WDSmart

Good! Lock him up!

I don't go to Bangkok much, no more than I have to, but near my home in the mountains of Phetchabun Province, I've seen a cobra that was at least ten feet long. And once, I was behind cars that were stopped to allow a python to cross the road, and it was longer than the two-lane road was wide.

Does this imply he would not cut a female's hair? Or, if he did, he would do it for free?

We should quit spending our money, time, and resources on space travel and focus all that on trying to clean up our own planet.

@spetersen: That should be no problem. Just bring in the required documents for an extension based on retirement, and they should proceed as normal. In my almost 20 years of living here, I've switched back and forth from using retirement to marriage and back to retirement on my visa.

I hope Thailand and everywhere else move to prohibit the sacrifice of live animals for any reason.

I'm sorry. I should have written "your home government's old-age pension payments." That's called "Social Security" in the USA, my home country.

If this becomes law, it will be most interesting to me to know if the same exemptions can be applied, like, for example, to your Social Security payments.

Individuals fail. Yes! And that's what capitalism is all about - the individual. Socialism is about the society. I often say the difference between capitalism and socialism is just the first letter in a two-letter word: "me" and "we."

I have sought out a life that I love living, and I do so every day.

ALL isn't required to validate the point you were trying to refute. I'm not sure what you're talking about. I have said I do take advantage of some public services here in Thailand and also some private services. When I go to the public hospital, I pay more as a non-citizen than a Thai pays. It's still cheaper than the private hospitals. And some services are only offered by the public hospital in the area in which I live.

I have gone there from time to time. It has some services that even the private hospitals do not have.

Living in Thailand as a non-citizen, I'm not allowed to access all their public services.

Gaza

But does capitalism always succeed? I don't think so. Look at the world today. It's full of super-wealthy and starving poor.

I don't know of any today. The closest I can think of was how the Native American Indian tribes were supposed to have been run - at least according to some stories about that.

No, not if they lived in a socialistic state. If they did live in such a state, there wouldn't be any private, capitalist-style hospitals.

see my quote above. i love your excuses here. well i could but it wont make a real difference to anyone ? really ? even if you had only a few hundred k... if you donated that to just 2 or 3 families it would drastically change their lives. you want society to adhere to your own moral code before you do. classic. Sure, donating my money to some specific person or family would help them, but it wouldn't help all society. That's what I'm saying. But if EVERYONE donated ALL their money to the state, that would definitely help society. I want society to care for EVERYONE, not just a few selected persons.

No, I could donate all my money to (where?), and it would not make any real difference to anyone. Now, if EVERYONE donated all their money to the state, and the state used it to provide social services, that would make quite a difference to everyone.

Would you be surprised to learn that the doctors who work in the private hospitals are the same ones who work in the public hospitals? All doctors are required to put in some time in the public hospitals. As I keep saying, Thailand has aspects of both the far right and socialism. Most countries do. What difference would it make as to where I decided to retire? I don't rely on the capitalistic aspects of the country anymore. I'm retired.

I did do that, but I became more aware of how wrong that was as I grew older. I once was a capitalist. Now, I am a socialist. And someday, I will probably become a communist.

It's not a "bad" system. It's a "public" system. It's a service provided to all citizens. If citizens don't want to wait and have money, they can go to a private hospital. Public hospitals are meant to be accessible to every citizen regardless of their ability to pay. That's the difference between capitalism and socialism.

Really so how does the state pay for those services? Show me 1 socialist state where there are no taxes or money The state doesn't "pay" for any services. It provides them through the actions of its citizens. I don't think any states are providing true socialism. Most states, including the USA and Thailand, have a Keynesian economy, which is a mix of capitalism and socialism. For example, in the USA, any service which is called a "public" service is socialistic. Examples are public schools, public libraries, public streets, public parks, etc. Capitalistic services are usually called "private" services. It's the percentages of the mix of capitalism and socialism that are typically the source of arguments.

Yes, they do. My Thai wife of 20 years has no private health insurance. She goes to the public hospital, or if we think it's necessary, she goes to the private hospital I go to. No other Thai in our small mountain village has private health insurance.

I so love this moronic statement, How does the state get the services that it provides? It takes from the citizens, And of course the more it takes the more those with the means to, leave so they are not taxed excessively. Just like WDSMart. So you support paying taxes on money you didn't get yet? IE Unrealized gains. In socialism, everyone contributes their services to the state, and the state then provides everyone with what they need (to the best of its ability). The state gets the services from its citizens. It doesn't "take" it. They "give" it. And yes, some citizens contribute more than others because they can. And some citizens don't contribute at all because they can't. There are no taxes or "money" (wages?).