Off Topic Posts - Whats on your mind?

I have now spoken to a number of Vietnamese women who are solidly in the Western husband camp. To lump their answers into "they are more trustworthy" than the local men would be only a slight generalization.And Western men come here looking for love. And some come looking for sex, possibly confusing the two. - @Lennerd

Something I've heard said and have now adopted as a maxim, (this, an admittedly generalization of our species) is that...

Women give sex for love

Men give love for sex

It's worked well for aeons (8+billion pop.), though in my humble(d) opinion it leaves the male more vulnerable.🤔

I will watch that in its entirety later. - @Fred

Well worth the time. It's actually quite chilling.

If enabled, turn off subtitles as it rubbishes the British accent and so serves only as a distraction.

The final line is delivered perfectly (gotta' love Donald Pleasence!).

@Guest2023

Who eats one egg?

@dsmedley630

My Vietnamese wife… sometimes she only eats half and leaves the other 3.5 for me…ya, I don’t get it either.

Asked my GF what she thought about me growing a beard. She said it was up to me.

After a minute or two where she was obviously thinking about it, she asked me how we westerners manage to keep fleas and ticks out of it. I told her it wouldn't be an issue. She still has her doubts about that.

Then she asked me what kind/style of beard I was thinking about.

I told her, "Oh, I dunno'. I'm thinking a nice heavy neck beard would look okay".

A couple of minutes later, after Googling her fingers down to the bone, I got a definite, "No, Aidan, no! It very ugly!"

On a related note, anyone else notice how the light in VN bathrooms are installed in such a way as to make them essentially useless for shaving? Same with hotel bathroom lighting. In the three homes I've had here, I've had to either reposition the existing light fixture, or install extra lighting above the mirror.

I had to duck to go into the bathroom and I was like wow. This is too cool.

My wife made me cut the my beard but as a side note had a photographer want to touch the hair on my legs. He was very curious and I didn’t think nothing of it.

@Aidan in HCMC

Your not renting those rooms which charge be the hour are you ? kkkkk

Totally agree with the lighting! Simply appalling and useless.

I'd love it if they would put a seat on this thing! (Link, YouTube 00:51 seconds)

What's more likely is that "the brass" will order the brilliant engineers to mount a gun on it.

I was doing some electrical work on the second floor loft this morning (nightmare. the "electrician's" work looks like a can of worms), and decided to escape the heat for a bit and have a snack.

GF was laughing and took pictures of my plate and my glass, sending it to her friends on Zalo and FB. I asked her why, and she said to me because... "It look so western!"

What did I have? Four Oreo cookies and a tall glass of cold milk. Yeah, I guess it would look rather western.

I’m not an electrician but just looking at the cable and phone wires running overhead in the streets boggles my mind. When I first arrived here (2016) I thought they must have blackouts and fires all the time and it still amazes me that they don’t…sort of reminds me of the traffic.

P.S. Milk and Oreo cookies are definitely Western: - )

My car caught fire a few days ago.

Nothing serious. The fuse blew so I just defenestrated the offending, and very warm, part.

A quick repair and a new fuse later, and all is well.

I gather some people get rather flustered when their cars catch fire. I have no idea why.

I...decided to escape the heat for a bit and have a snack.
GF was laughing and took pictures of my plate and my glass, sending it to her friends on Zalo and FB. I asked her why, and she said to me because... "It look so western!"
What did I have? Four Oreo cookies and a tall glass of cold milk. Yeah, I guess it would look rather western. - @Aidan in HCMC

How my mother-in-law would serve those cookies...

Not to make light of the serious event involving a Russian oil tanker (Link YouTube, 2:14),

I was immediately reminded of a similarly described incident, here (YouTube).

"🎵...Olive, the other reindeer...🎶"

This one never fails to leave me and my family laughing hard. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckq-neX5BFs

And this one is a close second. . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PcL6-mjRNk&t=3s

We're Number One! We're Number One!

Amazing Việt Nam...

Here's a shared opinion from The NY Times. If it is what they say it is, you can open it without a subscription.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/opin … =url-share

I don't agree with the author about the attributes of an expat but I did like these (sort of) jokes in the comments section. The questions are. . . 

What's the difference between an expat and an immigrant?

An expat is rich, an immigrant is poor.

An expat is a westerner who goes to live in a poorer country.

An immigrant is someone from a poorer country who goes to a western country.

Discuss amongst yourselves. 🤣

Here's a shared opinion from The NY Times. If it is what they say it is, you can open it without a subscription.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/opin … =url-share

I don't agree with the author about the attributes of an expat but I did like these (sort of) jokes in the comments section. The questions are. . .

What's the difference between an expat and an immigrant?
An expat is rich, an immigrant is poor.

An expat is a westerner who goes to live in a poorer country.
An immigrant is someone from a poorer country who goes to a western country.

Discuss amongst yourselves. 🤣 - @Lennerd

I  added my own comment:

"Military veterans on disability compensation (such as myself) or old-age pensions and those living on social security benefits (also me) makeup a large percentage of the USA citizen expatriots seeking a place where we can live decently and affordably.

"Unlike the author and many of the people he describes, many of us tend to be very pro Trump.

"When we gather together and have coffee we often talk about how American culture has been going downhill for years, motivating us to move away from a society that increasingly devalues us.

"Especially here in Vietnam, through my wife and her family, I've discovered a steadfast support system that simply wasn't available from my well-meaning family in the USA.

"That's not to cast aspersions on my USA family.

"It's just to say that America is no longer the place it was when I was a little boy and we took my ailing grandmother into our house to live with us in her final years.

"I'm a veteran of the American war in Vietnam and still love my native country very much, considering myself a true patriot.

"There's just no way I can afford to live a meaningful life in my hometown as a 100% VA rated disabled veteran."

@OceanBeach92107

I agree with *some* of your points, among them, that the USA isn't the country it was when I was a little boy. Specifically, America was a country in which its citizens were, rightly or wrongly, confident about their place in the world, comfortably "on top" of things following their taking down in WWII of two industrially and technologically advanced powers: Germany and Japan.

In my view, which I'll acknowledge probably conflicts with yours, hubris brought about American decline. Read about W. Edwards Deming, for example. He's the guy that taught the Japanese about statistical quality control (SPC). The Japanese "cleaned the clocks" of American manufacturers of auto, electronic, camera, and other devices because, when Demming went to GM, Ford, and Chrysler after WWII offering them his knowledge, their response was along the lines of "we can sell every car, camera, radio, etc., that we make. Eff off.

The real decline started in 1980, with the election of Ronald Reagan and has not been reversed by any administration Republican or Democratic since, see links to graphs below. Reagan told us that government was the problem, not the solution. Subsequent GOP administrations signed on to the "taxes are bad, let's make the government small enough to drown in the bathtub." Defund the IRS? The wealthiest of tax cheaters go free to cheat again. Does the "size" of government grow in parallel to the size of the population and the economy? Well, it's debatable.

A study of these two graphs and the texts that accompany them reveals a picture of how America's decline has impacted citizens. (The graphs don't say anything about us old codgers leaving the country to have a decent life in our retirement.)

The first graph shows what happened as American workers became more productive. Their wages increased much more slowly than their productivity. So where did the gains go? Well, as we all know, the wealthiest Americans got wealthier, not only in relation to the less wealthy, also in absolute terms. Note: wealth does not equal income. The trend started before Reagan, yes. It accelerated after 1980.

https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/

And then, looking at one of the primary metrics of a healthy population, longevity. Americans were in the lower middle of the pack in 1980 relative to their peer countries and in absolute terms. That position has not been maintained. By this graph America is an outlier and not in a positive sense of the word:

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/cha … countries/

I still get choked up when the flag waves and the national anthem plays -- at a ball game or elsewhere. Yup.

I'm unsubscribing this thread

@OceanBeach92107

YUP>

My car hasn't had any fires inside it for some while.

I started reversing into poles. They didn't call the police but I collected a couple of dents so I put a towbar on the car.

I can now reverse into road signs without fear of further damage.

I finally finished fixing the wiring that got BBQed.

@Aidan in HCMC

It unfolds like a Monty Python sketch of a news interview. 😂

It's safe until the front falls off.

It was towed outside the environment.

A while ago, I posted about a New York Times article about the expat life.

(An expat is an immigrant with money. . . .  jokingly proffered.)

Here are the letters to the editor that The NY Times printed today on their website.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/opin … =url-share

Hope you can read and enjoy.

I'll have a warm bath, I'll have a bottle of wine

I'll put myself to bed, and I feel just fine

He's got an evil grin, he's got curly hair

And every time he smiles, it means trouble somewhere

He's in every film, sometimes wearing a towel

And if it isn't him, you get Andie MacDowell

Don't talk to me at all, don't say "Hello"

You could be Gene himself, for all I know

In "Unforgiven", he was totally mean

But when he got his, I really felt for Gene

I'll have a cold shower, I'll have a bottle of pop

I'll get a dog named Laszlo, from a Laszlo shop

But don't talk to me about Gene Hackman (Link, YouTube)

(all kidding aside, we lost a fine actor who by all reports was a good man. RIP, Gene)

@OceanBeach92107

Me too....

AI program set to skim reviews from both YouTube and X of Disney's trailer for the live-action remake of Snow White. AI compiled the comments and set them to music.

Yeah, it's brain rot, but some of the comments are quite funny (especially the opening line).

Mirror Mirror on The Wall (Full Version) Snow White trailer comments

Mirror mirror on the MF wall

https://youtu.be/x35-U9ctVwE?si=FI3O_HUXRTkwbjTI

Don't click if you get upset by naughty words

It won awards

https://youtu.be/UJTIvOd82E8?si=QuwF6pn7hJNWafQ6

Don't click as warned above

Not a promising situation?

Married couple of elderly foreigners, "lost" in Vietnam.

Wife is totally incapable of using any apps or Internet search functions.

Husband does all of the searches for the family but doesn't know how to use Google maps.

So he uses FB groups and internet forums to ask everyone else to do his searches for him.

Hopefully they purchased through tickets already...

@OceanBeach92107

Wow, oh wow.

Where are they now?

@OceanBeach92107
Wow, oh wow.
Where are they now? - @Aidan in HCMC

Lost in Đà Nẵng

@Lennerd

Your thoughts were interesting but I suspect there are always multiple things contributing to almost any change.

When I looked at the -Productivity vs compensation- link you gave, I noticed the timeline perfectly matched up to the years where Women were pouring into the workforce. If the number of available workers showing up for work increases dramatically, wouldn't the pressure to compensate them go down? 

And yes its true, with two people in the family working, they will buy more stuff, creating more jobs, which might offset the huge rise of -female workers now in the market.

In 1965, the us decided to open up immigration to places it never considered before, by 1970, these new arrivals were showing up looking for low or semi skilled jobs too. Every few years, both parties would increase the level of new immigrants coming in, which has been I think around a million a year now.  That would be tens of millions of workers showing up to compete for a job. That might make wages stagnate.

Meanwhile, millions of illegal immigrants rolling in across the border with a wink from the govt. Anyone close to certain industries like construction watched the whole workforce be replaces in just a few decades. Anything not requiring a license like an electrician saw the whole labor force shift under the weight of cheap labor.

In farming, rather than using modern harvesting equipment, we use cheap temp migrants or illegal labor to harvest like it is 1900.

And then if those pressures were not enough on the wage earner, the decision to open up free trade, wiped out millions of manufacturing jobs. Companies that tried to build in the US were either bought out and shipped abroad or could not compete with garments made abroad.

When I lived in NC, years ago, textile mills were everywhere; now they are gone, some with furniture factories in Western NC. I often wonder where did all those hundreds of thousands of people go to earn a living.

From what I can tell, the only ones who benefit are the big business lobbies and those they donate to. The ones who carried the full weight and effect were wage workers. Who were crushed by - job competition, automation, and outsourceing.

Winners? Hmmm, Big business, immigrants, politicians, and all of us with cheaper goods to buy. Those who were immune to these forces enjoyed cheap products. if you are a wage worker, you too can buy Cheap flatscreen TV's you're just doing it on 12.75 an hour.

It could be we are now seeing this same effect as we import a much higher skillset of people from Asia and elsewhere. I suspect a twenty-year-old kid from Wherever USA who wants to work in tech or medical fields will feel these same depressed earnings in time.

(A thought for those searching for "The Real" Vietnam...)

A young fish swims up to an older fish and says, "I’m trying to find this thing everyone calls The Ocean."

The older fish replies, "The Ocean? That’s where you are right now."

Confused, the young fish exclaims: "This? This is just water. What I want is the ocean!"

(A thought for those searching for "The Real" Vietnam...)
A young fish swims up to an older fish and says, "I’m trying to find this thing everyone calls The Ocean."

The older fish replies, "The Ocean? That’s where you are right now."

Confused, the young fish exclaims: "This? This is just water. What I want is the ocean!" - @OceanBeach92107

There are three Indonesias.

1. There's the real one we Indonesians and good expats live in day to day. That has work and a lot of excellent local coffee shops.
2. There's the tourist  one full of temples, bars, and entertainment that involves ladies and money. That one has stupidly high prices for everything.
3. Next up is the bad expat one. This version loses the temples in favour of the office and high end shopping centres. They don't see much more because they use drivers. That one is called the bule bubble. (bule - pro. Boolay - is a foreigner)

I suspect many countries have similar parallel universes.

@Dannyroc3

Did you read the article/text accompanying the graph?

"When I looked at the -Productivity vs compensation- link you gave, I noticed the timeline perfectly matched up to the years where Women were pouring into the workforce. If the number of available workers showing up for work increases dramatically, wouldn't the pressure to compensate them go down?"

The graph isn't tracking the number of workers, it's tracking the *productivity* of the workers. Adding women or immigrants doesn't mean that workers on their own are more or less productive.

Yes. a glut of workers tends to depress wages. The graph isn't about wages, either.

Here's a summary of Nobel Economist Paul Krugman on productivity:

Paul Krugman's famous quote, "Productivity isn't everything, but in the long run, it's almost everything," highlights the central role of productivity in driving economic growth and improving living standards. He argues that a nation's ability to raise its output per worker is almost entirely responsible for its long-term economic prosperity, according to the World Bank.

Elaboration:

Productivity as a Key Driver:

Krugman emphasizes that enhancing productivity is crucial for sustainable economic development and creating decent jobs. By producing more with the same or fewer resources, productivity can boost the standard of living.

Long-Term Perspective:

His statement emphasizes the long-run significance of productivity. While other factors might be important in the short term, productivity is the primary driver of sustained economic growth and improvements in living standards.

GDP per Worker:

Krugman defines productivity as GDP per worker, according to the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence. However, the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence notes that GDP per hour worked is a more accurate measure.

Impact on Economic Growth:

Krugman's views on productivity are widely shared among economists. They highlight the importance of raising output per worker for a country to improve its standard of living over time.

Investment in Productivity:

Krugman's work also suggests that sustained economic growth hinges on productivity gains, according to the International Monetary Fund. This implies the need for investment in factors like physical capital, technology, and human capital to enhance productivity.

PS. I'm not an economist by any stretch of the imagination.

@OceanBeach92107

what did one fish say to the other fish when he ran into a concrete wall?

"Dam!"

@Lennerd

Actually, the graph is showing *productivity GROWTH* which means, I suppose, that it is a year-on-year percentage change? Also, the lower line is average wage GROWTH. Hmm. Again, some percent change year-on-year?

Regardless, the tracking of one factor with the other up until about 1961, followed by the perpetual trend of the two getting farther and farther apart since 1961 is what is significant, I'd guess.

In other words, productivity GROWTH and wage GROWTH went hand in hand until about 1961, then began to separate and continued not only to do so, but to get more and more separated as time goes on, a trend that a) accelerated after 1980 and b) hasn't reversed in now 45 years.