Sell Condo to then put 800,000 into bank ?????

[rott]

On 3/16/2019 at 9:34 AM, dcnx said:

They should make an exception for everyone who has invested at a certain level here. 

Love it every time I hear or see "they should", shows a great lack of knowledge and understanding.

Almost as good as "why".

[watcharacters]

On 3/16/2019 at 9:32 AM, Nyezhov said:

They should make an exception just for you?

 

 

Maybe not, but why not a policy change for those circumstances?

 

 

 

 

[inThailand]

1 hour ago, JohnnyBD said:

Interesting you should mention it. I recently found out from a good friend how he and his attorney/visa agent does it. A foreigner with a condo needs money, so he goes to the attorney and borrows the money, no more than 50% loan to value, then the attorney has other foreigners like my friend as investors putting up the loaned monies. The attorney gets paid for his fees and takes a lien on the property and the investor gets 1% per month interest (12% APR) on the loan. If the property owner defaults, the attorney forecloses, puts the property up for rent & sale to generate income for the investor who collects the rent until it sells, then he is paid off. The attorney makes a profit on the property over and above the loan amount. My good friend told me he has 5 MM or so loaned out like that on several properties, some are paying and some are up for sale. He asked me if I was interested. I'm not. Now, I know why he gets such a cheap rate on his visa extension renewals from the attorney/visa agent.  

So the attorney gets the condo as collateral and the foreigners funding the loan get a piece of paper? This sounds ripe for problems? 

[JohnnyBD]

1 hour ago, inThailand said:

So the attorney gets the condo as collateral and the foreigners funding the loan get a piece of paper? This sounds ripe for problems? 

No, the attorney sells the condo and the investor gets paid back with interest.

Edited March 17, 2019 by JohnnyBD

[murraynz]

On 3/16/2019 at 1:41 PM, ubonjoe said:

There is an extension of stay that is possible if you have invested 10 million baht or more in a condo or 10 million baht in a bank account or government bonds or a combination of the condo and the money.

ubonjoe, can you please advise--what are the requirements that need to be shown, if i have purchased a condo for over 10mil thb ??  ... or....  can it be 10mil or more,,.. over 2 condos.

i currently have a non o multi entry, based on retirement..

my current condo cost 5mil,at cosy beach,  but i intend to buy a second one at phuket{much more exp} and alternate my living between the two...

i dont particuarly like having  800k  sitting idle in my thai bank acc.

i also dislike the ever changing demands by immigration people..so i usually use an agent{ even though everything is legit}, its not worth the hassle trying to deal with them..

i do short trips out of thailand, about 6 times per yr, quite often have minor problems at the airport, with my passport... 

[ubonjoe]

29 minutes ago, murraynz said:

ubonjoe, can you please advise--what are the requirements that need to be shown, if i have purchased a condo for over 10mil thb ??  ... or....  can it be 10mil or more,,.. over 2 condos.

i currently have a non o multi entry, based on retirement..

See B here. https://www.immigration.go.th/content/service_5

Before commiting to the purchase you need to check with immigration about it.. In most cases it can only be one condo and it has to be a new one.

[ocddave]

On 3/16/2019 at 9:41 AM, ubonjoe said:

There is an extension of stay that is possible if you have invested 10 million baht or more in a condo or 10 million baht in a bank account or government bonds or a combination of the condo and the money.

Hmmm....more info? Any perks to this over the normal marriage/retirement extension? Does this mean someone of any age (not married, not retiring) with this money in the bank is allowed to stay in Thailand indefinitely?

 

Ok, didn't see your last post, reading thru the info now ....thanks! ????

Edited March 17, 2019 by ocddave

[EricTh]

5 hours ago, jacko45k said:

The 800k is (or rather was) about having the money to live off. A condo is not that. 

Most of us don't spend 800k in one year. I think most of us could live from 100k to 200k per year if we have our own place.

 

What I meant was immigration should consider lowering the financial requirement to 300-400k (wink..wink...) for those with condos/houses in Thailand instead of 800k.

Edited March 17, 2019 by EricTh

[ocddave]

1 minute ago, EricTh said:

Most of us don't spend 800k for one year. I think most of us could live from 100k to 200k per year if we have our own place.

 

What I meant was immigration should consider lowering the financial requirement to 400k for those with condos/houses in Thailand instead of 800k.

That would be news to my wife, I hand her 70,000 baht a month to keep our lifestyle going, thats with her also working full-time teaching nursing.

[elviajero]

31 minutes ago, ocddave said:

Hmmm....more info? Any perks to this over the normal marriage/retirement extension? Does this mean someone of any age (not married, not retiring) with this money in the bank is allowed to stay in Thailand indefinitely?

 

Ok, didn't see your last post, reading thru the info now ....thanks! ????

The permission to stay is only for 1 year at a time, not indefinite leave to stay. But it can be renewed each year as long as you continue to hold the investment.

[elviajero]

36 minutes ago, EricTh said:

Most of us don't spend 800k in one year. I think most of us could live from 100k to 200k per year if we have our own place.

 

What I meant was immigration should consider lowering the financial requirement to 300-400k (wink..wink...) for those with condos/houses in Thailand instead of 800k.

I think your missing the point of the 800K level. It’s set higher than required primarily to limit numbers of qualifying applicants. 

 

It’s only ever likely to go up. IMO the only way it would go down is if the numbers of expats drastically reduced and they wanted to encourage them back. And I don’t see that happening anytime soon even with the recent changes.

Edited March 17, 2019 by elviajero

[Destiny1990]

Its weird I agree if u have a condo mortgage free then u dont have to pay rent therefore there should be a more lenient calculation example 250k in a bank or a monthly income 45k.

anyway sir just rent out ur condo and move to Vietnam or Phillipines.

[ChouDoufu]

1 hour ago, elviajero said:

I think your missing the point of the 800K level. It’s set higher than required primarily to limit numbers of qualifying applicants. 

 

It’s only ever likely to go up. IMO the only way it would go down is if the numbers of expats drastically reduced and they wanted to encourage them back. And I don’t see that happening anytime soon even with the recent changes.

and why would the lower the requirements to encourage people who don't have $25K to set aside?  recent news reports that the usa now has more millionaires than sweden has citizens.

 

more likely to raise it to highlight the exclusiveness of retirement in thailand and encourage the big spenders.  heck, they could even resettle the current population of one of the islands to make way for a billionaires retirement enclave.  if new york passes the proposed 70% capital gains tax........

 

 

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

and why would the lower the requirements to encourage people who don't have $25K to set aside? 

They already do - via the income-method.  A better question - why would they artificially limit the amount of jobs self-funded expats can create for Thais via foreign-sourced wealth poured into the country? 

 

Each one of us - even the lower-spending ones - funds multiple Thai careers - so when just one of us is rejected-entry by immigration (or driven away by "jump monkey jump" hoops to support agent/IO partner scams), several Thais are screwed as a direct result.

 

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

recent news reports that the usa now has more millionaires than sweden has citizens.

That is directly due to a wealth-transfer to that few from the former middle-class.  So, yes, more millionaires - but many, many, many more struggling to live hand-to-mouth as well. 

The backlash is leading to communism gaining popularity rapidly - which, of course, will just lead to more poverty in the end.  It's the same everywhere - and what happens here, when Thais' good paying jobs in a market-economy are filled by "work cheap" immigrants, or ripped from them by immigration.

[DrJack54]

1 hour ago, ChouDoufu said:

and why would the lower the requirements to encourage people who don't have $25K to set aside?  recent news reports that the usa now has more millionaires than sweden has citizens.

 

more likely to raise it to highlight the exclusiveness of retirement in thailand and encourage the big spenders.  heck, they could even resettle the current population of one of the islands to make way for a billionaires retirement enclave.  if new york passes the proposed 70% capital gains tax........

 

 

Are you nuts. Sweden has something like 10mill people. USA maybe 340mill. Guessing your from the latter. If not I'm sorry I offended USA folk

[ChouDoufu]

3 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Are you nuts. Sweden has something like 10mill people. USA maybe 340mill. Guessing your from the latter. If not I'm sorry I offended USA folk

from bloomberg a few days ago:

 

"The number of wealthy households in the U.S. reached a new high last year, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Sweden or Portugal.

 

 

More than 10.2 million households had a net worth of $1 million to $5 million, not including the value of their primary residence,..."

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-13/the-u-s-now-has-more-millionaires-than-sweden-has-people

 

so there's plenty of lutefisk in the sea...

 

[DJ54]

On 3/16/2019 at 10:18 AM, ThaiBunny said:

Since it's illegal for a non-Thai to own a house, on what basis could Thai Immigration take such ownership into account?

Owning a condo is legal. A few standing house a foreigner can’t own buy one would hope the wife, girlfriend would in that case 

help obtain a loan at the bank.

[onera1961]

 

2 hours ago, ChouDoufu said:

and why would the lower the requirements to encourage people who don't have $25K to set aside?  recent news reports that the usa now has more millionaires than sweden has citizens.

They are not going to lower it. Rather they are going to increase it. Wait for a few more years. retirement requirements will go up and insurance will become mandatory for extensions and O-A visa. Thailand does not want poor retirees (and perpetual tourists) coming here with dollars (that they earned due to the freak of nature because they happen to be born in the West) that make Baht stronger and destroy the export economy (65% of GDP) of the country, destroying good paying jobs and pensions at the expense of perpetuating the informal economy. It has enough foreign currency (45% of the GDP) and it's pouring in due to the influx of huge number of Chinese and Indian tourists. Strengthening of one baht against a dollar, reduces 10 billion BHT in export economy and destroys thousands of good paying jobs and future pensions. Thailand wants to escape from this vicious trap. It needs retirees who spend money on imported goods to ease the BHT. And guess who will spend money on imported stuff? 

Edited March 17, 2019 by onera1961

[JohnnyBD]

7 hours ago, onera1961 said:

So, there is a way to get loan and put it in bank to get a visa if somebody owns a condo, say 1.6 mil. What is the going interest rate? 

It's not cheap for the borrower...  it's 1% per month on the loan amount until it's paid off.

 

[onera1961]

12 minutes ago, JohnnyBD said:

It's not cheap for the borrower...  it's 1% per month on the loan amount until it's paid off.

12% per annum is not bad. Yes it is high for a secured loan. But better than loan sharks I think. A five year payment plan will require around 18K per month or twice the rate of renting. We are addicted to low interest rate in the last decade. Low interest rate destroys people's savings. But I think they calculate monthly payment based on the original loan amount. That's bad. Banks will never do that. But when somebody does not have huge cash but have steady monthly incomes, that may be the only option unless agents are still available.

Edited March 17, 2019 by onera1961

[JackThompson]

1 hour ago, onera1961 said:

They are not going to lower it. Rather they are going to increase it. Wait for a few more years. retirement requirements will go up and insurance will become mandatory for extensions and O-A visa.

Only so they can suck up more agent-money, as more and more cannot legally qualify, to line their pockets.  There is no logical reason to do this.  Ideally - if doing what is best for average Thai folks - they'd cut it in half.

 

The insurance is just another racket - see the lousy options the give the Non-O-X Visa folks.  I support a decent "emergency-care and repatriation" form of insurance to protect Thais from foreigner's medical expenses - but not forcing people to buy a policy that goes far beyond that mandate, and includes components they may not want or need.

 

1 hour ago, onera1961 said:

Thailand does not want poor retirees (and perpetual tourists) coming here with dollars (that they earned due to the freak of nature because they happen to be born in the West)

It wasn't a "freak of nature" - it was generations of people who worked hard and enacted good policy to provide wealthy nations for their children to inherit. 
Not to worry - you'll get your twisted SJW wish of destroying the only decent middle-class nations on earth - being wrecked now by the selfish generation who sold out their kids for cheap Chinese imports and "will work cheap" imported-labor - combined with letting a bunch of social-marxist communists con generations into hating their own heritage of ending social-abuses, while spreading advanced technology, lifesaving medicine, etc to the entire planet.

 

Quote

that make Baht stronger and destroy the export economy (65% of GDP) of the country, ... It needs retirees who spend money on imported goods to ease the BHT. And guess who will spend money on imported stuff? 

There you go again.  It's easy to lower the strength of a nation's currency by the govt Buying Stuff with it.  They don't need to "import certain people" to buy imports or print baht.  

How about spending on Native English Speakers at a good wage with all the required paperwork On Day One?  Plenty can be done on the Education front here, with a bit more govt-spending.

The hard thing to do is make a currency stronger if the govt has over-printed the currency.  Going the other direction just means helping your people a bit more.

 

All removing more Western expats does is push more Thais out of jobs and back to subsistence farming, while corralling a few into scams that line corrupt pockets.  There is no beneficial effect.

Edited March 17, 2019 by JackThompson

[tingtongtourist]

On 3/17/2019 at 1:17 AM, attrayant said:

Just think about that for a moment.

 

To get a retirement stay, you have to prove you can support yourself financially by showing 800K in the bank that... you can't touch to support yourself for five months of the year.

maybe they want people with savings well over 800k?

and 800k can then be an insurance for medical expense and some disaster?

 

If faranks didnt hang around in Thailand untill they are completely destitute and have 0 baht it might not come to this.

 

And they are probably bored of scraping up farangs off the concrete under the condo balcony.

 

It really is a bit of a laugh all the 

"welcome to my ignore list"

dude/s,

now frothing on the mouth as if they are asked of US$ 1 million.

 

its only like $30k for goodness sake!!

 

honestly with the way these guys complain and run down Thailand at every chance

i have no suprise Thailand is welcoming them to the "exit Thailand immigration lane"

 

[jacko45k]

10 hours ago, EricTh said:

Most of us don't spend 800k in one year. I think most of us could live from 100k to 200k per year if we have our own place.

And some of us spend a little more, 800k is the number they have decided on. But take note, you don't have to spend it all, simply show you have it now! You could simply spend 1000 baht a month for all they care. 

[bigginhill]

On 3/16/2019 at 4:35 AM, Tanoshi said:

2.5 In the case of investment:
Each permission shall be granted for no more than one year.
A. Investment of no less than Baht 3 million:
The alien:
(1) Must have been granted a nonimmigrant
visa (NONIM):
(2) Must have entered the Kingdom before October 1, 2006 and must have been
consecutively permitted to stay in the Kingdom for an investment of no less than Baht
3 million:
(3) Must have evidence of transferring funds into Thailand of no less than Baht 3 million:
(4) Must have evidence of investing in the purchase of a condominium unit for no
than Baht 3 million issued by a relevant agency or by the government; or
(5) Must have evidence of investing in the form of a fixed deposit of no less than Baht
million with a bank which is registered in Thailand and has Thai nationals holding more
50 percent ;or
(6) Must have evidence of investing in the purchase of government or state enterprise
bonds of no less than Baht 3 million; or
(7) Must have evidence of making an investment as set out in Criteria (4), (5), or (6)
a total value of no less than Baht 3 million

B. Investment of no less than Baht 10 million:
The alien:
(1) Must have been granted a nonimmigrant
visa (NONIM).
(2) Must have evidence of transferring funds into Thailand of no less than Baht 10 million.
(3) Must have evidence of investing in the purchase or rental of a condominium unit
period of no less than 3 years issued by a relevant agency or government, at a purchase
rental price of no less than Baht 10 million: or

4) Must have evidence of investing in the form of a fixed deposit of no less than Baht
million with a bank which is registered in Thailand and has Thai nationals holding more
50 percent ;or
(5) Must have evidence of investing in the purchase of government or state enterprise
bonds of no less than Baht 10 million; or
(6) Must have evidence of making an investment as set out in Criteria (3), (4), or (5)
a total value of not less than Baht 10 million

Is Option A still available? 

And how do the criteria work? 1+4 ok? 

[onera1961]

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

It wasn't a "freak of nature" - it was generations of people who worked hard and enacted good policy to provide wealthy nations for their children to inherit. 

Agreed that their ancestors  worked hard for laying the current economic foundations based on colonizations and chattel slavery. But the poor present retirees did not achieve anything except that they were born in the West to be able to earn dollars. It is not a personal achievement to be born in the West. It is just a freak of nature that one person is born in the West and another in Thailand. 

 

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

Only so they can suck up more agent-money, as more and more cannot legally qualify, to line their pockets.  There is no logical reason to do this.  Ideally - if doing what is best for average Thai folks - they'd cut it in half.

Yes, they also have hope and aspirations. They also want to send their kids to private schools. But the freak of nature made them to be born in Thailand. It is not their fault that they are born in Thailand. 

 

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

There you go again.  It's easy to lower the strength of a nation's currency by the govt Buying Stuff with it.  They don't need to "import certain people" to buy imports or print baht. 

What stuff government will buy? Buying military equipment does hardly do anything to the economy. It just enrich foreign war mongers. And the foreign currency is not government's to spend. It is not government generated revenue. It belongs to the central bank. Government and private entities can only exchange baht with dollars to buy imported stuff or send dollars back home

 

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

How about spending on Native English Speakers at a good wage with all the required paperwork On Day One?  Plenty can be done on the Education front here, with a bit more govt-spending.

Why native english speakers? They can hire Indians and Malaysians at a lower rate but still that does not solve the the foreign currency problem. These people must be paid in Baht, if government does not have revenues, they have to borrow and impose higher taxes to service the debt payment but that does not ease the pressure on Baht. If they send baht back home, that will ease some pressure.

 

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

The hard thing to do is make a currency stronger if the govt has over-printed the currency.  Going the other direction just means helping your people a bit more.

Yes, but Thailand is in very good position to accumulate foreign currency due to the influx of huge number of Chinese and Indians who are pouring in foreign currency as tourists. They don't need poor westerners anymore like they did when China and India were poor and needed westerners to bring foreign currency. 

 

8 hours ago, JackThompson said:

All removing more Western expats does is push more Thais out of jobs and back to subsistence farming,

Removing poor Westerners who perpetuate informal economy and their dollars destroy export economy of the country, thereby destroying good paying jobs and pensions. These are the people who have escaped the trap of earlier generations of dominant informal economy dependent on poor Westerners. Why they want to go back to the same trap again?

 

Thailand has to escape this vicious trap. Poor people dependent on informal economy may (i say may) suffer one generations but that sacrifice it has to make by not allowing poor foreigners to migrate to Thailand. If there were bold leaders they could have done it with a stroke of a pen but Thailand lacks bold leaders.

Slowly removing poor foreigners and making it difficult for new batch of poor foreigners to migrate to Thailand is the only path to escape from the trap of strong baht, destruction of export economy, people's jobs, future pension, their hopes and aspirations.

Of course, Capitalists can buy imported machineries but that will require high skills labor force that Thailand lacks.  I praise Thailand for understanding the underlying problems of this vicious trap that they have created after the Asian Financial Crisis. May be some intellectual Thais are at work behind the scenes. 

 

21st century belongs to Asians and each Asian country will find its solution to escape the economic trap that they have set up for earlier generations. And Thailand has realized that it does not need poor foreigners to perpetuate the informal economy of the country.

Edited March 18, 2019 by onera1961

[onera1961]

2 hours ago, bigginhill said:

Is Option A still available? 

And how do the criteria work? 1+4 ok? 

Option A is not available anymore. It was for people who came here before 2006 and maintained their investment baed extension since then without interruptions.

Right now I think one can put 10 mil in a fixed account in a Thai bank or buy government (or state enterprise  corporate bonds) bonds. (yes condo is also allowed)

 

If one is ready with 10 mil baht, I think he/she should consult a lawyer and pay $1000 fees to make it bullet proof. 

Edited March 18, 2019 by onera1961

[JackThompson]

2 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

maybe they want people with savings well over 800k?

and 800k can then be an insurance for medical expense and some disaster? 

 

If faranks didnt hang around in Thailand untill they are completely destitute and have 0 baht it might not come to this.

 

And they are probably bored of scraping up farangs off the concrete under the condo balcony.

All that should matter is the foreigners are spending foreign-sourced money to stay in the country.  All of that is upside.  Of course one in many thousands of foreigners will do something stupid - go broke or get a "terminal" medical diagnosis (cause of many of the suicides). 

 

I do agree that an "emergency and repatriation" type of insurance would be a good idea, in that it would take away that arrow from the "bash farang" quiver.  If applied to every foreigner based on the permitted-stay received (on-entry or in an immigration-office), it would be very inexpensive, and solve the problem.  Long-term healthcare can be purchased on the open-market.

 

2 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

 

It really is a bit of a laugh all the 

"welcome to my ignore list"

dude/s,

now frothing on the mouth as if they are asked of US$ 1 million.

 

its only like $30k for goodness sake!!

So, "only" about 80 monthly Thai salaries up-front.  This is the context - you have to consider the Cost Of Living in the country in question, which is the key selling-point to their encouraging people to retire here in the first place (then putting a knife in their backs with rule-changes, after they are settled). 

 

Add to that, due to the new rules, the money is locked-up as to make it unusable for emergencies, without sacrificing your permitted stay.  This in a country whose immigration is becoming increasingly "anti-Farang" - increasing the risk one could be booted and could have trouble accessing the funds in the future.

 

2 hours ago, tingtongtourist said:

honestly with the way these guys complain and run down Thailand at every chance

i have no suprise Thailand is welcoming them to the "exit Thailand immigration lane"

Maybe if Thai Immigration didn't run corruption-scams and "fix" the rules to maximize income from corruption, foreigners would not have that impression.  It does appear that immigration's position is increasingly, "Pay us corruption-tribute or get out" - with a larger swath of people included in that category with each "tightening."

 

Confusing that with "Thailand" as a country is crazy, though - most Thais don't object to our spending our money here.

[ubonjoe]

2 hours ago, bigginhill said:

Is Option A still available? 

Not unless you are already on the extension.

2 hours ago, bigginhill said:

(2) Must have entered the Kingdom before October 1, 2006 and must have been
consecutively permitted to stay in the Kingdom for an investment of no less than Baht
3 million:

 

2 hours ago, bigginhill said:

And how do the criteria work? 1+4 ok? 

Number one means you must have a non-b visa to apply for it.

If you have 10 million baht in a bank account or government bonds it will be accepted to apply for the extension.

[JackThompson]

43 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

Agreed that their ancestors  worked hard for laying the current economic foundations based on colonizations and chattel slavery.

I think you are confusing the Ottoman Empire with the West - who were by far the leaders in slavery, and the most brutal about it.  The West led the end of slavery world-wide - a practice that had been ubiquitous everywhere, until that happened. 

 

Nearly everywhere the West colonized, life improved drastically for the locals due to a less-barbaric govt than was in place previously, vast economic-development, etc.  Peoples being conquered and occupied "i.e. Colonization" was also something that existed since the dawn of time, and was Ended when the West led the way with the spread of democracy.

 

50 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

It is not a personal achievement to be born in the West. It is just a freak of nature that one person is born in the West and another in Thailand. 

It is called a "birthright."  People build great communities / countries and organize to get decent wages for the sake of their offspring/future - it's the primary motivating factor. 

 

47 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

Thailand has to escape this vicious trap. Poor people dependent on informal economy may (i say may) suffer one generations but that sacrifice it has to make by not allowing poor foreigners to migrate to Thailand.

I agree - they need to end the L-Visas that let poor people from neighboring countries come in and take jobs at low salaries.  By contrast, each and every self-funded foreigner - even the "less rich" ones - brings in the money to support several Thai jobs, but we cannot hope to offset the damage that is done by letting in large numbers of cheap-laborers from neighboring countries.

 

47 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

Slowly removing poor foreigners and making it difficult for new batch of poor foreigners to migrate to Thailand is the only path to escape from the trap of strong baht, destruction of export economy, people's jobs, future pension, their hopes and aspirations.

This is incorrect - that is not the "only path to escape ... strong baht."  You are basically arguing for inverse-mercantilism, to make the country poorer and reduce foreign reserves, as the only way to alter the relative value of its currency. 

 

Thank goodness that is not the only way it can be done.

 

53 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

And the foreign currency is not government's to spend. It is not government generated revenue. It belongs to the central bank. Government and private entities can only exchange baht with dollars to buy imported stuff or send dollars back home 

A government with a "our currency is too strong" problem can order the printing of additional currency to fund social/infrastructure development.  A government with the opposite problem must cut-back on spending, but often falls into a viscous-cycle if they have significant foreign-debt, denominated in another currency.  Therefore, it would be wise to pay down debt while the baht is strong (though it is not at extreme levels, now), and then do the very-needed spending. 

 

A well-funded English teaching initiative is just one example - lots of areas in Issan do not have year-round agriculture, due to inadequate water storage dams (though HM IX did an admirable job improving this over his lifetime).

 

58 minutes ago, onera1961 said:

They don't need poor westerners anymore like they did when China and India were poor and needed westerners to bring foreign currency. 

As long as there are subsistence-farm families whose young adults need paying jobs (and there are millions of them), every self-funded visitor helps - creating several jobs for as long they can be wisely-encouraged by the govt/immigration to stay here and keep spending.  Every one of those is a success-story - creating from nothing, the funds those families need to modernize their farms, and improve their lives in general.  When you leave a "tip" at a restaurant, a big chunk of that is sent directly to a poor family in Issan - as is much of the paycheck.  Multiply that by every one of us here. 

 

This is a fantastic boostrapping system which any nation would envy - as it does not create "handout-based dependence cycles" or run up the national-debt.  As per above, it actually encourages social-spending which is financially-sane. 

 

Let one think our "replacements" can do this - jobs serving "tour groups" pay less, and rarely involve any sort of tips to bolster the lower salaries.

 

1 hour ago, onera1961 said:

And Thailand has realized that it does not need poor foreigners to perpetuate the informal economy of the country.

Unfortunately, the elites of the country continue to use a policy of importing "cheap replacement workers," to undermine the potential increase in Thai salaries, which could greatly reduce poverty in the country through building a large middle-class.  The same is being done in the West, by the same types of traitors, to destroy our dwindling middle-class.

[WeekendRaider]

dude, if they made a new law that allowed say 5 million in a Thai brokerage account.... maybe.  but why would real property be considered funding for living here such as paying for very expensive imported medical supplies or use of equipment such as scanning machines????  800K THB should be easy to do.  if not...... it goes without saying.  even with full inpatient coverage we still should have at a few million THB locally held to cover non ambulatory health care emergencies.  end of story.

Edited March 18, 2019 by WeekendRaider