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On Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:05:43 +0100, Stephen wrote:
> On 6 Jul 2008 01:12:33 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospam com> wrote:
>
>>On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:04:30 +0100, Stephen wrote:
>>
>>
>>>>Why is a duck?
>>>
>>> "Have you considered the possibility," I countered, "that I simply
>>> assumed that you were another drunken, disheveled, ignorant bum? This
>>> city is full of them, you know."
>>
>>LOL, but I don't think I'm disheveled. Or drunk, for that matter - I
>>can still type. When I'm drunk, I can't type.
>>
>>That said, there's rum in the freezer; it should probably come out.
>>
> I googled the phrase and the first hit was a short story, that is a line
> from it :)
> When I'm drunk I can delete someone's bug report by mistake instead of
> replying :oops:
:-)
The answer I was always told was "because there are no bones in ice
cream".
Jim
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Darren New wrote:
>
>> And do you even know how much gasoline/diesel costs here? An American
>> would drop his jaw into the ground if he saw it. Translated to the US
>> units, gasoline is about 9.5 dollars/gallon, and diesel is 8.3.
>
> But you have good public transit, yes? When I've been on vacation in
> Europe for weeks at a time, I never rent a car. In the USA, it's really
> difficult to live most places without a car, except maybe in the middle
> of a big city.
Yes, on few of the "big" cities (Finnish cities are nowhere to claim to
be big - none of them has even near of million citizens, but in Finnish
scale they (100+k citizens) are big). You can manage well with public
transportation on a vacation, but try to work and live a bit off from
the major courses. My trip to work every morning would take something
like 9 hours(!), because there is no bus line from my place to the
motorway (one could assume I'd walk that 7km - with laptop, possibly
other hardware etc...).
>> Not only that, you have to pay mandatory annual car insurance (good
>> thing, I suppose) as well as a mandatory annual car tax (you receive
>> nothing in return, it's a *pure* tax for simply *owning* a car, without
>> any benefits).
>
> Same here. Well, I mean, the taxes go towards upkeep of the roads and
> such, but it's not like you directly see the money come back to your
> pocket. California car taxes are exceptionally high because we're so
> "progressive" here. :-)
I don't remember the exact numbers, but in Finland the country collects
much more taxes from the traffic than returns there.
> Oh, and we have "gift tax." Someone gives you a million dollars as a
> present? Please give half to the government, thanks.
So do we, after some limit (gifts between 0-limit are taxless), but I
can't remember how much it is.
> And your government doesn't seem to treat citizens like the enemy, as
> well. :-)
At least as long as you agree with them.
--
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
http://www.zbxt.net
aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid
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Darren New wrote:
>> Own a TV (or, for that matter, any device capable of decoding TV
>> signal)? Tax.
>
> Not quite that here, no. But you pay to receive the signal at all in
> most places, by paying the cable company. We never got a TV tax, but
> then we never got government television stations either.
PBS stations don't count as government stations?
--
"Apple I" (c) Copyright 1767, Sir Isaac Newton.
/\ /\ /\ /
/ \/ \ u e e n / \/ a w a z
>>>>>>mue### [at] nawazorg<<<<<<
anl
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Mueen Nawaz wrote:
> PBS stations don't count as government stations?
I was thinking about that. As far as I can tell, no. NPR isn't (much)
funded by the government (any more), and it's really composed of a bunch
of local radio stations all joining in. NPR is more like a supplier of
content than a radio station owner, more like "Visa" than a bank, for
example.
I don't know how much funding they get these days from the government,
but I don't think it's enough that I'd call it a "government station".
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
Helpful housekeeping hints:
Check your feather pillows for holes
before putting them in the washing machine.
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> And do you even know how much gasoline/diesel costs here? An American
> would drop his jaw into the ground if he saw it. Translated to the US
> units, gasoline is about 9.5 dollars/gallon, and diesel is 8.3.
We're up to $9/gallon for diesel and $9.50/gallon for petrol here in Germany
now.
> Oh, and cars cost almost double what they cost, for example, in Germany
> because of all the taxes. (In Germany, IIRC, a tax of 16% is put on the
> price of sold cars, while in Finland it's something like 96%.)
It went up to 19% here last year, but still small compared to the 96%! That
is a bit ridiculous.
> Not only that, you have to pay mandatory annual car insurance (good
> thing, I suppose)
I wouldn't like to live somewhere without mandatory car insurance, is there
any civilised country that does not demand that?
> as well as a mandatory annual car tax (you receive
> nothing in return, it's a *pure* tax for simply *owning* a car, without
> any benefits).
In the UK you need to pay the annual "road tax", if you want to drive or
park your vehicle on the public roads.
> On the plus side, you'll usually get a fast broadband internet connection
> for a quite moderate price here.
Plus, I assume you also get a lot more holiday per year than is usual in
USA. Most countries in Europe seem to have 4-6 weeks holiday per year as
standard.
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scott <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote:
> > Oh, and cars cost almost double what they cost, for example, in Germany
> > because of all the taxes. (In Germany, IIRC, a tax of 16% is put on the
> > price of sold cars, while in Finland it's something like 96%.)
> It went up to 19% here last year, but still small compared to the 96%! That
> is a bit ridiculous.
Still not as ridiculous as in Denmark, where it is, AFAIK, 210%...
> > as well as a mandatory annual car tax (you receive
> > nothing in return, it's a *pure* tax for simply *owning* a car, without
> > any benefits).
> In the UK you need to pay the annual "road tax", if you want to drive or
> park your vehicle on the public roads.
OTOH I assume that means that if you own 2 cars you don't have to pay
twice?
> > On the plus side, you'll usually get a fast broadband internet connection
> > for a quite moderate price here.
> Plus, I assume you also get a lot more holiday per year than is usual in
> USA. Most countries in Europe seem to have 4-6 weeks holiday per year as
> standard.
Yeah, that's quite cool. And moreover, by law you get an increased salary
during your holiday here.
--
- Warp
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> Still not as ridiculous as in Denmark, where it is, AFAIK, 210%...
Hmmm, looking back to when I used to visit Denmark a lot, maybe that
explains why there were so many old cars on the roads? So really, a car
>> In the UK you need to pay the annual "road tax", if you want to drive or
>> park your vehicle on the public roads.
>
> OTOH I assume that means that if you own 2 cars you don't have to pay
> twice?
depending on how polluting the vehicle is.
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scott <sco### [at] laptopcom> wrote:
> > Still not as ridiculous as in Denmark, where it is, AFAIK, 210%...
> Hmmm, looking back to when I used to visit Denmark a lot, maybe that
> explains why there were so many old cars on the roads? So really, a car
And it's not like you could just go to Germany, buy a car and bring it
to Finland. You'll have to pay the 96% of tax when you bring the car, so
no such luck...
--
- Warp
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> And it's not like you could just go to Germany, buy a car and bring it
> to Finland. You'll have to pay the 96% of tax when you bring the car, so
> no such luck...
Yeh I guessed as much.
I assume you're allowed foreign registered cars there for a certain amount
of time, it's 6 months here I think. You could just replace your car in
Germany every 6 months, although I'm sure they thought of that already and
made it illegal.
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On 6 Jul 2008 14:09:20 -0400, Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>The answer I was always told was "because there are no bones in ice
>cream".
It is a question (?) that I rediscover every time I hear it. It makes no sense
:)
--
Regards
Stephen
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