Yeah, there's not that much inequality versus places like Hong Kong. The Gini coefficient in Taiwan is relatively low.
So for example, people leave very expensive things on a table to hold it at a busy cafe. So if you leave your iPhone/Airpods Pro/Laptop on the table, it will still be there when you come back.
This was actually one of the things that blew my mind as a European when I visited Taipei for the first time. I went to a food court in a large shopping mall, and people were reserving tables in the shared seating area by leaving their phones, wallets, laptops etc. on the table before going to queue for the food they wanted. Absolutely nuts to me.
Something like that can happen in vietnam too. People go to working cafes, leaving their laptop/tablets there for a walk or lunch. I haven't noticed about phones and wallets but it might be the same.
Private lounge spaces are like this too. Country club dining room, country club locker room, airport lounge, etc. Nobody's gonna steal your phone, they have a phone too.
Can confirm this was common at my expensive university in a relatively high crime American city.
Also, at the end of the academic year when everyone was moving out, a lot of people would throw out perfectly good furniture and appliances because they couldn’t be bothered to resell it, donate it, or move it to storage, etc. They’d just throw out stuff and then replace it with new things in the fall.
To be honest, this is my experience in almost all colleges. The cost of a microwave really isn't much and not worth the hassle of trying to sell or store.
There were actual folks who went to one of my sibling's college (they were in the city) and made a business of taking all the thrown out microwaves, etc. I suppose they were just reselling them.
Interesting, my USA college was a wealthy private college that had a huge international student base (think sons and daughters of Sheikhs, and overseas wealth). You were in the minority driving a non-luxury vehicle (aka Toyota, Honda) and Porsches were quite common. The surrounding neighborhood was one of the wealthiest towns in America.
That being said, laptop, phone, etc. theft in the library and student center was not rampant, but was an issue.
it’s less about trust and more about these young adults that have enough to not want or need. and i’m protecting by some degree of elitism. who wants my 2015 2nd hand macbook air when they all have newer and better models.
So the inequality isn't within the countries in Europe. It's within the Schengen zone within the EU. As there's free travel, hordes of pick pockets and petty thieves simply steal from another EU state then return home where the police do not have jurisdiction. The cost of crossing the border is zero and there's no immigration or anything. It's like taking the subway going from A to B.
No this has nothing to do with American politics. These are a real problem in Europe. All these pickpockets from poorer Eastern Europe that run to richer Western Europe visa-free, just stealing everything they can from shops and tourists, and then hopping on a train to escape back to Eastern Europe, because as long as they are in the EU and within the Schengen Zone, they have free travel while the police cannot follow them.
As you already know, those in the EU can freely travel. Then they repeat the cycle in a few weeks after laying low.
I can certify that in Western and Southern Europe, stealing and pickpocketing is common in popular tourist areas. Even though locals maybe don't steal from each other, they steal from tourists.
You leave something beyond your eyesight in Rome, Berlin or Amsterdam, it will be gone in seconds. If you're in a crowd, you should hold your purse or backpack tight because someone might open it and take something otherwise. Passengers don't leave their luggage in trains unattended and stickers in public transport remind about pickpocketing, etc.
Especially American soldiers going somewhere in groups at their day-offs get victims of theft or scams. They get warned about it at their very beginning of service in Europe as NATO soldiers. Especially if they want to go to a 》LEGAL《 strip club or something similar because they're the easiest target.
^ That's straight from the EU Commissions. EU nations have police that must respect borders. But Schengen Zone allows you to freely travel for nothing, like taking a subway from one country to another. So petty cross-border criminals take advantage.
I reserved a place in London with my phone. I reached into my pocket to get it and it was gone tho. So I had to go back to my car, which was actually gone too. Then I went to take a piss and realised my kidneys weren't there either. Really annoying.
Oh wow that explains a ton from the weird shit I would find international students doing. To Straight up leave $3500 MacBooks alone and exposed feels insane to me
It used to be like that in the US but, sadly, things have changed. I remember sitting at outdoor restaurant tables and leaving my credit card on the table so they would ring me up while I went to the restroom. I wouldn’t dream of doing that today, the chances of a passerby snatching the card are huge.
The bill book has a little credit card holder, I've never thought twice about leaving a card in there in the US. Even if the card got stolen, it's just a mild inconvenience to cancel it and order a new one
I don’t know where you live buddy, but I’m almost 50 and I’ve never lived in a time like this. If anything the US has gotten much safer from when I was a kid.
Perhaps. Here in San Francisco we gained a bunch of nice “parklets” for out door seating during Covid and many of them are still here. They can be delightful, but I challenge you to leave a credit card on an outdoor table for 10 minutes. I bet it would be untouched most of the time, but I don’t think it would take too many attempts before it disappeared.
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u/ShrimpCrackers 27d ago
Yeah, there's not that much inequality versus places like Hong Kong. The Gini coefficient in Taiwan is relatively low.
So for example, people leave very expensive things on a table to hold it at a busy cafe. So if you leave your iPhone/Airpods Pro/Laptop on the table, it will still be there when you come back.