retired

> In Western Europe

Fixed that for you.

Edit: Reply to bsoqk as I am rate limited and can't comment directly:

> nothing to show for it

It goes to the PM's brother, who got a job working for the government without even knowing where his office is.

Most wonderful part of living in Spain is paying taxes and not even having access to the public healthcare system. You have to pay extra for that.

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And in that case the CAPTCHA would still work, as the vehicles are of the same type and have clear branding.

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-Post removed as rate limiting on HN does not allow me to comment and keep the discussion going-

Edit: Please stop commenting below as I can't reply anymore

You just need to keep your customers alive long enough.

70% of food in the supermarket is ultra processed. But as long as people make it to 65 years old they are still good customers. That is still 50 years of sales.

A property loses ~30% of its value when rented out and maintenance cost and insurance cost goes up significantly. Plenty of landlords rather have their property be empty and just collect on the equity gains over the years without putting in any effort.

The Netherlands used to have open air-transit. But in the last years, barriers have been installed at nearly every train station. There are 1700 barriers according to Thales. 90% of travelers encounter at least one barrier during their trip. A lot of them are two meters tall. Some are only waist high.

Segregating refugees onto their own bus because they are aggressive is what South Africa did during apartheid. Even the United States isn't doing that anymore. It is a disgrace. Just give the refugees a card that you load with €50 every month. You can automate that and they can pay for the bus with that card.

And no, it is not a single route. I guess you are referring to the Ter Apel to Emmen line. That is indeed one of the segregated bus lines. There is also the line from the DISA building to the night shelter. There are taxi services for underage refugees. There is arranged bus transport between locations.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2026/07/13/extra...

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/site/binaries/site-content/coll...

Healthcare is €145 a month with a €385 deductible and can be lower if you raise your deductible voluntarily. If you are low income you get €129 a month in allowance towards your health insurance. Various municipalities have their own allowances for low income people to help them pay for healthcare. The deductible is for all healthcare in the entire year, not per procedure. It has not gone up with inflation for years hence why government is talking about raising it.

Healthcare is already income based in The Netherlands. I used to pay €5000 a year as a high earner. My neighbor paid €0 per year as he didn't have a job. If poor people avoid seeking healthcare over cost they are doing things very wrong as they can seek financial help and get it.

Also I think it is good that you need to actively look for a new job in order to get unemployment benefits. It's a safety net not a hammock.

The Netherlands is phasing out open air transit because it doesn’t work. Aggression towards public transit service workers is at an all time high. Most stations have moved from no barriers to barriers over 2 meters tall. Refugees have their own bus lines.

Society is going backwards in rapid pace I’m afraid.

I really hope we don't get a California situation. If you look at the addicts at the Frankfurt train station, that is starting to look like Skid Row.

The Netherlands has one of the best healthcare systems in the EU, 30% social housing, treatment programs, one of the best drug policies...

And still has a yearly 6 to 8 million euro in damages from copper thieves just on the rail system alone. And that doesn't include economic damages from people being late for work.

No SIM slot. Seems like Apple is only thinking of the US market. Will not be getting the Duo as I will not be able to browse the web outside my home.

Edit: Rate limited so can't reply to the comments. I live in Spain, can't switch to eSIM. I know that the US has 100% integration of eSIM across all providers but outside the US it's not that great. I use eSIM and SIM a lot, have lots of cards and subscriptions. For my main subscription I can't switch to eSIM (yet).

I use both around six SIM and eSIM cards but my main phone subscription needs a physical SIM card so I will not be getting the Duo.

Edit: Reply to nomel as I am rate limited

Cheaper than roaming cost. I have eSIMs for countries I frequently visit.

This is Europe. I can do a short walk and cross multiple countries borders. It's nice to have coverage everywhere. I just toggle my eSIMs for that. When I'm out on a boat trip and I pick up a Moroccan signal from across the Strait of Gibraltar I turn on my Moroccan eSIM so I'm not paying €2 per megabyte in roaming cost. When I get cheap gas in Gibraltar I switch on my Gibraltar eSIM and turn off roaming on my main line. When I cross into Portugal I switch to a Spanish provider since they give 15 gigabytes of roaming for free.

Currently living in Spain and I’m not able to switch to eSIM on my current plan.

On the international market iPhones have had SIM slots.

No SIM slot. So I have to carry a mobile hotspot if I want to browse the internet outside my home.

It’s like Apple forgets there is a world outside the US where eSIM is not a thing.

I wouldn't use public transport to visit my next door neighbor.

A subway is only for local trips. And only a very small part of the world has subways. I have never lived in a place with a subway. I did briefly live in Amsterdam but the subway wasn't very useful there.

With private transport I can go anywhere on the continent whenever I want.

Edit: reply to flexagoon since I am rate limited:

Going around Europe on trains is a total pain. There is a reason almost nobody does that and use airplanes instead.

Perhaps they can make the comfort of trains comparable with airplanes, so more people use it.

I'm OK with allocating tax money for better public transport but I just don't see myself using it.

Must be nice, I have not encountered such public transport in the places I lived in Europe.

It's 0:45 currently. I want to grab an ice cream at McDonalds. Next bus leaves at 1:25. It takes the bus 20 minutes to get there and then it is a 5 minute walk. It is also a 10 minute walk to the bus station in my neighborhood. And since it's past 22:00 there are probably a bunch of crazies on the bus. Also a high chance of puke and trash in the bus.

Why would I do that if I can grab my bike and it is only a 10 minute ride.

Millennial actually.

Haven't used public transport in a long time. I used it to commute in the past but stopped using it during COVID.

Can't say I miss it. Prefer to just leave when I want, go where I want and stay there as long as I want. All while not enjoying other peoples music and smell or waiting at a platform for ages.

That's true in the sense that the Falklands have never been legally part of England. But Britain has exercised control over them since the 1760s, with interruptions, and they’re still a British Overseas Territory today. So saying they've never been British would be inaccurate, but saying they're "part of England" would also be inaccurate.

Russia shooting down MH17. And the several British assassinations back when they were still in the EU. Those events killed hundreds of EU citizens.

I thank you for correcting me! I learned something today.

And better healthcare.

I accompanied a family member in an ambulance recently and I had the ambulance rerouted to a private clinic. They needed a €25k payment guarantee but we were able to go into surgery within a day.

When I was still in The Netherlands I could invest my pension in stocks, obligations, ETFs or park it as cash.

I couldn't invest it in Bitcoin directly. It had to be on a special blocked account at a broker to ensure I couldn't touch it till my 73rd birthday.

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom.

The British Isles lie on the Eurasian tectonic plate, on the northwestern part of the European continental margin. Going to "the continent" is an incorrect expression. You are already on it.

I'm being highly pedantic here.

In all fairness, I deal with British tourists a lot and they always talk about "going to Europe" when they refer to their summer holiday in Benidorm.