[PRCo] Re: Why did trolleys take the business?

[Fred Schneider]

However, Dennis,

                               remember that the American dollar is  
worthless.  When the Euro was first created it was deliberately  
issued on par with the dollar .. one for one.   The dollar has  
slipped to the point where it now costs more than $1.60 to buy one  
Euro.  So 1 Euro 54 per gallon in terms of the hours an Italian needs  
to work is cheaper today than our $4.00 a gallon.   About $3.75.    
And you probably noticed that most people are driving diesels because  
#2 diesel in earning power over there equates to about $3.25 and gets  
50 miles per gallon.    We're the ones being screwed, not them.

I'm leaving in a few minutes to have dinner with a friend who is an  
executive in Munich with German Rail.   He vacations here twice a  
year because the exchange rate is so good that he "can buy the whole  
U. S."  I could not get angry when he said that because I could  
remember back in 1959 when the dollar was worth four times the German  
Mark in spending power.   And I know John Swindler remembers when he  
earned more in a few days driving a bus in Chicago than a London  
subway motorman earned in a month.   But that has all changed.

Fred the Third

On Jul 6, 2008, at 7:53 AM, Dennis F. Cramer wrote:

> Henry Ford gave the country what it wanted, or at least he  
> convinced us that
> is what we wanted; Independence.  The streetcars gave us the first  
> suburbs
> and then the post WWII housing boom created suburbs to the suburbs  
> and we
> just continued to grow.  The peak of the electric age was circa  
> 1918 and
> peak bus ridership was in the early 1950's.  Our country continued  
> to move
> farther and farther away due to incredibly cheap fuel prices and  
> now we are
> beginning to see the mistakes that were made.
>
> We got spoiled and now want to complain.  The talk everywhere is  
> about the
> price of fuel, but I see few people parking their large vehicles.   
> There was
> a brief bit on the news this morning that a developer is making  
> condos out
> of the old Horne's and Murphy buildings in Pittsburgh because  
> people are
> wanting to move back into town.
>
> I just got back from Italy and fuel there is 1.54 Euros a litre.   
> That comes
> out to about $9.00 a gallon at the current rate.  A Ford Focus is a  
> large
> car and flying into both Paris and Rome show few sprawling suburban  
> areas
> like we have.  I bought a 24 hour pass on the Rome system for 4  
> Euros.  That
> covered bus, Metro, trams and their regional rail line; much  
> cheaper than a
> taxi at morning rush.
>
> Europe and Asia want more fuel than ever before.  Our gas is still
> relatively cheap and we still are unhappy.  When I started working  
> 33 years
> ago, gas was close to $2.00 a gallon and it has doubled.  My salary  
> went up
> over 7 times in the same position.  Is the glass half full or half  
> empty?  I
> have had a wonderful weekend:  drove home from Delaware County on  
> the 4th,
> played a wedding with my quintet in Clarion and came home to barbecue
> outside on the 5th; and will finish the weekend off today by  
> driving 120
> miles round trip to volunteer at PTM.  Now if I can just get Air  
> France to
> get my luggage to me from Paris I will come home to a much more  
> relaxed
> wife.
>
> I bought a new Nikon D60 before I left for Europe and have posted  
> the raw
> images here:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/altotrombone
>
> Dennis F. Cramer
>       Trombone
>
>
>
>