On technical advances in everyday life

America, for being the centre of the technological world, is surprisingly ass backwards when it comes to certain things. There's a large number of applications that they seem to have completely right. Self checkouts and supermarkets strikes me as one that hasn't really taken off in NZ that is pretty handy. But for some stuff, it seems they have the most archaic approaches to technology.

The big one for me is internet banking. In NZ, when I get paid by my job, it goes straight into my account. When I pay someone money, it goes straight to theirs. It's how I pay rent, utilities, the flat kitty, everything. It's all done with nary a scrap of paper.

For some reason, America doesn't seem to have this. My paycheque? Comes in the mail. For my rent and utilities I have to write a cheque. I wrote three cheques the entire time I was in New Zealand, having a chequebook for 7 years. Three. Everything else was cash, plastic or electronic. It boggles my mind that they don't have the simple infrastructure for bank to bank transfers. I convinced my one flatmate to let me wire her across some money I owed her, as we were both with the same bank. Not only was she nervous about the whole thing, as it's just not done here, but if she were with a different bank it wouldn't have been possible. I find it incredibly frustrating to have to pay rent and utilities this way. Rather than have the money transfer the same day, I need to make sure I've got enough in the account, and that it stays there for the week it takes for the cheque to reach its destination by post, then get deposited.

But lets remember, this is a nation that's only recently come to grasp with the debit card.