Life – a user's manual Part II - Boksidan

Geography
Differences between countries
Most of what people have created is the same the world over.
All countries, for instance, have money.
Most have their own banknotes and coins.
Though, especially coins, are often so
similar that it creates confusion when travel
ling between several countries.
I general we live in buildings with windows and doors, there are streets and roads. We use clothes, serve our
food from plates and drinks from glasses. All countries are structured in a similar way, with a few that
control through state institutions such as the police and courts. People normally earn their living through any
kind of work. We amuse ourselves by watching TV, listening to music, talking, having sex and eating, and a
subset of the world also through consuming drugs and/or alcohol. In addition, a large portion of the products
we consume as available world wide. The latter is partly due to the fact that many products are manufactured
by a few companies and sold globally (see examples in table 1).
Table 1. World coverage of a sample of companies according to each company's web site (in total there are about 200 countries).
Company Head office Main product No. Of countries
Coca-cola USA sodas About all
Toyota Japan Cars About all
McDonalds USA Fast food 119
Volvo Sweden Trucks >140
Electrolux Sweden Kitchen machines >150
Unilever The Nederlands/UK Food About all
Ericsson Sweden Telephone nets >180
HSBC UK Bank >80
Heineken Nederländerna Beer Manufacuring in 71
SCA Sweden Intimate protectives >100
Kraft USA Candy >170
Additionally, a lot of products are following international standards. Today there are over 10 000
international standard, which cowers the design of a large number of objects like connectors, mobile phones,
pipes, screws, et cetera.
In addition to technical harmonization we practice social harmonization of laws including trade and traffic in
and between countries. To this can be added unaware harmonization caused by that we somewhat consume
the same cultural products (movies, music, TV shows, etc.).
Despite the above, there are still some differences between countries. This could partly be due to that each
country has its own history. Countries that were free in the 1800s are, for example, more democratic than
younger states (measured by the degree of political rights, chart 1). Maybe since they have had more time to
create democracy.
131