On Tue, 01 May 2007 10:43:13 -0500, Don W
wrote:

Hi Don,
You provide food for thought. I know that many of the full-time
cruisers of post 40 years old that we have met are onto their second
marriages and that we, on our first, are noticably in the minority. I
cannot give you figures but it has struck us like that. Both partners
want to see the world in most cases and like the lifestyle. Some even
met because of the boat.

I wonder what the statistics for divorce are among
liveaboard cruisers. I've heard that a lot of
marriages end under the strain of one party being
an avid sailor with dreams of seeing the world,
while the other is a reluctant participant.
Oddly, it seems that either sex is equally likely
to get the wanderlust.


Larry,

The US$ isn't at all worthless. You should do
some foreign travel to get a feel for what people
in other countries are having to put up with.

We just got back from the UK, where we were paying
0.92 UKP per liter for "petrol". That is the
equivalent of almost $8 per gallon. Whenever we
travel outside the USA, I like to check out real
estate, grocery, transportation, fuel etc prices
to get a feel for the cost of living. On this
trip my wife and I both came back with the
distinct feeling that we in the USA still have
things very good compared to the UK, but most of
us don't know it.

Don W.

I would agree. you should buy diesel in Europe where we were paying
over 1 Euro per litre a couple of years back. In traveling through the
Med., I tried to compare not just prices (expensive) but what the
avergae earnings would buy in real terms between countries I was on
familiar terms with such as Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia. In
Spain (we never made it to Northern Europe) I came to the realisation
that the average person was far better off and had a higher standard
of living in both Australia and New Zealand. When I took car and home
ownership per capita and the amount of income directed to that as well
as other non-discretionary spending, I gained the belief that the
average citizen of Malaysia, a developing country, was better off than
those in Spain, southern Italy and Greece. This was by no means a
strict academic exercise. It was fueled by my own curiosity. Anyone
could drive a bus through my methodology.

In my travels to the US, I have always been impressed with how cheap
many things were. Larry, you may not be as well off as you once were,
but you still have it better than many other developed nations.

You want to know where your dollar has gone? - to China as it has done
many times over the centuries - US/China trade deficit 30:1 in China's
favour. Ever wondered why Spain, with its vast empire and the tons of
gold and silver and other wealth that was brought back from the new
world, does not seem to have profited by it?

During the time of their empire their king was none as "The silver
King" in the east as Spain shipped hugh quantities of the stuff east
to pay for consumables such as silks, spices and porcelain. It wasn't
invested in capital works that could create further wealth; most was
spent on consumer goods - and they didn't have an adverising industry

cheers