access wrote:

...we pay 100% tax on new cars

Oh well, if it helps, at least that news makes me feel better

simon wrote:

........ But then their cost of living (especially luxury goods) is lower.

Have you ever tried food shopping in the USA? It's way more expensive to buy similar quality to what we take for granted over here. I have to food shop in Miami for food for 24 folks on the ship and I can assure you that I try to avoid buying ANY food in the USA, it is just SO expensive. Panama, Colombia, Mexico, China, Korea and Hong Kong can offer the same produce at far less expense despite it being imported from the USA! And I have $5.75 per man per day to spend on food items so we aren't exactly wealthy foodshopping folks. Even fresh produce is heaps more expensive than in the UK.

And don't envy the American lifestyle too much, many folks work many more weeks in the year than most Europeans - and often in American companies you do not get paid holidays like us. In fact often you only get public holidays.

I have been told the streets of London are paved with gold and everybody who lives and works south of Birmingham is a multimillionaire................








































But I know form visiting the south that only the second point is true - the streets of London are paved with hard concrete just like the rest of the UK