I'm with him!!! we got F'ed big time... You're not alone there my friend.. and i bet the other contríes that have joined the euro club.. aren't better off...(germany speaking here...i dont get the part with the economy... im like doh!) Err to the original "Topic": Well... i don't see why they/he shouldn't accept other currencies...if the exchangerate is fair... or if there even is one... his decision eh... i just can't imagine the price-tags... Euros: 15 Dollars: 30 Quid: 10 etc.. but how many really bring their home currency to a vacation? i mean last time i was in the U.A.E... it was Dirhams and Plastic... hell even in spain it was.. more plastic...(hate travelling with money... either i spend to much or i loose it ) again.. if it's worth it... go for it... might even be a hole in the market there
the idea behind the euro was pure win, if it was not for the f***ing greedy bas***** behind the curtains, f***ing bottom feeders ........ the people that own the commerce saw € signs growing and doubled everything.... and our economy minister said something like "we made a Gov group to investigate and to prevent abuse"....... YEAH RIGHT!!!..... its so strange that Germany is in the same crap hole as us..... just wikipedia it and saw your conversion rate .... you are in the same crap hole as us , if the same bloody party or prime minister wins the next election i am so bloody moving as soon as i get enough cash to go to Luxembourg.......
I like us using the pound i heard that having a strong currency such as the pound in a good thing. Plus our economy is one of the best in the world, so i heard. Besides there no euro symbol on my keyboard
Well, it's quite understandable that shopkeepers the nation over will raise prices. It's a simple thing that anyone running a business, when presented with an opertunity, will take the option that earns them the most money. Given that there's so much confusion, the entire nation's shops can simply switch the signs instead of the numbers, knowing that every other shopkeeper will do it, and they'll get away with it fine. The upside is that if shopkeepers are all earning more, and everyone knows this, than the accountants which are running the shopkeepers books will raise their prices. Then the accountants will all be slightly richer (and paying more tax, I might add). So then the gardener of the accountant realises that, "hey, my boss has a new Audi in his drive along with his Porche" - so the garderner says to the accountant "Sorry boss, but with food prices the way they are, I've got to raise my prices to be able to stay in business". So the garderner gets more money, and through this method (in many different permutations, and many slower routes) everything will balance out within a few years. It's a temporary annoyance, but in the long term it makes no difference. As for working to 75, that's a splendid idea. For people who make it through their 40s, 50s, and 60s - the average life expectancy can often be in the 90's. Work not only keeps people active, healthy, and productive - but it means that those people aren't sitting around leeching money for 25-35 years. Pensions were never created for such a purpose, despite people constantly whining about the fact that their state penion won't let them live comfortably for 30 years, and that's a good thing. When the state pension was first introduced in Britain (IIRC one of the first, if not the first to introduce a state pension) - the average length of time people lived on it was 5 years. 5 years from stopping work untill the average person went 6 feet under. Now it's 25-30. No-one has paid for that, despite what they claim, since it costs a recockulous ammount of money. So for sure, what we need, given that people can if they work, stay healthier for far longer, is for people to work into their 70's, or heck, into their 80's if they so desire. Pensions are a major European problem. Too many people got used to the idea that they were going to get to retire at the same age as their parents, on the same very cushy state or semi-state pensions that their parents enjoyed, but instead of living for 5-10 years on it like their parents did, they want to live for 25-40 years on it. It's just not possible, and attitudes throughout Europe need a massive overhaul to match the American system (I know I know, it's a sin to praise America...). If you're fit, you work. If you're not fit, you work in something physically undermanding. If you're nearly useless, you make tea for the people who can do more than you. Only when you can afford it yourself, or you're truly old and deserving of spending the last few years of your life in peace, should you retire. /rant 1: Buy a new keyboard. 2: A strong currency isn't as simply beneficial as it sounds. It can harm exports big time. 3: Buy me a beer plz.
The health of the economy is based on amount of money in circulation, increase money in circulation (printed amount) and the economy soars. Decrease money in circulation (printed amount) and the economy crumbles; This would be solved if the state (the people) would print their own money (they would be in control), this has been attempted thru out history, and over a period of time it was very successful in America…. So... Whom ever prints the money runs the show (guard mode on), not a conspiracy; just a fact. As a consequence (one) European nations using the same currency therefore makes them more vulnerable and dependent, power also being centralised. By the way; I view it as monopoly money, paper with no value but an agreed upon value (which money is, agreed upon value); we could easily trade with sea shells if we would agree upon that as a currency. Added: You still using your pound is not all that bad, same for me being able to use our own currency; could be worse IMHO, we could have been using the Euro. Cheers.
Umm. Wow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation#Root_causes_of_hyperinflation . A German woman feeding a stove with currency notes, which burn longer than the amount of firewood they can buy. You want that? That's rubbish. Each nation continues to print their own money. If you took 2 minutes to look up the facts you'd find that the same banks are printing money, they're just printing different money, and money that any other bank in europe will accept, instead of just banks within their own country. And of course, the stuff we use is fiat money, you wanna go back to using great hunks of precious metals?
specofdust that might be true if the country you are talking about is not Portugal. i will give you a nice scenario: you go to a Gov partition and you find an old lady on her 70s working, she has several age related diseases, she is slow as hell and you end up waiting there for 30 minutes for her to get your documents and do all that legalese stuff when a less old person could have done it in less than 5..... and yes, this happens with 60 year old people and i have passed by this , and i have to say it was a plate of crap on chips, especially the part of waiting in line for a few hours for an important document were i could have waited less then 30 minutes if the people behind the counter were not in pain because of health problems.... then you go to other shops and notice that all the people that you encounter on the stores are all old and very slow..... and then you ask yourself, why don't these people get saked and new people can go into their places? if people get saked they go to unemployment, if they go to unemployment they get the minimum wage and do nothing but wait for a job and with the current unemployment rate.... good luck, they get retirement sooner than anticipated or slow the machine to a halt..... ow, if you remove unemployment you get people starving to death.... and yes, it happens. as for the gardener asking more money from the boss, i think you know what happens after he asks a raise over his minimum wage.... yeah, unemployment time.
First and foremost, it’s not rubbish, secondly, each nation do not print their own money (unless it’s the *state* doing the printing) take the Federal reserve in America as an example; it's made up of privately owned banks whom are those printing the money, thus they are in control. No need to be prickle, besides; It takes more than 2 minutes of Google action to find out how the system works. I was making a point, a point which you also acknowledged it in your reply I believe. To eleborate a bit: printed money that has no backing has no value, not even the agreed upon value; call it an illusion if you will. Therefore not printing money that has no backing in either gold or silver would be a healthy start. Cheers.
Umm, banks print money. Authorised to print money by the state, therefore state prints money by proxy. If the UK joins the Euro, the Bank of Scotland, and the Royal Bank Of Scotland will still print money, it just won't be scottish pounds anymore, it'll be scottish euros. The change of currency makes no difference to who mints it, or where it's minted. I guess you have a point on the fact that it's private companies that tend to print money on behalf of the government, but I'm not prone to conspiricy theories or left wing enough to care about the minor difference, tbh. Apoligies if I came across as harsh, but the idea that the more money we print, the better our economy, is wrong. Perhaps that's not exactly what you meant, and I understand that English isn't your native tongue so I probably should have given you a little more wiggle room there, but if it is what you meant it's just flat out wrong. More money = more inflation, = devaluation of money, and can lead to hyperinflation which can be fatal to an economy and at the very least can lead to events like the picture above being common. The ammount of money in circulation needs to be controlled well to maintain it's worth. If anyone can print money, everyone will print money, and the fiat economy is destroyed.
It works like that up to a certain point, when times are good people tend to purchase more and loan more money, if than money in circulation all the sudden were to decrease the economy would eventually crumble since those having spent money (loaning money) would suffer not being able to pay back the money that they had loaned. And as you said; “the money in circulation needs to be controlled well to maintain its worth” right? my point is that it would be better to have the *state* (the people if you will) in charge of printing the money and setting it’s value, you would also get rid of all these speculations in currency (to a certain extent anyway) since the value of the money would be based on each states combined assets, oil, gas, forests and so on (natural resources). But in 100% control by the *state* and not by private interests groups, its not a conspiracy, its pure business. It would make the economies and currencies more stable. Cheers.
Wow this is an interesting thread and read. Personally I'm Pro Europe but im unsure on the whole euro issue. I live on the cost near Dover in kent. Here our parking machines accept euros (last time i checked it was €1 = 60p exchange rate) and shops around here do accept euros to a degree but it does help that as your paying for your parking ticket in left over euro change you can actually see france accross the channel. I've also worked in france the last few summers and i found the euro really easy to work with and i could personally do reasonable comparisons between a Euro Price and its GBP equivilant but i'm aware i may be the exception rather than the rule on that one. One thing i would say though is that the Euro has had a very big effect on the cost of living out there and im talking about my observations for the last 10 - 20 years (been going to france often since i could walk) Back in the mid 90's when the franc was stronger against the pound than it was just befor france converted to the Euro it was still noticably cheaper to shop for every day items in france than in the UK. Everyone referes to the booze cruise, well i know many people who used to go over to france to do monthly (or even weekly) shopping trips rather than goto tesco - the savings would easily pay for the ferry ticket and you could get nicer stuff. Prior to France going Euro the pound had got stronger and it was even better value and it was quite a common thing for people around here to goto france, do the good old fasioned booze cruise, get the weekly shop and fill up their car with a full tank of petrol and come home after a day out with a healthy saving. After the euro that changed, it wasnt as much value to be had in doing that. France then impossed more taxes on alcohol and ciggies to generate more cash for their economy and the cost of living went up. Today people still refer to the booze cruises but everyone around here knows its just not worth it any more, if you want cheaper ciggies and booze you drive an hour up the coast to belgium and you only really do it for a day out and to get the stuff you just dont get easily in the UK than for value. From my personal experiance the cost of things (food, cloths etc) has gone up 3 - 4 times their original cost to a UK person than it was 10 years ago despite the pound being really strong. I've also heard (not just on this forum/thread either) that this is a common thing for alot of countries who joined the Euro. Yes it makes sence. I like being able to have one money system when i goto france, ireland and belgium but the effect i've seen it have on the actual cost of living out there is quite worrying and from what i can tell, 7 years after the euro came into use the wages have not gone up 3 - 4 times to offeset this, in fact it may not even be that they've doubled. Whats the point i'm trying to make? i dont really know, just that to me the Euro has raised the cost of living for so many people and i dont think our economy would benefit or intigrate into it enough to stop rip of britain completely collapsing economically, especially when so much of our enconomy seems to be based on so many people being in debt and owing money. And we definiately do not need to become even more of a rip off state as such
