15 million people to receive cash instead of digital wallet payments

[retarius]

Lots of struggling poor people in Thailand ain't there? It's about time the some of the wealth was redistributed in my opinion. 10,000 isn't going to make any difference after a month. Plus loan sharks will be all over the cash.

[retarius]

5 hours ago, Will B Good said:

 

 

Cash ......much easier I imagine...... for certain pigs (who hog the trough) to get their grubby little hands on the money.

 

Digital lent much greater opportunities for control and management.

Digital also lent much greater opportunities for corrupt people who ran the scheme to benefit financially. I've never known a program here that didn't include bunce for the elites....the corruption is baked into the scheme. 

[Shocked farang]

Cash is the way to go as Taksin is wolrd known as the original "walking ATM". 

[Bravoxray]

9 hours ago, Jenkins9039 said:

A win against CBDC's 

Only a temporary win, since 45 million now have a DigitalID, the first step to a CBDC. Will it be a programmable CBDC?  A June 12th 2024 article in Fintech News Singapore says Yes: "Bank of Thailand to Test Programmable Payments in Enhanced Sandbox" 

Excerpt: "The new project will test programmable payments, which use technology to automatically set transaction conditions for goods and services, offering a variety of applications with proper risk management processes."

The article does not get specific on what  "transaction conditions" are, but it most likely means that whoever or whatever does the programming will be inputting such conditions as limiting purchases, limiting sales, limiting volume of purchases and/or sales. The people will be told what they can and cannot buy, IOW quotas for everything for everyone (except the elites, of course).  Over-buying and/or over-selling will be either denied and/or punished. You can be denied anything without recourse. Massive numbers of surveillance devices can be used to monitor everyone. Programmable CBDCs will provide the means to enslave entire populations. 

Will the "proper risk management processes" be initially benign, and even if they are, how long will it be before a present or future government decides it wants total and absolute power. Or will it be the programmers who grab the power (thanks for that thought big brother)? 

One possible mitigation is to make a law that the Central Bank is prohibited from offering CBDCs to individuals. 

Edited August 23 by Bravoxray

[dinsdale]

POPULIST POLICY to be Less Popular.

[itsari]

Make the magic 10,000 baht vote buying scheme go to the 600 baht a month pensioners as that will help the children of the pensioners too.

[Galong]

13 hours ago, stupidfarang said:

will be interesting to see what happens to the baht, up or down or stay the same? To be honest I am amazed how strong the baht is when you read about the economy in general.

Yes, it's absurdly strong for no logical reason. The unstable political scene alone should make it tumble. I can't see anyone with any sense investing big money in Thailand, not with the unstable government and not with the muddy tax scheme. I hope the baht tumbles back to where it belongs soon, hopefully before my next US Soc Sec payment. 🤔😉

[Cadan]

4.5 billion $ will stimulate the economy by about 0.6-0.7% - just take some money from the import duty pot averaged at 20% / 58 billion US$. Smart move to keep the people happy 

[Cadan]

4.5 billion $ will stimulate the economy by about 0.6-0.7% - just take some money from the import duty pot averaged at 20% / 58 billion US$. Smart move to keep the people happy 

[Srikcir]

Time for a new PM already?⁹

[shdmn]

People carrying and handing out bags of untrackable cash, in Thailand.  What could possibly go wrong.

 

Rice-pledging scheme 2, electric boogaloo

Edited August 23 by shdmn

[dinsdale]

14 hours ago, stupidfarang said:

Still 45million people, just that 15million of those will get cash "The “fragile” groups, primarily state welfare cardholders, are in line for this direct cash handout"

 

 

15 hours ago, webfact said:

the digital wallet via the Stateway App, the government has yet to confirm if the initiative will ever be realized.

Maybe not 45 million. Even this 10k to buy back the lost voter's  vote is still just hot air. NOTHING has been finalised.

[Skeptic7]

Doubtful any one will see any amount in either form. 

[shdmn]

9 hours ago, dinsdale said:

 

Maybe not 45 million. Even this 10k to buy back the lost voter's  vote is still just hot air. NOTHING has been finalised.

I mean, isn't this the whole reason they give out food stamps instead of cash.  Presumably why they were considering a digital wallet as well.  To prevent abuse?  Why am I not surprised that the very first public idea Thoxin's spawn gives is dumb and half-baked.  This has all the hallmarks of another disaster in the making just like the rice pledging scheme.  Not nearly as much money involved (yet) but I am sure there will be many more scandals to come.  I give it 6 months before the military needs to step back in. 

Edited August 24 by shdmn

[KannikaP]

14 hours ago, Olmate said:

Are you that broke, going double that your spell checking as a side hussel (or in your case hassel).   lol.

No Olmate, in my case HASSLE! 

[sqwakvfr]

I once heard this: "if you give a man fish then he eats for a day, if you teach him how to catch fish then he eats for a long time".  Cash handouts sound like a good idea.  Governments around the world have tried similar handouts in the past.  The short time benefits and happiness do not last long.  At lesst 15 million will be happy for about a week or so.  Then it's back to everyday life. 

[john donson]

why not just cancel the bribe scam and invest in... education? health? a new police force?

[Franky0815]

They will continue to speculate about the money until the expats pay their income tax. Then the 10k will be paid out. How could it be possible before then?

[Dogmatix]

This was promised in the election campaign to be digital money for everyone over 16.  Then after the election is was reduced to being a means tested digital scheme.  Now it is reduced further to be an even more strictly means tested cash hand out scheme only to 15 million people with welfare cards. after several million people already registered for the digital scheme and are now at risk of identity theft but won't receive any money.  A lot of poor Thais borrowed from loan sharks to but smart phones to register in the digital scheme and may now receive not even the cost of the low end smart phones.  

 

This scheme is now unrecognisable as the fulfillment of the electoral pledge and doesn't sound like something that will appease most of the  people who voted for PT.

[Stargeezr]

How did Sri Lanka do with its Digital currency?  Not well, I think.