Beloved European and stubbornly non-European readers: I arrive in London (staying near St. James Park underground and Westminster Abbey) on Tuesday, October 4 (Airbus A380 from MIA!). On October 8, it will be time to move to Paris via the tunnel train. I will be there in the 7th arrondissement through the morning of October 15. I would love to meet up! Please email me (philg@mit.edu) with a plan.
Thanks!
Readers: How is Europe so crowded with tourists? It is tough to get reservations for anything. The Chinese aren’t traveling, I don’t think, because they would have to spend two weeks in quarantine on returning. The Russians aren’t traveling. Who is filling up Europe’s hotels, restaurants, and museums/monuments in October 2022?
Here’s a photo from my most recent trip to Paris, in 2016:
A guy who hates people who cross borders, “Marxists” and anywhere w/ social healthcare is travelling to Europe? priceless.
AA: As an Australian, I would think you’d understand the difference between an asylum-seeking migrant and a paying tourist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_immigration_detention_facilities
I think you’re confused regarding my position on taxpayer-funded health care. Here’s my 2009 article advocating that taxpayers fund an HMO policy for every resident of the United States: https://philip.greenspun.com/politics/health-care-reform
If you are inferring from my description of the U.S. system of free (“means-tested”) housing, health care, food, smart phone, and (just added!) broadband for those who choose not to work that I am against this system, that doesn’t make me an anti-Marxist. Soviet socialism and other “Marxist” systems required every able-bodied adult to work. Americans who are currently relaxing in public housing watching TV and playing Xbox would have been imprisoned in the Soviet system as “parasites”. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitism_(social_offense)
(The US runs a “transferist” system, not a Marxist or Socialist system; see https://www.aier.org/article/transferism-not-socialism-is-the-drug-americans-are-hooked-on/ )
In any case, the US runs a larger welfare state by percent of GDP than any other country on the planet, I think (see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-our-giant-welfare-state/2014/11/25/28f815bc-74c1-11e4-a755-e32227229e7b_story.html where we were #2, but that was before temporary-then-permanent coronapanic enhancements to the U.S. welfare state). The UK is particularly friendly to entrepreneurs with a 10 percent total tax rate on capital gains (compare to 37.1 percent for a Californian who cashes out of a startup; see https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2019/01/02/move-to-the-uk-if-youre-an-entrepreneur-10-percent-capital-gains-tax/ ). France also has a lower tax rate on capital gains than does California. See https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/france/individual/other-taxes (the final rate depends on how long the investment was held).
It could be that others in the US besides you have figured out that with a strong dollar foreign travel is a good idea. I noticed the same with Japan — you would think that flights going there would be a bargain but they are not.
Ricky: It is crazy expensive to go to Europe right now. Flights are expensive. Hotels in London and Paris were expensive when I booked (about a month ago; $400 is the new $200). Maybe the exchange rate will help with meals and museum admissions.
I have been in Germany, UK and France a lot in the past month. I think it is mostly just a torrent of pent up European demand – flights and trains filled with families traveling.
Vote with your feet! Alabama has some beautiful parts and the Louisisana/Mississippi coasts escaped the storm. They are the reddest states, to the extent that the traitorous
Democrats seldom name a candidate. Trump and DeSantis love them.
Donald: I think it is progressives who cannot tolerate visiting states where people might disagree with them on political matters (though they cheerfully go to destinations in Latinx America and Europe where abortion care for pregnant people is unavailable or limited to 12 weeks of a pregnant person’s pregnancy). See https://missionlocal.org/2022/03/san-francisco-is-now-boycotting-most-of-the-united-states/ for example. See also https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/06/28/california-bans-state-funded-travel-to-florida-4-other-red-states-1387264
California is adding Florida and four other states to its official travel ban list after Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday the states passed anti-LGBTQ laws that are “directly targeting transgender youth.”
Five years ago, California prohibited most taxpayer-funded travel to states deemed to have passed laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people. Assembly Bill 1887 was prompted by outrage in California over a North Carolina law that required people to use public bathrooms based on the sex shown on their birth certificate.
Before Bonta’s announcement Monday, 12 other states were already on the California ban list: Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas. The law has limited exemptions, such as travel necessary to enforce California laws, participate in litigation or protect public health.
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The law did not apply to the elite Governor French Laundry: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/gov-newsom-visits-texas-flouting-his-own-travel-ban (what if Gavin Newsom had needed abortion care during his/her/zir/their visit to Texas?)
Donald is that most excellent of trolls. Steps on a rake every time.
Randall: How is Donald a “troll”? On Facebook it seems to mean “someone who disagrees with me and makes arguments that I find difficult to refute.”
If you visit Nice or the region around it then I would love to meet up too.
Philip, I’ll gladly brave Paris state-of-the-art transport system (public or not) to come meet you! Excellent news!