Parties offer ideas to ease wealth gap in Thailand

[webfact]

Parties offer ideas to ease wealth gap

By KHANITTHA THEPPHAJORN 
THE NATION 

 

File photo

 

Ending monopolies, increasing farmers’ income some of the strategies put forward ahead of upcoming elections.
 

POLITICAL PARTIES got together yesterday to present different ideas to bridge the wealth gap in Thailand ahead of the upcoming general election. 

 

Among the policies on offer were bringing an end to monopolies that do not benefit the public, judicial reform to prevent conflicts of interest, greater educational opportunities, healthcare coverage for all and bringing the minimum daily wage to Bt350. 

 

Representatives of 10 political parties shared their strategies at an academic forum yesterday. 

 

“Inequalities occur because a single business can enjoy a long-term monopoly thanks to help from powers-that-be,” Puea Chat Party’s leader Songkram Kitlertphairoj said. “If my party becomes part of the new government, we will stop these unfair monopolies.” 

 

Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva echoed the opinion, saying his party planned to enforce competition laws. 

 

“We have to prevent business alliances from taking advantage of people,” he said. 

 

Abhisit also promised to improve public welfare and ensure a fair distribution of educational and healthcare services. “We aim to carry out judicial reform, which will help solve the conflict of interest among political office holders,” he added. 

 

Key Pheu Thai Party member Noppadon Pattama said his party had prepared several policies to boost the lives of farmers. 

 

“For instance, we plan to ensure that paddy is sold at no less than Bt10,000 per tonne,” he said, without explaining how this idea will be different from the controversial rice-pledging scheme implemented during the Yingluck Shinawatra administration. 

 

Noppadon said his party planned to allow the growing of high-value plants in forest reserves and improve land laws for farmers. He said Pheu Thai also aimed to leverage technology for greater agricultural output. 

 

“We will also raise the minimum daily wage to Bt350,” Noppadon vowed. The Yingluck-led administration had successfully achieved its election promise of bringing the daily minimum wage to Bt300.

 

In addition, Noppadon said those interested in learning would be given the right opportunities. 

 

Meanwhile, Varawut Silpa-archa, who chairs the Chartthaipattana Party’s policy and strategy committee, said his party will ensure that the Education Ministry remains free of political interference. 

 

“We will welcome the new generation in formulating national education strategies,” he said. 

 

He added that the Chartthaipattana Party will also work on raising farmers’ incomes and improve their lives through the “farmer settlement project”. 

 

Future Forward Party’s leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, however, suggested a holistic approach toward resolving inequality issues. 

 

“Focus on improving people’s quality of life. Did you know that labourers hardly earn enough to survive even after working for 72 hours a week?” he asked. 

 

Chartpattana Party’s adviser Wannarat Channukul put the inequality down to economic problems faced by a large number of Thais, especially farmers. “I believe these problems stem from the fact that the government has not invested enough in sustainable agriculture,” he said. 

 

He added that a comprehensive development of water resources and efficiency would boost farmers’ incomes and naturally reduce inequality. 

 

Preechaphol Pongpanit, leader of Thai Safe the Nation Party (sic), said his party would help needy people in the short term and use technology to improve people’s lives in the long run. 

 

“Our focus will be farmers, who make up the majority of the population,” he said. 

 

Bhumjaithai Party member Siripong Angkasakulkiat put the wealth gap down to people not getting equal opportunities. 

 

“It’s time to cut down the power of state agencies and boost the power of the people,” he said.

 

Action Coalition for Thailand Party’s core member Anek Laotha-matas, said easing inequality was at the very foundation of democracy. 

 

“To solve inequalities, my party intends to upgrade the Thai economy to 4.0 era,” he said. 

 

Seree Ruam Thai Party’s executive Anukul Praepaisan said he believed political parties that were monopolised by a certain group will never really belong to the people. “It is these parties that allow economic monopolies,” he pointed out. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30362391

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-17

[Fex Bluse]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

“We have to prevent business alliances from taking advantage of people,” he said.

Said with a sly grin and a wink. Who would believe a privileged Thai actually means this? Not me. I know enough of them -- usually Chinese -- to know their genuine feelings. They compete at all costs just as the world is finding about now about (China) Chinese. They are all the same, all over the world.

 

They will exploit whatever systems are in place to build wealth and influence and they are pragmatic people knowing that you can usually buy your way out of legal or ethical obligations.

 

I wish the Thai-Chinese would stop pretending they care, but I suppose they have to convince the brown Thais.

[mok199]

The corrupt rich telling us how the poor feel...

[mikebell]

Justice for all, equally applied by an uncorrupted police force?

[PatOngo]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Did you know that labourers hardly earn enough to survive even after working for 72 hours a week?”

Nothing has changed in the past 25 years in regard to inequality, and I dare say nothing will change in the next 10 years for labourers!

[holy cow cm]

Raise the daily wage yet again and then the problem the end product price goes up. It needs to be absorbed in the middle, not last on where it hurts the domestic and export over all scenes. 

 

Monopolies? CP? Yes I agree, even the THAI agree for a better playing field, but in the end it is who has the best price for just say like retail. These corps of companies play hide and seek games by setting up sub companies under dba’s or have share ownership majority in their favor if set up as separate entity. Even look at some 7-11 labeled foods. If not under CP label from a CP factory then they are branded as a 7-11 product made at a CP factory. Of course not all products, but there are a lot, and the tendency is to make everything themselves under their own umbrella if possible, and for normal retail for say ready meals, they are very influential for freezer space and very low end competitive that makes the retail market have higher returns upon sales. Harder for the little guy to compete, and then the little guy is normally not that little as normally has money if they are main stream products. Again not all products but equality doesn’t come in many colors here. 

[LazySlipper]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

bringing the minimum daily wage to Bt350. 

 

The gap will never be bridged with such a shittttteye minimum wage. Maybe if it were 200 bht an hour then things would get rolling. Highly unlikely these guys have any idea of what is really going on in the world.

[fruitman]

2 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

I wish the Thai-Chinese would stop pretending they care, but I suppose they have to convince the brown Thais.

I'll never forget what i saw in indonesia..they had just burned hundreds of houses where the chinese had their business...they got tired of it...

[fruitman]

Stop the beer monopolies.....taximonopolies...importtaxes.....supermarketmonopolies...mall monopolies...

Edited January 17, 2019 by fruitman

[grumbleweed]

How to protect and take care of your chickens

By The Fox

[Cadbury]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Parties offer ideas to ease wealth gap

How about a serious wealth tax on the filthy rich 1% (which includes military generals and politicians) and give it back to the other 99% in the form of improved health, education, road safety, air quality, better wages and welfare support for the needy. That mightn't allow the 99% to acquire any more wealth but it might enrich their lives. 

Any Party that promises that might just come out a winner on election day; if there ever is one.

[zydeco]

Some people better give up something, or they are going to lose everything.

[Lupatria]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

“Inequalities occur because a single business can enjoy a long-term monopoly thanks to help from powers-that-be,” Puea Chat Party’s leader Songkram Kitlertphairoj said. “If my party becomes part of the new government, we will stop these unfair monopolies.” 

Instead of dreaming of power, and making complete unrealistic comments, he should read the news and learn how the people in France react to such situation.

[petermik]

The amount of good ideas that come out here is commendable....unfortunately they NEVER materialise 

[Eric Loh]

2 hours ago, fruitman said:

I'll never forget what i saw in indonesia..they had just burned hundreds of houses where the chinese had their business...they got tired of it...

I believed that was in May 1998. Not the first time but Indonesia Chinese has been attacked since the Dutch East India period. The '98 riots were during the time of massive unemployment and food shortages. The Chinese were easy target for the frustrated Indonesians and when the government was at its weakest which led to the downfall of Suharto. 

[Pedrogaz]

No need to read this article full of platitudes and nonsense. The Constitution ensures that the poor are not represented at the top levels of the country. 

Nothing will reduce inequality here unless the all mega-rich wake up one morning and stop being overweeningly  greedy. It won't happen. This is a zero sum game.....for poor people to get better off relies ultimately on the mega-rich having a bit less by either paying some taxes, getting less in kickbacks, not getting fraudulent monopolies, or by becoming citizen to whom the law applies. None of this will happen. Marx tells us that the elite will never give up the privilege they have without a fight.

[maxcorrigan]

1 hour ago, Pedrogaz said:

No need to read this article full of platitudes and nonsense. The Constitution ensures that the poor are not represented at the top levels of the country. 

Nothing will reduce inequality here unless the all mega-rich wake up one morning and stop being overweeningly  greedy. It won't happen. This is a zero sum game.....for poor people to get better off relies ultimately on the mega-rich having a bit less by either paying some taxes, getting less in kickbacks, not getting fraudulent monopolies, or by becoming citizen to whom the law applies. None of this will happen. Marx tells us that the elite will never give up the privilege they have without a fight.

True, as is happening in the UK right now!

[fruitman]

34 minutes ago, maxcorrigan said:

True, as is happening in the UK right now!

Well the UK is very happy with the King Power shop in Thailand.....they got free drinks and snacks...free, totally free! Awesome innit?

[DrTuner]

7 hours ago, mok199 said:

The corrupt rich telling us how the poor feel...

"Cheer up Somchai, carry on!"

 

Let them eat cake.

[mike324]

To ease the wealth gap, quite easy actually. Overhaul the education and curriculum. Education ministry has the highest budget in Thailand at over 500 billion baht to do so yearly. Can't close the gap when education continues to slide backwards. When a country develops, education and its people are suppose to move along to, but in Thailand its slipping backwards!

[madmitch]

Small businesses are driven out by large ones. It's not just in Thailand, it happens all over the world. Thailand purports to support its domestic industries. True, but only the big boys in general. The brewing industry is a great example. Is there another country in the world where a small brewer has to send its product out of the country to get an import stamp in order to sell it at excessive mark ups due to tax? And why? Because the big players have too much clout with the Government.

 

It also doesn't help that rich Thais only want to make their families even richer. The Thai version of philathropy is giving the grandson a few million baht to buy a new Ferrari.

 

Not quie Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, Pedrogaz said:

No need to read this article full of platitudes and nonsense. The Constitution ensures that the poor are not represented at the top levels of the country. 

Nothing will reduce inequality here unless the all mega-rich wake up one morning and stop being overweeningly  greedy. It won't happen. This is a zero sum game.....for poor people to get better off relies ultimately on the mega-rich having a bit less by either paying some taxes, getting less in kickbacks, not getting fraudulent monopolies, or by becoming citizen to whom the law applies. None of this will happen. Marx tells us that the elite will never give up the privilege they have without a fight.

"Marx tells us that the elite will never give up the privilege they have without a fight."

 

Just like Stalin, Mao, Ceausecu, Tito, Mugabe, Maduro, etc etc - and all those other communists and socialists who want to make everyone equal; and want to be more equal themselves 555!

 

The Marx brothers - Harpo, Chico, Groucho, Zeppo, Gummo and Karl! And Karl was the biggest comedian of them all.

[Baerboxer]

And Pheu Thais solution - ignore education (they don't want an educated electorate who won't believe their outrageous porkies), ignore monopolies (that's how the boss and his clan first made their money and might want to do it again) and suggest another bribe the farmers rice scheme (of course one that's transparent, well audited and free from all corruption - just like before!).

 

Same same but not even different!

[marcusarelus]

3 minutes ago, Baerboxer said:

And Pheu Thais solution - ignore education (they don't want an educated electorate who won't believe their outrageous porkies), ignore monopolies (that's how the boss and his clan first made their money and might want to do it again) and suggest another bribe the farmers rice scheme (of course one that's transparent, well audited and free from all corruption - just like before!).

Same same but not even different!

If they don't want Thai people educated why do they have 150,000 university openings per year?  That's like a half a million college grads every few years.  I know the universities are ranked lower than Oxford and Harvard but many are in the top 500 in the world so they can't be that bad.  Do you know anything about Thai universities?  The larger problem is not enough babies.  So get out there and get some Thai women pregnant and really help the country. 

[DrTuner]

38 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

The larger problem is not enough babies.  

Oh no.

 

 

The opposite, get rid of 2/3 of them.

[Fex Bluse]

10 hours ago, fruitman said:

I'll never forget what i saw in indonesia..they had just burned hundreds of houses where the chinese had their business...they got tired of it...

Yeah, too bad the Thais seem to have no fight in them, unlike all the other Southeast Asians. Thailand seems ever willing to prostitute itself to whoever is powerful at any given time and give away the country - as long as you take a Thai name, of course. Easy country 

[DrTuner]

3 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

Yeah, too bad the Thais seem to have no fight in them, unlike all the other Southeast Asians. Thailand seems ever willing to prostitute itself to whoever is powerful at any given time and give away the country - as long as you take a Thai name, of course. Easy country 

To be fair, it's worked pretty well for them. They let the Japanese do whatever they wanted and others took care of them later, they let US use them as a base during Viet war and got a partner (that they now have alienated), now they've opened the pins to China that's feeding the 1% trough. The elites have done well pimping their country. Thai women managed to do the same on SME level.

 

Last time they fought back, well, Bang Rajan pops to mind. After an epic arsewhoopping from the Burmese they mellowed.

Edited January 18, 2019 by DrTuner

[Oziex1]

Let them eat cake.

Edited January 18, 2019 by Oziex1

[scorecard]

On 1/17/2019 at 7:01 AM, holy cow cm said:

Raise the daily wage yet again and then the problem the end product price goes up. It needs to be absorbed in the middle, not last on where it hurts the domestic and export over all scenes. 

 

Monopolies? CP? Yes I agree, even the THAI agree for a better playing field, but in the end it is who has the best price for just say like retail. These corps of companies play hide and seek games by setting up sub companies under dba’s or have share ownership majority in their favor if set up as separate entity. Even look at some 7-11 labeled foods. If not under CP label from a CP factory then they are branded as a 7-11 product made at a CP factory. Of course not all products, but there are a lot, and the tendency is to make everything themselves under their own umbrella if possible, and for normal retail for say ready meals, they are very influential for freezer space and very low end competitive that makes the retail market have higher returns upon sales. Harder for the little guy to compete, and then the little guy is normally not that little as normally has money if they are main stream products. Again not all products but equality doesn’t come in many colors here. 

 Which is why I support selective price controls, especially food and other essentials of life, and government subsidies.

 

Also, people / parties can come up with hundreds of tweaks for farming but the reality is that today farmers just survive. Seems to me farmers grow our food essential for survival but they are the poorest sector of the community, this is not appropriate, seems to the time has come where farming needs ro be subsidized so that farmers can enjoy a decent quality of life.

 

Also public transport, we have mass transport systems and a lot more coming. But there are still large numbers of Thai who cannot dream of taking BTS or similar to work and home again, the cost is way beyond their means.

 

Why not, whilst LOS is still a developing country subsidize BTS etc., so many more folks can use it, also helps to reduce massive waste of fuels and reduce pollution, increase productivity etc.  And later when appropriate switch to 'user pays' policies. 

[marcusarelus]

4 hours ago, Fex Bluse said:

Yeah, too bad the Thais seem to have no fight in them, unlike all the other Southeast Asians. Thailand seems ever willing to prostitute itself to whoever is powerful at any given time and give away the country - as long as you take a Thai name, of course. Easy country 

Ayutthaya–Lan Na War (1456–1474)

Burmese–Siamese wars (1548–1855)

Tây Sơn rebellion

Laotian Rebellion (1826–1828)

Siamese–Vietnamese War (1831–34)

Le Van Khoi revolt (1833–1835)

Siamese–Vietnamese War (1841–45)

Haw wars (1865–1890)

Franco-Siamese War (1893)

World War I (1917–1918): see Siam in World War I

Franco-Thai War (1940–1941)

World War II (1942–1945): see Thailand in World War II

Korean War (1950–1953)

Vietnam War (1965–1971)

Laotian Civil War

Communist insurgency in Thailand (1965–1983)

Vietnamese border raids in Thailand (1979–1989)

Thai–Laotian Border War (1987–1988)

Iraq War 2003 -4

 

Did they fight in the above wars?  Who won?