gearbox

1 minute ago, Lacessit said:

IMO not a good trade, the USD for making ourselves a nuclear target.

There are elections next May, I'll vote for any party which wants to remove American military presence from our soil. For defence, stop buying American junk and make a deal with Fat Kim. We have cash, he has nuclear technology probably at tenth of the prices we are paying now for defence. Have nukes, sleep well.

13 minutes ago, Old Curmudgeon said:

 

 

Thank you, @still kicking, for bringing up this topic, because I had no idea that many/most posters are NOT in Thailand (or regular, frequent visitors like the off-shore men).

 

That explains why so much monkey chatter noise here.

So many posters just don't have first-hand experience or any recent experience on topics related to expat living.

So why do they pollute the forum with endless silly comments?

 

My own "ignore user" list has hundreds of user names, and still growing.

Shouldn't be like that, but it is like that.

It's the only way I know to stay focused on topics that are relevant to expat living in Thailand.

 

Well, this topic has helped me to understand a bit more than before.

There are a plenty of people living in Thailand and posting here, there is pretty good information in specific forums, like the regional or visa related.

This thread degraded to US vs the world hate exchange.

In 2024 I've spent 6.5 months in Thailand, a little bit more than the requirement to be a tax resident, but this year planning to spend 7 months in Oz and 2 in Europe to avoid tax residency issues. I was here on O-A initially, then converted to Non-O retirement,  later this year planning to move to DTV as I would be spending less than 180 days here.

14 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Lack of money? Who? Govt wont abolosish OAP, they pushed the Super thing, now thats ok to claimearly or for a bad tooth ache, or even a  *house! Elected govt., get it?? 

Moments will come when the government is short of money and may axe many things, including OAP. Money is earned first before being spent. Interesting times ahead.

37 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

It's certainly not an entitlement !

Unlike the UK 

 

It's supposed to be for those who don't have retirement funds not rich retirees cashed up thus when applying for it you are subjected to the assets test and not everyone is entitled to it because of big Superannuation 

 

You Olmate are entitled to it though,  because you were smart enough never to work a day in your life 

I think the government should abolish it for any new retirees from 2033 onwards, the compulsory superannuation should have been in place for 40 years by then.

1 minute ago, Olmate said:

Think thats Superannuation, Oz OAP is an entitlement,once you reach old age, if eligible, then pmeans tested. Retro fit and you lose government! 

It is not entitlement, it is welfare. The motive to go away from the current system usually 99% is lack of money.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-05/aussie-bears-see-drop-to-60-cents-as-trump-readies-china-tariffs

However the Aussie movements are notoriously hard to predict, a number of "experts" were wrong last year.

On 1/3/2025 at 9:17 PM, CygnusX1 said:

Actually, I think that Gen Z or whatever they’re called wouldn’t be very happy about someone with my lifestyle receiving even a small part pension, and I can’t say I blame them!

In most of the countries of the world the pension is not based on lifestyle, it is based on age, number of years worked, and the size of pension contributions. Sooner or later the Aussie OAP will be retrofitted in this way.

3 hours ago, short-Timer said:

From my short time on this Forum so far, this BarBoy character appears to act very much like Trump. Lies and inflates the truth, makes up everything as he goes, poor at covering his tracks, comes up with insulting names for many other posters, praises posters who admire him, and attacks any who don't. Total Trumpian narcissistic behavioral disorder. Is there anything else about this BarBoy poster that I am not aware of?

Give him a bit of slack. That's his life, he has nothing else to do. Plus he is entertaining from time to time.

7 minutes ago, placeholder said:

And why would any business  do that? In fact, how could any business afford to do that? You think that government should subsidize those low prices? How would that not result in a boondoggle of massive proportions?

And if I'm a buyer why would I care what the seller can or can't afford? The Chinese are competitive and sell. Latin America needs a lot of infrastructure as well, the Chinese have mastered this subject. Look at the new port in Peru. I suspect some of the cherries and blueberries in Macro are coming through there.

4 hours ago, placeholder said:

Outbid? This is about trade. China is a big market for these countries.

It is about trade. What the Latin American countries can buy from the US which they can't buy cheaper or better quality from other countries? Sell them stuff with 60-70% discount and they may bite.

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

But that's not the point.  It's about the weak leverage the U.S. has to compel South American nations to do its bidding re: China. 

Like every bidding it is easy to outbid...provide more money.

On 1/2/2025 at 8:54 PM, jas007 said:

Have you ever pondered the returns of the Mag 7 over the lifetime of those stocks?  Some people have a time horizon longer than four years. The gains are astronomical.

 

I've had some of them since the inception.  Not all, but some. Apple, Microsoft, and Tesla.  And every time I sold a little bit, it was a mistake. I used to trade Tesla, for the most part, but decided to buy a bigger chunk for the long term late in the game.  Still, I'm up big time and may well buy more this morning. I can't lose, unless planet earth is destroyed, in which case it won't matter. 

Tesla is going to be the American version of the USSR Lada. It would eventually rely only on the tariff protected US market. It sells nearly 40% of its cars in China, it is a matter of time before loses these sales.

On 1/1/2025 at 3:31 PM, KhunHeineken said:

It's more than anyone else from any other country in the world pays for a passport. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_passport

$54 AUD normal price, apparently free for people over 70. Ranked higher in the passport index than the Aussie passport.

https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php

18 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

It's a disgrace. 

 

You now have Aussies of child baring age unable to afford to have more than one child. 

 

May as well call it "Australia's One Child Policy" via the back door. 

 

The banks, insurance companies, all three tiers of government, and the tax man, including share holders, all getting rich on the pain and suffering of hard working middle class Australians.   On top of that, you have electricity, gas, petrol, water and food.  It will not stop until every cent someone earns MUST go back into the economy, leave ZERO to save.  

 

I think the median income in Sydney is around 95k, which after tax is around 70k. With median house price around 1.65 million one needs 23 yearly salaries to buy a house. That's serfdom. The government revenue depends quite a bit on the housing, so they'll do anything to keep the prices rising. If I was young and ambitious I would plan to leave the country ASAP. Living after 60 in countries like Thailand is no brainer.

8 minutes ago, Olmate said:

Dob him in then, ring the hotline today! You know it makes sense, suits you down to a T! 🥺

He dobs himself...the only thing he didn't post is his photo.

On 12/31/2024 at 2:14 PM, KhunHeineken said:

Interesting article. 

 

Paul Keating commented in 1986 that Australia risked becoming a Banana Republic.  It seems we are already there. 

 

https://www.innovationaus.com/in-2019-were-a-banana-republic/

 

This sums it up pretty well:  “Australia is devolving quite rapidly now from a developed economy to a developing economy.”

 

 

 

 

The problem is the government started importing lots of people from the subcontinent but the pie is not getting bigger. This year the Sumandou iron ore is expected to hit the market and drive the prices down. There is also upcoming LNG oversupply. I would expect higher budget deficit and lower Aussie dollar. If the dollar goes sub 20 baht there will be some pain felt in Thailand.

On 12/29/2024 at 6:01 PM, KhunHeineken said:

Just to clarify, you are 77 years of age, have no saving and no assets, and live hand to mouth every fortnight.  Is this correct?  If so, how do you afford the return airfares over to Thailand, twice a year?

As I posted before he is defrauding the federal government and Centrelink and leeching off our taxes. It won't be difficult for Centrelink to figure out who is he - stupidity posting on public forums he is 77 old and married to a Thai 21 years, flying to Thailand twice per year, won't be difficult to triage. Many govt departments are starting to do data mining of publicly available info, that includes forums and Facebook.

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

Sad a country relies so much on China.  And, what else iron ore?

We don't rely on China, they just buy our stuff, but we can sell to anyone who pays. Unfortunately the so called "service" economies don't need iron ore or steel.

Australia is a quasi communist country, where the low class workers can get paid better than engineers or PhDs in molecular biology. The other countries where the proletariat ruled were the USSR and the former Eastern bloc, we all know how it ended. Welfare abound, you can get old age pension without working a single day.

The job of the governments is to increase productivity and make the pie bigger, our government instead brings a few hundred thousand subjects from the subcontinent and puts them on the table to eat from the same size pie, hence the negative GDP growth per person in the last 2 years. The population increases faster than the GDP.

21 hours ago, Jingthing said:

It's basically hopeless.

An American politician can't even whisper economic inequality without being red baited.

https://www.cscc.it/upload/doc/benessere comune.pdf

"We should not aim too high and make
promises that cannot be fulfilled. Instead of taking on everything, the government should
focus on carrying out programs that are general, inclusive and guarantee basic needs. Even
if we become more developed and financially stronger in the future, we should not set
excessively high goals and provide excessive guarantees, in order not to fall into the trap of
“welfarism” that encourages laziness"

Xi Jinping, the greatest leader of our times. On the contrary the western leadership degraded so much in the last 30 years, if the trend continues I can't imagine what species are going to govern us next.

3 hours ago, Dcheech said:

Jesus Wept.

 

Have you not noticed inflation in Thailand? You have not noticed that worldwide inflation bedevils countries from China to Canada, Albania to Argentina today? Next rhetorical question,  did you notice another worldwide event in the last five years, something besides the ever-growing WOKE menace.  ...... Say a Virus?

Every country in the world was pumping money into their economy to keep it chugging down the road and not spiral into recession/depression. When confronted with a pandemic, or lockdown, like the recent worldwide virus originating in Wuhan China. Countries pump money into the economy to keep people spending, to keep the economy from locking up. The by product is inflation and yes it is worldwide. NOTE recent US campaign rhetoric aside (as in Bidenomics) Trump started doing exactly this in his last year, 2020. No real choice, it is the only economic answer that might work. Biden continued it. This is a no brainer as only one economic theory works in these conditions  - just deal with it - 'Keynsian economics'. as true today as it was in the 1930's and one that conservatives and liberals use. Conservatives just don't like to talk about it, but they use it. 

Recession/Depression - or - Inflation?

It is not even a choice GG

 

 

Where is the high inflation in the case of China?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/270338/inflation-rate-in-china/

3 hours ago, GypsyT said:

Won't happen. They want to take finger prints and photos. Every time!

Malaysians also take fingerprints and the gates are already in operation there.