 Germany; Motorists switch satnav on, brain off
"Go Fig" <gofig@mac.com> kirjoitti
viestissä:231220061253178254%gofig@mac.com...
> In article <GXejh.7762$CJ5.67@reader1.news.saunalahti.fi>, Markku
> Gr–nroos <kurkku@hassuserveri.fi> wrote:
>
>> "Go Fig" <gofig@mac.com> kirjoitti
>> viestissä:231220060814589344%gofig@mac.com...
>> > In article <17lx98kc2gvxb$.dlg@news.cricetus.com>, Jens Arne Maennig
>> > <maennig0612@cricetus.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> At this point, navigation systems become cheap and this way affordable
>> >> to almost anyone.
>> >
>> > Cheap ?
>> >
>> > It cost the U.S. taxpayers more than $30 billion to get you a $400 Tom
>> > Tom.
>> >
>> It was purely a goodwill gesture to open skies for civilian use.
>
> Yes it was, and its FREE... no tax on hardware... nothing.
>
22% tax for hardware in Finland. I can tell you the news: Americans didn't
stop encrypting the signal to embrace the world. I don't know how much
American tax payers have paid to establish (and maintain) gps-satellite
system. Perhaps it is something like $30 billion as you suggest. However, I
am inclined to refer to this amount of money as x dollars. Now then:
Americans built the positioning system for administrative, mostly military
purposes. The expenses were enormous while there were very little there in
terms of incomes (direct ones at least). Even if the signal had been sealed
up to this date, for an American taxpayer the system had been an equally
expensive business as it is now. The primary reason the American government
unsealed the signal flow was not the intention to give light in the
darkness of less developed countries but to give an opportunity to make some
money by gps not only spend money [of American taxpayers] on it.
> That can NOT be said of some proposed European system... 'a day late,
> and a dollar short'
>
Galileo will be in place in two or three years time and will practically
replace the gps (the two systems are supposed to shake hand though).
Somewhat more time will elapse before you can go to the nearest shop to buy
Galileo compliant gear.
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