williamgeorgeallen

helping people in debt by loaning them more money? is that sustainable? just watched a documentary on pay day loans. seems much of the world is in the grip of easy credit.

2 minutes ago, colinneil said:

Not all Thai women are money grabbers, OK.

I have been married to 1 who would steal my last baht.

Now i am married to an angel, who has my cards and pin numbers, never touches 1 baht

the trustworthy ones are few and far between. best not to risk it is what i would say. not just the thais, dont risk it with any woman. i trusted one in oz with my credit card. big mistake.

5 hours ago, worgeordie said:

"I have a wife but what does that good does that do?", if shes your wife, you

should trust her ?, if not what are you doing together, just give her your ATM card and pin number

and tell her to go to machine and take out what you require, job done, you're lucky to have her.

 

regards worgeordie 

we need a poll on how many western men trust their thai wives with the pin number to their ATM cards. from what i have seen many woman dont seem to be very good with money, thai ones especially.

31 minutes ago, mikebell said:

My insurance company (Thannachart) is rubbish.  I have emailed Head Office twice in vain.  The 1st agent on the scene had me sign a document at the police station (Sattahip) all in Thai.  When I demurred pointing to his diagram showing my rear end on Sukhumvit, he said it was to enable the boys to get the best of medical treatment.  Months later it appears I accepted responsibility for the accident.  I am seeing a lawyer tomorrow.

ok well you probably know it by now you need good insurance through a good agent. if you are in pattaya i can give you my insurance agents details. when you have a problem you call her and she will come sort everything out. i also have a good lawyer if you need help with that.

6 minutes ago, mikebell said:

See post above -

Up until this accident I was happy.  My life/opinion changed in an instant.  The unfairness of it struck home; I was without transport for over 4 months; facing a criminal charge; and the boys were claiming nearly nine million - since reduced to two. 

I have considered selling up and retiring to Europe.

i would probably consider leaving as well.  i dont understand why your insurance didnt sort the whole mess out. every situation i know like this the insurance company sorts everything out. generally owning a car in thailand is only a small risk. unlike owning property or a business.

i am back in nz till my kids finish school then i will probably retire back to thailand. i am not going to own a car, own property, do any kind of work and am going to stay single.  might even just do 6 months a year to keep life good.

well if they rented a pick up it was more than a drunken prank. this is making big news in thai circles so they will have to pay more than a 500thb fine. maybe a 2000thb fine will be imposed.

17 minutes ago, mikebell said:

What about owning cars?  Would you advise against that? I was waiting to turn right at a road junction when two boys rammed me doing over 90kph.  The police adjudged I was at fault and are aiding the boys claim against me (it started at nearly NINE million; now down to two.)  My crime, presumably, was driving whilst in possession of a white face.

I can't see how you can continue to defend the indefensible.  Thai police are lazy; corrupt; they buy their positions to make money not to 'Serve and Protect' the public.

yes i would advise people against owning cars, but if they do they should have very good insurance. what happened to your insurance?

at no time did i ever in any way defend the cops. never, ever would i do that. never ever.

i understand why the cops are the way they are.

 i accept that the system will not change any time soon.

i accept that to be happy living in thailand you have to live with the system as there is no fighting it.

10 hours ago, optad said:

Frankly, I dislike the appeasement nature of 'just pay' the police because the system could be worse. We know from Chamberlain you onsend these problems down the line or in this example corruption to another generation because you can pay and can't be flucked with the issue.

 

You have also now managed to individualise my generalised points to your circumstances and this flatters neither yourself nor your argument. 

 

Your 'injustices' really have no value in the way you present your scant details other than it sounds like you were trying to beat the system anyhow and deserved your wack. 

you can like it or dislike it, makes no difference. anyone wants to run a business in thailand has to work within the system, like  it or not. we have no choice. 

you want to have a good discussion then it is good if people with first hand experience experience add their 2 cents. i have a fair amount of experience, sounds like you dont. you dont like me adding my experiences on a matter you know very little about. no problem, scroll on past.

i arrived in thailand with my western valves and ideas and tried to do everything right. after some time and problems i had to make a decision. pack up and go home or work with in the system. believe me no foreigner is going to change anything.

1 hour ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Think how fast they'd have been killed if the population had a right to carry weapons.

BTW, criminals in Britain have no problem getting weapons. It's only law abiding people that can't.

america has 5% of the population and 31% of the worlds mass shootings. lots of guns dont make for a safer environment. i am a gun owner and had to go through many checks to become a gun owner. it is a good system. the general population can not be trusted with firearms. i would rater live in a country that is too restrictive regarding firearms than one where any nut job can buy a handgun.

if it is really that easy to get guns in england why arent these guys doing the terror attacks using them?

6 minutes ago, optad said:

So your argument with the police was to pay contra fines because it could be worse, yet you post the above re your work experiences?

 

You realise you do not seem a reliable voice to be heard on topic(s).... 

initially i had problems with the cops with work permit issues. that was before i started paying them a monthly service fee. doubt i would have had the same problems if i was paying them all along, no way to be certain of course. not really sure if i understood your point. does that answer it?

2 hours ago, wirat69 said:

Clearly you did not go to school in Thailand and just ramble on about things you know zilch about!!!

 

Litter, environment and Thai culture are high in the

mind and lessons of the educators. If that in itself was insufficient the late King Bumiphol  taught about preserving the environment and ecology. 

i always wondered why the late king did not tell thais to stop littering. he said to look after stray dogs and their numbers exploded so people obviously listened to him.

as far as the littering goes you cant blame it 100% on the general public, there is simply not enough garbage bins and garbage collection. but of course this  comes back to charging more taxes which is unlikely to happen.

be warned smokers, you fine is about to go from 2000thb to 5000thb for dropping a butt down a drain.

think these time frames are just for the allocation of the budget to allow the work to be done. dispersal of funds is the only thing that happens quickly. is a long and tedious process to try to figure out where the funds went.

if a knife can diffuse a situation like this imagine how good a gun could be.

9 minutes ago, KingKongOfThailand said:

Don't they get a base income? Granted it might not be very high.

i know some cops in the na jomtien station. they start on 4000thb/month. kun jalern the boss told me he gets 30 000thb/month. cop jobs and promotions are expensive so i doubt base salaries even cover those expenses.

1 hour ago, seajae said:

if the police actually did their jobs, left their air conditioned offices, went out on the road in cars and bikes booking all the drivers/riders that broke the law they would make that much money the govt could afford to pay them a much more appropriate wage. Problem is they dont want to have to earn their money  and the govt doesnt want to pay them more, combining both is why they now look for tea money themselves. If the govt paid them and suplied the cars etc so they could be on the roads it would cut the death toll a lot and also raise quite a bit of revenue but no one wants to do it

dont know where to start with this one. almost no one pays tax so the government does not have the money to pay them the police. cops cant crack down too heavily on traffic regulation or they will loose their income. it is not really tea money, it is their livelyhood.  people are not going to pay tax, govt is not going to start paying the cops. cops are not going to kill the golden goose by strictly enforcing traffic laws. not going to happen simple as that, no matter how many ferangs complain.

1 hour ago, optad said:

I enjoyed the read, even like your recalcitrance but it is not an excuse, answer nor progressive pathway forward. Just lite nonsense.

 

This blithe 'acceptance' of the lesser of two evils dichotomy actually imperils every subsequent generation afterwards. Wanting and needing honest policing should not be argued on the premises above. Those that think it is okay have just retired into a selfish space, that suits themselves. I am sure if an injustice was to knock heavily enough upon you, you would see things differently. It is funny how the worm can turn.

injustice knocked pretty heavily on me. i got a one year suspended jail sentence for not having a work permit and about 80 000thb in expenses when i did have a work permit but with the wrong address in it. i understand i cant change the system so i just had to wear it and move on. no one is going to change anything not any time soon.

16 minutes ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

We had two in Patts for 5 years. The money that a poster said was 20k every month. We paid nothing like that, in fact, it was a paltry sum.The bar number's were on his phone. Over the years he saved us from having to pay protection from the Soi gang that tried to intimidate us. He stopped us being bothered by phony licence sellers, telling us that we needed a television licence, a new type of music licence, and a few other tricksters that would appear from time to time. although we never had it kick off in the bars, by felangs, It came close one night when 6 German guys refused to leave the bar, after closing time, due to the match between Germany and Italy, i believe.They were pissed up and getting very noisy,demanding more beer. There wasn't much i could do on my own. We closed the doors and my wife flashed our number to him.He appeared in 10 minutes, and the attitude changed like the wind.They left the bar like sheep, leaving good tips for the girls.Now, for what i was paying, i thought it was well worth while.

But furthermore, what pisses me off is when people complain about corruption, but use it for their own ends.

Eg, Guy gets a  year's bann, in say, the UK, for being caught, drunk driving. His insurance rockets, he loses his licence, cant rent a car, is fined 100 quid, and is inconvenienced no little.

Comes here. Gets a Thai licence, no problem, gets insurance, no problem. Gets pissed up and gets rolled over by plod. He simply slips him 4000 b and he's away. No court case, no ban, insurance stays the same, doesn't lose his licence, and can hire a car from anyone who will rent it to hm. No 1000 quid fine.Whats better UK justice, or Thai police corruption? Unfortunately,the next time he might kill someone, and that will cost him plenty. .

Corruption is a double edged sword

the majority of people dont understand the system and how well it works, at least to some extent. better to pay the cops a set fee and not have to worry about the unregulated crooks. same with the road fines. last one i got i had to pay at the police station. 2 hour inconvenience. why not just hand the money to the cop. it ends up in the same place and often you get a discount.

there is a choice to be made live happy within the system or go live some where else. it is not going to change.

7 minutes ago, mikebell said:

You pay a monthly fee and a cop checks a book inside a police letterbox?  I don't understand what you get for this money.  It sounds like the sort of protection money some of my bar-owning friends pay.  This is pure bribery by you & blackmail by a force whose laughable motto is 'serve and protect.'

A security service in the West does not raid/'fine' the owner if they decide not to pay.

i pay the fee by choice. i could cancel if i wanted to so it is not bribery or blackmail. it is good peace of mind knowing a high up cop and having his phone number.

i am not in the bar business however. that is a different. cant have a work permit for that and generally includes some level of prostitution which we all know is illegal. i would advise foreigners to stay away from owning bars.

1 minute ago, IAMHERE said:

You really think the Japanese army was celibate while in Thailand during WW2?

think all of that has been wiped from the history books. the blip in the relationship where america bombed bangkok has long been forgotten by most, except when un exploded  ordnance is dug up and exploded with a gas cutter while trying to recycle it for scrap.

this is like a comic show. we have thaksin/reds/majority, the yellows/democrats?/minority and the army. lots of talk about democracy and elections but really just a bunch of coups, mostly backed by the democrats who are of course not democratic at all. system just goes in cycles except this time the army is holding on to power for a longer time and trying to continue to hold power behind the scenes. add a lot of populist policies into the mix and we have quite a show.

9 minutes ago, mikebell said:

So you never travel on Thai roads?  

If you were a Pattaya bar owner having to hand over 20K+ protection money every month you might think differently about the way they 'earn' their income.

i suppose i have had a few near misses in pattaya, i am sure i have had some in other countries i lived in as well. i actually dont feel any worse off driving in thailand than i do in new zealand although i sure i am.

i still have my business in pattaya and we pay a monthly fee to have a police letterbox on the front of my shop and a cop comes around and checks the book inside a couple times a week. it is money well spent. no different from paying a security service to do check ups in a western country.

2 minutes ago, mikebell said:

70 people a day die on Thai roads!  Your 10 years = 3650 days not including Leap Years = 255,500 corpses and you feel safe? Any police force doing its job would have cut these figures by 80%.

yes, like i said i always felt safe. the fact is the cops dont get paid to do anything. they basically have to go out and earn their income. you cant keep thing they are the same as a police force in the western world.

i remember shortly after the coup there was a discussion on here with a couple people saying the coup was something to do with the change of the monarchy. they were convinced it was something to do with that. seems it is more about holding power than anything else with the changeover completed.

34 minutes ago, gr8fldanielle said:

The question that should be asked is what are the police doing to reduce the number of deaths on Thai roads? What is Thailand doing to not the considered the 2nd most dangerous roads in the world? The answer is nothing, it's corruption, I mean business as usual.

So worried about finding a way to charge tourists more money, insurance, but nothing to protect their own people. Why is this not being dealt with? Where is the concern for the Thai people?

Why are motorcycles considered different than a car and therefore subject to different laws placing the most common vehicle on the road in constant danger, but easy to fleece using their drag nets.

Take away the commission structure from writing bogus tickets and start policing, start saving lives, and start making Thailand not only safer but not the laughing stock of the world.

This should be the easiest thing to do to save lives, but here corruption reigns! We see it, the Thai people see it, it's so "in your face" it's considered normal at this point.

cops make money off people breaking the law. of course they dont want to stop people breaking the traffic laws. thats where so many people on this forum seem to be confused.

government does not pay enough to have a police force. cops have to make extra income. call it what you want but thailand is a safe country and the system works fairly well. 10 years i always felt safe in thailand. take away the extra income the cops earn and then there would be almost no police force. then thailand would be run by the unregulated criminals. people need to start appreciating/accepting things the way they are. cops have rolled me a few times and i accept it as a type of road user charge.  dont like it dont drive.