newnative

1994!!! You've got to be kidding! That's some fresh, helpful info. In any case, an application to the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club is on its way. For the OP, Nong Nooch Gardens is well worth seeing. Spouse and I have been there a number of times and there always seems to be something new.

Arrest the drivers, heavily fine them, ban them from driving for a year, confiscate the cars and crush them into lovely, one-of-a-kind coffee tables for the owners to enjoy and to boast about to their neighbors while they wait to regain their driver's licenses.

I think the hurricane was the October surprise, at the expense of the Harris campaign. No matter how great the response to a natural disaster, efforts are usually judged by large numbers to be lacking, whether they actually are or not. I think this will also be the case with the hurricane. It's a win-win for Trump as he's not in charge of the cleanup and can just sit back and lie and criticize--about the only things he is good at. Hopefully, there's not another bad surprise waiting in the wings . . .

Yes, we were very impressed, too.

Thanks. I don't consider 67.9% to indicate 'most'. In America, it seems to be even less. From the article you referenced: How much an owned home contributes to wealth varies across homeowners. Among U.S. homeowners overall – that is, households that own their primary residence – home equity accounted for a median of 45% of their net worth in 2021. (Half of U.S. homeowners derived more than 45% of their wealth from home equity alone, the other half derived less.) That's pretty much what I thought in regard to US millionaires, as I said in my previous post. Roughly half in real estate and the other half in other investments, 401ks, personal property, cash, etc.

Strange comment, 'if everyone thought their vote mattered...'. Everyone's vote should matter, and be of equal value. It is indeed sad that the Electoral College results in so many votes not mattering at all, with the votes rendered in some states mattering so much more than those in other states. Bad system, which 63% of Americans want to get rid of. America was 'humming along', as you say, largely due to Obama, not Trump. Wages were on a steady upward trend under Obama. Jobs were on a steady upward trend, since 2010 under Obama. Unemployment was on a steady downward trend, since 2010 under Obama. All of these trends continued under Trump, but they began with the Obama administration. Since Trump lost in a landslide in 2020, it seems American voters didn't give him too much credit for the economy, or anything else. The graphs below clearly show what I am talking about. Note 2017, when Trump jumps into the pilot's seat. The steady trajectories continue, with nary a blip. The US economy, like a large super tanker, does not turn on a dime. Of course, the same is true for 2021, when Biden took over the pilot's seat from Trump. For better or worse, Biden would be dealing with the economy he inherited from Trump.

Spouse and I have placed an order for a Sealion; it should arrive by the end of the month, we are told. We were also impressed with it. We like it is PHEV, which we think will suit us at this point. Most of our driving is around town, with a monthly trip to Bangkok, so we should mostly be using only electric. The MG mentioned by other posters also seems like it could be a good option.

Get a car.

And, also me, not a veteran.

Doubtful the US would ever end up with just one party--especially these days with Democrats and Republicans so hardened. Pew Research breaks it down this way: 33% Democrat. 32% Republican. 35% who lean Democrat, lean Republican, don't lean to either party, or don't say. So, in reality, the US really has three fairly equal large parties, plus some minor ones. Should either the Democrat or Republican party falter, a new party would likely form, which would likely attract some remnants of the old party, plus a share of the independents and the remaining major party, who might be attracted to the new party's platform. I think the Republican Party's failure to win even 50% of the vote in the last two elections reflects more on the party's poor presidential candidate than on anything else. Trump has been fielded twice. He lost the popular vote by 2.8 million in 2016. Actual voters did not want him. After 4 years of the worst presidency in history, he lost by 7 million votes in 2020--a disaster for a sitting president. Again, actual voters did not want him--even more than in 2016. 2024 will likely result in another large popular vote loss, as Americans for the third time tell the Republican Party that they don't like its choice for president. Apparently lots of slow learners in the Republican Party.

I would question your first sentence but I welcome any statistics you have to back up your claim. I know about a dozen US millionaires, half of whom I am fairly familiar with their financials, and their homes make up about half of their million in assets, not 'most'. The other half would be stocks, 401ks, mutual funds, cars, furnishings, etc., other investments, and, in 3 or 4 cases, gold. One example, of those I know. School teacher, retired, age 74. She has the two things I mentioned in my earlier post. 1. Greatest Generation parents. 2. Homeowner. She inherited money in the form of stocks from her parents in 2019. At the time the stocks were worth about $300,000. They are now worth $428,000. Like many Americans, she purchased a home during her working years, which she now owns mortgage-free. The home has increased in value over the last 35 or 40 years and is now worth about $500,000. She and her husband, who did pool maintenance, own 2 cars with a combined value of about $50,000. They also own a large boat. I have no idea of the value but I have been on it and you can sleep aboard it. Let's say $50,000. I think we are over 1 million already and I haven't figured in her husband's assets--he also inherited money from Greatest Generation parents. He and I have talked stocks and I know he also has a stock portfolio, which likely has grown, along with his wife's. The key takeaway from my example is how ordinary these two are. Neither had an exotic, super high-paying job. Neither won the lottery. Neither, as far as I know, bought Apple at $22 a share when it went public. Neither did anything special except lucking out with GG parents and wisely buying a home. I think a good chunk of America's millionaires would be variations of this example. Your second sentence makes little sense. Millionaires in the US are scattered all over, not lumped in one place. If 5% chose to sell at one time, the 5% would also be scattered all over, with little, if any, impact on the market. It could be that 5% of millionaires' homes are already on the market at any given time--I'm too lazy to check as it's not worth bothering with. I also don't think millionaires have any more trouble selling their homes than anyone else does, should they choose to--especially with the number of millionaires growing every year--500,000 in 2019, for example. If a home is just half of someone's million in assets, as I think it is for many, the house selling would be in the 500,000 dollar range, a normal price in many places in the US and not a bridge too far for a lot of buyers.

Cash, and I hope cash remains an option in the future.

I don't have much in the way of answers. I would say that I don't see any correlation with the number of millionaires and the number of people in poverty in the US. One person becoming a millionaire doesn't mean another person is going to automatically rise out of poverty. There have always been poor people and rich people in the US, with the vast majority in-between--I don't see that changing much in a capitalist system. My post was in response to a statement by another poster, who said that 'Americans are actually quite poor.' I disagreed, and backed up my post with some actual numbers. Median wealth is around $192,000 and average wealth is over 1 million dollars. Nobody is disputing that there are poor people in the US. Of course, there are. But, the vast majority of Americans do not fall into the 'poor' category and America is not 'actually quite poor'. I did a bit more research and found another website that pegged US millionaires at 30 million. I think that is getting more accurate to actual numbers, but probably still low. It's interesting that 500,000 Americans became millionaires in just 2023, so the number is rising--and I would say fairly rapidly. So, perhaps there are around 30 million millionaires and around 37 million poor Americans. If America really was a 'quite poor' country, I suspect the poverty figure would be considerably more in a country of 345 million and the number of millionaires would be far less.

I wasn't referring to the bars when I said Pattaya is booming. I have no idea how the bars are doing, nor do I care. Pattaya is booming.

Pattaya is booming.

I have a Schwab International account, too, for my stock portfolio and I am very happy with them, as well.

Spouse and I are buying a plug-in hybrid. It gets us into electric in a bigger way than a regular hybrid but we still have a gas engine so we are not dependent on finding an electric charging station on trips. We think for most of our driving we will just be using electric and we will have a home charger. I would buy what works best for your needs.

Actually, a thread from awhile back said just the opposite for this year so far. Thailand is attracting enough high-end tourists but falling short on lower economic visitors. TAT may give lip service to high-end tourists but, ideally, you want a diverse economic mix of visitors to fill the diverse economic mix of low budget to expensive 5-star hotels that Thailand has.

'Americans are actually quite poor.', you say. I would disagree. It's true that there were 36.8 million Americans living in poverty in 2023. That's out of 345 million people. 36.8 million is a large number, yes, but many, many more Americans--over 300 million--are not living in poverty, they are not 'quite poor'. As I said in an earlier post, the figure I found most interesting was the number of millionaires. One site said 24.5 million, another 23.7 million. With either figure, that's a lot, too. I actually think 24.5 million is way too low. These days, it doesn't take much to hit a million dollars in assets in the US--you can come close with mostly just two things. 1. Have Greatest Generation parents. They worked hard, were thrifty, saved, and many passed along money and/or real estate to their children. This happened with a number of people I know. 2. Be a USA home owner. Lots of homes in the US, in lots of places, have appreciated in value to at least half a million dollars or more. The average price of a home where I used to live in the US is now over $600,000. My siblings and all my US friends are homeowners, and each home I know of is probably worth at least $400,000 to $500,000, or more. Combine that home value with inherited money and many Baby Boomers, not to mention others, are close to a million already--without even throwing in inherited money from a spouse's parents, 401k money, cars, furnishings, stocks, mutual funds, and other investments. Someone recently said on a thread something to the effect that a million dollars in assets isn't that special these days and they are right--it no longer is. And, the number of millionaires in the US is bound to grow as Baby Boomers pass along not only their wealth, but the wealth they inherited from their Greatest Generation parents, to their children.

Yaa Bruce!

How could anybody possibly be surprised? Shocking, my eye. You need look no further than the rolling fire bomb bus that killed all those children and teachers. It passed inspections twice a year, year after year, as did all the other illegal buses the company ran. Inspectors who signed off on those bus inspections should be jailed, along with their supervisors. Ditto for any other buses reinspected and found to have been passed when the buses should have failed inspection.

You should have kept going with your red underlining and continued with 'If your state requires further information, your election official will contact you.' That's the key part that you neglected to highlight. I registered on-line to vote in Virginia. In filling out the form, I first had to select the last voting precinct in Virginia where I had been registered to vote. They also required my last address where I lived in Virginia when I was registered to vote. I couldn't remember my condo number since I had moved so often doing condo flips but I did remember the street address and I figured that would be enough information. Wrong. That's when 'If your state requires further information . . .' came into play. They emailed me back and told me they needed the condo number before they could process my voter application and allow me to vote. So, after a search, I finally did find the condo number and resubmitted my application, which was approved, and I was sent out a voter ballot. You also highlighted the fact that a voter application will be accepted, even if an applicant doesn't include social security number, driver's license, etc. Yes, likely so. The application will be accepted for processing but, like my first try, not necessarily approved if there is not enough information to determine if you are eligible to vote. It would have been nice if I could have then voted by email but only a few states allow this, so far. I had to print my ballot, fill out the ballot, put the ballot in an envelope and seal it, print out and then fill out and sign a form swearing I am who I am and eligible to vote, paste this form to the envelope, put the first envelope into a second envelope, print out and paste the address form of where the ballot is to be sent to the second envelope, seal the envelope, and then go to the post office and mail it. Since I am overseas, I also had to pay to mail the ballot, as I don't live anywhere near a US Embassy to drop it off. That's what I went through in order to vote. I, for one, think the process should be easier than that, not made more difficult, so more voters don't just give up and decide not to even bother to vote--too much trouble. If Republicans are worried that making voting easier favors Democrats, perhaps they should look at both their platform and the Presidential candidate they have been fielding for 3 elections.

No problem!

Did Trump resort to crimes? Yes, and lock him up already.

The floor looks beautiful. I would try to save it. You have something wonderful--laminate/vinyl isn't.