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Comment by franciscop | Hacker News Reader

Coming from Spain and having lived in Japan, I have come to believe that the US is really far away from what can be considered a civilized society. There's a huge mismatch between the public opinion (best country) and the reality that you can see through smaller things like this. Some of these things are better even in the so-called "third world countries".

Note: Spain was named for the smaller things like this; public toilets are not widely available here (even though there are some).

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Are there public toilets generally in Spain? I don't remember them from my stays in Galicia, Barcelona or Salamanca.

Not many, I was talking more about Japan for public toilets, which I certainly consider more advanced than Spain. I named Spain because of other basic things to expect in civilized countries (public and good quality health/education among others).

But apparently having a job to make ends meet is not necessary to be considered civilized. 25% unemployment, so civilized.

People don't (normally) die on the street of preventable diseases because they cannot afford a doctor. We also take care of our elders and have mostly free quality education for everyone. Our streets are clean and we have public infrastructure/services.

But job opportunities do suck, that's why most of the good people go abroad to get better jobs.

Nor I in Madrid. I recall being sniggered at a little for asking someone in the tourist office. Although that may have been my Spanish.

In Lisbon, Portugal there are. They usually cost a trivial amount to use and thus are frequently utilized by the homeless population.

First World != Civilized

And yet huge amounts of the "civilized world" are largely tied to the US.

Maybe this is correlated, maybe not, but just scoffing and saying "they're uncivilized" lacks a little nuance.

> And yet huge amounts of the "civilized world" are largely tied to the US.

What? The USA is the least civilized country in the west and many parts of the east.

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