Sweet

I don’t think cubs is saying illegal immigration is driving up housing prices, but legal isn’t. He’s saying the number renting drives demand and illegals are a large part of the surge. In the U.K. we had 10 million immigrants (legal / illegal / asylum) in the last 10 or so years, bumping our population from 60 million to 70 million, and our moron politicians can’t figure out why house prices and rent are going up, or are pretending not to know.

Yeh some dudes have lost their mind, but need to remember that Trump is a vaccine for woke. It wasn’t too long ago that men were women, you were a bigot for not agreeing so, kids should be injected with hormones, white privilege means you can’t have an opinion, can’t talk about immigration without being a racist, discrimination in college admissions…. Pretty long list. And I’d say that many of the aforementioned ills haven’t really gone away either, Trump is great in some ways but terrible in others too.

Decent list, though in fairness the quote should really be attributed to Buffett.

I’m of the same opinion. Anxiety has become a big thing, there are huge numbers of people in the U.K. claiming they are incapable of working and getting a government cheque to sit at home because they got a medical note saying their anxiety was so crippling it prevents them from working. Think the number is well north of half a million. When I was entering the workforce this was unheard of but it’s directly downstream of broadening out categories of ill health and disability. On my son. We got some suggestions from the state speech therapist. It’s flash cards on a page and basically he’s to come and point at what he wants. I get this is supposed to help communication but part of me wonders if it takes away the need to talk too. I mean the little fella is lazy, he would happily sit there and let me spoon fed him his food so he could continue playing with his toys - I refuse to do it anymore. So part of the help also feels like enabling.

Don’t trust Wikipedia Charlie. See the talk section on that article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Democratic_backsliding_in_the_United_States Wikipedia cannot be neutral which their editors are biased. I used to contribute to some articles on Wikipedia but stopped because the editors wouldn’t allow some facts they didn’t like to be included in the article.

I think don’t think this is true Charlie. Case in point above law by the EU.

Any word on this @Loss Horizon? Crap like this is why I voted Leave in 2016.

I rarely watch it anymore either. In part because of the dramatics.

Dunno Greg. I know loads of sports guys that don’t give a crap about beating their best opponent, and want any little advantage they can get so they can win. I can also tell you don’t watch much football, because the ease at which football players regularly fall over looking for a free kick, or a penalty, for even the lightest of touches, is embarrassing, and is a direct counter to the point you are making.

I’m afraid the usual suspect injected politics into it again.

lol , I know, and all those policies have been bad for Europe and good for everyone else.

they need to apply tariffs to protect their industry

Democracy is an exercise in populism. I keep seeing populism being framed universally bad. It isn’t. I’m from Europe, and anybody who doesn’t think there are issues with free speech in our continent aren’t seeing straight. You should be allowed to criticise politicans, policies, cultures, immigration, whatever. Everyone agrees there is a line somewhere but we haven’t got it right. In my life time there has certainly been a rolling back of free speech.

May have been posted already: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0gp88q4l4o Poland’s prime minister has said the country is preparing for “various” scenarios and that the coming months could be “critical” concerning the threat from Russia. Donald Tusk was responding to media reports that Moscow was planning an armed "provocation" in Poland to test Nato's resolve, citing US intelligence. "I don't mean to scare anyone but the coming months may truly be critical, also due to the changing nature of the war. These concerns are particularly palpable in the Baltic states," Tusk told reporters on Friday. Polish news outlet Onet reported that sources close to President Karol Nawrocki had said the US had issued several warnings to Warsaw about a plot to attack the country. The White House and US State Department did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment. Under the purported plans, also published by the Telegraph in the UK on Friday, Polish infrastructure could be targeted by missiles or drones, or soldiers could be sent into the Nato state.”

‘Hate speech’ is permitted in the US though.

That’s good on paper but in practise it really hurts free speech. What people regarding as insulting or hateful differs dramatically. Some consider talk or stopping immigration hateful for example.

I didn’t try it in the end. I’m a bit like yourself, for me quality of the company is very important. I also think I’m need to know the company too, I’m not going to buy some random bank I’ve never seen or heard of, trading at 0.5 book… or whatever. So just couldn’t see myself ever actioning these types of ideas.

thanks both for these stories. My son is most definitely wired differently, he thinks of thinks in ways that nobody in my family does… he’ll have a unique intelligence if he can just get the words out, I’m feel confident. Saluki, lots of factors matter. Prematurity is one of them. Take your kid everywhere you go, they’ll probably be just fine.

Thanks @Charlie I got the article and got it translated. I think it is sad that as a society we aren’t having more kids, plus I agree with the point, we are trying to over diagnose. I keep saying to my wife, that years ago people just on with things and don’t overthink it, and most of them turned out ok. @Xerxes and @Castanza I agree part of it is societal. We’ve set quite a rigid path for kids nowadays something counter to our entire history. It’s funny you mention school, I was recently thinking the same, and I’m fully expecting complaints from teachers already.

@Artha158 thanks for these suggestions. I knew Sowell had one book on late-speaking children, which I am actually reading, but didn't realise he had another one. I must get it. Seems from his first book is that there is no pattern in why late-speaking kids just suddenly start speaking. @Castanza funny you mention that. My colleague at work, his wife is a child psychologist who provides autism diagnoses, and she says much the same thing, kids do strange things, and there is a overdiagnoses in kids. Not to take away from autism, I think it can be very serious, but it is odd that in a age of accepting everyone as being unique and diverse that we have to slap a disabled label on so many - I feel it devalues other much more severe ailments. @Blugolds as a fellow dad of twins, firstly I salute you. You will know that life outside of work is just chaos until they go to bed each night, and even then you have the room wrecked. My two sleep in the same room and every night take out all the toys and books they can get their hands on and spread them over the floor. One has also in the hot weather decided they want to sleep entirely naked, and thought he would pee in the corner one night, funny now, wasn't that morning. We also have a younger boy, so three boys in total. It's a mad house. It's hard not to compare with other kids, I remember meeting a young girl in the playground one time, who was obviously much younger than my twins, who had this amazing vocabulary. I could have a full conversation with her, I asked her mum what age she was - 18 months. I couldn't believe it.... especially since at the time neither of my boys pushing on 2 and half said a word lol! I have a gut instinct about my 4 year old minimally verbal boy will be fine. Fingers crossed. @lnofeisone thanks for that. Yes I feel play based in the way to go, I try to do a lot of it at home. I feel like once I can get a few words consistently a dam will just break. @Charlie my wife also would say things about our boys. I get there are bad moments, but at the same time, I think when considering your child you really need to think about what they will be like at 25 years old. I keep that in my head, I've never seen a 25 year just sprinting around the office with too much energy lol, some of the crazy stuff kids do I know they will grow out of. If you should find that article could you link it please? Would be interested in the perspective. @Errold we have tried similar things, flash cards, books, Mrs Rachel. Nothing helping on the speaking front. Yet the understanding and general behaviour has been consistently improving. Hoping for that lightbulb moment, I would take hours of talks about pokemon cards for sure! Did you buy NTDOY off the back your conversations LOL? @Paarslaars thanks for your story. We have some minor issues early in life which required surgery for my late-speaking kid and I was in and out of A&E and hospital a few times. Life was stressful then as covid had delayed routine operations. I think I got a stomach ulcer from it all that required 3 months of anti-acids to resolve it. So I know the pit you would have walked around with in your stomach with your eldest at times, and I can't imagine living that for 6 years. I agree too, you want the best for them, you want them to do x , y , z but you still love them regardless. I had to think back to a few things, where my boy picked something up, and you're right, it is a moment you treasure more knowing it wasn't the straightforward journey for them. Here is hope that your eldest girl continues to make improvements. Overall, I am surprised at just how many of you were, or have had late talking kids. The Sowell book suggests that people quite analytical, which I suppose investors would be, and those in the likes of sciences, finance or engineering, seem to have kids that speak late... very interesting overall.

Lol! Do you know if your parents were worried or you referred for an assessment? Thank you for this. I get very frustrated at times, but when I stand back I realise that my frustration is borne out of a supposed expectation of what a child should do at age x. My father says kids don’t follow a manual and develop at their own pace. Your son sounds a bit like mine. He too has some traits which might be a symptom to those who don’t know him. He probably had more of them when he was younger but has largely grown out of them. However my instinct is that, yes he is different, but it’s not autism. My feeling is that it is a speech delay which has knock on effects to other things which involve communication. I feel fairly confident, but I could be wrong. Until he speaks we won’t know for sure. Regarding the therapist who your son took to. Did she practise any kind of specific therapy like play based, or the Colorado method or ABA?

Thanks to @73 Reds @Parsad @thepupil and @lnofeisone for your replies. I’ll admit it has been a lonely slog. Couple of things, I’m from the UK, so everything has a waiting list! He’s on a development assessment (autism included) and hearing assessment waiting list. He also is with the NHS speech therapists who sees him bi-monthly. In addition, we have him seeing a private speech therapist fortnightly, she says that until something clicks, or you find a way to drag just a few communicative words out of him, you just have to wait and when it does come it will be a flood. She’s confident he will speak and that he understand a lot. She says that unlike many children she sees with speech issues, he is by some way the best natured and most attentive. No tantrums or anything like that. All of which is very encouraging. We have also approached school and mentioned his speaking, and that he has a communication delay, and we will be working to get him a classroom assistant for his first school year. I should also say that he is only partly potty trained even approaching four! Thankfully he was born at the very start of the school year and will be the eldest in class so he still has 14 months before he starts. Regarding autism diagnoses, I’ll admit I was and continue to be skeptical. I won’t go into it much, but I will say that in the course of my lifetime it was a debilitating condition recognisable at 100 yards, to something were the people who are autistic appear indistinguishable from anyone else. My worry about such a diagnosis at a young age is that it bounds him to lower expectation and differential treatment which is simply unnecessary and ultimately damaging. If I close my eyes, and think about him when he’s 25, I can see a well adjusted young man… provided he speaks because everything else fixes itself. It’s really the key to bringing on his behaviours. It’s a tough call, and I’m not arrogant enough to think I have it right, so that’s why he is part of the aforementioned programmes. If it becomes clear he does in fact have autism, or some other development issue, we can get whatever support he needs. I’m fortunate that he is obsessed with books. I have been reading to him but I need to do more of it, much more maybe. A few other things about him. He’s a twin! He has a brother who was also a late speaker, he didn’t speak until he was 3 and now he won’t shut up. His twin brother speaks for him all the time, and whilst he is kind and loving, his brother is a dominant character. Finally, I didn’t know this until we had children, but on my wife’s side there is a pattern of high IQ boys who speak late. At least three relatives who didn’t speak until 4 or 5 and who otherwise turned out fine and intelligent. So yes, a lot to think about, and even from the replies in this thread, it seems to be a more common that many know.

Part of the reason for me posting this thread, in addition to hearing all the cool things people are doing with their kids, is that I have one boy who will be four in the next month who doesn’t speak. He knows words, occasionally says words (animals, numbers etc) but he doesn’t really use words to communicate - he’ll take my hand and show me what he wants instead. He’s clearly very intelligent, understands a lot of things I say, and has an unusual memory and eye for detail which is well beyond his peers, but obviously well behind with verbal and communication skills. The biggest issues with his non-speaking is the low expectations of others, and others who hint at certain diagnoses. It’s also going to be a problem when he entered more formal education in the next 18 months - if he isn’t speaking by then. I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and what advice they might offer.

Whether your own children, or your nephews / nieces, or whatever, in my view they are the only investment that really matters. I know that many on the board have cool things they do with their kids. Would be great if you could share some of those things as ideas for others. I know others are thinking about how to teach their kids about finance, and I’ve seen it in other threads. Some of you also have challenges with kids in your life and this might be a place to speak about that.

Median wealth in many European countries is higher, some much higher, than the median wealth in America. America has higher median income, not really sure where all that goes. I think Spek overall is right. Americans just have a lot more go than Europeans. Good and bad sides to that.