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Americans are retiring to Vietnam

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Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>The most valuable asset one has are the social ties - far easier to live in a boring German village where you know most people the problem is though that this is an idealized version of traditional small towns. My parents are still doing fine, but my grandparents were very isolated at the end of their lives because most peers have died off, are too old or sick to go anywhere, and most young people have left too so i…

Everyone can end up lonely and forgotten. It is a problem that is solved by staying involved and becoming part of a community.

Integrating into a foreign culture is orders of magnitude more difficult - for many perhaps impossible at old age.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#242

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…

Going there for sexual tourism?

Projection, much?

No. I did a 5-week exchange program with the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, which led to me networking with a state-owned defense company to develop products for them. This then led to me hiring some grad students and other engineers to prototype a software-defined radio device for said defense company, but the remote-management of that team eventually failed.

Another trip was to attend a defense-related research conference which was hosted at HUST. I had a pre-existing relationship with the conference as it was started in Thailand and I networked with the founders (Thai military officers, some of which had studied in the US).

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#243

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…

>>>The air pollution is something that is being worked on, but honestly it's not really noticable

You consider this "not really noticeable"? [1]

>>>but what place has sewage just flowing by? Seriously name the street and I'll visit it today

Bach Mai, the commercial street east of Bach Khoa (Hanoi University of Science and Technology). Have you not noticed the filth that gets dumped in the streets from all those little restaurants?

>>>Also have you considered staying outside the foreigner bubble? (I bet you're probably in Quảng An). Go see the real Hanoi, outside of menus that are in English and don't even have Vietnamese on them.

What "foreigner bubble"? I've only known 4 foreigners in Hanoi: 2 European women from Tinder, and 2 other black guys who were exchange students at HUST. Everyone else I know in Hanoi is Vietnamese, and mostly Hanoi natives. Over those six trips I only spent 2 weeks at the serviced apartment in Quang An (I ate the excellent room service there almost exclusively and that was the one trip I didn't get sick). Most of the time I've been in Hang Bai or Bach Khoa because most of my engineers lived there, or out west at Cau Giay where my client's office was located.

I had a local date take me to eat snails and bird eggs (similar to balut in the Philippines, but much smaller). Another date took me to her favorite restaurant for Ga Tan, some sort of blackened bird soup. I went on a weekend camping trip to Ham Lon (Pig Jaw Lake/Mountain) with about a dozen Vietnamese, as the only foreigner. We barbecued meat that had been waterlogged the whole day because the styrofoam "icebox" failed early in the trip. I still ate it. When we returned to Hanoi we had some sort of big duck stew together.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UnmvQTBj7cYNMHrq7

"Foreigner bubble"....scoffs

[1]https://vietnaminsider.vn/why-hanoi-and-hcm-city-ranked-amon...

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#244

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…

>>>>>>One other thing that the article dangerously omits is the fact that food hygiene and/or safety testing is still pretty much non-existent even in the richest parts of Vietnam. >>>I've also spent about 6 months in Vietnam, cumulatively over 6 six trips. I've gotten brutally sick on 5 of those 6 visits. The lack of sanitation is the #1 reason I don't think I could EVER live there, no matter how much money I had. Y…

>>>Would be faster if you have a local to tell you what's safe and what isn't.

The locals taking me to their favorite holes-in-the-wall to eat was what usually made me sick. When I pressed them to go to more upscale restaurants with the caveat that I was paying, I think that helped.

The one weekend I spent in HCMC I didn't get sick, but I spent the whole time dining at some really upscale places with a chubby foodie (I swiped right on her for exactly that reason..."She looks like she eats well").

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#245

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 ate everything that I saw in Vietnam. Street food, restaurant food, food down dark allies. For months. Only had ONE single issue. For an hour. That's it. There may be something more going on here?

Maybe you have a really strong stomach? I've spent weeks in Thailand, often in pretty rural areas, and never got sick there either. But it's not like I'm the only one having problems with Hanoi's food:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09567...

https://www.who.int/features/2015/food-safety-interview/en/

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All except the smallest employers are required by law to provide health insurance to full-time employees and may have employees contribute up to only 10% of their household income. I did some random shopping for a typical family of 5 and found a max rate of ~$1600/mo for insurance premiums. You would only pay this if you were self-employed, part-time employed at a pretty shitty job, or unemployed and run out of the v…

I find the idea that employers should have anything to do with healthcare quite revolting. Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government for which you should pay taxes. This and some other reasons are why I cannot fathom living in the US under 250K a year.

> Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government

No, health care should be between me and my physician and whatever other experts I decide to consult. The government has no business meddling in it.

Health insurance or health care cost sharing might be things we could arrange cooperatively through government, but it doesn't seem like it's possible to do that without having the government try to meddle in what care people get.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#247
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the idea that employers should have anything to do with healthcare quite revolting. Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government for which you should pay taxes. This and some other reasons are why I cannot fathom living in the US under 250K a year.

> Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government No, health care should be between me and my physician and whatever other experts I decide to consult. The government has no business meddling in it. Health insurance or health care cost sharing might be things we could arrange cooperatively through government, but it doesn't seem like it's possible to do that without having the government try to meddle in w…

Well then there will be a variable cost depending on the treatment you need and the prices that the market decides. No amount of money in your bank could give you any financial security as you are basically one accident, surgery or even treatment away from bankruptcy. It could be that this one pill you need is suddenly priced at a million dollars a pill and you cant survive anymore. (Hypothetically can happen in a totally free market).

I for one wouldn't like this level of risk with something so vital to my wellbeing. I would rather prefer that the government took this risk on my behalf of me and just charged me a flat rate throughout my life. (Btw this is the case already in almost all developed countries)

In general there are some things where government intervention is needed. Police, Education, Healthcare and Pension as these things cannot have a totally variable cost decided by a free market.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#248
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Healthcare should be a deal between you and the government No, health care should be between me and my physician and whatever other experts I decide to consult. The government has no business meddling in it. Health insurance or health care cost sharing might be things we could arrange cooperatively through government, but it doesn't seem like it's possible to do that without having the government try to meddle in w…

Well then there will be a variable cost depending on the treatment you need and the prices that the market decides. No amount of money in your bank could give you any financial security as you are basically one accident, surgery or even treatment away from bankruptcy. It could be that this one pill you need is suddenly priced at a million dollars a pill and you cant survive anymore. (Hypothetically can happen in a to…

> It could be that this one pill you need is suddenly priced at a million dollars a pill and you cant survive anymore. (Hypothetically can happen in a totally free market).

No, it can't, because in a totally free market nobody would have monopoly rights to produce particular drugs or provide particular treatments, so if one provider tried to charge a price nobody who needed the treatment could afford, they would go out of business. If it proved to be impossible for anyone to make the drug or provide the treatment at a price anyone could afford, then that would be a failure of the free market, yes; but it's an extremely unlikely failure mode as compared with the much more common failure modes of government granted monopolies and government determined prices.

That said, in a democratic country if the majority shares your risk preference, then that majority can vote for politicians who will enact it:

> I would rather prefer that the government took this risk on my behalf of me and just charged me a flat rate throughout my life.

And that would be a form of cost sharing, which I mentioned--all taxpayers share the costs of expensive treatments, on the assumption that only a small percentage of them will actually end up having an illness that incurs those costs.

However, that still only protects you on the assumption that in fact only a small percentage of people end up having the costly illnesses. But the illnesses people are generally worried about with respect to high costs--cancer, heart disease, arterial sclerosis leading to a high risk of stroke, liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes--are not that rare. So either we keep paying more and more taxes as a higher and higher percentage of people have the illness, to the point where we are just as badly off as if we each paid our own costs individually, or many people end up not getting the treatments at all because there isn't enough money to go around, so the risk you thought you were offloading to the government is back on you again.

This scheme also ignores the possibility of making the treatments cheaper. But the way to do that is to allow free market competition; we don't have that in the US since prices are not set by supply and demand but by a combination of government agencies and private health insurance companies.

> In general there are some things where government intervention is needed. Police, Education, Healthcare and Pension as these things cannot have a totally variable cost decided by a free market.

This is not the obvious truth you appear to think it is. It is an extremely strong claim which is not at all clearly established by actual historical evidence.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#249
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the submissive part. Go ahead marry into an Asian family I double dog dare you.

So true. I grew up in SE Asia and although women there are not as independent as the ones in the west, they can be pretty passive aggressive/manipulative/controlling in the household. One may not notice it right away, but once you're married or have been with them for a while, you'll start noticing that. That's why there's the saying in my country that roughly translates to something like "Woman is key of the househo…

Work friend married a Thai American lady. First few years were fine. Then they had a baby girl and his mother in law and aunt's thumb came down hard.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically some of the SEA countries probably have better medical services than Tokyo. You guys are criticizing me for calling Asia a monolith but I can assure you the difference between Tokyo and Myanmar is smaller than NYU and the Midwest

Some of the best medical centers in the country are in the Midwest...

Very true. But for every Cleveland Clinic there are a hundred other midwestern cities that lack a similar tier institution, but you might have three similar institutions to CC in NYC or on the west coast to choose from. Having to drive over an hour to see your specialist while you are senile is not ideal, but is a reality for a lot of people in the midwest by virtue of the sprawl and low density of services.
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