Quote:
Originally Posted by jakobnev
Just don't join any cults.
|
I was invited to an effective altruism club.
Does that count?
- Being vegetarian seems about 3x more common here.
- An expression I've heard is, "I'm not a lawyer or a farmer" to describe that someone isn't wealthy. Apparently back in the 80's the government decided to do away with all subsidies and handholding, and make agriculture entirely free market. Along with some clever marketing, it has resulted in agriculture becoming wildly lucrative, and the individual farmer with a few acres is alive and well.
-On that topic, the government also went on a massive diet, and cut out a lot of the unnecessary bureaucratic bloat. Despite more services being socialized, it's arguably a much smaller government system. Government spending per Capita is notably lower.
- The indigenous population don't seem to have been as severely taken advantage of as in the US, and still make up a sizable portion of the population, though I see some similar dialectic to what's going on with African Americans. From my brief observations, the Maori are more represented in the bottom income brackets, and you see similar patterns of representation in health, higher education education, crime, and other social issues. Interestingly, many place names are returning to their pre-colonial ones, and a large majority of people are voluntarily learning at least some Te Reo Maori. New Zealand may even change its name. There's a conscious and widespread effort to rewrite the social narrative and hold indigenous views on equal level with colonial ones. At the same time, there's still racial discrimination that can be observed, and is perhaps more obvious to an outsider.
- The household I'm staying in seems to produce around 1/8 the waste of my sister's, despite there being twice as many adults living here.
- Single use plastic is all but banned. My rubbish bags are compostable and made from plants. No bags are offered when checking out while shopping. Many items (such as spices) are sold in fully compostable packaging, if not in bulk.