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So here we are again, the beginning of a New Year. Christmas came and went (as most years now – if I get another pair of socks I’m going to kill someone!) and NYE once again hit me with a monumental hangover. A couple more days and all those decorations will be coming down, and life will once again be returning to normal. In true pantomime style I hear the rest of Europe shouting at me ‘OH NO IT WONT’...
How could I forget? The Euro. 1991 seems a long time away now, when I first heard and chuckled to myself about the ‘single currency’. ‘Yeah, that one is going to work’ I said to myself before tucking in to my jellied eels down the Nags Head. But ‘E-day’ is here. It’s very real and 300 million people are revelling in it as we speak. So far the changeover seems to have gone pretty smoothly – apart from the huge logistical nightmare of distributing 65 billion notes and coins, it seems to have been a success. OK, it may be too soon to say if it is an economical success, but the first hurdle has been cleared by a great distance.
So it got me thinking of the effect this will have on us gamers. Now of course I am fully aware that the previous government on our behalf decided that we would not join the Euro, but let us just say for now that the Conservatives had a smidgen of foresight and said ‘yes’ (I imagine some people on these forums are going to slate me for this).
The most important factor this would change how much we cheaper we can find games in other countries. It’s the one thing that we all agree on – most games are far too expensive and will only continue to rise over the coming years. A lot of high street retailers are shifting games for £45 apiece and this is just plain ridiculous. Prices vary significantly across Europe and a single currency would mean that these price differences would become more transparent. In other words it will become increasingly easy as time goes on to compare the prices of different goods, because they will all be in the same currency. If some game is 75 Euro’s in France and 65 Euro’s in Germany, it’s pretty obvious which one is the cheaper. Postage prices are fairly insignificant these days too, so all in all we could be looking further afield for the best deal.
This ‘transparency’ will also help businesses to become more efficient and therefor more competitive. They will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses, to check their competitive position, to evaluate the products of competitors and to adapt their own products or prices. If you think of the many processes that are involved in the creation of games (design, production, packaging, music, distribution etc), many of these would benefit from this and ultimately this will have a knock on effect to the consumer.
Another great benefit is if the Euro remains strong internationally, European countries will be able to import at lower prices again affecting the price we pay for goods. Add to this the fact that there will be increased cross-border trading and no more currency transaction costs, we could be looking at significantly more value for money.
Obviously there are possible drawbacks to the Euro, and it would be foolish to ignore them. Billions has already been spent on the creation, distribution and implementation of the currency and there is an increased chance of ‘economic shock’ (devaluation, one nation suffering etc) or even political tension between nations, but to me there is only one way forward.
All I want is to be given the choice, a referendum to let the people decide. Hopefully I have convinced some of you out there to embrace Euroland, even if its just for the cheaper games.
How could I forget? The Euro. 1991 seems a long time away now, when I first heard and chuckled to myself about the ‘single currency’. ‘Yeah, that one is going to work’ I said to myself before tucking in to my jellied eels down the Nags Head. But ‘E-day’ is here. It’s very real and 300 million people are revelling in it as we speak. So far the changeover seems to have gone pretty smoothly – apart from the huge logistical nightmare of distributing 65 billion notes and coins, it seems to have been a success. OK, it may be too soon to say if it is an economical success, but the first hurdle has been cleared by a great distance.
So it got me thinking of the effect this will have on us gamers. Now of course I am fully aware that the previous government on our behalf decided that we would not join the Euro, but let us just say for now that the Conservatives had a smidgen of foresight and said ‘yes’ (I imagine some people on these forums are going to slate me for this).
The most important factor this would change how much we cheaper we can find games in other countries. It’s the one thing that we all agree on – most games are far too expensive and will only continue to rise over the coming years. A lot of high street retailers are shifting games for £45 apiece and this is just plain ridiculous. Prices vary significantly across Europe and a single currency would mean that these price differences would become more transparent. In other words it will become increasingly easy as time goes on to compare the prices of different goods, because they will all be in the same currency. If some game is 75 Euro’s in France and 65 Euro’s in Germany, it’s pretty obvious which one is the cheaper. Postage prices are fairly insignificant these days too, so all in all we could be looking further afield for the best deal.
This ‘transparency’ will also help businesses to become more efficient and therefor more competitive. They will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses, to check their competitive position, to evaluate the products of competitors and to adapt their own products or prices. If you think of the many processes that are involved in the creation of games (design, production, packaging, music, distribution etc), many of these would benefit from this and ultimately this will have a knock on effect to the consumer.
Another great benefit is if the Euro remains strong internationally, European countries will be able to import at lower prices again affecting the price we pay for goods. Add to this the fact that there will be increased cross-border trading and no more currency transaction costs, we could be looking at significantly more value for money.
Obviously there are possible drawbacks to the Euro, and it would be foolish to ignore them. Billions has already been spent on the creation, distribution and implementation of the currency and there is an increased chance of ‘economic shock’ (devaluation, one nation suffering etc) or even political tension between nations, but to me there is only one way forward.
All I want is to be given the choice, a referendum to let the people decide. Hopefully I have convinced some of you out there to embrace Euroland, even if its just for the cheaper games.
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They've just found the first forged Euro note in Germany. Pretty bad it was too.
Jonman wrote:
> Legalise cannabis and tax that heavily too. I'm sure the
> government could make a mint off that.
If they legalised cannabis and taxed it a load then people would just go back to getting it from their local dealer, which would then be illegal again, so the police have more to do, costing more cash. It wouldnt work.
Decriminalisation is the way to go. Release the police burden, and free them up to catch real crims.
> Legalise cannabis and tax that heavily too. I'm sure the
> government could make a mint off that.
If they legalised cannabis and taxed it a load then people would just go back to getting it from their local dealer, which would then be illegal again, so the police have more to do, costing more cash. It wouldnt work.
Decriminalisation is the way to go. Release the police burden, and free them up to catch real crims.
funkygamer wrote:
> Jonman wrote:
> Some hideous proportion of the total tax ( about 20%, I
>
> think) generated by the government is spent
> on 'Defense' - a very
> non-descriptive word. Still, at
> 20 million quid for a small helicopter,
> it ain't cheap.
Hmmm. Why does the goverment need to pay middle-men like
> Rolls-Royce for defense stuff, can we have a nationalised defense industry that
> just pay for, then we don't need to pay for profit on a £20m
> helicopter?
Just a thought.
In the long run, it probably works out cheaper and more efficient to have private companies (like Rolls) making the goods. And let's face it, you've seen the mess the government made out of the railways and the NHS. Do you really want megatonne yield weapons with that same level of quality?
> Jonman wrote:
> Some hideous proportion of the total tax ( about 20%, I
>
> think) generated by the government is spent
> on 'Defense' - a very
> non-descriptive word. Still, at
> 20 million quid for a small helicopter,
> it ain't cheap.
Hmmm. Why does the goverment need to pay middle-men like
> Rolls-Royce for defense stuff, can we have a nationalised defense industry that
> just pay for, then we don't need to pay for profit on a £20m
> helicopter?
Just a thought.
In the long run, it probably works out cheaper and more efficient to have private companies (like Rolls) making the goods. And let's face it, you've seen the mess the government made out of the railways and the NHS. Do you really want megatonne yield weapons with that same level of quality?
I say raise the taxes on stupid people. Increase tax on the lottery, and on smoking. If they doubled the price of a packet of fags, it'd give more people (myself included) motivation to give up, and thereby save the NHS money in the long run anyway.
Legalise cannabis and tax that heavily too. I'm sure the government could make a mint off that.
Legalise cannabis and tax that heavily too. I'm sure the government could make a mint off that.
Jonman wrote:
> Some hideous proportion of the total tax ( about 20%, I
> think) generated by the government is spent
> on 'Defense' - a very non-descriptive word. Still, at
> 20 million quid for a small helicopter, it ain't cheap.
Hmmm. Why does the goverment need to pay middle-men like Rolls-Royce for defense stuff, can we have a nationalised defense industry that just pay for, then we don't need to pay for profit on a £20m helicopter?
Just a thought.
> Some hideous proportion of the total tax ( about 20%, I
> think) generated by the government is spent
> on 'Defense' - a very non-descriptive word. Still, at
> 20 million quid for a small helicopter, it ain't cheap.
Hmmm. Why does the goverment need to pay middle-men like Rolls-Royce for defense stuff, can we have a nationalised defense industry that just pay for, then we don't need to pay for profit on a £20m helicopter?
Just a thought.
Slaveunit wrote:
> The one thats really got my goat at the mo is Stamp duty. Because I want to buy
> a house, I have to give the government nearly a grand, and they will do
> absolutely nothing in return.
That's nice of them!
Yeah, Stamp Duty. What does that even mean?
I looked into buying a house last year, just to see how much I'd need. If it was just saving for a deposit it might have been possible, but Christ, talk about hidden costs!
I won't be buying a house for a few years yet, I'm incapable of saving any money, there's always another set of bills.
Kids are expensive too, but at least they'll be self sufficient by the time I'm 45. Or 50. Hopefully!
> The one thats really got my goat at the mo is Stamp duty. Because I want to buy
> a house, I have to give the government nearly a grand, and they will do
> absolutely nothing in return.
That's nice of them!
Yeah, Stamp Duty. What does that even mean?
I looked into buying a house last year, just to see how much I'd need. If it was just saving for a deposit it might have been possible, but Christ, talk about hidden costs!
I won't be buying a house for a few years yet, I'm incapable of saving any money, there's always another set of bills.
Kids are expensive too, but at least they'll be self sufficient by the time I'm 45. Or 50. Hopefully!
The one thats really got my goat at the mo is Stamp duty. Because I want to buy a house, I have to give the government nearly a grand, and they will do absolutely nothing in return.
That's nice of them!
That's nice of them!
Every month when I get my pay slip I find it hard to stop myself from getting very wound up.
Damn I pay a lot of tax.
Then I pay a lot of council tax.
And what for?
Bombs on innocent people's heads?
I'm best to leave this topic now.
Damn I pay a lot of tax.
Then I pay a lot of council tax.
And what for?
Bombs on innocent people's heads?
I'm best to leave this topic now.
Slaveunit wrote:
>The dome and the bridge was a shambles, and we wernt consulted at all.
Yip. Just like we were never consulted over joining the Euro.
>The dome and the bridge was a shambles, and we wernt consulted at all.
Yip. Just like we were never consulted over joining the Euro.
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