3 hours ago, webfact said:

But Thailand had a big sex industry long before the GI's and foreigners ever set foot in the country to which he did not refer. 

When reading "History of Thailand" it's said that the sex industry was there long before, but part of it just changed business plan when the GIs arrived. Long ago, during the Ayutthaya period, there were even state-run brothels. At least 90 percent of the customers in sex industry is said to be Asian clients with Thais as the majority. Prostitution was legal until 1966.

Actually did not read as a blame game but as mostly accurate account.  Would point out that New Petchaburi Road was the GI area in the 60's as built for them to keep out of sight - everything was there and until 69 or so virtually no GI would be found on Patpong roads (airline offices and several small bars were it).  Later Nana Hotel and the dancing bars of Patpong became the attraction.  As for Pattaya it was mostly a family place at first until the 70's and took off after the GI's departed in 75.  There were thousands of airmen stationed in Thailand full time at the many airbases being used here and each had a frequented bar strip.  Hired wife was indeed the lingo at the time.    

Prostitution  the world over, when  women (and men) need  quick money they turn to selling sex,  Maybe more so in Thailand due to  the low wages paid,  and lack of social security is why people have to sell their bodies...

So the world's oldest profession that has gripped Thailand is the fault of the Vietnam War???OMB What ever they are consuming please don't slip me any of it. LOL

1 hour ago, Walker88 said:

More important, one could make a strong argument that Thailand's economic development owes a debt of thanks to the bargirls.

 

How many project and facilities managers came scouting for locations for a new regional plant, had a great time in Patpong or Nana or a soapie, and that influenced their recommendation for their parent company to set up in Thailand? I think things like tax incentives look good on paper, but a pleasant memory is likely a lot more influential.

 

How many young financial analysts working for Western investment banks came to scout out 'emerging markets', had a similarly great time in Bangkok or Pattaya, and wrote glowingly of Thailand's prospects, even upping it's 'recommended weighting' in an emerging markets' index?

 

Males are easily influenced by female affections, real or imagined. Business has a very human element to it, despite what biz schools might teach.

 

Rather than try to pretend the industry doesn't or never existed, there ought to be a statue or postage stamp reflecting the valuable contribution bargirls have made far beyond the tourism industry. Without FDI and portfolio weighting, Thailand might still be a sleepy backwater nation with a fraction of its current GDP. It might be attractive as a sleepy, Laos-like backwater land, but most Thai people probably prefer what investment and tech transfer brought it.

I have some historian friends, who claim that without the tens of millions (possibly hundreds of millions) the US invested in Thailand's infrastructure back in the early 1960's, the place might still be a disease infested swampy backwater. It sure was back then. 

 

The 1960s was a period during which Thailand had a strong alliance with the United States, both economically and through military support and funding. The US-Thai Treaty Amity was signed in 1966 and exempted US investors from many of the restrictions foreign MNEs from other countries were soon facing and to some extent are still facing today.

 

 

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I can only surmise that you actually know sod all about the farang nite scene in Thailand, as IMO what you write bears little if any resemblance to reality. After all, a man with your opinion would surely never actually go near a Thai bar scene to know.

 

You surmise wrongly them, like Chewit I changed my opinion on this filthy and destructive industry, from experience. Only an idiot never changes their mind.

3 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

I have some historian friends, who claim that without the tens of millions (possibly hundreds of millions) the US invested in Thailand's infrastructure back in the early 1960's, the place might still be a disease infested swampy backwater. It sure was back then. 

And I guess the Chinese are now taking over (in every sense of the term) from where the Americans left off

35 minutes ago, actonion said:

Prostitution  the world over, when  women (and men) need  quick money they turn to selling sex,  Maybe more so in Thailand due to  the low wages paid,  and lack of social security is why people have to sell their bodies...

I had to sell ( rent ) my body my entire working life. How else would I have done the work I did ( not sex related ) if I hadn't used my body? I think you are referring to a specific part of anatomy.

4 hours ago, clivebaxter said:

Expect the 'but 90% of the sex industry is for Thais' posts, as if that were some sort of justification, Chewit should write a book nobody knows more than he does.

Again Thais are blaming foreigners for an an industry that they, themselves, set up in their own country. Ok it was in response to their customer's needs but that is what entrepreneurship is all about. Would you put the blame of the  dependence of the Thai economy on tourism on tourists themselves? What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

5 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

You surmise wrongly them, like Chewit I changed my opinion on this filthy and destructive industry.

I don't think Chewit changed his mind. Just commented on why he thinks the farang sex industry originated.

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I don't think Chewit changed his mind. Just commented on why he thinks the farang sex industry originated.

If he did not change his mind why did he tear down Sukhumvit sq and sell his massage parlors? Converting to Christianity usual involves another outlook. 

4 minutes ago, clivebaxter said:

If he did not change his mind why did he tear down Sukhumvit sq and sell his massage parlors? Converting to Christianity usual involves another outlook. 

Perhaps he wanted the money. Only he can say for sure.

The R&R has not stopped with the Vietnam war. There are also Cobra Gold exercise every year with the R&R's in Pattaya.

Sex induatry not only GI's and other farangs, nobody mention all the rich Thais having a Mia Noi, anything to do with sex industry?

4 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Thailand opened their arms for the Viet military for their R&R......maybe he forgot that!

I am a Vietnam Vet and I was here on R&R from Vietnam in 1967. It was a dam good R&R but the girls were not slaves to us by any means, they were more like tour guides with benefits. When you paid your 100baht the girl was with you for 24hr's. After that you could get a new girl for 100 baht but that cause many girl fights and I seen a few, not nice. I kept the same girl for 7 days and we had a great time. I truly loved Thailand then and now. 

Sex in Thailand goes back many centuries and has nothing to do with US troops on R&R. Look at Thai history or just the images that adorn the country. Thailand is no different to most other countries of the world. Simply a case of supply and demand. Except if you are from the privileged hierarchy and then its take what you want.

And here was me thinking those GI’s came to Thailand for the sex culture.  Leaves one wondering why it has persisted so long after the GI’s left Thailand.

58 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

And I guess the Chinese are now taking over (in every sense of the term) from where the Americans left off

And the CCP has a nicely developed infrastructure to work with, that they did not have to pay for. Just think if the Kra canal project ever happens. It would be a likely takeover, at that point. The only hope for the world, is the swift downfall of the CCP. One can dream. They seem to be heading toward world domination. Though the Americans certainly have their faults, and alot to answer for, I would take them as a dominant force over China, any day of the week.

 

China does not wear their power lightly. A couple of quotes that come to mind.

 

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. Thomas Sowell.

 

Every people, every society, needs a culture of resistance, a culture of being difficult and disobedient, that is the only way they will ever be able to stand up to the inevitable abuse of power by whoever runs the state apparatus, the capitalists, the communists, the socialists, the Gandhians, whoever. Arundhati Roy

 

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me. George Orwell, 1984.

 

My son, your ineptitude is so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power than I have ever known. Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn.

 

Military dictatorship is born from the power of the gun, and so it undermines the concept of the rule of law and gives birth to a culture of might, a culture of weapons, violence and intolerance. Benazir Bhutto

 

 

Maybe Khun Chuwit Kamolwisit needs to read up on his Thai history - the first big expansion in Thai prostitution happened during the 19th C in the wake of the arrival of a large number of male Chinese workers.

2 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

I think that is the most frightening sentence and lies at the heart of so much that is currently going wrong even in 'good' democracies............e.g. what is the very worst outcome for a UK politician......loss of office?????

5 hours ago, JonnyF said:

A Thai pimp blaming "Farang" for the sex culture in Thailand. How surprising.

 

Obviously there was no prostitution in Thailand before the Vietnam war, and these white devils lured and tricked these innocent Thai damsels into giving up their body for money ????.

 

It's never their fault, is it?

There was prostitution in Thailand before Vietnam.  If nothing else where ever a ship docks there will be women looking to give sailor a good time.  Same in every country.  Even Muslim.

The issue for Thailand as well as the Philippines was the influx of military expanded the demand and the business.

 

How ever if it was a Vietnam only thing it would have tapered off instead of growing so big.

Is

4 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Just the consequences of a free market economy where supply is structured to meet demand I guess.

 

If the supply or the demand is missing nothing is going to happen.

In general agreement, but my book of Keynesian Economics clearly suggests that since the dawn of time there are only two commodities for which there is always more demand than supply even in a free market, and one of them is food. 

6 hours ago, clivebaxter said:

Expect the 'but 90% of the sex industry is for Thais' posts, as if that were some sort of justification, Chewit should write a book nobody knows more than he does.

You expect it because it’s true.

3 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

In general agreement, but my book of Keynesian Economics clearly suggests that since the dawn of time there are only two commodities for which there is always more demand than supply even in a free market, and one of them is food. 

Surprised Maslow's hierarchical needs didn't include Nana at some level.

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Firebrand former politician and TV presenter Chuwit Kamolwisit went online - apropos of nothing - to give the Thai public the benefit of his years of experience in Thailand's huge sex industry.

It's all Thailand has to offer and why many used to come, the young back-packers looking for the 3-S's, middle-aged divorced men on a second-wind and retirees looking for comfort late in life.

Forget the temples, beaches and food cultures... they're secondary.

But I think a change is on the way and the "workers and supply chains need to look for other work.

1 minute ago, Will B Good said:

Surprised Maslow's hierarchical needs didn't include Nana at some level.

Actually I think it does.  Self Actualization - achieving one's full potential and creativity.  

2 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

Actually I think it does.  Self Actualization - achieving one's full potential and creativity.  

....and there's me thinking it must come before shelter ....555

11 minutes ago, Gsxrnz said:

In general agreement, but my book of Keynesian Economics clearly suggests that since the dawn of time there are only two commodities for which there is always more demand than supply even in a free market, and one of them is food. 

The other must be beer then ????

1 minute ago, Will B Good said:

....and there's me thinking it must come before shelter ....555

If we could get in the TARDIS and head back 40,000 years and ask the first Neanderthal we met if he had to choose between a cave or a woman, what would he choose - It'd be at best a toss-up as to what the answer might be, especially if it wasn't snowing at the time.