The best way to buy a camera as a tourist in the US?

leo wrote:

I read that in New York Times that the living standard of many
Scandinavian countries are pretty low. Many office workers in Norway
bring their sandwich. On the other hand, many Spaniards eat out and
French people would have wine with their lunch.

Living in New York is very tough but when comparing to many European
country, it's still better off.

I would argue that most Americans eating lunch are not getting the
nutrition of most Europeans regardless of whether they are brownbagging
it or eating out. It is also common in Europe to walk to lunch, which
might be in a cafeteria (often shared by several companies) or
restaurant that is a km or more away. Walk to a three course lunch,
which can easilly take an 45-min to an hour, and walk back. Very healthy.

By that standard European standard of living is much higher than the US.

French, Italians, Germans, others have wine or beer with their lunch,
but usually just one glass. Personally, I avoid this here or when in
Europe as it makes me drowsy in the afternoon. Some meetings are boring
enough without lunch+wine to aid one into the arms of Morpheus.

Cheers,
Alan


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-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.

Alan Browne wrote:
leo wrote:

I read that in New York Times that the living standard of many
Scandinavian countries are pretty low. Many office workers in Norway
bring their sandwich. On the other hand, many Spaniards eat out and
French people would have wine with their lunch.

Living in New York is very tough but when comparing to many European
country, it's still better off.


I would argue that most Americans eating lunch are not getting the
nutrition of most Europeans regardless of whether they are brownbagging
it or eating out. It is also common in Europe to walk to lunch, which
might be in a cafeteria (often shared by several companies) or
restaurant that is a km or more away. Walk to a three course lunch,
which can easilly take an 45-min to an hour, and walk back. Very healthy.

By that standard European standard of living is much higher than the US.

French, Italians, Germans, others have wine or beer with their lunch,
but usually just one glass. Personally, I avoid this here or when in
Europe as it makes me drowsy in the afternoon. Some meetings are boring
enough without lunch+wine to aid one into the arms of Morpheus.

Cheers,
Alan


Hahaha... I think you have to read all whole article. It was about a
week or two ago. It's not the matter of how health was their diet but
how much money they could spend. It even mentioned that the hospital in
Norway runs out of cough medicine, etc. Sweden isn't much better off and
when they compare the EU as a whole to 50 individual states of USA, EU,
all of them together, surprisingly rank quite low.

leo wrote:

Alan Browne wrote:

leo wrote:

I read that in New York Times that the living standard of many
Scandinavian countries are pretty low. Many office workers in Norway
bring their sandwich. On the other hand, many Spaniards eat out and
French people would have wine with their lunch.

Living in New York is very tough but when comparing to many European
country, it's still better off.



I would argue that most Americans eating lunch are not getting the
nutrition of most Europeans regardless of whether they are
brownbagging it or eating out. It is also common in Europe to walk to
lunch, which might be in a cafeteria (often shared by several
companies) or restaurant that is a km or more away. Walk to a three
course lunch, which can easilly take an 45-min to an hour, and walk
back. Very healthy.

By that standard European standard of living is much higher than the US.

French, Italians, Germans, others have wine or beer with their lunch,
but usually just one glass. Personally, I avoid this here or when in
Europe as it makes me drowsy in the afternoon. Some meetings are
boring enough without lunch+wine to aid one into the arms of Morpheus.

Cheers,
Alan



Hahaha... I think you have to read all whole article. It was about a
week or two ago. It's not the matter of how health was their diet but
how much money they could spend.

Again, spending money is a false measure of quality of life. Spend
$5.00 at McD or spend $4.00 to brownbag a lunch, and guess who has the
better lifestyle?

It even mentioned that the hospital in
Norway runs out of cough medicine, etc. Sweden isn't much better off and
when they compare the EU as a whole to 50 individual states of USA, EU,
all of them together, surprisingly rank quite low.

Now you're boiling over into what are admin/budget issues at hospitals.

Swedes are generally healthier than most Europeans. We won't even touch
on Americans.

Cheers,
Alan

--
-- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm
-- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm
-- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin
-- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch.

In article ,
Alan Browne wrote:
leo wrote:
It even mentioned that the hospital in
Norway runs out of cough medicine, etc. Sweden isn't much better off and
when they compare the EU as a whole to 50 individual states of USA, EU,
all of them together, surprisingly rank quite low.

Now you're boiling over into what are admin/budget issues at hospitals.

Swedes are generally healthier than most Europeans. We won't even touch
on Americans.

One of the more interesting metrics is the average height of the members
of a population. Using that metric, the northern part of Europe does very
well.

(I am not sure how to compare individual wealth between countries. You
can't just compare the average buying power, because that allows a small
number of very rich people to skew the results.)


--
That was it. Done. The faulty Monk was turned out into the desert where it
could believe what it liked, including the idea that it had been hard done
by. It was allowed to keep its horse, since horses were so cheap to make.
-- Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

(Philip Homburg) writes:

(I am not sure how to compare individual wealth between countries. You
can't just compare the average buying power, because that allows a small
number of very rich people to skew the results.)

In this case you need to use "median buying power" (take whole population into
consideration, sort them according to the attribute in question and take
the one in the middle of the list), except that nobody collects nor
publishes such a measure. For the obvious reasons.

Dragan

--
Dragan Cvetkovic,

To be or not to be is true. G. Boole No it isn't. L. E. J. Brouwer

!!! Sender/From address is bogus. Use reply-to one !!!

Philip Homburg wrote:

(I am not sure how to compare individual wealth between countries. You
can't just compare the average buying power, because that allows a small
number of very rich people to skew the results.)

Socialized medicine and other government provided social services skew
them further.

leo wrote:

I read that in New York Times that the living standard of many
Scandinavian countries are pretty low. Many office workers in Norway
bring their sandwich. On the other hand, many Spaniards eat out and
French people would have wine with their lunch.

Living in New York is very tough but when comparing to many European
country, it's still better off.

Norway has topped the standard of living indexes for the last
couple of years, and has been in the top ten for ages.

Bringing a bag lunch doesn't mean bad standard of living; it
probably just means good nutrition. Measuring standard of living
is a tough thing. Because an american can buy a 5 lb lump of
"cheese" or a 2 litre cup of coke, for the same money as 100g
of real cheese, does that imply better standard of living?

Health care in scandinavia is great, and universal. On the
whole, the 1970's fact of a 70 yr old swede being as healthy
as a 40 yr old canadian is even more applicable today. Both
father and mother get six months to a year off when a child
is born. Holidays average around 6 to 8 weeks per year
(compared to the Namerican 2 or 3).

If your life revolves around alcohol, cigarettes, and petrol,
then scandinavia won't be for you. Anyway, to each his own.
Fortunately!

--
Ken Tough

It's been extremely interesting to read everything y'all have said (so far).
I think I now know what I need and I have a few options, when it comes to
buying the camera.

But on the front "living standards and taxes", keep it coming! As a Swedish
citizen myself, I just might give you my side of the story... There are both
pros and cons about paying 55 % of your income in taxes, at least when it
comes to (almost) free healthcare, free schools, free collages and a decent
pension.

JohaN wrote:

But on the front "living standards and taxes", keep it coming! As a Swedish
citizen myself, I just might give you my side of the story... There are both
pros and cons about paying 55 % of your income in taxes, at least when it
comes to (almost) free healthcare, free schools, free collages and a decent
pension.

Here in the US, we tend to get 2 weeks of vacation at a stretch. That really,
really sucks. But, if I had to pay 55% of my income in taxes, I wouldn't be
able to do much on vacation but stay home. (My taxes could, seemingly,
already fund entire foreign invasions on their own, so if they took any
frigging *more*, they probably wouldn't be able to figure out what to do
with it other than invade some more countries, so lower taxes are good for
all the world, not just us!)

--
Jeremy |

Ken Tough wrote:
leo wrote:


I read that in New York Times that the living standard of many
Scandinavian countries are pretty low. Many office workers in Norway
bring their sandwich. On the other hand, many Spaniards eat out and
French people would have wine with their lunch.

Living in New York is very tough but when comparing to many European
country, it's still better off.


Norway has topped the standard of living indexes for the last
couple of years, and has been in the top ten for ages.

Bringing a bag lunch doesn't mean bad standard of living; it
probably just means good nutrition. Measuring standard of living
is a tough thing. Because an american can buy a 5 lb lump of
"cheese" or a 2 litre cup of coke, for the same money as 100g
of real cheese, does that imply better standard of living?

Health care in scandinavia is great, and universal. On the
whole, the 1970's fact of a 70 yr old swede being as healthy
as a 40 yr old canadian is even more applicable today. Both
father and mother get six months to a year off when a child
is born. Holidays average around 6 to 8 weeks per year
(compared to the Namerican 2 or 3).

If your life revolves around alcohol, cigarettes, and petrol,
then scandinavia won't be for you. Anyway, to each his own.
Fortunately!


Purchasing power was what I meant, forget about standard of living which
was misused.