On 13 Mar 2008 09:31:06 -0500, Dave wrote:

The Kruggerands haven't changed value a bit.

And what yardstick are you using to determine the value of a Kruggerrand?

A barrel of oil of course, a better indicator of value than any
currency. Unfortunately it's hard to store and refined products have
a shelf life.

yes well, if you've been listening carefully to the current 'three
stooges' running for US president .... and if all the healthcare BS is
included. If you look to the fact the current US healthcare is
running 16-18% of GNP, and if the 3 stooges get their way .... the
average 'middle class' taxpayer @ 28% averaged income tax bite will
soon be 'enjoying' 28% + 16% = 44% in income taxes. So we'll all
need a bigger wheelbarrow .... just to pay the damn income taxes. Im
looking to flee to another country. My ancestors came to the US
looking for economic, etc. freedom. I don't think they'd consider the
US if they were immigrating today.

RichH wrote:
yes well, if you've been listening carefully to the current 'three
stooges' running for US president .... and if all the healthcare BS is
included. If you look to the fact the current US healthcare is
running 16-18% of GNP, and if the 3 stooges get their way .... the
average 'middle class' taxpayer @ 28% averaged income tax bite will
soon be 'enjoying' 28% + 16% = 44% in income taxes. So we'll all
need a bigger wheelbarrow .... just to pay the damn income taxes. Im
looking to flee to another country.
Snip

You would probably find that in most other countries with lower income tax
bands you would have higher, much higher, sales taxes or VAT.

Gas, or petrol as we call it here in the UK, has just hit £1.25 a litre, of
which our government takes around 76% in taxes. This affects the price of
just about everything else in the shops, particularly food. This is the
highest fuel tax rate in Europe, and possibly the world.

As a retired middle-class citizen, my car mileage has dropped from around
10,000 miles a year to around 3500 miles in the past 5 years. I have a free
bus pass which enables me to travel to any part of Scotland (where I live),
but the services are not good, and once you get to some place, the last bus
back home is always over-full (naturally), so you may be forced to stay
overnight in a hotel costing up to £85 per night.

As to the price of gold, if you have it in the form of jewellery, which most
people have, the price you can get for it second-hand does reflect the price
per ounce quoted on the world markets, so unless you a have been prudent
enough to buy gold bars, which are marketable, but still carry a tariff when
you sell 'em, it isn't that good an investment with the US dollar the way it
is.

Housing is still arguably the best safe investment we can make, particularly
second homes, unless you are clever enough to invent an internet site which
takes off and grows 10,000% in a few years, and sell it to Bill Gates.

Our MP's enjoy not only inflation-proof and generous pensions for life, but
also have "second-home" allowances for living in the capital, whilst
maintaining their constituency homes. These allowances have just been made
public under the Freedom of Imformation Act and are staggeringly generous.
An MP can easily double or treble his/her already generous salary by
claiming these "expenses" up to the maximum allowed.

If you not an MP, but still working, and get a well-paid job in, say,
London, you have to sell up and move to the capital, and most large
companies have relocation packages, of which the best is about one quarter
of what an MP can claim, and of course they can sell their free-mortgage
second homes at the end of their term of office at staggering prices
compared to what they "bought" them for!

So don't look for another country, join the politicians, become a
congressman or better still, a senator! Or sail off into the sunset and see
how the rest of the world lives, or doesn't live!


Dennis.

On 13 Mar 2008 11:47:01 -0500, Dave wrote:

And what yardstick are you using to determine the value of a Kruggerrand?

A barrel of oil of course, a better indicator of value than any
currency.

Why not a board foot of mahogany?

That might work somewhere in some cultures but here in SWFL gold or
oil are both more marketable. Your chosen currency only has value if
someone else wants it. Diamonds might be best of all if it weren't
for the complexities of grading type and quality.