From gigli.saw@dplanet.ch Mon Sep 1 20:24:36 2003
From: gigli.saw@dplanet.ch (VCR)
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 12:24:36 -0700
Subject: [Culturechat] Money over the area
Message-ID: <3F539CF4.7000302@dplanet.ch>
Everyone knows that CH can expensive. Compared to Oslo and Tokyo, it
isn't so bad. Tokyo was recently supplanted by Oslo as the most
expensive city in the world. Hong Kong and New York are close behind.
Employees in Oslo, Copenhagen, Basel, and Zurich are the highest paid in
the world. While Zurich is the 5th highest cost city, a worker has to
only work 14 minutes to buy a Bg Mac. Why a Big Mac? Because it is sold
around the world and a comparison is much easier than a "basket of
goods" in which there are itens not found locally in all countries.
To buy a Big Mac takes 14 minutes of work in Zurich, 50 minutes in Riga,
Latvia, and a whopping 3 hours in kenya.
People frequently comment on the standard of living in CH. If you get a
high salary and have great purchasing power, that makes it happen.
--
Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch
http://homepage.mac.com/fredch
Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.
---General George Patton
From Kk5qq@aol.com Mon Sep 1 13:52:48 2003
From: Kk5qq@aol.com (Kk5qq@aol.com)
Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2003 08:52:48 EDT
Subject: [Culturechat] Money over the area
Message-ID: <23.343cbffe.2c849b20@aol.com>
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In a message dated 9/1/2003 5:26:40 AM Central Daylight Time,
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch writes:
> Why a Big Mac? Because it is sold
> around the world and a comparison is much easier than a "basket of
> goods" in which there are itens not found locally in all countries
The Big Mac has been used as the standard in a number of surveys. The
original, I believe, was done by the Federal Reserve Bank in St Louis. One example
is at http://economics.uchicago.edu/download/bigmac.pdf -- a survey done by
the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
In Africa a similar survey has been done with the benchmark being the price
of a Tusker beer in Nairobi.
Certainly it is meaningless to say "The average wage in XXXX is YY dollars"
without quantifying the equivalent purchasing power of that dollar. Or better
yet, the hours worked by, say a school teacher or an electrician, to earn
enough to buy a pair of shoes, or indeed a Big Mac or a Tusker beer.
Irv Smith
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In a message dated 9/1/2003 5:26:40 AM Central Dayli=
ght Time, gigli.saw@dplanet.ch writes:
Why a Big Mac? Because it is so=
ld
around the world and a comparison is much easier than a "basket of
goods" in which there are itens not found locally in all countries
The Big Mac has been us=
ed as the standard in a number of surveys. The original, I believe, wa=
s done by the Federal Reserve Bank in St Louis. One example is at http://economics.u=
chicago.edu/download/bigmac.pdf -- a survey done by the management=
consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
In Africa a similar survey has been done with the benchmark being the price=20=
of a Tusker beer in Nairobi.
Certainly it is meaningless to say "The average wage in XXXX is YY dollars"=20=
without quantifying the equivalent purchasing power of that dollar. Or=
better yet, the hours worked by, say a school teacher or an electrician, to=
earn enough to buy a pair of shoes, or indeed a Big Mac or a Tusker beer.
Irv Smith
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From Kraut907@aol.com Thu Sep 4 04:00:24 2003
From: Kraut907@aol.com (Kraut907@aol.com)
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 23:00:24 EDT
Subject: [Culturechat] Denmark: A Case Study in Social Democracy (From Mises Inst...
Message-ID: <15a.23f30afa.2c8804c8@aol.com>
Germany also utilizes windpower to quite an extent.
An argument against the wind mills I hear expressed here has to do with
aesthetics, but I must say the mills look quite cheerful seen from the autobahn and
the railway!
A real dumb question: what is a compost toilet? Something like an outhouse?
Sigrid Washington.
From WesTexas@aol.com Fri Sep 5 16:45:53 2003
From: WesTexas@aol.com (WesTexas@aol.com)
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 11:45:53 EDT
Subject: [Culturechat] Check out "As Suburbs Grow, So Do Waistlines" & U.S. Car Culture
Message-ID: <17e.1fc0531d.2c8a09b1@aol.com>
Good article about the negative effects of American suburbs:
Click Here: As Suburbs
Grow, So Do Waistlines
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/garden/04REPO.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5059&en=a
181e504f9a57425&ex=1063339200&partner=AOL
Some interesting numbers regarding America's love affair with the car:
According to federal government, total vehicle-miles in 1990: 1.4 trillion
vehicle-miles (one vehicle-mile is one car traveling one mile). In 2000:
2.8 trillion vehicle-miles. (A 100% increase in 10 years).
There are now more cars than people in the U.S.
According to financial columnist Scott Burns, the total cost (depreciation,
insurance, maintenance and gasoline) per mile to drive an average new sedan (if
you trade it after four years) is about 50 cents per mile. Interestingly
enough, gasoline is only about 12% of this mileage expense--versus about 22%
twenty years ago. Taking into account older cars and assuming an average of 35
cents per mile for the American car fleet, Americans spent around a trillion
dollars in 2000 driving their cars.
I think that wave of the future is going to be something more akin to the New
York and European model--smaller housing units in urban areas where one can
walk to many more places and/or use mass transportation. A lot of the huge
growth in the suburbs is because of massive direct and indirect federal housing
subsidies--plus the huge federal investment in the Interstate Highway System.
Unfortunately, this has made the U.S. very energy inefficient.
J. Brown
From HT@untours.com Mon Sep 8 22:36:14 2003
From: HT@untours.com (Hal Taussig)
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:36:14 -0400
Subject: [Culturechat] Denmark: A Case Study in Social Democracy
(From Mises Inst...
In-Reply-To: <15a.23f30afa.2c8804c8@aol.com>
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.20030908173134.02750df0@postoffice.dca.net>
Compost toilets are amazing! Yes, like outhouses, but indoors and
completely odorless, but non-flush. And the waste is used like all compost,
for fertilizer. I say a sample, which looked like rich black soil. Of
course the environmental implications are tremendous.
At 11:00 PM 9/3/03 -0400, Kraut907@aol.com wrote:
>Germany also utilizes windpower to quite an extent.
>An argument against the wind mills I hear expressed here has to do with
>aesthetics, but I must say the mills look quite cheerful seen from the
>autobahn and
>the railway!
>A real dumb question: what is a compost toilet? Something like an outhouse?
> Sigrid Washington.
=================================================
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From HT@untours.com Mon Sep 8 22:47:38 2003
From: HT@untours.com (Hal Taussig)
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:47:38 -0400
Subject: [Culturechat] Check out "As Suburbs Grow, So Do
Waistlines" & U.S. Car Culture
In-Reply-To: <17e.1fc0531d.2c8a09b1@aol.com>
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.20030908173745.02770cf0@postoffice.dca.net>
I would love a little play-back on Untours' effort to use public
transportation (mostly rail) rather than cars. You may remember, my reason
for exploring Denmark is because Copenhagen's effort to keep automobiles
from dominating the city are the most successful in the world.We will want
to consider using buses and trains in our new Greece Untour--mostly simply
relying on buses scheduled for public transportation. Of course we
Americans value convenience highly, and, in this context, I mean that we
want to leave and return exactly at the time when our whims dictate. And
that is part of our strong sense of individualism, or put differently, our
lack of motivation to build strong communities.
At 11:45 AM 9/5/03 -0400, WesTexas@aol.com wrote:
>Good article about the negative effects of American suburbs:
>
>Click Here: HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/garden/04REPO.html?pagewanted=1&ei=
>5059&en=a181e504f9a57425&ex=1063339200&partner=AOL">As Suburbs
>Grow, So Do Waistlines
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/garden/04REPO.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5059&en=a
>181e504f9a57425&ex=1063339200&partner=AOL
>
>Some interesting numbers regarding America's love affair with the car:
>
>According to federal government, total vehicle-miles in 1990: 1.4 trillion
>vehicle-miles (one vehicle-mile is one car traveling one mile). In 2000:
>2.8 trillion vehicle-miles. (A 100% increase in 10 years).
>
>There are now more cars than people in the U.S.
>
>According to financial columnist Scott Burns, the total cost (depreciation,
>insurance, maintenance and gasoline) per mile to drive an average new
>sedan (if
>you trade it after four years) is about 50 cents per mile. Interestingly
>enough, gasoline is only about 12% of this mileage expense--versus about 22%
>twenty years ago. Taking into account older cars and assuming an average
>of 35
>cents per mile for the American car fleet, Americans spent around a trillion
>dollars in 2000 driving their cars.
>
>I think that wave of the future is going to be something more akin to the New
>York and European model--smaller housing units in urban areas where one can
>walk to many more places and/or use mass transportation. A lot of the huge
>growth in the suburbs is because of massive direct and indirect federal
>housing
>subsidies--plus the huge federal investment in the Interstate Highway
>System.
> Unfortunately, this has made the U.S. very energy inefficient.
>
>J. Brown
>_______________________________________________
>This message was sent by Culturechat.
>To reply or send a new message, email to:
>Culturechat@untours.com
>
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>
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>temporarily pause delivery, visit:
>http://mailman.dca.net/mailman/listinfo/culturechat
=================================================
Untours - Independent Travel With Support!
Tel.: 888-UNTOUR-1 Web:
Join IdyllChat, an email discussion group on European travel!
Visit:
"Most Generous Company in America, 1999" awarded by Newman's
Own & George magazine. For information on the Idyll Development
Foundation, visit:
From WesTexas@aol.com Mon Sep 15 17:29:47 2003
From: WesTexas@aol.com (WesTexas@aol.com)
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 12:29:47 EDT
Subject: [Culturechat] Incredible Website: nationmaster.com
Message-ID: <1d1.10d7ae51.2c9742fb@aol.com>
This website has an incredible wealth of statistical data, in a very easy to
use format, concerning countries around the world.