JensenZ

No thanks. I like it just where it is, and having used this office since 2006, I've never really had any problems with overcrowding. You have to go at the right time of the day/week. The current improvements are very good and make things a lot easier and quicker. Most expats only need to apply for an extension once a year, and reporting has always been quick and easy. Moving it to the East side of Sukhumvit is a bad idea as most of the "business" is from tourists who would have a problem getting to the East Side.

They are working on it. I don't think Amish clothing is much of a concern in France... From the BBC source article: Also, religion is not a race. People are far too quick to pull out the race card.

This might be the case in more recent life expectancy figures, but going back centuries the mortality rate wasn't considered in the statistics, but analysis of the bones of the deceased to determine their age of death so it's a fact they really didn't live long. If child mortality was included in the stats, the life expectency would have been very much lower than stated in the one study I posted. Here's an interesting study about life expectancy in Ancient Rome: Health and Disease in a Roman Walled City

It's not "religious peole" which makes the difference, but the specific religion and its teaching and rules. Thailand is very religious. We see it everywhere we go. Most of Asia is religious. The problem with the Philippines is specifically the Catholic religion, which considers masturbation and contraceptives to be evil. Having sexual relations = babies, and lots of them.

Eventually, after many decades and generations the original habitants will die out and new migrant populations will take over as the migrants from poorer countries have a much higher fertility rate than the original inbabitants. They get an education, become politicians and eventually start making the rules. They take full advantage of the Democratic process and social security systems in place in Europe.

If the social welfare systems collapse, or should I say when they do, we'll probably go back to the old days of history when life expectancy was short and there wasn't a problem looking after an elderly population which for the most part didn't exist. Mother Nature will take care of the 8 billion plus current population, but not necessarily in the way many might hope. Life Expectency through the ages They were talking about the life expectency of a better fed population, not the common folk.

The problem is the labour force. There are already too many government employees getting fat on bloated salaries. That doesn't help the economy.

It's the only way it can ever be. Changes are only made by politicians that are not going to be around much longer than 5 - 10 years. As you said, there is a long delay in how decisions made today will affect the future. The world will muddle through, one problem at a time. There are no people or organisations that can have any real effect on this global problem. All countries are too busy trying to solve day to day issues rather than worrying about what might happen 20 - 100 years in the future. Then of course there is no guarantee that any steps they take will produce the results they predict. A good example is the one-child policy of China, started in 1980. The pains caused by this have only recently started to be felt. The government officials that started the program are long gone.

Donor countries do very well too. The migrants send their money back home to support their families.

What a great idea. Let's get all the old folk working on farms and in factories. It will slow production but kill them off faster and reduce the size of the plus-60 population.

We're talking about a very new development in world history. We're talking about inverted population pyramids and how to deal with rapidly aging populations.

Why are you trying to shame tourists who are traveling on a low budget. Shame on you! They pay their airfare and accommodation. Low budget tourists are all over the planet. Should Thailand kick them out as they aren't spending enough? There are plenty of rich Indians too, but they probably don't come to Pattaya. If you've been in Pattaya for 20 years you'd know that Pattaya is generally a low budget tourist location that offers very good value for money. Maybe you need to sell your condo and move to a more upscale location where low budget tourists won't trouble you.

I have no idea what you're trying to explain. Please define "short", "medium" and "long" in the context of your reply. Just guessing, I would say my comment refers to a "medium-to-long" perspective. There will be a tremendous increase of migrants to take up the slack, but where from is the question. The Philippines with it's exponential birthrate and very young population will certainly be an important source.

Unless you needed to travel there was no coercion to be vaccinated in Thailand "as a Farang". I had no problems at all remaining unvaccinated. I did consider the possibility that they might force foreigners to be vaccinated in order to get visa extensions, but there was no reason to rush to it. We couldn't discuss the science on here or anywhere, because if we did, we would have been labelled conspiracy nuts, but there was plenty of good information available online if you had opened your mind to the possibility that vaccinations were not necessarily a good idea.

I read that Nigerians are the most educated migrants in the US, and Indian migrant families are the wealthiest. Thailand won't be importing "quality" migrants to prop up the labor force. They will be taking anyone they can get because the "quality" migrants that are educated and willing to work hard will not be interested in migrating to Thailand as there are much better options. I had a conversation with an Indian family recently who set up a new restuarant in Pattaya. They are planning on moving to Australia and Thailand is just a stepping stone. Quality migrants know where they want to go and it's not Thailand.

If it was, you wouldn't be here. If you want to live 3rd world, go to Africa and experience the real thing, then come back and assess Thailand. A low birthrate is actually a sign that Thailand is approaching developed nation status. Compare Thailand with the Philippines. The median age there is 24, nearly half of Thailand, and in the 1970's their populations and birthrates were similar. Now the Philippines has nearly 50 million more people than Thailand with over 117 million currently.

There's quite a bit of nonsense in the full ariticle. Here's a good example: Where has Professor Teera been the last 10 years? The young Thai population already live inside the virtual world with their heads buried deeply inside their social media apps during all waking hours. It's probably the main reason why they are not interested in procreating. The current population is something like 71,801,279. Someone has been sleeping. Thailand - population 2023

Everyone has a purpose - to keep eating and breathing until they can't. Most people chose the wrong parents and are poor, and it's always a struggle. Other people were lucky enough to have time to contemplate purpose and pretend there is more to life.

It doesn't matter what you do. It's all the same. Most people occupy their lives with surviving. You start when you're young - get an education, get a job, try to raise a family...and when you're older - pay for medical bills to keep you alive just a bit longer. It's a struggle from start to finish. It's the pretending that your life has purpose or struggling to give it more purpose that is absurd. What's the point? There's no score card you'll be carrying around once you've passed, unless you believe in reincarnation or eternal salvation. As for you specifically - I would not consider endless, pointless posting on AN a purposeful existence. It shows that you're struggling to find something to do - also a total waste of time and no better than doing nothing.

The concept of "wasting your life" is absurd. It doesn't matter how well you've lived your life, or what you've achieved. When it's over it matters not one iota what you did with it. Your life's achievements might matter to the living, but not to you.

LOL. I was going to use that term in my last reply, but resisted. I didn't want to excite the coffee connoisseurs and cop any more insults than necessary. I'm a cave man and enjoy instant coffee.

Yes, your answer was expected, but quite tame compared to many in these coffee threads. Taste is a personal experience. You enjoy what you enjoy and it doesn't need to be taught. We don't need an education.

I agree. I miss the smell... but I forgot about it until you just mentioned it LOL.

LOL! Nothing like a coffee thread to hear all the technical jargon coffee aficionados can come up with. I used to brew coffee until my machine broke, then went back to instant coffee. I found a brand I like and now I'm enjoying it more than my brewed coffee, or any special brews the coffee shops can provide. I'll probably get some reply about how my palate is not sophisticated. I can't drink the regular cheap instant coffee, but some brands I like very much. All that counts is that I enjoy my 2 - 4 cups a day. One of my favourites is to dissolve instant coffee in heated full cream milk. There are extra fat milk products available at the supermarket to make it even more creamy. I prefer that to any latte or cappuccino made by an expensive machine.

I wouldn't call "white person" a specific race. There are a wide assortment of "white" skin colours. Plenty of Asians have whiter skin that many Caucasian Westerners. The term "Farang" is quite vague and meaningless in a broader sense. We mustn't forget it's an informal term and shouldn't be taken too seriously.