Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 12:28:43 +1200
Reply-To: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject: Re: communists
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>I guess we are the only true capitalist society left in the free world.
>And that is a good thing.
>You know what, John, I don't pay a damn cent for my health care. Do you
>know why? Because I have a union job that the employer pays 100%. Guess
>what, there are plenty of those kinds of jobs out there. But people are
>too lazy to get off their asses and work.
Yeah, but does yer gummint give FREE VANAGONS to the people? Thought not.
Here in NZ the taxation rate is closer to 30%. However there have been
healthcare cutbacks and it's not all free; hence the sudden proliferation
of private hospitals and health insurance companies. Does this sound
capitalist?
"...union job that the employer pays 100%." Guess what? How many
small/marginal employers can pay ANY healthcare at all? Or holiday pay?
Unions? These are what (in part; not mentioning the awful goods quality)
destroyed the English manufacturers.
USA, land of the free. Free to sue a car company because its product can be
started in gear, so some moron runs his kid over and sues the manufacturer
for millions. And a "justice" system which upholds his claim! Where a
burglar can trip over a wire in your house in the course of a "burg" and
sue you for injury ... and win!!...and be awarded compensation for loss of
income.... come on.
Unemployment? Sure, there are plenty in all countries who don't want to
work. But nevertheless in developed countries there are far fewer jobs than
adult people, so there are guaranteed default unemployed. In NZ it's
extremely difficult to get even laboring jobs.
Here we currently pay about $1.80US/gallon for gas. That's IMPERIAL
gallons, 4.55 liters, larger than US gallons. A good house in Dunedin
(south end of country) costs between $37g and $61gUS, though this increases
generally as you head north; in Auckland it's a lot more. Milk is about
$1US/2 liters. Chicken breasts recently went up to about $6.50US/kg
(1kg=2.2lb). A loaf of bread is between $0.67 and $0.82US. Fortunately we
can't generally get Coors or Budweiser weaselurine. The average wage? Well,
at $11890US gross I earn somewhat more than the average (this oft-used but
deliberately misleading figure is seriously upward-skewed by the minority
rich mens' incomes).
Cars? These were extremely expensive (in an 83 paper I recently found were
advertised Triumph Dolomite for $1637US, 74 Corona at a bit more; inflation
means that these two figures are actually far more expensive than in
today's dollars), but used imports from Japan have really killed prices,
and you can get a loaded 89 Corona or similar now for $1600-odd; a 94
Estima turbodiesel (narrow-bodied Previa) for $5700... and we don't salt
roads, so rust is generally not a problem with modern older cars other than
Hondas.
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
ph 64 (3) 473-8863
fax 64 (3) 479-7527
84 VW Caravelle GL (to be fitted with SVX engine & Porsche G50 trans) RWD
87 Corolla 1.8 DX CE80 diesel sedan FWD
89 Corolla 1.8 DX CE96 diesel van/wagon FWD
89 Corona 2.0 D Select CT170 diesel sedan FWD
92 Toyota Estima Lucida (=Previa) 2.2 turbodiesel RWD
In a world without walls or fences, who needs windows or gates?
