>
> > We earn in guilders (FL) as you earn in $ but to get $ 1 we have to pay fl 2,25 so if you understand what we are
> > saying america is a very expensive country to visit for us because we have to multiply all the usa prices by 2,25.
>
> I've never traveled in Europe, but in London a few years ago I needed 1.8 dollars to get a pound. It makes me wonder if I go to the Netherlands, will my dollar be worth 2.25 times as much as it is here?
> In Mexico, U.S. citizens were charged in U.S. dollars. Even if you had pesos, they charged you enough to make up the difference in exchange rate.
> In Canada, I paid by credit card and got the exchange rate which saved me money, but if I paid in U.S. dollars they just said "Thank you."
> In Guatamala, a dollar was equal to 5 quetzalies(sp?) and I was living like a king for almost nothing. You could buy $100 worth of goods and services for twenty dollars.
>
> When I was in the Bahamas, the exchange rate was one to one and it made life much simpler.
> Howard

This seems to be the same muddle I've found myself in. Oftentimes, the exchange rate and the dollar-equivalency are different, sometimes much so. While in Mexico I received 10 pesos per dollar when I exchanged monies, but each dollar still definitely went much further there than it does here. Last time I checked, the Iraqi-to-US currency exchange rate was officially 5-to-1, but travelers (yes, it is illegal, but it's not difficult, or so I hear) can get what would cost $1000 in the US with just $1.

It reminds me of a scene in Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" where the yankee simply couldn't get it into the people's minds that money and value are related, but independent. If there are two men, the first makes a little more money, but the second lives where he can buy things much more cheaply, who is richer?

gab"It's certainly not me."by