Labourers still in heavy debts

 

 

About 96% of Thai labours are in debt, with an average debt amounting to almost 140,000 baht for a household, according to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce’s survey released ahead of the Labour Day on May 1.

 

The UTCC’s Center for Economic and Business Forecasting conducted a survey on debt problem on about 1,200 labourers with monthly earnings of less than 15,000 baht.

 

The survey, released on Thursday (April 26), found the highest recorded debt incursion in 10 years since 2009.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/labourers-still-heavy-debts/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-04-28

12 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

found the highest recorded debt incursion in 10 years since 2009.

 

I thought happiness had been returned to the people???

4 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

I thought happiness had been returned to the people???

It has, but happiness can't buy money

8 minutes ago, coulson said:

It has, but happiness can't buy money

......well I guess that poverty can buy happiness. 

GDP figures are a good index for wealthy people.  Poor people are getting poorer.

Priorities and impossible to think about the next weeks/years

 

All Thai friends have better phone than I have, all of them go to quite expensive restaurants more often than I.

 

Even though I could afford it, and they live paycheck to paycheck. Eating instant noodles the last week before salary.

"...The center director Thanawat Pholvichai said the survey found that 96% of the total labour force were in debt and total average household debt amounted to 137,988 baht per household with each of the labour household has a monthly installments payments of 5,326 baht.

He said, however, it was fortunate that 65.4% of their loans are legitimate or official loans which carries an interest rates of 10.6%.

The rest 34.6% are unorganized loans which lenders would charge them 20% interest per month. In such a huge borrowing rate, he said labourers then often defaulted their loan payments to these loan sharks..."

 

If I were the government of Thailand and I cared about the common man (yes, I know, but...) I would be terrified by these numbers; they are a nuclear reactor waiting to melt. How are these people expected to both re-pay their debts AND save money for retirement? I don't see how it can be done, especially with labourers; they are not the sub-set of the workforce who are going to move into ever higher-paying employment. 

 

Thailand has managed to maintain growth for several years (although it would have been more without the coup, but that is a different post), but can it grow fast enough to support these people? Is there the political will to support these people? My quick answer is... wait for it... not likely.

 

Jump to flashing red warning light!

 

Finally a quick story from back in the day along the lines of the posts above. I lived in Indonesia and shared a house with some Indonesian teachers. At the end of the month they had no money, so they survived on glasses of tea with an inch of sugar in the bottom of the glass. YUCK! I suppose that I am grateful; after watching them drink that, I stopped adding sugar to my tea or coffee right there on the spot and never took up the habit again.

 

Maybe they should live within their means. And by that, I mean they should live in the cheapest apartment, eat the cheapest food, no luxuries and get the bus to work, etc. They won’t have much to save with for the future, so if they could die a few years after retirement so as not to be a burden to the rich and powerful who love to pillage the state coffers. If they could do this, that woold be great for the 1% here. 

 

Or, they can question why such a small group of people have so much and why they have so little. I know, I know. It happens in other countries so by that logic no one can question anything that happens. 

An off topic deflection post regarding household debts in the west has been removed.

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

The survey, released on Thursday (April 26), found the highest recorded debt incursion in 10 years since 2009.

And I seem to remember a story on here last week about the banks lending even more money to them. Madness

7 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

And I seem to remember a story on here last week about the banks lending even more money to them. Madness

No worse than the pay-day loans in UK charging 2400%, aimed at the poorest families. Can you imagine that over here?

a big part is the fact that many here try to liver beyond their means, you see them with the latest phones, new bikes/cars etc,  they simply want more than they can afford but do not accept they cant afford it. My wifes cousin  borrowed 20,000 baht to put  fancy wheels on his truck, he also borrowed to put in a big sound system and now cant afford to make the payments yet he still goes out drinking and smoking, refuses to accept he is in debt or to make payments, waiting for his car to be seized. Until people stop trying to live beyond their means it will continue unfortunately, many simply dont accept they cannot buy whatever they want

This is the problem with a debt-fueled society.  Banks provide easy credit, 'artificial wealth' is injected into the economy, prices rise, wages fail to match inflation, and the only way the average folk can make ends meet is by accumulating more debt.  Banks are complicit and predatory, and when the house of cards falls, the banks pull in favors from politicians in order to be made whole via the government.
Privatized profits, socialize losses - and screw everyone but the rich in the processes. 

This will end badly.  This is how unregulated capitalism works.  I'm not anti-capitalism, but it needs checks and balances.  The working class should not be driven into debt servitude just to live.  Yet - here we are!  And it is not something unique to Thailand.

Edited April 28, 20188 yr by connda

Economic slavery. Oldest trick in the book.

 

Works best if the masses are uneducated. Thailand is doing an amazing job on that front.

Edited April 28, 20188 yr by DrTuner
Because I felt like it

It has, but happiness can't buy money

No but it sure makes it more comfortable.

3 hours ago, DrTuner said:

Economic slavery. Oldest trick in the book.

 

Works best if the masses are uneducated. Thailand is doing an amazing job on that front.

Honestly, i don't know many people, and i don't go out much either, but this trend is disturbing.

i don't think any country in the West are experiencing something similar.

Just now, mauGR1 said:

Honestly, i don't know many people, and i don't go out much either, but this trend is disturbing.

i don't think any country in the West are experiencing something similar.

Practically all of them are. It's a redivision of money, nothing new, check out what the Rothchilds did. 

1 minute ago, DrTuner said:

Practically all of them are. It's a redivision of money, nothing new, check out what the Rothchilds did. 

I am not rich, but i have not 1 Baht debt with anyone, none of my Western friends have debts, and they would think thrice before making any debt.

I am aware that the poor is becoming poorer all over the world, still being poor and in debt, are 2 diseases !

 

Many businesses will not survive if people here live without debts. Car sales will be down, shopping complexes will close, and restaurants will be empty.

11 minutes ago, shady86 said:

Many businesses will not survive if people here live without debts. Car sales will be down, shopping complexes will close, and restaurants will be empty.
 

Yes. And when the bubble breaks, it's 2008 again and all of what you mentioned happens. The word is "unsustainable".

2 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

Yes. And when the bubble breaks, it's 2008 again and all of what you mentioned happens. The word is "unsustainable".

2008 ? Perhaps you mean 1997 ?

I'm sure it is true that many are living beyond their means, however, it is also true to say that you can only live on so little!

20 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

I'm sure it is true that many are living beyond their means, however, it is also true to say that you can only live on so little!

methinks our gracious hosts are focusing a bit too much on appearance

43 minutes ago, mauGR1 said:

2008 ? Perhaps you mean 1997 ?

Both. 08 was reference to West, 97 is more relevant to Thailand. 08 was however the latest where consumer debt balloon burst. Still feeling the after effects.

How do people earning 15,000/mth. get approval for 150,000 credit? 

It was tge same/similar to the west in the late 1990s and early 2000s... neck deep in debt - and look what happened there! 

2 hours ago, shady86 said:

Many businesses will not survive if people here live without debts. Car sales will be down, shopping complexes will close, and restaurants will be empty.
 

Both in Thailand and elsewhere: Buying more and more things we don't need with more and more money we don't have. God help us all.

Peace and Prosperity Order!

On 4/28/2018 at 1:17 PM, mommysboy said:

GDP figures are a good index for wealthy people.  Poor people are getting poorer.

The governments reform plans are working then.

 

Pretty soon the quality people of Bangkok will be able to afford a string of cheap servants like the good old days.  The uppity poor with aspirations for a better life will be put back in their place and the old order will have happiness returned to them at last.

I can't help but  wonder how the UTCC’s Center for Economic and Business Forecasting categorises an individual as a "labourer".

Edited April 29, 20188 yr by MaxYakov

1 hour ago, MaxYakov said:

I can't help but  wonder how the UTCC’s Center for Economic and Business Forecasting categorises an individual as a "labourer".

Well, it's a tad more polite than peon