Early Retirement Extreme Forums

Someone told me today buying a left hand drive camper van is much cheaper in the uk, and ideal if you are driving to the mainland.

Otherwise, it's very interesting how all the countries in the world who have yet to get things under control also happen to be under the leadership of various combinations of populism and illiberal democracies. It will also be interesting to see if Corona discredits populism or increases it. Whethe...

I've seen Jennifer before...

Nice article about Swiss people moving back to the mountains, a country I have long admired deeply.

https://stories.swissinfo.ch/how-the-sw ... ins#223321

Obviously, if you have a passport that allows it, the move it trivial. E.g. a EU passport allows you to live and work in any EU country just by moving there. As far as I understand a Commonwealth passport allows the same for UK, CA, NZ, AU? Unfortunately not. There are reciprocal Visa schemes which...

We think about doing this all the time - it's 6th July and I was just commenting to fellow parents on the school run that it's freezing cold today! You must be up north, I've got all my windows open and it's still too warm today :lol: Britain has unfairly bad reputation on climate, it rarely gets t...

I got Irish citizenship after Brexit to stay an EU citizen, on the basis of ancestry. Some other countries do the same. Not that I have any intention of ever living in Ireland. I have considered living part of the year in Portugal though. Though the climate is getting hotter, lockdown has been an en...

Ya chenda, would you say it is done for selfish reasons than some generous "preserving our way of life" or "protecting our culture"? Well I don't know. Protecting the culture and way of life is definitely part of it, but you can't really expect a young zoroastrian women to only choose from a tiny p...

ERE level skills cannot be preserved for generations though unless Zorastrian [Parsee] zeal to marry only within the [tightly knit] community. And with their refusal to allow conversions and exclusion of women who marry outsiders, means they are slowly dieing out. And are suffering heredity health ...

Lee Kuan Yew off of Singapore once said 'If anyone tries to take me on they know I'll don knuckle dusters and meet them in a cul-de-sac. Its the only way you can govern a Chinese society'.

FRx wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:14 pm

The goals isn't to prevent the spread of the disease. That's not possible. So any argument towards that effect seems counterproductive based on the knowledge I have as a physician.

Could you expand on this as my non-medical understanding is that this is exactly the whole point of the lockdown ?

Campitor wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 28, 2020 4:01 pm

I'm not surprised people are ignoring any stay at home orders. It's hard to argue about being responsible and social distancing when weeks of doing the opposite was parading across the screen daily with all the riots.

All the more reason to.

I once saw a psychiatrist who I later saw on his Twitter feed made a few off-the-cuff political comments. Nothing especially controversial but I immediately felt our relationship was irreparabley comprised and I couldn't see him again. He was no longer the neutral professional which he needed to be....

Boris is apparently going to open up travel to Spain, Italy and Greece and waive the 14 quarantine on return. I can understand the desire to salvage the holiday season but it seems very risky for all concerned. But in truth I'd love to get away sometime this year. Aeroplanes seem high risk, but mayb...

Yes, I've just been to the supermarket and other than myself nobody was wearing a mask. Distancing rules seemed to have gone out the window. We seem set to drag this out for as long as we can. Its unbelievable, appalling to see the crowds at Bournemouth beach today. Given that Germany is experience...

Interestingly, new cases in the US seem to be increasing the fastest in Southern areas where summer heat drives people indoors. Whereas this spring, they were centered in Northern areas where winter cold drives people indoors. Coincidence I'm sure. Here the unprecedented heat wave is driving people...

For example England decided to break away from the EU. No it didn't, the UK did ;) But yes, the EU is a collection of small to medium size countries, which are generally highly urbanised and I think that has big impact on the culture and politics. Corona outcomes seemed to have varied considerably ...

jacob wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 23, 2020 2:21 pm

@ Seems to draw on Aristotle too?

Yes and also perhaps on Walter Lippmann, who described the public as 'the bewildered herd'. I'd be interested to hear your take on it if you read it : )

Afterwards I want nothing but peace.

@Jacob - agreed, it's a fine line and there is no obvious solution to this problem. Although I wonder if this plays out or is perceived differently in more collectivist cultures like Japan. You may be interested a book called Against Democracy by Jason Brennan, where he advocates Epistocracy instead...