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- Hacker News
- MASA: make America shitty again?by digitaltrees
- That's the goal of MAHA with explosive diarrhea.by JohnTHaller
- Buy a bidet!
I thought this was a fun tidbit:
I'm not sure if using a bidet would be better for the environment but maybe this is a blessing in disguise on the environmental front."The US accounts for more than 20% of global tissue consumption despite having only 4% of the world’s population. The average American uses 141 rolls of toilet paper per year, making them No 1 for No 2s globally, just ahead of Germans, each using an average of 134 rolls annually."I'm also curious, is there any reporting on increases in Canadian prices as a result of their tariffs on American products or does that only go one way? I always read (especially in international papers like the Guardian) about Americans seeing price increases but I see very little reporting on price increases/decreases or changes in other countries.
Also maybe someone can remind me, in the past (before Trump 1 even) were there any tariffs on American products that anyone can point to? I see on the news channels discussion about how Canada has historically placed tariffs American dairy products. Did that result in higher prices in Canada? How did their economy handle the lack of American dairy imports at lower prices (if they were lower)?
by ericmay - And if you really wanted... buy washable toilet paper towels. https://www.marleysmonsters.com/collections/toilet-unpaper-a...
As someone on the border, the tariffs do screw over individual folks on both sides of it.
Canadian grocery prices are awfully high and they've been known for various price-fixing scandals (the Loblaws bread-fixing apology gift cards come to mind) so there's often a lot of Canadian Walmart/Sams Club/Local Grocery shoppers.
One of the odd things is that Americans had it better coming back to the US from Canada after a day out shopping - we could bring back $800, but the Canadians going home could only bring back $50 or so, unless they were out for more than 48 hours then got $800. US Customs was also hilariously lax on actually enforcing things ("anything to declare?" "ah, I spent $200 at IKEA" gets a handwave) compared to the Canadians that'll fine-tooth comb the vehicle to pull every penny of duty they can coming home to Canada.
by kotaKat - Unfortunately I don't have electrical in my toilet closet in my master bath. I'd totally do it though.by stuff4ben
- During the lockdowns, my local Catholic parish office indicated to me that they held some TP in reserve, in case any parishioners got desperate during the shortages. There were really problematic runs on items like that in every store in our area. Of course, if you had excess TP, it was also a good strategic donation, for the less fortunate.
I contemplated a bidet during the lockdowns, and some YouTubers were touting their convenience and comfort. But ultimately, I rent an apartment with a landlady, and there's no way a bidet could get installed and survive my lease agreement.
So I decided that a good compromise was to start buying wet wipes. I found the "Sensitive" Huggies to be fairly good. Unscented and gentle. There's also "Honest" brand at Target, marketed to adults. Supposedly flushable. I don't flush them.
It's been working out so well that I carry around the wet wipes in my pocket, everywhere I go. They have saved me in many situations in many public restrooms. And they can also clean up my hands if I happen to get muddy or gritty while I'm out and about.
- > I'm also curious, is there any reporting on increases in Canadian prices as a result of their tariffs on American products or does that only go one way?
The current counter-tariffs haven't taken effect yet, but yes, various products saw price increases with the previous sets.
Though TBH, I personally saw more increases in prices from American tariffs on Chinese goods where American sellers couldn't be bothered to sell goods to Canada without first importing to the US and just tacked on a price increase for all buyers. To the best of my ability I've avoided those products/sellers.
by Marsymars - Yes, Canadian dairy prices were always higher than US prices, probably by 10-20 percent or so. There's an internal quota system, and a prescribed allowable volume for imports with very high tariffs on imports above that prescribed limit. Canada did this to protect its dairy industry, and to ensure there's a level of self sufficiency to their food production.
Canada has the same issue in many industries, where the need/desire for Canadian firms to compete against US firms - even though Canada has a population roughly a tenth the size of the US - results in a handful of bloated monopolies/monopsonies that the Canadian population has to deal with.
For an alternative perspective you can look at the US healthcare system, where the US has a protectionist system that props up its healthcare industry (insurance, providers, pharma companies, etc) at the expense of its population, to the tune of about 2x what Canada spends per capita.
Canadians who live near the border will commonly hop over for some shopping and fill up their tank with cheap gas, while Americans try to fill their prescriptions from Canadian pharmacies and travel to Mexico for procedures they can't afford to get done in the US. It's all a matter of what the system is set up to do.
by digdugdirk - I'm not sure how to discuss bidet problems without sounding gross.
I tried a bidet previously because people rave about them. But when trying them, there seems to be two problems. The water that hits you sprays around on impact. So that immediately-sullied water now has a bit of blast radius to it. I also can't see down there, so having done what certainly felt like a pretty thorough job bidet-ing, I would wipe and discover the job was not so thorough. So although you could potentially use a bidet to reduce your toilet paper usage, toilet paper itself allows you to actually check whether or not you got everything, which just seems impossible with a bidet alone. And if I only used the bidet, then what am I supposed to do to dry myself? It feels like TP needs to be in the mix at least a little bit.
Am I just using it wrong? Does a lifetime of using it give your brain a clearer sense of where the water has hit and what "clean" feels like.
by everdrive - Once you go bidet, you don't go back. There are lots of nice kits that you can install on your existing toilet too, making it super easy. [1] is a generic Amazon search. Electricity not required for most
We use so much less tp since we got one.
- Which is just going to make it more expensive to mail rolls to your congressmen. Congressmen and diapers should be changed often and for the same reason.by ForOldHack
- Maybe this will help people switch over from TP to bamboo. Not perfect but much more sustainable than cutting trees. We switched years ago.
Edit: I mixed up my words originally -- switch _from_ wood-based TP to bamboo is what I meant
- You must mean switch to bamboo based products from wood based paper. Way more sustainable, and not much more expensive, but as more switch, although it should become cheaper...by ForOldHack
- All this is making the current administration less popular with no benefit. This is what you get when you hire a guy who has no brains.by 0xbadcafebee
- I wonder if Trump even cares - he's now a lame duck president trying to make a legacy for himself by building ballrooms and putting his name on everything (or tearing it down in a huff if not allowed to - Kennedy building).
Insiders say he's bored of being president, bored of his Iran war, and has no interest in going out stumping for others in the midterms since there is nothing in it for himself.
The only enjoyment he's got left is trying to get a rise out of the press and get some adulation from his base with playground antics like his "Lake America".
At this point it's not just that he started out stupid (even his own mother said so), but that he's pretty seriously suffering from dementia - I'm sure any nursing home staff recognize the symptoms.
- That's unfortunate, considering the recent uprise in contaminated foods, which give you the shits.
OTOH, upgrade to a TOTO, or other 'smart' toilet. Need less paper that way.
https://www.consumerreports.org/home-garden/toilets/best-sma...
- Who knew destroying the federal government would have knock-on consequencesby myko
- OTOH, upgrade to a TOTO, or other 'smart' toilet. Need less paper that way.
My experience with these has been that I use more paper, because I always feel "wet" afterward.
Whereas with a good, solid, no-nonsense beef bomb, I can skimp a little as long as there's a good pinch at the end.
by reaperducer - You don't even need to shell out for one of those (though I'm sure they're nice). Bidet attachments work really well. If you have a 3D printer, you can try using a bidet very easily: https://www.printables.com/model/739924-bidet-from-a-pet-bot...
I use the 3D-printed one for travel (I'd gladly pay extra for hotels that have bidets) and outdoor use.
Using a bidet is such an easy life upgrade for anyone relying on TP.
by gensym - Time to become a bidet exporterby marcyb5st
- Missed opportunity for Biden to push (!) for mass bidet adoption.by aeve890
- Weird that this is a story about toilet paper yet the elephant in the room is the fact that the US imports most of its foreign oil from Canada (yes that’s right - not the Middle East).by alfiedotwtf
- Why did Republicans pick a fight with Canada?
Same energy as a 13-year-old boy bullying his little brother just because of his own hormone-driven insecurity.
by pavlov - I think it’s fairly well established that Trump treats trade as a zero sum, single play, game.
China is the long term winner here.
by agd - Trump can't win anywhere else, so he's trying for a win here.
Let's hope victory against Canada looks better than victory against Iran else we'll be paying $10/roll for toilet paper as well as $4/gal at the pump.
- Because they're sabotaging the country from within. In this case, they're alienating (former?) allies.by atmavatar
- Canadians may be nice but we are also petty and proud. It’s hard for us to win against a big bully, but we won’t be pushed around either.
Everyone is going to lose here.
by kimos - My guess: to weaken Canada's economy, limit Canada's international standing, bankrupt the sovereign state, cause rise of populism and voters thereof, have its people overthrow the government, then absorb the former country as a state to extract its natural resources, to fulfill manifest destiny.
Other than the current tariff narrative, it's fairly standard CIA play when we look at what they did to Latin America already.
by solox3 - That's okay, I still have tons left over from COVID.by kleiba2
- I hope this is comedyby roboror