Thailand's Future: What do you think?

[FruitPudding]

We hear about Thailand being the hub of this and the hub of that. 

 

LOS means something different to different people. 

 

Legalising weed was a surprise to many.

 

Some like all the new malls and such, others miss Washington Square and Queen's Park Plaza. 

 

So, what do you think Thailand will be like in the next decades to come and what would you like to be like?

[Lacessit]

IMO it will be the status quo for some time to come.

The education system is heavily biased towards respect for authority and obedience, until Thais learn how to question, business as usual.

[QuantumQuandry]

The only thing I would really like it to be is...more stable.

 

Changing tax laws, changing weed laws, changing immigration laws...I never feel comfortable laying down long term roots and I don't really trust the government not to do something radical that will make me choose to leave.

[Dolf]

22 minutes ago, FruitPudding said:

what do you think Thailand will be like in the next decades to

Why worry about 20 years ahead?  Nobody can predict 12 months ahead.

[mfd101]

Much the same as it is now - stumbling along in the semi-dark, resistant to change, xenophobic, pretending to reform in 100 different directions at once, unable to start on the basics (education + honest democracy) and work up from there ... It's a 50-year program and they haven't begun.

[ikke1959]

If there are no changes coming, Thailand will loose the connection with the world. Bad education that makes people lazy by outdated law of always passing for example, poverty will be getting worse, no freedom of press, speaking, and writing, everything is censured, and with many outdated laws enforced by army and a corrupt police force, double standards for foreigners, it will be a non attractive country anymore. 

The people should come together and demand changes, but the government divides more and more as they know " divide and rule". 

But if the people of Thailand work together  they are stronger than any force. It is their country and they have to claim it back instead of now being in the hands of incompetent governments and army

[Dolf]

1 hour ago, mfd101 said:

Much the same as it is now - stumbling along in the semi-dark, resistant to change, xenophobic, pretending to reform in 100 different directions at once, unable to start on the basics (education + honest democracy) and work up from there ... It's a 50-year program and they haven't begun.

Thailand would be boring if it reformed like other nations.

[ABCDBKK]

Soon to become the hub of hubs. As soon as they figure out how to reduce the outdoor temperature by about 10 degrees Celsius everything will be perfect. 

[Dolf]

20 minutes ago, ABCDBKK said:

Soon to become the hub of hubs. As soon as they figure out how to reduce the outdoor temperature by about 10 degrees Celsius everything will be perfect. 

Drive in a car with strong aircon

[Hummin]

Thailand will be expensive for many who relied on Thailand as a nice cheap retirement home. 

 

 

[Dolf]

1 hour ago, ikke1959 said:

If there are no changes coming, Thailand will loose the connection with the world. Bad education that makes people lazy by outdated law of always passing for example, poverty will be getting worse, no freedom of press, speaking, and writing, everything is censured, and with many outdated laws enforced by army and a corrupt police force, double standards for foreigners, it will be a non attractive country anymore. 

The people should come together and demand changes, but the government divides more and more as they know " divide and rule". 

But if the people of Thailand work together  they are stronger than any force. It is their country and they have to claim it back instead of now being in the hands of incompetent governments and army

Millions of foreigners are flying in.

[AlexRich]

Thailand always struck me as a “muddling through” country. Advancing slowly but never leading in anything. But I kind of like that. It’s like they have their priorities right … live life, enjoy, don’t strive too hard. 

[OneMoreFarang]

Interesting question.

After living here for almost 30 years I should have some kind of prediction. But I don't really have one - and I didn't think too long and hard about it.

Lots of things will change, but at the end of the day nothing really changes.

Lots of traffic, people argue about lottery numbers and are scared of ghosts. Many laws are ignored, but then suddenly in some cases enforced. Corruption is continuing, and sometimes some corrupt person is exposed, and the media behaves as if it's a surprise.

 

Life changes somehow and people adapt.

I think an interesting example are online deliveries. 8 years ago (I just checked the date) I ordered parts to build a racing drone from China. When I came to the counter of my condominium likely someone would tell me something like "your parcel arrived". They knew already that I ordered many little things from China, and then maybe 5 boxes arrived for the whole building, and two of them were for me. Easy.

Now a huge part of the same counter in the same building is full of boxes from online deliveries. I guess it must be hundreds every day. Small and big and many of them. It seems now everybody is buying almost anything online all the time. And everybody adapted to this. Not same, different, but then somehow not really so different. Life goes on.

[ChaiyaTH]

Thailand is done and Vietnam took over, when this changed, i let you guys know.

 

90% guys here are clueless, old, and came here in good times whilst they are now to old to go out, let alone know, about how Thailand is doing.

 

Meanwhile in saigon: endless street food, girls, guys. 
 

gogo bars with techno, ape <deleted> hot girls, even farang gay dancers, apparently it is possible to have fun in Vietnam.

 

Police comes: tables cleared, police 20 meter pass, move back tables. 
 

LETS PARTY.

 

PS: thailand bitching my visa, welcome back to vietnam, here is your 90 days on arrival for 25$

[HugoFastor]

If the future will be in any way based upon past performance then I predict the following: Thailand will continue to develop more mass transit train lines in Bangkok and around the country. Things will continue to get a lot more expensive in general. Things will continue to get much more controlled and bureaucratic. Automation and implementation of technology will continue to advance. Securing long term visas will have more challenging hurdles for foreigners, including higher financial requirements. Problems like traffic and pollution will never be overcome in any meaningful way. Carnage on the roads will never decline. People will continue to get most of their products and food delivered from online services. Eventually retail stores will decline in numbers. There will be a much larger presence of mainland Chinese residing as long term residents in the larger cities in Thailand. The political system of fake democracy and autocratic governance will continue. Foreign organized crime networks will get more entrenched because of police corruption. The oceans around Thailand will continue to get more polluted from garbage dumping. Bangkok will face a real threat of being underwater by 2030 from sea levels rising. A cyclone hitting Bangkok within 10 years is a serious possibility. The temperature will never get any cooler. Thailand will continue claiming to be the hub for everything. And ladyboys will continue to dominate the streets in the lower Sukhumvit Road area after dark. 

[Ralf001]

3 hours ago, FruitPudding said:

 

 

So, what do you think Thailand will be like in the next decades to come and what would you like to be like?

 

Dont care, I'll be dead.

[Lee65]

Increasing atmospheric CO2 gonna cause the jungles to grow back.

 

 

 

[NoDisplayName]

Surrounding countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia will continue to progress, while Thailand will sink further into irrelevance.

 

From another thread:

Quote

"The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has agreed to adjust the design of a section of the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project, in response to complaints from people in Nakhon Ratchasima province. The changes will result in additional construction costs and further delays in the project of at least two years.

 

[Hummin]

2 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Interesting question.

After living here for almost 30 years I should have some kind of prediction. But I don't really have one - and I didn't think too long and hard about it.

Lots of things will change, but at the end of the day nothing really changes.

Lots of traffic, people argue about lottery numbers and are scared of ghosts. Many laws are ignored, but then suddenly in some cases enforced. Corruption is continuing, and sometimes some corrupt person is exposed, and the media behaves as if it's a surprise.

 

Life changes somehow and people adapt.

I think an interesting example are online deliveries. 8 years ago (I just checked the date) I ordered parts to build a racing drone from China. When I came to the counter of my condominium likely someone would tell me something like "your parcel arrived". They knew already that I ordered many little things from China, and then maybe 5 boxes arrived for the whole building, and two of them were for me. Easy.

Now a huge part of the same counter in the same building is full of boxes from online deliveries. I guess it must be hundreds every day. Small and big and many of them. It seems now everybody is buying almost anything online all the time. And everybody adapted to this. Not same, different, but then somehow not really so different. Life goes on.

Bangkok maybe not changed much, cant really say, because my experience with Bangkok is mainly hotels and restaurants in Sukhumvit and Silom. But countryside there is huge differences the 20 years I have been travelling here. And the progress goes faster the more infrastructure the government priorities. 

 

 

[mstevens]

For me, a big part of the appeal of Thailand was that it was a very cheap place to visit and when I moved there, a very cheap place to live. And by that I mean a Western standard lifestyle. Nowadays, it just doesn't feel to me like the bargain it was. Sure, compare it with some places and it's still cheap but it's nothing like it once was. When things were so cheap, I was able to overlook some stuff that I wasn't really comfortable with. Now that it's a pricier place, I find it harder to overlook some stuff.

 

As Thailand becomes pricier, I think it changes the mix of foreigners who choose to live there, to some extent at least. Probably visitor numbers will just go up and up. But because it's not the bargain it once was, it becomes a less attractive place for someone like me to live.

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, mstevens said:

As Thailand becomes pricier, I think it changes the mix of foreigners who choose to live there, to some extent at least. Probably visitor numbers will just go up and up. But because it's not the bargain it once was, it becomes a less attractive place for someone like me to live.

The only prices that have significantly gone up in the past 15 years are airfares and barfines. It's as cheap here as it ever was.

[Ralf001]

5 hours ago, Lee65 said:

Increasing atmospheric CO2 gonna cause the jungles to grow back.

 

 

 

 

the girls down soi 6 will have to shave twice daily then ?

[Sluglord]

Not good. Anemic economy for foreseeable future, over reliance on tourism which provides largely low skilled, dead end jobs. AI will take a bite out of many paper pushing corporate jobs such as insurance and banking.

 

Weed industry consolidation and demise leaving only the top producers and retailers. Higher medical costs will make the country far less attractive for medical tourism.

 

Education will sooner or later go online with schools merely functioning as babysitting facilites and tutoring centers. Thai Air will lose money, no surprise there.

 

Government will remain a shltshow. China will move out of the shadows and into higher profile projects. Inflation and debt will continue to wipe the smile off most Thai faces.

 

Thailand will not become the hub of anything except out of regional convenience not innovation. Vietnam will begin to heavily compete with Thailand at every level and win. Even Cambodia will challenge in agriculture.

 

Trade, exports totally sideways, bumping lower.

 

Corruption, greed will bite harder.

 

Regions outside central Thailand will continue to be forgotten.

 

Smart young people will move abroad due to economy and politics. This is something TikTokers quite clueless about when discussing their new *homes*.

[Sluglord]

5 hours ago, Hummin said:

Bangkok maybe not changed much, cant really say, because my experience with Bangkok is mainly hotels and restaurants in Sukhumvit and Silom. But countryside there is huge differences the 20 years I have been travelling here. And the progress goes faster the more infrastructure the government priorities. 

 

 

 

For foreigners I would entirely agree with this statement but some of us don't live on the farang miracle mile of Sukhumvit. Off that main artery there is a lot going on - and not going on

[HappyExpat57]

55 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

The only prices that have significantly gone up in the past 15 years are airfares and bar fines. It's as cheap here as it ever was.

I have to disagree. Rent prices have almost doubled in Pattaya/Jomtien area over the last two years. I moved to Chanthaburi two years ago and keep tabs on rent costs as I had planned on eventually moving back, but if the advertised prices are reflecting actual costs, then Pattaya/Jomtien might become a nice place to visit but not to live.

[BE88]

Thailand has worsened in many respects in recent years but I note that my country of origin and generally all the countries in Europe are also worsening, giving me a null result. So I don't see anything positive as Thailand will be in the future.

There are comments in the West that the future is in Asia certainly not in Thailand.

[OneMoreFarang]

7 hours ago, Hummin said:

Bangkok maybe not changed much, cant really say, because my experience with Bangkok is mainly hotels and restaurants in Sukhumvit and Silom. But countryside there is huge differences the 20 years I have been travelling here. And the progress goes faster the more infrastructure the government priorities. 

Bangkok did change a lot. The BTS, MRTA, home delivery, fewer dirty exhaust vehicles, and much more.

But somehow, it's the same, I guess that is the Thai mentality or whatever you call it. Maybe it's more of the same, or something like that.

[BritManToo]

2 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I have to disagree. Rent prices have almost doubled in Pattaya/Jomtien area over the last two years. I moved to Chanthaburi two years ago and keep tabs on rent costs as I had planned on eventually moving back, but if the advertised prices are reflecting actual costs, then Pattaya/Jomtien might become a nice place to visit but not to live.

Up in Chiang Mai there's been no change in rents, the first condo I rented in the centre was 6kbht/month ..... 15 years later still 6kbht.

[Dolf]

2 hours ago, HappyExpat57 said:

I have to disagree. Rent prices have almost doubled in Pattaya/Jomtien area over the last two years. I moved to Chanthaburi two years ago and keep tabs on rent costs as I had planned on eventually moving back, but if the advertised prices are reflecting actual costs, then Pattaya/Jomtien might become a nice place to visit but not to live.

Still 3,000 to 5,000 baht cheap rentals elsewhere then better ones at double. Pattaya is full of westerners so demand has pushed prices up.

[Dolf]

9 hours ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Thailand is done and Vietnam took over, when this changed, i let you guys know.

 

90% guys here are clueless, old, and came here in good times whilst they are now to old to go out, let alone know, about how Thailand is doing.

 

Meanwhile in saigon: endless street food, girls, guys. 
 

gogo bars with techno, ape <deleted> hot girls, even farang gay dancers, apparently it is possible to have fun in Vietnam.

 

Police comes: tables cleared, police 20 meter pass, move back tables. 
 

LETS PARTY.

 

PS: thailand bitching my visa, welcome back to vietnam, here is your 90 days on arrival for 25$

Lots of young people like Thailand. The islands are full of young people.