Thorts from the road, after a week round and about in America
Quoting prices gross of sales tax. Insane. Trips me up every time I visit, and seems to confuse a lot of natives too. It makes no sense at all. Every American I've spoken to agrees with me on this one, except for one bloke who tried to make a half-hearted defence of it as a way of "reminding people of the tax burden". To be honest, if the only way you can build a coalition for a low-tax policy is to impose minor irritations a dozen times a day, I would say that's a sign of a political programme not worth bothering with.
The food really is excellent. In particular, you do get better vegetables in America than most places in Europe.
I have no idea why everyone has such a scunner against "USA Today". It's actually a pretty decent newspaper. Compare it to something like the Mail (or even the Times to be honest) and you'll see it's really good. The Wall Street Journal is still much too ugly to read.
American news television. Jesus it's awful. Not so much the content as the technical standards of broadcasting. I watched the O'Reilly Factor and … well, this guy is meant to be the charisma magnet of Fox? Dreary. Half the time it was bad reading off an autocue, and half the rest, woefully under-rehearsed ramble. Paxman would eat these guys alive. Also, the news channels seem to have got really lazy in terms of substituting whizzy CGI graphics for old fashioned camerawork, which makes them look even more dull and static. CNN - they really love their poorly composed group shots, don't they? And their slow zooms in and out on a giant television screen. O'Reilly managed to do about a six minute sequence without a single cut, and then when he moved to an interview, they pulled up a split screen, despite the fact that the guest was clearly in the studio!
The media industry which invented the hyperactive cutting style as a cheap way of creating fake excitement now can't be bothered with it because it's too expensive (my guess is that the CNN studio show I was watching only had two cameras, and a director who wasn't confident in doing anything other than midrange group shots). I suspect that it is only the massive human capital subsidy of the BBC which stops UK media from heading into the same economic tailspin. The only remotely watchable show I saw all week was CNBC Squawkbox, where they at least still remember the concept of putting a camera on the person who's talking. Thinking about it, a lot of sitcoms also suffer from really pedestrian camera-work - this is part of what makes "The Office" stand out so much.
I heard forty minutes of "Savage Nation", in a taxi. Wow. Forty minutes and for every single one of those minutes, nobody was speaking who had any remote idea what they were talking about. I am 100% convinced that show came about as the result of a corporate brainstorming session in which someone, high on black coffee and urine retention, gabbled "what about idiots? There's loads of people out there who are idiots. Shouldn't idiots have a radio show? Let's do a show for idiots". If Michael Savage ever runs for President I have a slogan for him: "It's Moroning In America".
Reading Peter Dale Scott's "The Road to 9/11". Very good book. I think I posted in someone else's comments and lost the suggestion that "the military and intelligence services actually do work in roughly the way in which public choice theorists believe the whole government works". That's the basic message. The other basic message is the answer to Melanie Phillips' implicit question in "Londonistan" - the reason why the UK, US and other intelligence services have been so willing to accommodate not only the growth of global Islamism, but also the specific al-Qaeda faction within them is that, for the most part over the last twenty years, they have delivered the goods. From Afghanistan to the Balkans, Islamist militias were a lot more helpful and reliable than our previous main men in the cause of the plausibly deniable imposition of foreign policy goals, the global drugs industry. The growth of the Wahabi element in Islamism (and its consequent gain in market share from the Muslim Brotherhood) also probably bought at least a decade's extended survival for the House of Saud, who I hardly have to remind readers are our allies. It really is a shame that any discussion of this deep involvement between the two nominally opposed sides in the War on Terror (compare; the deep connections between the CIA and their frenemies in the War on Drugs) is considered totally unserious and evidence of being a tinfoil conspiracy loon. It's true that we hate the Islamists and they hate us, and that they murder Western civilians. On the other hand, the Mafia were and are also our enemies …
Isn't the sales tax thing just a function of every jurisdiction being allowed to raise a sales tax (state, county, city, whatever) such that it's going to be a burden on large chains' publicity and price displays and what-have-you, since post-tax prices are going to vary considerably? So they are very keen to be allowed to show price net of sales tax. Shoeleather costs, sort of. (Do I mean shoeleather? the thing where inflation means you have to reprint menus more often and that's the major cost.)
ReplyDeletethe reason why the UK, US and other intelligence services have been so willing to accommodate not only the growth of global Islamism, but also the specific al-Qaeda faction within them is that, for the most part over the last twenty years, they have delivered the goods.
ReplyDeleteYes, they were good at beating down the Left/Arab Nationalism back in the Cold War. Robert Dreyfuss had a good book on that called The Devil's Game.
I heard forty minutes of "Savage Nation", in a taxi. Wow.
The "serious" news radio station where I live (that has been slowly declining in quality for the past 15 years and carries Glenn Beck, Rush, and Sean Hannity) used to carry him every night a few years ago, but eventually he got too outrageous for them. I doubt any corporate suits had to have a meeting about Savage. The far-right has been on the radio dial in America for the past thirty years. Michael Savage is just the latest incarnation to go national.
Quoting prices gross of sales tax. Insane. Trips me up every time I visit, and seems to confuse a lot of natives too. It makes no sense at all.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this happen elsewhere? I believe it happens in Spain with a lot of electrical goods, and come to that I'm sure I recall paying far more for a computer in Britain than I thought I was, years ago, because I forgot about the VAT.
yeah, but in America it happens in like Starbucks or for a packet of chewing gum. As Nasi says, there is a certain amount of local complexity and menu costs but I mean really, if you can put a man on the moon.
ReplyDeletewhat really bugged me is that the headline menu prices are still set to be a small amount below some round number, meaning that the amount you pay is a small amount above a round number, meaning that you build up with a pocket full of change.
Hey, working from my front room as I do, I quite often listen to Radio 5; I can assure you that Britain's morons bear comparison with any idiots in the world.
ReplyDeleteWell it may have some connection to the sales tax varying from county to county (which in practice can mean across a city, as the Suburbs will be seperate political entities). I wouldn't mind if it was for big ticket items so much, but if buying a cup of coffee you rarely have time to find the exact change. Incidentally - US money. Why does it all look so similar?
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm fairly convinced that the tax system in the US was designed to create a tax revolt, the worst offender is the tax return. Every year when I see the tax return my wife has to file as an ex-pat, I find myself with warm and fuzzy feelings towards the Inland Revenue.
Justin, if you're a business or self-employed you can claim VAT back and so goods aimed at these sectors exclude VAT in their prices.
Incidentally on the food/vegetables thing, its pretty variable. The South East isn't great in my experience, whereas New England/New York is. Also, in a lot of the US the only places to eat are regional chains which are okay (and better than your typical British chain), but not amazing and I'd be pretty suspicious of what they put in the sauces.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, bread is very expensive in the US. I have no idea why.
Did you listen to NPR? And you're completely correct on the insanity tax business stuff. And the vegetables.
ReplyDeleteI swear that the Michael Savage morons are a cut above the normal run of the mill moron that you get on normal radio shows. And the man himself is a moron's moron too. He did like a fifteen minute bit on the fact that the Air Force academy had invited some former jihadis to speak to them, which as far as I can see was entirely premised on an inability to understand the meaning of the word "former".
ReplyDeletein America it happens in like Starbucks
ReplyDeleteHe did like a fifteen minute bit on the fact that
OK, we believe you, you've been to America. (I mean, you've like totally been to America...)
cian's right: vegetables on the west coast and up by NYC are v. nice. In the south east, they're generally not so good. Perhaps because lots of them are brought in from California or Joisey.
ReplyDeleteAs for bread, it's either $2.50 for a crappy supermarket loaf or $5 for 'artisan', which frankly isn't up to the stuff sold in Morrison's. I've started baking my own.
meaning that you build up with a pocket full of change.
It's really inefficient: you can prepare the correct change in the queue, but only if you know the operative sales tax for the precise locale and item.
Also, since US coinage is useless for small purchases, save coke machines, parking meters and at the laundrette -- never tip with change -- you end up shoving the shrapnel in a jar.
I'm a bit of a zealot on this: every other developed nation has coinage that you can use for small purchases; those who think you end up with jangling pockets miss the point that you can actually spend it.
(There's yet another dollar coin doomed to failure. Also, outside Vegas, the highest note in common usage remains the $20.)
The 'one price for take away, higher price for sit in' in coffee shops here pisses me off, though. That's a VAT thing, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteevery other developed nation has coinage that you can use for small purchases
ReplyDeleteonly true since EMU though (on the assumption that Italy is a developed country, which can be argued both ways).
I've just realised that part of the reason why food is so much better in America is that when I'm there I tend to be eating in pretty decent restaurants on expenses. Next week, why do so many closets contain my clothes? (gag me with a spoon, totally).
I tend to be eating in pretty decent restaurants on expenses
ReplyDelete£1=$2 probably helps, too.
On American coinage: would it kill you guys to print the numerical value of your coins on them? OK, "a quarter "isn't that hard, but how the hell am I supposed to remember what a fucking "dime" is worth...?
ReplyDeletejohn b, it's a subtle way of getting back at us for all those years of £.s.d. Asking, "How much is that in Guineas?" is always a good opening.
ReplyDeleteFor about 15 years after Japan introduced a sales tax (the same across the whole country), shops carried on showing net prices, purely out of spite as far as I could tell. The government changed the law to make them show the proper price a few years ago. There's no excuse.
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose you used any public phones? When I was there (in the late 90s, before the cellphone era), the telephone system was pretty much unusable.
(on the assumption that Italy is a developed country, which can be argued both ways).
ReplyDeleteYeah. Depends on my mood, really.
In Milan and Florence, they still moan about how the Euro has buggered up a) the slender profile of Italian wallets; b) the cut of Italian suits.
Last year I was staying in a 5-star hotel in Rome and a colleague complained to the reception that his phone wasn't working in his room. The woman quite cooly said, "Sir, this is Italy. Many things don't work".
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"the telephone system was pretty much unusable."
I find that a bit surprising - the quality of the fixed-line phone network is often said to be a factor behind the slightly slower adoption of mobiles.
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The thing that most seems cheap in America I think is anything to do with cars. Gasoline is cheap, car sales prices are cheap, the credit is cheap (free, or in fact sometimes they give you money). This also means taxis are (especially at 2 dollars to a pound) are ridicuously cheap.
The slowness of adoption of mobile phones in the US, based upon an admittedly small sample of family/friends, was due to a combination of the cost (and in particular the recipient having to pay for the call - an astonishing piece of stupid greed by the phone companies), poor coverage and conflicting standards.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that's more expensive in the US. Broadband and cable TV.
The woman quite cooly said, "Sir, this is Italy. Many things don't work".
ReplyDeleteYou want to try living in Spain. You'd have had much the same advice but it'd have come with a "no te preocupes" or a "tranquilo" atached. Or both.
Taxis are cheap and plentiful in the places where most British visitors stay, but I'm living in a city of 75,000 with precisely 43 taxis, where a three-mile trip costs about $15 inc. tip. That's not too horrific if you're thinking in pounds, but not much is these days.
ReplyDeleteThat's the downside to cheap cars and cheapish petrol, along with the lax attitude to drinking and driving: it's assumed that you'll be taking your car (or a designated driver) for a night down town.
"along with the lax attitude to drinking and driving"
ReplyDeleteRilly? I always figured the US was harsher on drink-driving than the UK.
It's very unusual here to see someone go to jail for drink-driving alone - you normally need to hurt/kill someone, or be caught driving while banned for previous drink-driving offences - whereas in the US it seems relatively common to jail someone for their second DUI even if it's well after the ban expired.
Or is it a "less likely to be caught, but harsher punishments if you are" kind of thing?
Rilly? I always figured the US was harsher on drink-driving than the UK.
ReplyDeleteI'm not talking about punishments. I'm talking about culture. When the nearest watering hole is far away, public transport is negligible, and cabs a joke, the tendency is to drive, make a rough calculation at how much you've had, and head home, most likely over the limit, in the hope that you don't get pulled over. After all, there are only so many cops on the road.
I am talking about the South, though. I remember seeing the adverts placed behind plexiglass at eye-level in the bar urinals in Athens, Ga. -- bail bonds and DUI lawyers. And it was in Athens that I had the fucking scary experience of being in a car with someone too pissed to drive, by my British standards, heading to the Waffle House for coffee to 'sober up'.
Say what you like about Jimmy Savile, but the anti-drink-driving campaign in Britain instilled the rule-of-thumb of 'a pint at the start of the night, and that's it' when driving. If you're heading into town for a night on the sauce, even the worst chavvy bastards will be on the night bus or clubbing together for the cab fare.
Outside the big cities, in the bits of the US where I've spent any time, the 'out on the piss = demand for cabs' thing just hasn't broken through.
Your in the U.S.? For god's sakes look me up.
ReplyDelete-- MaxSpeak
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ReplyDelete