The Thanksgiving offers keep rolling on for happy Americans, as EA slashes 30 percent off the price off ALL of its PC games on its US online store.
Every single PC game on the store will be going for the discounted price from now until Monday, EA has confirmed. As Bigdownload points out, that puts games like Dragon Age: Origins, Need for Speed Shift and The Sims 3 down to $34.96.
Dragon Age Origins
Official trailer
0:42A Sloth movie
Dragon Age Origins
Official trailer
0:42A Sloth movie
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As reported earlier, Uncharted 2 fans are also in for an array of festive treats this weekend, including Double Cash bonuses and a new downloadable level, The Fort. Brits, be jealous.
The US still remains the consumer's Mecca. It would be nice to see more of the "entice-the-customer-with-razor-sharp-deals" mentality making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. I think it's gotten better here over the past few years, but there's still room for improvement.
Of course this is easy for me to say as a consumer when European labour markets are often (at least in Western Europe,) far more expensive than in the US, and involves far more social safety net payments (which I support; the alternative is worse IMO). Still, that does mean we have higher rents, higher bills, higher prices, etc. although we also often have higher salaries yet in such an equation what is perhaps far more relevant is the purchasing power of the money that you make (i.e. what can you afford based on what you are paid where you live?).
Note that the above does little to justify the switching of currency signs while keeping the numerical value identical for online digital downloads. Unless the companies can prove that the cost of servers and the staff manning them are more expensive than the retail store costs then I won't accept such prices. Bear in mind that the servers are likely used for multiple purposes simultaneously thus keeping redundancy costs down thus resulting in savings for the operators.
The US still remains the consumer's Mecca. It would be nice to see more of the "entice-the-customer-with-razor-sharp-deals" mentality making its way across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe. I think it's gotten better here over the past few years, but there's still room for improvement.
Of course this is easy for me to say as a consumer when European labour markets are often (at least in Western Europe,) far more expensive than in the US, and involves far more social safety net payments (which I support; the alternative is worse IMO). Still, that does mean we have higher rents, higher bills, higher prices, etc. although we also often have higher salaries yet in such an equation what is perhaps far more relevant is the purchasing power of the money that you make (i.e. what can you afford based on what you are paid where you live?).
Hmm I would probably disagree with you there, slightly. The most important aspects, which you allude, when judging the standard of living are probably housing, health care, and job security.
The US has long subsidiesed consumer spending in order to avoide people complaining about the first three. It has been the long political tactic adopted by the establishment as way of keeping ordinary people sweet, while its main agenda is to improve the fortunes of the rich. Part of the reason for the US unbeliavale debt with China, is its subsidising of consumer goods. All public services, such as transport, housing, health care, are incredibly expensive.
House prices in the US, particularly the key cities are through the roof, (albeit not quite as bad as they used to be), making it very difficult for people to find a home. The American working class since the 1970s has been squezed (similar to the UK). For example I read statistics that the average worker in America works 1 month extra a year in hours, for less pay since the late 1970s).
If you hear a US consertaive commentator (normally you get them in the UK around election time), when the interviewer asks about the expensive housing, lack of health care and poverty (certain poor mainly black areas of major cities in the US have the same infant mortality rates as Bangladesh!), they will generaly say "yeah but they all have Plasma TV in their houses, that hardly seems poor to me". We have to be very careful how we measure standard of living - again something you allude to in your post.
Whats more interesting, and despite claims of Rip off Britain, and what's left of the welfare state, we have many similar traits to the US (check the cost of rail travel since privatisation) than much of the rest of Europe.
Note: If its of any interest, according to the UN, Norway is generally seen as having the highest standing of living in the world. (Haven't checked recently but it did win three years in a row starting the year 2000.)
Ah! Good to see a kindred spirit in regards to showing an interest in socio-economic politics!
Yes, the US is a heavily subsidized society. The EU is too - in particular the agricultural sector, although from a strategic perspective you should always be able to feed yourself. If not, all an opponent would have to do is cut off your food supply and wait until you come around to their way of thinking...Or starve to death. They needn't fire a single shot.
The list you are referring to was compiled from data collected in 2007 so there may have been some movement in the chart. It is important to note that despite the economic turmoil some countries, such as Iceland, may still end up close to their ranking since this scale does not depend solely on economic performance, but at least as much on lifespan and education, etc.
See the list here: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/best-country-live-list-countries-2009-un-hdi
On related matters, France came in at No. 1 as "World's Best Country" in the Qualify of Life Index. Yet this other list shows a different line-up:
Countries with the Highest Quality of Life Country 1 Norway 2 Sweden 3 Canada 4 Belgium 5 Australia 6 United States 7 Iceland 8 Netherlands 9 Japan 10 Finland 11 Switzerland 12 France 13 UK 14 Denmark 15 Austria
http://www.aneki.com/quality.html
On a side-note, Denmark has been ranked as the country with the happiest people in the world.
Out of the top five spots for countries with the greatest access to opportunity and wealth Denmark (1st), Norway (2nd), Sweden (4th) and Finland (5th) all made the cut, IIRC. As witnessed at the following link measuring the richest countries in the world per capita, the Scandinavian/Nordic (Iceland has Scandinavian roots but is Nordic and not part of Scandinavia; the same goes for Finland minus the Scandinavian roots bit,) countries once again make a strong showing. These countries are known for their egalitarian "from-cradle-to-grave" social systems, high taxes (the highest in the world,) and extensive social liberties plus universal access to healthcare and education. Granted, it's not all roses and sunshine, and internally these societies do have their own issues (at least as far as they are concerned,) yet apparently they do seem to consistently get some very important things right...but the grass is often greener on the other side, regardless of how good one may have it where one resides - I know this only too well.
1. Luxembourg ... $56,380 2. Norway ... $51,810 3. Switzerland ... $49,600 4. United States ... $41,440 5. Denmark ... $40,750 6. Iceland ... $37,920 7. Japan ... $37,050 8. Sweden ... $35,840 9. Ireland ... $34,310 10. United Kingdom ... $33,630
It should be noted that there are criticisms of note regarding some of these list compilations. For instance, economist Bryan Caplan has argued that the setup of some of these measuring systems only allow for "0" or "1" results, meaning that some developed countries can not improve their score since the scoreboard does not take in to account that even though a nation is developed it may still be able to improve its developed standards. In effect, he argues that the current system is biased in favour of measuring "How Scandinavian your country is".
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Well, if you are itching to purchase a particular EA game or two, that is.
