>>1777428>>1777433>>1778175VAT means that european companies are disincentivized from selling in bulk because the structure of such a tax encourages rapid turnover of stock to get the rebate.
Europeans thus cannot buy bulk items easily, and if it weren't for the competitive nature of the open market vs american and chinese goods, anything "made in europe" would experience a market force that accelerates planned obsolescence to the stratosphere.
>>1778248Can confirm, am poor and know people from outside the US thanks to the internet that are the relative same class level in their countries (or better). A lot of poor people here in the US have something like a mismanaged lower-middle-class lifestyle compared to places like mexico (or 30 years ago.)
If you're poor in the US and thrifty there's so much available that it's ridiculously easy to be comfortable. But huge swathes of people - not just poor people - are busy playing status games they can't afford.
>>1779567Part of the infrastructure was from fear of getting nuked in the 60s or so, and commuting was a way to ensure residences weren't in proximity of key strategic targets. Another part was this fad of a European model-city concept - I think it was dutch or danish or swedish? Something like that. There were a lot of factors that shaped American infrastructure and not all of it was simply oil lobbying, a good portion was academic navelgazing.
>>1779620If I had to guess, he's one of them "eurosupremacist pagan" types that spun off shit like Varg.
