Roy Baht

So you're re-posting the same thread that was posted less than 24 hours ago (albeit under a different category)? And your point? A bank making money off charging fees? That's what you're complaining about? Banks charging fees for services is nothing new, neither in the West nor in Thailand.  If you can't even afford the bank fees, then retirement in Thailand may not be for you.

8 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

“ This will be the last generation of retired expats coming to Thailand “

The extinction of the Western expat retiree has already begun and has been going on for more than 5 years. The key factor to observe (as in the extinction of any species) is replacement rate. Years ago, when a Western expat retiree passed away, he (and it was usually a he) was replaced by 1 - 3 new retirees. Now, he is simply not replaced. The cause of this decline has more to do with global geopolitics (especially the restrictions placed on the movement of both people & money implemented in the wake of the "9-11" terrorist attacks) and global economics (the rise of China in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08)--more to do with these factors than with specific measures taken by the Thai government.

The question was asked, what would happen to the Thai economy if all the expats who live here were to leave, many seem to think that would cause the country serious financial pain or maybe even collapse…..here’s a look at the math:

Let’s say there are Western 200,000 expats in Thailand, that’s a mix of farang retirees and those working here…see the link below for how this figure was calculated;

Let’s be really generous and say that each farang expat uses the money in the bank method and each has one million baht in Thai banks, that amounts to THB 200 billion or USD 6.7 bill. Thai GDP is around USD 500 billion so up to this point farang money is worth about 1.4% of GDP, a more precise calculation would probably show it to be under 1% per year.

What about cars, motor bikes, houses and condo’s I hear you say, OK, let’s triple the figure and say it’s 3% of GDP or even 5% and that’s being super generous! So if every foreign expat sold up and left on the same day, the Thai economy would suffer a one time hit equal to 5% of GDP or about USD 33.5 billion. 5% of GDP is a lot of money but there again it’s not earth shattering, it’s only about equal to a GDP increase in a good year so I suspect the country would get by.

What about the banks you ask? Well, Bank of Ayudyah is owned by Bank Mitusbishi and they have over USD 2.5 trillion in assets so I guess they wouldn’t care that much. SCB is over USD 1 trillion in assets, as is Bangkok Bank, I know assets is not the same as deposits and granted it would cause some upset but it looks like they could get through it all OK.

We could try and zero in a more accurate number but there would be much debate about who spends what so I’ve purposely gone to the very high side, you can take your own view of what that number is in the range of USD 16 to 33.5 billion.

Conclusion: overall impact of all expats pulling all their assets out of Thailand on the same day, negligible to none!

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1114408-the-mystery-of-exactly-how-many-expats-live-in-thailand/

https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/gdp

They're only empty in the daytime. Go at either dawn or dusk and you'll see Thais exercising, jogging, biking, etc.

160 kgs is a lot of coral.

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

The astonishing thing about social media, from my point of view, is the number of incredibly petty things, like this sign, which in reality means nothing, that "go viral". What does it mean? What bearing does it have on anything? Does the world really have that much time on their hands, where they have to break tiny, incredibly insignificant things like this down? Is that what we have been reduced to? Is that not a very alarming statement about contemporary culture? 

No. This has been a good discussion. Many points of view have been raised. Multiple perspectives considered. For the most part, logically and politely. No flames or trolling that the mod had to remove. This is TV at its best. It's food for thought and everybody feeds.

3 minutes ago, Sticky Wicket said:

The main problem is with customers who want to add/take something off an existing item on the menu i.e. fussy eaters or with allergies etc.

Most people even if they can't speak Thai can point at the item they want, it's not rocket science!

I've seen most problems when a non Thai speaker is trying to alter a meal in English. You can literally see the server's head spinning

Start asking for sunny side up eggs or crispy bacon & well done toast in English and you are bound to <deleted> up the whole order

A Thai server's nightmare:
 

Sounds like a place where they mishear your order and bring you the wrong food--then say don't complain. ????

Pretty common driving practice here--especially among "professional" drivers: taxis, tuk-tuks, minivans.