Write-offs and tax-shelters, my friend! That will dramatically reduce your overall income and drop your tax bracket. Specifically, take a look at oil and natural gas exploration and drilling. That sector has an 85%+ write-off value and is looked on very favorably by our government.
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Spidey's trip to France
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Write-offs and tax-shelters, my friend! That will dramatically reduce your overall income and drop your tax bracket. Specifically, take a look at oil and natural gas exploration and drilling. That sector has an 85%+ write-off value and is looked on very favorably by our government.
They also work a lot less than you do as well. Its a well known fact that per hour of work, they French are amongst the most productive in the world, ahead of Americans.
The difference is that for some (uknown to me) reason Amreicans seem to prefer working to enjoying life. Instead of spending more time with friends/family/hobbies, they put in overtime so they can earn a few grand more per year, so they can spend a bit more at walmart buying crap they don't really need.
Americans always like to boast of how much they work, calling Europeans lazy etc, but the fact of the matter is, they just have their priorities straight.
And don't think I am just bashing Americans, Canada is the same in this respect.
RabidMongoose
Lifer
A statistic that really doesn't mean much as the average French person works much less than the average American. A worker who works more hours will have diminishing returns on his later work hours. If an longer hours worker is anywhere near a less hours worker in productivity/hour, then that doesn't look too well on that worker that is working less, IMO.
That is true, but in order to make the statement that the Frencgh aren't good workers, you would have to know the precise amount that the returns diminish in, which you don't. But consider this graph. The French produce .935 of american output with .82 of the hours worked? Does that imply americans or the french are better workers? Neither - if you were to plot a logarithmic curve over this graph (knowing that the law of diminishing returns is logarithmic in nature) it would imply that Germans, French and Americans are pretty much equal (same cannot be said of others).
Of course, the whole point of my post was not to start yet another French-America bashing/pissing contest, but to point out that the French (and other europeans) are not poor because they are incapable/inferior/socialist etc. They simply make the consious choice to work less, earn less, but enjoy life more (As you can see from the graph, they have approx. 1hr per day more free time than Americans).
0marTheZealot
Golden Member
Japanese are kings.
glenn1
Lifer
[/quote]I thought Value Added Taxes were a Republican's wet dream? They want to move this country to VAT or Flat tax system. [/quote]
Dunno, but unless they repeal the Sixteenth Amendment first (the one authorizing the income tax) I won't support it. Unless and until we permanently drive a stake through the heart of the income tax and kill it for good the last thing I want is to put into play a second tax system. I don't want the Feds to even have the thought of trying to sell us on a "replacement" tax system which they'll simply use in a later bait and switch to bring back the income tax as well.
Dunno, but unless they repeal the Sixteenth Amendment first (the one authorizing the income tax) I won't support it. Unless and until we permanently drive a stake through the heart of the income tax and kill it for good the last thing I want is to put into play a second tax system. I don't want the Feds to even have the thought of trying to sell us on a "replacement" tax system which they'll simply use in a later bait and switch to bring back the income tax as well.
I think this in particular is an example of social policy - less fuel usage, smaller cars, less traffic congestion etc.
In any case, the most relevant statistic to this thread is Total Public Spending as % of GDP (including all levels of government). I can't find these right now but from memory, they stand somethign like :
US 34-35%
Canada 36-37%
France 39-40%
Scandinavian countries: ~43-44
Bullsh!t. I used to pay $5+ for beer in France back in '92-93 (pints -- .5L was more). Depends on what you buy. If you stick to Stella, you'll probably get away with cheaper, but anything decent is going to run around there especially with the exchange rate as insane as it is right now.
Just save your receipts and get your VAT back at the airport when you fly home.
Or, search around for less expensive restaurants. I would imagine Paris is like NYC or SF...expensive restaurants abound. When I was in Belgium and Germany, we found a typical dinner to be comparable to a decent dinner here in the States.
Or, search around for less expensive restaurants. I would imagine Paris is like NYC or SF...expensive restaurants abound. When I was in Belgium and Germany, we found a typical dinner to be comparable to a decent dinner here in the States.
Thump553
Lifer
A lot of the high cost was because the dollar is depressed compared to the Euro. Coupled with the fact you were shopping/eating in tourist areas (high priced everywhere), and the effect of a high sales tax (VAT) because of no other major taxes explains the sticker shock you faced.
well I stayed in a very small country house - the tourist areas were unbelievable.
But true about the dollar slipping against the euro. If the exchange rate was 1 it would only be "moderately" expensive. With it running about 1.36 it was outrageous.
In fact I was just reading an article in wall street about how euporeans are flocking to america for all the great deals. pair of jeans is 100 USD over there, 25 over here.
imported_tss4
Golden Member
Really? So when I was in England I could have saved my receipts from dinner and gotten the VAT tax back? If so, how would I have done that?
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