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Americans are retiring to Vietnam

latimes.com

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Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#171

Post by coconut_crab »

JCharante wrote: post #168
coconut_crab wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Health care in Vietnam is not not too bad, at least for the price. Surely you can't expect state of the art cancer treatments here but everything else is pretty affordable. My father just had an operation to fix his retinal detachment, everything costed less than 800 USD, and only 200 USD after insurance. Another guy I know had an operation for appendicitis, and he only needed to pay 200 USD for it. And both of them…

But then you don't get to live in Hanoi ;) Do you know about the quality of VinMec? For VinSchool I've heard from friends who attended that they have incredible teachers and from advertisements that they have professors from ivies helping them out, so I was wondering if VinMec is also top tier. They claim to have equipment "equivalent to leading hospitals in the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Singapore" so I wonder if th…

Vinmec has been poaching doctors from public hospitals with their much higher pay. But they still can't get the very best ones for some reasons (I heard those doctors like to help people and not work for money). So VinMec has good service, but don't expect the best doctors over there.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#172

Post by krapp »

wruza wrote: post #156
krapp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What’s the difference (except life cost multiplier/divisor) that makes one uncomfortable and the other comfortable? Both are uncomfortable stereotypes, but we find the latter more acceptable because Western masculine ideals traditionally interpret the male in that situation as expressing his virility and alpha-dog status (while denigrating the woman as a gold-digger and whore.) Although many people are creeped out b…

This implies (well, directly states) that these asian women are only a step above prostitutes, while in fact either both are, or none of them, depending on the perspective. If the male cannot find a match, it is a failure by definition, but I do not see how this fails his masculinity. Masculinity doesn’t have to be linked with local wealth (pressing/buying someone with money, connections and law doesn’t make one alph…

>This implies (well, directly states) that these asian women are only a step above prostitutes, while in fact either both are, or none of them, depending on the perspective.

I meant to state that the perception is that about Asian women not that I consider it the reality.

> If the male cannot find a match, it is a failure by definition, but I do not see how this fails his masculinity.

A man is often seen as having earned a Western trophy girlfriend, but as having likely bought the Asian counterpart. Why this is, and why the former is more accepted, is probably rooted in negative stereotypes about Asian women formed during America's wars in Asia (specifically Korea and Vietnam) and about the perceived "submissive" nature of Asian women in general.

>Masculinity doesn’t have to be linked with local wealth (pressing/buying someone with money, connections and law doesn’t make one alpha-dog nor a unique problem solver),

It doesn't have to be, but historically, it has been. Trump bragged about being able to "grab'em by the pussy" and it endeared him to (some of) the public, as did Clinton's escapades, as did JFK's. It's been the case since kings had harems.

>and I would add wealth actually tends to hide smaller balls, if you excuse a non-native speaker for this idiom.

Yes, people often say ostentatious displays of wealth are a way to compensate for a man's shortcomings.

>Masculinity is a thing that allows you to skip these steps altogether, unless women are heavily reprogrammed on money instead and everyone is okay with that.

There's masculinity, and there's "masculinity" as expressed by commercial culture (call it corporate masculinity.) The latter is telling men that they need wealth and status items (in other words, to participate in conspicuous consumerism) for a woman to find them attractive.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#173

Post by vzttzv2 »

JCharante wrote: post #163
CapricornNoble wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>Oh and I've also heard a lot of stories about Vietnamese women becoming rather disenchanted of hip cool American backpackers, the latter of which presumably read articles like this and decided to try their luck. The backpacker area of Saigon is considered more like a slum that you try to avoid at night. Hanoi's French Quarter is the same way, and I'm glad the local women are hip to the game. They'll ask you "where…

I live part time in Tây Hồ (fly back to the States for each semester of school) and I just want to say that I've never gotten sick from the food. I'll eat street food on plastic chairs, restaurants with and without AC, and places that would be expensive even for foreigners. Of course I'll also eat what cô cooks sometimes and it's delicious. I'm not denying that you've gotten sick, but I'm just saying that it's differ…

Any where the To Lich flow. Quan hoa is one example

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#174

Post by digianarchist »

teamwork007 wrote: post #84
digianarchist wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to do with communism. Capitalist Thailand has thirty year limits on property ownership with the exemption of condo buildings that are majority owned by Thai citizens. Hell even Singapore limits property ownership of foreigners.

I hate using the terms capitalist and communist since they are both pretty loaded, but I think in the case of Vietnam and China it does have something to do with their recent Communist or Socialist histories. Property rights are usually seen as the bedrock of a capitalist society for better or worse. Vietnam and China's land is technically still owned "by the people" (aka government) and since both countries have ope…

Is New Zealand a communist country? They banned foreign ownership recently.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#175

Post by glofish »

Descartes1 wrote: post #157
lazyasciiart wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to do anything to keep your American citizenship. You can't get rid of it without a significant amount of effort.

America is one of the only nations in the world that taxes its expats also. You can't escape the USA. You are the property of the tax farm.

I believe the reason for this is simple (though understandably unpopular):

A lot of people that get rich because of America would just drop American citizenship once they do get rich to avoid paying back into the system that allowed them to become successful.

There is no other country that offers as much upward mobility as the US to its citizens. Hence the tax.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#176

Post by seanmcdirmid »

teamwork007 wrote: post #128
refurb wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that’s how it works? I thought the distinction was ownership versus lease. You lease it for 50 years, but in the end you can sell the actual property to a citizen or sell it to a non-citizen who will get a 50 year lease.

There isn't much clarification around what will happen since it hasn't happened yet: http://vietnamembassy-usa.org/basic-page/land-regulations

The same is true for China and its 99 year apartment leases. Everyone is assuming the government will roll over the leases for minimal fees, or eventually repulsed the leases with a proper property tax, but nothing is guaranteed yet.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#177

Post by refurb »

teamwork007 wrote: post #128
refurb wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that’s how it works? I thought the distinction was ownership versus lease. You lease it for 50 years, but in the end you can sell the actual property to a citizen or sell it to a non-citizen who will get a 50 year lease.

There isn't much clarification around what will happen since it hasn't happened yet: http://vietnamembassy-usa.org/basic-page/land-regulations

Huh. In Canada you can’t buy land on First Nation reserves. They do 99 year leases, but you buy and sell the home the same way as if you were buying the land as well, since the expectation is that the lease would be renewable for the foreseeable future.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#178

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rurban wrote: post #145
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A resort town in SE Asia is pretty nice; you also have to consider much cheaper services that you aren’t going to get in a cheap Deep South city. It has nothing to do with communism or Bible belts.

Also you get access to democracy and safety.

In a nice resort town in SE Asia vs a failing city in the Deep South....I’m not sure which one you are referring to?

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#179

Post by glofish »

Barrin92 wrote: post #138
campee wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'd rather live in a small town in Iowa than Vietnam for that price.

May I ask why that is? I've travelled a fair amount of Asia and Africa over the last decade and I have to say many places are significantly more exciting than a rural or small town in the US. I have not so much personal experience with the US, but my family is from a rural German region and if the US is anything like it (and I suspect it's not too far off), there are many more exciting places out there. The cuisine a…

> Now I'm far from retirement age

that's why you feel this way. After you lived a life and developed social ties and relationships in place it would be impossible to rebuild those in a radically different country.

Statements like "Retire to Vietnam!" are mostly absurd nonsense - really to go to a place you can't even read the signs?. The most valuable asset one has are the social ties - far easier to live in a boring German village where you know most people than in the most dynamic place on Earth where you never lived before.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#180

Post by glofish »

shantly wrote: post #61
labster wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but then you’d have to live in the rural midwest US rather than a beach city. The rural life just isn’t for some people. Also, old people like to retire to warmer places so they don’t feel cold all the time.

They also want to be able to afford housekeepers, gardeners, and cooks at a rate so low they can afford to have all three and still come out cheaper than having one of those in the US.

"afford" is just a way to rephrase "exploit" - due to the fundamentally unfair wealth distribution

you can "afford" a gardener as a retired middle manager only because a lot of poeple in that society are being enslaved

What a great idea! Let's retire there and have slaves!

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