nigelforbes

News of the demise of cash in Thailand is greatly exaggerated. That said, we did take our first holiday in the UK in 2019 for many years. We hopped on a bus in Fleet Street and tried to pay for two tickets with a fiver and everyone stared at us as though we were escapees from the nut house......that was a shock.

No the law does not state that. The law states that a passport must be able to be produced within reasonable timescales.

Are you certain about this, it sounds very much like a pyramid scheme?

Unlike your brain which is clearly not!

If you spend money on your credit card that's called consumer spending, which is a part of the GDP calculation. Now comes the next part, which is separate from the previous part. You decide not to repay your credit card loan or perhaps you are unable to, that called consumer debt. The two halves are totally separate and different things. The GDP calculation doesn't care where your money came from to make the purchase whether you earned it, borrowed it stole it or printed the money yourself, the fact is you made a purchase, that's where the GDP calculation ends. This is the end of the story, there is no alternate ending, no sequel and there is no other version, as much as you must be desperately hoping by this time that's there's some sort of link that can be made....there isn't, all hope is lost. Goodbye.

You're too funny by far, consumer spending is not consumer debt, give it up will you!

No, let's instead agree that consumer debt is not part of GDP, it isn't. It's private debt and no matter how you try to argue otherwise, it never will be.

There several different ways to calculate GDP, the sum of everything purchased or the sum of everything that is sold, niether includes consumer debt levels.

The subject was the levels of government debt, not whether the debt was useful or appropriate, time to revert is the discussion.

I'm talking about government debt, government borrowings, NOT consumer debt ,which is something totally different. Thailand government debt is circa 60% of GDP, UK government debt is over 105% of GDP and the difference in GDP is around six times larger.

Let's compare those economies on the basis of debt shall we, then you'll really understand what the impact is? Western economies borrowings are huge plus they're headed for recession. Thailand's borrowing are still low and they have avoided recession.

I'm likely to remain wearing a mask forever or until they come up with preventative treatments that are effective, I'm 72. I was the most at risk because of age and pre-existing conditions yet I am the fittest with a good BMI and healthy diet. Those things showed up when the five of us compared severity, I win hands down, only the 19 year old beat me.

Flue and strep throat are NOT considered covid, they are different things, both of which carry very different risks and require different treatment. Plus there are two flu season in Thailand, one that coincides with the rainy season and one that coincides with winter. One originates with the flu virus from Austral/Asia, the other from the West. Flue is therefore a year round problem in Thailand but with periods of peak activity.

Complete nonsence, masking is very much needed to combat the influx of unmasked carriers. we caught it last week for the first time in 3.5 years.

We're just recovering from it and we rate the experience far far worse than a cold but I suppose everyones mileage will vary. Our 19 year old niece rated it as a severe cold but the older ones did not. And anyone needing antivirals, as we did, has to get them through the hospitals which is where the case loads are recorded before being recorded centrally..

Yes I agree. The point I made earlier which seems to have not been understood by some, is that the difference in the total number of fatalities between the US and the UK during WWII was relatively small. I personally feel that using absolute numbers is adequate and that trying to display them as percentages of this or that really doesn't add value to the fact. When a previous poster referred to the huge sacrifice made by the UK as being sufficient reason for the US to forgive the UK's war debt, I don't believe that relatively small difference supports the assertion that it is, because other countries also made huge sacrifices, including the US. The other aspect of course is that we end up debating the number of war dead versus the subject of the thread which is why is the UK struggling economically.

What did the Isle of White ever do to you, I like the IOW, put the Welsh somewhere else.

That'll teach him, he'll be shaking in his sandals, for sure. But seriously, when you've stopped fantasizing, tell us would you'd really do!

And I have repeatedly stated that the difference doesn't warrant the assertion! Move on.

Yes, and the statement still stands, the difference doesn't warrant the assertion.

Even if those numbers are assumed correct, the difference does not amount to the degree of sacrifice alluded to by the prior poster. And not to side track too far on this, per capita ratio is hardly relevant to the argument or the point.

Economics has at least some rules and consistency over time, charitable gestures have none, they don't debate well together.

The US suffered more fatalities in WWII than did the UK. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war

None. But the fact remains they weren't the cause of the UK entering the war in the first place and the UK decision to take on the debt.

Looking for hidden reasons why something happened, far too often obscures the obvious. The US didn't start the war, they responded favorably for assistance when asked, the intervened to help end the war, they responded with extremely highly favorable loan terms when asked....it's not unreasonable to expect the loan might be repaid. The US is hardly to blame for any of those things, neither is it to be blamed for the slow recovery of UK manufacturing. I know it's fun sometimes to bash the US for everything but really!