1 hour ago, 473geo said:

You give the impression like many others you really think westerners are currently the core of Thai tourism? I think it is you that needs to accept the world has already changed, Thailand has many tourists yet to visit from only a short flight away, not expensive and possibly if those people as you say are financially disadvantaged for while, maybe they will travel to an attractive destination nearer home rather than Europe, for example?

Why would the the self employed not thrive in hard times when they are not hampered by the same overheads constraints as major corporates

 

Your took the wrong impression, Where did i even suggest westerners were a core Thailands tourism ?  You are banging on the wrong door for that argument  i assure you, I already said international travel will likely change and become more restricted than less. Thailand is welcome to courting Asian and Chinese tourists and investment, if it chooses to move that way then more Chinese it will become, I could care less, after all Thailand is not my country.  For me as a place to do business or raise a family its done and I made plans accordingly and so far glad we did so. 

 

The self employed are as most would tell you, being regulated out of the ability to survive let alone thrive..regulation and red tape are never cut, the opposite is what happens and big business is the one who lobbys for increasingly more, exactly to reduce competition entry point and stop smaller more nimble business competing or under cutting them. Fixed high costs, industry regulation, rules, licences, certificates, loans, labour costs and the added social responsibilities, slow payment terms, constrained cash flow, high banking rates, unfavourable loan terms, all act against the small business and self employed, at least in countries that have a functioning rule of law.  And thats just for starters. 

 

You dont seem to understand that big business is often unprofitable, sometimes for decades yet gets favourable terms unthinkable by SME... too big to fail is a fallacy, its a scam.  Banks make massive profits on massive loans, hey make that to big coorps and it simply buys back its stock to increase book value, dosnt mean its actually a good business model or quality, I could name hundreds of such behemoths.. Hertz would be just one example, Uber another.  but thats another thread entirely.  

 

You must be retired because you really dont seem to have a clue about the real world of SME or SE these days.  Im out. 

13 hours ago, Blumpie said:

health care experts are very optimistic several vaccines that are being mass produced right now will work.  

first thing I do, when reading this, is checking the names in the literature and trying to find their conflict of interest, aka, if they will PROFIT in any way, for vaccine x,y,z to be touted as the cure...

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=vaccine+execs+cashing+out

 

Moderna executives have cashed out $89M in shares this year

 

The top five executives at the biotech company Moderna have sold more than $89 million of stock so far this year — initiating nearly three times as many stock transactions than in all of 2019 — as the company’s share price has soared on hopes for its Covid-19 vaccine.

On 6/15/2020 at 2:29 AM, Mr Meeseeks said:

You can blame a number of factors; UK and US governments' poor handling of the crisis

Put any government anywhere in the world in charge of UK/US policy at start of crisis and would have same result. People need to stop comparing major global hubs with out on a limb places like the Nordics and NZ.

The op is what I always feared. Problem with Thais is they are impressionable and tend to err on the side of xenophobia - mouthy gov ministers with an agenda sowing further distrust of non-Asian visitors. The agenda being to bend over and take one from the politburo for monetary gain. It'll open back up but will never be the same. Just glad I got to experience the place way before these <deleted> got in and smartphone culture took a hold.

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On 6/16/2020 at 11:00 PM, englishoak said:

that the world is going to have to learn to live with the virus as economies cannot survive any other way. Dosnt mean there will be a return of westerners to Asia en masse as before... nor that jobs will return to the decimated industries. Things already arnt going to go back to the way they were for millions in hospitality haulage and tourism, in fact its already changed and massive cuts are being made.. 25% job loss and business closures in those sectors is a conservative figure atm. No point keeping ones head in the sand, ccasionally the world goes through rapid changes, like ww2 changed everything in a decade this will too. 

 

Not really, you view the world through doomsday glasses, this is not some culture change or a massive economic shift. This is a temporary virus to which we have overreacted in the extreme. Look at the US at the moment, no one cares about it anymore already even though its the highest infected country in the world. Look at Europe with most countries there now with just 100 infections a day. 

 

There might be a 2nd wave as is usual with these kind of diseases, and then it will die down. Everything will be back to normal as before. This virus does not change the world on a permanent basis. Even if it was to stay with us "forever" as Aids did, the world will start to ignore and move on.

 

You don't have to believe me, just look at the stock market reaction and its usual predictive capabilities.