Avgas in France has reached $7.50/gal !

On 16 Apr 2005 10:15:37 -0700, Bob Fry
wrote in
::

On a personal level, the best vacation I ever had was my trip to
Europe, where my wife and I visited only France.

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?

"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On 16 Apr 2005 10:15:37 -0700, Bob Fry
wrote in
::

On a personal level, the best vacation I ever had was my trip to
Europe, where my wife and I visited only France.

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?


Reminds me of the time I was on vacation and passing through Utah. A
waitress in the delightful little town of Torrey said "you have strange
English accents, say where are you folks from?" "England", we replied.
"What state is that in?" she asked. We just smiled. Any further explanation
was going to be a mite challenging.
It is a common occurrence but then I do tend to be in places like Torrey
when I have vacations in the US.

cb

In article , Chris wrote:
Reminds me of the time I was on vacation and passing through Utah. A
waitress in the delightful little town of Torrey said "you have strange
English accents, say where are you folks from?" "England", we replied.
"What state is that in?" she asked. We just smiled. Any further explanation
was going to be a mite challenging.

Don't worry - I got asked on two separate occasions whether English is
spoken in England, or "whether it's just an accent y'all have". I also
find the "Well is there an Isle of Woman" question gets rather old
rather quick, but I can forgive that - most people in the Isle of Man
haven't heard of Rhode Island so I'd hardly expect them to have heard of
our windswept rock in the Irish Sea.

In any case -- actaully visiting (to live) places strips away much of
the ignorant stereotypes we often harbour - I soon learned that the
United States didn't even remotely fit the stereotypes we normally hold
here (or that are promoted by Hollywood, which seems to believe the US
consists of Los Angeles and perhaps NY and Chicago if they are feeling
generous). I've been to 26 states in the US and it doesn't take long to
realise there's one thing you can't do and that is generalize.

I decided to leave the US not because I didn't like it (I like it a lot
and visit frequently - and I was easily better paid in the US) but because
there are things *other* than the cost of avgas that makes me choose
where I live.

Oh, and France is a beautiful country too, and the Anglo-American
stereotype of the French is also in most cases couldn't be more wrong.
Just because French society has different values to the US doesn't make
them "dunderheaded" either.

--
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"

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.

And that's on a *good* day.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"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.).

If you look at it dispassionately, avgas is used primarily for recreation
producing noise and pollution as byproducts. This is particulary true in
France where trains go faster than most aircraft burning avgas. Why does it
make more sense to tax people's productive effort directly through income
taxes than it does to tax avgas?

Mike
MU-2


And that's on a *good* day.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"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.

Dunderheaded is when you consume way more than you produce, when you
borrow not to invest in production but in consumption, when you launch
wars half way around the world on the basis of lies or gross
incompetence, when your only national energy policy is drilling more
holes and nothing else.

Dunderheaded is also when you think you know everything by having a
few foreign guests stop by.

"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

Bob Fry wrote:


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.

Hey, Bob - Earth to Bob - Hello??? Anyone home? Anyone ever tell Bob
here that the USA **FEEDS** the rest of the world?

Nevermind. Hate America first, right, Bob?


Dunderheaded is when you consume way more than you produce, when you
borrow not to invest in production but in consumption, when you launch
wars half way around the world on the basis of lies or gross
incompetence, when your only national energy policy is drilling more
holes and nothing else.

Dunderheaded is also when you think you know everything by having a
few foreign guests stop by.

If it's that bad here, Bob, leave. Find a nice little socialist-run
country with US foreign aid keeping them alive. That'd be pretty good,
right, Bob?

"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.

And that's on a *good* day.

And this instance of dunderheadedness is certainly not isolated.

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"