"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"Keith G" wrote

That's OK, I'll pull it back on topic: when US Dollars = Euros = Pounds
Sterling for hifi gear (and other consumer electronics) off the shelf in
the High Street (Mall), I say those that justify the disparity to
themselves and accept it without a murmer are *gullible*...!!


And how effective have your "murmurs" been in changing the situation?


Sod the situation - it's not my job to prevent people from getting ripped
off. 'Caveat Emptor' is the key, but I suspect the 'Net will resolve all
ills in the end: it's opening people's eyes all the time.


BTW I don't think you've looked at prices in the Eurozone with any care.


I haven't looked at them at all - it's the US Dollars = Pounds Sterling bit
that ****es me off, especially if they are British-made products to start
with!

In article ,
Keith G wrote:
What makes you think that 'skill and talent' wouldn't want to go to a
country with a lower cost of living? Because moving tax from direct to
indirect simply pushes up that.


At the personal level, I suspect a lot of people like the choice whether
to buy a (possibly) heavily taxed item rather than have their earnings
plundered before they get them, in the case of salaried/waged employees.

If you abolished income tax, *everything* would be taxed by VAT or
whatever. It couldn't be limited to luxury goods. This would also force up
low wages and benefits etc, as you can't alter the tax on goods according
to income which you can of course with income tax.

--
*That's it! I‘m calling grandma!

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Keith G wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote


However, I've never found traffic bad if having to get somewhere by
car for an 0700 start. When I drive to Scotland, I leave south London
at 0630 and am across London before the rush hour starts.


Traffic into London at about 06:00 is travelling at quite a lick - it
ain't hard to avoid the rush.

Scotland? St Neots (Cambs) *overnight* to Dundee - 6 hours; return
journey Dundee to St Neots overnight in a fully loaded car - 6 1/2
hours.

Last South London to Aberdeen journey 8 1/2 hours *including* a stop for a
meal. Average running speed 74 mph. MPG, 33.

--
*Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"David Looser" wrote in message
...

My understanding of the "Rolex thing" is that it's about status and
wealth.

Others might say it is an interest in quality, an appreciation
of the finer things in life:-)


Mr Looser thinks that people who get a lift from owning/wearing a Rolex
actually give a damn about what Joe Snot might think of it. My son loves
his Rolex - the bloody thing cost over 400 quid for a service last year!!

Morning Keith

Another thought that comes to mind is that many quality watches
are given either as corporate gifts, or as a reward for outstanding
achievement, or long service. In the latter two cases, this seems to
me to be something of which one can be justifiably proud.

I have two "ten year watches" and more pairs of gold and silver
presentation cufflinks than I can shake a stick at. I asked if
I might return the second watch after the presentation, and
exchange it for a pocket watch with a sweep/ stop second
hand which to me was much more useful.

Iain

In article m, Rob
wrote:
On 01/02/2011 09:32, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In aweb.com,

Sorry. Afraid I tend not to use the "royal we" or say "one". Hence my
"your" wasn't talking about you personally.


Ah, a dialect issue.

A bit of advice - avoid the second person pronoun when having a
conversation beyond your locale.

Does anyone say "Don't thee thou me!" these days? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Iain Churches wrote:
I dread to think what the commuter traffic is like now
in London. Back in 1980 I lived in Richmond, and
often had to drive to a studio in Finsbury Park N.London.
The North Circular Road was a nightmare so I took a
cross-town route which a cabbie showed me. Even then,
on a bad it day took 2hrs. When you are scheduled to
start recording at 0900 hrs the team needs to be at the
studio at least 2 hrs before to set up.

I never cease to be surprised about people complaining of journey times by
car in London rush hour. I long ago realised it made more sense to use
public transport. Especially for that sort of journey where the north
London line would have made things easy.

Just a different viewpoint - I commuted for about five years from Horley,
Surrey, to London W1. Choices were public transport - not much over an
hour, but stations hot and sweaty in summer, freezing in winter and that
Godawful scrum at the Underground. Of course, that assumed trains turned up
on time if at all. Or - an hour and a half to two hours sitting in
solitary air-conditioned comfort listening to Radio 4 and arriving totally
relaxed and ready for work. If there was a monumental traffic jam en route
you could always kid yourself you were able to do something about by taking
a rat-run, whereas by public transport you were either stuck on a platform
waiting for a train which might never come, or worse crammed into a
compartment with no information and going nowhere. All a matter of personal
preference!

Geoff MacK

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Iain Churches wrote:

I dread to think what the commuter traffic is like now
in London. Back in 1980 I lived in Richmond, and
often had to drive to a studio in Finsbury Park N.London.
The North Circular Road was a nightmare so I took a
cross-town route which a cabbie showed me. Even then,
on a bad it day took 2hrs. When you are scheduled to
start recording at 0900 hrs the team needs to be at the
studio at least 2 hrs before to set up.

I never cease to be surprised about people complaining of journey times by
car in London rush hour.

I had to be there at 0700 hrs. That's probably rush hour now, but
it wasn't back then. My return journey was made in the early hours,
long after public transport had ceased.

I long ago realised it made more sense to use
public transport. Especially for that sort of journey where the north
London line would have made things easy.

Does the Richmond to Broad Street still run? I used to use it to get
to West Hampstead. Quite a good service.

However, I've never found traffic bad if having to get somewhere by car
for an 0700 start. When I drive to Scotland, I leave south London at 0630
and am across London before the rush hour starts.

I had no choice but to take my car to Finsbury Park. Four recording
sessions a day takes you into the the early hours of the morning, after
the underground had closed, and night buses were few and far between.
It was a pretty unsafe area in which to walk about at that time. Later
we could put the cab fare on the studio tab.

Iain

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"Iain Churches" wrote

David wrote;
And of course whilst the tax is higher here than in the US, it's also
lower than it is in many European countries.

If you can call three "many":-)

Well OK, "several" if you prefer.

One can present the figure is several ways, and say that
the UK is: "In the top 10%" which doesn't sound quite
so bad as "has a higher rate of taxaxtion than 90% of
the other countries in the EU"

It's several years since I've had to buy petrol in continental Europe, but
I
well remember it being quite a bit more expensive in some countries
including France. Of course the last UK government made a policy of
increasing fuel duty faster than inflation, it looks like the present
government will abandon that.

Yes prices do vary. In some countries, diesel has a lower tax and can
be about 30% cheaaper than petrol, but, as a non-resident you may
not realise that there is an annual tax (rather like the road fund licencce)
paid by owners of diesel vehicles (except commercial and taxis) It seems
that as a private car owner, you need to drive about 40 000km annually
to make it worthwhile.

What is important is whether or not people think they
are getting good value for their money.

Absolutely. People have to decide whether they want a particular product
at
the price for which it is available here and now.

I was not thinking just of value for goods and services, but value
for money with regard to taxation.

The fact that a similar
product may be available elswhere for less is of little relevance to
making
that decision unless they are able to take advantage of that lower price.
In
the past that was rarely possible, unless you happened to be travelling to
the country concerned and the item itself was portable enough. These days
we have the internet, and people are increasingly buying from around the
world that way. But watch the postage costs and import duties!

And also delivery times, if you require goods quickly.
No import duties within the EU . This makes purchases
from the USA, China and Japan less attractive.

USA prices seem competitive, but shipping is expensive and painfully
slow by European standards.

The Chinese seem to pull their freight prices out of a hat. Much more
expensive that fromn say Australia or Taiwan. The other problem with
buying frpom China, is that you may not get exactly what you ordered.
The Chinese have a saying in English, "Same, same but different!"

There are many EU companies which place a nominal fixed post
and handling charge within the EU. 10 Euros is common.

I buy a lot of books and study materials from the UK. Prices are
competive and VAT =0% Sometimes they send the wrong books
but not often.

Iain

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...

"David Looser" wrote in message
...

My understanding of the "Rolex thing" is that it's about status and
wealth.

Others might say it is an interest in quality, an appreciation
of the finer things in life:-)

At what point does "an appreciation of the finer things in life" roll over
into a desire to show off your "appreciation of the finer things in life";
to show that you own objects with the 'right' brand names on them.

Good point. But, in my experience, people who wear Vacheron watches,
or have high value paintings at home, try to keep as low a profile as
possible. They have no desire/need to show off, and are careful
about giving anyone the idea of bashing them over the head in
a dark side street.


A watch is something that you carry about with you, that is visible to
those who you come into contact with, so it looks to me to be well onto
the show-off side of that equation. Where there is a qualitative
difference between a "quality" item and a cheaper one then maybe there is
something in the argument you put forward. But as I've said before a Rolex
is just a watch, it works no better and looks no better than one at a
fraction of the price.

No one is impressed by a Rolex these days.
They assume its a cheap fake.

Iain

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith G wrote:
What makes you think that 'skill and talent' wouldn't want to go to a
country with a lower cost of living? Because moving tax from direct to
indirect simply pushes up that.


At the personal level, I suspect a lot of people like the choice whether
to buy a (possibly) heavily taxed item rather than have their earnings
plundered before they get them, in the case of salaried/waged employees.

If you abolished income tax, *everything* would be taxed by VAT or
whatever. It couldn't be limited to luxury goods.


Absolutely. It shouldn't be beyond the wit of the thousands of 'economists'
and IT types we churn out every year to come up with a solution to taxing
profits, property, goods and services in a fair and effective manner.


This would also force up
low wages and benefits etc, as you can't alter the tax on goods according
to income which you can of course with income tax.


If anything, I suspect the abolition of Income Tax would allow employers to
pay a little less. The problem with Income Tax is that most of the 'income'
goes to a very few people who are masters of tax avoidance! The whole thing
needs to be rethought - a quick look at the news any day of the week and we
can see there's plenty of money for shopping (weather permitting) and I
suggest it's a good place to slip the tax in (VAT? Purchase Tax? Sales
Tax?). We already know the Brit public likes to pay through the nose - a tax
system on a sliding scale from nowt on bread to a hefty slice on Rolexes
should be easy to arrange!

This makes good reading:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ht/9382745.stm

Where you will see this para:

"So, here lies the dilemma. In today's hyper competitive global economy we
need our super rich and the innovative companies they create more than ever.
But they need us too - as consumers, as employees, as fellow citizens."

IOW, if you want a workable society it's no good trying to tax the poor to
death while the super-rich get away with dodging it!