joe84330

Think I lost the real point of the thread somewhere, but here is my 2 cents worth on the difference of farming and or any small business in thailand and S/E asian in general. Here a man can make a living on his own bat, either farming or a small private enterprise. In The west free enterprise is discouraged by rules, regulation. taxes etc.I do rubber here, I could buy land in northern Australia cheaper than in Thailand [for rubber] We could work that plantation and make a resonable living, but regulations,taxes in many forms would make this type of enterprise impossible. This applies to everything you may want to try. I believe they are even charging farmers for water which they get from there own dams. You don;t even have the right to rain water. Wage slaves is what the west is all about, maybe well housed, fed and taken care off, but still owned by the system. Maybe I am on the wrong track here, but I see the same thing coming here as people sell there farms to larger and larger companies and those farmers end up working there own lands for wages. Jim

I think the point of this thread at this point is educating those who haven't farmed or worked intimately with farmers (accountants and income tax consultants a huge part of the picture). I'll "brag" that I've got 1500 years of experience in the farming sector on one side of my family and a bunch more on the other side. The small farmers that have been gobbled up by the monster corporations (Shell Oil, Dupont, etc,) went under on land that they did not even purchase. This was land that has been passed down through the family. I don't think you could find many handfuls of small farmers who actually went out and purchased the land that they farm on and were able to make their payments and purchase the supplies and equipment to set up 100 - 1000 acre farms and were able to make a profitable venture of it. there a re a few, very few, exceptions to this in the end of the 20th and beginning of 21st century in the US. It's a fact a very hard fact but if you want to choose to not believe it such is life. The small farm is dead except for the small niche of organic and "sell from the roadside stand" urban farms. My cousin in Italy had to go to a salary job and abandon our ancient farm with established wine grapes, olives and many many fruit trees. He was strong and innovative. He started some of the first kiwis in the area but even with those he just couldn't get past the middle men who seem to gobble up any profit marginds that you can try to attain. I created a one man business in the US and couldn't take any cash payments and I wanted to pay a million in taxes every year but couldn't even get close. I don't know how anybody can survive and pay his insurance payments and household exspenses let alone business costs and other fiduciary obligations by showing no profit on any small scale "one man" (farming, or my production company, etc ) business. Heck in California my effective tax was about 50%. What a thrill it would be to pay a million bucks in income tax I'd love it.

Wow there is a fellow on here that seems to have no love in his soul. I hope he someday discovers some of the great things about farming, such as the ability it gives you to forgive anyone or anything because some things are beyond our control and we have to live with them. Others aren't and we can choose which things are important and do all we can to forgive and educate the unknowlegeable so that they can have peace fun and happiness in their life. Good on all you regulars that are trying to help and inform the ignorant. And always remember one of "Forever's Foibles & Follies" ...... "Never use the word "idiot" unless you are looking in the mirror" Fords Forever!!

farming is a relatively thankless endeavor yet creates some of the most genuinely good people i've met.

thanks guys. ended up using the paper egg cartons. would still prefer actual seed trays for portability, sturdiness etc. i've grown plenty in rockwool and hydroponically however this is an organic effort as much as possible. next effort will be aquaponics.

Would get the plastic ones, last a lot longer. Paper ones will break down quick.

actually i want them to break down quickly, i'm germinating seeds in them so whenever i have a dud it's quite easy to add the egg tray to the compost pile and start over.

ya i take people to the "5" star on that beach all of the time. or at least i used to until the number of complaints about that resort caused me to divert them to the better facility on TNPY. now that the resort on TNPN has been taken over by the same group that owns 3 or 4 different 5 star hotels on samui maybe i can take them back to TNPN again.

i wouldn't go there for peace and quiet. it's becoming the place to be for group beach parties.

THAT group owns 1 resort on Samui and manages another....and what would 'the better' facility on TNPY be?

the group i'm referring to owns one property between bang por and bang makham, another in bophut and another of a very similar name in chaweng, in addition to managing the property in TNPN. the better facility i was referring to is managed by a company that manages nearly a dozen hotels and resorts on samui and pha ngan and i referred to it as "better" specifically due to their ability to effectively manage larger, affluent groups with reasonably high expectations.

i'm quite certain that the TNPN facility will improve their mgmt and service staff now that they've been taken over. at least i hope so since it's nice to have two properties to offer over there.

Dunc: Stupid they are, but callous is a better word. I put an op in two weeks ago about the taxi drivers, but just have a drink in Bondi some time and ask the manager about them. They have been slashing tires, damaging motorcycles, and threatening anyone who gets near what they deem as their parking area, which is basically the entire beach road. I asked one of the local bar owners why they don't get a group of guys and smash some heads and he said that his bar would be fire-bombed the next day. If I owned a bar in that area I would not be able to put up with it.

kill two birds with one stone, take care of the motor bike drivers on the beach road while inviting the taxi cab drivers into your bar for a few drinks "on the house"

we've got a new addition to the samui bum scene. bare foot every day for weeks wearing the same clothes, asking everyone including thais for spare change. calculating demeanor as i've watched him pick his targets, appears physically fit as he strides up and down the beach road and doesn't appear to be losing any weight.

the only thing that can help this man is a generation of welfare, subsidized housing, free healthcare and of course a scholarship to a prestigious university so that he can earn a liberal arts degree.

ya i take people to the "5" star on that beach all of the time. or at least i used to until the number of complaints about that resort caused me to divert them to the better facility on TNPY. now that the resort on TNPN has been taken over by the same group that owns 3 or 4 different 5 star hotels on samui maybe i can take them back to TNPN again.

i wouldn't go there for peace and quiet. it's becoming the place to be for group beach parties.

thanks guys. ended up using the paper egg cartons. would still prefer actual seed trays for portability, sturdiness etc. i've grown plenty in rockwool and hydroponically however this is an organic effort as much as possible. next effort will be aquaponics.

i hope the mods don't delete your posts, thunder. would give you a chance for some much needed self reflection.

"taxi taxi" is much easier for me to ignore than BEEP BEEP

i get one or three packages delivered to me by EMS each week and while they are addressed to a legitimate known office address i've never received anything in less than 3 days, and that's after watching the tracking number and knowing what time the pkg left bkk.

i've had packages take longer to get to me here from BKK than it took to get from NYC to BKK

can't even guess how many times i've driven into the tesco lotus parking lot, very slowly past the half asleep half drunk taxi guys lounging in the shade and generally harassing respectable people, park my truck in the immediate vicinity, get out and walk past them again on my way into the shops and all the while hear them asking me if i need a taxi.

unfortunately they are not as ignorable as they are ignorant.

Don't use the coils in a closed area, the fumes are pretty toxic.

i tried my best to explain this concept to a thai lady who had pretty much locked herself up into her bungalow with her baby inside, four or five mosquito coils burning away. she thought it was fine and continued on doing that day after day through the rainy season. i feel bad for that baby.

i'm on a mission to find some seed trays locally. anyone? i've tried each of the large nurseries and even the hydroponics place near big c with no luck. closest i got was the larger individual transplant pots that really aren't appropriate for starting seed.

figured as much. it will be a long time before there is a marina here, floating or otherwise, koh som or samui. unfortunate really, waking up to some sunshine and a nice breeze, looks like a great day to be sailing.

i don't care for the coils myself because i don't like smoke around my babies but i have found the citronella oil spray available everywhere to be quite effective for me and the kids. it's nowhere near as strong as a spray like "OFF" brand with DEET however i won't spray that stuff into my skin. citronella oil just needs to be re applied around once an hour, no big deal it smells good.

are you talking about an actual marina and not a "marine park" as in mu koh angthong?

Me thinks you should have spent more time with those farmers you talk about, you might have learned something about the real business world, as only an idiot in any small business shows a profit to uncle sam lol

please tell me all about this real business world of yours. i've only been self employed for 30 years so i'm sure there is more i can learn. i've defended taxpayers in audits from a few thousand to a few million so i do have a pretty good basis in the "real business world".

regarding your comment that "only an idiot in any small business shows a profit to uncle sam", this tells me that you don't know the first thing about business so this should be interesting if not comical.

where is a nice marine park to attract the super rich ???

from my experience, they prefer places closer to urban centers that allow more people to see them and ask who's yacht it is.

what about an island full of those two wheeled gyro stabilized scooters that were supposed to take over the world a few years back?

i guess it didn't work though because i can't even remember the name of the thing that was supposed to revolutionize cities everywhere.

perseus

family day is the M/Y, can't remember the sailboat off the top of my head.

horse drawn cart and bicycles are what they do on mackinac island.

a proper bus service is pretty much all that is needed, it could be free to residents and offset by tourists and advertising.

sure, let's make samui into another mackinac island.

i'm not a smoker but it doesn't bother me really. however, driving on the ring road this morning behind a line of local construction and delivery trucks all belching thick black smoke into the air does.

now if only they could find some way to blame farang for all of the local pollution, something might get done.

binder schminder, it's a burger not meatloaf.

while i disagree that ground beef should be kneaded prior to cooking, that burger does look good. where are you making 300 burgers a night?