world's worst tourists

On Thu, 09 Oct 2003 19:30:03 GMT, "Frank F. Matthews"
wrote:

Would that it were based on trade. Instead it's based on a series of
fallacies. We agree to buy lots of stuff from overseas and the folks we
buy it from agree to take back lots of US bonds. If either side backs
off the world economy goes into the toilet. FFM

Yes, but neither side can "back out", because in reality there aren't
2 sides, but many hundreds of millions, and the idea that hundreds of
millions would suddenly and arbitrarily collude and stop doing
something that hurts them is madness.

There are proper concerns over the system, but it could, and would
only change over time, and in any case whilst the US does import a
huge amount, it also exports a huge amount, and has large ownership
overseas, so the adjustments wouldn't be instantly catastrophic to the
US.

Jim.

In article ,
"JX Bardant" wrote:

I have seen this exact thing -- everyone expects family members to hold
places in line for their family [not uncommon for folks to take turns in
line] but the crowd in and then the entire bus crowd in is uncommon
except with Japanese tourists. They do the same thing in the rest room.
At the Uffizi, one Japanese woman at the head of the line tried to go
back and bring 10 of her peers in ahead of the 15 or so people on qeue
-- there was a mild revolt which squelched that -- but it wasn't for
want of trying on their part.

This morning... After running a bit I climb to my commuter train in
Montparnasse Station, Paris. The first floor is the smoker area... The
ground floor is half empty but there are things on all the empty seats,
obviously to show they're reserved... I approach and a girl with a lovely,
though unidentified, foreign accent says me they're a group or a class or
something and they'd like to be together. There is no time to try another
wagon since the train is about to leave. There are maybe 15 people waiting,
standing. The doors close but nobody has come to fill the empty seats. There
are some protestations and the nice kids accept at last to stick to the "one
arse, one seat" principle and let other people sit down...

I have no idea about thir nationality. I think people have more"chutzpah"
when they're in groups, and tourists do travel in groups more oftn than
commuters...
.





we have seen that in theaters also -- it is acceptable to reserve the
seat next to you or for a couple of people to hold a couple of seats for
people who are stowing luggage or in the head or whatever -- but the
idea that people can tie down huge numbers of seats when people are
looking for seats is nuts ---

Bram writes:

You seem to know a lot more about "europeans" than the people who
have lived there all their live.

Some things are hard to see if you've never lived anywhere else.

Indeed, your ideas about Europe sound a lot like how it used to be
200 years ago. Not anymore, mang.

I know it seems like that to Europeans, but it still seems 200 years
behind to Americans.

For example, I still can't find supermarkets open on Sunday in Paris,
even though the city is the size of Los Angeles. Ditto for supermarkets
open 24 hours a day, even though smaller cities in the U.S. have had
these for 20 years.

--
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Reid© writes:

so to be rich you have to also be idle by your definition?

No, you have to have more money than you know what to do with,
permanently.

I'm sure Branson has loads of money he is *not* spending on his
many projects.

I doubt that.

--
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Miss L. Toe writes:

Just out of interest who is this debt owed to ?

People who hold notes payable by the U.S. government. U.S. Savings
Bonds are in this category, for example.

--
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Miss L. Toe writes:

But what happens when the US simply decides not to repay the debts, and
maybe invade instead ?

Even the U.S. is too highly dependent on foreign economies to go it
completely alone. Many large companies get most of their revenue from
outside the U.S.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Jenn wrote in message news:
[Japanese tourists will also jump
lines routinely]


Can you tell the Japanese apart from other orientals? For example,
Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese?

(Terryo) wrote in message . com...
So I go to the Vatican Museums one morning, shortly before they open.
The line is already several blocks long. Just as I reach the end and
get in line, a Japanese teenage girl runs up and crowds in front of
me. No big deal; I don't say anything. The line continues to grow
behind me. Then AN ENTIRE TOUR BUSLOAD OF JAPANESE TOURISTS,
including the driver, arrive and join the girl in front of me. She
had been sent ahead to hold a place in line. I was furious, but there
seemed to be nothing I could do about it -- except devote myself to
writing e-mail messages about how RUDE Japanese tourists are!!

Can you tell the Japanese aprt from other orientals, Taiwanese,
Koreans, and Chinese for example? I ask this question because I am a
Chinese American, and I can't recall how many times outside of US I
was mistaken for a "Hapones". My impression is The Japanese tourists
usually are well behaved. Although I can't say the same for a group
of Japanese men scurrying around in south-east Asia sometimes.

"Mxsmanic" wrote
| I know it seems like that to Europeans, but it still seems 200 years
| behind to Americans.
| For example, I still can't find supermarkets open on Sunday in Paris,
| even though the city is the size of Los Angeles. Ditto for supermarkets
| open 24 hours a day, even though smaller cities in the U.S. have had
| these for 20 years.

But Paris isn't *all* Europe. Sunday opening pretty universal in Scotland,
24 hour not too difficult to find.

Owain

"Miss L. Toe" wrote in
:


But what happens when the US simply decides not to repay the debts, and
maybe invade instead ?

Aside from modern Switzerland, the US remains about the only country in the
world that hasn't "decided not to repay its debts" in the last century.
As for the Swiss, they during the last great conflagration without a
moment's moral compunction accepted money from both sides and chose for 50
or so years to conceal what they had done with the deposited assets of one
diminished ethnic minority (whose members found permits to live in
Switzerland unavailable at any price).

As with medieval money lenders, however, modern lenders rarely hold much of
a grudge, continuing to lend to customers with bad repayment records.

As for invasions, the cash registers and pipelines of countries invaded by
the US have rarely provided payment, even for basic invasion costs.

I suggest a basic course in international economic history, in which folks
seem quite happy to have the US owe them money, since we're the only
borrower from which regular repayment may be confidently expected.

TMO