Don't like being ripped off

ashman

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I just hate being ripped off with prices in Australia, we pay top $ for our parts here, we pay 50% tax on new cars and motorcycles, the retailers are importing made in China stuff that is so cheaply made and have the hide to add 70% or more than what they are worth to make a very quick big profit and the quility is just not there.
I brought a brand new Triumph Thruxton last year, it cost $15,000 on the road, but over in the USA you can buy the same bike for under $9,000, I get all my parts mostly from overseas, even with the exchange rate, postage and all I get my parts for a hell of a lot cheaper than we can get them here.
At one stage there was a major very rich retailer here trying to convince the Goverment to crack down on shoppers here from buying online from overseas, this bussiness man has been ripping us all off for many years and probly has his fingers in the Gov. pockets, but lucky the general public put a stop to this mans ideas as they threaten a boycot of his major bussiness.
In the last few years online shopping has exploded and the retailers can't work out why, its because we are so sick of being ripped off, they sold off or moved all our campanies to off shore just to make more money, forget about the quility we just want to make more and more money, its not only retailers our Goverments are selling our asset to overseas intrest, our natural resourses are being sold cheaply, when will it all stop, when its to late or when we have nothing more to sell.
Well thats my pup gripe, now where did I put my beer.

Ashley
 
Agreed. They call it the Australian tax. I think now that we've stopped making cars that nobody buys we'll start to see pressure to change. One example is the ridiculous Australian design rules for vehicles sold in Australia. This has to be the biggest joke in the automotive world. Why don't we adopt the standard European or North American rules. The notion that some over paid idiot sitting in an office in Canberra had come up with higher automotive engineering standards than the Germans beggars belief. Of course it was just industry protection in another form but we fell for it. And what for. To protect the jobs of overpaid workers who couldn't screw a car together. I know. I bought two of them. The paint and fittings - Lada quality.

Time for a beer and a nap.
 
The same is coming to the US....actually, it is already here, but not as severe as you lads post.

I do not know where it will end up, but it will not be good.

On -line purchasing will be taxed in the near future.

Slam one down for me, lads

Slick
 
The worst part about it is our beer is taxed very heaverly as well, we are one of the highest taxed country in the world and they keep putting up the working age, another word they want us to keep working till you drop dead, they don't want you to retire, the Govment just wants more taxes so the pollies build you their own retirment funds, they are pretty smart and the worst part about it is they all get away with it and it don't matter what side of polatics you belong to, they are all linning their own pockets.

Damm need more beer the beer firdge is almost empty.

Ashley
 
I find a remarkable similarity between the present status in the Western world, and the medieval feudal system.

In the feudal (present) system, the Dukes, Lords (politicians) controlled the serfs (working class) by requiring charters (licenses) to work and practice their crafts, and taxing just about everything needed or used by the people. In this way, the nobility (politicians) lived in high fashion with perks and privilege not given to the serfs (working class). The serfs (people) are no more than dung whose only function is to pay taxes and homage to their governmental masters.

But we are told that we are better off now.

Pity that there is no "new world" or newly discovered continent where I can emigrate to. So far, it is tolerable in Texas. If only we could put a fence around it....I would take my turn patrolling it.


Slick
 
Yep not much has changed, the rick get richer and the poor suffer more and its also expensive to go for a ride these days as our fuel over here is tax at a very high price, so every litre of fuel you put in your bike you pay haft the price in exercise tax, so you can't win which ever way you go.

Ashley
 
It's all relative...
Some years ago there was a news paper headline here in UK "RIP OFF BRITAIN" !!
The article went on to say that you could save £000s by buying a new vehicle in Denmark and importing it yourself into UK, as the base car, minus taxes, was cheaper in Denmark.
What the article failed to point out, is that the poor Danes pay 180% car tax on a new car (or bike) and then pay VAT / purchase tax on the total (so they pay purchase tax on the car tax).
The net result being that new vehicles are THREE TIMES more expensive to by in Denmark compared to UK!
Denmark has no car industry, so perhaps the government feel free to tax so highly in the knowledge they'll get zero internal pressure form industry?
 
texasSlick said:
I find a remarkable similarity between the present status in the Western world, and the medieval feudal system.

In the feudal (present) system, the Dukes, Lords (politicians) controlled the serfs (working class) by requiring charters (licenses) to work and practice their crafts, and taxing just about everything needed or used by the people. In this way, the nobility (politicians) lived in high fashion with perks and privilege not given to the serfs (working class). The serfs (people) are no more than dung whose only function is to pay taxes and homage to their governmental masters.

But we are told that we are better off now.

Pity that there is no "new world" or newly discovered continent where I can emigrate to. So far, it is tolerable in Texas. If only we could put a fence around it....I would take my turn patrolling it.


Slick

I do agree with your logic Slick, but at the moment i/we can mostly get up in the morning and choose to do whatever we feel like.. I'm really happy about that!!
 
OlChris wrote:

"I do agree with your logic Slick, but at the moment i/we can mostly get up in the morning and choose to do whatever we feel like.. I'm really happy about that!!"

That is true! As long as you comply with all regulations, and have the requisite licenses for whatever you feel like doing. I'm being a little facetious, but the point is the things we can freely do (no licenses, permits, fees, regulations) shrinks almost daily.

Here in the US, in some jurisdictions, one cannot cut someone else's grass for monetary gain unless one has a contractor's license. This is exactly how the feudal lords controlled their serfs. In these modern times, our lords control those who work by controlling their means to work with licenses, and control those who do not work by government largesse.

Slick
 
Yes getting up in the morning and I am still breathing is a good start to the day, even better now I took a redundancy from my job of 31 years and now semi retired at 55 I am enjoying life more and not doing what I have been told to do (except for the wife, not realy) I am more relaxed about everything I do now, as long as I have enough to pay the bills, have good food on the table and a full tank of fuel in the bikes is all I care about now, there is more to life than working for the man.

But I better watch myself, if the Goverment finds out I am enjoying life they will come up with something to stop me from having fun or they will find a way to dip more into my retirment funds.

Life is being good to me at the moment but it will get harder as I get older and we get more ripped off by the powers that be.

Ashley
 
I think you can put helmets into that same bucket as well. I just bought a nice new Arai, from a rep who has been selling Arai for 20 years. He told me the major difference in AS/NZS 1698:2006 is that they require such a high number of destructive tests to be carried out off the line that it is cost-prohibitive for the manufactures, which is why a lot of them dont certify. If the helmet is good enough for Snell M2010 and ECE 22-05, it aint good enough for Aussie.
 
Just to show that it's not just cars and motorbicycles that our pollies and big retailers tax and overprice to the hilt. I prat around with some model engineering stuff, up here in Australia silver steel (drill rod to you Mercans) and gauge plate (don't know what Mercans call it, its ground flat bar thats hardenable like silver steel) is all imported either from the UK or USA. I have bought it from a place in the UK, ship it here by air mail, and the total cost is 75% of the price that the local place has it. The killer is that the local place has to order it in, which takes longer than getting it from the UK!!
The local supermarket has my favourite cheese in the smaller size only at nearly double the "$/100 grams" of the larger size.
It happens everywhere and it really does p**s me off
cheers
wakeup
 
(copied from wiki):
The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. On average, as of April 2014, state and local taxes add 31.5 cents to gasoline and 31.0 cents to diesel, for a total US average fuel tax of 49.9 cents per gallon for gas and 55.4 cents per gallon for diesel.

Per Gallon!
Fuel costs sure make it tough to run big trucks and equipment nowadays.
 
With the aussie dollar running at an average rate , I can get most things from the US or UK , pay retail price and shipping , and still get it landed at my door for half the asking price in Australia .
Classic example...Land Rover bushes , made in Australia , shipped to Brit retailer , purchased at retail price & shipped back to Australia , for half the price of buying them direct at home , I can not think of anything that justifies this .
 
We are just being ripped off here in our great land called Australia, everone just wants to get rich and it doesn't matter which goverment is in power the all migthy $$$$ rules, here in Queensland our public transport is one of the most expensive in the world, mobil phones is another rip off compared to other countries, even 3rd world countries have cheaper mobil phone net works, same as Ikon shockies, made here but you can get them cheaper overseas and with postage still save a $100, retailers buy bulk from China because its cheaply made but we pay top $$$, we use to make good quiality clothing here but they are made overseas now and only last a 1/4 of what they use to last, take flannal shirts use to last me 5 or 6 years of hard wear and tear, but the ones sold now I only get one winter use out of them and they are rotten and fall apart and of course the GOV always blame our high wages here, I ratter pay a decent price for things that will last, our country is in so much det and now we are going to war that we can't afford, they can't find the money to get out of det but they can find the money to send our boys overseas to fight and do you think it will make any diffrents.

Owell I have had my cry for the day, is it to early for a beer.

Ashley
 
You Ozzies and Yanks are obviously only learning the dark art of moaning after years of the good life,where as we in the backwoods have felt the pressure of the leather soled black calf oxford worn by the Eton and Harrow educated closet dwelling individuals who's only purpose in life is to retain their inherited power and ride Harley Davidsons paid for on MPs expenses
Don't like being ripped off

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Milliband. Better together!
 
I'm reminded of something 'seasick Steve' said about vehicles in an interview, considering the huge energy cost of a making new ones.

He said something like; "I could drive my chevy for the rest of my life, still wouldn't make as much pollution as one of them new cars costs to make"

So rather than give the govt the excuse to tax me even more...I'll keep rescuing clapped out old Nortons/W.H.Y from the abyss, they'll do just fine. :)

S
 
ashman said:
We are just being ripped off here in our great land called Australia, everone just wants to get rich and it doesn't matter which goverment is in power the all migthy $$$$ rules, here in Queensland our public transport is one of the most expensive in the world, mobil phones is another rip off compared to other countries, even 3rd world countries have cheaper mobil phone net works, same as Ikon shockies, made here but you can get them cheaper overseas and with postage still save a $100, retailers buy bulk from China because its cheaply made but we pay top $$$, we use to make good quiality clothing here but they are made overseas now and only last a 1/4 of what they use to last, take flannal shirts use to last me 5 or 6 years of hard wear and tear, but the ones sold now I only get one winter use out of them and they are rotten and fall apart and of course the GOV always blame our high wages here, I ratter pay a decent price for things that will last, our country is in so much det and now we are going to war that we can't afford, they can't find the money to get out of det but they can find the money to send our boys overseas to fight and do you think it will make any diffrents.

Owell I have had my cry for the day, is it to early for a beer.

Ashley

What you say is true... "And by the way"

Don't like being ripped off
 
ashman said:
Yep not much has changed, the rick get richer and the poor suffer more and its also expensive to go for a ride these days as our fuel over here is tax at a very high price, so every litre of fuel you put in your bike you pay haft the price in exercise tax, so you can't win which ever way you go.

Ashley

Only Half :?: :shock:

Last time I bothered to look in GB it was 83% we even pay a tax upon a tax , on fuel at the pumps 20% VAT is added tax that had already been taxed :!: :!: :(
 
Sorry about my spelling must be the beer, yes we pay a fuel tax as well as 10% GST on top of that fuel tax, arrrr my head hurts, to many Stouts last night.

Ashley
 
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