[Pythonmac-SIG] the iBook's irresistible charms

[Dinu Gherman]

Alex Martelli:

> True!  But that goes for ALL sort of products -- the drop in USD/EUR 
> exchange
> rates over the last year isn't really reflected in most retail pricing
> (making shopping in the US for all sort of reasonably transportable 
> stuff
> more and more attractive to us Europeans).  VAT also plays an 
> important role:
> a 12" entrylevel iBook is EUR 1200 _VAT included_ here, that's 
> 1000+VAT,
> while the 1100 USD price excludes sales taxes (typical sales taxes 
> being 5% or
> so, but some states may not have any), which explains part of the 
> difference.

True, but if I remember correctly in the U.S. there are strange
ways to minimize/bypass things like VAT by having stuff shipped
to you from a different state (which certainly helps the transport
and logistics industries).

OTOH, it would be interesting to know if European companies have
increased prices of EU-manufactured products sold overseas...
Is there any U.S.-owner of a new Porsche/Mercedes/BMW/Ferrari on
this list? ;-)

> [...] So, my advice to y'all is to get American fiancees...!-)

That is certainly not an option for everybody! ;-)

Anyway...

Dinu

--
Dinu C. Gherman - http://python.net/~gherman
......................................................................
"I never apologize for the United States of America, I don't care what
the facts are." (George Bush, Sr.)