Queues, bureaucracy, "kravchuchki". What “Soviet” can be found in modern America?

I was lucky to be born a few days after the birth certificates stopped writing “Kiev, Ukrainian SSR”. And I can judge Soviet times only from the stories of relatives. But in Washington, I saw things that I thought were left in the past and have no place in the life of a modern and, most importantly, capitalist country with fierce competition in the market and time, measured in dollars.

Queues

In late January, Seattle opened Amazongo — the first store “without cash registers, without salespeople and without queues.” And the line outside his door on the first day stretched for a whole block.

And remember how the most desperate shopaholics spend the night under stores in tents to be the first to grab TVs or new iPhones on Black Friday. Not to mention the fact that in the USA there is even a special, expensive service - “to stand in line for you.”

Washington's crowd is particularly affluent, with the capital surrounded by 5 of the 10 wealthiest counties in the entire country. The average income of one family there is 100-125 thousand dollars a year. Now imagine that many of these very well-to-do people on Fridays calmly stand on the street under some fashionable establishment and wait for a table to become available - in the snow, rain or heat.

I immediately remember the joke about the “new Russian” who enters the pharmacy, sees one single customer at the checkout and says: “Oooh, there’s a line here, I’ll go to another one.”

The demand for delicious, albeit expensive, restaurants in Washington is crazy. The lines are a block or two long. Each new trendy theme bar experiences an invasion of visitors for several months. For example, at a bar dedicated to the series “Game of Thrones,” an American friend of mine stood in line for four hours and eventually gave up this thankless task.

One of the reasons for such queues is the specific rhythm of life in the United States. If Europeans go to eat at such establishments throughout the week, then Americans mostly only go from Thursday evening (for a cocktail after work) to Sunday afternoon (for brunch).

On Friday and Saturday the bars are crammed. But on Sunday evening noisy streets with bars are dying out. Therefore, they often work during the work week at a loss. And allow the option of booking, which means "idle" tables can not all.

Of course, the queues in the Soviet era were caused by a shortage of goods. But in modern Kiev I have never seen in my life that there were about fifty people in the cold in the entrance to the club or bar.

Washington's love for free

About this you can write a separate novel. It can be compared only with the feeling of the people of Kiev, when on the City Day they distribute ice cream at the zoo. In Washington and in adjacent cities for nothing, not only handouts are distributed. Every weekend you can find dozens of entertainment, where payment is not required.

Personally, I managed to watch several open-air cinema, swim in the pool on the roof of the hotel, listen to performances of decent cover bands, attend several instrumental concerts, be like weekly salsa lessons, work out during promotions in expensive sports clubs, watch student sports and overeat twice ice cream right under the capitol. And she didn't pay a cent for it. I will gladly repeat some of this all, but I already know that it is from this list that it will turn into useless work and spent nerves and time.

Recently, the whim of fate once again brought me to the biggest concert hall in Washington Kennedy Center. Free concerts are held there every day at six in the evening. They last only an hour, a small stage is located right in the hall, and folding chairs are placed under it. If there are no other plans for the evening, or interesting artists are performing, that’s a good option, right?

But I was seduced by something else - a deceptive ad that promised “an evening of fun dancing that will inspire audiences of all ages to get fit and healthy for the new year. Dress comfortably!”

I did not see such a rush for a long time. Several hundred people crowded into a long hall. My girlfriend came twenty minutes before the start, but from the place she occupied, there was almost no scene. Most of the movements of the instructor had to guess or invent independently.

The situation could have been saved if it had been some kind of Pilates or salsa. But the trainers chose Zumba, which is extremely popular in the USA - a mix of dance moves and aerobics to fiery tunes. Swinging your arms and legs, running back and forth, bending over and jumping when you risk crashing into people around you was not at all what I expected.

When I took a step away from my place to take a sip of water so as not to disturb others, such a stubborn woman jumped into my place, I couldn’t even object to her.

She returned home disappointed, realizing that she had spent more time on the road than the lessons went on. It is interesting that most of the girls were in sports form, with a bottle of water, and they were not surprised at the zumba. So, they knew what this lesson was. That is, they are not the first time on such mockery? Why? Most definitely have the money to go to normal paid classes, and students have at their disposal, according to Kiev standards, exercise equipment.

Isn't it better to pay for classes at a sports club instead of jostling in the hallway? I also don’t understand poor people who stand for an hour on the street under a candy store that gives a free scoop of ice cream. Or my last similar experience. Ten in the evening, freezing cold, a gallery opposite the White House, where some kind of entertaining evening is taking place with music and a DJ, and a line for two blocks, in which there are, in particular, parents with small children and babies in strollers.

Food Stamps

Somehow na farmers market ("Farmers' market"), where food prices are usually significantly more expensive than in the store, I saw a very poor man, judging by the clothes. But if I decided that the apples, one and a half times more expensive than the store, are not worth it, he scored the whole package. And he paid off not with money, but with his own food stamps, that is, food stamps.

Supplemental Food Aid Program (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramSNAP for short) for low-income people began in the 60s as part of the War on Poverty (War on Poverty). Since then, she has undergone a lot of changes, for example, instead of coupons open bank cards. But the mechanism remained.

One unemployed person can receive up to $189 per month, and a family of four can receive up to $632. The amount decreases depending on income level. In October 2017, 46 million people, or one in seven Americans, took advantage of this program in the United States.

It is clear that it is impossible to carry out an equal sign between Soviet food stamps and American ones. But the fact of the existence of this system in the United States causes me only one association.

"Avoski" and "kravchuchki"

As far as possible, the Americans try not to carry anything heavy in their hands.

Photo: Maria Prus

They go by car to the store, located further than 10 minutes walk from home. Large backpacks, resembling suitcases in size, are carried to work and in the subway on wheels. Employees of technical services run the risk of knocking down an unwary passer-by in the corridor because they cut through the corridors on special mobile platforms where even light boxes are transported.

A familiar American, who runs 15 kilometers through the day, and then goes to the simulator, helped me tighten the huge suitcase up the stairs, not even lifting it, but loudly knocking the wheels on each step.

When I saw my 20-with-something-year-old neighbor for the first time shopping utility cart, that is, a certain "kravchuchka", at first did not even understand what it was.

“Why should I carry groceries from the store in my hands?” she shrugged. At that moment, when I imagined her walking for 25 minutes with a bag of apples and a bottle of milk in a crockpot, I realized that Americans are not at all afraid of seeming funny or weak.

Bureaucracy and low quality of services in state structures

Two years ago, I signed up for a new internal passport in Kyiv online and spent 5 minutes in line. At the same time, I did a foreign biometric - long before the visa-free regime with the EU - in half an hour, albeit for additional money at the passport center. Now imagine that Americans have to wait 4-6 weeks for a passport. It should be clarified that it is used only as a foreign one, there is no internal one in the USA - there is only an ID card.

«There is a place worse than the DMV", That is," Taki exists a place, worse than the Department of Motor Vehicles "(Department of Motor Vehicles). This is the first user comment on Google Maps about Social Security Office, Social Security Administration. And indeed, it seems that institutions are competing for the title of the least convenient.

The social security card they issue acts as an identification number, without which you cannot take a single step in the United States. You need it to get a job, open a bank account, even install Internet in your apartment. It took me 3 long weeks to receive it.

But the DMV issues ID cards and driver's licenses, which must be renewed every 10 years. In each of these institutions there are queues - like before the end of the world. It’s surprising that there is still no way to sign up there by phone or on the website, or at least track the length of the queue online.

But it happens worse. Employment permit, (employment authorization document, The EAD, which is required for people with certain visa categories, costs $410. And it takes up to 4 months. Because the documents to receive it - copies of visas, passports, bank checks - must be physically sent by letter to the institution that issues them. And there are two of these in the whole country. For example, the closest one to Washington is in Texas. It seems that these expectations and the high cost of the system do not encourage the same migrants from Mexico to register for work legally and pay already considerable taxes.

There is some good news. Checkout business, for example, LLC (Limited liability company), something between our LLC and state of emergency, it is possible for 10 minutes from your computer.

Like every country, the United States has significant system flaws that seem destined to become a thing of the past. Probably, my expectations were also somewhat high - how could it be otherwise, here drones deliver packages, cars drive on autopilot, and artificial intelligence can solve the problem over the phone instead of an operator.

But most of the drawbacks and inconveniences completely overlap with the openness and openness of people who are most often still willing to help, so that rudeness is perceived as an exception, and not as a norm.

The original column is published on the website. Ukrainian Service “Voices America. "

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