JensenZ

Waren Buffet has given away $48 billion to date and promised to give it all away when he dies. What does this have to do with tax deductions? If he can give away more due to tax deductions, that's a good thing.

There's just no way you will praise a mega rich person for their huge donations to charity? The richer they get, the more they can donate. They don't have to - they want to. I have no idea what you mean by "charities should not even exist"?

Yes, they actually do want the children. The more they have, the more likely some will survive and be able to support them when they are old. So it's a win-win. They enjoy more AND get more children.

Mega rich people donate more money to charity than any other people on earth. Just for starters look up Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. How many charities did you donate to this year? Warren Buffet promised to give away all his money before he dies.

Thank you for pointing out my two typos. I don't use a spell checker, but you better be sure to, so you don't make any mistakes of your own. You might want to set up your paragraphs correctly next time. Could that be considered ignorance?

LOL Right back at you - That was an incredible load of unintelligible garbage. Only one idea came out of it - you don't like mega rich people. That's a common theme when average people discuss them.

It proves nothing at all. If the Spanish didn't colonize Philippines nearly 500 years ago, the native population would not be using condoms or birth control pills, or having abortions. They would likely reproduce just like animals do - when the urge is there, they procreate. Before modern technology and medicine, disease prevented excess population growth, but it had nothing to do with birth control. The so called education that prevents excess population growth has actually endangered the stable population of many developed countries. China and Japan are in big trouble with a fast aging population. Most European countries are in the same boat. You worry too much.

You keep harping on about 8 billion people. Did you not know that most of the population growth is among the poor populations in poor countries. That automatically cancels out eduction as they are struggling to eat and survive. Now you're insulting poor people by calling them ignorant. There is no amount of money you could throw at the problem to fix it. It's unfixable. If you throw money at poor people, they will have even more children, because it's generational poverty that would take decades to change, even for the lucky ones. Elon Musks efforts to improve science and technology, even in the space sector, will help the world more than throwing money at poor populations.

For starters, I didn't come to Thailand to become a Buddhist or learn anything from them. I'm not even slightly interested in that religion. I'm an existential nihilist. It is not compulsory to be a Bhuddist if you live in Thailand. There are many other minority regions here. Let's see how happy you can be with no money for food or shelter and see how important money becomes. You cannot live on fresh air. Go and visit some slum areas in other countries and tell me how unimportant money is. Sure, if you lived in Bhuddist community, you might be supported if your money runs out, but in the end, someone has to pay for the food you eat. Money cannot ensure happiness, but it's better to be unhappy with money than without it. How do you know Elon Musk wants to make more money? If that was his only goal, then he wouldn't have wasted 44 billion on Twitter and devalued his Tesla stock in the process. It has cost him about $100 billion. $44 billion to buy Twitter, and more than $50 billion in lost Tesla stock value, this year. It's quite obvious he's looking for new hobbies. His wealth is clearly in the obscene category and making more is not his goal.

She is to blame. You need to choose your parents wisely.

We're not 8 billion people because of religion. We're 8 billion people because people choose to have children and enjoy the activity. In fact the fertility rate in most developed countries is below replacement rate. As you seem fine with abortion, perhaps you would prefer to have females sterilized at birth. In poor countires that don't allow abortion, like the Philippines, it would not have any impact on the population growth if it was legal. It might prevent the tragic death of some females who have back street abortions. The poor population would never be able to afford abortions performed in clinics. Btw, condoms and other birth control methods ARE legal in the Philippines. As for me, I'm not guilty of contributing to world population growth as I'm a devoted antinatalist.

Elon is Musk is not really an example of anything because he's one of a kind.

Money is everyone's master. Try living without it. It's impossible. Even so, I'm not envious of Elon's wealth but I am in awe of it.

Sorry - I thought you were worried about Elon. LOL. I'm even less worried about us. I'm happy to accept the lesser evil of free speech vs censorship by the tech industry. Unfortunately he is in a very vulnerable position if the other tech giants pull his app from the app store. There was talk that he could make his own phone, but that's not going to be very helpful as people aren't going to throw away their expensive phones to buy a new one, just to use one app. I think he'll end up negotiating with the tech giants and compromising. Did you mean "taking us to Mars"? If so, it doesn't really matter about getting to Mars or not. Either way, it's a bonus for rocket science and the advancement of space technology.

Part of being exceedingly rich is taking punts. He has been close to or even broke along the way. I know where he grew up - about 60km from my high school in South Africa, but he was in kindergarten when I finished high school. It's a hard place to grow up and it can toughen you up. Don't worry about Elon - he'll be just fine.

I'm in my 60's and yet to be vaxxed. I had 2 bouts of Covid, in 2020 (maybe twice) and in August this year. All I can say is that I've had much worse flues in the past when i was younger. It took 3 and 4 days to recover from both variants. It would be nice to go back to the days when people just got colds and flues without all the fear and panic. After nearly 3 years, Thais are still nearly all wearing masks.

I'm yet to see him suffering from becoming his own enemy. I think he's having a lot of fun. He's a self-made man and one who made his fortune by working hard and expects the same from his staff. Time will tell, but I'm certainly not going to concern myself over his welfare.

Everyone travels differently. There are a lot of tourists that stay in apartments for weeks or months and do regular shopping. Even if they stay in hotels, they'll pick up milk at the local store. When I travel myself, and stay in hotels, I buy milk at the local 7-11. In hotels they usually provide creamer - I prefer milk in my tea/coffee and I like to drink it straight too. 2L does not last long in my fridge.

It might make more sense when you understand how much money $199 billion is (this week's current estimated worth). If he lost $198 billion, he'd still have 1000 x $1 million. At some point, money loses its value if you have too much. He must have been getting a bit bored with Tesla and needed a new hobby. At what point does making more money become mundane. His wealth can fluctuate by 10's of billions in a day. It also suprises me how many people insult the intelligence of the world's richest person. They were really getting stuck into him during the cave rescue drama. It's nothing more than envy.

I stop at a number of different 7Elevens in my area, and I too noticed that the large 2L containers were in short supply. At first I thought it was the time of day/night that I was there, but then noticed the shortage on many occasions. Perhaps the flooding up north is responsible as pastures are under water.

Tourists do buy milk. In Pattaya, a large percentage of tourists live in apartments and buy groceries.

It doesn't matter what you post about, there's also some pod making dumb comments. This is the first time I've ever seen a post on milk in the 16 years I've been active here. Hardly a "main topic of conversation". To think you wasted time replying to a milk thread indicates how exciting your current retirement in Australia must be.

Of course I'm aware of general inflation and that prices will increase over time, and that rising energy costs are a big factor. The cost of energy was not a subject of my post. The statement you isolated from my post was taken out of context. My first thoughts when I walked into Friendship and observed the price of the milk at 112 baht (2L - plain milk) was whether or not this was a general price increase at all outlets. The price had already increased a few weeks earlier. The price of milk at Friendship has always been the same as it was everywhere else so it was a logical assumption that the price had increased by the same everywhere.

Everyone is getting worked up over Trump being reinsated on Twitter. He's never going to Tweet again... yet the people continue to panic. The big problem Musk faces is if Google and Apple pull the app. Then it's game over.

300 days of rain? You must live in a parallel, very wet universe.