"We looked to see how much wine we actually ship and how quickly it's consumed and what the environmental cost is of getting the wine all over the world, " says Egan.

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To bring a little extra joy to every ride, the app uses this information to calculate statistics, such as how much money has been saved on gas, the unbelievably low cost of energy consumed per mile and how much CO2 has been prevented from being released into the atmosphere.

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Rates also could be calibrated to the estimated cost of government services likely to be consumed or to change overall immigration levels.

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The survey compares the prices of goods and services typically consumed by the families of executives being sent overseas. (Importantly, however, it does not include the cost of accommodation.) The chart shows local costs as a percentage of those of living in New York.

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