Things Dutch people are MORE willing to pay for than Americans | US vs The Netherlands

The fact that we pay for our bags is to help the environment, it’s something they should do in the us (in my opinion)

Free toilets: bad for hygiene, great for hobos and drugs users. Free plastic bags: bad for nature Free refills: bad for your health and bad for the wages of the staff.

In the US you also pay for your bank account. The difference is they don't tell you about it.

About the bank accounts: It used to be "free" in the Netherlands until about 25 years ago. The costs were incorporated into transactions, ATM withdrawals and such. The government forced banks to be more transparent and as a result ATMs are free, but you pay for having an account.

Did you know that in public restrooms in the netherlands theres almost always a list when the last time was when the place was cleaned. It's usually multiple times a day.

You pay for restrooms for the cleaningperson, I've spent a few hours on Dallas airport a while back and it was ff-ing disgusting: poop on the walls, used toiletpaper on the ground everywere, ugh. So yeah, I'm happy to pay a few cents to keep things clean.

That "refills" concept would be difficult to maintain here in the Netherlands due to a slightly different mentality of the Dutch. When being in the USA I noticed that at they typical hamburger restaurant you can get your drinks in small, medium and large. But the refills are free. That would never work here! The Dutch would be quick to notice that a small drink costs less than a large, and you can refill it 5 times instead of a single time for the large. So the restaurant would only sell small drinks. That is just how the Dutch think, and the restaurants will have to deal with that. On the other hand, when you get a small soft drink here you get your actual 0.2 L of product (and like 0.33 L for a medium or 0.5 L for a large), while in the USA you get a glass full of crushed ice with some product sprinkled inbetween. I think that is not such a good deal either!

I think in general, people here a more aware that never anything is free. The cost of free things has to be recovered through other means. In Europe (this is not really particular to the Netherlands), both people and governments prefer that cost structure is clear and transparent, and you do not get things "for free" and involuntarily pay for them in some other way. Also, some pricing is imposed to influence behavior. E.g. the mandatory pricing of bags at supermarkets and other outlets was introduced to motivate people to get their own reusable bag and take that with them when they go shopping, instead of getting a free plastic bag an throwing it away after use.

As a Dutch person temporarily living in NY I noticed that something looks free but you pay for it another way. Bank accounts are a good example. I just made an international transfer and that cost me a $35 handling fee. Plastic bags in NY are indeed no longer free since May 30. They now cost 5 cents. I must say that before they started asking money for them people used insane amounts of bags. Not only that but the staff would almost always double bag them. Never seen that anywhere.

Basically you just explained that people in the us don’t want to pay a fair amount for a simple service

An old US saying is “their is no such thing as a free lunch”. Thing may seem free, but they never are. Like bank accounts.

The drinks are a very large portion of the income here, which is why there are no obligatory tips for underpaid waiters/waitresses. 'het komt uit de lengte of uit de breedte'

Since introducing a mandatory fee on shopping bags, the amount of (plastic) bags have fallen by 90%, a huge win for environment. About bank accounts: it is a bit annoying to pay for bank accounts, on the other hand, the transfers within the eurozone are for free and very fast, since instant payment is introduced it takes only a few seconds. Each bank has a pretty good app that makes banking and paying really a lot easier.

Hi! I studied hospitality management, and the reason why you sometimes (certainly not always) have to pay for tapwater is because although the water is almost for free, you are still sitting at a nice table, there is probably music, the radiators are on and there is a person serving you and trying to give you a nice time. All those things cost money. If guests were to drink free tapwater instead of buying a drink, restaurant wouldn't be able to keep the business running. Sometimes companies also donate part of their revenue on tapwater to a charity.

Dutch people are not really willing to pay for a plastic bag, which is exactly why bags are No longer free. Paid bags were introduced to stimulatie people to bring their own bags to the store and many people do.

Bank accounts used to be free in the Netherlands. Part of that was because there was a bank that was run by the postal services that didn´t charge for services, so if you didn´t want your customers to run away, you had better offer the same services for the same amount as that bank. Then it got privatized, and here we are...

I've lived in the UK since 1974 - lived in California for 20 years prior. (1) Most public toilets here are free, but I will say that the one in Stratford-upon-Avon (where I did have to pay) was spotlessly clean. I'd much rather pay for a clean loo than have a filthy one free. (2) Bank accounts her are mostly free - back when interest rates were higher, it was common even to get a small amount of interest on your chequing account). (3) Tap water at a café still has a cost to the establishment. There is a wage cost for the server to pour & serve it; the glass still has to be washed. (4) I will certainly state that we see many fewer discarded carrier bags since the charge was introduced. Most of us have got used to it and always carry a re-usable bag. (5) Refills? Why do Americans consider this sensible? If you're still hungry after eating a sandwich, you don't expect another one free! I will say that pre-1974 (when I left California) you only got free refills for coffee - definitely not for soft drinks.

For all the "free things" don't you pay with tips? We don't have a tipping culture here. Everything is paid for, but you're not required to tip.. So, I don't think the things in the US (never been there) are actually 'free', they're just 'unregulated' so to speak, as you do pay for them in your tips. Here we only tip when we feel we've gotten better service than expected. All the other things are paid for and we don't have to tip, because the serving staff already gets a decent wage. Personally I see tippingculture in the US as an insult to the servingstaff and the customers. The service staff doesnt get paid enough, so they depend on tips. So, the employer gets all the benefit of their work, but doesnt really have to pay for it, and the serving stadd only gets paid enough if they excell in their work and get enough tips. The customers know this so they are forced to not only pay for the product and the service, they are also forced to buy off their guilt, because they know the servingstaff doesnt get paid enough to make a living wage, unless the customers pay enough tips. So as a customer you pay for product, service and not feeling guilty Tips should be a bonus for good works. I'm happy to pay for the product, the refills, the water and the restroom use, as I know the employees are paid enough and the facilities I use are clean. It's a fair trade. If I then feel I have gotten more than expected then I pay a tip to restore the balance. I really don't understand American tipping culture. But feel free to explain it in a vid and compare it to NL

Guess I'm showing my age, but I remember when public toilets in the USA often required a quarter or 2 to access.

In the Heuvelgalerij in Eindhoven they charge 50cents for the restrooms. I ALWAYS pay € 2,- because they keep it very clean.