gummigut Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 no pidgeon coo talk! I promise! This will be a real hard one to quantify cavanami. There is direct aid that I'm sure they are getting for rural crap like medical and education. Could be very very small or a good chunk. I'm not educated about that. There's subsidized aid. Thailand is in the top tier of Generalized System of Preferences. $3.5 billion was shipped to the US under this system. A wild guess that this saves Thailand 10% (it's probably a whole lot more) than we're talking 350 million there in one shot. Then there's all the indirect aid given the fact that Thailand is the US's headquarters of operations for SE Asia. That's got to be worth a pretty penny. I feel the US is going to push pretty hard for a FTA when it can (I think a lot of what we see in the press is in regards to this), it will be interesting to see how Thailand responds. <> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sporty Posted September 25, 2006 Report Share Posted September 25, 2006 no pidgeon coo talk! I promise! This will be a real hard one to quantify cavanami. There is direct aid that I'm sure they are getting for rural crap like medical and education. Could be very very small or a good chunk. I'm not educated about that. There's subsidized aid. Thailand is in the top tier of Generalized System of Preferences. $3.5 billion was shipped to the US under this system. A wild guess that this saves Thailand 10% (it's probably a whole lot more) than we're talking 350 million there in one shot. Then there's all the indirect aid given the fact that Thailand is the US's headquarters of operations for SE Asia. That's got to be worth a pretty penny. I feel the US is going to push pretty hard for a FTA when it can (I think a lot of what we see in the press is in regards to this), it will be interesting to see how Thailand responds. <> Hard to find the exact amount, Thailand Recieves, lots of different heading, has Thailand listed. That only tells you they get AID, but not how much. In a quick search of US Foreign AID found some interesting numbers. Total US Foreign AID $1,700,000,000 (TRILLON) For Thailand, 21,000,000 in military aid. As a third world country, Thailand was in a lot of other catagories, but NO AMOUNT, broken out. Health, Schools, AIDS and Woman and Children issues. In the original post cavanami said: "Hell, Thailand has more $$$ than the USA and far less debt...they should be sending aid like to New Orleans and other needy areas in the USA." GNP, is how you rate the wealth of a nation, not debt. GNP In the world standard, USD. USA $ 38,000,000,000,000 Thailand $ 232,000,000,000 In baht, its alot. But, I'll bet the average bargirl, will like your slant, and believe, you... Hell maybe, you can ask them for contributions, for the Katrina fund. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 Hey, thanks for the numbers! Very tricky trying to get some numbers out of the US gov and hell, it's our tax money! Seems like the GNP is a poor way to measure a country's wealth...I will check, as I am thinking that maybe China has a high GNP, but (now being in China) the majority of the people are dirt poor...and we are talking of 1.2B+ people? OK, I will look at some GNP numbers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 OK, some numbers, sorta surprised me... Country's Account Balance ($M) Ranking of the countries with the most $$$ in their "bank accounts": 1. Japan 18. China 133. Thailand 149. USA So...like I stated, Thailand has more $$$ than the USA...am I exonerated? ...however, like my econ prof said...figures don't lie but liars do figure... GNP (per capita) 8. USA 26. China 93. Thailand GNP (nominal) 1. USA 4. China 36. Thailand. That like was good as it had a pile of info about all the countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texascity Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 >>> The Economist Intelligence Unit has developed a new â??quality of lifeâ? index based on a unique methodology that links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys to the objective determinants of quality of life across countries. The index has been calculated for 111 countries for 2005. >>>> http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf Quality of life: US 12, Japan 17, HK 18, Taiwan 21, UK 29, S.Korea 30 .. Thailand was 42nd top few: Ireland Switzerland Norway Luxembourg Sweden Australia Iceland Italy Denmark Spain Singapore Finland >>>different quality of life resource<<< Another method of measuring quality of life is by subtracting the "standard of living", according to the technical definition of the term. For example, people in rural areas and small towns are generally reluctant to move to cities, even if it would mean a substantial increase in their standard of living. One can thus see that the quality of life of living in a rural area is of enough value to offset a higher standard of living. Similarly people must be paid more to accept jobs that will lower their quality of life, night jobs, ones with extensive travel all pay more and the difference in salaries can also give a measure of the value of quality of life. >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life is longevity / health a criteria for determing societal success? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texascity Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 my thoughts on quality of life should be part of any measure of the richness of a society were discounted in a previous thread. this will be my last injection in to this thread: >> Debate over what best maximizes quality of life is millennia old, with Aristotle giving it much thought and eventually settling on the notion of eudaimonia (happiness) as central. http://experts.about.com/e/q/qu/Quality_of_life.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sporty Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 I agree... That is what really matters... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 Good data. Thanks for the input. It seems I always learn something here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cardinalblue Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 So if one wishes to look at the statistical data presented, the quality of life is more than 3 times better in the USA than Thailand... Yet, many people come to thailand to improve or the belief in coming to thailand to improve their quality of life. The answer one will find is that many will say their quality of like is higher here than in the USA. I am one of them... The problem though is they/we are living off the fruits that we made in the USA so all we have done is to move to a cheaper area so the dollar can go further. We already have our apples so we don't have generate any more... What is also missing in this data, is for the people who pre-maturely die over here. Would they have died at the same time and in same way in the USA? I know a number of foreigners whose life has been cut short due to being murdered, auto/bike accidents, picking up a disease or receiving health care not equal to what they would have gotten back home to extend their life, etc How do you factor those into the equation? CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummigut Posted September 27, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Yet, many people come to thailand to improve or the belief in coming to thailand to improve their quality of life. The answer one will find is that many will say their quality of like is higher here than in the USA. hehe. I'm going to open a whole can of worms. I want to state that I am not saying Cardinalblue or anyone here is of the type of folk I'm going to characterize. Cardinalblue just gave me the opening. Quality of life means many things to different people. WHO are the people moving over here for a better quality of life? Mainly males. What type of males? Socially inept? Older horny guys who have been sexually frustrated by their own inhibitions? No this doesn't characterize everybody, but sure does characterize a huge (if not most those on the lower rung) number of them. For these folks, sex and/or control, casts a long shadow on their quality of life. In my mind, many of these people aren't well balanced and I feel sorry for the Thais who have to suffer for it. Quality of life though covers the whole spectrum, and not those of a bruised male ego that can't cut it in the West. Education for the children. The only school I'd like my children to attend here would be Bangkok Pattana. That's 400,000 baht for deposit. 200,000 3 times a year for tuition. There is an initial entrance for of another 250,000 baht. That's over 1 million the first year. Know many people who can afford that? Think if one had triplets? Safety. Yes, for farang's it's generally a lot safer than for thais, but what about general public safety? Drunk driving? General Public Safety hazards (power lines, pot-holed roads) etc... Recourse. What recourse would you have against a rich/powerful Thai versus a rich/powerful person in the US. Footing wouldn't be the same in either country most like, but you certainly have a lot more options in the US than here in Thai (even if you were a native Thai person). Overall quality of life is definitely better in the US, but for me now, Thailand is currently the better option. <> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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