onebir

3 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

No country that I have lived in or am aware of so far, is as limiting as Thailand. No country that is considered a third world country would consider forcing retirees to have $25,000 tied up in their banks, nor have them check in every 90 days our of the paranoia of immigration such as is here

China doesn't have a retirement visa. Marriage visas don't come with work permits. There's no visa free entry (for western countries). You can only apply for visas in your home country/country of residence.

So at least one developing country 'royally' surpasses Thailand for visa stinginess...

1 minute ago, RichardColeman said:

In a country of backhanders, I seriously doubt that.

And China isn't???

1 minute ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Then don't complain if you don't want to put in the effort to get permanent residency.

Wanting 'to do a job that doesn't suit you'; and 'wanting to get permanent residence' are equivalent?

3 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

Does ANYONE STILL believe foreign tourism and related spending is merely 9% of GDP? ANYONE??!!

Yes... you need to look up 'multiplier effects' which are large for employment intensive sectors (especially where productivity, or value added per employee, which is what gets counted in GDP, is low.).

2 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

PR is fairly easy if you are determined enough. Get a job, pay taxes for three years, learn to speak Thai and then apply for permanent residency. It's not rocket science.

That assumes someone wants/needs/is able to do a job (of the kind available to a foreigner in Thailand).

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Even if you used an agent at 15,000 a year, that 75k comes in 4,925,000 less than the silly option of buying a house or condo to get the same privilege. 

The agent option may disappear. (Until about 2006 it was possible to get 1 year 'business visas' for China, no questions asked, in HK. By 2008 6m was the maximum, and the price had doubled. Around the 2008 Olympics the visa agents started saying "meiyou".)

3 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

As the Chinese economy continues to suffer, we will see thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Chinese buying garbage Thai property. 

Or sellling, if they need to raise working capital to keep businesses going. Not sure how it'll net out.

15 minutes ago, teacherclaire said:

'Sign hanging on Thai border post'

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Smaller portions would take action to make their displeasure known: 22% of Biden supporters and 16% of Trump supporters said they would engage in street protests or even violence if their preferred candidate loses.

But what proportion of these also own enough ARs, ammo etc to make their own Rambo movie?

9 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

Taking the maximum figures quoted in the article for each period breakdown you get the following daily rates:

      Price           Days    Per Day

     

4,800	30	160.00
8,640	60	144.00
12,160	90	135.11
23,040	120	192.00
43,200	365	118.36

What have the insurers got against 120 day stayers?

Looks like the 23,040 figure should cover 180, not 120 days (~128/day).

23 minutes ago, Jaggg88 said:

I've always suspected the virus  SARS-CoV-2 is more prevalent in Thailand than the authorities admit but then it would appear the general populous do not go on to develop the disease Covid 19 or certainly not in any great numbers.

Since they've only done 14k tests/m population (159th of 197 countries reporting test counts) intensively tested quarantinees are basically the only sub-population they're going to get a decent picture of...

44 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

This ranking would be meaningless for a student whose mother tongue was other than English.

I'd suspect the ranking's also pretty accurate for native speakers of Category I-II languages that don't happen to be close to the target language. Not sure about others.

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

Would that be up to the age of 99, if so can you post the details.

Only up to 69 apparently:

https://safetywing.com/remote-health/pricing

(& much more expensive for 60+ ????)

13 hours ago, Morch said:

The Trump administration approach dodges the main issues, and seeks to create an atmosphere of progress, which supposedly will lead to...something.

I suspect this is a Netanyahu initiative, and that for him it's resolving something that has always been the "main issue" (other than avoiding ending up in jail for corruption). ie Arab enabling of Palestinian intransigence* combined with goading Palestinians into continued conflict with Israel**. This leaves the Palestinians with a far weaker bargaining position, which might just be a recipe for some kind peace. (Ironically, via a kind of anti-BDS delivered from the heart of the Arab world...)

*Itself enabled by Arab oil revenues which reduced energy intensity of GDP & US shale oil have already made somewhat irrelevant, and whose irrelevance will only increase as electrific/clean energy replacement progresses.

**eg by denying them citizenship & forcing them to live as refugees for decades.

11 minutes ago, richard_smith237 said:

So many ‘rubber based’ products here do not last in storage - I’ve always wondered what causes the degradation and always assumed it was related to the heat and humidity, oxygen and pollutants.... 

Heat, humidity &/ oxidation - something similar happens in middle eastern climates with hot humid summers even without much pollution. The rubber backing on some doormats deteriorates into black dust over a few years. 

34 minutes ago, nemo38 said:

I am never going to take an mRNA vaccine.

Has anyone seen an explanation of the supposed advantages of mRNA vaccines? (I'm wary of them too.)

35 minutes ago, nemo38 said:

I believe that Sweden exists and managed to get on with life without trashing their economy. 

New Zealand (with 25 deaths) has done far better than Sweden.

Quote

They shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, they knew not where

2 hours ago, dabhand said:

Reading the OP does help. Sorry.

First rule of TVF: never read the OP

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The OIC-endorsed COVID-19 insurance packages vary from 30 days to one year. The premium ranges from 1,600-4,800 Baht for 30 days of coverage; from 2,880-8,640 Baht for 60 days; from 3,840 – 12,160 Baht for 90 days; from 7,680 – 23,040 Baht for 120 days, and from 14,400 – 43,200 Baht for one year.

At leasr ~$40/m, for a very specific risk, cf Safetywing which is about the same for much broader coverage. Ripoff.

21 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

You can get them for your dog https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/22/neuticles-testicular-implants-for-dogs-have-made-gregg-miller-rich.html

 

 

neuticals, aka "not-the-dog's-***locks'