thaibeachlovers

Entirely relevant. The amount of wealth a nation generates is X. If the rich 10% get 90% of X, that leaves the other 90% of the population to share 10% of X.

Will robotics change employment yes. You will no longer have menial repetitive jobs performed manually. However consider this. If machines were able to produce everything required for mankind, food, clothing, shelter, cars etc. NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO PURCHASE THEM BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT HAVE ANY INCOME SINCE THEY DIDN'T HAVE A JOB. I am 100% aware of that, and it could be utopia where no one needs to work to obtain all they need, but I suspect the rich will never give up their privileged life so all can live as well as they. Imagine a world where all can become poets, or artists, or musicians etc etc etc because they don't need to do a boring job to survive. I have a darker idea of what will happen with millions of exploited struggling to survive while the rich live in gated communities guarded by militarised private police forces. Perhaps it won't come to that- perhaps climate change will kill us all, or the war in Ukraine ( or the next one ) results in nuclear winter, or we just pollute ourselves to extinction.

And those roads, schools, and bridges that the public paid for, just where did they get the money to pay for those? To return to my childhood, all those were built and without any superstar rich people. Just by taxes of ordinary people. You are a classic example of class envy. Its funny, people applaud those who can dunk a basketball, throw a baseball, or stand on stage and sing. However let a person be successful in busines and they are evil personified when in fact without them society would crumble. LOL. I don't applaud professional sports people. The country of my youth had no such- all amateur, yet they were successful, and more deserving of praise than any overpaid professional chasing a ball around. If businessmen have a bad rep, it's because some deserve it. Evil personified, yes some are. The world is infinitely better off because of the contributions of Steve Jobs, Bill, Gates,........., Jeff Bezos, ............, Elon Musk Never heard of the two I deleted, but the remaining IMO are not as worthy as you think. The first two enabled social media, the most vile thing to ever happen to humanity IMO, Amazon is an example IMO of all that is bad about capitalism, and as for Musk, the less said the better. Even China recognizes the folly of "communism" and in 2020 created more billinaires than the rest of the world combined. Seriously? Those billionaires were created at the expense of the millions that became virtual sweat shop slaves, ruthlessly exploited to give the party elites a life of luxury, and you think that is a good thing! You do realise the peasants have no freedom, as we know it, don't you? Do you envy the farmer thrown off his land so apartments can be built for the wealthy? I'll leave it there, as continuing would be pointless. I doubt we could ever agree on anything.

I don't believe it. You can if you wish. Up to you.

It's nothing to do with "suddenly". They haven't been saving for years. Perhaps they thought low interest was going to last forever and over borrowed. Well chickens and roosting etc- the good times are gone and those that lived it but without a care for the future will suffer now. Nobody else's fault if they bought a house they can't afford, bought a car that was too expensive, went on too many overseas holidays, etc. Plenty of people saw the writing on the wall after the 2007 man made financial crisis, plain to see what inventing billions of $ out of nothing was going to create. If I knew inflation was just a matter of time, why didn't they? Perhaps too busy living it up to care.

Huh! The OP and the title say nothing about "professionals".

You miss the point that businesses will not be employing people in future- it's going to be AI/ robotics as prices of the machines reduces. Of course it's going to fail as if people are surviving on the misnamed "living wage" they won't be able to buy any of the things they are selling. However, greed blinds businessmen with starry eyed pursuit of greater profit and to hell with people. I might accept what you are saying except for the fact that the country I grew up in had more or less income parity, and virtually no unemployment. The state owned almost all the major industries and was in the business of training people for trades- uni was not the be all and end all that it is today- I didn't know anyone that went, despite it being free. Unfortunately, a rotten PM with a privatisation agenda ruined it and greed now reins supreme. Would I go back to then- absolutely.

I rate Key on the same level as Adhern. I was happy to see him go. Spending millions on a stupid flag referendum- waste of space IMO. However, even he wouldn't be as bad as Adhern. Now there's someone that has really vanished into oblivion. Haven't heard him mentioned for ages till you just did.

It's been mooted by everyone I know for ages now that her plan all along was to use the PM thing as a stepping stone to a post at the UN ( like another NZ ex PM )- "oh look at me, I was so loved by all, and I give great hugs". IMO being unpopular and soundly thrashed in the coming election wouldn't look good on the CV, so she got out before it really turned to the brown stuff. Soooo, IMO the question now is if she can get the big office at the UN before the truth comes out. I'm quite happy if she does follow Clarke into oblivion at the UN, so long as I don't get to see her on the news every time I watch it.

Sorry, I mistook "The numbers of tanks possibly to follow from NATO nations is is the many hundreds of Leopards, with a mass total of many thousands of Leopards ready to roll." as meaning that thousands were ready to roll into Ukraine. I could be wrong and all the nations with them are prepared to dispense with their own defense and send all they have to Ukraine, and spend billions re arming, but I doubt it. I'm going with the number at 80, as in the link i posted before.

Thank you for pointing that out. Indeed, if British children are going hungry, why are the parents not out demonstrating against any money for Ukraine? Use the "spare money" being spent on war, to pay for children's meals at school. I have no sympathy for any that don't demonstrate against paying for a war that is IMO nothing to do with Britain.

Tell us more about those thousands of Leopards being sent to Ukraine. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-military-technology-european-union-germany-611c4cddd142db39e44f4091a4d4adbc One big appeal of the German-made tanks are their sheer number: More than 2,000 have been deployed in over a dozen European countries and Canada. Overall, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann says over 3,500 units have been supplied to 19 countries. So, if we say 3,000 are battle ready, being optimistic, how many of them would be released for Ukraine, bearing in mind, countries have them for THEIR defense? Perhaps a more realistic number is https://www.politico.eu/article/allies-two-leopard-tank-battalions-ukraine-germany-olaf-scholz-nato-allies-volodymyr-zelenskyy-mark-rutte-spain-norway-joe-biden/ BERLIN — Germany and its European partners plan to “quickly” send two Leopard 2 tank battalions to Ukraine — suggesting about 80 vehicles — the government in Berlin announced Wednesday, adding that Germany would provide one company of 14 Leopard 2 A6 tanks “as a first step.”

That would be like all the US kids that moved to Canada in the 1960s to escape that war. Given they ain't refugees, they'll have to go back when their visas expire- not a good plan if that was their intention.

Golly, someone should tell the US that they don't need advanced flight training as any experienced pilot can be flying combat missions in 6 weeks, 555555555555555555555. I think the US will be somewhat reluctant to let 6 weekers fly their F16, which costs many millions of $, in combat. Quite apart from losing the plane, they don't want the Russians capturing one and reverse engineering it. If for some strange reason, 6 weekers were allowed to fly in combat, the Russians will be lovin' it.

Re the Victoria thing- I agree with you. The media is always bringing up the cases of "hungry children" and showing well fed children lurking around, opening cupboards to see the "paltry" food supplies only to see expensive canned food etc. Porridge isn't expensive, mince isn't expensive, I don't know about in the UK but here rice is cheap, potatoes are cheap, cabbage is cheap, carrots are cheap, peas are cheap, bread is not expensive unless buying the fancy brands, margarine isn't expensive. Don't need spiced food, don't need sauces ( gravy is cheap ), don't need to eat fancy recipes, don't need dessert, DEFINITELY don't need sugar, soft drinks, alcoholic drinks, sweets, cake etc. Don't need latest smart phone, kids don't need personal computers ( library books are cheap or free to read ), don't need to eat at restaurants, don't need to go away on holiday, don't need pay tv, don't need movies, don't need new clothes, don't need the soft bog roll, etc. Your grandparents would have been amazed at the life we live, and there is no "right" to live the way we used to when times were good. Want to have children, make sure you can pay for them- it's like people never heard of contraceptives. Life isn't fair, so allow for that, save when times are good, economize when they are bad. Don't expect other people to pay for your life choices, unless genuinely sick. In the UK people have that wonderful NHS. Try living where the Dr is too expensive to see, and one can't get one's heart meds without seeing a Dr.

given by the taxpayer. Fixed it for you.

LOL. Nothing except air is free. Where do you think the government gets the money from to give a credit?

The comments on this thread were concerning obese people, people too lazy to cook decent meals, people that pay large for ciggies and alcohol/ drugs, and yes tattoos. The comments are not about the professionals you reference. However, life isn't fair and if people think the good times are going to last forever, so hobble themselves with huge mortgages, expensive cars, overseas holidays etc, and didn't save for the rainy day, are we on here to blame for their predicament? I think not.

Follow the money. Peace isn't profitable for weapon manufacturers.

Convenience stores charge more for that food, so use the difference to take the bus, OR use a bike and get exercise as well.

Russia launches a nuke......where? what's the target? In Ukraine I would assume, and if the US decides to get involved directly in response, then it's WW3. Escalation only goes in one direction.

Obvious problem with that is a foreign civilian would be regarded as a mercenary, and they have none of the protections accorded soldiers. Better not get captured.

The benefit of having served is that one actually understands things like "training" and "logistics".

You beat me to it. I very much doubt 166 million actually gets spent on the beach.

The "furniture" wasn't on their property, it was in the public space. It's pointless making pavements in Pattaya as they just get occupied by the businesses behind them and one still has to walk in the traffic.