JonnyF

So it's the foreigners fault for expecting them to actually work when they hire them? You're quite the apologist. Maybe we should just hand over the money, prostrate ourselves, thank them profusely for allowing us to be in their presence for the duration of the job and beg forgiveness for the heinous crime of being a priviliged Whitey in Thailand? What next? "If the foreigner wasn't in Thailand employing them, the Thai wouldn't have been lazy on the job"? ???? BTW in case you hadn't noticed, in this case the Thai stole from another Thai. Good luck blaming that on the foreigner.

You know what? That doesn't surprise me one bit, and tells me everything I need to know.

"I remember now...." ???? That's quite the imagery you've conjured up there. Have you considered writing a novel? ???? Pampered farang? ???? Are you one of those liberal lefties who think all white people grew up rich? Suffering from white guilt much? You'll be lecturing me on white privilege next. You're not Robin DiAngelo are you?

Like I said, increase minimum wage to 2000 Baht if you like. Watch the price of essential goods skyrocket, watch the foreign manufacturers pull out and setup elsewhere, watch local businesses close down, watch the export market crash and burn. Thais are some of the hardest working people in the world? ???? I've been working here myself for 16 years, worked with Thais, employed Thais, worked for Thais. You must be living in a different Thailand to me. Of course there are some hard working Thais but there are also a lot that would rather steal or cheat (or just remain poor and moan about it) than work hard.

Not really limited experience. Quite a few years now with many Thai people. I would have thought my point was fairly obvious. Try reading it again, slowly this time. Wages are low, I would agree but that's the way the Thai economy works. Raise the minimum wage to 2000 Baht a day if you like and see what happens. The point stands that while some of them work their way up from 300 Baht a day to maybe owning a food stall, then a small shophouse selling food, then a small restaurant etc. others just sit there and moan, gossip, play the victim, do nothing and steal from others who can be bothered to get off their backside.

Actually we offer a decent (by local standards) wage for quite easy work. Cleaning the inside of our house (with the air con available) for example. Washing up. Laundry, dusting etc. Maybe some light gardening like pulling weeds out of the driveway either early morning or late afternoon when it's not too hot. We add on lunch and normally offer them some fruit to take home at the end of the day. If they work for us for a while we'll get them small gifts for Songkran and other events (rice cooker, electric fan etc.). Drop them off at the market at the end of the day if they need. Still often there are no takers (have to go to temple, have to visit cousin etc.). Then we see them gossiping with each other on the porch when we drive past. Then they come and ask to borrow money which they have no intention of paying back. That is my experience. They have every excuse in the book and play the victim, same as this woman.

I love dogs, but if that was my daughter then that particular dog would be having an unfortunate accident in the next few days.

A lot of them are too lazy to try and break out of the rut in my experience. We have a farm near Korat and trying to get them to work is really difficult. A lot of them don't have any money or any job but would still rather sit around on their porches gossiping all day and stealing fruit off other people's trees at night (often ours) than go and earn money. Then they moan about how poor they are. Same as the rice farmers. A lot of them plant the rice and then just sit around waiting a few months for it to grow. If that was me, I'd be doing other work during that downtime to pay the bills but they just sit in the hammock waiting for harvest time. Then when it's harvest time they pay a machine to harvest it and lose about 30% of their profit because they don't want to do a few days work in the field. The one's who do work, seem to do OK. We know a few builders who do a good job and they are always busy, have relatively new trucks, decent house, kids are well dressed etc. It's like when I was at Uni, all the other students wondering why I was always cashed up during term time. It was because I was working 7 days a week as a labourer on a building site during the holidays while they were lounging around at their parents house waiting for term to start. Then they'd moan they hit their overdraft limit half way through each term. I'm not saying it's easy, but they really don't help themselves a lot of the time. There are obviously exceptions.

All my favourite bars have been opened for months. I haven't noticed any food available, although I've seen some massive melons.

Maybe they can send Mango Munching Milli and all that "soft power" that nobody outside Thailand has heard of?

Thanks for the advice love, but you're not exactly in the position to be preaching morals to others ????. I am totally OCD about checking the account numbers before I send money on banking apps. I check it 5 times times, click OK then check it another 5 times before clicking Confirm. Because I am in no doubt about how hard it would be to get money back if I accidentally transferred it to the wrong person. Getting money back off a Thai is like getting blood out of a stone, even if you are obviously in the right. I doubt this woman will ever see the full amount repaid. I wonder how she managed to spend so much in such a short period of time. It doesn't look like she spent it on house renovations or clothes. Maybe paying off old debts? Gambling? A week in a 5 star hotel/spa?

Exactly. If he was really concerned about these types of issues he would tackle the chemicals in cigarettes that cause cancer by allowing the much less harmful Vaping. But no, that would upset the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly. Or tackle the carcinogenic filth that is expelled from public buses in Bangkok every day. But no, that would cost money and leave less in the trough to siphon off. I too suspect he (or his cohorts) has a vested interest in selling the alternative.

That's my experience as well. Most wealthy Thais will let you know about their wealth fairly quickly, either by telling you the name of condos/land they own (and how much it cost), the car they drive, some big business they have recently done etc. Often it's not very subtle by European standards. This talk of Thais owning 200 Condos and hundreds of millions of Baht and still riding around on an old motorbike is the total opposite of what I have found. Their attitude always seems to be "What's the point of being rich if nobody knows I'm rich?". If they can just about afford a Vios they buy a Vios. If they can just about afford a Benz they buy a Benz. Sometimes they can only afford a Vios but buy a Benz anyway. Never have I heard of one being able to afford a Bentley or an Aston Martin yet choosing to ride around on a 15 year old Honda Wave. Never.

I tend to see them in a part of Ladprao that I have cause to frequent. Quite a few uber wealthy Thais in that area, Yingluck has/had a home there (crawling with Army now) and Prawit's house is just around the corner. Bright orange and lime green seems popular for the Lambourghinis but I've also seen baby pink on Porsche SUV's ????.

That's surprising. I've known quite a few wealthy Thais and none of them drive old motorbikes. One of them has a new Yamaha Fino which he occasionally uses to get to the office building that he rents out but only because that is 50 metres from his large deatched home. He also has 2 new European Sedans which him and his wife uses for everything else (she wouldn't be seen dead on a motorbike). It's very unusual for a wealthy Thai to conceal their wealth. I did know a multi-millionaire English guy back in my home town who used to drive around in a 20 year old rusty beaten up Escort van, but even he had a brand new 3 series BMW for the weekends. I've never known it here, in fact most of them are all too happy to tell you if they are from a wealthy family etc. I've known a couple of Thais who are land rich (30-40 million Baht worth of land in a good location) who appeared poor, but that was because all their money was tied up in the land and they genuinely didn't have a ton of cash lying around.

I agree. No need for expensive designer clothes or trying to impress people, but by the same token personally I wouldn't wear a Chang vest and Crocs around Bangkok. In Pattaya maybe, but only if I was trying to fit in ????.

Not so sure that's so true with Asians. I see quite a lot of ostentatious displays of genuine wealth around my area, guys driving around in brand new Bentley's, Lambourghini's wrapped in some hideous colour etc. It does make me laugh when the pretenders start acting like they are loaded though. I rode my electric mountain bike to a local shop recently to buy some takeaway, as I'm waiting for the food outside holding the bike some middle aged woman pulled up in a 10-15 year old BMW and looked down her nose at me like I was some kind of peasant who couldn't afford a car or even a motorbike, hence the 'pushbike'. If I had to guess, I'd say she wasn't a wealthy individual, probably in mountains of debt to keep up appearances. Personally, I try to hold the middle ground. I do have a few toys, mainly nice motorbikes (although not all kept at the same home) but generally I live well within my means, drive a Camry instead of a European import etc. I don't think it's really smart to be too flashy in a place like Thailand but I don't go too far with it, because if you walk around looking like trash you'll be treated like dirt by many Thais.

The thing about soft power is that it pertains to international relations. The problem we have here is, that the only people interested in Milli eating a Mango with sticky rice are the Thais themselves. It was in Thailand where everyone spoke about it and rushed out to buy the dish, not elsewhere. Most of the world has never heard of Milli or her mango munching. Thailand's soft power is like an echo chamber, and the enclosed space where the sound reverberates is limited to Thailand.

British guy assaulted by a fellow gym bunny? I'd be checking where Robblok was at the time the offence occured ????.

Yeah, because they were all so polite, friendly and welcoming before Covid ????. A lot of them are just ripoff merchants. I remember ordering a bottle of water from them and when it came the water was luke warm and the seal on the lid had already been broken. Checked with the girlfriend who confirmed they were refilling it from the 1-2 Baht vending machines and then selling it for twice the price of a legit, unopened bottle from 711. They probably hadn't even washed the bottle since they did the same thing to the previous customer. Scammers. The OP was right to complain IMO. People who tolerate this nonsense only encourage it.

Yes it's probably best not to argue with me, since I will continue to insist that you argue against my actual position, rather than a false position that you have either imagined or deliberately created. Enjoy your holiday.

Thanks for the suggestion re. my choice of words but unfortunately if you re-read my posts you will see I used both hypocrisy and virtue signaling. IMO they are guilty of both, and much more besides. You misrepresented my position by saying "If you do not believe on religion just don't partake in discussions if you have so much hatred for that secular group." That obviously implies that I do not believe in (the word you should have used is 'in' not 'on') religion and that I have hatred for a secular group. Neither is true, hence you misrepresented my position.

Just another method of creating a conformist, subservient, acquiescant population that never questions authority and 'knows their place' in society.

That's a weak straw man. I don't know which secular group you think I hate, but I have no issue with secular or non-secular groups (although I dislike the way certain groups use such groups for their own ends), and I especially have no issue with Buddhism, quite the opposite in fact. What I DO dislike are corrupt, self righteous Army Generals or Politicians who have (in the current case) illegally stolen power from a democratically elected government preaching morality to the populace in the name of their religion of choice, when they themselves are breaking virtually every moral code known to man. Big difference. It's not the fact that they ban alcohol either. If they banned meat, cigarettes (I quit years ago), sexual activity or whatever else they thought made them look morally superior then I would hold the same viewpoint. It's none of their business whether I (or anyone else) follows their chosen religious beliefs and practices on their chosen days. By the way I'd appreciate it if you do not deliberately misrepresent my position again. It's very unbecoming.

Maybe best you cut down on the Ganja, Bro.