The united states Economy

[CougTek]

A Scandinavian making frequent trips to U.S....

Does It's FuBaR! = Linus Torvald?

Some people told me that several years of programming could affect mental health, but that much?

 

[bahngeist]

The Galen Institute is a Tax Reform advocacy group and ultraconservative to the point that they make the current administration almost ‘pinko’ in comparison.

I'm not sure if that's accurate and if it is I'm not sure what difference it makes. This sounds like an argument "to the man" not the issue. I get these terms confused, Is that Ad Hominem?

Yea, I am guilty of an ad hominem attack – engaging in the hyperbole in this instance just couldn’t be resisted :mrgrn: The point I was trying to make is that when presenting an argument/position, it generally isn’t wise to depend principally on source(s) whose position is skewed significantly, lacks authority, or is otherwise questionable (a major problem with the Internet). As an academic librarian, the Galen Institute’s articles -- which were quite hyperbolic in ‘my’ estimation -- just sent up too many corresponding red flags ...

Re. the dialogue between the difference in health care costs, etc., between the U.S. and Canada: the following link provides an authoritative perspective that is quite illuminating:

http://www.oecd.org/document/38/0,2340,en_2649_201185_16560422_1_1_1_1,00.html

Of note is that Canada, despite its having a national health care program, commits a lesser % of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care than the U.S. does. More noteworthy, however, is that the health costs challenges both countries are addressing are generally pervasive across the globe. And in general the U.S. is doing comparatively well in respect of honouring its associated responsibilities to its citizens.

 

[Pradeep]

Now consider this, the word "protectionism" is the united states supposed to be the land of the free,then why is it almost impossible to purchase something from the net in the unites states and have the ship to another country,I have found that my visa card works correctly and without any problems when I am in the USA,for example ATM`s, hiring a car of purchasing anything I wish to buy, is there's something I'm missing And wasn't it the meaning of the net to bring everybody closer without hindrance.

The reason many US companies won't ship overseas is because of CC fraud problems. A US issued CC can be easily verified for address, other countries tend not to verify addresses (not to mention the cost of phone calls to banks, time differences etc). That is why you will also have problems using your Europeon CC to buy online goods in the US to deliver to a US address. They tend to block all international CC cards. Notable exceptions are amazon.* and Dell. Oh and most sites that verify with Verisign.

Now why don't you tell us how much duty/taxes you will have to pay on your US purchased items (if you declare them on return to your homeland of course). 20%? More? Land of the free?

BTW get ready to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival starting next year. Assuming you are coming in on the visa=waiver program.

 

[Pradeep]

Oh yes and as mentioned previously the cost of international shipping via FedEx, UPS or DHL can be astronomical. Unless the online store is willing to use USPS Parcel post it can be difficult to actually save money in such a transaction.

When I first bought memory from Crucial.com, they had me fax them a copy of my CC billing statement so they could verify the address to the number. Since then I haven't had a problem. Other places you have to fax them a copy of the front and back of the card, to show physical possesion.

 

[its.fubar]

Now consider this, the word "protectionism" is the united states supposed to be the land of the free,then why is it almost impossible to purchase something from the net in the unites states and have the ship to another country,I have found that my visa card works correctly and without any problems when I am in the USA,for example ATM`s, hiring a car of purchasing anything I wish to buy, is there's something I'm missing And wasn't it the meaning of the net to bring everybody closer without hindrance.

The reason many US companies won't ship overseas is because of CC fraud problems. A US issued CC can be easily verified for address, other countries tend not to verify addresses (not to mention the cost of phone calls to banks, time differences etc). That is why you will also have problems using your Europeon CC to buy online goods in the US to deliver to a US address. They tend to block all international CC cards. Notable exceptions are amazon.* and Dell. Oh and most sites that verify with Verisign.

Now why don't you tell us how much duty/taxes you will have to pay on your US purchased items (if you declare them on return to your homeland of course). 20%? More? Land of the free?

BTW get ready to be fingerprinted and photographed on arrival starting next year. Assuming you are coming in on the visa=waiver program.

one of the things I will be buying is a Nikon coolpix 5700 camera,it retails for about 9 000 Scandinavian kronor Which is about 1287.94 in US Dollar in Norway and 1179.69 US Dollar in Sweden. I believe this camera retails for 659 U. S. dollars in America,And as far as if I declare my purchases when I returned home, I will ask you this, who declares anything to day if they are not forced to, what a interesting and honest world we live in.

seeing I am coming this year I will not have to go through that humiliation of getting my fingerprinted and being photographed besides I don't think there will be that much of a problem the year after considering there will be a change of person in the white house.

 

[its.fubar]

Now consider this, the word "protectionism" is the united states supposed to be the land of the free,then why is it almost impossible to purchase something from the net in the unites states and have the ship to another country,I have found that my visa card works correctly and without any problems when I am in the USA,for example ATM`s, hiring a car of purchasing anything I wish to buy, is there's something I'm missing And wasn't it the meaning of the net to bring everybody closer without hindrance.

just an extra though, I will once again be in the U.S. in December so considering the low value of the dollar it will be a good idea to do my Christmas shopping their, I will be in the Denver area So if anyone has any ideas on where to get the best deals on computers and electronics in this area I would appreciate your help.

I think many sites refrain from international business because of higher shipping prices & potential complications (like customs, handling package returns, etc.) than with any hindrance from the government. There are also export restrictions on some computer products that incorporate encryption. Even more is the need to know whether a product is legal to provide to a citizen of a country. Take Amazon: buy a piece of classic literature and you may find it's on the banned book list of some government.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy your stay in the US. I can't help with anywhere specific in the Denver area as I've never been there but you should have decent luck finding nearly any kind of gift. There are plenty of national chains with reasonable prices so if there's a particular item you're looking for we can probably let you know a chain store that carries it.

Fushigi Thank you for your input, I do believe you are correct when you say classical literature can be a problem and banned in some countries but not in Europe don't you think as for encryption I do not feel that is a problem today considering there are certain European countries that have produce some encryption programs that are almost 100 percent safe.

the two things that I am interested in purchasing this time is a camera which will be the Nikon coolpix 5700 and HP.Ipaq 4350 with GPS navigation.

many thanks for any help you can give.

.

 

[its.fubar]

The Galen Institute is a Tax Reform advocacy group and ultraconservative to the point that they make the current administration almost ‘pinko’ in comparison.

I'm not sure if that's accurate and if it is I'm not sure what difference it makes. This sounds like an argument "to the man" not the issue. I get these terms confused, Is that Ad Hominem?

Yea, I am guilty of an ad hominem attack – engaging in the hyperbole in this instance just couldn’t be resisted :mrgrn: The point I was trying to make is that when presenting an argument/position, it generally isn’t wise to depend principally on source(s) whose position is skewed significantly, lacks authority, or is otherwise questionable (a major problem with the Internet). As an academic librarian, the Galen Institute’s articles -- which were quite hyperbolic in ‘my’ estimation -- just sent up too many corresponding red flags ...

Re. the dialogue between the difference in health care costs, etc., between the U.S. and Canada: the following link provides an authoritative perspective that is quite illuminating:

http://www.oecd.org/document/38/0,2340,en_2649_201185_16560422_1_1_1_1,00.html

Of note is that Canada, despite its having a national health care program, commits a lesser % of its gross domestic product (GDP) on health care than the U.S. does. More noteworthy, however, is that the health costs challenges both countries are addressing are generally pervasive across the globe. And in general the U.S. is doing comparatively well in respect of honouring its associated responsibilities to its citizens.

Interesting link But this only confirms what I have been saying, the U.S.A is not providing the medical care needed for its citizens or at best a very pour standard( Table 1. Public funding as a percentage of health expenditure, 1970 to 2001=36.6 to 44.4 % under these years you will also notice that even Portugal has a better expenditure )is this what the republicans mean by public health reform Means if you can pay for it you're welcome to a health reform system for the few And the rest of you forget it.

 

[Fushigi]

Fushigi Thank you for your input, I do believe you are correct when you say classical literature can be a problem and banned in some countries but not in Europe don't you think as for encryption I do not feel that is a problem today considering there are certain European countries that have produce some encryption programs that are almost 100 percent safe.

the two things that I am interested in purchasing this time is a camera which will be the Nikon coolpix 5700 and HP.Ipaq 4350 with GPS navigation.

The problem is that merchants don't know and don't want to know what is allowed where. So even though the literature and encryption products may be allowed somewhere, the merchants don't necessarily know that and don't have systems in place to ensure things are only sent where they're allowable.

But for a camera & iPaq, you should be fine. I doubt you'll even have any customs issues. BTW, I'm sure you'll love the Nikon. I can't say on the iPaq, though, as I'm more a Palm OS kinda guy and use a Treo 600 which I just added RAM to. So now I've got a phone with 296MB RAM.

 

[Howell]

http://www.oecd.org/document/38/0,2340,en_2649_201185_16560422_1_1_1_1,00.html

Interesting link But this only confirms what I have been saying, the U.S.A is not providing the medical care needed for its citizens or at best a very pour standard( Table 1. Public funding as a percentage of health expenditure, 1970 to 2001=36.6 to 44.4 % under these years you will also notice that even Portugal has a better expenditure )is this what the republicans mean by public health reform Means if you can pay for it you're welcome to a health reform system for the few And the rest of you forget it.

So Public Funding is the only thing that matters to you. Even if all the public's health care needs were met, it seems like you would not be satisfied unless it was done with public funding. Just because people do not get public assistance does not mean they do not get assistance. Your modes of thinking seem to be rooted in the cold war era. Thankfully, the policy makers even in your dear SWEDEN and in USA are thinking innovatively.

This was the theme at a day-long conference on Wednesday in Stockholm on “Markets and Solidarity: Building the European Healthcare of Tomorrow.” Helen Disney, director of the Stockholm Network coalition, in conjunction with Johan Hjertqvist of the Swedish think tank Timbro, convened think tank experts from 13 countries to begin to explore ways that consumerism can be injected into socialized health care systems.
Note: This is a repost of a link poste earlier in the thread.

 

[mubs]

So now I've got a phone with 296MB RAM.

So you're running Win XP Pro, IE 6.0, Office 2003 and the latest WMP on it? I guess it swaps wirelessly to your service provider's servers.

 

[its.fubar]

http://www.oecd.org/document/38/0,2340,en_2649_201185_16560422_1_1_1_1,00.html

Interesting link But this only confirms what I have been saying, the U.S.A is not providing the medical care needed for its citizens or at best a very pour standard( Table 1. Public funding as a percentage of health expenditure, 1970 to 2001=36.6 to 44.4 % under these years you will also notice that even Portugal has a better expenditure )is this what the republicans mean by public health reform Means if you can pay for it you're welcome to a health reform system for the few And the rest of you forget it.

So Public Funding is the only thing that matters to you. Even if all the public's health care needs were met, it seems like you would not be satisfied unless it was done with public funding. Just because people do not get public assistance does not mean they do not get assistance. Your modes of thinking seem to be rooted in the cold war era. Thankfully, the policy makers even in your dear SWEDEN and in USA are thinking innovatively.

This was the theme at a day-long conference on Wednesday in Stockholm on “Markets and Solidarity: Building the European Healthcare of Tomorrow.” Helen Disney, director of the Stockholm Network coalition, in conjunction with Johan Hjertqvist of the Swedish think tank Timbro, convened think tank experts from 13 countries to begin to explore ways that consumerism can be injected into socialized health care systems.
Note: This is a repost of a link poste earlier in the thread.

Innovation my friend is just a word for large companies to make a profit, which is not wrong if it is used with everyday common sense and decency, the difference between what the Scandinavian countries have and what the USA obviously doesn't have is that everyone is entitled to a fair health policy regardless of what there Income is, lobbyists for these pharmaceutical companies are only interested in their bottom line to profit and there indifference to what there products are being produced for.For example a company by the name off PFIZER produce some medicine which was hipped to be far superior than the extremely cheap medicine called Trombyl, the only problem was that it did not work but under the time it was on the market the profits for the company were considerable Now if you think this is what a free enterprise system is all about where company do as they please as long as they make a profit, so be it and I hope you can afford what you preach.

 

[Howell]

Innovation my friend is just a word for large companies to make a profit,

What backwards stone-age thinking! You must have a kooky thesaurus/dictionary.

 

[its.fubar]

Innovation my friend is just a word for large companies to make a profit,

What backwards stone-age thinking! You must have a kooky thesaurus/dictionary.

So innovation doesn't make a profit ?

 

[Fushigi]

So you're running Win XP Pro, IE 6.0, Office 2003 and the latest WMP on it? I guess it swaps wirelessly to your service provider's servers.

Palm OS 5.2, BLazer 3.0, no Office doc handler yet but will likely get DataViz Docs2Go at some point.

The RAM was really to store PDFs, MP3s, etc. I've already loaded 69MB of PDFs (the Adobe converter sucks, BTW). I actually haven't loaded an MP3 player yet, but will sometime.

I did, though, just add a VPN client and a Terminal Services client so I can control the servers at work from the Treo. Very nice.

 

[mubs]

You're kidding me! What can you see on that tiny screen??!!

 

[Pradeep]

the two things that I am interested in purchasing this time is a camera which will be the Nikon coolpix 5700 and HP.Ipaq 4350 with GPS navigation.

The Nikon should come with a multi voltage charger, but I'm not sure if the ipaq charger adapter is 110V only or 110/220V.

 

[its.fubar]

the two things that I am interested in purchasing this time is a camera which will be the Nikon coolpix 5700 and HP.Ipaq 4350 with GPS navigation.

The Nikon should come with a multi voltage charger, but I'm not sure if the ipaq charger adapter is 110V only or 110/220V.

Thanks for your thoughts Pradeep I suppose if the ipaq doesn't come with a variable charger I will have to purchase one when I get back home which is a pity considering the reason for buying it in the USA, is the price.

By the way I notice that the store like "walmart" is cheap without any rebate this camera is retailing With a 512 MB Card for under 900$ considering the same camera In Sweden would cost 1550$ At the present exchange rate of 7.67 who knows if the U.S. dollar keeps depreciating I might even get it cheaper and come to think of it if this does happen I will not be bothered about investing in a variable charger.

 

[Pradeep]

Nikon CoolPix 5700 5.0-MegaPixel Digicam $650 at Amazon.com

Amazon.com has the Nikon Coolpix 5700 5-MegaPixel Digital Camera with 8x Optical Zoom for $750 - $100 rebate [Exp 1/31] = $650 with free shipping. Get a Viking 128MB CompactFlash Card for $38 - $30 discount code FREECF4122K3 = $8 extra. [Review : BizRate]

from Bensbargains.net

Only thing is you would need a US delivery address as Amazon doesn't ship electronics overseas.

If you have $900 to spend then a Canon 300D would prob be a better buy.

 

[Fushigi]

You're kidding me! What can you see on that tiny screen??!!

Everything, but if using the TS client I will be doing a bit of side-scrolling. Screens can be definied from 320x200 up to 1024x768. But smaller screens are easier to manage & require less bandwidth.

 

[its.fubar]

Sorry to you all for not replying earlier I have been kind of busy lately.

I will be purchasing the Nikon CoolPix 5700 through a friend of mine who lives in the USA using his visa card and address,in this way I suppose I am helping the USA get back on the road to recovery "he he"but one thing is for certain it will be a great saving for me and I was wondering are these low prices suggesting the USA is becoming a low price Land "he he" don't misunderstand me I am not complaining just asking "ha ha"

I would now like to get back to the theme of this Thread.

Does anyone really believe the republican Medicare package is anything more than paying back the people for the contribution he got for his next elections and keeping that person in the white house,because if I understand this package correctly you have to pay for it by way of subscription long before you get anything out and the savings will not be that much "So who are the winners"Man ,it was also report by fox news that the USA spends more than 40 percent of the combined worlds total budget for military forces, I wonder what type of health care in the USA you would have their if you scale back the military expenditure by ten percent ?
if you can destroy your enemy with at least ten different ways why should you need to purchase new technology so you can destroy them twenty different ways isn't that overkill and the waste of any lands resources.

 

[Mercutio]

I know not everyone is interested in the editorial viewpoint of salon.com, and the ads are a PITA if you are not a member, but this is yet another in a long line of heartbreaking articles describing what's happened to IT workers and to American professionals in general.