Dancing out of COVID and into debt

[Jonathan Fairfield]

 

Movement restrictions and social distancing are causing stress for many people, not just psychologically, but also financially.

 

Anything that might help lift the mood at the moment, during the third wave of COVID-19 outbreak, would be very welcome.

 

So, along comes a TikTok user named “Kom Kon Sea Sen,” and one of his recent posts, which has become something of a sensation, with its comedic choreography and sarcastic lyrics proclaiming “I may not have COVID-19 but I’m going to be blacklisted by the National Credit Bureau”.

 

The lyrics are rearranged from a song called “Chan Yom Rub Pid” (which means I admit fault) by Thai rock band “BLACKHEAD,” released several years ago.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/dancing-out-of-covid-and-into-debt/

 

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-05-02

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

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[LazySlipper]

Hmmm I really wonder about how badly Thais are into debt right now. Back home when there is an economical crisis the first indicator that things aren't going so well is I can see cars going up for sale at a decent price... and the housing market sees a sudden boom in available hoses and it becomes a buyer's market. Here... nothing works as predicted and I guess that if things weren't going well and there would be a boom in housing and cars for sale that the prices would actually go up rather than down...

 

Been here nearly 2o years and it still is a mystery the way Thais think...

 

Go figure...????

[asiasurfer]

Not a Dic Toc user but the message seems clear. The collateral damage of Covid is much higher than the infection itself...

[madmitch]

12 minutes ago, LazySlipper said:

Hmmm I really wonder about how badly Thais are into debt right now. Back home when there is an economical crisis the first indicator that things aren't going so well is I can see cars going up for sale at a decent price... and the housing market sees a sudden boom in available hoses and it becomes a buyer's market. Here... nothing works as predicted and I guess that if things weren't going well and there would be a boom in housing and cars for sale that the prices would actually go up rather than down...

 

Been here nearly 2o years and it still is a mystery the way Thais think...

 

Go figure...????

I think the reason not so many cars and houses go up for sale is that people use them as collateral for their loans and therefore are unable to sell them and few people want to sell simply to pay off a loan.

[BenDeCosta]

1 hour ago, LazySlipper said:

Hmmm I really wonder about how badly Thais are into debt right now.

 

Several members of my wife's family are in serious trouble financially. One guy who lives a few doors down is 3 months behind on his car payments. I know a girl who lives about 15km away who is having the family house and land repossessed by the bank, so the whole family is effectively about to become homeless. I know another girl in the next village who has pawned all her jewelry and everything of value from the house and has no work and is in dire straits. I've had many people in our village ask to borrow small amounts of money. I think the situation is getting worse by the day.

 

I've always been a saver, and put away as much money as I could. However, if you asked what I was saving for, I never would have said "in case there's a viral pandemic that would cause the whole world to effectively shut down for 1-2 years". It is just such a weird situation.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BenDeCosta

[BenDeCosta]

1 hour ago, Danderman123 said:

Would you prefer the government let the virus run its course, like in India?

 

I understand your sentiment, however, if the virus had been allowed to "run its course" as other pandemics have done in the past, then maybe this would have been over by now. Who knows?

[Danderman123]

4 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

I understand your sentiment, however, if the virus had been allowed to "run its course" as other pandemics have done in the past, then maybe this would have been over by now. Who knows?

Are you really suggesting that a nation of 70 million try to achieve natural herd immunity? How many dead would you consider an acceptable number?

 

[vinny41]

3 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

Hmmm I really wonder about how badly Thais are into debt right now. Back home when there is an economical crisis the first indicator that things aren't going so well is I can see cars going up for sale at a decent price... and the housing market sees a sudden boom in available hoses and it becomes a buyer's market. Here... nothing works as predicted and I guess that if things weren't going well and there would be a boom in housing and cars for sale that the prices would actually go up rather than down...

 

Been here nearly 2o years and it still is a mystery the way Thais think...

 

Go figure...????

For the majority of cars in Thailand the issue of selling is simply negative equity, car dealers encourage customers to put down as a deposit as little as possible and in some cases will offer 100-150,000 discount off the car as an incentive to buy, 

discount is always applied towards the down payment as discounting on the loan amount would reduce the balance and therefore would reduce the amount of comission. you can buy cars with a down payment as little as 5% and customers are  encourage to pay back loan amount over 7 years. Most banks and finance companies don't offer early payment discount so the balance is the same even if you pay the loan early

you can see cars for sale where the seller is looking for someone to take over the loan agreement the problem is if they are stuck with a high interest rate the amount they want plus the balance left on the finance quite often exceed the price of a brand new car.

I don't know of anyone that would pay more for a 2nd car car if they could get a brand new car cheaper

[bkk6060]

1 hour ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

I understand your sentiment, however, if the virus had been allowed to "run its course" as other pandemics have done in the past, then maybe this would have been over by now. Who knows?

Yes, that plan certainly has worked well in India..

[BenDeCosta]

32 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Yes, that plan certainly has worked well in India..

 

Yeah, let's just go back into never-ending lockdowns. Obviously, lockdowns work very well. Around 10 million people die a year from cancer and 1.35 million die from road traffic accidents. The situation that we are in now is insane.

 

After depression, alcoholism, bankruptcy and loss of savings, there are going to be many people who will wish that they had died of covid.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BenDeCosta

[pikao]

1 minute ago, BenDeCosta said:

Yes and only 99.5% of these people will recover. 

 

I doubt those vaccinated will

[BenDeCosta]

4 minutes ago, pikao said:

 

I doubt those vaccinated will

 

You doubt that people who have had the vaccine will recover?

[KannikaP]

4 hours ago, LazySlipper said:

and the housing market sees a sudden boom in available hoses

Why? Do they stop washing their cars or watering the lawn?   LOL

[metisdead]

Off topic posts and the replies have been removed.  

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, BenDeCosta said:

I never would have said "in case there's a viral pandemic that would cause the whole world to effectively shut down for 1-2 years". It is just such a weird situation.

I think 5-10 years is a more realistic assessment of the situation.

Previous (tiktok) dancers in COVID prison camps were forced to make a public apology, is dancing now OK? 

Edited May 2, 2021 by BritManToo

[BenDeCosta]

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I think 5-10 years is a more realistic assessment of the situation.

 

Western governments seem hell-bent on dragging this out for as long as they can. The truth will come out in the end.

[kaneko86]

3 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

Are you really suggesting that a nation of 70 million try to achieve natural herd immunity? How many dead would you consider an acceptable number?

 

 

Less than 1 percent and mostly people on retirement or chronic medical conditions (which would include me).

If in the past it was acceptable to send people in their late teens and twenties to die in a war than sorry the pragmatism but I find it really acceptable to sacrifice that small percentage (note I am in the high risk group too).

Edited May 2, 2021 by kaneko86

[BenDeCosta]

4 minutes ago, kaneko86 said:

 

Less than 1 percent and mostly people on retirement or chronic medical conditions (which would include me).

If in the past it was acceptable to send people in their late teens and twenties to die in a war than sorry the pragmatism but I find it really acceptable to sacrifice that small percentage (note I am in the high risk group too).

 

The current way of thinking is that any and all covid deaths should be prevented by way of insane government measures to remove civil liberties. What these people cannot understand or contextualize is that many of the people who died were on their last legs anyway.

 

In my personal opinion, the reaction to this virus has been a complete balls-up from day one.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BenDeCosta

[BritManToo]

Just now, BenDeCosta said:

In my personal opinion, the reaction to this virus has been a complete balls-up from day one.

........... or maybe a cunning plan.

To make us all dance?

[Danderman123]

5 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

The current way of thinking is that any and all covid deaths should be prevented by way of insane government measures to remove civil liberties. What these people cannot understand or contextualize is that many of the people who died were on their last legs anyway.

A friend of mine died, no pre existing conditions, 40 years old, she was not on her last legs.

 

a neighbor’s daughter got infected, she was pregnant, the baby died.

 

Your thinking on this is woefully mistaken. Or maybe you are saying that people who die are on their last legs due to Covid infection.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Danderman123

[BenDeCosta]

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

........... or maybe a cunning plan.

To make us all dance?

 

Whatever is going on, in the years to come I am certain that the truth will come out.

[BritManToo]

Just now, Danderman123 said:

Let’s be clear on this: if restrictions are in place, fatalities will be around 1 percent.

I thought the current death rates caused by COVID in heavily infected countries were 0.15%/year.

If you believe it to be 1%, 7x the rate I have read about, I'd like a link please.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BritManToo

[Danderman123]

17 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

Western governments seem hell-bent on dragging this out for as long as they can. The truth will come out in the end.

You mean like in America, where more than 200 million doses have been administered in the last 100 days? Is that your definition of dragging it out?

 

Or do you mean the Deniers and anti-vaxxers who are prolonging the epidemic by not getting vaccinated?

[BenDeCosta]

6 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

A friend of mine died, no pre existing conditions, 40 years old, she was not on her last legs.

 

a neighbor’s daughter got infected, she was pregnant, the baby died.

 

Your thinking on this is woefully mistaken. Or maybe you are saying that people who die are on their last legs due to Covid infection.

 

Sorry Mr Pedantic, I should have said that the vast majority of people who have died from covid were either of advanced age, obese, or had pre-existing co-morbities. Of course there will be some younger people who succumb to it. Do some research, certainly in the UK the average age of people who have died from covid is older than the life expectancy.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BenDeCosta

[Danderman123]

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I thought the current death rates caused by COVID in heavily infected countries were 0.15%/year.

If you believe it to be 1%, 7x the rate I have read about, I'd like a link please.

You are correct, the overall death rate in countries with restrictions is about 0.15% so far.

[Danderman123]

1 minute ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

Sorry Mr Pedantic, I should have said that the vast majority of people who have died from covid were either of advanced age, obese, or had pre-existing co-morbities. Of course there will be some younger people who succumb to it. 

Except that is changing, as well. 

[BenDeCosta]

Just now, Danderman123 said:

Except that is changing, as well. 

 

Danderman, don't believe everything you read online. This is an odd situation and certainly not what it appears to be.

[BenDeCosta]

6 minutes ago, phukettrader said:

To put India into context, although tragicaly around 2,000 people are current dying per day with the virus (not necessarily of it), around 28,000 people normally die every day in that country from any cause. So only around 7% of total deaths are attributed to the virus.

 

This is exactly the problem, people are throwing around raw figures about how many people are dying from covid (supposedly), but are not putting it into context with regards to how many people die everyday from non-covid issues.

 

It's like saying 1000 people are dying from covid everyday in Country X, but what they are not telling you is that 2000 people a day in that country die from falling off ladders, or being bitten by snakes, or being hit by cars. Everything should be viewed in context and not sensationalised.

 

But then governments are using these sensationalised figures to strip away the civil liberties of the populace. If that doesn't sound suspicious to you then frankly you should just go and drink another bottle of lao khao.

Edited May 2, 2021 by BenDeCosta

[robblok]

3 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

This is exactly the problem, people are throwing around raw figures about how many people are dying from covid (supposedly), but are not putting it into context with regards to how many people die everyday from non-covid issues.

What a strange remark.. but then again deniers live in their own lil world. Wish they would all come together on a covid party and that would be the end of them. We had one in the Netherlands, vocal on TV against all the restrictions. Then she got it.. had to go to intensive care. Guess what after that she was no longer vocal about the measures. 

 

Thing is people will always die, these are EXTRA deaths, plus most of the deniers forget the long term effects of covid. Like 1 in 10 has long term damage from covid. Months of rehabilitation.

 

The UK tried herd immunity, became one of the worst hit, now they do well because of vaccination. Vaccination is the only thing that will work. Brazil other good example of how well it can go and India of course the funeral houses can't even keep up.

 

The measures are not to stop the disease just to slow the spread so hospitals wont get overrun. Once vaccination is done things will go back to normal. 

 

Again i wish all the deniers would go to covid parties and then they would be a lot less vocal. So many only think about their pub and the girls. Pure selfish people. Using economic hardship as an excuse to be against the measures. But in reality they have fixed income but are purely worried about not being able to do drink in pubs and meet girls.

 

 

[Danderman123]

7 minutes ago, BenDeCosta said:

 

This is exactly the problem, people are throwing around raw figures about how many people are dying from covid (supposedly), but are not putting it into context with regards to how many people die everyday from non-covid issues.

 

It's like saying 1000 people are dying from covid everyday in Country X, but what they are not telling you is that 2000 people a day in that country die from falling off ladders, or being bitten by snakes, or being hit by cars. Everything should be viewed in context and not sensationalised.

 

But then governments are using these sensationalised figures to strip away the civil liberties of the populace. If that doesn't sound suspicious to you then frankly you should just go and drink another bottle of lao khao.

This isn't rocket science. 

 

Yes, a certain number of people die every day, but you seem unfamiliar with the concept of excess mortality. That's the term for deaths over and above the average. Excess mortality is bad. Governments try to keep that number down. Bad governments fail to do so. 

 

Most people think that keeping others alive is a good thing.