I don’t really know about this specific proposal to deter spam calls, but speaking in general: I’m from another large first world country, and when staying in the US a striking difference was receiving on average 4 spam calls per day. My american friends told me it was because my phone company was low-cost, but it was O(10) more expensive (per unit data) than what I had back home, with about O(1) spam calls per year.
So I expect that it is totally possible to solve this problem without doing something too fancy, even if I don’t know how it’s solved where I am from.
My american friends told me it was because my phone company was low-cost
I don’t understand how specifically that causes more spam calls. Does it imply that normally everyone would receive as many spam calls, but the more expensive companies are spending a lot of their budget to actively fight against the spammers?
So I expect that it is totally possible to solve this problem without doing something too fancy, even if I don’t know how it’s solved where I am from.
Neither do I, so I am filing it under “things that mysteriously don’t work in USA despite working more or less okay in most developed countries”. Someone should write a book about this whole set, because I am really curious about it, and I assume that Americans would be even more curious.
Does it imply that normally everyone would receive as many spam calls, but the more expensive companies are spending a lot of their budget to actively fight against the spammers?
Yeah, they said this is what happens.
“things that mysteriously don’t work in USA despite working more or less okay in most developed countries”
Let my try:
expensive telephone (despite the infamous bell breakup)
super-expensive health
super-expensive college
no universally free or dirty cheap wire transfers between any bank
difficult to find a girlfriend
no gun control (disputed)
crap train transport
threatening weirdos on the street
people are bad at driving
no walkable town center
junk fees
tipping loses more value in attrition than the incentive alignment it creates (disputed)
overly complicated way to pay at restaurants
people still use checks
limited power out of home power outlets due to 110V and small plugs/wires
low quality home appliances
long queue at TSA (it could actually take only 1 min)
expensive internet connection (probably also location-dependent)
problems with labeling allergens contained in food
too much sugar in food (including the kinds of food that normally shouldn’t contain it, e.g. fish)
I may be wrong about some things here, but that’s kinda my point—I would like someone to treat this seriously, to separate actual America-specific things from things that generally suck in many (but not all) places across developed countries, to create an actual America-specific list. And then, analyze the causes, both historical (why it started) and current (why it cannot stop).
Sorry for going off-topic, but I would really really want someone to write about this. It’s a huge mystery to me, and most people don’t seem to care; I guess everyone just takes their situation as normal.
I don’t really know about this specific proposal to deter spam calls, but speaking in general: I’m from another large first world country, and when staying in the US a striking difference was receiving on average 4 spam calls per day. My american friends told me it was because my phone company was low-cost, but it was O(10) more expensive (per unit data) than what I had back home, with about O(1) spam calls per year.
So I expect that it is totally possible to solve this problem without doing something too fancy, even if I don’t know how it’s solved where I am from.
OK, that is way too much.
I don’t understand how specifically that causes more spam calls. Does it imply that normally everyone would receive as many spam calls, but the more expensive companies are spending a lot of their budget to actively fight against the spammers?
Neither do I, so I am filing it under “things that mysteriously don’t work in USA despite working more or less okay in most developed countries”. Someone should write a book about this whole set, because I am really curious about it, and I assume that Americans would be even more curious.
Yeah, they said this is what happens.
Let my try:
expensive telephone (despite the infamous bell breakup)
super-expensive health
super-expensive college
no universally free or dirty cheap wire transfers between any bank
difficult to find a girlfriend
no gun control (disputed)
crap train transport
threatening weirdos on the street
people are bad at driving
no walkable town center
junk fees
tipping loses more value in attrition than the incentive alignment it creates (disputed)
overly complicated way to pay at restaurants
people still use checks
limited power out of home power outlets due to 110V and small plugs/wires
low quality home appliances
long queue at TSA (it could actually take only 1 min)
I would add:
mass transit sucks (depending on the city)
expensive internet connection (probably also location-dependent)
problems with labeling allergens contained in food
too much sugar in food (including the kinds of food that normally shouldn’t contain it, e.g. fish)
I may be wrong about some things here, but that’s kinda my point—I would like someone to treat this seriously, to separate actual America-specific things from things that generally suck in many (but not all) places across developed countries, to create an actual America-specific list. And then, analyze the causes, both historical (why it started) and current (why it cannot stop).
Sorry for going off-topic, but I would really really want someone to write about this. It’s a huge mystery to me, and most people don’t seem to care; I guess everyone just takes their situation as normal.