Avgas in France has reached $7.50/gal !

"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

"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 )

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

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"

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

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"

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

"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).

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.

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?