S’pore is now richest in the world

[cif5000]

To stick on the title of this thread, I think "Richness" should be measured by the number of children one has, if one really has to measure it, just like the olden days.

You hear questions like, "how many children do you have?", and not "how many millions of dollars you managed to accumulate?"

[sgd]

3. Taiwan: $114,093 (Congratuations, Taiwan, Citibank analysts think you'll make it 2050 without being consumed by China.)

haha .. I seriously doubt that timeline I don't think china going to wait that long, right now they only using protesters to create low level disturbance, many people don't see it I think they quite cunning to use civilians who are non-combatants to send in to reconniter and "probe defenses and test responses" but even this low level nuisance is already upsetting the japanese vietnamese koreans and filipinos but the PRC navy haven't even made any move. There is a clue here what they will going to do which I believe is the direction they going to take.

If you notice they using the same tactic way that we used in the Pefra Branca dispute, we showed proof that we improved facilities around the island that we claimed that we inherited when the british left. They went further and created an entire new province.

It's like the israeli's sending in hardline settlers into occupied territories
and build homes there which will bring head to head with the palestinians but when the hamas or herzbollas shows up the military has a pretext to send the tanks in to quash everything.

China is going to create a lot of provinces on all these islands that will definitely bring conflict into the equation with other region claimants to spratly islands. and this will give them a pretext to "protect their soverignty rights" against "pirates and terrorists" and start moving in the heavy navy gear.

My guesstimate is another 15-20 years taiwan will revert back to china.

[KopiKat]

My guesstimate is another 15-20 years taiwan will revert back to china.

More likely, my guess is China would have become such an Economic Powerhouse that Taiwanese would prefer to kick out their current often bickering and corrupt politicians and vote to rejoin China...

I was on holidays to Taiwan 2 years back. One thing that struck me, especially at Kaoshiung was, it doesn't seem as bustling as before. The locals I spoke to confirmed my observations - many factories have shifted out to China to be closer to their main market + lower cost (not sure if still true). Jobs were scarce. Things were really cheap and we could hire a driver + bus for a few days (for our extended family) to tour around at quite an affordable rate - power of strong S$! Even at Taipei, the once proud and confident looking Taiwanese I was used to seeing during my working days on biz trips doesn't seem to be there anymore...

To stick on the title of this thread, I think "Richness" should be measured by the number of children one has, if one really has to measure it, just like the olden days.

You hear questions like, "how many children do you have?", and not "how many millions of dollars you managed to accumulate?"

Ya, my mother always seem rather embarrassed when she was asked that Q as she only has 7 kids while others usually have 10 or more...

To be fair, for current generation, let's impute an Intangible Value of $1Mil per kid (I'm ok if you think it's worth more). So, we can have proper comparison between DINKs and others. If you have 2 kids and DINKs have $2Mil, then both should be considered as on par. If they don't agree, they can go for arbitrations...

[Traumfanger]

From discussions with intellectual friends, China.. is really
1. Scary
2. Cunning
3. Smart
4. Scarily, cunningly, Smart.

[sgd]

From discussions with intellectual friends, China.. is really
1. Scary
2. Cunning
3. Smart
4. Scarily, cunningly, Smart.

You must thank LKY for awakening the sleeping dragon.

Now the dragon is awaken it is hungry thirsty swallowing all the jobs in the world and when it is full it is looking for a fight.

[Temperament]

From discussions with intellectual friends, China.. is really
1. Scary
2. Cunning
3. Smart
4. Scarily, cunningly, Smart.

i never understand why whenever China is ascending in Power only, a lot of Nations started play the "Blame The Bad guy" game.
What about the Europeans and US and the Japanese?
Who started 1st WW?
Who started 2nd WW?
What about the Opium War?
Who started "Korean War?
Who started "Vietnam War"
And don't forget Korean's & Vietnam's war, the Americans (maybe with some European's undercovered support) were fighting in Asian's soil.
These last two wars were really US & China war.
Using the Koreans and Vietnamese as proxies.
And the never ending Middle East political turmoils and "civil wars" which the Europeans and Americans are involved one way or another.
Many people think oil is a blessings and also a curse for the Middle East Nations.
Without oil, people think the Europeans and the Americans will not be interested in Middle East.
They will not be there at all.

But the 3WW prediction seems to be going to start from the East.
The so called "Yellow Peril".
Your guess is as good as mine.
And i won't be surprise.
If you force a dog to a corner, what is going to happen?

WW3 = The "Resurrection" of the "Yellow Peril" again by the West.

[yeokiwi]

So, ask yourself, why on earth do you need 2 strikers? My parents' time, it was to help make ends meet for the less privileged as they have easily 5-12 kids to feed. Fast forward to now, would your lifestyle be any worse than your parents' time if you're privileged enough to be able to have only 1 striker, if you choose to have kids?? If not, why not have kids and make do with one striker??? The honest answer will lead you to the conclusion drawn by 'yeokiwi' and me on why many DINKs chose not to have kids...

ya.. same with me. Both my parents had to worked in order to feed the families. They did not think so much of having their own times, going for travel trips or sipping afternoon tea at posh restaurants.

I am ok with DINKs but I am not ok if they put the blame on society and the government.
Whether the government had started with Two children only campaign or graduate mother scheme had very little correlation to the current low birth rate situation.

[KopiKat]

I am ok with DINKs but I am not ok if they put the blame on society and the government.

Same same.. I respect their lifestyle choice. But, they're not respecting mine (to have kids) if they go aro' telling everyone their decision is based on this noble reason - They don't want to bring kids to this world to suffer (like them). Indirectly, I take it that they're saying we're cruel... to bring our kids to this world to suffer... Haha...

[Contrarian]

> So, ask yourself, why on earth do you need 2 strikers? My parents'
> time, it was to help make ends meet for the less privileged as they
> have easily 5-12 kids to feed.

You are probably living in DREAMLAND. Today's couples when married, have to shoulder a debt burden of $300 - $400K for their BTO home. My 3 room parents flat was $7.8K So the flats have shot up 400 to 500 times. Has wages gone up this quantum? How many % of today's young parents and 20+ newly married couples can afford to have 1 person work?

Your parents have 7 kids. You ask your parents, the infants now vs the infants in the past, how much has changed in terms of caring for 1 infant.

You started out earlier than the current 20+ married couples. Do some numbers and compare. Don't just talk rubbish.

You are probably a PAP supporter, blinded by all the propaganda. No wonder you are a posting freak...
[/quote]

[KopiKat]

You are probably a PAP supporter, blinded by all the propaganda. No wonder you are a posting freak...

This reminds me of a Warren Buffett quote,

"It takes 20years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently"

My respect for you just flew out of the window...