Does Poverty In Thailand Ever Get You Down?

[baboon]

I cannot understand why so many posters with brains and something to say are getting all fired up over a troll thread!!!???

[sukanyacondo]

If your all so worried go to the orphanages or homes for the mentally ill and give them some help/money/food they sure would appreciate it these are the real "poor" in Thailand.

[geriatrickid]

I cannot understand why so many posters with brains and something to say are getting all fired up over a troll thread!!!???

Cuz the wife or g/f is not supevising her adult child? .This is what happens when you have unsupervised internet access.

Ever notice that female expats never get mixed up with these threads? Don't know what it is about Thailand, but on the Bell curve, females skew to the right and males skew to the left.

[Dupont]

I cannot understand why so many posters with brains and something to say are getting all fired up over a troll thread!!!???

Sorry Baboon, I get bored!

I'm a member of the Humane Society and recognise that people like realmadrid25, use these threads to enlarge their tiny willies

We all get in a huff, he gets a 2" whopper. He feels good and we've helped him out.

On a realistic note though, I feel that new threads should be limited to people with over 500 posts. If its a good post, he could give it to a mod who could vet it. I've noticed a paucity of good new threads recently and many seem to be concocted to a school exam level formula: Thus

"I am new to Thailand and suffering culture shock. I have read in my home country that men in Thailand are evil and (pick any three) bald, old, fat, boring, smelly, obnoxious, rapist, child molesters, failures in their home countries. As I learnt this at Uni in my (delete as appropriate) wimmins/humanities/sociology/psychology course, it must be true!

I've been traveling the world for three weeks now and feel I really must put Thailand straight on a whole host of issues. Further, anyone disagreeing will be flamed as spouting racist/fascist/sexist cant if they refuse to sing from my PC hymn sheet."

I have never felt the need to set up a thread, so why are the least knowledgable trolling newbies doing it?

Come on mods, 200 posts for your first thread?

[baboon]

I have never felt the need to set up a thread, so why are the least knowledgable trolling newbies doing it?

To wind up otherwise intelligent posters like yourself and doing a pretty good job of it?

[thaigene2]

Yep -as others predicted this is bullshit. Trolling. G'night. Moderator - can you close?

[meemiathai]

Poverty in Thailand gets me down.........absolutely. I am sick of it. I am sick of it not just in Thailand, but worldwide.

It is 2007 and we are acting like it is the 14th century. Yes, we can eliminate poverty from the face of the earth. The ruling elite would like for you to think otherwise. It is simple: 1) greatly reduce population levels worldwide to perhaps 2 billion tops; 2) develop and deploy a new energy system that will emancipate people from the material conditions of life (totally new system........your personal energy system).

Reducing population levels (and reducing the global supply of slave labor) would be a serious challenge to multinational corporations. The labor supply problem would start to reverse itself, putting more power in the hands of labor.

Developing and deploying a new and sustainable energy system (via a global R&D project) would empower human beings like never before. This would create peace by greatly enhancing the quality of life for the majority. That would challenge the arms industry. Such a system would also make the internal combustion engine obsolete and that would challenge the oil industry.

If we do nothing else for future generations, we should reject any politician that does not address these two issues.

Well I didn't think anyone could be further off the deep end than the OP, but you figured out a way. As many have stated, correctly IMHO, there is a huge difference between being poor and living in poverty. A simple of comparison on refugee camps in Darfur and small villages in Thailand bear this out. In one, most people have little money but they have food, shelter, clean water, access to basic health care, etc. In the other, they have none. One is an example of poverty and one is an example of poor.

Now on to all this other madness like population control. "Government 101" is that you don't implement any policy that cannot be enforced. So your solution is to control population to 20% of current levels. How in the heck do you expect this to happen? Through government control or military force? You oughta be living in Communist China. Even there, with their draconian government-enforced population control, they still have all of the same problems as any other large emerging country. Or maybe you control it through mass extermination? Hate to break the news, but it's been tried.

As for your pipedreams about having a new global energy system, again I hate to break this news to you, but we already have one. It's called oil. And now take a seat because I don't want you to fall over when I break the news, but oil as an energy supply drives and enhances the world economy. It does not restrict it. Oh, and by the way, there's a heck of a lot more of it left than greenies and others would like you to believe.

As for the arms industry, you should be happy that there is one. It is because of well armed militaries that the vast majority of the world lives in relative peace. If you want to do something about the rampant proliferation of arms, then why don't you start with the middle Asian tribal borderlands where entire local economies are driven by the arms trade?

Sorry, but your dreams smack way too close to Hitler, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Soylent Green, Big Brother, 1984, and Brave New World.

As an antidote to your afflictions, may I suggest a heavy dose of the late great economist Dr. Milton Friedman and his views on libertarianism and free market economy. Here's a place to start:

If you can imagine what you've written but the complete opposite - that would be something like the reality of the situation

Ok, I'll bite.

- Make opposites of being poor versus living in poverty. I can't really fathom thinking of these in terms of being opposite. They are what they are. Poor is not poverty and poverty is not poor. If given a choice between just the two, I think everyone would rather be poor than live in poverty.

- Population control versus no population control. Most of the world has no population control and makes out just fine. The only places I can think of that have population control are communist China, and a multitude of places in Africa, eastern Europe and the middle east, the latter group which does this through racist government policies and ethnic cleansing (think Zimbabwe, Somalia, the Balkans, etc.). I can't imagine how having the rest of the world live like these opposites would benefit anyone.

- A world with oil or a world without. Lemme see if I can fathom this one. No cars, no airplanes, no ships, no trains, no electricity, no hospitals, no medical care, no ability to mass produce food, no stable local, national or international economies. Gee, sounds like the dark ages. Sorry, been there, done that.

- A world with arms or a world without. Again lemme see if I can fathom this one. Nope sorry, just can't get there. Generally speaking, man tends to be an aggressive animal by nothing else than simple basic human nature. Non-aggressive men will not fight with other non-aggressive men. This is true. Aggressive men will always fight with each other because it is in their nature to do so, or until one beats the other into submission. The only way non-agressive men keep aggressive men at bay is through the show or use of force, sometimes beating the aggressive men into submission. Sorry, but that is the way the world turns.

- Now saving the best for last, a world where government tells me what I can and can't do, versus living my life with freedom to choose my own destiny. If you can find anyone on the planet who would rather live like the former than the latter, then all you will see are people who have already been turned into zombies from excessive government control. Past of Russia are a case in point. The vast majority of the people on this planet want little more than to live in freedom and work at a job of their choosing that allows them to support themselves and their families. That's not too much for anyone to ask, and it is not within the right of any government to take it away.

Good post Spee!

[joskydive]

i played for real madrid for two years in the early 90's. i retired from real estate two years ago. my networth is upwards of 120 million baht.

does this qualify me to use the nick realmadrid, dupont?

You know, realmadrid, it sounds more to me that you are the one who is suffering from poverty not the Thai people!

I know an awful lot of Thai's, both male and female and their families. I've even gone and stayed in their various homes up in the sticks on quite a few occassions and had a great time, just from their genuine hospitality, happy smiles, happy souls, happy hearts and not a baht to rub between them!

Something else aswell - they would have been totally horrified if I had offered to give them money. Why? Because when I go to see them, I go to see them in their homes, whether it be humble or not and the appreciation, warmth and generosity that comes from them comes from the heart not from the pocket. I don't belittle them because they don't have the same as me. I don't feel sorry for them because, because..........

I don't patronise them because, because........... I do, however, go with them into the banana trees and pick the fruit and eat the chillies straight from the bush because that is their quality of life and yes, I'm learning fast, it's starting to be my quality of life too.

You may feel sorry for them because they don't have the same as you - finance, hot & cold running water, foreign foods, ladies, bouncy beds, doors that lock, safe to lock your goodies in, new clothes when it suits, vehicle of your choice, choice to choose where your income comes from etc. etc. Is this what you think the Thai's really want? Have you bothered to ask them?

Have you any idea about how much they feel sad and sorry for you? That you have got to have all this surplus cr**p to make you satisfied and think you have quality of life.

Why do the monks walk the streets every morning begging for food in their altogether apart from their orange robes? Possibly, the Thai's in their wisdom know something more than you do! This is maybe, how they find enlightenment, happiness, joy and the quality of heart from those who understand and care about what they are doing and where they are coming from.

I could go on and on, but where would that get me? Nowhere I guess since you possibly have no idea what I am talking about anyway, since you can only see poverty from your own perspective. If you are that worried, why don't you go and donate, or, god forbid, help in one of the orphanages here where you really would be doing a service instead of just whinging about it.

By the way, excellent troll Goshawk. I even had to print that one off.

[Edonista]

You see a young girl walking with an old man and it just destroys you.

Indeed.

That poor old chap is going to be cheated and robbed blind by the snaky girl, who will cry, lie, deceipt in every possible way to get out the most cash of him.

That really saddens me.

Unless she is a girl that knows my address in Pattaya, in that case I am so relieved she is harassing another farang instead of me that all my compassion for the guy is overwhelmed by my joy !

Edited September 18, 2007 by Edonista

[Edonista]

i know i am supposed to be thrilled that prices in Thailand are low and the Thai people are mostly poor, and all of the advantages this provides middle aged Western men living in Thailand but I just can't do it. Does anyone else find it kind of sickening how much farang in Thailand talk about how cheap everything is and what they can get? You see a young girl walking with an old man and it just destroys you. If she was born in another country her life would be so much better. Also I get the feeling that the majority of westerners in Thailand failed in their home countries.

So what do you suggest is done?

make the requirements to live in thailand much tougher for farang. for a retirement or marriage visa, they should be able to show be forced to have 10 million upwards.

do not allow farang to take thai girls to their hotel room if they did not check-in with them (like in Vietnam)

provide more education to the thai people of poor regions.

demolish the pattayya slums and bar industry.

run strict background checks on farang who try to teach (every month there is a new child rapist or murderer teaching english in thailand)

pay english teachers an equal salary as thai teachers.

Are you trying to make new friends ?

[JimmyCA]

i played for real madrid for two years in the early 90's. i retired from real estate two years ago. my networth is upwards of 120 million baht.

does this qualify me to use the nick realmadrid, dupont?

Among the farangs in thailand these accomplishments are the picture of success.

In The US these accomplishments will earn the status of a lower middle class sod.

Edited September 18, 2007 by JimmyCA

[MEGALITHIC]

i know i am supposed to be thrilled that prices in Thailand are low and the Thai people are mostly poor, and all of the advantages this provides middle aged Western men living in Thailand but I just can't do it. Does anyone else find it kind of sickening how much farang in Thailand talk about how cheap everything is and what they can get? You see a young girl walking with an old man and it just destroys you. If she was born in another country her life would be so much better. Also I get the feeling that the majority of westerners in Thailand failed in their home countries.

I'm new to this site. Is this just another incredibly narrow minded generalisation or what. Did it ever occour to you that some of us live in asia because we're not interested in paying taxes to a parasitical western system that supports druggie bludgers, unmarried single mothers, with multiples of kids, and poorly educated refugee immigrants who can't,or won't, get work. I'm actually doing a hel_l of a lot better by living in Thailand than I ever would by being back in the so called real world. I'm now on US 200K (tax free) for doing eight months work a year. If I was back in my home country I'd lose at least half of that. Do I feel guilty that I can live the life of riley in Thailand - not even for a second.

[gbt71fa]

make the requirements to live in thailand much tougher for farang. for a retirement or marriage visa, they should be able to show be forced to have 10 million upwards.

do not allow farang to take thai girls to their hotel room if they did not check-in with them (like in Vietnam)

provide more education to the thai people of poor regions.

demolish the pattayya slums and bar industry.

run strict background checks on farang who try to teach (every month there is a new child rapist or murderer teaching english in thailand)

pay english teachers an equal salary as thai teachers.

I'm thinking you come from a country that is heavily subsidized....

[wilko]

Is realmadrid really David Beckham? - he/she's daft enough!

[wilko]

Pattaya slums - where are they?

[wilko]

You DO realise that is NOT what "troll" means????