Found a few ripoffs during my recent Christmas travels
@ 12:01 am I recently visited the USA. I found some things there that are ripoffs, and found some prices there that show me that some things here in Finland are ripoffs.
 Property taxes in the USA can be around 1% of the taxation value of the property per year. Imagine trying to make money on investments in property with that as a constraint. The problem is that the counties and cities who take that taxation are very limited on ways that they can collect tax for the services they provide. And they are the ones who provide most of the services that people use everyday like schools, school tranportation, medical care, libraries, etc. However, collection of taxes on property can be seen as being in conflict with human rights. Owning land does not necessarily indicate the ability to pay and property prices have skyrocketed in recent years. Some people in the US have been forced out of their homes of off their land because their property tax has become too high. The way counties typically collect taxes in the USA using property taxes is wrong and must be changed. In Finland, the municipalities collect what is called “äyrit”, which is a flat percentage of your income, ranging from 16 to about 20 percent. In my opinion, the Finnish system wins, except in the cases where the municipality collects the tax but does not provide the services or provides substandard services keeping people illegally waiting in line for necessary medical procedures, for example.
A new basic chainsaw of a known brand, Poulan, was 107 dollars in Walmart. That is about 75-80 Euros. I have never seen a chainsaw for under 150 EUR in Finland. Rumour has it that Hong Kong has them for 99. It is probably from some brand like “Leaping Tiger” or something similar. I have to go check that out.
One of the worst ripoffs, and perhaps one of the most dishonest, is the price of rechargeable batteries. They are twice as expensive or more in Finland. A pack of 4 Energizer rechargeable AA batteries is under 10 dollars in Walmart. Here they are 15-20 EUR a pack, so 2-3 times more expensive. So next time you make an order through the Internet or travel, don’t forget to throw in a pack or two of rechargeable batteries. Nowadays, you can even get pre-charged rechargeable batteries that hold their charge. A pack of Kodak pre-charged rechargeable AAs was about 7-8 dollars. Rechargeable batteries can be recharged 300-500 times, and will save you a lot of money in the long run, even if you do pay the ripoff Finnish price. It is much more green to recharge your batteries 300-500 times than to buy at least that many packs of disposable batteries. Also disposable alkaline batteries are a ripoff in Finand, but not such a drastic one.
While I was there in the USA, I needed to travel to an island that was 8 miles offland. The only way to get there was on a postal delivery boat that goes there twice a day, every mail delivery day. In order to ride the boat that goes there anyway, I needed to pay 16 dollars per trip. So I paid 32 dollars to get to and from an island, 16 miles total. That was a dishonest ripoff, in my opinion. In Finland, the Åland ferries cost me around 50 marks to ride with my car. They are free with a bicycle or by foot. I don’t expect it has increased much since then. And that trip was much longer than 8 miles. The Åland ferries are a good working part of the the Åland transportation infrastructure that people actually use a lot.
