Government urged to help 1.2m desperately poor Thais

By Wichit Chaitrong 
The Nation

 

Thosaporn Sirisumphand

 

Economic think-tank cites huge income gap between country’s rich and poor.
 

AT LEAST 1.2 million Thais are desperately poor and need urgent help from the government, the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said.

 

The national economic planning agency said it plans to prompt the government to assist people in the most serious financial distress as part of efforts to narrow the huge income gap between the country's rich and poor. 

 

“There are an estimated 1.2 million poor people who really need help from the government and the NESDB plans to propose that the government support this group first,” said Thosaporn Sirisumphand, the newly appointed secretary-general of the NESDB, which reports directly to the Office of the Prime Minister. 

 

He said that there are about 6 to 7 million people living under the poverty line, earning less than Bt30,000 a year, but a survey conducted by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security found that 1.2 million people are in desperate need of support.

 

Funds could be allocated to support them in the 2020 fiscal year, he said. 

 

The NESDB will also set up a task force to look into income inequality and will create a policy lab which will advise the board on specific issues that need to be tackled first. Outside experts would be invited to join the lab, he said. 

 

Asked why the NESDB plans to target 1.2 million people while the Finance Ministry has provided funds to support 11.4 million people under the welfare card programme, he said that the board's figure is taken from a survey, while the Finance Ministry's number derives from a registration method, leading to a wide discrepancy.

 

Academics have questioned the Finance Ministry’s number and voiced concern that there are many “free riders”, people who get privileges from the economic development scheme and don't need further assistance from the government, while some who are in need might not be included. 

 

Thailand is among several countries suffering severely from income inequality. 

 

According to a study by Thammasat University’s economist Duangmanee Laovakul in 2013, the country’s top 20 land owners owned 80 per cent of the country’s total land, while the bottom 20 owned only 0.3 per cent of land. And among those having bank deposits, 0.1 per cent of bank accounts held 49 per cent of total bank deposits. 

 

Most of the poor are in the farming sector. Under the government’s 20-year Strategic Plan and Reforms plan, the 

government vows to support 25 million farmers - about 38 per cent of the country’s population. 

 

In a separate roundtable talk hosted by Krungthep Turakij, a sister newspaper of The Nation, Chao Kengchon, managing director at the Kasikorn Research Centre, said that many previous governments had failed to help farmers to have better lives. 

 

Farmers are at a disadvantage as they are at the upper stream of farm production, shouldering the highest risk, compared to middlemen traders and giant food producers. “Farmers buy lottery [tickets] all the time,” Chao said, comparing farmers' income to winning or losing a lottery. 

 

“The challenge is how to help them to move up the value chain that lowers their risk and increases their profits,” he said.

 

Agricultural cooperatives would be a best tool to help them take some of the risk out of growing crops or raising livestock, but so far they have not yet been able to successfully compete with private companies, he said. 

 

A possible solution might come from the sugar industry, which returns some profits back to farmers, although he was not sure if it could be applied to other crops. 

 

Pipat Luengnaruemitchai, assistant managing director and chief investment officer for wealth management at Phatra Securities, said that due to lower prices of farm products, economic activity in provincial areas has stood still. 

 

“Life in Bangkok is a sharp contrast, where luxury restaurants have been booked in advance for many months, but street food businesses are struggling. Low income earners are still cautious about their spending because they have not yet fully benefited from economic growth,” said Pipat. 

 

 One problem for the low-income group is that their wages do not increase much because the country imports foreign labour who pull down wages, staying a bit over Bt300 per day.

 

Rising oil prices during 2010-2011 also pushed up farm product prices but farm product prices have remained low this time, he said. 

 

Recent increases in farmers' income derived largely from the volume sold not from higher prices, he said. 

 

Somprawin Manprasert, chief economist at Bank of Ayudhya, said that agricultural reform should aim to reduce political intervention and let the market decide winners and losers. The government should create a social safety net for people adversely affected by the reform. 

 

Tim Leelahaphan, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank (Thailand), said it would take time to solve income inequality. Tourism in secondary provinces and the Eastern Economic Corridor project may boost the income of local people, he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/business/30352070

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-14

"...According to a study by Thammasat University’s economist Duangmanee Laovakul in 2013, the country’s top 20 land owners owned 80 per cent of the country’s total land, while the bottom 20 owned only 0.3 per cent of land. And among those having bank deposits, 0.1 per cent of bank accounts held 49 per cent of total bank deposits. .."

 

It seems like the above is a good place to start. I am a believer in a free market, but it is clear that it has gone waaaaaaaaay out of whack, or much more likely, has not ever been 'free' and requires a fix. Why not immediately implement a wealth tax to attempt to begin the process of wealth redistribution?

 

Yes, I know, ain't gonna happen; nothing short of a serious revolution will change things in Thailand.

 

There are numerous measures that could be taken; there are numerous examples of wealth redistribution policies available from different parts of the world. They rarely work well, but examples do exists. What is required is the political will to change, and that doesn't exist in Thailand.

 

The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer, and eventually it'll all go 'bang!".

 

Have a nice day.

 

how  many  of  the 1.2  million dont have a  mobile phone? how   many  of  those  sold their  inherited  land  like  my  Wifes Sister  then  squandered  the money and  now  have  nothing?

How  many  have  been  offered  work  and  declined,  again  like my  Wifes  Sister, some times  being  poor also = being lazy/stupid not just unfortunate circumstances/disability.

48 minutes ago, kannot said:

how   many  of  those  sold their  inherited  land  like  my  Wifes Sister  then  squandered  the money and  now  have  nothing?

 

That's so true. i have seen this many times now. 

 

 

Edited August 13, 20187 yr by stanleycoin

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Government urged to help 1.2m desperately poor Thais

No greater opportunity than now to put the squeeze on the government while the PM and Cabinet are in election mode and roaming the country throwing money about like confetti.

The desperately poor need to clap loudly whenever he comes near so as to stimulate his generosity.

Note to desperately poor:

if by good fortune money comes your way try to make sure those thieves in that welfare Department who have been regularly stealing money from you don't get anywhere near it.

Quote

Government urged to help 1.2m desperately poor Thais

Could they make that 2.1m and 1 and get the gf off my back

Edited August 14, 20187 yr by grumbleweed

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Chao Kengchon, managing director at the Kasikorn Research Centre, said that many previous governments had failed to help farmers to have better lives. 

Therein lies much of the problem that I have observed in my years of being an immigrant in Thailand. Not many people take responsibility for their own actions. As a farm kid, I can remember my father saying that if we waited for the US government to help us, we would all starve. And he was right.

 

A young man who I will call Somchai lives down the road with his wife and two young children. The house they live in use to belong to the wife’s mother before she passed away. It’s not much of a home.

 

I first met Somchai at the local hardware store where he worked making B9,000 a month working six days a week. Minimum wage for Thailand is B300 a day. He got B375. However, Somchai got tired of the low wage and quit the job a few months ago. He has been unemployed since that time and maybe it has been a good thing as it gave him time to heal from injuries sustained from racing motorcycles.

 

His wife Lek, works at the local 7-11 but admitted that she had recently missed a few days of work.

 

My wife offered Somchai a job at B400 a day. He said ok, but never showed up. Maybe trimming trees or cutting grass is not a glamorous job, but it is better than when I worked on a trash truck one year to get through the university.

 

I’m not rich, but I have been poor. Life is not fair. A person has to be responsible regardless of what country they are from. If not, they might get hungry waiting on the government…

19 minutes ago, missoura said:

Therein lies much of the problem that I have observed in my years of being an immigrant in Thailand. Not many people take responsibility for their own actions. As a farm kid, I can remember my father saying that if we waited for the US government to help us, we would all starve. And he was right.

 

A young man who I will call Somchai lives down the road with his wife and two young children. The house they live in use to belong to the wife’s mother before she passed away. It’s not much of a home.

 

I first met Somchai at the local hardware store where he worked making B9,000 a month working six days a week. Minimum wage for Thailand is B300 a day. He got B375. However, Somchai got tired of the low wage and quit the job a few months ago. He has been unemployed since that time and maybe it has been a good thing as it gave him time to heal from injuries sustained from racing motorcycles.

 

His wife Lek, works at the local 7-11 but admitted that she had recently missed a few days of work.

 

My wife offered Somchai a job at B400 a day. He said ok, but never showed up. Maybe trimming trees or cutting grass is not a glamorous job, but it is better than when I worked on a trash truck one year to get through the university.

 

I’m not rich, but I have been poor. Life is not fair. A person has to be responsible regardless of what country they are from. If not, they might get hungry waiting on the government…

Lazy Somchai has his wife to support him.

that's unusual for the somchais of Thailand.

Maybe he will dump his family and find a better lady, with more to offer him.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That also,  would be very unusual. 

 

There prospects are grim some times, but sitting around will never make it better,  loads of sitting around in Thailand

 

But the genuine poor do need help, old ladies with no family, the disabled and so on 

Edited August 14, 20187 yr by stanleycoin

To be honest, Somchai looks like he is living the life of Riley. Nice house with garden.

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...According to a study by Thammasat University’s economist Duangmanee Laovakul in 2013, the country’s top 20 land owners owned 80 per cent of the country’s total land, while the bottom 20 owned only 0.3 per cent of land. And among those having bank deposits, 0.1 per cent of bank accounts held 49 per cent of total bank deposits. .."

 

It seems like the above is a good place to start. I am a believer in a free market, but it is clear that it has gone waaaaaaaaay out of whack, or much more likely, has not ever been 'free' and requires a fix. Why not immediately implement a wealth tax to attempt to begin the process of wealth redistribution?

 

Yes, I know, ain't gonna happen; nothing short of a serious revolution will change things in Thailand.

 

There are numerous measures that could be taken; there are numerous examples of wealth redistribution policies available from different parts of the world. They rarely work well, but examples do exists. What is required is the political will to change, and that doesn't exist in Thailand.

 

The rich will get richer, the poor will get poorer, and eventually it'll all go 'bang!".

 

Have a nice day.

 

I couldn't agree more, but who cares about the poor, not the rich.

 

Video: Pick-up hits 30 million baht McLaren - one of only three in Thailand

Shut be not a big problem with the Thai economy that growing like grease!

Way more urgent is to raise the monthly allowance of !!!  800 Baht  !!!  for handicapped people. I'd like to see anyone living on 800 Baht per month. Shame on Thailand!

Never did understand how the uber rich just want to take! and sit back and watch uber poverty anywhere?

Most Thai men I know are pure lazy and will live off a woman.ive been paying 450b a day and still can't find any workers.the women seem to be the workers and bread winners here in issan.i see many old ladies walking around bent over with completely arched backs but never a man.they walk around chatting with each other like they've retired with their shiny new pick ups.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Asked why the NESDB plans to target 1.2 million people while the Finance Ministry has provided funds to support 11.4 million people under the welfare card programme, he said that the board's figure is taken from a survey, while the Finance Ministry's number derives from a registration method, leading to a wide discrepancy.

Now I strongly believe that the real Santa is coming in four month, and not the Nigerian impersonator as usual. 

How about give them including pensioners two thousand a month and free education. One day a saviour will come.  He will come. 

 

Everybody is always going on about their lazy north eastern in laws. My better half’s family worked their whole life farming rubber in the south until they physically couldn’t do it anymore, they are in their late 50’s but look like worn out 70+ . Now the father in law works for a staggering 10k a month in a resort and all kids have to chip in to pay for a much more expensive house in Krabi town at around 6k. They have no food in the fridge, they have no money to buy dog food, they have no money for clothes, shoes for the youngest kid, they can’t afford beds, furniture or anything us westerners would consider the bare minimum. They are the kindest and happiest people i’ve met here. The country doesn’t give a shit about them and only call them jungle children.

 

they never ask for money and share the little they have. When we go to visit we secretly buy them food. 

 

At the same time I see the hiso sh*ts leading their vulgar and pompous lifes, it’s distasteful, it’s abnoxious. I know so many of them, pumped full of coke and imported wine in fancy overpriced cars, heap filtered luxury residences, let the poor suffocate from the pollution.

 

 I salute to the pickup who f*cked up the maclaren well.

 

this piece of junk could have helped out many families to better their futures and send their kids to good schools. Instead poor families are forced to sell out their girls or boys so that rich f*cks can have their way with them in Bangkok’s famous w*ore houses. And yeah it’s mainly locals who like them fresh and young. 

 

But then again nobody fights for equality, poor people just accept their fate, just like they were being told in school....

 

 

6 hours ago, missoura said:

 

I’m not rich,

 

 

You're not as rich as some other rich people.

 

Neither am I.

 

The fact that other rich people have more money than you or I does not make either of us "not rich".

 

 

Edited August 14, 20187 yr by Enoon

10 hours ago, webfact said:

Government urged to help 1.2m desperately poor Thais

Help desperately poor Thais? How about just getting the hell out of their way. Two poor Thais were sentenced to 30 years for picking mushrooms on government land. Their sentences were later reduced in another court, but picking food from public lands is a crime for hungry people?

1.2 Million potential voters for the PM, better help them quick,  

use taxpayers money,not my own,thats the way to do it.

regards worgeordie

13 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

1.2 Million potential voters for the PM, better help them quick,  

use taxpayers money,not my own,thats the way to do it.

regards worgeordie

Or just print more money. 

 If only the many Billions wasted on corruption to make the rich richer, these money could have been used to save millions of Thai people from being severely poor.

Thai culture is Thai culture.  No matter what we do, how we offer assistance, most will react to it the only way they know how.

I've offered (basically given) overseas contract offers to the wife' sisters sons.  Tell them...get on the plane, work for 5-6 weeks, take home 5-600,000b, no questions, no trouble and keep a watchful eye out for them.  NO, too much trouble, will miss girlfriend, will miss mom, will miss friends... So be it.  Difficult to see them struggle when the motorcycle craps, buffalo limps and beer money runs out...but not painful to me.  

LOL. "I have this anecdote about Somchai so-and-so which proves all 1.2M are lazy, shiftless no-count SOBs."

 

Sounds just like the right-wingers back home.

Only if they promise to vote!

16 hours ago, webfact said:

According to a study by Thammasat University’s economist Duangmanee Laovakul in 2013, the country’s top 20 land owners owned 80 per cent of the country’s total land, while the bottom 20 owned only 0.3 per cent of land. And among those having bank deposits, 0.1 per cent of bank accounts held 49 per cent of total bank deposits. 

And therein lies the problem. Yes, many Thais seem lazy, but maybe because on 300 baht, even 400 baht a day, they see no future as a family unit. And the lives of a Hi-so seem totally unobtainable. How many of us could live on 400 baht a day (live, not exist) ..... and when they get to retirement age, you get 600 baht a month - try living on that. That's why Lao khao and yabba are so popular.

10 hours ago, ramrod711 said:

Help desperately poor Thais? How about just getting the hell out of their way. Two poor Thais were sentenced to 30 years for picking mushrooms on government land. Their sentences were later reduced in another court, but picking food from public lands is a crime for hungry people?

Udom Sirisorn and Daeng Sirisorn, 54 and 51 respectively, were handed down reduced sentences of five years by a court in Kalasin province, seven years after they were first convicted of illegal logging there.

In July 2010, the couple had gone into Kalasin’s Dong Radaeng Forest to collect wild mushrooms for cooking. They were arrested by police and quickly sentenced to 30 years in prison, which was reduced by half because they had confessed.

They first appealed in 2014 but a court upheld their original sentences, and the couple served 17 months in jail before being freed on bail. The controversial sentences for the couple spawned a campaign calling for their release online and complaints about the nation’s double-standard justice system

13 hours ago, fusion58 said:

LOL. "I have this anecdote about Somchai so-and-so which proves all 1.2M are lazy, shiftless no-count SOBs."

 

Sounds just like the right-wingers back home.

or the left whingers on here

8 hours ago, rickudon said:

And therein lies the problem. Yes, many Thais seem lazy, but maybe because on 300 baht, even 400 baht a day, they see no future as a family unit. And the lives of a Hi-so seem totally unobtainable. How many of us could live on 400 baht a day (live, not exist) ..... and when they get to retirement age, you get 600 baht a month - try living on that. That's why Lao khao and yabba are so popular.

rubbish my Wife earned  less  than  that but  was the ONLY one of her  siblings to save everything and when  met her she'd managed to get 350k saved over an 8-9 year period. They simply save nothing in general and want want want,  all  that  beer and yaba money could have been  saved  along with their self respect...............instead, "not my fault" always ready to  roll  out the "im  poor" narrative