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#151
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"Bob Fry" wrote in message ... "Mike Rapoport" writes: "Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:zoN8e.26116$8Z6.5821@attbi_s21... Just because French society has different values to the US doesn't make them "dunderheaded" either. Call it what you will. Anyone -- French, British, or Martian -- dumb enough to tax avgas up to $7.50 per gallon is dunderheaded. Why? Societies make choices about what they want their governments to provide and what to tax to pay for it. France (and most of the rest of Europe) has chosen to provide extensive social benefits and pay for them with taxes mostly on consumption. The US has also chosen to provide extensive social benefits and also buy a huge mililtary and pay for it with taxes mostly on production (and borrowing from their children.). Would that we were taxing ourselves, but we're not. And we're not borrowing from our children, but from the rest of the world. One day, not so far away, the rest of world will get tired of it. I think within 10-15 years the world's goods will be priced in something other than the US dollar (probably the Euro) and then our consumption will come to an abrupt halt. We are borrowing from the rest of the world but we are leaving the repayment to our children. Mike MU-2 |
#152
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"Dave Stadt" wrote in message ... Been there, saw them in action, they are a disgusting lot, make me number three. I too have been there, as well as a few other places, and I have also seen them in action. I found them to be warm, friendly, helpful, and generous. Sometimes a bit stubborn, but not compared to my wife. :-) I found the local people to be warm, friendly, helpful, and generous in the following places among others not mentioned. France, England, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Germany, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Andorra, Greece, Italy, Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Botswana, Sudan, Kenya, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, Japan, Chili, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Canada, and even many places in the USA. While I have encountered an occaisional obnoxious lout in several of the above places, the highest percentage of such louts was in the USA and the next largest percentage in Japan. Ireland was a distant third in the lout competition and after that it is such a minor scattering as to be relatively insignificant. What can I say. We certainly do not have a monopoly on boors and louts in the USA but we seem to produce more than our fair share. In fact there seems to be a high correlation with the number of lawyers in the population! Do you suppose there is a linkage here or just a spurious correlation? :-) Highflyer Highflight Aviation Services Pinckneyville Airport ( PJY ) |
#153
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A familiar sight in European airports is a certain American, he usually
wears a floral shirt that is long overdue for a wash, he has a camera hanging around his neck, he is always red and perspiring profusely, he almost always has a wife called Martha who sits at least 200 ft away from him, and he holds very loud conversations with her, with no regard to the other passengers who have the misfortune to be seated between them. The conversations, while different, are similar, depending on the airport that they are in. They usually start off complaining about the inefficiency of whatever - followed by - Goddam warm English beer, bunch of French fags, No wonder the Germans lost the friggin war, damn Italians (except he says eyetallianns similar to eyerackies and eyeranians), bunch of Greek assholes, Friggin Turks - what do they know, Egyptians bunch of robbing *******s etc. etc. etc. And you know what? most of the people who meet this asshole think that that is what Americans are like. They dont even realize that there are another 300 Americans in the airport that they are not even aware of because they are behaving like reasonable human beings The ones that are actually representative of your Nation! (The really bright ones are even disguised as Canadians but thats another thread So I suggest to you,that never having even been to France, but sitting there passing judgement from Iowa, that you are only seeing the French equivelant of the asshole with the wife called Martha. Unless of course, in Iowa they are made to wear signs pointing out their Frenchness. Otherwise, unless they attract your attention in some way, how would you even know that they were French? And I can tell you that at one time, I also thought that most Americans were like this character - because that was all that I ever saw. Now - many of my best friends are Americans, and many of them are French, and I personally have always considered discrimination against Americans, French, Egyptians, Tibetan, whatever - to be racism. And I know that the strict dictionary definition of this is not so - for racism you need to be anti black, anti white, anti whatever - and you jumped up - technically correctly, stating that I called you a racist and that you weren't. If I were being technically correct of course, I would have called you a bigot. Speaking for myself I think I would prefer to be called a racist than a bigot. But is either description correct - or maybe - just maybe - sitting there in your hotel lobby in Iowa - you only ever meet the French equivelant of the American with the wife called Martha - and that is what you based you opinion on. Is that possible? Tony In article aTE8e.23567$8Z6.2699@attbi_s21, "Jay Honeck" wrote: You speak with the wisdom of a cosmopolitan traveler. I suspect that Mr. Honeck has never stepped foot in France or anywhere else in Europe, else how can his provincial attitude be explained? I own and operate a hotel in a city that is home to a world-class university, with 35,000 under- and post-graduate students, and 15,000 faculty members and staff. As such, I am fortunate to interact with people from all over the world on a daily basis. As you can see, I needn't fly to France, as the world comes to me. :-) -- Tony Roberts PP-ASEL VFR OTT Night Cessna 172H C-GICE |
#154
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In article zoN8e.26116$8Z6.5821@attbi_s21, Jay Honeck wrote:
Call it what you will. Anyone -- French, British, or Martian -- dumb enough to tax avgas up to $7.50 per gallon is dunderheaded. No it does not, and it is not necessarily 'dumb' to raise taxes in this way. Just because you disagree with it does not make it dunderheaded or dumb. -- Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net "Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee" |
#155
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Mike Rapoport wrote:
"Bob Fry" wrote in message ... "Mike Rapoport" writes: "Jay Honeck" wrote in message news:zoN8e.26116$8Z6.5821@attbi_s21... Just because French society has different values to the US doesn't make them "dunderheaded" either. Call it what you will. Anyone -- French, British, or Martian -- dumb enough to tax avgas up to $7.50 per gallon is dunderheaded. Why? Societies make choices about what they want their governments to provide and what to tax to pay for it. France (and most of the rest of Europe) has chosen to provide extensive social benefits and pay for them with taxes mostly on consumption. The US has also chosen to provide extensive social benefits and also buy a huge mililtary and pay for it with taxes mostly on production (and borrowing from their children.). Would that we were taxing ourselves, but we're not. And we're not borrowing from our children, but from the rest of the world. One day, not so far away, the rest of world will get tired of it. I think within 10-15 years the world's goods will be priced in something other than the US dollar (probably the Euro) and then our consumption will come to an abrupt halt. We are borrowing from the rest of the world but we are leaving the repayment to our children. They will just have to default as other debtor nations have done over the millenia. It would be good to degault while we're still pretty powerful militarily. :-) Seriously, I agree with you that we are committing financial suicide as a nation. Matt |
#156
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So I suggest to you,that never having even been to France, but sitting
there passing judgment from Iowa, that you are only seeing the French equivelant of the asshole with the wife called Martha. I find it hilarious that my single observation about the French -- their dunderheadedness about taxing Avgas to $7.50 per gallon -- has been embellished now to include things like Tony's statement, above. After the tale has been re-told dozens of times, by variously inflamed and downright apoplectic posters, I have now been accused of committing "racism" on the entire "French race" and am now "passing judgment from Iowa" on an entire nation, and a class of people, based solely upon my feeble observations of the French behavior from the lobby of my hotel! You guys kill me. I made one statement, and it is verifiable as fact: The French are dunderheaded for taxing their aviation fuel to the point where no one can afford it. -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
#157
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Well, it seems a lot of French can afford it.
Hence the number of aerodromes(aprox 400 open for public use, not counting MLA fields) and French aircraft(a lot). If you have money enough you do not care what it costs. -Kees |
#158
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"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message ink.net... We are borrowing from the rest of the world but we are leaving the repayment to our children. In the past (and still to this day) we GAVE to the world and left the repayment to our children. I think Finland is the only country to ever pay us back (at least the last I heard some years ago). |
#159
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wrote in message oups.com... Well, it seems a lot of French can afford it. Hence the number of aerodromes(aprox 400 open for public use, not counting MLA fields) and French aircraft(a lot). Hmm...they have more airport than Texas, though they are smaller and much more densely populated. Texas also has some 15,000 registered aircraft (AOPA GA Fact Sheet). Something is fishy here. |
#160
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Matt Barrow wrote: wrote in message oups.com... Well, it seems a lot of French can afford it. Hence the number of aerodromes(aprox 400 open for public use, not counting MLA fields) and French aircraft(a lot). Hmm...they have more airport than Texas, though they are smaller and much more densely populated. Texas also has some 15,000 registered aircraft (AOPA GA Fact Sheet). Something is fishy here. That's irrelavant. How many operations a year do they have? |
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