NH Prices!

[mikea]

Originally Posted by shore things

You may find that while gas here is cheaper you spend just as much if not more money getting around because mpg is lower, you will need drive everwhere due to the lack of public transportation, and we don't have the sort of village environment that allows one to simply walk to the neighborhood butcher, baker, or convenience store to get day to day things you may need.

My experience in the UK is limited to passing through Heathrow. However, I have spent a fair amount of time in Italy (a very different country and econmy, I know). One of the biggest differences I have noticed there other than fuel ($12/gallon last year) is in construction materials. If you enjoy "do it yourself" type projects and spend time in some hardware stores you may notice some serious differences in the prices of things like lumber, stone, and concrete. Also one might think that tools such as spades, hammers, and the like are univeral in design. This is not necessarily the case.

Another area of possible difference is techonology costs. I am not a "Mac person" but my friends are and they claim that things like iPads and iPhones are approximately a third of the cost here as compared to Europe. I would be curious to know if that is true.

I can see your logic re gas prices but I'm sure that I'd prefer to have the choice of paying $3 to $4 a gallon and decide upon my fuel use / engine size rather than be forced to pay $11 to $12 per gallon knowing that 80% is taxes! Interesting example time? My car in the UK is a Citroen C5 Estate with a 2.2 litre straight 4 diesel which gives me an average return of circa 45 mpg and in the UK, this car is considered quite large. However, my previous car was a Land Rover Discovery 2 with a 4.6 Litre V8 petrol engine that gave me an average of 14 to 18 mpg ... Horrific cost to run...

DIY in the UK is similar to much of the rest of Europe, depends whether you buy trade or at the rip off mega stores... I have experience of UK, France and Spain in this, all as bad as each other!

Finally, Apple prices in the UK... here are a few examples (using an XR of 1.587 at todays commercial rate)

iPad Mini from base model @ £269 ($427) to Top model £529 ($839)
iPad 4 from base model @ £399 ($633) to Top model £659 ($1045)
iPhone 5 (unlocked) from £529 ($839) to £699 ($1109)
iMac from £1099 ($1745) to Fully loaded £3558 ($5645)

All prices taken from Apple store Direct.

Most of my Apple kit is actually purchased in the US by either my son or myself with the exception of my iPhone which I get for free on my cell contract... so another comparison : -

My cell contract is for 24 months and included my iPhone 4S (pre- 5 launch)
and includes 2000 mins to any UK landlines or other cellphone per month, 5000 UK SMS per month, unlimited calls to other users on my network and unlimited / unmetered 3G connectivity. For this I pay £36 ($57) per month inclusive of tax.

what else can we compare?

[HellRaZoR004]

Originally Posted by mikea

I can see your logic re gas prices but I'm sure that I'd prefer to have the choice of paying $3 to $4 a gallon and decide upon my fuel use / engine size rather than be forced to pay $11 to $12 per gallon knowing that 80% is taxes! Interesting example time? My car in the UK is a Citroen C5 Estate with a 2.2 litre straight 4 diesel which gives me an average return of circa 45 mpg and in the UK, this car is considered quite large. However, my previous car was a Land Rover Discovery 2 with a 4.6 Litre V8 petrol engine that gave me an average of 14 to 18 mpg ... Horrific cost to run...

DIY in the UK is similar to much of the rest of Europe, depends whether you buy trade or at the rip off mega stores... I have experience of UK, France and Spain in this, all as bad as each other!

Finally, Apple prices in the UK... here are a few examples (using an XR of 1.587 at todays commercial rate)

iPad Mini from base model @ £269 ($427) to Top model £529 ($839)
iPad 4 from base model @ £399 ($633) to Top model £659 ($1045)
iPhone 5 (unlocked) from £529 ($839) to £699 ($1109)
iMac from £1099 ($1745) to Fully loaded £3558 ($5645)

All prices taken from Apple store Direct.

Most of my Apple kit is actually purchased in the US by either my son or myself with the exception of my iPhone which I get for free on my cell contract... so another comparison : -

My cell contract is for 24 months and included my iPhone 4S (pre- 5 launch)
and includes 2000 mins to any UK landlines or other cellphone per month, 5000 UK SMS per month, unlimited calls to other users on my network and unlimited / unmetered 3G connectivity. For this I pay £36 ($57) per month inclusive of tax.

what else can we compare?

Wow, you have a cheap cell phone plan. I pay $69.22 for my service and I'm 'lucky' to be grandfathered into my plan.

450 minutes to any US landline/cell.
Unlimited in-network cellphone calls.
500 text messages
Unlimited data (this is where I am grandfathered in, they recently changed it so you have to pay for how much you use).

o0o, and to top it off - this is with a 20% discount!

[Onshore]

Originally Posted by mikea

what else can we compare?

Things like utility costs can vary significantly through the region and thus might be hard to compare.

Aside from trap shooting what are your hobbies? Do you like to cook / grill? What is the price of a good steak in the UK? Do you have pets, children, or both and what types of things might they need?

[mikea]

Shore Things, nice to hear from you and thanks for replying. I'd certainly be interested to know what sort of unit prices you have to pay for your utilities (round figure average) All ours appear to do is go up 5% here and 10% there apparently to cover inflation (that currently runs around 2 to 3% pa here)

Yep. love my clay shooting though I have to confess I prefer Sporting and Skeet to Trap but when there isn't much choice, then Trap it is! Aside from shooting I enjoy a round of golf and watching soccer (albeit my playing days are a little behind me these days) and Motor Racing of virtually any type and naturally, when I am able, to jump on a sled or quad.

However most of my time goes upon my business and whats left gets used up being bullied by my three grandchildren, which I hold my hands up and confess, is my favorite of the lot.

There you go... a potted history... hows about you guys?

[BroadHopper]

The state needs to find a way to raise revenue to finance the state budget.
As an economist I always argue throwing away all tax structures and replace it with a VAT system (Value added tax). The beauty of this is if you don't spend your money (savings), you don't get taxed. If you spend your money (buy), you pay a tax. You pay more tax when you buy a luxury item (Escalalade) then if you buy a cheap item (Sentra). It is as simple as that. You don't need all kinds of tax breaks (401K etc.) and you closed all the loopholes. Everyone pays the same precentage and the haves pay more than the have-nots. On top of this there will be a corporate tax to even out the score.
The total state budget must be a percentage of the state's GNP. Thus the income as well as the budget will follow the GNP. Simple as that.
No tax preperation, no tax auditions, etc. The general public can save money by not attending tax courts and tax preperations.
Of course goods will cost more but the govt is not garnering your pay check. It is something that we have to get use to. On the long run we won't be bickering with tax rates among the rich and famous.

The trouble is most of our law makers are lawyers and this system is going to hit them in the wallet, so I don't see this happening.

[mikea]

Do you know what, I agree with your sentiments completely but regrettably, the concept will not fly... VAT / IVA call it what you will as a stand alone taxation medium will not function due to the inherent greed of the people in power!

Europe introduced VAT (we currently pay 20% on virtually all purchases in the UK) but if we take gas as an example, we pay VAT not only on the petrol or diesel, but also upon the levies and other taxes already charged... So we are paying 20% tax on taxes and this same scenario applies to Beers, Wines, Spirits, Cigarettes and a number of other things.

On top of this we pay Income Taxes and National Insurance payments on our earnings, Property Taxes, Local council Taxes, Stamp duties when we purchase a property and capital gains taxes if we sell and make a profit.

We have a National Health System so called funded by our National Insurance Payments but then find when we go to the dentists we have to pay, when we go to the Doctors, we have to pay for prescriptions and so on...

No... sorry, VAT to me is a little akin to Marxism, great in theory but unworkable in practice!...

And Broadhopper, I love your last statement ...

The trouble is most of our law makers are lawyers and this system is going to hit them in the wallet, so I don't see this happening.

In the UK, change Law Makers to Politicians and Lords and then realise how we big a problem we have!...

Mike A

[tis]

When they get a new tax, the old one never goes away or gets lower, not matter what they say. They NEVER have enough money. The more they get, the more they spend and until we as citizen stop expecting government to take care of us from birth to death, this will never change.