Re: 1:240 (approx) scale figures, accessories, etc?


"Wolf Kirchmeir" <ElLoboViejo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46f51619$0$31949$9a6e19ea@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Greg Procter wrote:
[...]
Five years ago our dollar bought US 39c, a month ago it peaked at US
81c. The problem became that our exports were being squeezed and imports
becoming ever cheaper. With your recent housing finance crumble our
dollar got a shake and fell to US 69c and has returned through US 74c on
Friday on what looks like an ongoing climb.
We (on average) take home about half the weekly equivalent that yanks do
but our costs for housing, food, health and education are lower. We
don't have the highs or lows of income of the USa.
[...]

This thread is getting quite OT, so here's my 2 (Canuck) cents worth:

It's not that the NZ dollar is climbing - it's that the US dollar is
falling. Relative to other significant currencies (the euro, the yen, the
yuan, the pound, the Swiss franc), currencies such as the NZ and Canadian
dollar change very little. (Our dollar is doing a little better than
yours, mostly because we have commodities that you don't have.) Check it
out.

You also (like most industrial nations) have a modern social welfare
system, which brings real costs even lower, so that in terms of quality of
life standards (longevity, education, health, literacy, public amenities,
etc) you equal or exceed the USA. On most measures of quality of life, the
USA ranks well below other industrial nations, and on some of them (eg,
infant mortality, income distribution) it's a 3rd world country. Not like
the 1950s and '60s, unfortunately.

Wolf: Do you have any data for us to back up your opinion that the U.S.
ranks well below other industrial nations on some of "quality of life"
issues, and is a 3rd world country on infant mortality and income
distribution?

I have to assume you are a socialist, from your views and location. Can you
explain why for every U.S. citizen that moves to another country, about a
bazillion move here? May I suggest that what the U.S needs is 4 times less
government, which would result in 4 times more freedom. Of course, compared
to Canada, I guess it looks like we have way too much freedom already, like
a constitution that says human beings have a right to defend themselves with
firearms? BTW, we already have income (re)distribution on a grande
scale....that's where the government takes a big chunk of your hard earned
money under threat of death and gives it to lazy bums in cash and free
benefits. It's where we are forced to pay about $2000 / year to the public
school system so those "professional" union thug teachers can start right
out of college making $40/hr with the best benefit packages on Earth at no
cost to them and a garanteed job for life, with full retirement benefits at
55........then move up the pay scale to $80-120 / hr just because they
decided to hang around year after year. Believe me, it doesn't take an
Einstein to get a Bachelors in Education and teach 3rd graders, or 12th
graders for that mater. Turning to the private sector, where money can't be
raised out of thin air by fiat, backed up by para-military
organizations..............where I work, 22 year old new Bachelor level
Engineers and Computer Science majors are getting $20-25/hour in large
hi-tech companies, they have to contribute a couple of thousand a year out
of pocket torwards their benefits and they have no retirement plan. Why did
they take the much harder formal educational path and yet get half the pay?
Solely because they aren't Government socialist union members who hold
little kids educations hostage by striking. It's call socialism. Some
places it's called communism......same thing.


There are two primary reasons for the US dollar's fall: their huge trade
deficit wrt the rest of the world; and their huge and accumulating debt
caused by spending on war. That's why such relatively small strains as the
sub-prime mortgage debt crisis can have such a surprisingly large effect.
(That debt crisis involves amounts that would pay for a week or two of war
at most.) IMO, the Fed's cutting of interest rates will not provide a
long-term stable resolution. It will merely shift real capital to more
lucrative markets.


.

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