Rejoice elderly Farangs.

[Neeranam]

I only worked for 5 years in Europe yet will get a full pension from the UK in 12 years. Only costs me 6,000 baht a year. 

[The Hammer2021]

1 hour ago, The Cipher said:

It isn't something you would've had to worry about so much in the past (unless you were in the market for assets) as much as you might have to in the future.

 

But we just printed 40% of the money supply to save <1% of the population (seems proportionate lul). We're already seeing multi-decade high inflation and resource scarcity in many economies worldwide, and they're not even fully open yet. When velocity picks up, if supply chains haven't worked themselves out, we could quickly see a sustained inflationary spiral even higher.

 

Thailand participates in a global market for many of these resources (for example semiconductors and copper). It's inevitable that higher cost of inputs on world markets will eventually affect Thailand to some extent.

 

Adding to that, there is a major climate transition that needs to be funded. And we've barely started on all the funding that transition will entail (it's gonna be massive). And maybe we'll find some way to finance that transition besides more money printing, and maybe current inflation will be transitory, but...????

You think too much

[seedy]

2 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

World starvation levels are low.

On other measurements too, the year 2020 was sombre. Overall, more than 2.3 billion people (or 30 percent of the global population) lacked year-round access to adequate food: this indicator – known as the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity – leapt in one year as much in as the preceding five combined. Gender inequality deepened: for every 10 food-insecure men, there were 11 food-insecure women in 2020 (up from 10.6 in 2019).

https://www.who.int/news/item/12-07-2021-un-report-pandemic-year-marked-by-spike-in-world-hunger

[seedy]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Are not women just as guilty of profiting though producing nothing of worth?

Most rich men have rich wives, or at least wives living a wealthy lifestyle.

WOW - that is a Sexist statement.

You lost all your $$$ to your wife - Blame yourself for not looking after YOURSELF

All the women in the world are not to blame.

Producing nothing of worth - 555 !!!

[seedy]

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You overlook those from many other countries that fought and died on the allied side in those conflicts. Saying America was the MAIN protagonist would be acceptable, IMO.

pro·tag·o·nist

noun: protagonist; plural noun: protagonists

• the main figure or one of the most prominent figures in a real situation.

  "in this colonial struggle, the main protagonists were Great Britain and France"

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, The Cipher said:

Adding to that, there is a major climate transition that needs to be funded. And we've barely started on all the funding that transition will entail (it's gonna be massive). And maybe we'll find some way to finance that transition besides more money printing, and maybe current inflation will be transitory, but...

Some think the whole climate thing is just a scam, and no need to pay "massive" amounts to the usual people to make them even richer.

Inflation is already here, especially in building and fuel prices.

[The Hammer2021]

10 minutes ago, seedy said:

On other measurements too, the year 2020 was sombre. Overall, more than 2.3 billion people (or 30 percent of the global population) lacked year-round access to adequate food: this indicator – known as the prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity – leapt in one year as much in as the preceding five combined. Gender inequality deepened: for every 10 food-insecure men, there were 11 food-insecure women in 2020 (up from 10.6 in 2019).

https://www.who.int/news/item/12-07-2021-un-report-pandemic-year-marked-by-spike-in-world-hunger

Gender inequality is another WHO ideological false narrative.

[thaibeachlovers]

32 minutes ago, Oxx said:

I don't know your nationality, but if you're British or American there never was any real prospect of being invaded by the Nazis.  Hitler only wanted some living room (lebensraum) for the German people.  He highly respected the British and (until Britain entered the war) no animosity towards the country.  And America was simply too far away.

You apparently never learned about operation sealion.

[thaibeachlovers]

11 minutes ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Gender inequality is another WHO ideological false narrative.

Actually there is gender inequality where I live, but it's women that are dominant.

[rumak]

6 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

In addition to Twain's essays, just as a matter of curiosity, please do tell us how many times have you read Huck Finn? 

hmmm ,  not sure .    but i am sure that being a bit dyslexic ,  so many of the people i meet have me walking away and saying "  Phook Him ."

Edited October 22, 2021 by rumak

[Oxx]

30 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You apparently never learned about operation sealion.

Au contraire.  However, Operation Sealion was only planned (1940) after the UK had started hostilities against Germany (1939).  Had Churchill not been a blood-thirsty warmonger there would have been no Operation Sealion.

[JAS21]

Well I think Swissie is very much correct....definitely the Golden Generation.

 

When I started work, job easy to get. Did basically same job all my life ... enjoyed it. Had the  golden handshake when forty eight years old and Final Salary Pension Scheme when fifty. Then went doing the same work with another company for a few years  Really I don't see these offers coming around again and I'm not the only one saying that. Both my children also tell me the same. 

 

Came here about fifteen years ago when I was sixty. Just 'dropped out' ... no worries about anything...

 

Married, to who I sometimes refer to as 'my aging asian babe' some twenty years now.  

 

Here is the place to chill out and enjoy......................................at preset bashing that little white ball around in Chiang mai wih MrsJ.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, Oxx said:

Au contraire.  However, Operation Sealion was only planned (1940) after the UK had started hostilities against Germany (1939).  Had Churchill not been a blood-thirsty warmonger there would have been no Operation Sealion.

 

Do you consider the treaty with Poland to be invalid?

I'm glad Churchill was there to hold fast against Hitler. Without Britain there could have been no D Day.

 

BTW I'm no fan of Churchill the person.

 

However, as this is waaaay off topic I'll leave it there.

[Fat is a type of crazy]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Indeed we had it great, except for one fly in the proverbial ointment, we also saw woman become able to take our houses off us with the full blessing of the law. I lost my golden egg to an undeserving woman.

Not all baby boomers benefitted, or should I say that the ( ex ) wives did at the husband's expense.

 

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

But for the first time in history our wives could take all that from us.

I'll state the  obvious and note that in previous times it was unfair because women got nothing..in fact in some cases they were part of man's property. You are right though that , in an effort to balance the scale, they have got it wrong sometimes. Hard to see though why the women would be given more than half unless there were young kids in the mother's care. Maybe it's complicated if there's a house.

I saw you are with a bit of a hotty now Britman so a silver lining and all that. 

 

[Scott Tracy]

9 hours ago, tonray said:

We've exported our killing fields to the Middle East, Afghanistan, Africa. Pie in the sky view of the world.

Who needs world wars when a virus can kill nearly half as many people as world war 1?

[newnative]

     You make some good points.  However, I'm not sure I agree with your statement regarding 'our sons and daughters' envying us as they will not be part of any future golden generation.  I think, as with a lot of things, it depends.

    I am a baby boomer.  I, and my 5 siblings, and many other boomers. were lucky to have parents from 'The Greatest Generation'.  My parents grew up in the Great Depression and it never really left them. Their entire lives they were thrifty.  My Mom saved wrapping paper and bows--and a lot of other stuff--long after she had a need to; it was a running joke in our family at Christmas. "Save the bows!"  My Dad kept meticulous monthly expenditure records, accounting for just about every dime spent.

    I think with many of this generation, it was just in their nature, waste not, want not.  They were well-off in retirement and could have 'lived large', as they say, but they didn't.  My Dad often joked when we were growing up that he could have bought a new Cadillac every other year if they hadn't had 6 kids. (Always saying no regrets, though.)  But, with the kids all grown and plenty of money to actually buy a Cadillac, he never did.  A parade of Fords, Chevys, and finally Buicks suited just fine. 

    Now to my point.  Being thrifty, owning property, and investing wisely my parents left a fair amount to us kids--even split 6 ways.  Being boomers, and part of your 'golden generation', my siblings with children have both the money they have accumulated on their own and the money they have inherited from our parents.  They are all in their 60s and 70s and their kids will, at some point, likely be inheriting sizeable sums--with two generations of money passed down to them.  In my view, they're looking pretty 'golden', too.  

[allanos]

To the OP, I would say that 20/20 vision is easy enough with hindsight, prognosticating on the future, less-so!

 

As a boomer, I didn't, and haven't, found life to be all milk and honey, as he would suggest. Growing up in post-war, consumer-rationed England wasn't exactly a bed of roses for me and my family. And the subsequent journey has been immensely trying at times. These are the vagaries of life, so to speak.

 

Generation Z and Millennials, inculcated as they have been with all things internet related, digital natives so-called, including, but not limited to, crypto, nft's, and de-fi, definitely have a golden future ahead of them.

 

Many 20 year-olds are dollar millionaires many times over on the back of this. How many boomers could you have said that about, when they were 20+? Perhaps Swissie was a stand-alone example in this respect?

 

Nevertheless, I do thank the universe for my place in it, where and when I was born, and when I look at the existence of countless millions in Brazilian favelas, or the hard-scrabble daily life of those in Myanmar combing through jade tailings, those living in the slums of Mumbai or Bangladesh, and billions of others elsewhere. They have all drawn the $h*t end of the stick of life's game of chance!

 

Tell me why others like me shouldn't be thankful for our fortunate accident of birth?

[soalbundy]

12 hours ago, sirineou said:

Sense you have a crystal ball that allows you to see the future.

Lottery numbers please.

reading the tea leaves has not worked well for me so far. ????

The working generation now are worse off than their parents and due to demographics they will retire later and with a smaller pension. I worked in Germany most of my life and get a German pension, I was able to take early retirement at 57 and it is far more than my 34 year old German daughter earns and more than her architect husband takes home as I don't have to pay tax, so yes we are the golden generation.

[The Hammer2021]

2 hours ago, Oxx said:

Au contraire.  However, Operation Sealion was only planned (1940) after the UK had started hostilities against Germany (1939).  Had Churchill not been a blood-thirsty warmonger there would have been no Operation Sealion.

Nazi Propaganda

[wwest5829]

Ah, methinks your situation varies from my own. Not Swiss but American working middle class. My situation is more like making lemonade out of the comic lemon. You see, I cannot afford to retire in my own country on my $2400.00 USD a month retirement budget ($1320 of that from Social Security). OK, perhaps I might if residing in a rusting trailer in Florida or Arizona. Millions of Americans and others of the working middle class are retiring Baby Boomers who can have a better standard of living in a lower cost of living country. Compared to the USA, you can understand there are several that meet the economic need. I view it a symbiotic, spending my million baht a year benefits Thailand and my Thai family, I can get world class healthcare, a comfortable life, etc. The only real fly in the ointment is at age 74, with pre-existing conditions and an O-A Visa holder the health insurance requirements are not doable and so I must find alternatives.

[allanos]

Had Churchill not been a blood-thirsty warmonger there would have been no Operation Sealion.

 

Really? Your take on history leaves much to be desired!

 

With or without the "blood-thirsty warmonger", England was treaty-bound to come to Poland's aid when the Nazis contrived a "reason" to invade. And lebensraum had nothing much to do with it. They had entered into a separate agreement with Stalin to split up Poland, and give up the Baltic states to the USSR.

 

On the other hand, Hitler's perfidy was what cost him the "prize" of taking England through "Sealion". He just had to break his earlier pact with Russia, it was in his nature to be duplicitous, and he diversified his resources. Churchill knew this about the man, of course. It was the undoing of him, the Nazis, and, ultimately, Germany.

 

There is no doubt in my mind, arguably,  that England was in no fit shape to beat the far more professional Nazi military forces at this stage in 1940, but good fortune went its way. To be trite, the rest, as they say, is history!

[brianthainess]

12 hours ago, swissie said:

No major war in the northern hemisphere for 70 years

I have a complaint you don't seem to know where the equator is, unless they have moved Vietnam, Afghanistan etc etc. But I suppose it depends on your definition of Major I consider Vietnam a major war that saw their neighbouring countries decimated also.

[Colabamumbai]

13 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

70 years? 

 

Do you recall Pol Potty? 

 

Christmas Bombing? 

 

Carpet bombing? 

 

Apocalypse Now? 

 

Martin Sheen? 

All of them. 

[jesimps]

13 hours ago, GammaGlobulin said:

70 years? 

 

Do you recall Pol Potty? 

 

Christmas Bombing? 

 

Carpet bombing? 

 

Apocalypse Now? 

 

Martin Sheen? 

I must've dreamed that year I spent on active duty in the jungles of Borneo in the early sixties.

 

[Expat68]

Well said, I agree with you 100%

[Russell17au]

I definitely would not get in any vehicle driven by the OP because he does not know where the equator is located as every big conflict since WW2 has been in the Northern Hemisphere and I would like to hear him tell the families of the men that were with me in Vietnam that did not return home that it was not a major conflict.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Russell17au

[Expat68]

Well said, I agree with you 100%

[sirineou]

1 hour ago, soalbundy said:

The working generation now are worse off than their parents and due to demographics they will retire later and with a smaller pension. I worked in Germany most of my life and get a German pension, I was able to take early retirement at 57 and it is far more than my 34 year old German daughter earns and more than her architect husband takes home as I don't have to pay tax, so yes we are the golden generation.

I hear what you are saying , and have the same concerns about my daughter as you do, Though If she manages her life properly she will do OK, She is an only child, and stands to inherit a petty penny from Me, my ex-wife, and her grandmother 

The thing is that we dont know what the future will bring.

" In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward subsistence." 

And given the information he had at the time he was probably right. What he failed to consider was unforeseen consequences that can be either positive or negative.

 

Similar predictions  are made almost every decade. .

-We were going to run out of oil, Plunging the world in anarchy . It did not happen,because of the unforeseen consequences at the time of new forms of energy being developed, , new deposits and new extraction techniques developed. 

 

-Nuclear war was going to drive us into the stone age, Did not happen. (Yet)

etc. 

The point is that we don't have a crystal bowl . Let's hope  that development, some  we can't even begin to imagine and other that we can, will help our children have a life as good or better than ours.

I am optimistic. ????

[seedy]

33 minutes ago, sirineou said:

" In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus famously predicted that short-term gains in living standards would inevitably be undermined as human population growth outstripped food production, and thereby drive living standards back toward subsistence."

We can easily grow enuf food now to feed every person on the planet.

Problem lies that we are using valuable real estate to grow crops to grow meat for Western consumption

[Thingamabob]

A rather odd posting. I really don't need to be told how to live my life, or that everything today is better than it used to be. It isn't.