I will probably get flamed for my lack of knowledge on economics, but here goes...
I believe there is a reason that the exchange rate is talked about so much.
When the currency was originally issued, the goal was for it to be a 1=1 exchange rate with the dollar.
Initially, the rate was about $.80=1Euro. There has been about a 40% change in the ratio in the last 6 years.
The yen has never been valued equally to the dollar, so the comparison is apples to oranges.

Not doing PM out and backs, not a planet Melvis kind of guy.

And personally, If I get STV'd, I'm going. On the whole risk vs. reward thing not really willing to risk those "potential" dollars I'll get in future employment.

As a first floor bus guy, might or might not reach me. Definitely won't reach those guys up in the penthouse who, may or may not have even read the LOA before voting. It all depends on how the whole special situation ACP intervention plays out (and it won't be an issue if it actually does go Senior)

The "potential" dollars I'm losing out on are those embedded with an upgrade to Capt. Don't want to bid 75 Capt and put myself on the potential chopping block for a month to CDG at the most inopportune moment. Don't want to bid 30 Capt for the same reason.
Guess you could say I'm choosing QOL over potential $$$.

And, MEMFO4Ever, since you post as a 72 FO, while I don't know what the company is actually going to do, I do think I'm more likely to be STV'd than you.

Yeah, but I didn't know how to do that, so I just used an "E."

What an awful lot of you YES voters don't seem to realize is that by voting YES, you gave away our Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. HELLLLOOOOO, DO YOU GET IT? Without the LOA, the FDA crewmembers would have had about $85K of their income tax-free (Federal). Most states don't collect any income tax from overseas workers. With the LOA, you pay what you WOULD HAVE SAVED on your Federal taxes directly to FedEx. They keep it to offset what they had to lay out to put you in the FDA. They also keep what you would have saved in State tax as a non-resident. They also keep what you would have saved in Municipal tax as a non-resident. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? You voted to screw the overseas residents out of their tax savings. Thanks alot, jerks. DPs are now fair game.

Speaking of jerks. Why don't you quit the union, too?

I've considered it, though I'd still pay dues out of a sense of shared responsibility for the expenses of running the union. It would probably be required, anyway, but even if it weren't, I'd always pull my weight financially.

But I'd sleep easier, probably. Pay the dues and let the chips fall where they may, since people in SFS have essentially been unrepresented for 12 years now. We were hosed in '98 and '06, each time being told that our issues were too minor to deal with. And now the membership was sold on the pap we were fed -- namely, "we'll build on this next time." Like hay-yull they will ... they had a PERFECT opportunity to build on the SFS experience, which was "FDA 1.0", and they failed to come through. It's just pathetic.

For those that think tax equalization is bad:

150k income
U.S. Tax obligation = 150k * .33 = 49,500.
U.S. Tax obligation using foreign exclusion = 150k - 85k = 65k * .33 = 21,500.

Foreign Tax Rate % * 150k plus U.S. tax obligation using 85k exclusion
20 30,000 + 21,500 = 51,500
30 45,000 + 21,500 = 66,500
40 60,000 + 21,500 = 81,500
50 75,000 + 21,500 = 96,500

Foreign Tax Rate % * 150k plus U.S. tax obligation using tax equalization
20 30,000 + 49,500 = 79,500, but you pay 49,500
30 45,000 + 49,500 = 94,500, but you pay 49,500
40 60,000 + 49,500 = 109,500, but you pay 49,500
50 75,000 + 49,500 = 124,500, but you pay 49,500

According to my calculations, if you used the 85k foreign exclusion on a 150k income, which left you a 21,500 tax obligation to the U.S., you would need your foreign tax percentage to be 18.7% to break even with the tax equalization package.

Obviously, you can modify the numbers (income, tax percentages, brackets, writeoffs, expected vs. unexpected foreign taxes, etc) here, but my point being that we definitely do not lose with tax equalization vs. the foreign exclusion.

And the tax rate in HKG is?....16%. BRILLIANT!!

Nancy, I've flown extensively with a couple of friends of yours. I've even met you once. I'm a big fan. But you might want to put a little time lag in between typing and hitting "Reply."

The salaries tax rate is the lower of either:

*
15% of "assessable income" after the deduction of allowances (raised to 16% in the 2003/2004 budget); or
* A progressive rate levied on "assessable income" after the deduction of allowances. These progressive rates are:
o Nil to HK$35,000 - 2%
o HK$35,000 to HK$70,000 – 8%
o HK$70,000 to HK$105,000 – 14%
o HK$105,000 upwards – 20%
chart applies after deductions of 25,000USD for married and 3,850USD per child