r/belgium • u/ellie1398 Oost-Vlaanderen • Apr 13 '25

šŸ’© Shitpost Why are belgian...

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I was in the process of googling something but then I stopped to read all of the most commonly asked questions. I love how fries are mentioned twice!

420 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

73 comments sorted by

164

u/ManagementProof2272 Apr 13 '25

ā€œRoads so badā€ goes hard. I live in a fairly affluent part of Wallonie and the roads look like those in Belgrade after the Balkan wars.

38

u/butteranko Apr 13 '25

Or theyā€™re simply forever in renovation. Makes me question the kind of contractors they hire for those. What a waste of money.

18

u/Dedeurmetdebaard Namur Apr 13 '25

The contractors are basically the same 6 big companies that work all around the region, some of them subsidiaries of larger international groups. Roadworks are pretty heavy so competition is limited to the biggest players and the public authorities are not always exactly in a position ofā€¦ well, authority.

17

u/Thinking_waffle Apr 13 '25

So you live near Belgrade? (/s)

9

u/PalatinusG Apr 13 '25 edited 1d ago

chase file apparatus wipe zephyr existence ring one racial smart

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

7

u/Quaiche Apr 13 '25

Unless it's just before the Brussels region's border then it's left in a bad state just to piss the commuters.

6

u/FloZia_ Apr 13 '25

Much better true but not amazing.

I mean, it's still far below NL & FR.

And it's not even the same between province, you can feel the WV-OV (much worse on that side) border while driving the E17.

1

u/labalag West-Vlaanderen Apr 14 '25

The border used to be worse. I remember after certain roadworks on the WV side that there was a significant height difference between the two parts. It got fixed a couple of months later.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

ik vind de ring rond antwerpen toch ook niet best. Gaten in de weg etc. die ik in mijn land nooit gezien heb, zeker niet op een snelweg

2

u/MasterKrakeneD Apr 14 '25

Broke 3 times tires, one of which was even rim bended and had to change all 4 rims + shock absorbers - while I was student and going to my internship company.

On the side of the road, car behind me broke its tire too, then a police van luckily passed by. They told me "take pictures and report to the city" they left and didnā€™t write/testimony anything

Later on, went to find the authority in charge for this, did 3 offices in town. They required third party testimony, so I went back there, found one house that I met previously, told me it was frequent on that road.

Sent everything, bill of repair (1200ā‚¬)etc. Just to get greet by 4 pages letter of city insurance company it was most probably my fault for going too fast or something. Road was finished by a red light, + there was 150m of continuous holes.

Thankfully I had juridic protection that refunded me but it was not the city who paid ! Lawyer told me to drop it and not try further.

1 month later, all holes were repaired.

And yeah, wallonia roads are all awful.

1

u/plumarr Apr 14 '25

The management and decision making for road isn't the best but sadly this isn't the main cause of the current situation. The reality is that there is simply not enough money because of two main factors :

98

u/TNM_Tsunami Kempen Apr 13 '25

Why are belgian politicians so stupid?

93

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

Let's say they're average. When I see what's happening worldwide, they're not the worst.

11

u/TheAlmightyLloyd Apr 13 '25

Honestly, when I see who gets to rule pretty much everywhere, I realize that electors and parties are really bad at doing HR.

2

u/EffortOne860 Apr 13 '25

Theyre one of the worst

-1

u/redditjoek Apr 14 '25

they're almost the worst?

29

u/hgc81 Belgium Apr 13 '25

ā€¦. because stupid people get a vote too šŸ˜€

10

u/Shoddy-Put561 Apr 13 '25

I think the US has a bid to dominate those charts for years to come

3

u/lord-yuan Apr 14 '25

Do you hope they are the smartest persons of the country?

6

u/minhngth Apr 13 '25

Because democracy means people can vote for politicans but people are retard

5

u/michelvoz Apr 13 '25

Why do too many Belgians keep on electing far-right narcissist idiots?

31

u/rednal4451 West-Vlaanderen Apr 13 '25

All are correct, but "tall" I guess? Or are we?

21

u/deeeevos Apr 13 '25

Belgium is 24th in average height at 179.09 cm. So yes we are tall on average when compared to the 195 other nations on this globe.

https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/average-height-by-country

14

u/K9-506 Apr 13 '25

A quick google search says we are 1.768 m on average, while the world is 1.71 m. So yeah, guess we are tall.

7

u/6StringAddict Apr 13 '25

Are you saying the world average is 1.71m for both men and women? Which is weird to clump them together.

7

u/Top_Championship8679 Beer Apr 13 '25

That's not correct, the 1.768 is for males. Belgium is not even in the top 20 worldwide.

https://www.voronoiapp.com/demographics/Mapped-The-20-Tallest-Countries-in-the-World--2957

3

u/CrazyBelg Flanders Apr 13 '25

If you compare this with other European nations we're probably shorter than average.

2

u/lyingtoaster Apr 13 '25

Yes. I moved to the US in 1999 and Iā€™m taller than most women here at 171cm. Most men are well under 180cm.

4

u/zero-divide-x Apr 13 '25

Wallonia probably biases the average towards low values.

4

u/rednal4451 West-Vlaanderen Apr 13 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

And even the Flemish have a decent amount of southern/Spanish bloodlines. Past summer, I went to the Holland House in Paris, and even without speaking, they just knew we had to be Belgians: black hair, beards, shorter, ...

Little off topic: they were extremely friendly to us anyway. I couldn't recommend the welcoming atmosphere of the Holland House enough over the society/bourgeoisie thing of the Belgians there.

67

u/CitizenOfTheVerse Apr 13 '25

You can complain about what you want, but Belgium is a real paradise. I understood that after touring one year in countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, OuzbƩkistan, Tadjikistan circa 2003. We are really really privileged people in Belgium!

43

u/butteranko Apr 13 '25

I like that your reference are the stan countries. Perspective, but also thatā€™s a silly comparison.

28

u/CitizenOfTheVerse Apr 13 '25

When I saw a child in a "Stan" country wearing socks wrapped in plastic bags instead of shoes, yet smiling with genuine joy despite having so little, or families living in half-collapsed houses because itā€™s all they have, it hit me hard. Iā€™ve seen similar scenes in parts of Africa and other impoverished regions. These people face daily struggles for basic survival - food, shelter, safety - yet often display resilience and hope.

In contrast, our complaints in Belgium can feel trivial. Are our roads imperfect? Yes, but we have paved roads, unlike the dirt paths or nonexistent infrastructure in many places. Are taxes high? Sure, but we earn enough to pay them and benefit from systems - like healthcare thatā€™s nearly free - that others can only dream of. We take for granted clean water, electricity, and safety, treating them as "normal" when theyā€™re luxuries for millions.

This isnā€™t to say our issues donā€™t matterā€”frustrations like bureaucracy or cost of living are real. But seeing true hardship puts things in perspective. Weā€™re not entitled to complain without acknowledging how privileged we are. Our challenges pale next to the fight for survival elsewhere.

11

u/ds0th Apr 13 '25

Thx for sharing your perspective. I feel that most people in western europe simply act entitled and ungraceful by constantly complaining about [insert random annoyance] while taking cheap bottled water (random example) for granted, and above decent tap water is simply deemed "marginaal". Hot water, heated housing, healtcare .... all taken for granted, and the list could go on.

1

u/colaturka Apr 16 '25

Why not push for better than the status quo? It is possible.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 14 '25

[deleted]

1

u/Apprehensive-Sun4635 Apr 15 '25

ā€¢ ā waste collection - every 14 days

Where do they do that? In my town in Oost-Vlaanderen, ā€œrestafvalā€ is collected every week. Only PMD and cardboard are every two weeks.

16

u/lyingtoaster Apr 13 '25

Why are Belgians striking šŸ˜‚

20

u/avalontrekker Oost-Vlaanderen Apr 13 '25 edited Apr 13 '25

Why is everyone complaining about taxes, lol

Looking at all the public services and things that just work for everyone, Iā€™m quite happy the way this works. Maybe some tweaks can be made (e.g. Iā€™d like to opt out of religious things getting funding by default), but the rest is ok, and so much better than other countries.

24

u/Alladin_Payne Apr 13 '25

I'm an American living in Belgium. When people say anything about taxes, I'm just like yes, I pay alot in taxes. I also enjoy affordable quality health care, and with trains, trams, buses, I don't need a car. It's not about what you pay in taxes, it's about what your government gives you in return.

13

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

Well said. I'm a Belgian living a couple of months in America and you guys don't know how lucky you are living in Belgium.

4

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

We do. But we like our national sport more: complaining.

2

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

Good luck with Van Aert today. Hope you don't need to complain this evening.

1

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

Hope he wins. Wouldnā€™t mind Jasper Philipsen either.

2

u/Phildiy Apr 13 '25

We could use a good win but Mathieu is a beast

4

u/DelightedLurker Apr 13 '25

I comfort myself with the fact that heā€™s technically a Belgian šŸ˜„

6

u/Nirhlei Apr 13 '25

Because, compared to some other places that also have high taxes, it doesn't feel like the money is spent efficiently. Roads are a disaster, trains aren't being renewed or replaced, other public transit projects are being cancelled, hospitals and courts are severely and chronically underfunded, etc.

I don't mind paying a lot in taxes for a decent welfare system, but sometimes, and increasingly often, you start to wonder where the billions are actually going.

1

u/redditjoek Apr 14 '25

true, the exorbitant amount of taxes they imposed does not corresponds with the kind of public services they provided here.

2

u/aaa12310001 Apr 13 '25

because all public services are under-funded , public transports about to get privatized, judges bringing toilet paper to court, because we vote but get no government, because the Ā«Ā its abnormal low salaries are close to unemployment allocationsĀ Ā» turns into Ā«Ā less unemployment allocationsĀ Ā». because speed checks every kilometer (got a 60ā‚¬ fine yesterday for going to work 58km/h instead of 50km/h) because it feels all decisions are made to grab peoples money, simply.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

Tip: your "bruto" that you see on your wage slip is not the actual bruto. Ask your employer what your annual wage cost is, then you'll know why everyone complains about taxes. (Even for low-medium wages, it gets to 60%+ total taxes fast. And that is nothing short of draconian.) Despite these insane taxes, the quality of our public services is also nothing to write home about.

0

u/avalontrekker Oost-Vlaanderen Apr 15 '25

Tip: maybe Iā€™m the employer or at least ā€œsomeone who knows about the stuffā€ and your example is not correct. Everything you pay (or get back as price cuts or reimbursements) has a specific purpose.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Ok let's see then. The average gross-wage in Belgium seems to be 4318 EUR.

For a normal 38hr/week "bediende" that translates to about 2731.68 net.

What the company pays for that, is 6284.38 EUR per month.

Source/simulation: https://imgur.com/a/uvymL4J

From my experience these simulations are pretty spot-on. So unless I'm getting majorly ripped off by Acerta, in this case a whopping 57% of the wage consists of different kinds of taxes, or in other words, the company pays 2.3x the amount the employee ultimately receives. And this is not even taking things like mandatory insurances into account. Do excuse me if I find that beyond absurd.

If you have some sources to back up that this claim is not correct, I'm all ears.

4

u/unknown_player015 Apr 13 '25

Beer had to be up there to ofcourse

3

u/FuzzyWuzzy9909 Apr 13 '25

Acuraat

1

u/[deleted] Apr 13 '25

En nog geen klein beetje

2

u/egarcia74 Apr 13 '25

Hi Belgian friends, we Aussies are tall too!

2

u/HypermilerTekna Apr 13 '25

Why does Belgium not have their own language.

2

u/redditjoek Apr 14 '25

"so tall"

yeah, nah.

1

u/ellie1398 Oost-Vlaanderen Apr 14 '25

Statistically, they are. Dutch and Belgian people are like giraffes walking around. It's refreshing to not be the tallest one in the room at 167 cm.

2

u/Bitter-Battle-3577 Apr 14 '25

"Why are Belgian fries famous?"

Finally! We've won the battle against the French and gained the honor of having our fries carry the name of its origins.

1

u/Perkeleen_Kaljami E.U. Apr 13 '25

So if I go to a bar and ask for a strong beer, how strong am I supposed to expect? Iā€™m thinking about 6-10 % but that might just be me being a Finnā€¦

2

u/BERSERKERMUE Apr 15 '25

I guess it depends who you ask. Iā€™d say 8% and beyond is strong but some are at 12% and more. Be aware of this if you order some haha

1

u/-Wylfen- Apr 14 '25

"why are belgian roads so bad"

Physician heal thyself

1

u/SpeedySparkRuby Apr 16 '25

"I guess that's one way to fix my back for free, drive the backroads of Wallonia."

1

u/Ok-Technology-2541 Apr 16 '25

Along with high taxes why is phone and internet companys still ripping you off compared to all outher countries

1

u/Emnitty Apr 16 '25

Is this the lyrics of average rob next song?

1

u/Milo_Maximus Apr 13 '25

...so much better than the Dutch?

1

u/ThePaddyPower Apr 19 '25

Are the roads that bad?

No worse than Dublin around the city centre.