Video: Are Thais prepared to pay more taxes to see the hanging wires buried, asks tourist

 

File photo

 

A news organisation's video praising the burying of unsightly wires on some of Bangkok's streets ended with a timely question posed by a tourist.

 

The tourist - Gregory Lowsy, who appeared to be Australian based on his accent - posed the pertinent question after a statement to a female Thai reporter:

 

"Taxes have to go up. Do you like to pay more taxes?"

 

The question was left hanging rather like the wires that have blighted the city for so many decades.

 

The video posted by One News 31 says that the wires have been buried and it's lovely. It is pleasing on the eye. "Can you believe this is Bangkok?", the written commentary goes in Thai.

 

Now with the cool weather coming it is like being abroad.

 

Several Thais give their positive comments saying it looks so much better and is safer, too. A motorcycle taxi driver says it is great, and more organised.

 

It appears to be Chitlom in downtown Bangkok.

 

Then the Thai public are asked what still worries them about Bangkok.

 

One says flooding. Another worries who is going to pay for it all.

 

But Mr Lowsy came up with the best comments.

 

He agreed that it was much better on one side of the street than the other. But said that the reason the authorities don't do it everywhere is because of the expense. If they did it from the start that is one thing - but to bury the wires now is quite another.

 

Then he asked about whether the reporter was prepared to pay more taxes.

 

A question left hanging......as the video comes to an end.

 

Source: One News 31

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2017-11-02

 

It will take years to untangle that mess...

If they bury the wires will they be able to find them again ?

48 minutes ago, webfact said:

The tourist - Gregory Lowsy, who appeared to be Australian

At least, in those cables there's plenty of electricity running through,

unlike right now in Australia and Victoria in particular, there's an electricity

shortage looming on the horizon for the coming summer, as the powers

that be gone and shut down a dozen of coal fired electricity generating

plants, without really planning how to provide and fill the shortage of those

plants...

Also, will politicians and civil sevants steal less in corruption? That surely would help with maintaining things. 

The only tax Thais like paying is on a new BMW or Merc

1 hour ago, davehowden said:

If they bury the wires will they be able to find them again ?

the army bought some bomb detectors a while back, I'm sure they can be modified.  

Just out of interest, does anyone know why cables are looped up at the posts which seems to exacerbate the issue?

Thais paying tax????? Lol.

Paying tax would be start.

2 hours ago, ezzra said:

At least, in those cables there's plenty of electricity running through,

unlike right now in Australia and Victoria in particular, there's an electricity

shortage looming on the horizon for the coming summer, as the powers

that be gone and shut down a dozen of coal fired electricity generating

plants, without really planning how to provide and fill the shortage of those

plants...

Australia produces huge quantities of LNG for Export. They could very easily convert some of this into Power Generation, and by using a cleaner fuel besides.

 

It is countries like Japan that does not produce either Coal or LNG that have to worry about the future.

31 minutes ago, mark01 said:

Thais paying tax????? Lol.

Right!

Thailand’s tax revenues are the lowest in ASEAN.

Only 3 million Thais out of 67 million regularly pay income taxes

Short answer: No....

Thai do not care... And beside that, it will cause a major problem:

Where will the bird sit ???? (Ignori)

The taxpayer is expected to pay for private companies tangled web of cables?

The power lines for sure should be the responsibility of the power authority, and rates should probably be reflected in power bills.....but all the comms cables, which make up the bulk of all this bloody mess, are mostly owned by private companies.

How to fix the noodles ?

 

Makes me remember this stuff.... Good for breakfast...

 

 

I would pay taxes to see the people buried who  were responsible for all this hideous wiring. 

 

Does any electrician here have any pride in his work?   

If there were not so many officials, both in the public and private sector, with their noses in the trough then there would probably be enough spare money to deal with the problem...

The issue is that even if the hanging cables are buried at a huge cost, then within weeks new hanging cables will replace the buried ones as businesses will be unwilling to cover the cost of burying the new cables.

 

As regards taxation....why not tax the businesses whose cables are put up so haphazardly?

I find the shadows from these wires a great source of relieving shade during the hot summer months. Keep them where they are. 

Don't worry, they will find a way to make the farang pay most of the expense: 2000 B for a re-entry, 1000 baht to enter in any museum or national park, etc., etc, 

I think that the right to vote should be given only to those registered in the Tax System. The percent of Thais paying income tax is a joke - pretty much limited to those working for companies and government.

I know in mid sukhumvit and large sois like soi 24, they have already installed underground tunnels where humans can go in. I've seen them run wires in them at night around 2 years ago.

 

It is already in the governments plan and they continue to do so. The problem now is regarding to flooding and how they can keep the wires dry and rats out and prevent short circuits.

 

Taxes don't have to go up if they know how to manage the budget, but this is thailand. So up with the taxes.

2 hours ago, HTC said:

Just out of interest, does anyone know why cables are looped up at the posts which seems to exacerbate the issue?

They get paid by the metre to install it.

1 hour ago, IamNoone88 said:

Paying tax would be start.

 

But then it would be a nanny state and sexpats would be moving to Cambodia.

Not years to rectify this extreme mess loved by every government but decades and decades!

2 hours ago, HTC said:

Just out of interest, does anyone know why cables are looped up at the posts which seems to exacerbate the issue?

it's 'cos the cable length is terminated with a connector in some way and the installer doesn't want to cut the cable and then have to make a new connector on the cut end.

 

It will take years to untangle that mess...

And that's just the picture above

Don't you could do bkk in our lift time

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

3 hours ago, HTC said:

Just out of interest, does anyone know why cables are looped up at the posts which seems to exacerbate the issue?

Presumably for future expansion if the roll of cable has already been paid for.

 

On the downside, it's making a resistor so is an unintended inefficiency.  Ask any electrician, they would kn....err...scratch that.

Thai don't care...they even don't change a broken lightbulb...They also don't care about the looks as they still throw tons of trash on the streets...

1 hour ago, mike324 said:

I know in mid sukhumvit and large sois like soi 24, they have already installed underground tunnels where humans can go in. I've seen them run wires in them at night around 2 years ago.

 

It is already in the governments plan and they continue to do so. The problem now is regarding to flooding and how they can keep the wires dry and rats out and prevent short circuits.

 

Taxes don't have to go up if they know how to manage the budget, but this is thailand. So up with the taxes.

 

Agree mostly, but it's not a Thai only thing.  I can't think of any places that when they were designed (or mushroomed) that they had any intention of having so much demand, whether it is utility services, or road widths for cars rather than animals.

I recall seeing something that even the way the space shuttle was designed had its roots based on road and rail width limitations, which were in turn designed based on horse and cart sizes.  Maybe they actually should have put the cart before the horse as a design exercise :)

Same with any design (eg. software), you come to a point where you have to decide whether to keep patching it up, or rip it out and start again.