Presnock

1 minute ago, jas007 said:

 No matter how you look at it, inflation hits poor people the hardest. The rich have first access to the money and are therefore in a better position to adjust.  Not so with the poor.  

 

Anyway, like it or not, Trump is now President.  He has a plan and we had all better hope it works. Otherwise, there will be no America. Just chaos. I'm not sure people realize just how fragile the system is. Nobody will receive pensions. Nobody will receive Social Security. And your "money" will be worthless. Why would anyone support such a scenario?  Only people intent on destroying America. 

Maybe Trump if he is a puppet of Putin is doing exactly what they want?  I don't know but his language when talking about Putin and other autocrats seems to be enamored of that evil person.

On 3/23/2025 at 8:29 AM, jas007 said:

Of course it's about the "value" of the dollar.  People aren't totally stupid.  But even you must admit, if you're honest, that the "value" of the dollar has decreased over time.  Nothing goes in a straight line, but that's the unmistakeable trend.  In recent memory, depending on how old people are, I'm sure there are people here who remember the America they grew up in.  The Post-WWII America and the great middle class that once was but that has now mostly disappeared, thanks to the politicians, the debt based banking system, and the Fed.  Before long, they'll own it all. That's the plan.  "You'll own nothing and you'll be happy."  Was that Klaus Schwab at the WEF? 

 

In the Post WWII US economy, A single man could graduate from high school, find a factory job in one day, and with the pay from that one job, buy a house in the suburbs, buy a car for the family, support a wife and a couple of kids, send those kids to college, and have money left over to save for retirement.  Try telling that to a kid today.  ""Work hard kid. Get a Job in a factory, save your money, and you too can live the American Dream." 

 

And yet there are problems with that scenario, no?  The factory jobs have largely disappeared. Saving money is a fools game because of inflation, and even if such a job could be found, it wouldn't pay enough to support a wife and a few kids, the kids could not afford to go to school, and, if they did get an education, they wouldn't be able to find a job when they graduated, and if they did find jobs, those jobs would pay peanuts.  

 

What happened to the value of the dollar? 

Folks continued to be educated to graduate from college, go to a manufacturing job or computer startups but manufacturing moved overseas and the computer wizzards created machines that did their job much better, faster and cheaper so those folks are now out too competing for any job.  House prices have skyrocketed while large cities have citizens packing up and moving to state tax free environments.  Ugly situation and re-manufacturing ala Japan will not work in the US either IMHO.

1 minute ago, jas007 said:

I think if you read the relevant tax treaty, you'll find that government pensions and social security benefits are taxable in the country of origin, only.  

Yes hat is what the DTA says so the Thai's agree that if taxed already by US law then they don't have to pay in Thailand but my questions if you read it says if no taxes are taken out by the US, then could Thailand tax it.  I am not saying they will, as a matter of fact I sent a note for those in congress talking about cutting the tax on SS seniors or SS altogether.  I asked if those writing the bill have even read the DTA agreements or will they advise ambassadors that SS still whether taxed in the US or not cannot be taxed by a foreign government.

5 minutes ago, proton said:

 

I think you will find Vietnam was a pretty disastrous war, and a total defeat.

Yeah whenever a negotiator gives up anything of importance just to get out of a situation i.e. Trump and the Taliban too as he must have learned from HENRY kISSINGER the art of negotiating just to get out of a situation and blame it on others.  MHO anyway as a VN vet involved in that fiasco for 10 years.

3 hours ago, Tug said:

Am I still detecting some blubbering and a bit of sniffling lol typical of the magga types allways blaming others for problems,I’m more interested in solutions fair and equitable ones not ones designed to hurt others all achieved within the framework of our democracy not by decree.

Yeah, Japan tried the re-manufacturing, shut down all imports of products and it destroyed the Japanese economy totally!  Now they have switched to the successes of the developed world - services and are moving ahead again!  Trump and the US could look at Japan and give up that re-manufacturing plan.  Though Trump is really too old to even see it to fruition nor does he care just so he can sit on the Throne!

8 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

 

You've got bootstraps, pull yourself up.

Just like us boomers did

Unfortunately for those generations after the boomers' the education of generations was for that type economy which deteriorated greatly and didn't prepare them for today's economies.  Even those that were AI beginners, they created bots/machines that forced those educated out of a job!  Japan died with Trump's re-manufacturing plan and now has switched to all the successful economies offering services!

11 hours ago, placeholder said:

You mean a coward like Donald Trump?

Yessir, Clinton, Bush (Texas Air National Guard so he didn't have to go to the war), Obama, Biden (draft dodger too) and Trump - all useless bu all helped or assisted in destroying our economy as for me, 10 years doing the VN war bit with many years in VN)

13 hours ago, Lacessit said:

IMO the wealth inequality which exists now never existed during my childhood. Sure, executives were well paid, but never the ridiculous amounts they are paid now. No one is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

In the early 70's I was a small cog in a mining company. I paid off my house mortgage in 18 months. That is impossible for the average worker now.

 

I agree with the OP, we lived in a golden age where honesty, integrity and hard work were rewarded. It does make me wonder what went wrong.

Now there are BILLIONAIRES! over 500 were created in the US alone during the COVID pandemic!  nowadays, in the UK it was reported (can google it for proof) that a rich family relocated from the UK to Dubai due to the taxes or lack thereof in the Middle East!

On 3/22/2025 at 11:37 PM, swissie said:

The "boomers" were too young for the Korean/Vietnamese war.

Where have you been,VN was fought 1964 to 1974 and that is the right age for baby boomers - yeah, the Korean war was over (on paper) by the time boomers were old enough to become soldiers.

On 3/22/2025 at 10:04 PM, swissie said:

Hello fellow "boomers". I think it's time for us to realise in what "golden age" most of us lived. An age where most "little people" were able to improve their financial standing. With the outlook of a financially secure old age. We diden't have to fight in any disastrous wars like generations before us had to. And we live longer than our grandparents.

 

We should be thankful.

 

The "new age" that is now dawning is more than worriesome. Generations can handle 1 or 2 major problems. But the multitude of problems at our doorstep will likely surpass the capability of humans to handle the multitude of major problems all at the same time.

 

I myself find being an old man is not that great. But at least I have some sort of "solace". Hopefully, I will have passed the "pearly gates" before king Chaos will reighn the world once more.

 

So, fellow boomers, thankfullness and gratefullness is in order. We were truly born into a historical "window of opportunity" that is rare in history.

 

Some boomers and subsequent generations did fight in wars in different areas of course while most of the home countries of the expats here did not suffer as much.

13 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

My family has been in the education field for generations and I was brought up to believe that there is no such thing as a dumb question.  I guess there always has to be an exception.

If you had witnessed the news items about folks wearing blackface makeup in plays or in college in the US over the past decade you might understand the question.  Not everything you learned growing up I guess helped you at all.

1 minute ago, frank83628 said:

I know a couple of NON Americans on here that are concerned about US social security, Lord knows why.....

Yeah I wonder at times seeing the American Citizens Abroad notes about what Congress is doing that could affect living overseas, I note many times that they just might decide that any retirement benefits must be paid only within the US and not into any foregin country.  I note that DTA's protect SS and civil service pensions but the congress is talking about stopping taxes on seniors and SS and was wondering if that would have any affect on the DTA since if one is not taxed by the US govt, then Thailand might interpret that as making it taxble in Thailand.   But not even sure any of the proposals on taxes will ever see the light of day. with our congress.

1 minute ago, jas007 said:

I have a limited sample.  Four different agencies plus two years on active duty in the US Army during Vietnam. Anyway, I've been a manager. I've also seen what goes on, typically.  People can look like they're working, but what are they accomplishing? You can go by their office and there they are, "hard at work."  And yet they take two or three days to accomplish what a competent employee could accomplish in three hours.  Are they doing that on purpose, or are they just stupid? 

 

I never tried to fire anyone, but the people playing games didn't get any good recommendations from me.  Sometimes, I wonder whatever happened to them.  They probably never got another promotion, ever. 

1 minute ago, jas007 said:

I have a limited sample.  Four different agencies plus two years on active duty in the US Army during Vietnam. Anyway, I've been a manager. I've also seen what goes on, typically.  People can look like they're working, but what are they accomplishing? You can go by their office and there they are, "hard at work."  And yet they take two or three days to accomplish what a competent employee could accomplish in three hours.  Are they doing that on purpose, or are they just stupid? 

 

I never tried to fire anyone, but the people playing games didn't get any good recommendations from me.  Sometimes, I wonder whatever happened to them.  They probably never got another promotion, ever. 

fortunately for me, I went to work after 4 years in the AF flying in VN and a 6-month stint with Dupont - I worked with 20 others doing basically the same job but within a month or so I was doing about 40 % of our office work.  I couldn't take more than a couple of days off in conjunction with a weekend and had to catch up when I returned, but I kept everyone else's work done until they returned, I also had no snow days at the rest did plus I had to work eithe Sat or Sun each week while most of them were not "qualified" though several had higher salaries.  But, I couldn't get promoted as it was that time in our history that the govt decided to catch up on promotions for minorities and females so i kept losing out, did a remote assignment as a tech rep in the VN theater, but then all in my office got the same promo I did.  However, I was offered a job in a new office - which enabled me to acquire managerial positions along with operational experience too  and enabled me to retire making a really great salary.  I am now of course an OLD man, but I know my family will be taken care of even if I die tomorrow.  I retired here in Thailand knowing that my salary would enable me to do whatever I wanted and I still love it here.  I have family of course in the US and based on what they write, I have no plans to ever move back there.  My only foreign travel will be to visit my daughter going to college in Seoul on an exchange program with her university here in Bangkok.  But US passport holders do not even need a visa for Korea if the visit is under I think 30 days.  Easy in nd easy out.  Now with the LTR here for 9 more years, same story here  easy out and easy in.  Fortunately 99% of the people that were selected for my organization had weeded out most of the bad but I did help some leave earlier than they planned, but they were not fired but they no longer worked for my organization.  We of course had to do more every year but without any increase in numbers of employees nor budget and sometimes even those were cut.  Having to do the budget and congressional oversight briefings were sometimes not very pleasant but at least I got my point across and never had any negative repercussions.  I was able to work as hard as I did only with the support amd sacrifice of my family.  Great job to have and great rewards too.

On 3/22/2025 at 11:10 AM, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   I was just pointing out that Trump wouldn't have been responsible , you will have to blame it on Joe Biden 

Have to blame it on several of our leaders including Trump the first time.

On 3/21/2025 at 3:45 PM, Mike_Hunt said:

This all started in Jan 2025?

Started with the latest generations of educating them for the older economy and not the current one.  Many of them also did AI jobs and created machines that cost less than them so they lost their jobs too.  On top of that, O & Co. told all of them that they needed a college degree in order to get a good job so they got degrees in liberal arts or something along those lines but at the same time to  go to the colleges, they got HUGE loans which they cannot begin repaying yet as they didn't find any worthwhile jobs.  Houses which used to be the dream of all are now costing way beyond the salaries available.  Houses are only owned by the baby boomers nowadays.  Citizens in many of the large US cities are relocating to states without the high taxes so many places with high prices just remain unsold.  If empty, squatters will move in as there are so many homeless now throughout many of the states, especially those run by democrats.  

3 minutes ago, placeholder said:

As far as aluminum goes it's not an all clear that it will come from elsewhere. Canada enjoys huge reserves of cheap hydropower I looked into it not long ago and it's half the price of the lowest price electricity in the United States. And it takes huge amounts of electricity to make aluminum. So there's a good chance America will be getting the same aluminum just paying more for it.

 

well in other words the tariff won't work and as the analysts are predicting, joe citizen will end up paying for Trump's tariffs.  I don't think there will be too many manufacturers returning to the US anytime soon.  Like the Brits, the new business owners are moving to the middle east where they don't have to pay taxes instead of building a business at home.

Just now, jas007 said:

Maybe the tariffs will work and maybe they won't.  Right now, many people around the world are parroting the same line you are. Let's see what happens.  You had better hope Trump succeeds.  Otherwise, you had better hope you have a lot of gold and silver and can protect it from roving bands of gangsters.  It'll be a Mad Max world, for sure. 

1 minute ago, jas007 said:

Maybe the tariffs will work and maybe they won't.  Right now, many people around the world are parroting the same line you are. Let's see what happens.  You had better hope Trump succeeds.  Otherwise, you had better hope you have a lot of gold and silver and can protect it from roving bands of gangsters.  It'll be a Mad Max world, for sure. 

Yessir!  I am not even close to being any kind of financial/economic analyst so listen to what I have been hearing from many of them.  I also see ten of the largest US cities due to tax shortages have cut their police forces and can't find new policemen - this has resulted in more personal attacks so now those largest cities see hundreds of thousands of citizens fleeing to those states without high taxes.  I also note that like in England nowadays, the younger generations can't find a job that pays enough so that they can afford to buy a house and raise their families as it used to be.  Something has to be better as it can't get much worse. 

42 minutes ago, Hawaiian said:

Lowering reserves means more money to invest to increase profits.  Everything is fine until the economy takes a dive and investments go south.

oh you mean like today in the US?

2 hours ago, Hawaiian said:

What happens when the grandmas and grandpas can't pay their bills and turn to their children and grandchildren for survival?  There are more guns in America than people and they are not all owned  by young people.

Yeah remember, 30 percent of govt workers who are being terminated too are military veterans!  cut medicade and military vets suffering from agent orange and receiving medicade benefits aren't so in love with Trump anyway.   The current military are watching how the vets are being treated too so when told to go in harms way, some may not do so IMHO.  I too am a vet and I know how I feel about the number one draft dodger.

48 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

No. I have been visiting 3rd world, and poorer countries since I was 17. So, I accept the fact that this world has alot of poverty. 

 

648 million people in the world, about eight percent of the global population, live in extreme poverty, which means they subsist on less than US$2.15 per day.

 

Almost a quarter of the global population, 23 percent, lived below the US$3.65 poverty line, and almost half, 47 percent, lived below the US$6.85 poverty line, as reported in the 2022 Poverty and Shared Prosperity report. This also means that the global median income (US$7.60 per person per day) is very close to the UMIC line.

 

Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report.

 

About 3.4 bn people – just over 70% of the global adult population – have wealth of less than $10,000. 

yeah I had the opportunity to live for a while in a couple of African countries - in one, within the capital had citizens living in mud huts and the women/kids would walk many kilometers every morning to get water for that day for their family.  In the other, while I was jogging , I noticed hundreds of local paper money, along the sidewalks and side of the roads, some burned or scorched others whole.  I asked about that and was told that the value of that paper money meant that it was better used for heating during the night by burning it by the homeless.  Inside the capital was an enclave of some 25K people with no electricity, water, food, safety!  It did though have quite an odor.  Several times while jogging early AM, a guard might fire his pistol over my head and ask what was I running from?  Neither city was a pleasant place for a western family for sure.  For most of my generation in the US, life has been pretty nice and comfortable but now the younger generations are definitely suffering for the most part with no relief in site, and I guess that is why they climbed on the Trump wagon thinking that he would share his wealth with them.  Are they in for a rude awakening IMHO.

3 minutes ago, jas007 said:

Anyone who has ever worked for the government will tell you, if they're being honest, that most of the work is done by about 20% of the people.  30% more sort of work, and the other 50% could be gone tomorrow and no one would ever notice the difference. The question is: how to identify the people that are worthless?  Currently, they're protected by unions and civil service regulations.  So it's not so simple.  And yet some balked at having to reply to an email questioning what they did last week. 

I can remember a program about 40 years ago that was started in an agency of the US - they worked with EEO and other offices to come up with 10 different categories of negative work traits and decided that one would need to meet at least 3 before being terminated.  The first ten candidates meeting that criteria were ID'd, then the EEO said it wouldn't work as all ten were black so that program was terminated.  I was a civil servent for 40 years and in my particular office I met very very few that were not working diligently almost all the time.  When I became a manager/worker, all my people worked ALL the time or soon departed from my office.  BUT, I rewarded the strongest workers and as all employees noted that they all began doing extra and people lined up to come work in my office as it was one of the best producers but not always the top as competition and pride of accomplishment zoomed.  Job satisfaction and recognition by seniors made folks stronger!

1 hour ago, jas007 said:

Of course it's about the "value" of the dollar.  People aren't totally stupid.  But even you must admit, if you're honest, that the "value" of the dollar has decreased over time.  Nothing goes in a straight line, but that's the unmistakeable trend.  In recent memory, depending on how old people are, I'm sure there are people here who remember the America they grew up in.  The Post-WWII America and the great middle class that once was but that has now mostly disappeared, thanks to the politicians, the debt based banking system, and the Fed.  Before long, they'll own it all. That's the plan.  "You'll own nothing and you'll be happy."  Was that Klaus Schwab at the WEF? 

 

In the Post WWII US economy, A single man could graduate from high school, find a factory job in one day, and with the pay from that one job, buy a house in the suburbs, buy a car for the family, support a wife and a couple of kids, send those kids to college, and have money left over to save for retirement.  Try telling that to a kid today.  ""Work hard kid. Get a Job in a factory, save your money, and you too can live the American Dream." 

 

And yet there are problems with that scenario, no?  The factory jobs have largely disappeared. Saving money is a fools game because of inflation, and even if such a job could be found, it wouldn't pay enough to support a wife and a few kids, the kids could not afford to go to school, and, if they did get an education, they wouldn't be able to find a job when they graduated, and if they did find jobs, those jobs would pay peanuts.  

 

What happened to the value of the dollar? 

Look at England - every 45 minutes of the year 2024 a rich England family relocated to a non-tax country in the midedle east as the economy in Engl;and is like the US, the younger generations have lost out due to being educated for yesteryear's economy so can't find a job to enable them to buy a house nor raise a family comfortably.  Just like the US is becoming today too!