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Americans share 15 of the coolest things they've seen overseas that they want here. Like, now.

"Taxes filed FOR YOU, and the return just appearing in your bank account."

via Canva/Photos

A train conductor, a bidet, and fries with gravy.

America is the wealthiest country in the world, but it still lacks a few things compared to other countries. Why can’t America have a high-speed rail, a healthcare system that won’t bankrupt you, or super cool toilets like they do in other parts of the world? Why are we still tipping on every meal, and why can't you find a decent meat pie anywhere?

The great American experiment has done pretty well for the past 248 years, but we still have some blind spots. It would be cool if a brave politician could one day make America truly great by poaching all the best ideas from around the world and creating the perfect country.


A Redditor recently asked people on the AskReddit subforum, “What's one interesting thing you saw in another country that made you think, 'How does my country not have this?" The responses are a great starting point for this hypothetical leader to begin making the improvements we’ve all been dying for. Bidets? Yes, we can! French fries with gravy? Yes, we can! Beer at Burger King? Yes, we can!

We compiled a list of the 15 most interesting things they have in countries that should be implemented in America, like yesterday.

15 cool things they have in other countries that we need in America

1. Cashiers can sit down

"I was an exchange student in Germany during my Junior year in high school. Right before I left, I had a job as a cashier at a grocery store. When I first went shopping in Germany, I thought, 'THEY GET TO SIT?! WHY COULDN'T I DO THAT?!' The only place that does this in the U.S. now is Aldi, which of course is a German company."

"Corporations: 'It's a slippery slope. If we let cashiers sit, what's next? The federal government will make a law that says that pregnant women get time off, and we have to give them money? Fathers get paid time off, too? We let people stay home if they're sick, without a doctor's note? Employees get more than 2 weeks of vacation per year? We have to pay people enough to afford both food AND housing? Where does it end?!'"

2. On-time public transport

"I travelled everywhere in Japan by public transport. My Japanese was terrible, but I could get everywhere with Google Maps because of the utter reliability of the services. I turned up at the station or bus stop and caught the transport that presented itself. The train, which was 5 minutes early, was not my train. The one that was on time on the right platform was the one I needed to catch."

japan subway, japan, japanese train, public transport, transportA subway conductor in Japan. via Canva/Photos

3. Fit-levers on faucets

"I saw something similar in Mexico City, only it was a foot pedal to activate/flush a public toilet. This operation seems so much more sanitary than using a handle to flush a toilet."

"You want two peddles: 1) to lower the seat (it should automatically lift back up unless it has a lid which auto-closes); 2) flush."

4. Coupon crushers

"In 1997, I was in Singapore and saw these things that looked like vending machines. It was a machine that you would take your empty pop can, and put it in this compartment, lift a handle to crush the can. It would then drop down into the machine. Then the machine printed out coupons for businesses in the area. I thought it was genius! I've never seen it anywhere else."

5. Bidets

"More Bidets, pls. My anus can only take so much tp."

"Honestly, every person who has tried it has understood why I love them so much. It’s uncomfortable at first because it’s different, but it really does leave you feeling much cleaner."


bidet, toilet, faucet, clean, bathroom, tileA common bidet.via Canva/Photos

6. Private public restroom stalls

"Public restroom stalls without the stupid gaps in between the doors, and smaller to zero gaps on the bottoms of the doors."

7. Server buttons

"In South Korea, there were buttons on the tables to signal you were ready to order, pay, whatever. It meant no pushy or hovering waitstaff and they were able to chill and relax a bit when no one needed their help."

"In Korea, they have a 'bing-bong' button on your table on a restaurant. If you need something, you press the button, your table number shows up on a screen by the server station, and they come over to your table. Usually, I just hold up my empty bottle or side dish and make eye contact from across the room, and they smile and bring me another one. Otherwise, the servers don't come by and bother you during the meal. It's so so so much better this way."

"We have this at Korean BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles."

8. French fries with gravy

"In Canada, you can get French fries with cheese and gravy."

"We have this in the US. If you're in the Jersey/New York area they're called Disco Fries."

disco fries, poutine, French fries, gravy, cheeseSome delicious putin. via Canva/Photos

9. Free healthcare

"Basically, your medical bills are paid for by your taxes, so when you go into the hospital, the only thing that ends up costing money is the parking. The drawback can be that there is a waitlist for some surgery (except when it's urgently needed to keep you alive), at this time, medical insurance can pay for it, but it's still not as expensive as in America. Also, depending on the country, your medication is also a fraction of the actual cost. For example, in America a box of medication I have to take would cost me about US$600 a month, here in Australia that same medication only costs me about US $15"

"Socialized medicine is only as good as the people implementing it. If it isn't working properly, that isn't really the concepts fault. It's the people running it."

10. Traffic light countdowns

"In Germany, the traffic lights go from green to yellow to red like they do everywhere else, but after red, they light up red + yellow together before green. That way people have a head start getting ready to hit the gas and by the time it’s green you’re immediately moving forward. Bothers me more than it should when it just goes from red to green in other countries."

11. The government does the taxes

"Taxes filed FOR YOU, and the return just appearing in your bank account."

12. Beer vending machines

"Beer at Burger King" (One-upper!)

vending machine, snack machine, snacks, food, vending, A man using a vending machine.via Canva/Photos

13. Attached caps

"This one's less exciting than a lot of others, but I bought a bottle of Coke in London, and when I opened it, I realized there was a little piece of plastic that held the lid to the neck of the bottle, so you don't have to hold it. I can't believe we don't do that in the US. It's such a tiny little thing, but it feels like a no brainer when you think about it."

"That is due to a new law (an EU law, but a lot of brands have done it for their UK products too). Bottle caps have to be attached to the bottle to prevent them from being littered and to help ensure that they are also recycled along with the bottle."

14. Meat pies

"America, they are just not as big a thing here as they are in other countries. I loved them in New Zealand, in fact, when I was there, they had a fast food joint called Georgie Pie that was absolutely fantastic, also bakeries everywhere, where you could get them too."

15. Clean public toilets

"Clean, modern public toilets. I've been to Japan a few times, and those public toilets are amazing. I need to go back to try the one-way glass wall ones. (On a side note, having been to some Japanese music festivals, it seems that they have no problem setting up mens bathrooms in a way that the women line up looking directly into the men's bathroom. Very odd.)

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The wonderful reason this rocker's driving trans people to and from their surgeries.

When Lynn Breedlove started giving rides to LGBTQ people, he heard some disturbing stories about what they'd experienced in regular cabs.

"They would tell me all these stories," he explains. "They had gotten kicked out of cabs. They have been misgendered in cabs. They have been raped by cab drivers."

Many more experienced the drive-by — when a driver would see them and refuse to stop.

We've all had our share of uncomfortable cab or ride-hailing moments, but the LGBTQ community experiences them much more frequently and on a whole other level.

Breedlove knew he had to do something to help these people feel safe going from A to B, so he started a volunteer ride service called Homobiles.

Breedlove at the wheel. Photo by Upworthy/Eagle Rare.

Homobiles is a donation-based safe ride organization in the San Francisco Bay Area that specifically caters to members of the LGBTQ community. Not only does it provide safe, reliable transportation, but no one is ever turned away because they can't afford to donate.

And Breedlove doesn't stop there. He also takes folks who are transitioning to and from their gender confirmation surgeries and related appointments.

There can be some trauma involved when going through such transformative life events, so Breedlove wants to make the trip there and back as painless and emotionally supportive as possible.

Lynn driving for Homobiles. Photo courtesy of Lynn Breedlove.

"To get a person to and from that moment in their lives where everything changes — it's such an honor."

As a transgender man himself, Breedlove's no stranger to judgement from ignorant people. So his mission to offer safe transport isn't just magnanimous — it's personal.

"I did not value myself because the whole message from the world was, 'Intrinsically, there's something really wrong with you,'" he says.

However, after fully immersing himself in the LGBTQ community, he's embraced who he really is — a punk rocker dude who loves jamming with a band and supporting his friends.

Photo by Upworthy/Eagle Rare.

He's also found love and says he's never been happier.

And it's largely thanks to his realization that with a little effort, he could make a huge difference in people's lives.

"If you get together with other people who have purpose and … are on the same path as you, you can actually change a lot of stuff."

Learn more about Breedlove's story here:

LGBTQ Taxi

He's doing his part to make sure the LGBTQ community can feel safe using ride-sharing services. Especially to and from transition-related care appointments.

Posted by Upworthy Presents on Monday, April 16, 2018
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He walked 20 miles to his first day of work. Here's what happened when his boss found out.

Walter Carr was all set for his first day of a new job, but then his car broke down 20 miles from work.  

With the car dead and his new job with a moving company called Bellhops on the line, Carr knew he only had one choice: to walk. So after taking a four-hour nap to give him strength, the Birmingham, Alabama, resident started the long walk to work at midnight.

It took him another four hours to get to his destination.

At 3 a.m., several officers saw Carr walking through a neighborhood and stopped to ask where we was going.

After Carr told them about his journey, the officers took him to breakfast and then to a church, where they thought he'd have a safe place to rest until his job started.

But not wanting to be late for the first moving job of the day, Carr took off for Jenny and Chris Lamey's home. Another officer — who'd just come on the clock and heard Carr's story — picked him up and drove him the rest of the way.

By 6:30 a.m., the Lameys got a knock at their door. Carr had made it to work and was ready to move their household. Carr put in a full day, refusing even a short nap before he started.

Jenny Lamey, so impressed with Carr's perseverance, shared the story on Facebook. The post has since gone viral, amassing hundreds of shares.

Somehow my original post was deleted. Here is it again!! I am overwhelmed that it was shared over 800 times in one day!...

Posted by Jenny Hayden Lamey on Sunday, July 15, 2018

The CEO of Bellhops caught wind of Carr's journey.

Luke Marklin, the CEO of Bellhops, drove from Tennessee to meet the guy who'd walked 20 miles to get to work. By the end of their meeting, Carr was walking away with something more than just a clap on the shoulder.

Marklin gifted Carr his own car to make sure that he wouldn't have to choose walking over sleeping before work again. Jenny Lamey also contributed, starting a GoFundMe that's raised more than $8,000 for Carr's future.

"I want people to know this: No matter what the challenge is, you can break through the challenge," Carr told AL.com. "Nothing is impossible unless you make it impossible. You can do anything you set your mind to."

Watch Carr get his new car below:

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Eco-friendly concrete could make your morning commute a lot smoother.

Imagine a world with no more spilled coffee because of bumpy roads.

Road salt — nearly 1 million tons of it just in the state of Pennsylvania — is used to keep cars safe on the road.

In the aftermath, however, it means thousands of cracks, potholes, and other damages in roads that need to be repaired each year because the chemicals in the salt "dice up" asphalt and concrete when the salt causes the water in snow to stick around, freeze, and do some damage.

All images via iStock.

Fortunately, there may be a new type of concrete coming to town.

It's made from coal furnace leftovers and uses less calcium hydroxide — the ingredient that reacts with road salt and causes that frustratingly pore-like reaction in concrete — which means you'd be riding a bit smoother on it.

The concrete is even more durable than what we use now because it doesn’t react with road salt and is made from recycled materials.

"Many departments of transportation have reduced the amount of calcium chloride they use to melt ice and snow, even though it is very efficient at doing so — because it has also been found to be very destructive," said Dr. Yaghoob Farnam, assistant professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia and lead researcher on the team behind the new mixture.

By recycling power industry byproducts such as fly ash, silica fume, and slag that would normally get tossed and become harmful to the environment to make the concrete, Farnam's team came up with a solution to the thousands of road-related repairs caused by salt damage that is also environmentally friendly.

Not all roads are made of concrete, but many sidewalks and parking lots are.

This new concrete could be a relief to anyone who's ever broken a carton of eggs after guiding a shopping cart over a cracked parking lot or ended up with a lap full of joe while drinking a cup of coffee on a morning commute.

(Since so many people drink java and drive, this could be a major game changer when it comes to safety as well — although, you may want to rethink that when so many accidents are caused by distracted coffee-sippers behind the wheel.)

This may not be in your city tomorrow, but you can help move things along.

Safe, healthy, durable infrastructure takes time to build the right way, Farnam cautions, but it’s important for government leaders and local municipalities to consider infrastructure decisions as long-term plans and spend the time to come up with intelligent, sustainable solutions. That may include the need for this type of research to be done for other road-building materials like asphalt.

Try attending local municipal meetings and talking to decision-makers about how they gather information about infrastructure choices. You may also want write in to state legislators to suggest sustainable solutions like this one.

If you want to start at the source, you might even try asking those legislators to support funding for research on projects like this with your own local department of transportation.

"This would help scientists understand what are real challenges in our society, and it will also help the leadership and contractors to learn about the new technologies that they can use on a daily basis," Farnam says.

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