Adumbration

Pleas for help are just window dressing. This is how it will unfold. The companies will declare bankruptcy and default on all policies. The owners/directors will already have their capital offshore. When they are ready they will start up a new insurance entity.

These companies ARE the government or at least their cronies and family.

So under your alternative system it would be mandatory to sterilize a 20 year old lad who was born blind and is receiving a full disability pension?

As we all sit here whiling away our valuable hours typing piffle, lets not point the "pure sloth" finger too much.

You forgot to mention: If you are comfortable with nose picking and head lice.

Oh...back to Gazza the Brickie. I forgot to mention dental care. Australia has a pretty good free health system but it does not cover dental. Years ago I needed extensive root canal and crown work as well as some laminates. I got a written quote from my Dentist 17,723 dollars. I laughed in his face. The following week I arrived in Thong Lor and checked into a boutique hotel in the japanese quarter. I then had the work done at (hell I forget the name of the clinic) Anyway stellar job and all of the dentists and staff were female. The bill as I recall was under 3K. In the down time between root canals and crowns I visited Pattaya and spent the money I had saved on dental work.

Show off. It is 25 x the price of mine.

You have no idea how expensive property is in Australia. Many years back I had my own company and was working as a consultant in Knoxville East Tennesse. It was actually just after the GFC and there was whole streets there with every single house under foreclosure. Jingle mail was a big thing with everyone just walking away from their house and mailing the keys back to the banks. I remember clearly sitting in an office with about a dozen or so local workers. They were upper and middle management (degree educated). They were talking about the property market. I piped up and said in Australia the media house price is ....(I think back then it was circa 600K AUD or there abouts.) And to a man all of the guys there thought I was kidding or just flat out lying. I sat them around my monitor and then brought up the website realestate.com.au and browsed some sample properties in Sydney Melbourne and Brisbane. They were in utter disbelief. A house like the one you have posted within commuting distance of Sydney or Melbourne would cost well upwards of 1 million dollars. And the annual council rates would be circa 5-10K.

Ok Gazza is a divorced bricklayer with 2 kids. His wife ran off with an electrician because it is a better class of tradie. Gazza earns 72K pa before tax. So 2 kids 16% child support (assuming kids from same mother). Then payroll tax circa 25% on 72K. So lets say 43K after tax. Gazza cant work overtime because his tax rate would therefore go up and with child support on top he would get about 35cents on every dollar for his overtime. so... 42.5K less (on your figures) and annual costs: water 1k elect 1k gas 1k car 1K internet and phone 1.5K so 37K Gazza lost his house in divorce and can't afford to buy another because he hasn't got enough for 20% deposit. Median house price in most cities in Oz is now over 1 million. So he is renting a modest two bedroom bungalow in the burbs (has to have 2 bedrooms or kids are not allowed to stay with him during his custody allotments) Rent 500 per week so 25K pa so 12K Contractors licence to work as brickie 500 Tradies insurance 1k5 Payments on leased ute 12K So minus 2K a year remaining for Gazza to feed himself, cloth himself, pay for fuel, take care of the kids when he has them. Buy the kids christmas and birthday presents. And try to date some fat bushpig.... Am I missing anything.... Oh yeah health insurance or out of pockets if he gets sick....

Marriage is not a requisite for staying together. In fact, it has nothing to do with it....

Good luck with that...Do you honestly think the current rates are normal and they will not go up moving forward?

You should post the Quote "Value is irrelevant" under your avatar.

Why in the name of God would you get married in Thailand?

Ah...because they are not idiots... Warren Buffet is rich. Are you suggesting that he does not care about value?

So it is just about money huh? What about value for money?

Don't like liar's huh. Me either. Please explain your comment "WE" have lots of land....

I don't have kids but if I did I would want to home school. I bought a nice little house here in a tidy flower filled street in January this year. It is 2 minutes ride from a stunning beach. I paid 270K with the seller paying all tax and transfer costs. I have lived here now for nearly a year and it has been lovely with the exception of covid related issues. I have zero land rates. I have great town water (they just built a new pump station) with good pressure. I have a three stage filter and it works fine to produce drinking water from my town water supply. My last monthly water bill was 92 baht. My last power bill was 621 baht. The chanote is in my girlfriends name and I have a life usufruct stamped on the back of the deed in my name (cost was 75 baht at land office) My girl has a will at the ampur leaving the house to me if she dies. Where in Australia could I live 2 minutes from the beach with zero council rates and a freehold home that cost me about 12k AUD? This morning I went fishing and caught 6kg of fresh squid. The girls is just making tempura as I type...

You forgot to mention freedom....to do as you please....

Only flaw in your argument here is that the poor chap working in the building industry in Australia will be using 70% of his take home pay to service his mortgage. And of course he could also be paying child support at a (pre tax) rate of 32% for the first kid and 48% for the second. Rates 10-15k per year, electricity 2k per quarter, water 1k per quarter. Car registration and compulsory insurance 2K per year. And if Gazza the bricklayer wants a girl for the night well that is going to run him 1-2K as well. Oh and what if Gaz is a smoker....what is a pack of fags in Oz nowadays 50-60 dollars. I don't smoke but one of my Aussie expats mates does and yesterday he told me he buys black market malaysian smokes by the carton (10 packs..200 fags) for 300baht a carton.

This is a very very good point. It is now entirely impossible for anyone to buy a home in the western world without going into eye watering amounts of debt. Here a starter thai home (free standing not condo) can still be had circa 300K to 600K and can be bought with savings....not debt. And of course there are no holding costs for a house in Thailand. In Australia you now have to borrow 1 million plus dollars to buy a 3 bedroom brick bungalow that looks like a crack house. And then the council rates on that property and 10-15,000 dollars per year. So much for so called freehold.

I have three degrees. I know of at least a dozen of my fellow graduates that worked as escorts to put themselves through uni. One of them was a bloke.

Can anyone post a link to the companies that may go bankrupt. I am about to renew my yearly car insurance with AXA but happy to jump ship if they are at risk of going bust when omicron explodes next february.

It is a done deal. Just google some photos of him in his younger days and see who he used to hang out with.

The link below is to the Tri Band Amplifier that I purchased on Lazada during their 12/12 sale: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i338454620-s655746340.html?urlFlag=true&mp=1 There was a good discount I bought it for 2100 baht including delivery. It has passed customs in China and is currently on its way to Thailand. I should have it in the next few days as the delivery at this end is by Kerry and I have had good experience with that company. I will initially try the antenna mounted the top of my roof on the aluminium shaft from and old lawn trimmer (hopefully wont act like a lighting rod) If I need to go higher I will source another mast solution (maybe a nice piece of bamboo). I will report back on the results. The tri band will support all of the bands of the big 3....Dtac, True and AIS.

The results of this poll are utterly meaningless. There might be some utility if the title of the thread was: How many betrayed you and you found out?