Thailand to Shorten Visa-Free Stays for Tourists

28 minutes ago, Fat is a type of crazy said:

Blame the government policies not the boomers and generation x-ers who dealt with the cards they were handed.

For Australians it's not hard to get the 2 months but a bit of a pain so why not make it that we don't have to go to the effort for no particular reason.

You voted for Albo. Totally useless. Can't even go to Vietnam for 1 day without a visa! He should be on the phone trying to negotiate a deal but he could not organise a piece of chicken in kfc.

2 minutes ago, Effective altruism said:

As a tail-end baby boomer, I can confidently say that your post is completely misguided. I have no responsibility for the high housing prices. I didn't constrain supply while the government added a million immigrants per year to the population. I didn't keep interest rates low to artificially inflate the housing market. Good jobs were hard to come by when I graduated from high school and college, and pensions were becoming rare as I entered the job market. You certainly earned all your downvotes.

It was boomers who voted for the politicians and their policies. The Labor party lets in millions of migrants for votes. Every Labor party voter should be jailed alongside Albo and Rudd for destroying the nation.

25 minutes ago, captain_shane said:

Never want to take responsibility for anything do you? Boomers love to blame the governments they elected.

The boomer didn't become the dominate leaders in the federal government until the 2000’s. Look at the USA. The House and Senate were controlled by pre boomers up until recently.

Wow - off topic or what.

The government is reverting to 30 day visa exemptions because a criminal class of certain nationalities were abusing 60 day exemptions by using the extra time to open and run illegal businesses, then go out and come back in on another 60 day exemption. Most of the ones that made the news (arrests) appear to be mainly men in late 20s to 40s. Dunno what generation that is, but the shortened visa exemption is mainly because of that.

2 minutes ago, Effective altruism said:

The boomer didn't become the dominate leaders in the federal government until the 2000’s. Look at the USA. The House and Senate were controlled by pre boomers up until recently.

Keating and Hawke were boomers.

Just now, Rockyroad said:

It was boomers who voted for the politicians and their policies.

You are correct. Boomers are the only people who voted after 1967, when they could first vote. No one else voted after this time, except the boomer.

I look forward to the day the next generation votes after we are all dead.

4 minutes ago, Effective altruism said:

The boomer didn't become the dominate leaders in the federal government until the 2000’s. Look at the USA. The House and Senate were controlled by pre boomers up until recently.

Ok? Who cares, it's still the governments YOU voted for. Boomers became the largest generation in the U.S. electorate around 1978. They're your policies you voted for.

2 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

Keating and Hawke were boomers.

AI Overview

"Keating" most commonly refers to Irish singer Ronan Keating, known for Boyzone and his solo career (e.g., "When You Say Nothing at All"), or Paul Keating, the former Prime Minister of Australia (1991–1996). The name is of Irish origin, meaning "descendant of Céitinn" (little fire/bright one).

Just now, captain_shane said:

Ok? Who cares, it's still the governments YOU voted for. Boomers became the largest generation in the U.S. electorate around 1978. They're your policies you voted for.

Tell me what policies I voted for.

1 minute ago, Effective altruism said:

Tell me what policies I voted for.

What country do you live in and I'll give you a list.

7 minutes ago, Rockyroad said:

It was boomers who voted for the politicians and their policies. The Labor party lets in millions of migrants for votes. Every Labor party voter should be jailed alongside Albo and Rudd for destroying the nation.

In the USA it was Ted Kennedy who pushed for the 1965 immigration bill that uncorked mass immigration that we see today. He was born in 1932.

Just now, captain_shane said:

What country do you live in and I'll give you a list.

USA

1 minute ago, Effective altruism said:

Tell me what policies I voted for.

I don't know you tell us. I vote independent. The majors are all duds.

Just now, Effective altruism said:

In the USA it was Ted Kennedy who pushed for the 1965 immigration bill that uncorked mass immigration that we see today. He was born in 1932.

Then he is further away from X or Y. The boomers and pre war guys pulled up the ladders!

52 minutes ago, sungod said:

If you were investing you’d get a business visa as you wouldn’t be a tourist.

Or DTV, or etc.

1 minute ago, Effective altruism said:

USA

• Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982

• Ratifying the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, lowering the voting age to eighteen, a strategic move to secure millions of new Boomer voters

• Mandatory programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, now consume approximately 70 percent of the entire federal budget, excluding interest payments. The United States currently runs an annual deficit nearing two trillion dollars, driven in large part by the demands of an aging Boomer population whose benefits were never adequately funded through taxation during their working years. By 2030, when the bulk of the Boomer generation is retired, the ratio of workers paying taxes to support each retiree will fall below three to one. This is why you're currently flooding every country on earth with cheap labor from India and Africa.

• The policy response to the 2008 financial crisis, orchestrated by established Boomer policymakers, further exacerbated intergenerational inequality. In The Theft of a Decade, Joseph Sternberg argues that the establishment's reaction favored the interests of the older generation over their heirs through egregious uses of monetary policy, fiscal policy, and regulation.

• The 1992 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act was a pivotal moment, creating a new unsubsidized student loan program open to all students, regardless of income. Consequently, annual student loan volume spiked upward, rising by 50 percent in just the two years following these changes. Between 1990 and 2000, total student loan volume more than doubled in real terms, from $16.4 billion to $37.5 billion.

• Simultaneously, corporate America—managed almost entirely by the Boomer cohort—began utilizing the four-year college degree as a blunt, low-effort heuristic for candidate vetting. This phenomenon, known as credentialism or degree inflation, structurally blinded the labor market to actual, demonstrable skills.

  Employers began demanding bachelor's degrees for middle-skill jobs that had never previously required them. A comprehensive Harvard Business School report revealed the absurdity of this trend: for example, 67% of production supervisor job postings demanded a college degree, despite the fact that only 16% of people currently employed successfully in those roles actually possessed one.

13 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

Don't know I had a business visa from the start back then. 5 employees I think was the minimum from memory.

I been doing it for 20 yrs & it has always been 4 natives to 1 W/P.

BOI different.

28 minutes ago, Effective altruism said:

You are correct. Boomers are the only people who voted after 1967, when they could first vote. No one else voted after this time, except the boomer.

I look forward to the day the next generation votes after we are all dead.

Oxy moron me thinks mai?

As a tail-end baby boomer, I can confidently say that your post is completely misguided. I have no responsibility for the high housing prices. I didn't constrain supply while the government added a million immigrants per year to the population. I didn't keep interest rates low to artificially inflate the housing market. Good jobs were hard to come by when I graduated from high school and college, and pensions were becoming rare as I entered the job market. You certainly earned all your downvotes.

You and I are not really Boomers. We're of Generation Jones. Look it up. I'd never heard of it until recently...

In my case, when I interviewed for my first job out of college, the company bragged they hadn't had a layoff since 1957 (the year I was born). Within a year, they started having layoffs every few months, eliminated our fixed benefit pension plan, and started charging us a percentage of our health insurance. The employees who had arrived a few years before us were insulated. They'd also had rockets stuck up their butts and been promoted several times a year, while we had to wait 5-10 years before we were moved up to management. They were the Boomers.

38 minutes ago, ronnie50 said:

Wow - off topic or what.

The government is reverting to 30 day visa exemptions because a criminal class of certain nationalities were abusing 60 day exemptions by using the extra time to open and run illegal businesses, then go out and come back in on another 60 day exemption. Most of the ones that made the news (arrests) appear to be mainly men in late 20s to 40s. Dunno what generation that is, but the shortened visa exemption is mainly because of that.

Indeed.. and many comments here are of people who only look at their own situation. But the bigger picture is that tourists are abusing the system. Everybody can come to Thailand, but they need to apply for a visa. I think a lot of comments are made by people who don't have the will or means to apply for a longer stay visa. Many countries are requiring visa and don't allow to enter even for 1 day. To prevent abuse 30 days allowed and after that like the Schengen area 90 days not. It will clear up a lot of abusers. Besides all overstayers/ illegals should be banned for 5 year. Strict rules and punishments are needed. Not only for visa but also for the locals... Now everything can do as they like, and many are helping tourists to make a business or so.

15 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

Just the next flip-flop so nobody can plan anything. This is why Thailand is a bad place to invest, start businesses, plan for anything, and is generally behind on so many fronts... because nothing lasts more than a year, and laws are just in and then out, before it's changed by some moron politician or government in some nationalistic, protectionist, and knee-jerk nonsense. The goal posts are constantly moving and that's rubbish on so many fronts... grow up Thailand. Why would you invest in an environment like that on anything? No reason at all.

How exactly are your "investments" in Thailand being affected by reducing the visa-exempt allowance to 30 days? How's it impacting your "planning"?

14 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

Good more than enough and not allowed to enter before 90 days out of the country.....

Exactly. A few years back when Vietnam first introduced a 14-day visa exempt option for certain nationalities, it was non-extendable and you couldn't use another one for 45 days after the departure on any previous visa-exempt entry.

Thailand should tack on a similar 60-day exclusion period when they reinstate the 30-day visa-exempt option. That, and reducing the group of qualifying nations to the same as before.

15 hours ago, klaikangwon said:

There is real issue with "low quality foreigner", but $50 visa fee hardly tall wall. More likely criminal will take time to pay this small fee, with criminal earnings, whereas "real" tourist will not want take time to handle papers, go to embassy, et cetera. In other word main barrier is time not money, and it working families that have no time, not scammer for whom just "business cost".

I've very rarely visited any country that required a VISA, not much into advanced planning or paperwork.

Don't feel like I'm the only person that thinks this way.

Used to go on holiday to the USA 2x a year (diving in summer, ski-ing in winter), then they started wanting advance paperwork, and I never went again.

2 hours ago, captain_shane said:

Never want to take responsibility for anything do you? Boomers love to blame the governments they elected.

I am Generation X but what exactly did I and others do with the exception of voting for whoever seemed less bad or sometimes good. If the topic is housing Albo's making some changes tonight - highly controversial as he said he wouldn't at the last election.

2 hours ago, Effective altruism said:

Tell me what policies I voted for.

When you vote for a party, it's assumed that agree with their policies. So if the party you voted for won, and were able to turn manifesto into legislation, then you are culpable.

Of course, when asked, one can always claim one voted for the other team and hope that you're believed. I first noted this 'sloping shoulders' attitude while I lived in the US and couldn't vote, but I'm sure it's quite common elsewhere.

When you vote for a party, it's assumed that agree with their policies. So if the party you voted for won, and were able to turn manifesto into legislation, then you are culpable.

Of course, when asked, one can always claim one voted for the other team and hope that you're believed. I first noted this 'sloping shoulders' attitude while I lived in the US and couldn't vote, but I'm sure it's quite common elsewhere.

You're assuming that they didn't lie to us to get elected.

A dangerous assumption.

Edit: I don't fault the voters. I blame the media and the donor class. (And the guys with BIC pens and USB chips, but that's a whole 'nother topic) "Follow the money"

They could make a start by requiring every non-Thai entrant to show 20,000 THB (or the equivalent in one of the 10 major currencies) in cash at every entry point to Thailand — not just during random spot checks.

1 hour ago, thisisrascal said:

They could make a start by requiring every non-Thai entrant to show 20,000 THB (or the equivalent in one of the 10 major currencies) in cash at every entry point to Thailand — not just during random spot checks.

In my opinion, that's nonsense. Firstly, it proves absolutely nothing, because what are 20,000 THB for a stay of 30 days or longer? Secondly, you're not making a distinction between tourists and people who live in Thailand.

I live here and personally never carry that much cash in my wallet, as I handle almost everything with my bank accounts and PromptPay.

3 hours ago, impulse said:

You're assuming that they didn't lie to us to get elected.

A dangerous assumption.

Edit: I don't fault the voters. I blame the media and the donor class. (And the guys with BIC pens and USB chips, but that's a whole 'nother topic) "Follow the money"

People have been calling politicians liars and untrustworthy for a fair while already. But, after casting their vote based in everything from a warm fuzzy feeling to my dad voted for them, they still they allow themselves to be sleep-walked through life until some act of legislation crimps their hobby or otherwise grabs their attention. In the UK, witness the 14 years of Tory rule and their erosion of some basic freedoms by passing some pretty bad police and courts laws. All this while everyone was enjoying their 3 or 4 cheap, Ryanair or Easyjet weekends a year in the Algarve or some other Mediterranean ghetto. Then they come back and complain about foreigners and immigrants, the price of a pint here and the police aren't doing their jobs.

All this while everyone was enjoying their 3 or 4 cheap, Ryanair or Easyjet weekends a year in the Algarve or some other Mediterranean ghetto.

I think the Roman equivalent was bread and circuses. They didn't have airplanes back then to appease the masses. As I recall, it didn't work out well for them.