Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

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Dodger
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Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Dodger »

Recent CNN Publication:

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/06/opin ... index.html

I guess "Cheap Sex" never made it past the editors desk.
Jun

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Jun »

Jim Rodgers moved to Singapore over 10 years ago, so hardly new information.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, low taxes have to be a factor for people moving to places like Singapore. Some companies just move their HQ there.

And for moving to Thailand, climate, culture, cheap sex......?

Looking at it from the other side, if you just happened to have some mundane office job, often working 6 days a week would reduce the appeal of emigrating to Vietnam or China.
daherk

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by daherk »

After reading this article, I noticed below and article that listed the 25 wealthiest politicians in the world, the King of Thailand is listed with $30 billion very interesting
fountainhall

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by fountainhall »

Jun wrote:If you are an entrepreneur or investor, low taxes have to be a factor for people moving to places like Singapore. Some companies just move their HQ there
The reason companies locate their HQs to Singapore is much more to do with NO taxes. For at least 3 decades the Singapore government has operated what it terms Pioneer Status. If you are a company they want located on their island rather than in Hong Kong which has a lower corporate tax rate, they offer companies a tax-free honeymoon on most of their taxes for 5 or 10 years.
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Gaybutton
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Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Gaybutton »

Regarding cheap sex, is there a bad part about that? If someone says, "You go to Thailand for the cheap sex." my response would be, "Yeah, you're right. Not only that, the more you get, the more you want. You'll find that out once you start getting some."
Jun

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Jun »

Cheap sex is good. I don't think anyone has implied otherwise in this thread. And when the "floor" for tips is 3x the minimum wage, the tips are also fair to the service provider.

Low taxes are also good, since governments are terrible allocators of capital. With low taxes, Singapore had gone from being very poor to wealthier than many western countries.
fountainhall

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by fountainhall »

It's too easy in my view to consider only Singapore's relatively low corporate tax rates for its success. Individual tax rates are pretty low, too. But in addition to income tax, individual Singaporeans and their employers have to make mandatory payments into a Central Provident Fund. The rate for individuals is 20% of earnings and for employers 17%. That makes total deductions for both very high.

Against that, the government continues to build a massive number of home ownership apartment blocks. Apart from funding a medical scheme and retirement income, this encourages individuals to borrow against their CPF holding to purchase one of these apartments. The result is that Singapore has about the highest rate of individual home ownership in the world. Now that is a form of socialism - and I am not sure other countries would be so quick to adopt it. Even a large number of Singaporeans are not happy with it! In a poll about 4 years ago, 50% of Singaporeans felt the CFP housing scheme was unfair.

i have in the past been quick to criticise Singapore as more of an autocracy than a democracy. Indeed, under Lee Kuan Yew it was essentially a dictatorship. If you went against Lee and his policies, your chances of landing in jail were very high, as the single Opposition member of parliament discovered! Newspapers and other media outlets had to include written apologies or be banned from the island state.

On the other hand, Singapore remains one of the least corrupt countries in the world, thanks largely to Ministers, politicians and civil servants being paid vastly higher salaries than their counterparts everywhere. Prime Minster Lee's salary (Lee Kuan Yew's son) with bonuses is around US$1.5 million. That is around 250% more than the salary and allowances paid to the President of the USA. Would other countries accept that?

I happen to think Lee Kuan Yew deserved it. He built his small island nation with no natural resources virtually from nothing apart from a migrant labour force that had been brought in by its colonial masers, the British. Despite his dictatorial leanings, Lee was a visionary. He saw the need for housing. He saw the possibility of Singapore being a transport hub for shipping and for air traffic. He built Changi airport from reclaimed land when many believed him to be mad. Singaporeans have lots of reasons to be grateful to him. Yet, it is perhaps surprising when the island state is the envy of so many around the world, there is considerable discontent amongst its citizens. I suppose you can have too much of a good thing!
There is widespread concern over rising living costs and stagnant wages. Prices of necessities such as water and electricity have been raised and GST is also set to be hiked. So great is the concern that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (PM Lee) decided to dedicate a significant part of his National Day rally address to deal with this issue. Unfortunately his suggestions of "belt tightening" seem to have fallen flat. With rising discontent for the extremely high ministerial salaries set against the backdrop of declining living standards - is this enough to push the People's Action Power out of power come the next General Election?
https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2018/0 ... n-next-ge/
Jun

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Jun »

fountainhall wrote:Prime Minster Lee's salary (Lee Kuan Yew's son) with bonuses is around US$1.5 million. That is around 250% more than the salary and allowances paid to the President of the USA. Would other countries accept that?
I guess the typical voter would not accept it.

I, on the other hand, would be delighted to see the British Prime Minister paid $1.5million per year, on the condition that the Prime Minister has demonstrated considerable success in managing and growing a large business. Combined with a bankruptcy free track record (you know why that clause is in here).

Much better than the normal practice of promoting some political type, who might typically have a legal background, has never managed anything, never run a business and never have generated or created anything. What we get with the current system is idiots who cannot allocate capital properly, don't ever get value for money, but still get to spend 40% of GDP.

I'm not sure if it applies to all the senior positions, but to be eligible for election to President in Singapore, the candidate has to have held a top management position previously and not just any old position either.

This is not pure democracy. However, I would argue it is a superior form of democracy, which results in a more successful economy and better conditions for the average citizen.
The fact that it might exclude some unreformed Marxist ****wit from the top job is a small price to pay. Yes, Jeremy Corbyn would not be eligible to be President in Singapore.
Someone with so little grasp of economics & human nature that he still admires the regime in Venezuela could easily be elected in the UK. If he were elected, we would be flocking to Asia too.
fountainhall

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by fountainhall »

Jun wrote:Much better than the normal practice of promoting some political type, who might typically have a legal background, has never managed anything, never run a business and never have generated or created anything.
I actually agree with you. But I wonder if you realise that the above basically describes Lee Kuan Yew to a T! He got a double first in law and practised in London. He had never managed anything, never ran a business and never generated or created anything until he became PM of Singapore! Even then he did not believe Singapore could possibly survive on its own and he entered into a formal alliance with Malaya - hence Malaysia. When that collapsed after two years, he knew he had a huge job on his hands. Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

Lee's son, the present PM also had no experience in business or commerce before being 'elected' to his position. His claim to fame is that he rose to become Brigadier General in the Singapore Armed Forces. He then went into politics and has been PM for the last 15 years!
Daniel

Re: Why Americans are Flocking to Asia

Post by Daniel »

Jun wrote:Cheap sex is good . . . the tips are also fair to the service provider.
I agree. The average full-time wage in Thailand is about 14’000 baht/month. If you’re going to get tipped at least 1000 baht for a short time, that’s 7% of an average monthly wage. If prostitutes in the West could earn a minimum of 7% of their country’s average full-time monthly wage for a short time, the ‘profession’ might be a lot more attractive.
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