New York is stuck in the 1950s in so many ways
Despite the skyscrapers, the money and the fact that you feel like you’re at the centre of the world, New York is old school in so many ways.
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Perceptions based on what we see on TV and at the movies are often not just deceiving, but plain wrong.
Such as what the average Australian might expect when they move to arguably the greatest city in the world, New York.
The home of Wall Street, a centre of wealth, power and style, home to bustling theatre and art scenes and some of the most iconic sports teams in the world, New York is sophisticated, trendsetting, global.
Yet, you still have to pay your rent with a cheque (spelt check over here).
New York is a city that embraces the old world. Despite the skyscrapers, the money and the fact that you actually feel like you are at the centre of the world here, it is old school in so many ways.
Landlords, hairdressers, mechanics, some grocery stores, even handymen who come to assemble your latest Amazon purchase – they all want checks.
Most will also take cash. Pay pass virtually doesn’t exist in the US. In a country with 11 million undocumented immigrants it’s probably not surprising that cash is still king.
And that’s just the start of it. The longer you live in America, the more you feel like parts of it are determined to hold onto their 1950s cred, no matter how fast time may pass.
On the metro trains that carry multitudes of Manhattan commuters to Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester County and Connecticut, you still have to buy a paper ticket.
And they still employ ticket collectors to walk through the train, inspect your ticket, then put a clipped ticket on the top of your seat to show you have presented your ticket.
Then the same person walks through the train again towards the end of the trip and collects the stubs.
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Another anachronism is that your Social Security number, arguably your most important document, is printed on a piece of paper that you are advised to not carry in your wallet, and yet which you will need to prove your identity.
They cling also to their Prohibition Era roots in alcohol licensing, and depending on which state you’re in, you may not be able to get a drink on a Sunday.
Because they love rules over here, some states such as New York also won’t allow the sale of beer and wine in the same store.
And don’t get me started on the imperial measurement system. Not only is the US one of only three countries, along with Liberia and Myanmar, that insist on measuring in feet, miles and inches, some of them are intensely proud of this point of difference.
A clip of Fox News host Tucker Carlson decrying the metric system in June last year went viral, after he sneered that it was a toxic symbol of “progressives”.
“How long can we hold out against it?”, he asked, describing metric measurement as a “weird utopian inelegant creepy system that we alone have resisted”.
