Asia, here I come (back)

bendix

ninky wrote: »

i guess if they had a tax system like the uk you wouldn't need to do this because like here all the children would have access to education and not have to rely on the very hit and miss kindness of strangers.

just a thought.

They have a tax system just like the UK. Top rate is 37% which kicks in at around - from memory - the equivalent of £50k a year. Standard rate payable by most people is 20%.

Maybe you should learn to deal with facts before shouting off from your oh-so-right-on hips.

Just a thought.

Seeing as how you yourself are married to someone from a deprived third world, i would have expected better from you. But you never disappoint.

ninky_2

it's not really comparing like with like when you talk of emigrating. you'd have to compare the experience of living in the country of your birth with being a native of the other country.

clearly there are benefits of taking western earnings to a country where they go further and that allows you to feel like a king.

would you however say "ooh i wish i had been born in thailand". i suspect as someone who relied on the uk's social housing, benefit system and free education to survive childhood you might not fancy that much.

bendix

What are you talking about Thailand for? I'm moving to work in a one of the most advanced economies of the world - Hong Kong.

Where does Thailand come into it?

ninky_2

bendix wrote: »

What are you talking about Thailand for? I'm moving to work in a one of the most advanced economies of the world - Hong Kong.

Where does Thailand come into it?

oh sorry i thought you mentioned "beloved thailand".....

wouldn't want to live in hong kong myself. horrible smog and not a lot of smiling. although perhaps unfair to judge on a a two day stay.

Loughton_Monkey

ninky wrote: »

it's not really comparing like with like when you talk of emigrating. you'd have to compare the experience of living in the country of your birth with being a native of the other country.

clearly there are benefits of taking western earnings to a country where they go further and that allows you to feel like a king.

would you however say "ooh i wish i had been born in thailand". i suspect as someone who relied on the uk's social housing, benefit system and free education to survive childhood you might not fancy that much.

Agreed that being an ex-Pat in a foreign country is different from having been born there.

It is also true that many of us would not wish to have been born in [say] China or South Korea at the actual time we were born [I would have been born at about the same time Mao Tse Tung came to power!]

But what if you pose the question differently. "If I were being born today, would I prefer to be born in UK? Or in China, Hong Kong (part of China), Korea, or Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, ........"

I am convinced that in 60 years, most of those Asians will bless being born there rather than UK. If you are born there, on average, you will receive a far better education. You will have far greater prospects for work and a career, and will end up wealthier than their UK peers.

It is no coincidence, nor surprise, that Britain comes only 26th in the Human Development Index (a composite of education, life expectancy, and income) behind such countries as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and even Greece!

And on crime.... Did you know that you can leave your BMW, with the keys in it, and your laptop on the back seat, all day, virtually anywhere in South Korea and it will be there when you get back? Would it surprise you to see ladies leave their handbag, and 8 bags of shopping from Gucci, on their seat in an empty waiting room at the dentist while they have their teeth done?

And all this without any [recognisable by our standards] 'benefit system' that you seem to value. Rather than a 'Benefit System', these countries have 'Systems' from which everyone 'Benefits'.

Herbie_Hancock_I_wish

Bendix, often wondered how you got so minted, it doesn`t matter. I wish I was younger . At 30ish turned down a brill job in the USA but too young with family in the UK.

Nearly bought an apartment to retire to in Spain a few years back . No mortgage , so glad I didn`t . The good lady put a stop to it.

I hate the lies and promises of the UK. Here we sit, bailed out the banks with an interest rate which is stupidly low. The great Band Aid onthe economy.

Get out there mate and enjoy it. Do, however, remember to take that Bendix washing machine with you.

bendix

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

Agreed that being an ex-Pat in a foreign country is different from having been born there.

It is also true that many of us would not wish to have been born in [say] China or South Korea at the actual time we were born [I would have been born at about the same time Mao Tse Tung came to power!]

But what if you pose the question differently. "If I were being born today, would I prefer to be born in UK? Or in China, Hong Kong (part of China), Korea, or Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, ........"

I am convinced that in 60 years, most of those Asians will bless being born there rather than UK. If you are born there, on average, you will receive a far better education. You will have far greater prospects for work and a career, and will end up wealthier than their UK peers.

It is no coincidence, nor surprise, that Britain comes only 26th in the Human Development Index (a composite of education, life expectancy, and income) behind such countries as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and even Greece!

And on crime.... Did you know that you can leave your BMW, with the keys in it, and your laptop on the back seat, all day, virtually anywhere in South Korea and it will be there when you get back? Would it surprise you to see ladies leave their handbag, and 8 bags of shopping from Gucci, on their seat in an empty waiting room at the dentist while they have their teeth done?

And all this without any [recognisable by our standards] 'benefit system' that you seem to value. Rather than a 'Benefit System', these countries have 'Systems' from which everyone 'Benefits'.

Very insightful post. There is so much less crime in places like HK compared to here, where the culture of 'I deserve it' forces everyone to think they should have everything now.

There is also considerably less crime in Thailand. Curiously, the most rampant criminal activity in Thailand is the corruption perpetuated not by the poor who you would expect to be criminal, but by the wealthy.

As for would I prefer to be born today in Asia, compared to here. Damn right I would.

kabayiri

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

...
I am convinced that in 60 years, most of those Asians will bless being born there rather than UK. If you are born there, on average, you will receive a far better education. You will have far greater prospects for work and a career, and will end up wealthier than their UK peers.
....

It's an interesting point, but it is very hard to say.

If there is another major conflict in the world, I rather suspect you'd want to be on the side of still the largest super power in the World, or one of her close allies.

Bendix is going to work in HK. Did you know that HK only thrived because in the 1850s and onwards, HK traders were able to operate with the security of half a dozen British gunboats in the harbour.

Military power and economic power are often closely linked.

FTBFun

bendix wrote: »

There is also considerably less crime in Thailand. Curiously, the most rampant criminal activity in Thailand is the corruption perpetuated not by the poor who you would expect to be criminal, but by the wealthy.

Well, only if you don't count getting murdered a crime.

According to this, you're least likely to be murdered in such delightful places as Yemen, Syria, and Sierra Leone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

wotsthat

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

But what if you pose the question differently. "If I were being born today, would I prefer to be born in UK? Or in China, Hong Kong (part of China), Korea, or Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, ........"

It depends.

Levels of poverty in the alternatives are higher than the UK. If you are born into poverty in one of these countries you still need to drag yourself up by some way to get to a minimum standard of living that would be acceptable here.

Being born into the UK today, on average, will give you better access to opportunities than the average Chinese. The problem that I note is not the lack of opportunity in the UK but that they are less enthusiastically taken

To an extent I think the OP is being somewhat disingenuous. He sounds like he'd be moving anyway regardless of his views on the UK as he has family connections to his new location, he's clearly passionate about his new home, he's been offered a great job and he'll get to keep a bigger proportion of his wage. Whatever your views on the UK this sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime.

The charitable work that he has does is clearly admirable and certainly made me think about what I do to help people less fortunate than myself (not enough btw). I do wonder whether he would have been able to do this without being born in the UK or somewhere similar.

It reminded me of Warren Buffet's comments on his charity work which I looked up.

"I mean, I've been ungodly blessed, you know, I just happened to be born at the right time in the right place. I tell people if I'd been born a few thousand years ago I would have been some animal's lunch, because I can't run very fast or jump very high. Or if I'd been born in Bangladesh or some place things would have been different for me. So what I've acquired has been, to an enormous degree, the product of a society that's a huge capitalist society, and I was born into it at the right time, and I get these disproportionate material rewards in respect to my contribution."