Avgas in France has reached $7.50/gal !

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:AZz7e.14314$xL4.12721@attbi_s72...
Gas prices, on the other hand, are plain as day transparent, and people
are already ****ed as hell.

No actually there not plain as day. When I pull up to the pump see that gas
is $2.479/gal I have no idea what part of that is tax.

In Arkansas the same goes for liquor tax. It is built into the advertised
price but not by law only by tradition. I owned a liquor store for a few
years and considered advertising the retail price and then adding the state
liquor and state, county and local sales taxes at the register.

My employees freaked out at the idea. They felt the customers would get
****ed and they were right.

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:AZz7e.14314$xL4.12721@attbi_s72...

Gas prices, on the other hand, are plain as day transparent, and people
are already ****ed as hell.


No actually there not plain as day. When I pull up to the pump see that gas
is $2.479/gal I have no idea what part of that is tax.

In many states, I'm in one, it is required by law to have the state and
federal tax amounts listed on each pump.

Martin Hotze wrote:



But I like to be brought to the ER after an accident ASAP and beeing searched
for an insurance card _after_ the emergency treatment.

Careful for that hook in your mouth, they're pretty sharp.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:JUz7e.14308$xL4.10941@attbi_s72...
Offensive? Sure. Surprising? Not in the least.

You're "offended" by my broadsiding the French?

How can it be that you are so surprised that I might take offense, and yet I
am not surprised at all that you might give it? I would have thought you'd
"know" me better by now.

I'm offended by any generalized denigration or unjustified stereotyping of
any broad group of people. You seem to do this a lot, and thus wind up
offending me on a fairly regular basis. You seem like a friendly enough
guy, which makes it just that much harder to understand how it is you seem
to have your head up your ass when it comes to acceptance and understanding
of opinions that differ from your own.

Your statement is certainly offensive to the French themselves, as well as
to anyone who keeps an open mind about how cultural, philosophical, or
political differences can exist without either group of people having those
differences being particularly more ignorant than the other.

Frankly, I think pretty much most people are stupid. It's anti-social of me
to have that opinion, I realize. In that respect, it might seem
hypocritical of me to be offended at you (essentially) calling another group
of people stupid. But, if the French are "dunderheads" as a group, they
certainly aren't unique in that respect. I'd say Americans are just as
dunderheaded as they are. Probably no more so, but certainly no less so.
The problem here isn't so much that you called the French stupid, but that
you seem to think we as Americans are somehow better than they are.

By the way, as long as we're talking about stupid people...I would much
rather interact with a stupid person who has a kind and generous heart, than
a smart person who constantly stereotypes and belittles those who are
different from him. Guess which kind of person you seem to me to be.

Pete

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:34A7e.14321$xL4.3090@attbi_s72...
Martin, I don't know what kind of propaganda they've been feeding you in
Austria, but in America no one cares about who's paying for the bills here
until after the emergency medical services are rendered.

That (probably) depends on the emergency.

Both times I was admitted to the ER with a collapsed lung, they made sure
they had my insurance information before I was treated.

As usual, you seem to be living in a different America than many of the rest
of us.

And, in fact, we *do* have nationalized health care in this country for
the indigent. Those who deny this fact clearly have no concept of how our
medical system works.

Tell that to the local homeless people my wife and I help feed on a weekly
basis. I'm sure they'd love to hear how they shouldn't have had to pay
their medical expenses after all.

See above.

Pete

It's amazing how prejudices and misinformation fly.

I read an article by a French guy - supposed to be a world-famous scholar -
about cultural differences between French and Americans. He said (I
paraphrase) "France is basically an agricultural society, so French understand
that it can't rain every day, and that a good year is likely to be followed by
a poorer year, hence their conservatism - Americans slaughtered the Indians
and that explains everything you need to know about them".

Many French really believe that blacks are not admitted to US hospitals, and
if you check in with ten bullets in the chest, but don't have cash to pay
they throw you back out in the alley to bleed. At the same time, they will
tell you their health care is "free" - they don't seem to worry about the fact
that a flat-rate 21% comes off every paycheck - even the poorest - to pay for
it and it's still running up colossal deficits.

For all of these differences, flying in France is not that different from the
US - except for the fuel price, that is. For the recreational and VFR pilot,
most of France is class "G" - below 11500ft - above this it is "D", and
they'll never let you in under VFR. But stay below that and you go pretty much
where you want. Airspace restrictions require you to call for clearances
pretty often - but I've never had a request refused, and this keeps you in
contact almost constantly with someone or other - because information services
(particularly weather reporting) are poor to non-existant. Once you get into
IFR and commercial operations costs are much higher than in the US, and there
are a lot of regulations. Only about 15% of PPL's in France are IFR rated,
against roughly 50% in the US. Typical cost for an IR rating is $20K (from
PPL). Night flying is not included in the standard PPL, and requires a logbook
endorsement - there are special routes to follow, usually related to noise
abatement. Rental rates reflect the high fuel cost, but they include a sort of
"nationalized" insurance which I understand is not bad (never had to use it).
Landing and parking fees are ubiquitous, but moderate. A $100 hamburger
becomes a $200 Cote de Boeuf. The country is very beautiful, and despite its
rather small size contains an astonishing wealth and variety of different
conditions - from blue/green seacoast to mountains higher than any in the US,
to vinyards and vast farmlands, gorges and valleys. Weather in the north is a
bit of a problem - through nine months of the year VFR conditions are the
exception, which makes basic VFR training longer and more expensive than in
Florida or California. Private airplane use for transportation is much less
common than in the US, but this is not only due to the cost, but to the fact
that other forms of transportation are much more developed. It's hard to
justify a 180nm business trip from Paris to Poitiers, in any plane, when the
train has you there in 90 minutes flat, and it's $80 round trip.

Just some random reflections from an American, living in France.

G Faris

Peter Duniho wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:JUz7e.14308$xL4.10941@attbi_s72...

Offensive? Sure. Surprising? Not in the least.

You're "offended" by my broadsiding the French?


How can it be that you are so surprised that I might take offense, and yet I
am not surprised at all that you might give it? I would have thought you'd
"know" me better by now.

I'm offended by any generalized denigration or unjustified stereotyping of
any broad group of people. You seem to do this a lot, and thus wind up
offending me on a fairly regular basis. You seem like a friendly enough
guy, which makes it just that much harder to understand how it is you seem
to have your head up your ass when it comes to acceptance and understanding
of opinions that differ from your own.

Your statement is certainly offensive to the French themselves, as well as
to anyone who keeps an open mind about how cultural, philosophical, or
political differences can exist without either group of people having those
differences being particularly more ignorant than the other.

Frankly, I think pretty much most people are stupid. It's anti-social of me
to have that opinion, I realize. In that respect, it might seem
hypocritical of me to be offended at you (essentially) calling another group
of people stupid. But, if the French are "dunderheads" as a group, they
certainly aren't unique in that respect. I'd say Americans are just as
dunderheaded as they are. Probably no more so, but certainly no less so.
The problem here isn't so much that you called the French stupid, but that
you seem to think we as Americans are somehow better than they are.

By the way, as long as we're talking about stupid people...I would much
rather interact with a stupid person who has a kind and generous heart, than
a smart person who constantly stereotypes and belittles those who are
different from him. Guess which kind of person you seem to me to be.

Pete



Your message is offensive. MYOB.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:AZz7e.14314$xL4.12721@attbi_s72...

If it hit $7.50 a gallon, you would see a revolution in America.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"


Everyone was thinking there would be a revolution back in the 70's when it hit 60 cents a gallon! The only revolution I
saw was to watch the auto industry crumple and dollars go overseas to the imports...

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:AZz7e.14314$xL4.12721@attbi_s72...
If my government taxed gasoline so that it cost $7.50 per gallon, I
would
be
standing on my representatives desk right now. And so would millions
of
Americans.

No they won't!

Day after tomorrow is tax day and no one is even flinching.

I think you're wrong, Matt.

The Federal tax code has been carefully -- even diabolically -- written so
that the average Joe on the street has NO idea what he's actually paying
in
taxes.

You mean they don't look at line 45 of their 1040? :~)

Various pundits have been showing us "Tax Freedom Day" for as long as I
remember, but no one has jumped up on footstools, much less their
representatives desk.


By forcing employers to withhold the tax BEFORE the employee ever
sees the money, the Gubmint not only guarantees payment, it guarantees
acquiescence.

Bottom line: The government keeps the tax laws inscrutably complex quite
on
purpose, lest they provoke an uprising.

And the people (see poll I quoted) are willing to acquiese to it, rather
than lose their "goodies".

Gas prices, on the other hand, are plain as day transparent, and people
are
already ****ed as hell. The Bush administration is crapping their pants
right now, watching GW's approval rating plummet, primarily because of
rising gas prices.

John Kerry, Al Gore, Bill and Hillary Clinton have all stated, in public,
that Americans should be paying $4.50 to $5.00 a galllon and their support
is about 45% of the people.


If it hit $7.50 a gallon, you would see a revolution in America.

It depends on how soon it happened. Remember all those jokes about quotes
from the 1950's, that if things keep going they way there were, a house
would cost $50,000? Or a weeks groceries would be $25?

Remember the analogy of the frog in boiling water.

"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:AZz7e.14314$xL4.12721@attbi_s72...
If my government taxed gasoline so that it cost $7.50 per gallon, I
would
be
standing on my representatives desk right now. And so would millions
of
Americans.

Gas prices, on the other hand, are plain as day transparent, and people
are
already ****ed as hell. The Bush administration is crapping their pants
right now, watching GW's approval rating plummet, primarily because of
rising gas prices.

If it hit $7.50 a gallon, you would see a revolution in America.

And they would elect someone like John Kerry.

We'd have $7.50 gas AND rationing/mile-long-lines.

Remember the mid-70's?