sidneybear

Nope. Are you?

She's nearly at nine holes.

This man sticks around like a fart in a lift.

Who would have known that being prepared makes life less risky? Now we'll have to buy his book to read more statements of the obvious.

In other words, another lefty think tank doesn't think Thailand is woke enough.

The CDC report shows medical facts and data on the detrimental effects of dope on the human brain. You think that business interests driven by the profit to be made from dope are more believable than the CDC though. Next you'll be saying that McDonald's is health food.

Surely you can't be so uninformed: https://www.cdc.gov/cannabis/health-effects/brain-health.html The dope lobby is quite powerful, but it can't get around the inconvenient truth about the negative effects of cannabis on mental health. All people think about is the cost of dope shops closing, rather than the cost of lost productivity. JHC Dude!!! .... *sniggering at you*

What about the economic damage caused by people being stoned all the time? Dope makes people lazy.

Colds have always had lots of variants, so this isn't news.

I got pinged by the Australian Taxation Office once. They sent me a list of each and every remittance I'd made into Australia. Then they asked me to show them where the money had come from, and whether it was derived from savings or foreign income. I had to prove I was non resident, which wasn't that easy. This was over ten years ago, and data matching technology always improves, so don't take it for granted that your security is because of your obscurity.

They will have the resources. In many countries data matching remittances with tax returns is done automatically. The onus will be on the taxpayer (you) to show them where the money comes from.

Maybe the Revenue Department insists that international remittances are correctly marked, for personal income tax assessment reasons.

Their last Baht didn't disappear into thin air though. Lots of people made a tidy profit from the weed boom.

Not all of us here are insulting people for using cannabis. The purpose of this thread is to discuss legislation, so it's expected that some people will be for the upcoming changes, and some will be against. Accusing everyone of alcohol abuse who has a view that differs from yours is just plain silly. It makes one wonder whether cannabis has affected your ability to hold polite conversations about the effects of cannabis on society, and the reasons why it might need to be controlled. Right now, cannabis is as available as candy, and its effects on young people in particular are harmful. Yes, alcohol can be harmful too if it is abused - we all know that - but why does that mean other nasty substances should be made available too? What next? Attractively branded heroin "dispensaries" on every street corner?

Discussion is the raison d'être of a discussion forum. If everyone agreed with everyone else, there would be no more discussion, and no more forum. All you do is accuse people who disagree with you of being drunkards, which is a really daft way to conduct a conversation.

You said it yourself: Enforcement happens in the west that doesn’t happen in Thailand. In the west, they'll always bust you and pin huge fines on you for even minor traffic offences. Western countries have gigantic, parasitic governments that are hugely expensive to support. Thailand is much more flexible, and cheaper to get yourself out of trouble, which is why we love the place.

But it's a lot less regulated than the West

There are reasons: 1) Envy: Most people who come here love Thailand, even if they don't admit it, but resent the fact that they aren't Thai and don't get the same rights as the locals. 2) Arrogance: Many people come over here feeling superior (even though they're not). They look down their noses at any culture that's different from the crime ridden and degenerate dumps that they came from. 3) Inability to adapt: Others come here and become disillusioned at the differences in the way Thais do things. These people suffer from culture shock and desperately try to change Thailand to resemble their home country, which of course is never going to happen.

That's right. Banks operate on a fractional reserve system, whereby they don't need to hold deposits in reserve that equal the value of the money they lend. This means that they produce loans out of thin air.

Australia taxes property too, in the form of council rates, as do most places.

So don't drive then.

True. Look at places like Australia, where housing has been made unaffordable to most people who don't already own a house. Savers are penalised, inflation destroys wealth, and small increases in interest rates are a national emergency, because everyone is buried under huge mortgages.

Interesting. But as you say, Burmese or Cambodian bank accounts aren't as useful as Thai accounts, due to challenges transferring funds in and out, insolvency risk, etc. The fact remains that Thailand, as an established member of the global financial system, has been quite slack on eligibility requirements.

Wise is a bit hit and miss, which is disconcerting when there's money involved, and when they're so opaque about what's happening to your money when hold ups occur. I've had some transfers take seconds, other similar transfers take days. Once I had a transfer invesigated then cancelled just for putting my wife's nickname in the transaction reference box. This having already declared the purpose of the transaction. I got refunded, after several days, but I've given up using them for all but small sums of money.

I'd say that Thai banks have actually been easy going for years, but are catching up with the rest of the world. Try opening a bank account anywhere else in the world as a tourist.