Isn't This Called Discrimination

[Robski]

You're not very bright are you badsam, you seem to make a habit of missing the point,

I think you prove the how sharp you are if a non educated petrol pump attendent can get one over on you.

Do you actually have anything worth responding to?

Do you think the more you insult people the more they are interested in what you say?

42 posts? I don't think you're ever gonna make it to 3000

Enjoy it while it lasts, see ya.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Robski

[twschw]

I am looking for a townhouse to move into and the prices I was given were in the 6000 to 8000 baht per month range. When I told my Thai friends they were up in arms. Too much, too much. So one of my friends went to the same places and the range was from 3500 to 5000 baht per month range. No dual pricing, indeed. Then there is the local night market do I need to tell you about pricing there? You are correct though that there are things such as utilities and large chain stores that do not have dual pricing but for you to say it doesn't affect my daily life is wrong.

Point is though dual pricing hardly affects your life or that of most Foreigners...

I'm interested to hear how many instances of discrimination you encounter that affect your daily existence.

Well I don't expect you get much of an apartment for 4000 bath a month, but I never paid more than the advertised price which Thais also paid.

I think I've made my point and I'm sure in most cases you would find it hard to disagree, just as I am able to agree that there is dual pricing.

So I'll leave it at that although I would be interested in basjke response to my post,

as he did ask wether I was serious in my claim that in most areas we do pay the same price as Thais.

I answer your question and you put in a jab...oh well

[basjke]

But if the question is raised; "everywhere else in the world practices forms of discrimination so why should Thailand be different?"

Nobody is able to answer it. Thailand is far from being a utopia so why do you expect to be treated differently or even fairly.

Also this is being touted as 'another example of dual pricing', please tell me where else you have encountered dual pricing.

In most other areas you will pay the same price as Thais.

You are joking now aren't you.

No I'm being perfectly serious I think if we were to make lists it would become apparant that although dual pricing does occur,

it is in the minority of cases and not as some would make out a common occurrence that proves foreigners are being discriminated against.

I pay the same price as Thais would for all these things for example, and I do have a better income than a large proportion of Thai society.

An Apartment read twschw post

Electricity

Water

Cable TV

Broadband internet

Food from supermarkets and shops

Food from restaurants

Vehicles try to send a thai you can trust to the same shop

Petrol

Furniture only if you buy it in supermarkets where the price is advertised

White goods same as above

Electrical goods same as above

Clothes also only in if prices are advertised

Travel can't bother to look it up but there was a while ago a topic about thai airways charging different prices

Beer

Cigarettes

These are the essentials for life and I pay the same on all of them,

perhaps I have the money to choose a better product, but none of these essentials incur dual pricing.

The only area dual pricing does occur is in entertainment and leisure and then not always as it would quite possible to frequent Thai establishments.

So although dual pricing does occur it's hardly a general conspiricy against Farangs is it?

As with Tonys where you do find dual pricing the majority of Thais are priced out anyway, is that discrimination? Or regulating the clientelle through price policy? Isn't that what he is doing to you and all the others that complain? After all lets face it, if you are prepared to complain over such a small amount what else are you likely to complain about.

Point is though dual pricing hardly affects your life or that of most Foreigners, yet when one instance occurs it is touted as yet another example of discrimination against us.

I do feel occasional xenophobia or discrimination, but the freedom and privilege being a Farang give me far outweigh the negatives.

Try being rural Thai or Burmese, you might have an axe to grind then.

But over to you, I'm interested to hear how many instances of discrimination you encounter that affect your daily existence.

Summin up the places where a foreigner pays more then a thai would result in an endless list so to your convenience I will name the places where you have a fair chance of not being discriminated.

-supermarkets and shops where the prices are clearly advertised.

-uttility's which you pay to the goverment and this is probably because you can't have them in foreigner name so they don't know if a foreigner is involved.

-Uhmm,that's it I think.

[Robski]

Summin up the places where a foreigner pays more then a thai would result in an endless list so to your convenience I will name the places where you have a fair chance of not being discriminated.

Sure whatever, I think it just comes down to the fact that you'relazy, pathetic, moaning cheap charlies. You think you're so hard done by..get a life.

It's ok you can have the last word, it's your thread after all.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Robski

[BaDSaM]

You're not very bright are you badsam, you seem to make a habit of missing the point,

I think you prove the how sharp you are if a non educated petrol pump attendent can get one over on you.

Do you actually have anything worth responding to?

Do you think the more you insult people the more they are interested in what you say?

42 posts? I don't think you're ever gonna make it to 3000

Enjoy it while it lasts, see ya.

Why would I want to waste my life making 3000 posts? I'm still waiting for you to explain to your mythical children why rascism and discrimination are good things.

[basjke]

You're not very bright are you badsam, you seem to make a habit of missing the point,

I think you prove the how sharp you are if a non educated petrol pump attendent can get one over on you.

Do you actually have anything worth responding to?

Do you think the more you insult people the more they are interested in what you say?

42 posts? I don't think you're ever gonna make it to 3000

Enjoy it while it lasts, see ya.

Why would I want to waste my life making 3000 posts? I'm still waiting for you to explain to your mythical children why rascism and discrimination are good things.

Sorry but Robski doesn't answer questions,he only want everyone answer his questions.Do you think this might have to do with short sighted vision.

[endure]

It's time some of you folks re-read the rules you signed up to. You can do it now or I can arrange a holiday so you can do it at your leisure.

[lioness]

One of you said you can't have utilities in your name, sorry, I don't know where you live, but both my elctricity and the water are in my name and I am not Thai. And I pay the same as the Thai's for Utilities.

[mrbojangles]

A bar near me started having ladies nights once a week. Ladies get in for free and get half price drinks, most of the guys where seriously p1ssed off about this and the majority decided to boycott it. Ladies night lasted about 2 months because the numbers attending where so low. Quite a few women at first but not many men and then leass and less women. They then decided to have happy hours instead.

Result = every body happy

was it a gay bar ?? can't please some people !!!!

No it wasn't a gay bar but i don't understand your point?

Well a group of men having hissy fits because of a promotion where ladies get free entry and half price drinks does sounds gay!

Hissy fit, <deleted> are you on about, all i said was we boycotted it. What are you, some soft ar5e sheep who doesn't like to speak up for yourself and just follow the crowd.

It's a local pub (not a town centre one) we drink in there all the time and took exception to the fact that they wanted to give the girls special treatment and not the blokes. By sticking together, another pub benefitted from our trade and it didn't take long for the first pub to realise this. To get us back into the pub they put on happy hour (which is actually 3 hours). So we (the blokes) ended up better off and all the girls still came. Have you ever heard of the expression "win-win" or are you happy to go along with "win-lose". Upto you but i don't

Ok so it's a local bar and your a regular, management have for 1 night a week a ladies night and

in your post you say more women turned up on this night, at this point you go drinking at another bar.

Obviously all this sensual lingerie knocking about the place was putting you off your pool game as assuming they hadn't turned up in the first instance you would of carried on drinking there as normal?

Sometimes on Thai Visa, we come across a jerk in which it is futile to try and have a reasoned discussion. I think this is one of those moments.

[BaDSaM]

It's been two days since I challenged you enablers to explain to me as if I was YOUR 7 year old why it is ok to discriminate. Not one of you came forward. Not one. I didn't have to say put up or shut up, you all wisely chose the latter and in doing so showed all of us that your arguments here were vacuous.

[ZZZ]

It's been two days since I challenged you enablers to explain to me as if I was YOUR 7 year old why it is ok to discriminate. Not one of you came forward. Not one. I didn't have to say put up or shut up, you all wisely chose the latter and in doing so showed all of us that your arguments here were vacuous.

This thread is discussing if a certain way of doing business is discrimination or not.

It is not discussing if discrimination is good or bad, think most people here agree that discrimination is bad so no point answering your question.

[chanman]

It's been two days since I challenged you enablers to explain to me as if I was YOUR 7 year old why it is ok to discriminate. Not one of you came forward. Not one. I didn't have to say put up or shut up, you all wisely chose the latter and in doing so showed all of us that your arguments here were vacuous.

This thread is discussing if a certain way of doing business is discrimination or not.

It is not discussing if discrimination is good or bad, think most people here agree that discrimination is bad so no point answering your question.

The liberals in my country are wonderful at weasling out of any question by changing it.

I see you need clarification. As you have risen to the top of the ... well you've risen to the top so let me help you.

Tony's charges more for non-Thai people than they do for Thai People. This is discrimination. The service and product are the same for both but Tony wants more money from the Europeans.

Please explain to your child why this is a good thing. Pretend you are an American or British Liberal/Labour and instill your wonderful morals in little Tommy's brain full of mush.

Let me help you further: "Tommy, Tony discriminates against non-Thai people, this is a good thing because ............... He is making a shed load of money doing it, its his business, its not illegal..

No fill in the blank.

Is this type of discrimination new here? No it isn't. I bet you were camped out at greenham common as well

Do you will think you will make Tony change his money making policy? If you think even pricing is such a good business idea open a gym and charge every one the same I am sure you will be very sucessful.

[nidge]

Although my main work is outside of Thailand i do some business in Thailand, (purely for something to pass the time). I am a farang and I charge less when i am dealing with Thai people than i do with farangs. It's my choice. If you don't like it then you won't be doing business with me. It's as simple as that. If you want to call it discrimination it's up to you. I have more contact with Thais and they are more likely to come to me knowing they get a discount. Farangs are more difficult to deal with, complain more and expect more for their money, (just reading this post is proof enough).

[Pattaya_Fox]

You were warned twice and certain members have continued to ignore the forum rules and therefore one member has been suspended.

I am quite happy to suspend more members if the forum rules are broken again.

So please be nice to each other and discuss the topic in a calm and civilized way.

Thanks.

[chuckd]

A bar near me started having ladies nights once a week. Ladies get in for free and get half price drinks, most of the guys where seriously p1ssed off about this and the majority decided to boycott it. Ladies night lasted about 2 months because the numbers attending where so low. Quite a few women at first but not many men and then leass and less women. They then decided to have happy hours instead.

Result = every body happy

was it a gay bar ?? can't please some people !!!!

No it wasn't a gay bar but i don't understand your point?

Well a group of men having hissy fits because of a promotion where ladies get free entry and half price drinks does sounds gay!

Hissy fit, <deleted> are you on about, all i said was we boycotted it. What are you, some soft ar5e sheep who doesn't like to speak up for yourself and just follow the crowd.

It's a local pub (not a town centre one) we drink in there all the time and took exception to the fact that they wanted to give the girls special treatment and not the blokes. By sticking together, another pub benefitted from our trade and it didn't take long for the first pub to realise this. To get us back into the pub they put on happy hour (which is actually 3 hours). So we (the blokes) ended up better off and all the girls still came. Have you ever heard of the expression "win-win" or are you happy to go along with "win-lose". Upto you but i don't

Ok so it's a local bar and your a regular, management have for 1 night a week a ladies night and

in your post you say more women turned up on this night, at this point you go drinking at another bar.

Obviously all this sensual lingerie knocking about the place was putting you off your pool game as assuming they hadn't turned up in the first instance you would of carried on drinking there as normal?

Sometimes on Thai Visa, we come across a jerk in which it is futile to try and have a reasoned discussion. I think this is one of those moments.

Mr. Jangles:

Would you mind telling us if the local bar you boycotted was in Thailand or your home country? Just curious if you were boycotting the discounted presence of Farang women or Thai women.

[Robski]

It's been two days since I challenged you enablers to explain to me as if I was YOUR 7 year old why it is ok to discriminate. Not one of you came forward. Not one. I didn't have to say put up or shut up, you all wisely chose the latter and in doing so showed all of us that your arguments here were vacuous.

This thread is discussing if a certain way of doing business is discrimination or not.

It is not discussing if discrimination is good or bad, think most people here agree that discrimination is bad so no point answering your question.

Well said

[mrbojangles]

Mr. Jangles:

Would you mind telling us if the local bar you boycotted was in Thailand or your home country? Just curious if you were boycotting the discounted presence of Farang women or Thai women.

Back in farang land chuck. And believe me when i say the talent wasn't too hot anyways

[chuckd]

Mr. Jangles:

Would you mind telling us if the local bar you boycotted was in Thailand or your home country? Just curious if you were boycotting the discounted presence of Farang women or Thai women.

Back in farang land chuck. And believe me when i say the talent wasn't too hot anyways

Then I would have likely joined you at the other pub.

[tattoodrob]

It's been two days since I challenged you enablers to explain to me as if I was YOUR 7 year old why it is ok to discriminate. Not one of you came forward. Not one. I didn't have to say put up or shut up, you all wisely chose the latter and in doing so showed all of us that your arguments here were vacuous.

This thread is discussing if a certain way of doing business is discrimination or not.

It is not discussing if discrimination is good or bad, think most people here agree that discrimination is bad so no point answering your question.

Well said

actually from reading a lot of posts it seems that a lot of people here seem to think discrimination in business is ok so obviously we arent all in agreement that discrimination is bad.

if tony wants to offer thai people a cheaper price then is up to him for sure but this doesnt make it ok and we shoud moan about these racist policies as by not bringing it out in the open then thailand will never move forward as they dont understand the meaning of fairness to everyone.is this a good idea???will they ever catch up with the western world???

all of those that say if you dont like the dual pricing etc then leave ...is this the answer to everything you dont like.....i didnt like school,should i just leave.........i dont like paying taxes ,should i just not pay.......i dont like paying for beer,should i just steal it.

maybe some of you living here dont have a budget and happy being ripped off at every opportunity............great thats why we are getting ripped off,discriminated against etc.....a lot of thais now just think...."farang rich" so charge more .

i understand things are cheaper here than at home so i shouldnt moan.......but if i pay what the thais want us to pay then it wouldnt be that much cheaper than at home..........and without being able to earn a legitimate income easily here then they aint doing too bad out of us farang.....money in,no money out.check out other countries ...a lot of governments give money out to foreigners without getting any back in,but i wont go into that as thats another matter.anyway im boring myself now so i will finish....if thais wanna give discount to thais the least they could do is do it under the table ie dont advertise the fact that they are racially discriminating us as if we are all stupid rich people who will just pay what they ask everytime without a murmer.at least lets stick up for fairness.....we all know they would prefer us to stay at our home country and just post our money to them...then they dont have to put up with our whingeing about right and wrong.the end...phew

[cali4995]

The housing thing in particular is a sore spot. In the states, charging people different

prices based on race would get you sued. Here, it does occur quite frequently.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but is Tony himself not a look-krung? Or of mixed

parentage? Italian / Thai is what I assumed. I've only been to the club on walking st

one time and was charged 180 baht for a 15 baht bottle of sprite. Girls used to get

their drinks there for 60 baht I think. Needless to say last time I ever visited.

He's got quite a collection of exotic vehicles, gouging the tourists has made him wealthy.

And now he's got that program for helping the stray animals. We're last on the priority list.

[tropo]

This is meant as an open letter to Mr Tony,who is assumed to be a member of this forum,but I invite everyone to post their opinion.

I am a member of Tony's gym for several years but my membership is due to renewal.As I see daily the advertisements through pickup's and billboards for a lifetime membership at 14.999 baht I decided to take one.So up I went to Tony's fitness,the one with the pool,with my 14.999 baht and applied for a lifetime membership.

You're looking at this the wrong way. Tony is giving the Thais a break on price rather than ripping you off.

You need to start looking at the big picture: $600 for a lifetime membership at 4 gyms is exceptional value. The price is so low that it's almost a joke.

Let's just say that your campaign worked and Tony yielded on this issue. What do you think he would do? Lower the Farang price, or increase the Thai price?

Obviously one way or the other you're going to pay the 19,999 price.

Tony could have gone another way and just discretely given the Thais a discount upon application, but he came out in open instead.

I was in there last week myself asking about the price for renewing my membership. I pointed to a price card on the desk and he promptly told me that was the Thai price. I had nothing to say, what could I say?....that's how it is.

[tropo]

But if the question is raised; "everywhere else in the world practices forms of discrimination so why should Thailand be different?"

Nobody is able to answer it. Thailand is far from being a utopia so why do you expect to be treated differently or even fairly.

Also this is being touted as 'another example of dual pricing', please tell me where else you have encountered dual pricing.

In most other areas you will pay the same price as Thais.

You are joking now aren't you.

No I'm being perfectly serious I think if we were to make lists it would become apparant that although dual pricing does occur,

it is in the minority of cases and not as some would make out a common occurrence that proves foreigners are being discriminated against.

I pay the same price as Thais would for all these things for example, and I do have a better income than a large proportion of Thai society.

An Apartment

Electricity

Water

Cable TV

Broadband internet

Food from supermarkets and shops

Food from restaurants

Vehicles

Petrol

Furniture

White goods

Electrical goods

Clothes

Travel

Beer

Cigarettes

These are the essentials for life and I pay the same on all of them,

perhaps I have the money to choose a better product, but none of these essentials incur dual pricing.

The only area dual pricing does occur is in entertainment and leisure and then not always as it would quite possible to frequent Thai establishments.

So although dual pricing does occur it's hardly a general conspiricy against Farangs is it?

As with Tonys where you do find dual pricing the majority of Thais are priced out anyway, is that discrimination? Or regulating the clientelle through price policy? Isn't that what he is doing to you and all the others that complain? After all lets face it, if you are prepared to complain over such a small amount what else are you likely to complain about.

Point is though dual pricing hardly affects your life or that of most Foreigners, yet when one instance occurs it is touted as yet another example of discrimination against us.

I do feel occasional xenophobia or discrimination, but the freedom and privilege being a Farang give me far outweigh the negatives.

Try being rural Thai or Burmese, you might have an axe to grind then.

But over to you, I'm interested to hear how many instances of discrimination you encounter that affect your daily existence.

A post of distinction!

I second all of that.

I don't pay more than Thais for anything at all apart from my Tony's membership, and that's such good value anyway that I couldn't care less.

[tattoodrob]

This is meant as an open letter to Mr Tony,who is assumed to be a member of this forum,but I invite everyone to post their opinion.

I am a member of Tony's gym for several years but my membership is due to renewal.As I see daily the advertisements through pickup's and billboards for a lifetime membership at 14.999 baht I decided to take one.So up I went to Tony's fitness,the one with the pool,with my 14.999 baht and applied for a lifetime membership.

You're looking at this the wrong way. Tony is giving the Thais a break on price rather than ripping you off.

You need to start looking at the big picture: $600 for a lifetime membership at 4 gyms is exceptional value. The price is so low that it's almost a joke.

Let's just say that your campaign worked and Tony yielded on this issue. What do you think he would do? Lower the Farang price, or increase the Thai price?

Obviously one way or the other you're going to pay the 19,999 price.

Tony could have gone another way and just discretely given the Thais a discount upon application, but he came out in open instead.

I was in there last week myself asking about the price for renewing my membership. I pointed to a price card on the desk and he promptly told me that was the Thai price. I had nothing to say, what could I say?....that's how it is.

you could have said why cant you have it at that price and made him explain to you......the more people that do that at least they will know we are not happy with his dual pricing.its a start

[Jingthing]

You're looking at this the wrong way. Tony is giving the Thais a break on price rather than ripping you off.

Who are you to say what is the right or wrong way of looking at it?

The way I look at it, he is doing both: ripping off farangs AND giving Thais a break, all at the same time.

[basjke]

A post of distinction!

I second all of that.

I don't pay more than Thais for anything at all apart from my Tony's membership, and that's such good value anyway that I couldn't care less.

So you don't pay more to go national parks,crocodile farm,nong nooch,underwater world,alcazar,Alangkarn and that are only a few named?I know now you gonna come up with the reply I show my thai driver licence and get in at the thai price.Ok sometimes this works but not a guarantee.

But apart from that,if you never get charged more then a thai,why you accept to be discriminated by Tony who makes his earnings for more than 90 % from foreigners and the other 10 % from thais which are probably bigger earners then most of us.

[lioness]

It's not the actually amount of money paid that is the problem.

what is hard to take is that it is morally wrong in our minds because this wouldn't happen in most of our home countries, therefore it comes down to the principle of the issue.

Just as well all the posters are not together in a pub discussing this over a few beers, a brawl would surely follow, then there would be arrests, and then the issue of paying off the cops , would start off another post. quite possibly given the heat and venemence of some of the posters , the police would kill one or two of the Falang and then that would be yet another subject, and so on.

This must be how wars start.

[Robski]

Again the comment that this wouldn't happen in another country.

Name one country where discrimination doesn't exist.

Then move there.

[tropo]

A post of distinction!

I second all of that.

I don't pay more than Thais for anything at all apart from my Tony's membership, and that's such good value anyway that I couldn't care less.

So you don't pay more to go national parks,crocodile farm,nong nooch,underwater world,alcazar,Alangkarn and that are only a few named?I know now you gonna come up with the reply I show my thai driver licence and get in at the thai price.Ok sometimes this works but not a guarantee.

But apart from that,if you never get charged more then a thai,why you accept to be discriminated by Tony who makes his earnings for more than 90 % from foreigners and the other 10 % from thais which are probably bigger earners then most of us.

I don't visit national parks. I'm not interested in crocodile farms (having seen too many crocs in Australia). I'm a scuba diver so an underwater world is of no interest to me. I'm also not interested in Alcazar or Alangkarn. Even if I was, I would probably visit these tourist traps one time only.

I lived in Surfers Paradise, Australia for 20 years...that's the number one tourist resort in Australia. Double pricing has always been common there with the Japanese as well as other tourists.

Elderly people, diability pensioners and students in Australia get discounts on medicine, transport and many other services (even cinema admission). Double pricing?

Tony's gyms will never appeal to "moneyed" Thais. Only the "poorer" Thais would want to train there, so why not give them a break? If you sign up your girlfriend you're going to benefit too, and a lot of the Thai members are financed by their Farang partners.

I have absolutely no problem with Tony charging Thais 5,000 less for a lifetime membership. It's fine by me. Let's say you're unfortunate and use your lifetime membership for only 10 years. That's 500 more per year you're paying than a Thai. You should find something else to complain about.

A point you obviously missed in my reply before was that if the impossible was to happen and you managed to force Tony to adopt an equal-pricing policy, your membership price would not go down. You're just wasting your time discussing it with Tony and his managers, and you're embarrassing yourself by looking cheap - if only you could see it.

[tropo]

You're looking at this the wrong way. Tony is giving the Thais a break on price rather than ripping you off.

Who are you to say what is the right or wrong way of looking at it?

The way I look at it, he is doing both: ripping off farangs AND giving Thais a break, all at the same time.

It's hard to discuss double pricing with you because you're the one who spent months screaming "racism, racism" with regard to baht bus drivers charging Farang an extra 5 baht. I can imagine that Tony charging Farang 5,000 more for a membership would get you really worked up - that's a 1000 x 5 baht.

[ZZZ]

A post of distinction!

I second all of that.

I don't pay more than Thais for anything at all apart from my Tony's membership, and that's such good value anyway that I couldn't care less.

So you don't pay more to go national parks,crocodile farm,nong nooch,underwater world,alcazar,Alangkarn and that are only a few named?I know now you gonna come up with the reply I show my thai driver licence and get in at the thai price.Ok sometimes this works but not a guarantee.

But apart from that,if you never get charged more then a thai,why you accept to be discriminated by Tony who makes his earnings for more than 90 % from foreigners and the other 10 % from thais which are probably bigger earners then most of us.

It's not the actually amount of money paid that is the problem.

what is hard to take is that it is morally wrong in our minds because this wouldn't happen in most of our home countries, therefore it comes down to the principle of the issue.

Just as well all the posters are not together in a pub discussing this over a few beers, a brawl would surely follow, then there would be arrests, and then the issue of paying off the cops , would start off another post. quite possibly given the heat and venemence of some of the posters , the police would kill one or two of the Falang and then that would be yet another subject, and so on.

This must be how wars start.

Dual pricing venues are mainly of two categories. One is national parks and similar government venues. These are owned and paid for by the Thai people and it's only fair they have a big discount there. You can enter these places at Thai price if you have a work permit. They even let you in, sometimes, with a local drivers license even if this is no prof of paying taxes.

The other category is tourist venues specially built for the foreign tourist trade. These businesses are based on the income they can get from tourists and would not be viable businesses if they relied on what they could charge Thai people. Nong Noch garden, the water park, the aquarium, Tony's gym and others would not be here if it was not for foreign tourists.

Tony's Disco disco would be empty if the locals had to pay 180Baht for a drink. "locals" at Tony's disco are 99.99% girls, without the girls there would be no male customers as customers who prefer to just drink with other male customers can do that a lot cheaper elsewhere.

The thing is that dual pricing at these venues benefit everyone, it's a win-win-win situation. The locals can frequently use the venues at a price realistic to them, the business owners get some extra income and level out some of the seasonal differences, the farang get a better price than they would if the locals did not contribute to the income of the business and in some cases the local price attract the girls most of us enjoy to be around.

This kind of dual pricing is also very common in western countries. All of you that come from a place that MAINLY derive it's income from tourist would know this. There are always good deals for the locals, it could be that you get a discount showing a local drivers license or you could buy special concession passes. The reason for this is to get the locals to use the facilities as much as possible.

Locals may visit an attraction once if they have to pay full price but if they get a good discount they may frequent the venues much more often. The discount is NOT because the tourists are more affluent than the locals and NOT because the locals are locals but to get a few extra dollars from the locals, it's NOT a charity thing, same goes for Thailand.

For you that come from places NOT MAINLY relying on tourists you may not have seen this before as this practice would not make any kind of difference for the businesses but for a place like Pattaya that TOTALLY depend on tourists it makes a big difference.

The main problem with this discussion seems to be that that the opposer's to this dual pricing have a hang up on using the Thai nationality as a criteria for discounts and then call this racial discrimination. The fact is that at most these places you DO get a discount if you show your work permit or prof of being a resident, a drivers permit may not be enough as just about anyone can get this.

At Tony's gym you get a discount as a "local farang" as you can get a life time membership at a good price while "tourist farangs" pay the more expensive daily rate. OK, Thai locals get a slightly better price but Tony has cleverly set this price to mainly attract fairly affluent Thais, most of them seems to be girls witch at least I think is a good thing. There are a number of other discounts available for "local farangs" through expat associations, sports clubs and others that the "tourist farangs" normally don't have access to.

Most of you who oppose dual pricing are very happy with the price you pay as this is much lower than you would pay in the west, the problem seems to be that you can't stand seeing someone else get a better deal than you. The thing is that no matter how god of a deal you get on anything here in life there will be someone else getting a better deal, even in your home countries.

Personally I just enjoy all the benefits this dual pricing gives me and are happy that it brings happiness to the Thai people as well, it's all a win-win-win deal.