Reply to Crazy Trader about Public Transit: You're right, I didn't compare it fairly to other North American cities. I should of explained my context. When I wrote it, I was thinking that if you're not travelling on the Skytrain to the downtown core, a 20 minute trip by car in Vancouver would take about 45 minutes including the transfer waiting time. A drive from Vancouver to 25km out of town to a municipality like Port Coquitlam would take about 30 minutes while taking the Skytrain and a bus transfer will take about 1hr. If you wanted to get to and from the International Airport or the BC Ferries by public transit, it will easily take over 2x as long than if you travelled by car. That's the context that I say the transit system is "poor". Sorry for any misunderstanding. Reply to mark1 about cost of living: I heard about Europe's prices. I assume that it is relative to what they make in terms of wages. Hopefully, Europeans aren't paying those kind of expenses with a $35,000CAD pre-tax paycheque. But I see your point. With trading, at the end of the day, we are looking at what we have made in absolute terms, be it Dollars, Euros, Pounds, Yen, etc. So your point is, if you make 40,000e and I make $61,500 it would be cheaper to live in Vancouver than in some places in Europe, right? DNAJ65000
HI everyone - my first post here on ET : interesting thread : I am moving this Friday (Sept 26) to Toronto from sunny (not) England for a change of scene and because I'm sick of the UK .... steadily on the way down the toilet imo. Great site. Wish I'd found it before.
Lake Tahoe, NV -- beautiful, no state taxes, but expensive real estate (rents), snow in the winter; San Luis Obispo, CA -- beautiful, by the ocean, friendly college town, but pricey real estate (rents), CA taxes; Queensland (coast), Adelaide, Perth, (actually, almost anywhere along the coast) Australia -- beautiful, friendly people, low crime rate, English lang., easy-going, good standard of living, good exchange rate, but higher taxes and unsure of Internet connection options for faster day trading. Also, emigrating is a challenge from the US. PS: Sorry, original post said "ex U.S.", but I just had to throw in a plug for SLO and Tahoe.
England has just had it's best sumer in 27 years, global warming is a bonus for the uk! russored, how did you get a canadian visa?
Vancouveer BC always makes the list of "most livable cities in the world".......any problems for a yank to trade up there?
London Zurich (switz) Geneva (switz) Monaco - biased on the time zones - When I get up, Asia is still trading, then I trade European markets 8am til 11.30am, then the U.S kicks off 1.30pm til 9 pm. Europe has the perfect time zone for trading the most liquid world markets, and thats why we're here. If time zone was not an issue : Perth (Western Australia) Maldives ;-)
That's what I meant. Politically, the US is approximately at the level of development where Germany and Italy were in the 1930s, I'm just hoping they don't have to learn the hard way. But if the alternative would be taking over the world, maybe losing a war does not sound too bad an alternative after all. The other aspect of the lack of civilization in the average American is that while the average Joe in almost every country is a selfish, stupid procreator, whose mind is even less able to adapt than it is tiny, the American average Joe is PROUD of being selfish, stupid, a slave of his genes, stubborn, and uneducated. Elsewhere people respect the fact that other things besides their own reproductive success might matter to certain individuals and that there might be someone smarter or better informed than oneself.
It's not the USA that I hate, it's the lack of refinement in the personality of the average born American citizen. I thought Americans would be the first ones to understand this, but my mistake was to assume that the offspring of those who built this country are not necessarilly endowed with the features of their ancestors. Let me therefore explain it to you thusly: If you found an island full of baboons who kept throwing all kinds of food at you whenever they saw your face, apparently out of aggresion toward the "intruder", what would you do? Leave the island, or put a photograph of your face in a bucket, run around with a face mask on and collect the food they throw in the bucket? Sure it's an inconvenience to be surrounded by less developed individuals, particularly if you used to like people, but just because an individual won't be able to have a philosophical discussion or even understand the concept of respect for life doesn't mean one can't take advantage of it.