A few moments of joy in my recent trip to San Francisco. On a colleague's advice, I went to a charming bar called "Honor", which does great cocktails, delicious burgers in a hip atmosphere with the gimmick you can help yourself to beers from an ice bucket on the honour system. Check out the menu for their cocktail selection.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, but failed to pick up the receipt which I needed to expense what was after all, a dinner (with a colleague) on a work trip. No massive drama, it was only £50, but tiresome. So I emailed them, explaining what had happened, and could they help.
The next day, I had a pdf reprint of the receipt in my inbox, with a charming email from one of those guys using their back office finance system. Wonderful stuff. And it crystallises what one can't help but notice on spending any time in the US, compared with say, France (actually, I won't hear a bad word said about France in general...but am prepared to use Paris as a specific case).
France, with its incredibly socially egalitarian system, treats all as equal. People who work in the service industry have the same rights as their customers, so too bad if you need anything above and beyond the bare minimum of service. You will probably get the response, "non". I've seen this in Finland and Russia too, although perhaps not for entirely the same reasons.
The USA, however, effectively ranks people on their ability to pay. If your job is providing service, and you have a customer who is prepared to pay, you will damn well deliver that service as well as you can.
So, paradoxically the US experience is much more in tune with what an idealist vision of enlightened society might be - generally simple services for everyone that just work, and do so pleasantly - than other countries with more claim on the fundamental rights of their citizens.
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