Alternative countries to Thailand for retirement?

[Guest]

Thailand is now realigning its ally to China which is USA's arch enemy besides Russia

The difference is the USA is unlikely to ever colonise any of it's neighbours.

China is still in Tibet, tried to invade Vietnam in 1979 and is currently making all sorts of unreasonable claims for Pacific territory.

 

Who knows what they might do in the next 50 years ?  

[Guest colinr]

The difference is the USA is unlikely to ever colonise any of it's neighbours.

China is still in Tibet, tried to invade Vietnam in 1979 and is currently making all sorts of unreasonable claims for Pacific territory.

 

Who knows what they might do in the next 50 years ?  

 

The US doesn't need to colonise, it just removes governments, especially democratic ones,that it doesn't like and replaces them with more amenable dictatorships. Eg Guatemala, Iran, Chile etc etc. The China/Vietnam war was a minor affair compared with the American one. The US is the world's leading imperialist, while China's policy is not to interfere in other countries (Tibet not being another country from the Chinese point of view).

[firecat69]

What world do you live in? USA is the only reason that all of Europe did not fall to Hitler and then we are largely responsible for the growth of Economic Power by Germany as easily the strongest economy on the European continent. Oh and by the way the USA is largely responsible for the break up of the Soviet Union and the threat of its domination of Eastern Europe.

 

Oh and by the way Japan wanted to conquer the entire Asia Pacific region and again the only reason they were defeated was the USA.

 

 

And lets not forget that Japan and Europe and South Korea have prospered because we have provided the military might that protects them. They are spend nothing on their own military and the citizens of the USA pay for their safety.

 

 

I could go on and on. Without the USA the world would have been in continuous World Wars.

 

Along the way the USA has made lots of mistake also . See how the rest of the free world would do without the USA. It would not be pretty.

[witty]

We shall all speak Chinese :-)

[Guest]

colinr's analysis is hopeless.

 

However, I have to challenge a couple of Firecat's statements.

 

The US is not the main reason why Europe was not colonised by Hitler.  The Soviet Union and the 22 miles of water between the UK and France also had a lot more to do with it. 

The US didn't even join in until 2 years late, when the Japanese stupidly made sure they had to join.  

Had the Americans not joined in, I expect the end result in Europe would be Stalin occupying a lot more of the continent than he did.

Which is almost as unpalatable as Hitler.

 

Socialism is responsible for the break up of the Soviet Union, not the US.   Centrally planned Socialism ruins economies.

 

However, you are right about other countries benefiting from US military spending.

When the dollar is no longer the global reserve currency and the US is no longer a dominant or interested military power, it will be much worse for other democratic countries. 

In Europe, many countries are are too dumb to spend enough on their own defence & we have a thinly disguised faschist dictatorship in Russia.

If America disengages, we have a problem.    

Considering the higher population and stronger state of our economies, I would say perhaps Britain & Germany should have sufficient military power to beat Russia on our own.  

What are our governments thinking about ?

[firecat69]

I'm not sure if you phrased your argument wrong. GB and Germany together have 5% of the tanks and aircraft that Russia has. France has a bigger military then Germany in all respects and the 3 of them put together in a conventional War against Russia would last about 3 months.

 

You think Hitler overran Europe it would be much faster by Russia and they are not even the Soviet Union any longer.

 

Although it is true that Russia was a big reason that they lost WWII , that only happened because of the delayed entry by the Americans which meant Hitler think he could win a 2 front war.

 

The Russians beat the Germans on that front with humans dying by the millions, not with armor or aircraft. If the USA had not entered the War , Hitler the maniac just may have won on 2 fronts.

 

 

But anyone that does not think the USA is the only force for good that stands in the way of Russia and in the future China etc etc etc, only needs to look at this chart and realize how defenseless Europe, Japan, South Korea etc etc etc are.

 

http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=United-States-of-America

[Guest abang1961]

We shall all speak Chinese :-)

That is a good insight.

The rising of China and Chinese-speaking people cannot be ignored.

The economy may slow down but that doesn't bother us much....

 

I was in Gulin/Yangshuo back in Aug 2011 (when I was 50 years old).

Really, this is a good place to retire.

There is a river, lots of mountains to venture.

Prices of food is dirt-cheap and the pace of life - very slow but bearable.

[firecat69]

Photos look like the pollution will kill you and I'm sure it is much worse now.

[Guest abang1961]

Oops, ,this is a world heritage site and there is no industry, except the tourism industry.

I took those pics around 6 pm and the sky was overcast/greyish.

Most importantly, the pics were taken 5 years ago with an iPhone 1 or 2... before technology improves to today's standard.

[firecat69]

Some great photos on Trip Advisor. It looks beautiful.

[Guest colinr]

My remarks above were just to point out that the US can and does behave imperialistically without turning the victims into colonies, whereas the Chinese currently have a non-imperialist policy (though we don’t know whether they will stick to it in the future). The preceding post seemed a bit unbalanced.  Subsequent comments are all about completely different topics. I don’t mind if people find my conclusions hopeless, but maybe they should read what I said first. The examples I gave are historical facts.

[Guest abang1961]

When I was there many years ago, the tallest building had 5 to 6 storeys.

I cannot qualify it as of now because who knows, in the STUPID context of urbanisation, condos may mushroom...

 

Food price in 2011...

A box of rice with a generous amount of deboned duck meat was only RMB 8 to 10... a bowl of herbal soup was RMB 5 then.. prices too may have escalated over the years.

[Guest]

Other than missing what was implied in my post, I pretty much agree with your entire analysis.

I'm not sure if you phrased your argument wrong. GB and Germany together have 5% of the tanks and aircraft that Russia has. France has a bigger military then Germany in all respects and the 3 of them put together in a conventional War against Russia would last about 3 months.

I stated we have a problem if America disengages.
I said Britain and Germany SHOULD be able to beat Russia.
Followed by "What are our governments thinking of ?", obviously because we are nowhere near being able to see off the Russians due to our government stupidity & lack of defence spending.  
The first responsibility of a democratic government is to preserve our freedom and ensure it cannot be over run by nearby dictatorships.
European governments rely on the US, which is dangerous, as the US does not have to extend their generosity indefinitely. 
If I'm not mistaken, Bernie Sanders is questioning why the US should spend money to defend other countries.   Whilst he's perfectly correct to do so from an American perspective, from my perspective as a European reliant on the US, he worries me even more than Mr Trump.   Lets  just hope it goes to Mrs Clinton.

[firecat69]

We agree on a lot but there is just no way the pitiful military of the United Kingdom and Germany would last even 3 months against Russia.

 

Russia has over 15,000 tanks compared to 900 combined of Germany and GB. They have 1700 fighter aircraft compared to 250 combined of Germany and UK.

 

And they have 2 1/2 times as many front line fighting men as the combined forces of UK and Germany.

 

In fact France has a better military then the UK or Germany and spends more then either one of them as a % of GDP.

 

It would be a massacre. Yes Europe should shutter at Presidential speeches about withdrawing the kind of support. Maybe they'll wake up and spend their own money instead of relying on the largesse of the USA which can no longer afford to spend it supporting other countries. And that goes for South Korea and Japan.

 

As someone who has travelled extensively in Europe, I think the average European has a much better life then a USA citizen. They work less hours, have much longer vacations and much better retirement and free healthcare.

 

Yes we have bigger houses and bigger cars but at some point you have to wonder who has got it right?

[Guest Hutchison]

The USA is wonderful, it is going to save the world with Donald Trump!

[Alexx]

What's all that Russia fear mongering about, aren't we past that since a good 25 years? May they waste their money on their military, as long as they don't use it. LOL.

[firecat69]

Gee I think the Ukraine might disagree with you and possibly the civilian population of Syria might have something to say.

 

Also Lithuania and other Baltic states might wonder about build ups of Russian Troops by their border.

 

Putin is a measured maniac but a maniac nevertheless . Seems to be the same responses by the Europeans when Hitler was building up his military. Don't worry about it???

[Guest]

Firecat is exactly right about this. 

 

Europe is making the same mistakes it made in the 1930s when Hitler was arming.

 

There are of course differences which make it even more dangerous now.   Back in the 1930s, countries like Britain & France were stronger militarily.   Also, military technology was more basic, so car plants could be adapted to build spitfires and so on.  

 

These days, if we lack fighter aircraft, we can hardly start turning 1000s of them out of the Jaguar car plant every year.

 

The only saving grace, is that if Europe looks like getting totally over run by the Russians, we could at least threaten nuclear retaliation if they cross a defined line.  That's the only credible defence Europe has which does not rely on the Americans.

[steveboy]

My remarks above were just to point out that the US can and does behave imperialistically without turning the victims into colonies, whereas the Chinese currently have a non-imperialist policy (though we don’t know whether they will stick to it in the future). The preceding post seemed a bit unbalanced.  Subsequent comments are all about completely different topics. I don’t mind if people find my conclusions hopeless, but maybe they should read what I said first. The examples I gave are historical facts.

 

The US behaves imperialistically?  Well... who can blame it for that?  It's so big and powerful!

If you want to point fingers, 

you will find so many other countries who have fared much worse in its situation, done much more evil. 

One problem of the US is the large number of conservatives that like imperialism, and the politicians who play into their wishes.  Maybe Donald Trump will change this by bringing the GOP to a well deserved defeat.

[firecat69]

Then we'll get Hilary ( because Trump has no chance) who is about 1% short of being a Neocon.

 

But anything is better then a Republican.

[steveboy]

Yes, we'll get Hilary.   This has been a lost opportunity to bring the country forwards with Sanders, which I attribute to the many Blacks in the South who think that the Clinton are their best friends. That's the way it is, many people vote against their own interests.

 

And yes, anything is better than any Republican who did run this time.