The Best Argument for Americanized Spelling I've Ever Seen

[Griffin NoName]

Online retail is way less convenient in Canada than in the US.

I'm intrigued. What are the differences??

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

It leads to a ridiculous amount of e-waste.  The idea is to make less money on the initial purchase, but to make more money once you're looped into a given brand on the cartridges, but quite often people will just buy a whole new unit because it feels like better value.

Not limited to printers, I use an electric toothbrush and the full thing is cheaper than the replacement heads, in fact cheap enough to compete with non-electric brushes.

[Aggie]

Online retail is way less convenient in Canada than in the US.

I'm intrigued. What are the differences??

Much, much lower population, a somewhat larger land mass (a fairly decentralized one in terms of population) and a much less competitive retail environment.  US retailers can rely on volume to make up for lower prices.    We can order most things from the US (although heavy shipping costs and sometimes duty will apply), so while they're technically available, they are not economical for the consumer.  Prospective retailers of some of these items are probably discouraged from starting a company, because of the lower population here and the fact that one could source them from Amrika (i.e. there is already a supplier to compete with).


@Zono: It most famously applies to razors; give away the handle with a couple of blades for relatively cheap, then charge for the replacement cartridges.  I may be switching back to disposable 1-piece razors, as the cartridges are ridiculously expensive - usually around $5 per cartridge, even if you buy the big pack.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

There are ways to refill toner cartridges with just the black powder.  In a non-commercial use (such as what I do), the drum does not see appreciable wear, so refilling makes sense.  But not all are easy to do, and not all toner is the same--some of the knock-off stuff is pure junkware, and can ruin your whole day (and printer, too--not just the cartridge).

When my "test cartridge" ran out (the one the printer shipped with), I had a choice of two-- the difference was about 1/3 more, for far more than 2 times the expected print volume.  Since I do occasionally print for my work?  My boss kindly got me the larger one-- and I occasionally print out 8-10 pages for him, in lovely waterproof laser typeset. 

[Darlica]

Swedish schools generally teaches British English. Which is what I learned in School and therefore mostly uses. The Kids these days however uses a lot of American English due to consuming a lot of American culture...

I also prefer British English of a a couple of reasons: I live closer to UK than to USA. I simply like it better the pronunciation and the way the words looks written down. Also less homonyms hence less confusion.

In my twenties I went to a folk high school (education for adults that want complement their education in order to be able to go to university) for a year, amongst other things I studied a more advanced English than I did when I was younger.
I had a teacher who was very good but also very firm in her view of how to use Br. English and AM. English.
The very first class we had with her every one had to choose to use either Br. English or Am. English and then stick to it for the rest of the year in all her classes! If one had chosen Br.English and then used American spelling in a word (unless it was in a quote) it counted as a spelling error and of cause vice versa.
It was rather fun to watch the ones who chosen Am.English just  because they thought it was "cool" get an earful because they wasn't consistent in their spelling or pronunciation...
In the end only one student in my English classes did succeed using Am. English, she had been an exchange student in USA for a year plus worked as an Au Pair for two or three years also in USA.

The amount of English text I print is almost non existing, so the environmental bit is a non issue for me. And should of some reason the world deicide to completely switch over to Am. English I would cry.

[Griffin NoName]

I doubt the world will deliberately switch to US English but inevitably some terms get assimilated in all languages into other languages. So it may be more Brit. English augmented by some US stuff. We have a lot of French etc anyway. The s and the z are getting pretty much interchangeable in words like exercize/exercise. Hmmm. Long time since I saw it with a z. The Oxford English Dictionary (the Bible) often lists both spellings.

And remember, if you time travelled back a few hundred years, the language may be unrecognizable anyway.

[Darlica]

Well, every language change over time. If you would like to read Swedish documents from the 16th century you better be good at the German language... and a couple of centuries later it was French...

And we have English words too but those mainly did their entrée in the later part of the last century.

However, while we are assimilating new and forging words we stubbornly keep our ÅÄÖ and tricky spelling of "sch" sounds,