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Gangrene
Federated Suns
Leftenant General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 939
Location: United States
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 Posted: 16-Mar-2002 15:34 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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I was just curious how the whole transition it the Euro has gone (Spain is involved in that, right?). Has it been hard for you guys or is it not a big deal? I read somewhere hat it was going to cause "drastic changes" and hardhsips for some people (apparently Italians are scared of using decimal places or something).
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Gangrene
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Ronin
ComStar
Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 908
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17-Mar-2002 13:29 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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I heard that some guy in France managed to pay off his bar tab with Euro Monopoloy money because the bartender thought that the money was real Euros.
Don't know if it is true or not, but that's the story.
Ronin
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pinkfloyd214
ComStar
Sergeant
Joined: 14-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 141
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| Posted: 17-Mar-2002 17:47 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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the Euro is basically a vain attempt to unitfied a formely split germany
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Click- tech is for sissies
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17-Mar-2002 19:15 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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What about the rest of Europe????
Sir Henry
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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jymset
Scavenger
in pursuit of LosTech
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 956
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 18-Mar-2002 06:28 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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uhm, pinkfloyd214, what exactly did you mean with your comment? As far as I know, our people have been united for a good decade now, so the Euro ploy comes a bit late. If you're implying that the reunification wasn't so successful internally, I have to disagree. Sure there is still a difference to being ex-West and ex-East German, but it is very minor. And the Euro definitely did NOT affect our country in a way of bonding the people more.
To GANGRENE: The transition went VERY smoothly. Marks were to be phased out by the end of February (the two currencies running side-by-side for the first two months of the year). But after the first 10 days, hardly anyone still used the old currency. People may have been depressed at losing the currency that defined our new life (after WWII), but we got on with life. The economy remains stable (if you can call it that), it's (surprisingly) not that big a deal. Of course this is all a POV of a young and unimportant citizen of a middle-class family.
To Ronin: HAHAHA! That's funny, I hadn't heard of that one. We had a couple of cases of people falling for photocopied bank-notes, though. But people quite quickly got to know what bank-notes were meant to look and feel like. The most obvious difference of the first weeks was that people were withdrawing much more money from the ATMs (an average of €400!!), because the new currency is worth just about twice as much as the Mark.
So, yeah, Vampire, what is your take on this thing?
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"Rear armour is defeatist!" - unknown Kuritan Mechwarrior
The AC5 is a great gun!
On heat, 3025 style:
A Rifleman knows no heat.
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pinkfloyd214
ComStar
Sergeant
Joined: 14-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 141
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| Posted: 18-Mar-2002 16:26 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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boy can i rattle some chains or what
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Vampire
Free Worlds League
Lieutenant Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 917
Location: Spain
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| Posted: 21-Mar-2002 17:28 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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>I was just curious how the whole transition >it the Euro has gone (Spain is involved in >that, right?)
Hmmm, I'm not sure, I'm still awaiting my paycheck for confirmation 
> Has it been hard for you guys or is it not >a big deal?
It depends. Now that we have got used to it, nobody remembers, the shock, the pain, the anguish, OH, THE INHUMANITY OF IT!!
Well, the majority of the people figured out it quite easily, but for the old, the middle aged housewives, government workers, supermarket cashiers and other stupid people, like blondes. (Not that I'm bitter because I haven't managed to date any of the three blondes in the Marketing class next door, mind you)
>I read somewhere hat it was going to >cause "drastic changes"
You bet. Having your paycheck going down from 150,000 pesetas ( one hundred and fifty thousands ) to a measly 1,000 (*one* thousand) is *drastic*. We have been buggered.
> and hardhsips for some people
Like a 20% increase in prices at bars, restaurants, cinemas and the like.
What jymset failed to mention is that the Germans had it easy (for all purposes the Euro is just the DM with another name),
1 Euro = 2 DMs.
Then we had 1 Euro = 166.386 ptas.
Now, this conversion results in a *lot* of odd numbers for prices. So everybody rushed off to raise the prices so when the conversion was done, the price tags showed nice looking numbers, without fractions. Rounding up in the process of conversion is illegal, but rising the prices so the conversion produces neat numbers isn't.
Now, I have to pay 1 Euro for a measly cup of coffee at most bars, while before it costed 0.87.
And at any rate, those sellers that played by the rules, are only issuing the exact change so people don't think they are being cheated. But since the small coins have such small value that doesn't justify the hassle of keeping all that trash in the pockets ( do you americans still use the 1 cent coin? )
everything will soon be rounded up to the nearest zero or five fraction.
That's very much what happened before with the old peseta. It had lost so much value due to inflation over time that the fractionary unit was the 5 pesetas coin.
So it seems not much has changed, we will just be using 5 Euro cents coins instead, right?
Wrong.
5 euro cents = 8 pesetas.
So all those fractions get increased by a 1.6 factor, when you take a look at the big picture, that means *millions* in price increases.
As you can see, this has caused inflation to skyrocket, but our government, in one act of bold faced creative accounting that I have to admire, has calculated inflation according to a new method, and it turns out inflation not only was as high as expected, but in fact prices were *lowered* by a
0.1 per cent.Go figure.
Statistics. Have to love them. The government excuse was that the inflation calculations had to be revised and new methods applied this year. Duh. Ok, I can buy that, I'll concede the government is telling the truth now. But if the methods was flawed, then that means the government has been lying all the previous years.
ain't economics fun?
>(apparently Italians are scared of using >decimal places or something).
*Gah* Italians. Again jymset fails to mention that the Germans are an orderly and organized people. And that the local currency has been in circulation in Italy and Spain for a longer period than up north.
The spaghetti couldn't even find their asses with both hands. It was no surprise the chaos that ensued there.
The problem with decimals, is that you Americans separate big numbers in three digit groups with commas
like this:
$100,000,000 ( one hundred million $)
and we use the point "."
$100.000.000
so when it comes to decimals you write
7.62
and us
7,62 or 7'62
in accounting mostly, because people in engineering and sciences and those that use hand calculators use the decimal point.
As you can expect, that is a source of confusion, add that people aren't used to use cents, and you have a fine mess.
There were some noted incidents with till machines. As they were designed way back, to introduce decimals you cannot simply type
.357
and expect the machine to understand it
as 0.357
it turns out that you *must* press "0" before entering the decimal point.
This bug has resulted in a number of purchases and returns being absurdly high or low.
I could go on with the way the old currency "lost" its value as soon as the euros became generally available and the frantic rush to get rid of the pesky pesetas in much the same way you get rid of dud coin (or false banknotes), since everybody is too lazy to go to the bank to change pesetas to euros, you dispose of it by giving it to some other sucker.
Technically, if you paid in pesetas, the seller must give your change back in euros. But given the distribution bottleneck of the new currency, predictably, sellers preferred to be paid in euros, and if you paid with the old currency, they got rid of the hot potato by paying you in kind, so to speak.
So there has been a buying frenzy as people tried to dispose of the small change, the amounts of the old coin that are to small to bother going to the bank to change, and that couldn't be thrown away simply.
Vending machines have become the trashcan of choice for all those old coins. And now that I mention it, vending machines are another nightmare causing a lot of discomfort to smokeres like me, in example. Once you have got ridden of all those old coins, you suddenly realize with horror that the machines haven't been adapted to the euro yet and you cannot get a pack anywhere because the stores are closed.
Vending machines can be used the other way, too, the coffee machine in our school was duly adapted to accept euros, but it returned change in pesetas, considering that the 1 Euro coins are 1.7 times as valuable as the old 100 pesetas coin, that leaves you cussing with a lot of small change that cannot be easily used. In other words, a rip off.
And then there was the enterprising guy that discovered that the 100 baht coins from Thailand are identical to the 1 Euro coins in size and weight and accepted by the vending machines, but way, way cheaper ( I think for every euro you could get 5 identical coins). I heard they are still finding bahts in some machines even now.
And then there are the people that hauls suitcases or sports bags full of banknotes to the bank to exchange them for euros. Not questions asked for amounts under 10,000 euros *per person and day*, wich as you can see , doesn't prevent you from money laundering by sending gophers to a lot of different bank offices.
Well, I think that's everything you *never* wanted to know about the euro *big grin*
The biggest problem is not technical, but mental. I feel like I live in a fuckin' foreign country. I just cannot figure out what's the "value" of things. You have to relearn all the prices of things and the mental associations you make. It's a car that costs 10,000 euro cheap or not? It's eating at a MacDonalds for 5 Euro cheap or should I settle for pizza instead?
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Memento audare semper
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Ruger
Lyran Alliance
Hauptmann General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2114
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| Posted: 21-Mar-2002 18:40 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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>>do you americans still use the 1 cent coin?>>
Why yes...I have 4 nice Kanazuchi Battle Armor suits mounted on them...oh wait...that's not what you mean...
Hmm...uses other than taking up space or using as bases for BTech battle armor...well...I've used them quite a bit in getting 34 cent stamps...other than that though...
Of course, I tend to stay away from using or carrying all that much cash money anymore...my check card works just fine at most stores...it's the fast food places you have to worry about, and some of them have begun to use them too...
Ruger
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jymset
Scavenger
in pursuit of LosTech
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 956
Location: Germany
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| Posted: 22-Mar-2002 01:05 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
That's the funniest I've read in quite a while. Yeah, sorry, you're right, I guess us Germans had it easiest, what with the most simple exchange rate (I still kinda count in Marks, well, not really....).
To quote Homer Simpson (and probably a few others): "It's funny 'cos it's true!"
jymset
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"Rear armour is defeatist!" - unknown Kuritan Mechwarrior
The AC5 is a great gun!
On heat, 3025 style:
A Rifleman knows no heat.
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 22-Mar-2002 08:05 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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Vampire, You get Paid???? When did you get a Job? I thought you were still in school.
I collect Coins, so I still have Pennies from around the world. Now I have to get a set of Euro Coins too....Where Am I going to put them?????
Sir Henry
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Ronin
ComStar
Colonel
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 908
Location: United States
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| Posted: 26-Mar-2002 22:45 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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Hey, I paid for a whole semester of University with pennies (about $1600 total). It took a while to count all of them, but it was priceless seeing the look on the bank teller's face when my friend and I brought in all of these boxes full of rolled up coins.
Which, btw, made me rethink the idea of D&D characters being able to carry around scads of loot in coinage, since three small boxes (about 6 inches on a side each) caused the car to look like a lowrider until we took them out (the shocks were good performance shocks too). So now I make sure that PCs in any game I run can *really* haul allof that loot out of the dungeon before I let them leave. Bags of Holding are popular magic items for some reason....
Ronin
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ICER
Clan Hell's Horses
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1663
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2002 02:11 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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I perfer a protable hole. They hold alot. Last dungeon I came out of. It was loaded with items of defeated enemys. Plate mail,weapons,gold,all kind of magic items, even a group memeber that did not fair to well against a Beholder. In fact. I was the only one did well against it.
There a some real advantages to being a 11th level monk.
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2002 07:54 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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All that clean living....
Sir HEnry
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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ICER
Clan Hell's Horses
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1663
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2002 14:27 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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Yep...And improved evaison helps alot to.
A WHOLE LOT.
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 27-Mar-2002 16:05 Post subject: Hey Vampire |
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My GM wouldn't let me be a Monk, so I opted for a Ranger....Go Figure...Until I get my Half-Ogre converted.....
Gurog the great....
Sir HEnry
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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