How The Pandemic Has Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

[ebean001]

i never question why some people end up as they are. I frequently comment on a group as a whole but not individually...too complicated and too many varibles.  

[Laza 45]

1 hour ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

And stupidity by not thinking about saving, looks like a no winner as well. ????

Well.. put yourself in their shoes for a minute.. you try saving money when you earn 350 Bt a day and have a family to support..  or for a family with an income of 40,000 a month with kids to send to school and all the other costs of trying to get by.. the stupidity is not understanding the pressure Thai people are under.. 

[welovesundaysatspace]

7 hours ago, webfact said:

Mos, 26, was a "moneyboy" — a sex worker (...) For him, it was a dream come true. (...) He wanted to eat pork and pizza.

I guess my EQ is just too low for this. 

[wensiensheng]

6 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Someone else who has no idea of costs. The average cement house anywhere in Thailand is between 750,000 to 1 million baht, you think a laborer in the rice fields is ever going to be able to come up with that kind of money?

It’s not for me to be a moralist about whether it’s right to go for quick money in the sex trade, but I can categorically state that your quoted price for a cement house is way off. The most expensive house in our village of 80 or so houses, cost 250k. That was a woman who couldn’t do any of the work herself and it’s a nice 3 bed bungalow. Most people do at least part of the work themselves, or their relatives do. Also the  “average” cement house is not necessarily built as a western person would expect.  I doubt many people in our village spent more than 100k, if that. 
 

I will also add that the local economies of places like Udon, Khon kaen, are doing very well thank you very much, admittedly not much help if you are really out in the sticks, but there are alternatives to Pataya

[Orton Rd]

22 minutes ago, Laza 45 said:

Well.. put yourself in their shoes for a minute.. you try saving money when you earn 350 Bt a day and have a family to support..  or for a family with an income of 40,000 a month with kids to send to school and all the other costs of trying to get by.. the stupidity is not understanding the pressure Thai people are under.. 

40k is what some of our lesser educated family earn in Korea, may be illegal, but then so is prostitution. Others are noodle sellers here who earn more than my income, it's not prostitution or poverty, that's just a myth.

[natway09]

I think many posters on here need to take a tour of the "countryside" & live amongst the rural community before spouting off about lazy or being moralistic..

Choices are limited for many & they did not choose where they were born so please

stop your pontificating

 

 

[Dagfinnur Traustason]

26 minutes ago, Laza 45 said:

Well.. put yourself in their shoes for a minute.. you try saving money when you earn 350 Bt a day and have a family to support..  or for a family with an income of 40,000 a month with kids to send to school and all the other costs of trying to get by.. the stupidity is not understanding the pressure Thai people are under.. 

In normal circumstances, yes! However, we are talking about the sex-trade here, and extra money coming to the families. Some of that could have been saved. If not, how did they survive before? As you can see, I understand perfect. How about you?

[tifino]

6 minutes ago, Dagfinnur Traustason said:

In normal circumstances, yes! However, we are talking about the sex-trade here, and extra money coming to the families. Some of that could have been saved. If not, how did they survive before? As you can see, I understand perfect. How about you?

the real money for them is the each girlie having half a dozen fiances living abroad who don't know about the other ones... 

 - the ultimate 'static display only' Sugarbabe scenario #37  

[sandyf]

7 hours ago, colinneil said:

 

What a load of rubbish, to my knowledge only 1 girl from this village went to Pattaya to sell her body.

My wife is 1 of 4 sisters, each 1 of them works as civil servants/ teachers.

Quite, the pandemic has put proper news from journalists on hold

[Docno]

7 hours ago, WineOh said:

If he was making such great money as he claims then why didn't he save up to GO to college and better himself?

 

I know why, too busy having fun!

 

Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?

Do you really think everyone is cut out for college? Do you really think that people living in rural areas have the schools and the home life that will prepare them for college, especially for degrees that will guarantee them decent paying jobs? In my youth, I paid my way through university by working summers on a GM assembly line -- I was one of the lucky ones. I can tell you that many of the full-timers at GM were perfectly happy with their lives but would have not made it through uni (which does not make them lesser people). And, in fact, quite a few summer students quit university to stay at GM because it offered good money then and there. So don't be so fast to judge people who don't go to university ... everyone has their own route in life

[4MyEgo]

7 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Obviously, you have no idea of what a college/university education costs here. It's why quite a few students become "sideline girls".

 

Actually for what it's worth, it's not that much up here in Isaan, e.g. my wife has two sons who attend college and her sister who is a single mum has a daughter who is finishing University.

 

I provide my wife with a weekly allowance which covers all of the kids school allowances and her sister who pays for her daughters University as mentioned, she is a single mother selling fruit, she also has another child attending a private Catholic school which I think is the most expensive at 10,000 baht per term, she's making a modest wage and seems to get by and was a bargirl many years ago having not gone to high school as the parents couldn't afford to send her to school back then.

[PatOngo]

18 minutes ago, sandyf said:

Quite, the pandemic has put proper news from journalists on hold

Proper news is still waiting for proper journalists!

[WineOh]

25 minutes ago, Docno said:

everyone has their own route in life

Yes.

You are right.

I myself come from a relatively poor family and not one of them (including me) is a sex worker.

Some clean toilets, others work in factories and some drive BMW's and have big houses.

The latter having done the hard work when they were young and are now reaping the fruits of their labor.

 

Still, not one of them asks me for a penny or sells their bottoms to tourists. 

Edited February 4, 2021 by WineOh

[Matreusse]

8 hours ago, WineOh said:

If he was making such great money as he claims then why didn't he save up to GO to college and better himself?

He was supporting his family, building them a home and saving to send his siblings to college, very doubtful he could do everything.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Matreusse

[NanLaew]

8 hours ago, WineOh said:

8 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Obviously, you have no idea of what a college/university education costs here. It's why quite a few students become "sideline girls".

If he was making such great money as he claims then why didn't he save up to GO to college and better himself?

 

I know why, too busy having fun!

 

Am I supposed to feel sorry for him?

 

No need. Carry on knobbing the sideline girls that can't be hookers because they give you GFE.

[KhunKenAP]

The real problem is they are not covered under any government programs.

[NanLaew]

32 minutes ago, WineOh said:

Still, not one of them asks me for a penny or sells their bottoms to tourists. 

...that you are aware of.

[Rimmer]

A derogatory troll post and a reply has been removed

[hotchilli]

9 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Tough times for them and families, maybe learn a lesson to save and not get into debt

Or have a government in place that can create real jobs.

[Moti24]

Mos, 26, was a "moneyboy" — a sex worker — at a gay bar in the Thai tourist hub of Pattaya. For him, it was a dream come true.  

10 hours ago, webfact said:

He wanted to eat pork and pizza.

 

If the gay bar was next to Pizza Hut, he had it all!

[Bangkok Barry]

9 hours ago, George Bowman said:

Funny thing is that most of these folks say that they worked at restaurants in either Bangkok, Pattaya or Phuket. There are also a few that had been waitresses in Korea. Even though I have lived in Thailand for over two decades, I never realized until lately how many Thais actually work in restaurants...

 

A girl in my wife's village now lives in London. We visited her when she came to visit family and she said she was the finance director for a Thai restaurant she named. I said I'd come and see her when I was next in London and the look of terror on her face was a joy to behold. Either she was just the cashier, or a waitress, or didn't work there at all and instead was in 'public relations'.

[RJRS1301]

10 hours ago, webfact said:

How The Pandemic Has Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

Ironic choice of words

[Bradmeister]

This same old story is repeated all over the planet, for centuries upon centuries.... 

 

I think we all know the plight and outcomes of displaced workers, be it Sex workers in Pattaya or Coal Miners in the mountains of Ukraine. 

 

Do we have any more substance news today Thai Visa? 

[Bangkok Barry]

Thailand is not alone in having poor people, so why is it that it is Thailand which has a worldwide reputation for prostitution?

[Gecko123]

I read the NPR article with considerable interest.

 

I have lived in a very rural area in Central Thailand coming up on 20 years. In the past year have seen a fair number of people moving back from urban areas, but almost no signs of younger men and women who one might imagine have previously worked in the sex or tourism trade moving back. A few older couples have moved back after throwing in the towel on their jobs in urban areas and taken up subsistence farming. A few kids who went off to college have returned home to help out on their parent's farms, who I imagine were unable to find employment in urban areas after graduation. A few husbands who previously worked away from home, have returned to the village, probably because of unemployment. But I haven't seen any  young/ middle-aged men or women who might fit the profile of a former sex-worker suddenly show up out of the blue.

 

The idea that the rural village is always there to provide backup employment for people who don't make it in "the big city" for whatever reason may be a little out-of-date. Agriculture, which is the main source of employment, has become increasingly mechanized in the last 20 years. The number of available jobs outside of agriculture isn't great, and those that are available are more seasonal and sporadic. A sex worker who has to safeguard her looks as much as possible is going to be reluctant to spend long days planting manioc or picking prik kii nuu peppers under a hot day sun.

 

The only question I had about the accuracy of the NPR article were the claims that many of the sex-workers work in the sex industry in order to support their immediate families back in the village. I have seen precious little evidence of this over the years. The vast majority of the women who "send money back home" do so in order to cover the expense of  child care for their own children. The idea that sex workers frequently send a large percentage of their incomes back to the family for support or to build homes or buy farmland may be an aspirational goal for some of the women, and something which they tell clients (and journalists) to put themselves in a more sympathetic light, but which in real life is realized only infrequently.

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Gecko123

[khunpa]

Typical... Let one person in the family work their "butt" off for all the other lazy leeches in the family...

 

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by khunpa

[stuandjulie]

1 hour ago, KhunKenAP said:

The real problem is they are not covered under any government programs.

They can't as the Gov has said it doesn't exist.

[David T Pike]

They are lucky they have homes/farms to go back to... Many don't and have lost their livelihoods...

 

[BernieOnTour]

10 hours ago, Lacessit said:

Obviously, you have no idea of what a college/university education costs here. It's why quite a few students become "sideline girls".

 

That’s not their motive ...

 

It’s more: the newest iPhone, expensive cosmetics, getting new silicone boobs, visiting “HiSo” places, partying 7 nights a week, ....

 

And the ultimative objective: finding a rich Thai sugar daddy, giving them a nice apartment and a monthly allowance.

 

Education rates a poor second !

[Burma Bill]

11 hours ago, webfact said:

Upended The Lives Of Thailand's Sex Workers

 Sadly, not only Thai sex workers but also those from Laos, Cambodia and Burma who worked in the Thai sex industry.