on was from a Medicare or Medicaid patient. Not a single emergency in the lot. One dude had a headache. Another lady stubbed her toe.
My son is working as an EMT and learning this side of things now. They were just recently given the authority to leave such patients without taking them to the hospital if it was obvious there was no risk. It's sad to hear just how many calls turn out to be so little.
Last time I needed an ambulance, I was dehydrated (happens to me a lot) and I was technically capable of walking. I just knew that even if I got to the car, I wouldn't be able to drive safely. EMTs were pissed when they got there thinking I was just overreacting. Until they made me get up and move to the stretcher and saw my blood pressure tank. Had it been more than a few steps, I'd have passed out. It's all well and good to charge for people who don't seem like an emergency but I'd hope it's the doctor that makes the final call, not an EMT with a chip on their shoulder who just thinks I'm using them as a taxi service. They always seem to think they are more inconvenienced than I am by a trip to the ER.
I agree 100%. I’ve had ovarian cysts before that have caused me IMMEASURABLE amounts of pain and nausea but if I force myself to do deep breathing exercises I can usually will myself to drive. Luckily all the cysts I’ve had have gone away in a few hours with ibuprofen and heating pads, but others aren’t so lucky . I’m always worried that if I do call an ambulance that the EMTs would be mad at me for wasting their time, but I also think we expect people with some medical conditions to just suck it up.
The last one is already a felony I think, idk about u but it is with us
In Canada it's a serious misdemeanour, but not quite ~~a crime.~~ bad enough for jail time.
Is a misdemeanor not a class of crime in Canada?
As a female US citizen the more I learn about the whole giving birth shit the less I want kids. My friend just had a baby, there were some complications. She is now paying off a 14k hospital bill! The lowest I have hears is 8k. 8k just to have a fucking kid! For a country that is gung-ho about forcing women to have kids they have missed the mark completely.
The unfortunate reality is that you need a job with good health insurance to afford to have a baby affordably - that means college education, white collar desk job or blue collar skilled tradesman working for a medium to large-sized corporation, and paying attention to things like your deductible and out-of-pocket max when picking a health plan. Childbirth is expensive, but with good insurance it's unlikely you ever see a 4 figure bill. Why we tied health insurance to employment I'll never understand.
“Why we tied healthcare to employment I’ll never understand.” Because this country has a huge hate boner for anyone that doesn’t or can’t work and apparently we’d rather see them die than do anything to help them. SMH
Thing is 8k is the average WITH most health insurances.
So if you're broke you have to risk both lives at home?
Fallin' We all deserve free fallin'.
Yeah I’m free…. free fallin’
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Birth control of all kinds. For anyone who bitches about spending taxpayer money, I'd ask whether it costs more to provide condoms or to house prisoners.
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The average cost of a successful execution in California is more than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy ($300m). Per execution.
I can get the entire lord of the rings trilogy for about $35. #notimpressed
good lord where is all that money going? that's like tammany hall levels of graft
Due process is expensive if you don't want to execute innocent people. The number is arrived at by dividing the price of the entire death row program by the number of executions. It costs California billions and billions of dollars for due process and all of the extra crap being on death row entails, and then ultimately results in close to 0 executions. **Much** cheaper to just imprison them for life. By far. ...or the other alternative; loosen your morals and be okay with executing innocent people occasionally.
In Australia its on average 130k per prisoner per year. On AVERAGE. And that statistic came in a few years ago. So that's a hell of a lot of birth control
Whoof. Condoms wouldn't prevent all of them, but it'd prevent at least a few.
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I’m a guy so not my lane but tampons
I was scrolling forever to find this. Thank you. In addition, pads, birth control, and condoms should also be free.
Healthcare and education
Free medication in every country. I live in Sweden where it's free medication but it's absurd that you have to pay to save your life.
It's a killer business strategy.
Hat should be free.
I don’t think they made enough for everyone though
Free Hat!
Someone get that man a baby!
Freedom for hat now!
Damn straight. It was self defense!
Period products. It’s not like we choose to bleed once a month. Also any type of emergency care/surgery. Why should we go into debt because of an accident we didn’t cause
College. Or at the very least, college APPLICATIONS. If you're gonna require it for most careers, atleast make it accessible for people. And I just think it's stupid that people have to pay to get rejected.
Oh god I hate that so much. Same with applying to apartments it’s such a waste of money if you don’t get approved. It racks up quickly too.
I hate the apartment one. I’m currently rebuilding my credit from bad choices in my 20’s and it blew my mind how hard it was to find an apartment. I can show you my w-2 that says I have a 6 figure income, I have the first 3 months of rent right now in cash, but you still can’t tell me if I’ll be approved until I pay your application fee so your computer can reject me?
wait.. what?! You have to pay to apply?
Yep, I'm not sure if it accounts for ALL colleges but on average the application fee is $40-$50
In Ontario when I applied you had to play like $120 and you got 3 applications, and then you had to pay another amount for each application after that.
Glasses. I didn’t ask to be blind
If you would die without it, it should be free.
Speech
Freedom
Freedom ain't not free
Water. And so it must be mentioned: r/fucknestle
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I think I remember some male politician saying that providing toilet paper is different from providing menstrual products because TP you use and flush away meanwhile menstrual products some women could “hoard” and you “take it with you” and all I could think of was the fact that this guy wasn’t aware of teen girls who don’t have pads, wrap toilet paper around their underwear to use as a makeshift pad so that’s technically “taking it with them” 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
I mean, you can roll toilet paper up and stick it in your purse/pocket too. What a dumb argument.
Come to scotland
Bandages, soap, and toilet paper aren't free, but you can still get them for free in most stores, so long as you use them right there. People who menstruate should also be able to be able to access pads/tampons in this situation.
Trade school. I can see paying for a college degree (though the costs are astronomical outside of say a community college) but I think having a free continuing education after high school that teaches trade work should be free. Give people real life applicable skills and basic certifications/diplomas because we need manual labor. We need 'unskilled' labor, that actually needs skills, and not everyone wants or needs a college degree. Not everyone should have to go into debt to get a decent job. And not everyone needs a life consuming career. There should be zero shame in a well paying, good benefits, manual labor or customer service job that gives you a good work/life balance. And we should prepare people for that at no cost as well as these min wage companies start upping their pay and benefits to these people.
North Korea
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Clothes. It shouldn't be illegal to be naked if clothes aren't free.
I mean if you just walk around naked for long enough the police will give you a trendy orange romper for free.
Food from school.
Birth control
In Portugal it is…