What's the Average Age Here?

[kokesaat]

9 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Certainly explains the majority position on crypto. ????  

That would be......wiser?

[GarryP]

I'll take that. 

[GarryP]

1 minute ago, kokesaat said:

That would be......wiser?

I refuse to go down that rabbit hole. ???? Make of it what you wish. 

[Neeranam]

16 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Certainly explains the majority position on crypto. ????  

I was thinking that when I wrote it ????

[Boomer6969]

19 hours ago, rattlesnake said:

This is a macro-level observation and nobody should take it personally. My own dad (who falls into the category described above) agrees with me and says he could not have done half the things he did if he was my age.

Most of my career I enjoyed terrific working conditions and remunerations packages, and I am still benefitting from it. But I did it all by myself by accepted jobs, while I was studying, that no one from your generation would accept. 

 

My "macro level observation, and nobody should take it personally" is that your generation is slow to get off their butts, and then blame the current context for it.

[rattlesnake]

49 minutes ago, Boomer6969 said:

Most of my career I enjoyed terrific working conditions and remunerations packages, and I am still benefitting from it. But I did it all by myself by accepted jobs, while I was studying, that no one from your generation would accept. 

 

My "macro level observation, and nobody should take it personally" is that your generation is slow to get off their butts, and then blame the current context for it.

I agree that lots of youngsters are lazy and ignorant.

 

Personally I have done pretty well, essentially through hard work so I think you and I are on the same page on that one. It is still doable but I think the current ultra-liberal system produces 10% of winners and 90% of losers.

 

Do you think that you would have enjoyed the same success in life if you had been born 30 years later?

[Boomer6969]

4 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

Do you think that you would have enjoyed the same success in life if you had been born 30 years later?

Who could say so? But on the other hand I could have done better.

[rattlesnake]

2 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Don't take this personally but it sounds  like a good excuse for failure and non achievement.

Boomer is an American thing. In most of the UK we had poverty, unemployment and even in the early  70s bomb sites from  WW2 were common. The only thing that helped us survive the miserable 60s and  70s was music and drugs.

I think what defines political awareness is being able to take a step back and see the big picture, regardless of one's personal situation.

 

I have done fairly well for myself but that does not prevent me from observing the downwards spiral in which most of the Western world is caught, most people my age have between 0 and 1 child because it is materially impossible to have more, couples spend most of their time working underpaid jobs and struggle to eat decent food, this was not the case for our parents.

Edited June 29, 2022 by rattlesnake

[emeraldruby]

11 hours ago, BritManToo said:

This forum has always been for retired men with pensions.

And a few younger teachers scrabbling around for enough money to stay here.

As far as I can see nothing has changed.

There are forums for Teachers looking for work in Thailand but it's not this one.  Dave's *** Cafe used to be big, TEFL dot  com but not here.  As for pensioners it never occurred  to me. The only people I know who  visit here  regularly are well paid, often expats but I guess pensioners might use  this forum but the subject of pensions is not that frequent.  What do you think the most common subject is?

[emeraldruby]

12 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

I think what defines political awareness is being able to take a step back and see the big picture, regardless of one's personal situation.

 

I have done fairly well for myself but that does not prevent me from observing the downwards spiral in which most of the Western world is caught, most people my age have between 0 and 1 child because it is materially impossible to have more, couples spend most of their time working underpaid jobs and struggle to eat decent food, this was not the case for our parents.

You assume  having children  is desirable and that quantity of children is an indication of wealth. But it isn't in wealthy  educated societies. 

I see the current  growing generation- I'm looking at 8 to 18 years old  as the most secure, wealthy,  best dressed, plump easy life generation ever, in the UK. Covid was a rare blast  of reality for then. The first challenge  they had  ever experienced. 

[Gottfrid]

If looking at the deluded comments that mostly seems to be at the senile stage, then I would guess that the median age on this forum is about 105

 

[rattlesnake]

2 minutes ago, emeraldruby said:

You assume  having children  is desirable and that quantity of children is an indication of wealth. But it isn't in wealthy  educated societies. 

I see the current  growing generation- I'm looking at 8 to 18 years old  as the most secure, wealthy,  best dressed, plump easy life generation ever, in the UK. Covid was a rare blast  of reality for then. The first challenge  they had  ever experienced. 

"Wealthy, educated societies": you mean Western societies, I presume? This is a myth, the vast majority of people of working age are neither wealthy nor educated in these countries. They don't have kids because they can't afford it and can't be bothered, which is a clear sign of decline IMHO.

 

8-18 years old is not a relevant age bracket. Let's see what they are up to when they are in their 30's. The fact that they are idle does not mean they will lead fulfilling lives, quite the contrary, as you pointed out they are unable to manage hardship which is part of the problem.

[emeraldruby]

15 minutes ago, rattlesnake said:

"Wealthy, educated societies": you mean Western societies, I presume? This is a myth, the vast majority of people of working age are neither wealthy nor educated in these countries. They don't have kids because they can't afford it and can't be bothered, which is a clear sign of decline IMHO.

 

8-18 years old is not a relevant age bracket. Let's see what they are up to when they are in their 30's. The fact that they are idle does not mean they will lead fulfilling lives, quite the contrary, as you pointed out they are unable to manage hardship which is part of the problem.

Wealthy and educated compared  to previous  generations.

Not just families  but the nation

No I do not mean white western  societies.

Specifically in any continent including Africa where education leads to wealth the birth  rate  goes down.

IDLE?! I did not say idle! They are well educated, hardworking and jobs  are easy to find. I suggested the only real challenge  had been covid-19.   An existential challenge. Life was so much more difficult for my generation between 8 to 18. I don't resent the ease of life of the  current  generation. But the difference in wealth, opportunity,  travel, free time is STAGGERING compared to my generation. It's the lack of discipline generated by hardship that is their problem. The current  generation  have 'play dates' but we went out to play. to explore our neighborhood and by extension, the world and ourselves. 

[Neeranam]

49 minutes ago, emeraldruby said:

There are forums for Teachers looking for work in Thailand but it's not this one.  Dave's *** Cafe used to be big, TEFL dot  com but not here.  As for pensioners it never occurred  to me. The only people I know who  visit here  regularly are well paid, often expats but I guess pensioners might use  this forum but the subject of pensions is not that frequent.  What do you think the most common subject is?

ajarn.com was the big one

 

transferring pensions with transferwise is the hot topic and how to get a retirement visa

[emeraldruby]

5 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

ajarn.com was the big one

 

transferring pensions with transferwise is the hot topic and how to get a retirement visa

ajarn...yes! As for wise I didn't know about the pension  issue but retirement  visas are for people  of 50+ but pensions in UK don't start till 67. But I take your point and see there is a section dedicated  to it.

[Neeranam]

I remember back in the early days, my fiend, who's nickname is strawberry was 67 and posted a lot. Now, he is 85 and never posts. Anyone remember him?

 

[GammaGlobulin]

Prime, did you say?

 

 

 

We will always be TV girls.

First, last, and always.

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by GammaGlobulin

[superal]

9 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

If looking at the deluded comments that mostly seems to be at the senile stage, then I would guess that the median age on this forum is about 105

 

Including yourself ?

[superal]

12 hours ago, Neeranam said:

Are you sure that you got the numbers the right way round and it was 83 cos you double posted the 

 2 bottles of Sang Thip post . ????

12 hours ago, Neeranam said:

bo

 

[superal]

13 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

First came to Thailand in 1960 aged 20. Lived here permanently since 1983, apart from a spell of 6 years living and working in Taiwan. I would make only one observation, the nightlife was incomparably better/more fun in the 70s and 80s than anytime since. That is a fact, not an old man's rose-tinted memory. The relationship between foreigners and Thais was far friendlier in those days.

Bet you have some stories to tell . Did you keep a diary or photos ?

[Walker88]

On 6/28/2022 at 4:50 PM, rattlesnake said:

I am under the impression lots of this forum's users are boomers/pensioners, which at least partially explains my divergences of opinion with them (I am in my early 40's). They lived their most productive years in times of prosperity and were able to accumulate wealth and succeed in ways which are impossible nowadays.

This is a macro-level observation and nobody should take it personally. My own dad (who falls into the category described above) agrees with me and says he could not have done half the things he did if he was my age.

"I'm not young enough to know everything"-----Oscar Wilde

 

As a student of history, I might add Dickens to Wilde and say "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"

 

The poster I quote, who seems to base his view on what his dad remembers (Nostalgia ain't what it used to be---Yogi Berra), might not be a student of history. Another poster noted getting drafted for Vietnam, in order to 'go fight for our freedom', which was not only a silly lie, but gave the draftee an opportunity to either die horribly or watch others die horribly. That seems a tad worse than the dilemma young people face today, which is failing to get enough "LIKES" on their TikTok vid. Youth today also beef about the difficulty of making money, all while boasting of how much they made trading crypto. They moan about climate change all while accumulating the most energy wasteful new invention since the 60' Cigarette speedboat or the Hummer. Five percent mortgage rates leave them sleepless, but if I take a look at the historical Yield Curve and interest rates, I see that around 1980-81 mortgage rates were 15%. (Asset prices eventually adjust to ability for the marginal buyer to service debt).

 

I'm not in my 20s, though I'd like to be so long as I could keep both the modicum of wisdom I might have gained along with the not-so-miniscule wealth. What would turn me away from being 20s again is that their lives are so banal and pedestrian. All the heavy lifting has been done by those who came before, back when people in their 20s produced everything from calculus to Relativity Theory to the PC. Today's young, collectively, have done absolutely nothing but beef about the world "OK, Boomer" left them. Silly. Blind. Willfully ignorant.

 

There are folks here who have grandparents or maybe even parents who went through, inter alia, WWI, the Spanish Flu, The Great Depression, WWII, the Korean War, Polio and iron lungs, lack of antibiotics, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Stagflation, etc. EVERYBODY who ever lived was born into a challenge not of their own making. That is life. Some first complain, then 'lift themselves up by their bootstraps' and go about trying to make things better. Today is worse than those eras?  Hardly.

 

Millennials, gawd bless'em, somehow are of the belief that they DESERVE to have been born in a perfect world, where they can wallow away existence making TikTok vids and then sitting back waiting for LIKES. Their goal (some Polls put the figure as high as 60%) is to be an "Influencer", whatever the heck that really is. Millennials are entitled and demanding, yet have next to no skills to go along with their lack of desire to learn. Apprentice in something? Please, "we already know more than you", which is, of course, a childish fantasy of a pampered and weak mind.

 

At every time in human history there have been obstacles to success and challenges to overcome. At the same time, there are also opportunities if one takes an objective, non-woe-is-me look at the world. Relatively speaking, today is probably easier to make a go of life than most times since we stormed out of Oldavai Gorge or ate the apple. The difference is that---from my observation---each generation is becoming weaker and more snowflake-ish, unable to even find their bootstraps. Life has become too easy, and in one sense that is a shame, because the real joy in life---in my opinion---comes from steeling one's self up, taking on challenges, and seeing if one has what it takes to succeed. Perfection is likely wildly overrated. Putting one's self to the test in whatever circumstances exist when one comes of age is what will give a life meaning.

 

Perhaps we're in the midst of a long cycle, kind of like the period after the fall of Rome, where much knowledge was forgotten and those made weak by the successes that came before them couldn't continue to move the species forward. History once gave that period a name: The Dark Ages. Maybe we've reached that point of weakness again, albeit falling from a much higher level than the Romans. Maybe we're headed into, or have already entered, Dark Ages 2.0.

 

OK, Millennials?

 

Edited June 30, 2022 by Walker88

[Thujone]

On 6/29/2022 at 8:07 AM, vandeventer said:

The real question should be, what's your mental age? Be honest? this test might tell you something?

https://www.arealme.com/mental/en/

I just took the test and apparently my mental age is 32, I'm over-worried, (though I've no idea what I'm over-worried about), and was born in 1990.

Curiously, 32 was one of my best ages, but I don't remember having a worry for any of it.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Thujone

[Gottfrid]

22 hours ago, superal said:

Including yourself ?

Surely it includes myself, but if I wasn´t included it would be 106 and a tad more crazy. ???? 

[sidgy]

22 hours ago, Walker88 said:

"I'm not young enough to know everything"-----Oscar Wilde

 

As a student of history, I might add Dickens to Wilde and say "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times"

 

The poster I quote, who seems to base his view on what his dad remembers (Nostalgia ain't what it used to be---Yogi Berra), might not be a student of history. Another poster noted getting drafted for Vietnam, in order to 'go fight for our freedom', which was not only a silly lie, but gave the draftee an opportunity to either die horribly or watch others die horribly. That seems a tad worse than the dilemma young people face today, which is failing to get enough "LIKES" on their TikTok vid. Youth today also beef about the difficulty of making money, all while boasting of how much they made trading crypto. They moan about climate change all while accumulating the most energy wasteful new invention since the 60' Cigarette speedboat or the Hummer. Five percent mortgage rates leave them sleepless, but if I take a look at the historical Yield Curve and interest rates, I see that around 1980-81 mortgage rates were 15%. (Asset prices eventually adjust to ability for the marginal buyer to service debt).

 

I'm not in my 20s, though I'd like to be so long as I could keep both the modicum of wisdom I might have gained along with the not-so-miniscule wealth. What would turn me away from being 20s again is that their lives are so banal and pedestrian. All the heavy lifting has been done by those who came before, back when people in their 20s produced everything from calculus to Relativity Theory to the PC. Today's young, collectively, have done absolutely nothing but beef about the world "OK, Boomer" left them. Silly. Blind. Willfully ignorant.

 

There are folks here who have grandparents or maybe even parents who went through, inter alia, WWI, the Spanish Flu, The Great Depression, WWII, the Korean War, Polio and iron lungs, lack of antibiotics, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Stagflation, etc. EVERYBODY who ever lived was born into a challenge not of their own making. That is life. Some first complain, then 'lift themselves up by their bootstraps' and go about trying to make things better. Today is worse than those eras?  Hardly.

 

Millennials, gawd bless'em, somehow are of the belief that they DESERVE to have been born in a perfect world, where they can wallow away existence making TikTok vids and then sitting back waiting for LIKES. Their goal (some Polls put the figure as high as 60%) is to be an "Influencer", whatever the heck that really is. Millennials are entitled and demanding, yet have next to no skills to go along with their lack of desire to learn. Apprentice in something? Please, "we already know more than you", which is, of course, a childish fantasy of a pampered and weak mind.

 

At every time in human history there have been obstacles to success and challenges to overcome. At the same time, there are also opportunities if one takes an objective, non-woe-is-me look at the world. Relatively speaking, today is probably easier to make a go of life than most times since we stormed out of Oldavai Gorge or ate the apple. The difference is that---from my observation---each generation is becoming weaker and more snowflake-ish, unable to even find their bootstraps. Life has become too easy, and in one sense that is a shame, because the real joy in life---in my opinion---comes from steeling one's self up, taking on challenges, and seeing if one has what it takes to succeed. Perfection is likely wildly overrated. Putting one's self to the test in whatever circumstances exist when one comes of age is what will give a life meaning.

 

Perhaps we're in the midst of a long cycle, kind of like the period after the fall of Rome, where much knowledge was forgotten and those made weak by the successes that came before them couldn't continue to move the species forward. History once gave that period a name: The Dark Ages. Maybe we've reached that point of weakness again, albeit falling from a much higher level than the Romans. Maybe we're headed into, or have already entered, Dark Ages 2.0.

 

OK, Millennials?

 

What he said

[Puwa]

53, first came at 24.  With breaks here and there, it's been 21 years residing in thailand, stretched out over 29 years. 

 

 

 

 

[StayinThailand2much]

On 6/29/2022 at 8:07 AM, vandeventer said:

The real question should be, what's your mental age? Be honest? this test might tell you something?

https://www.arealme.com/mental/en/

Just did it. Came out with 17 years below my actual age. Was hoping for more, but not into Tiktok and such...

[habuspasha]

Your Mental Age is:

31

(50 years younger)

 

I said my GF kept me under 50, not 50 years younger.  I think taking such a simple-minded test ought to add 20 years to your mental age; believing such results should add at least 30.

[William C F Pierce]

I'm 79 and still able to run and eff like a rabbit. Whilst I see men half my age already well and truly cream crackered. Age is only a mathematical dimension. Apologies to any US citizens (Yanks) who don't understand London English. 

[Fat is a type of crazy]

That average mental age thing asks fairly loaded questions. Do people say you are old, do you hang out with older people, are you a boring sod that stays at home.

It seems the average by country ranges from 25 in Portugal to 28 in Japan. So nearly everyone is mentally young. How nice. 

[Iamfalang]

Now NOBODY (OK, some people, but not nearly as many as before) thinks I'm in my 30's from looking at me.   So I'm definitely at a point where if I said I was 50 people would believe me.  40, some would.  45, most would.    I'm none of the aforementioned, but the numbers are going up.

 

My mental age since moving to Thailand has gone from 40 to 10.

 

that's nothing to be happy about.  lol