Jingthing

Exactly. It's not that they have reasonable demands unless people consider we want to murder you all and erase your nation reasonable.

You're conflating normal criticism with the genocidal River to the Sea chanters and people that refuse to unequivocally condemn the Hamas terrorist pogrom. Also if you don't acknowledge that self hating Jews exist then we come from different planets

I hope that isn't usually the case but self hating Jews definitely exist and sadly they are not particularly rare.

That does kind of contradict what I was told but perhaps I didn't frame the question well enough.

Correct. Only Pattaya and Sri Racha for now.

If not explicitly supporting and celebrating it most at least make excuses for it and condemning Hamas for doing their pogrom is uncommon in that crowd.

I miss a few US things. Some people of course and Ethiopian food for example. Yes I know they have it in Bangkok but I rarely go there.

Bait ignored.

If they're chanting River to the Sea and you go along with that, that's a shanda. Honestly I think your POV is tragically naive about what most current Free Palestine protesters have in mind for Israeli Jews including the peaceniks.

In the context of THIS topic it is a government pension. Why? Because retired expat destination nations that specifically require a government pension always accept it as that. Depending on the nation you might qualify for permanent residence based on your social security government pension with the current level accepted as secure lifetime income. Yes potentially social security benefits can be cut but that's academic if you've already qualified for permanent residence. Keep in mind this topic is not only about Thailand. Obviously Thailand income is based on current income and they don't specifically require income to be a government pension. Each country offering an expat retirement option obviously has specific rules. But again if they're requiring a government pension social security will always be accepted as a government pension whether it technically is or not. So assuming it's not for this topic that simply doesn't matter.

I call B.S. The vast majority of people don't have the skills to beat the S.S. payout. Also the S.S. payout excludes dead people of which there are very many at advanced ages. That said, the system is quite unfair to demographics of people (particularly black Americans) who statistically die earlier, meaning many more than average never even draw one penny.

In a word -- NO.

One reason If you find you need to leave in a hurry.

Old age social security is equivalent to a pension. A GOVERNMENT pension. Some lucky Americans also have PRIVATE pensions. Private pensions used to be more common but IRAs and 401ks were meant to replace them. On the expat angle its common for countries to have different rules for government vs. private pensions. Government pensions are seen as more secure for life. All expat destination countries correctly regard old age social security as a government pension.

Bingo. I wouldn't suggest retiring abroad with less than 1000 a month and some kind of getting settled emergency fund but 2000 a month would mean a much better level. Plus factoring in visas of course so not only about Thailand. There are many other options. That said a shocking percentage of Americans have no savings at all. So for those people even with income they might be stuck.

Live and learn. https://www.menshealth.com/health/a37808983/msg-racism-chinese-restaurant-syndrome/

He's says wrong. That has happened for sure but the overwhelming majority of such stories are from TOURISTS.

Your one side comment coming from you was hilarious! I see you're not posting in good faith.

Thai food could be quite healthy but in modern reality, usually isn't. Your doctor might have been talking about the herbs like galangal, which are really good. But they have to compete with all the salt, sugar, rancid oil, bacteria from poor storage in the hot sun, etc. However, MSG which is often used contrary to racist western myths, is perfectly fine.

Disgusting reply. Yes most of the time the stuff is flowing from Israel, When Hamas starts firing missiles and now the biggest slaughter of civilian Jews since the holocaust, then it is wartime. But you know that, so don't act stupid. Did you forget there is a border with Egypt? This has nothing to do with WW2 but typical antisemitic garbage equating Israel with Nazis.

No retirement visa. It is not a destination for retired expats.

No retirement visa. It is not a destination for retired expats.

They've been under blockade from both Israel and Egypt. I don't think Gaza has technically been under occupation. The government there is Hamas. They don't cooperate with Israel. Israel in peace time has been supplying Gaza with food, electricity, and water, but remind me why that is the responsibility of Israel to do indefinitely? Are the Arabs eternal helpless children? Can't they develop their own infrastructure instead of building terror tunnels with all the money they get pumped in?

I recall Japan pays out massively but not sure about the age required. Norway pays medical bills for expats. I don't have the link now but I recently saw an article which ranked national retirement systems and the U.S. ranked in the middle as average. Though I can see your angle is expat friendly retirement systems. That would be interesting to see a detailed report on that. About the U.S. age 62 thing. At that age you get reduced by 25 percent pay and that's in effect for life, so not as great as you might think. Full payout varies by birthday but is roughly 66. Wait until 70 and you get more.

I wouldn't drive there but if going by bus it's quite easy to identify risky areas. I like Mexico's residency offer in which depending on your wealth you can get permanent residence that's good for life upon one application. Or you can go for temp residency which leads to permanent in five years. I continue to believe that there are relatively safer places to live in Mexico.