NorthernRyland

As best as I can but I don't think she was listening or could understand me. None of these people speak any English, that girl may have not been Thai even. The rest of the kids in there know me and never had any problems. I would guess most Thai absent of understanding why I'm giving them too much money would just accept it and let the computer tell them what to do. Honestly good on her for speaking up and trying to think for herself. I wish more Thai people did that.

The other day at Lotus' I made a purchase for 181 baht and paid with a 1000. Because my change was going to be 819 baht and not divide evenly into bills I tried to give the girl and extra baht coin so I would get back 820, all paper no coins. Well the girl refused. I tried to explain to her why I wanted this but she continued to refuse so I gave up. After I got my change back I told her , look at all these coins this isn't what I didn't want. Of course she just gave me the blank stare Thais use when they "play dead" to avoid confrontation. To be fair this is the first time this ever happened. I told my landlord about this later and asked what was up and she just said it was a village girl and it's to be expected.

wait, you're making 400 pounds in how many hours?? what do you do? Sounds like consultant or lawyer. My brother has done some consultancy in Bangkok and around Thailand helping to design kitchens for resorts and makes some fat cash too.

I don't know what I would buy. More expensive whiskey and gummy bears probably. I guess if I wanted to waste money I could let my wife buy some junk she doesn't need. 🤷

what are you buying that costs so much? A Thai family with one kid would be spending less than half of that and have house and car payments.

Could be so. I only know what my wife earns and she's a manager so she tells me how much some of the other employees earn. Sometimes I see a for hire sign and of course we know the minimum wage. The rest is deduction.

The point of the thread was supposed to talk about why this happens and now here we are. 😂

Top hit from Google.

It comes with authentic illegal Burmese workers as neighbors also. You can sit outside in the evening and barbecue birds on the patio. It's a really family friendly environment.

I'm just trying to make sense of this. If you have any information to contribute please do.

well yeah American middle class is hurting and that's why they're upset. What do you think this is all about anyways? 39k USD per year is hard so you need two incomes to even start scratching the surface and with house prices you may be stuck renting or in a high stress mortgage for 30 years. Not good times to be an American on the lower levels.

These are 1,500/month. One room and a fan. You can't lose!

It costs 300k a year to raise a family in Bangkok really? That's as much as middle class Americans in a major city would be spending. 120,000 USD per year is high income for any country in any city.

That's about right in my estimation also. What "Thai middle class" means may not be clear either. I'm thinking of the suburban family that drives a new car (financed) and has a mortgage on a two story home in a project and takes their kids to the mall on the weekends to eat at some Japanese chain restaurant. So debt, two full time jobs and not much free time. Sound familiar? Personally this lifestyle horrifies me and is one of the primary reasons I don't want to live in America.

I just made a thread about this and it accumulated a number of interesting economic figures. The short answer is it varies widely and no one agrees. 😂 Oh great, that picture of the tumor a user posted become the thumbnail. How lovely.

My first year in Thailand in 2005 my budget was $400 month but USD to THB was over 40. My rent was 4000/month (which was hugely overpriced looking back) and Thai food was 20 baht per plate. There were some American breakfast places that maybe 100 baht but you get bored of those more than once a week. Easy to make the budget back then. These days you'd be screwed I think. I haven't dug too hard but the people earning 10k I know don't have rent by some means and are the types that are distinctly awkward eating in restaurants unless they're the absolute bottom on the barrel places, noodles and such. Even at 50-60 baht for most food now they'd be hurting if they ate fried rice outside once a day. Not so bad though, we always cooked at home in the US and going out all the time is annoying too.

before I started watching YouTube channels about YouTube during COVID I literally did not know anyone spent that much in Thailand. 🙂 That's about the median income in the USA and ~5x the median in Thailand so the top %1 of earners probably. This must be in Bangkok, Phuket, Samui etc...? I could not spend that much if I wanted to. I would need to move and go out of my way to find a house far too big for me and eat out as much as possible.

I see the most on YouTube comments. I think they are very fresh expats or people planning on moving to Thailand. The forum members here despite our usual cynical and bitter nature seem to be more realistic and understanding.

to my points, some people live in areas which don't reflect anything of the national average and they think 20k/month is dirt cheap where for most Thais this is a sizable mortgage they will pay off over 30 years like the rest of us.

Thailand is nice because you can find cheap housing anywhere. US totally screws you there. If you're making a top salary position in NYC rent chews up all your money. If you can avoid the trappings of the city you could save mega baht and retire early. That's what I would do.

Saw this English guy on X visiting Pattaya the first time. Indians everywhere he says! "These tourists are horrific, especially the Indians. F*** me. ...barfing sound...." 😂

It's been a long time since I ate ice cream at the mall but there was often the old farang sitting there and eyeing the girls. This was you? 😂

The company my wife works for hires the laborers and cleaners only 11 months of the year to avoid some labor laws. These people crawl by on 8000 baht per month and then are out of work for 1 month a year yet they keep coming back because it's actually a good place to work besides that. We hire a couple of the women to do extra cleaning and whatever. The men are hopeless. Drunks, dangerously low IQ and generally shiftless. I almost feel like it's charity hiring them for 8000/month because they can actually cost more than they're worth.

What job is this and where? She's earning close to the US median salary in Thailand. This is a huge amount of money in Thailand I personally couldn't spend that if I wanted to. (100000/33.5)*12=$35,820

These are the things that kill peoples budgets and put people in debt. If you're an American even that $9000/year could be make or break and was it really worth it? That's $23/day which is fast food meal these days in some cities.