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0 pointspeteretep9y ago0 comments

    > I would say the majority of regulations (at least in
    > OECD countries) are sensible

I think it can be shocking to non-Americans just how much the Americans distrust and think their lawmakers and -- especially shockingly, their civil servants -- are both incompetent and have malicious intent.

American friends have found it incredible -- for example -- that something like NICE[0] can exist and people don't assume it's trying to kill them all; cf "death panels".

I also wonder in what other developed countries Jade Helm 15 would have been controversial[1]...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Institute_for_Health_... -- especially their guidance on how much a year of life is "worth"; see the "Cost Effectiveness section

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Helm_15_conspiracy_theori...

0 comments

semi-extrinsic9y ago

Regarding your Jade Helm 15 question: round this neck of the wood we host every year the worlds largest cold weather military excercise, with 15-20 000 soldiers from all across NATO. We literally have US Marines and other foreign forces playing invasion right where we live, using air force, army and naval assets. There has never been any conspiracies or fears regarding this. Perhaps mainly because we appreciate you guys having our backs and knowing how to fight in snow, just in case Ivan comes over for a "visit".

On a related note, there is a truly hilarious story from a guy over on Reddit who served in the Marines, they were stationed in North Carolina and never been in snow; and who came to this exercise and of course got their asses truly handed to themselves in a snowball fight by a bunch of Norwegian schoolkids. Highly recommended reading; first comment after the OP here:

https://m.reddit.com/r/ProRevenge/comments/1w0sav/6th_grade_...

pauloday9y ago

Here's a non-mobile link to the comment itself:

https://reddit.com/r/ProRevenge/comments/1w0sav/6th_grade_gi...

jcranmer9y ago

> I think it can be shocking to non-Americans just how much the Americans distrust and think their lawmakers and -- especially shockingly, their civil servants -- are both incompetent and have malicious intent.

The EU is often criticized (e.g., Brexit) as being something that promulgates useless regulations (e.g., curvature of a banana).

peteretepOP9y ago

    > The EU is often criticized (e.g., Brexit) as being
    > something that promulgates useless regulations

Sure. Some people hate single-payer healthcare too. Nothing like watching Food Inc for reminding you why the EU love you.

raverbashing9y ago

The "curvature of a banana" thing is a myth, the regulation just says it should have a good appearance

davedx9y ago

I quite like the human rights and environmental protections afforded me as a EU citizen. British people see the beginnings of their work rights already in the crosshairs since Brexit. Glad I live in the Netherlands now.

IshKebab9y ago

> The EU is often criticized (e.g., Brexit) as being something that promulgates useless regulations (e.g., curvature of a banana).

Yes but those almost always turn out to be made up by the Daily Mail.

legulere9y ago

The EU regulation is often criticized as bad and dumb, but not as malicious.

shanusmagnus9y ago

At first I thought you were making up a super funny and clever thing, but by god, you're only referencing a pre-existing funny thing [1]. Although funny in a different way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_Regulation_(EC)_No....

XorNot9y ago

Hey, nevermind that the article you linked expressly notes that the entire policy is around a standard for the classification of produce, and that the EU is first and foremost an economic union with the goal of harmonized trade regulations.

You know, the type of thing where standard gradings and classification of produce and manufactured goods would be fairly important? (and you know, in no way different to any other modern nation or industrial group).

SilasX9y ago

In fairness, Britons don't think NICE can exist -- see this case where an American went on a radio show and praised its CBA approach, while the British participants vehemently denied that it does exactly what it actually does:

>>...Britain had achieved cost-effective treatment for everyone, at the cost of some people missing very expensive treatments that might help them. I was rather congratulating myself on this answer, because NICE is beloved of health wonks everywhere; Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is an attempt to sort of replicate it. Pointing out something the British health system can do that the American system can’t, and doing so in dryly factual tones, seemed like a good way to endear myself to the British audience.

>>The other guest, a British health official, interrupted to basically accuse me of lying; the British health system, he said, did no such thing.

>>Now I reiterate: I had not called NICE a death panel, or said that it was bad; I had simply described what NICE does, which is keep the NHS from blowing its budget on very expensive treatments that deliver relatively little value per pound spent. You can read NICE describing what NICE does on its website; the description is not significantly different from the one I gave. Being told that this was flat out wrong was surreal. Things got even more surreal when I began again to explain what NICE does, thinking that perhaps I had been unclear, and the host interrupted me and said something like “As you know, that’s false.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-08-23/health-ca...

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