Society
Exploring "Why" questions about Society
481 articles
Why are police in the US using more and more military/unnecessary equipment?
You're pretty much right but I think its also kind of a cop out answer that we get. The wars are winding down so yeah there is a lot of surplus equipment but why not just keep it for the next war? Bec
Why are campaign funds correlated with winning an election? Why don’t people just vote for who is the best person for the country?
Because marketing is everything. If you don't know somebody exists, how do you vote for them?
why would an international football team have a goalie that’s never saved a penalty in his career?
Firstly, he's young for an international keeper so will have faced less penalties skewing the statistic. Secondly, saving penalties is a tiny fraction of what a goalie has to do.
Why do people hold their hand on a bible when making an oath? What if the person isn’t Christian?
The "hand on the bible" gesture is purely symbolic. Meant to express that your words are all honest. If you are not Christian, you can ask for another religious text or governmentally binding, secular
Why does it take 5 seconds for credit card/debit card companies to take money out of my account but 5 days for them to refund it?
It always takes days. See, when you buy something, it takes a few days for the merchant to get their money. You don't notice or care about it because the money is gone out of your account and you have
Why is it legal to fire missiles against uncertain targets with a drone?
This doesn't seem like a very ELI5 kind of question. There's no simple way to explain an answer to really any of your questions, and you'd be even less likely to get an unbiased one. I mean, look at t
Why is Christianity mainly found in Europe, the Americas, and Sub-Saharan Africa when the areas around where Jesus actually lived are still dominated by Islam?
Ok, here's a rough and over-simplified version. Christianity was born in Jerusalem but didn't really take off until it became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Romans then helped spread i
Why are Americans more or less complacent with the income inequality in their country?
> It seems like people are ready to bitch about how somebody is literally Hitler for collecting food stamps This is, unfortunately, the most successful way to *get* the extreme calcification of ec
Why student loan debt isn’t absolved by bankruptcy.
The loans are guaranteed by the US Govt, the system is structured for the loans to not be discharged by bankruptcy. No other way you would get an unsecured loan for 100k at 6% with little to no credit
WHY is Japan purposely devaluing its currency?
I know the yen has lost value due to inflation, but has their government actively devalued their currency the same way China has? China of course has done so to keep the cost of their exports down sin