Where are you and your Miata?

Reply to
hotclub57
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Williamsburg, VA

McRenn8

Reply to
Chris Rennix

Raleigh, NC '04 MSM

Reply to
Bipestuff

Yay! Another Pennsylvania person!

Iva & Vixen

2004 Classic Red No more winkin' Miata
Reply to
Iva

Cordelia, CA, USA

Woo-hoo ;-)

Reply to
Dana Myers

Sorry to hear that. I'm probably going to go for a

70-mile ride tomorrow here - on a bicycle. I'll bring a windbreaker but probably won't need it. It'll be raining soon enough, though...

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

PA is back in the lead with 5!

Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

Chris R. you're #50 and #2 from VA.

Thanks, Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

Thanks Harry. Looks interesting! Thanks for the peak!

Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

After my oldest had learned to drive - in an automatic - I insisted she learned to drive a manual. At first, she was excited about the chance to drive my '02 SE, but soon complained it was too much work, too stressful, etc. I told her that her driving training wasn't complete until she could drive a manual.

I made her spend 15-20 minutes once a week driving my MX-5 in a large empty parking lot, but her heart wasn't in it. Eventually, I let her take a break.

A few months later, she asks if she can practice driving the MX-5. I said, sure, and she took off down the street. She didn't come back for nearly an hour, with a huge smile.

The next day, she asked if she could drive it again. She was gone for nearly 90 minutes!

Eventually we bought a Mazda 3, and she was the envy of more than a few of her friends - because her car had a manual transmission and she knew how to use the clutch. Amazing!

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Chris is actually #3 in Virginia. My reply to Larry (pltrgyst) was rather ambiguous when I wrote I might live down the street from him. He and I are both in Alexandria, Virginia.

-- Ken Lyons '97 Brilliant Black/'90 Classic Red Inside the Beltway [Remove the first two digits to reply]

"Chris D'Agnolo" wrote

Reply to
Ken Lyons

You mean ~20 km from Rocamadour and 65km north of Cahors? Some people have all the luck! 8;)

-- Larry (drinking a Cahors as he types...)

Reply to
pltrgyst

Hi Bruno,

The November 26, 2007 edition of TIME magazine has an interesting article on "Denmark's Difference: High taxes, a welfare state, strong unions, how an unlikely formula delivers for the Danes." Does it deliver for you? Just a question from an American curious about Denmark's economic success.

Abyss (Desordre)

92 Mariner Blue Miata Coos Bay, Oregon

Driving along the coast on highway 101 in the fog and loving it.

Reply to
abyss

Swindon, England. Technically it's an MX-5, because the Miata name was only used in North America.

Reply to
Zog The Undeniable

This is clearly a plot by Iva and her friends to take the top spot. PA with a higher number than TX and CA? I think not, and we have had the interweb down here for several years. :-)

Pat

Reply to
pws

Yeah, go ahead and rub it in.

70 miles, eh? I hate to say it in this newsgroup, but I need to ride my bicycle more and drive the Miata less.

Pat

Reply to
pws

Does it deliver for me? Well - the short answer is a big YES!

But let me elaborate a bit sine nothing is perfect. let me try and paint a quick picture of my life as a Dane so you have an idea of my basis for answering the question.

I'm 37, work in IT, single (more or less), live in a 1 bedroom apartment(aprox 800 sqfeet) of which I own about 30% (the credit company the rest) and then I drive a Miata. My annual income is slightly above average for my age group, so all in all I think I'm pretty representative for a semi-young male Dane (except the car).

As a car nut I do wish that our record high car taxes* was lower but on the other hand it's not like we need more cars as they are everywhere and all in all I'm fine with paying my taxes.

It may be that Denmark is sort of a world record holder when it comes to taxes but I think the picture is not that simple. Sure our high taxes mean that everybody pay to a lot of stuff whether they like it or not and somethings I might like to support or perhaps just see done differently but all in all it is a good system.

I have talked about the tax subject with people from the US before and when doing the math it often turns out an average budget is not very different. We pay high taxes but it means we don't need to:

- Save up to pay for education for our children.

- Pay for medical insurance.

- Pay unemployment insurance.

- Run a pension plan

And so on.

Sure if you want extra insurance, a higher pension and so you can get it and if so there is often a tax deduction covering part of the cost. But even the standard health service is of a very high standard, welfare will never run out, education is free and students living away from home (they almost all do once past 18) get aprox $800 a month from the state and there are cheap student loans...

I'm not sure the article you refer to is this one:

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But if so there are a couple minor of details which are wrong :-)

  1. We have not been a small nation for a 1000 years. Denmark in fact is not just the main areas but both Greenland and the Faeroe Islands are part of the Danish nation and back in time Norway, a nice chunk of Sweden, a bite of Germany, a part of England and even the Virgin Islands (which we sold to you guys in 1917 for some million).

  1. The unemployment check one can get for up to four years (after which one goes on flexible pay out which you can not get if you own real estate or any other valuables) is not 90%. It was originaly meant to be

90% for someone with a average wage but it has not been regulated and it's maximum of about $800 a week before tax so it only reaches 90% for those with absolute minimum wages.

All in all I think we have it pretty easy. We have more oil than we need, a very well functioning democracy (85-90% of all over 18 vote in national elections), low crimerate, no corruption, no earthquakes/volcano's/tornado's/hurricanes and not even any really dangerous animals.

I hope I somehow answered you question. Feel free to ask more if needed.

Kind regards Bruno

*Apart from the car tax which basically means buy one pay for three there are more ways a car owner has to pay for the privilege. There is a yearly environment tax which depends on the models mileage (for a Miata like mine it's US$ 786) and there is gas taxes causing a gallon to come in at aprox. $7.20.
Reply to
Bruno

Thanks Bruno, it's nice to get info first hand. It really does sound like a system that works for you guys. I wish folks here (USA) were more open minded on topics like this but, it is what it is.

Thanks again, Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

OK Ken, I'll correct that. I had you down for Washington DC. Now that's open (0).

Thanks for the clarification, Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

That puts the U.K. tied with PA at 5. Where the heck is TX (4)? I'll post the results here pretty soon as the rush has definitely subsided. ANY LURKERS, NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!

Has been fun for me guys! Chris

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Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

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