Behind the Scenes @ Chrysler Dealers

[Biciclista]

I sure wouldn't put the blame for all these high powered cars on MEN. I've been honked at plenty of times by WOMEN in large SUV's with heavy feet.
And half of my bike club was taken out by a 5 foot tall woman driving a 4x4 pickup truck.

And when gas prices go up, if it hurts bad enough, habits will change.
It's the rare fool in Italy who drives a large car today.
But it's "unamerican" to suggest that we'd be better off with higher fuel prices.

[crazycanuck]

There is no way we could live without a vehicle. If we want to travel anywhere in Aust you do realize how big this place is... There are two ways to get around in the rest of Western Australia..Drive or fly. I'm not flying as i'd rather see WA from the ground in a reliable vehicle!!!

I wanted to suggest to my mom (yay she's comin for a visit!!! ) taking the train from Sydney to Perth but then saw the price . Umm no, cheaper to drive!!! I hate being ripped off by train companies. Urugh..don't even mention Via rail in Canada

I trust Toyota to make a reliable vehicle. Ian says it's funny that i'm the short chick(with a speed fetish hidden somewhere) driving a Hilux.

I'm a fan of Top Gear but wouldn't want to drive some of the cool vehicles they test.

[Mr. Bloom]

papa: I understand and apologize for missing your very good points....and for misunderstanding the extent of your taxation

[smilingcat]

papa: I understand and apologize for missing your very good points....and for misunderstanding the extent of your taxation

But it all evens out in the end. Funny it works like that. We may not pay 62% in tax or 90% tax, but is her livelihood any better or worse than ours? Does she have less 'toys" than you or me? We may not pay the tax man but I'm sure papaver does not pay huge out of the pocket medical insuance/bill. In place of tax man, we pay the insurance company.

smilingcat

[Grog]

But it all evens out in the end. Funny it works like that. We may not pay 62% in tax or 90% tax, but is her livelihood any better or worse than ours? Does she have less 'toys" than you or me? We may not pay the tax man but I'm sure papaver does not pay huge out of the pocket medical insuance/bill. In place of tax man, we pay the insurance company.

smilingcat

Exactly what I was thinking...

And there's quite a bit less people in jail in Belgium....... (Just checked the data: 88 per 100,000 population versus 107 in Canada and 725 in the USA in 2004.) (This is worse than I thought.) (This is a secondary use of OECD data, found on Swivel: http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/show/2499139) (I'm really amazed.)

[papaver]

What do we have in return? Well lets see:

Free transportation (train/tram/bus) for children and pensioners.
Free education, exept for university students, that costs +/- 600 €/year.
If a doctor comes at my home in the middle of the night during the weekends it costs me 10 € max (we have to pay more but our almost free insurance pays most of it back within a week).
When it comes to healthcare we have a thing called 'maximum invoice', especially for people who are sick for longer periods. That's to make sure that no one becomes poor because they are sick.
Last year i've stayed in a hospital for about 9 days. I had to pay about 100€ in total.
If you have a baby, the mother gets 3 months leave (fully paid) and the father 10 days (but that will change - as from next year the parents can choose who stays at home).
If you get fired you get 90% of your salary the first year, after that you'll have a minimum (around 1250 usd)
We have a thing called 'the right to have a home', so even when you have no income (which really doesn't exist in Belgium) you still will be given a home. Of course there are still homeless people but that's mostly because of alcohol problems and people who don't want help (those people exist too).
When you're sick, the first week your salary will be fully paid by your employer, after that you'll be paid 90% of your salary by the state.
Because I'm self employed my healthcare insurance (full coverage) costs me 600 euro's (whole family) per year, as an employee it's less than 100 €/year.
And of course there is our pension, and that too is 90% of what you earned the last year you worked (but there's a maximum on that, same for when you're sick or fired).
And there's lots more. That's why I really don't mind that I have to pay that much taxes. I love the fact that when the going gets tough, you'll be looked after.

another positive thing, say when you're fired and you don't find a job within 3 months you'll get guidance (to find a new job) or you can study again (for free and you'll keep 90% of your salary or a maximum of 1900 USD, I think it is).


And still people dare to complain...

[OakLeaf]

I might mention the #1 drain on the US economy, but that would be "political"....

It might not be practical to build lots of passenger capacity to go from, say, Cheyenne, WY, to Pierre, SD, but that's not where most of the driving in the USA happens, anyhow. There's no practical or monetary reason at all why we couldn't RE-build the local and regional commuter transit systems that even small communities had 100 years ago.