badischer Barde

Alright... It is possible to stay both flexible and pay less than 10k per month by using a combination of long term hotel deals, last minute condo bookings, and staying in contact with former airbnb-hosts.

That still doesn't explain why it is so hard to rent month by month in a country where the law encourages you to do exactly that, and I guess it would be nice to find a solution before high season, as I'm pretty sure it will be much harder to cut deals when the good places get their rooms full at normal prices anyway.

Is there another reason than people being notoriously optimistic or bad at math? What's the idea here... "I rather turn down 10k for the next 30 days because there surely are enough people around the corner that will book at least 20 days, netting me... 11k?" In low season?!

Or.. "The condo is empty anyway, but 10k are not worth the hassle"?

Thanks for the idea. I normally don't do facebook, but unless there is a forum that does the same as the expat fb-group I guess I have to.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can't seem to find a good place to rent a condo for a month. It's either AirBnB and the like with expensive offers for daily rent, and very little discount for a whole month (around 15k), or renthub ond Co. with *much* better prices (6-8k), but a minimum lease of 6 months.

I'm looking for a 30m² condo 20th floor or higher with pool & gym, close to the Mall Bangkhae, and for less than 10.000 Baht/Month. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance

1 minute ago, mogandave said:

I said top 1%, not one percent

ignoring math now, too?

1% of 60 million is 600.000, no matter if it's the top 1%, the bottom 1%, or any 1% in the middle...

3 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Did your mother tell you life was fair?

No, but to try and make life a bit more fair if I can... why, what did your mother tell you?

3 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Is it fair for a german to make 100k a year and a Thai to make 30k?

certainly not. But still better as if the Thai would only make 10k..

5 minutes ago, mogandave said:

If you take what you claim Warren Buffet said as fact, clearly the rich are paying more at 21% than they were paying at 30%.

google it.. CNN interview 30.09.2011.

And yes.. but they also use more of the taxpaid infrastructure... just think of all the money we spent on rescuing their fortune after all the banks crashing..

Also.. what is wrong with the idea that the strong shoulders carry more weight?

8 minutes ago, mogandave said:

But you don’t really care about that, the important thing is that they are punished.

What exactly makes you think so?

Any rational reason, or is it just that TV told you everyone against capialism hates the rich, freedom and bald eagles?

10 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Still waiting for your recommendation on what is to be done.

Certainly:

1. Lower taxes on income from work lower than 100k
2. increase taxes on work income higher than 200k
3. increase taxes on effordless income
4. heavily increase taxes on effordless income higher than 200k, and even more for such income above 1M
5. reinstate a tax on great wealth
6. lower working hours until the labour-market is balanced again
7. fight tax havens
8. hire more tax inspectors to make sure tax fraud has not such a low risk
9. universities should be free, poor students should be be subsidized same as unemployed people
10. Encourage startups by assisting them with free tax- and bureaucracy councelling, ease of accounting rules and free health insurance, to give highly qualified people without a big inheritage the chance to build something up
11. fight tax evasion. Only international corps can do that, and it distorts competition
12. Make Cartells illegal, and
13. ..stop allowing big companies to privatize their profits, but socialize their losses. It's either free markets and individual responsibilities for all, or noone. Asking the poor to take responsibility for their own lifes, but bailing out big companies, banks and oligarchs is just hypocritical!
14. Also, I want a pony..

4 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

ignoring history.

 

But lets digress further and ignore Detroit and the failures of American capitialism in building an economic powerhouse that benfits the majority of its citizens, lets talk about the success of socialism...how about...Venezuela! 

 

Lets chat about your nation shall we? How well did Socialism work out for you guys between 1918 and 1945? Hows it going now? Now that Uncle Sammy is making you pay for your own defense? And the green agenda is groaning pocketbooks?

Ok, I see you like to ignore things. Like facts, but I guess that's the only way to stay right wing if you're not rich... But ok..., let's see:

Detroit: " Nobody could have saved a city so dependent on car manufacturing if all car manufacturers use NAFTA to simultaneously move 90% of the jobs to Mexico. " It was neoliberal politics that purged so many jobs from Detroit. That't why you want to ignore it?

American capitalism ..blabla:

Sorry, dude, if the three countries that might have had a chance to be a superpower during the 30s  (GB, Germany, Russia) destroy most of heir production capabilities, cities, *and* at the same time go into massive dept with the 4th potential superpower, the US, it's really not that hard to become an "economic powerhouse".

I know you like the story that it was capitalism, american workmanship, or gods blessing, but really it's pretty much only lack of attacks on the mainland...

Nazi-Germany: Honestly... rea.. no, wait.. one picture says more than a thousand words:

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1987.1125.8/

you can't go through life believing every name people give themselfs. The NSDAP was not socialist, and one of their first steps to poer was banning, and in many cases killing any communist they could find.

And "pay for our own defense"? Fine with me. Cant't see any advantage of hording american nukes here, or participate at the destabilisation and invasion of countries the US doesn't like.

Maybe we should ask rent for the US-drones using Rammstein to attack afghan weddings, hm?

20 minutes ago, mogandave said:

The rich in the US do pay higher taxes.

and here we go, ignoring Warren Buffett...

21 minutes ago, mogandave said:

So what needs to be done, government takeover of private industry?

..anything I said..

21 minutes ago, mogandave said:

In any event, lazy kids inheriting hundreds of millions is a tiny fraction the top 1% of taxpayers.

.. and being right for a change, but probably only by coincidence. Yes, they are. Like I said, we have around 150 Billionairs in Germany. 1% of the tax payers are roughly 600.000

Of course 150 is just a tiny fraction of 600.000, what's your point?

But even when the kid inheriting hundrets of millions is hard working, well adjusted, and incredibly polite... does that make it ok for him or her to get hundrets of millions without even paying taxes on it while others inherit nothing, simply based on luck?

And yes, I gathered you hate taxes. But still like police, streets and schools.

Maybe not schools...

2 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

Same in food courts and other fast(er) food establishments.

Yes, it's like that in most of the mall food courts in bkk, too. Certainly unfair to the people working there. I wonder if they have other perks, like better salary, or if the malls have a high turnover...

3 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

No offense dude but you are letting your inner Marx out.

non taken. Marx was an political and economical scientist and philosopher, like Milton Friedman. Where's the offense?

But if you're not a fan of Marx.. let's quote from the other end of the table:

"Actually, there’s been class warfare going on for the last 20 years, and my class has won. We’re the ones that have gotten our tax rates reduced dramatically.

If you look at the 400 highest taxpayers in the United States in 1992, the first year for figures, they averaged about $40 million of [income] per person. In the most recent year, they were $227 million per person — five for one. During that period, their taxes went down from 29 percent to 21 percent of income. So, if there’s class warfare, the rich class has won."

Warren Buffett

10 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Socialism is a system built and maintained by hate, envy, jealousy and control.

says who? McCarthy? Reagen? Rand? Bannon?

Trump is a president that was elected and stays in power thanks to hate, envy, jealousy and control... yes, sounds plausible. More plausible actually than connecting social and economical fairness to hate and envy.

What? Not even a Trump-fan? And I am no socialist. It just seems that the US-education system creates people believing that everything but dog-eat-dog is evil godless communism.

10 minutes ago, theguyfromanotherforum said:

You know what's insulting? A bunch of Americans who come to Thailand and impose their "culture".

really?

1. tipping is not "US-culture"
2. tipping helps a lot if you have a depressingly low income
3. and having enough money to save for university, and maybe go out once in a while as opposed to "barely able to afford food and housing" is not really seen as an insult by most people.

But I don't get this %-stuff, that seems to be an american thing. If I have dinner for 80 Baht 5% tip is ridiculous, then I tip 25%.

If I spent 3000 at a rooftop bar I don't see any reason why I should tip any more than 1%, unless the service was overwhelming.

(Or why I should tip at all.. a single american family that tips according to US-customs with prices like that of rooftop bars should be enough to make them top earners among waiters...)

Do they do any more work? Or are better at it? Eh.. sometimes. But unless they are I tip around 20, no matter the prices at the place..

40 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Incidentally, has Detroit historically been managed by left or right wing governments?

Well... it's the US, so you only have a right wing government, and a right wing government with really good PR..

But the question is silly, and you know that. Nobody could have saved a city so dependent on car manufacturing if all car manufacturers use NAFTA to simultaneously move 90% of the jobs to Mexico.

But hey... same here... Neoliberal Government lowering the taxes for the rich by 30%, subsidizes offshoring, but then points its finger to leftwing governed cities if they can't compensate higher unemployment with less money..

And of course its not leftwing governed cities that become poor, it's poor people electing left wing people to combat exploitation.

Rich people can vote conservative, why change a system you profit from?

25 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Detroit used to be the richest city in the world. It’s a crap-hole now rife with crime and poverty, but there is no one starving.

Ok, I guess you're right there. homelessnes, lack of medical care, poverty, all very likely, bcs we have the same (ok, minus the lack of medical care) here in cities like Detroit. But people starving might really be an exaggeration.

21 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Not sure I understand your question.

I never said I was rich, I just don’t hate the rich they way you seem to. I don’t think the government should take money from the rich and give it to me.

Let me ask you a question: How does asking that the very rich pay higher taxes - on money they never worked for, don't really need, and only have bcs they took it from poor people by reducing their salary or fireing them while making the rest take over their tasks - than ordinary people for their meager hard earned salary qualify as hating?

That's just basic fairness.

And why, if you're not rich, do you defend the privilegs of the rich so strongly?

It doesn't even make sense on an economical level. People inheriting hundreds of millions have no incentive to risk something, to work hard, to better themselfes, to innovate.

And people who have nothing do not have the means to study, to lean, or to build a startup.

So a system that tries to avoid both extremes, giving at least the young people similar chances to make something out of themself, should be beneficial to all.

Ok, to all but the oligarchs that profit from low taxes for the rich, cheap labour due to high unemployment, and don't really care for a collapsing public sector bcs they have private schools, private police, helicopters to avoid rundown streets...

But you say you're not one of them, so.. why?

5 minutes ago, mogandave said:

I was homeless for a few years, I don’t remember anyone starving. I do remember no one paying for food, we spent all our money on booze and dope.

Oh really... and still you believe you own all your fortune your hard work and good education? Years of booze and dope doesn't sound like hard work to me..

Maybe there was a little bit of good luck involved? You know, bcs I know a few scientists with Ph.D. that earn around 16k p.a., so hard work and good education does not really appear to be the key here

Just now, mogandave said:

So a company worth 100 million and a P/E of 20 has 5 million a year of earnings and the heirs have to come up with 25 million the first year.

Is that so in the US?

In Germany they don't have to pay anything (thanks to a neoliberal government and the lobbying of a few ultra rich oligarchs), but the constitutional court put a stop to this. Of course nobody is expected to pay 25% of a companies worth in one year. Pretty much the same as you don't have to pay your house in full as soon as you buy it. Nifty little invention called a loan, look into it.

9 minutes ago, mogandave said:

I’ve been to Detroit, I did not see anyone starving.

Strange... one of our important soccer-guys was in Doha and said pretty much the same about slave labour.

I'm guessing either this kind of people do not want to see what doesn't fit with their believes, or it is just hard to see from 5-star suites. But since I was never in Detroit I leave you the benefit of the doubt. Might be a true paradise there..

3 minutes ago, mogandave said:

How many times should one be taxed on their income?

I pay taxes on it when I earn it. If I invest it, I get taxed on the earnings. If save it and leave it to my kids, the government taxes it.

popular misconception. Inheritance tax is payed by your kids. You'll be dead and not paying any taxes anymore...

And capital gain is new income...complaining that you have to pay taxes on it "again" is like complaining that you have to pay taxes at all, because your customer has already paid taxes on the money he's paying you with...

Don't get me wrong... I wouldn't mind paying less taxes myself. But I also enjoy the civilisation I buy with it. Healthcare, Police, Schools, Research, Culture, Streets...

So yes.. taxes are ok. They should be more fair though. And that means higher on effordless income, and lower on money you work for.

1 minute ago, mogandave said:

If you take a healthy bite, how are the heirs able to keep the business going without selling it?

Oh waahh, waahh, cry me a river..

If anyone not from a rich family buys a business he has to pay 100% of its worth, and then earning the money he spent plus interest back in the following years. If he can't do that, it would have been better for anyone he didn't get (buy) this business at all.

Now you're telling me that the people inheriting a company cannot even earn the meager 25% inheritance tax?

Then maybe it would be better for everyone if they keep away from that company as far as possible...

10 minutes ago, mogandave said:

So a guy works his whole life, builds a profitable business, and when he dies, the government should be able come in, take it and redistribute it.

So a guy enjoys a luxurious life, never does anything but shopping or driving around in his Ferrari, then gets hundrets of millions inheritage, and pays much less tax per Dollar than all the other guys working hard for every cent?

And that is what you think is fair and good?

Correct?

edit: he's dead, Jim!

Government is not taking away the money that the guy earned by working hard all his life. He's dead. Can't take anything away from him anymore.

But they take a small portion of the money someone else gets without any efford or accomplishment of his own.

Money that most of us will not get at all.

If they think that is a big problem I'm sure I can find someone they can switch with..

5 minutes ago, mogandave said:

Where are they all hiding?

Detroit?

edit: jinx...

Population: 683,443
Median Income: $26,249
Unemployment Rate: 22.1%
Poverty Rate: 39.4%

I mean.. this might all be socialist propaganda the government feeds us in the EU, but.. people sleeping in their cars bcs they cant find (or afford) housing?

People without health insurance relying on the charity of free clinics?

Studies that say that the political interests of the poor have no representation whatsoever in government anymore, and those of the middle class still much less than their sheer numbers would suggest in any democratic system...

Not sure that's a good sign...

25 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Same same.

https://www.newcriterion.com/blogs/dispatch/socialism-as-a-hate-crime-9746

oh, that guy is something... confuses socialism with communism, political systems with economical systems, Nazis with communists... but what is to be expected from an alt right guy sitting in foundations dispensing munition manufactureres money to conservative think tanks and fighting minority rights...

Why this guy.. McCarthy and Ayn Rand not in style anymore?

May I suggest reading something from Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky or Martin Gilens & Benjamin I. Page to get out of your bubble?

(Don't bother asking me to move out of mine, I have the AfD here to butt heads with, they are pretty much the german Trumps, and the cDU, which is Republicans/alt right, they won't let me live in a bubble if i wanted to)

5 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

But a senior engineer who became a senior engineer just by putting in the time would earn much less than that.

... is a bit insulting, don't you think? No, unfortunately those are the salarie-ranges with many of german companies. It's worse with many small companies, and of course better if you work for, let's say Porsche. But they reliably have 200+ applicants for each job, so good luck with that.

9 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

Better in some parts of the USA, lots better in Silicon Valley.  I was working at a tech company but not in Silicon Valley and there were a handful of engineers/scientists who would be designated as “Fellows” or “Distinguished Engineers” and be able to pull in up to around $200K without having any supervisory responsibilities. 

Nice. US starting to sound pretty sweet... why "was working"? For a salary like that I'd stick around... no need to worry about accounting, taxes, labour laws and tariffs and whatnot for your own business if you can make a good living with just engineering..

18 minutes ago, suzannegoh said:

His figure of 120 Euros per year might be a little low for a senior engineer at a multinational company but he's not that far off.

hmm.. congratulations, 120k is in my experience a very, very nice salary for an engineer. Usually not even a head of department* makes that much, no to mention those following the expert-carreer path. Even at the highest peak the expert-carreer has to offer they will not earn six digits.

Usually you start with 40k, senior engineers maybe 60k, 70k if they are team leaders as well. Plus Boni. In Germany. In China it's worse, most of Europe as well.

Maybe better in the US?

*: And it seems that it becomes harder and harder to get promoted for an engineer. Usually they seem to prefer lawyers and economics mayors for anything above team leader nowadays. Understandable, as you do not need much engineering skills once you lead a department..

10 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

In Thailand I get more gratitude for a 20 baht tip, than I do in the US, for a $30 tip. Usually we leave 20-40 baht. It just does not mean much to us, but it means alot to them. It depends on the meal. Most are thrilled with that, as few Europeans and Thais like to leave a tip. Always nice to tip the maids, as they do not make much. I tip at restaurants unless 10% service is added. Food stalls would never expect a tip, and for you to be offended by them not accepting is just emotional baggage you need to shed quickly. 

Glad to see more people think like that. In my experience most food stalls do accept tips, but maybe that's because there I tip in the form of "keep the change". After all, a well handled food stall can make a turnover of 4k a day, leaving a profit of up to 2k. That's 4 times as much as a waitress makes..

And yes, good point about tipping the cleaning staff. ?

@ Nyezhov

Let me try an educated guess: You are a bit older, so grew up in a time where the economy was growing a bit more, and productivity was a bit lower, and everybody with a halfway decent education could get a well paying job.

Now you are retired, or comfortably holed up in the job you had for a very long time, or possibly started your own business with the money and experience you earned during your employment.

But neither did you have to search for a job in the last couple of years, nor do you know many people that did, so you assume it is still like that 20 years later, bcs things don't change.

So you're doing reasonably well, and quite naturally this means in your opinion that a system in which you are succesfull can't really be that bad.

It also means you don't have to study and analyze that system, bcs why.

That's all fine and dandy, but ignoring the facts that salaries stagnate, profits soar, international companies can avoid so much taxes, and manipulate laws so easily, that it becomes harder and harder for small and medium companies to compete with them. Might not hurt you anymore, but is somewhat annoying for anybody younger, especially those with a good education.

3 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

Socialists and Criminals 555

hahaha..

1.  I believe you mean communist, not socialist?
2. So a communist criminal is a communist (or "socialist" in your opinion), and a capitalist criminal is a criminal. I think I see your pattern
    

5 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

1. Humans, like any other animal, are biologically aquisitive.

2. Folks don't "deserve" to aquire what they want, they are entitled to aquire what they want.

3. Folks dont "deserve" to take other folks stuff. 

You do see that most of the aquisition of what people want is exactly that? To take other peoples stuff?

What you mean is: You are entitled to aquire what you want, but other people including the goverment have to leave your stuff alone, right?

That's ok, that' pretty much Friedman, Rand, and any neoliberal all over the world, so why wouldn't you?

Heh, and believe me, your tired neoliberal rethoric isn't really that exciting either. Just religion refusing to do a reality check once in a while.

9 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Until they all have the same amount. Take from me, give to thee

Hahaha, yes, that is the problem of.. I'm not even a socialist, but hope to one day get something resembling a social market economy. A lot of people think they are rich, and fight tooth and nail to defend the privilegs of the rich.

But as long as you work for the majority of your money, do not make more than 200k€ p.a. or so, you would profit from a social market system that does not privileges the ultra rich and capital income. I already explained how capitalism is a redistribution system from the poor to the rich. Since a social market economy is a good compromise, but not enough to stop this redistribution of wealth (socialism and communism might be enough, but have their own disadvantages) taxes are needed to counter this.

But like I said.. that doesn't mean taking from hard working surgeons and engineers to give to slackers and drug addicts as the ultra rich like to tell you through their private media, but taking from the ultra rich that avoid taxes wherever they can, but demand tax payers money as soon as their profits are at risk (Sub-prime-crisis, anyone?) and give to anyone that is actually working hard for their money.

You might have heard that the ultra rich have a significantly lower tax rate than most people working for their money?

Maybe even have read the Princeton Study

But yeah... capitalism is great.. if you're Scrooge McDuck or Jeff Bezos

9 hours ago, suzannegoh said:

The type of socialism that most Europeans advocate does not require that everyone earn the same amount but that those that earn more get taxed at a very high rate.

Yes and no. The left wing people are not a homogenous mass. Some think that way, but most, like me, believe that we need much higher taxes on effordless income like inheritage and capital income, higher taxes on very high income from work (1 million+), slightly higher or slightly lower (depending on who you ask) tax on high income (100.000 and above), and lower tax on everything below that.

Bcs in my experience, the people who actually drive the development, the scientists and engineers, that spent many years studying without earning anything, and that now are responsible for 95% of all new developments, are earning between 20.000 and 120.000 €, and those should be encouraged. So having people who design autonomous cars or new cancer drugs for 60k pay the same taxe rate as people making 400.000 for *telling* other people to design autonomous cars or new cancer drugs doesn't seem the smartest thing to do. Not to mention unfair..

That, btw is the region that hard work and intelligence can get you to. 20k to 120k. For everything above connections, sociopathy, luck and charisma (or maybe manipulation skills) are disproportionally more helpful.

But most importantly, we need a tax on great wealth. And don't kid yourself. That does very likely not concern you. Great wealth is not the million or two you might have, in addition to a second and third house you can rent out. Great wealth is the one billion or more that 150 germans own. Maybe the 50+ million that another 20.000 Germans have. (For the US, multiply by 5 or so..)

20 hours ago, Nyezhov said:

Cream always rises to the top

Yes... like Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Treviño Morales, Al Capone, Caligula, Nero...

or..

history - and everything else - is written by those on the top, making them "the cream" by default.

But yes.. you keep believing in your mystical lactose-infused alchemy, I stick with having a critical eye on people who have more money than honest men can earn with honest work..