Dual Pricing. If You Thought It Could Not Get Worse...

[Jingthing]

Yes, it is racist and I will go even further. Racism exists in every corner of the world. The Thais didn't invent it. The Nazis didn't invent it. The US KKK didn't invent it. But many of the people of the Asian nations are some of the most extreme racists you are ever going to meet. An inconvenient truth? Sorry. Why do so many want to sugar coat REALITY? What is wrong with seeing the world, including the Thai world, for WHAT IT IS? Why the irrational romanticizing of what is happening here?

Edited May 22, 2009 by Jingthing

[CaptHaddock]

Yes, it is racist and I will go even further. Racism exists in every corner of the world. The Thais didn't invent it. The Nazis didn't invent it. The US KKK didn't invent it. But many of the people of the Asian nations are some of the most extreme racists you are ever going to meet. An inconvenient truth? Sorry. Why do so many want to sugar coat REALITY? What is wrong with seeing the world, including the Thai world, for WHAT IT IS? Why the irrational romanticizing of what is happening here?

Well, taking advantage of unenfranchised visitors is probably a pretty universal humain trait. I don't know that it is necessarily racist. Here in New York City, for example, we have a high sales tax, 8.125%. However, if you rent a hotel room, you get to pay a special Hotel Room Occupancy Tax of 5.875% PLUS the sales tax. Why should hotel rooms be taxed so much more than other items? Because the tax is paid by outsiders who have no voice at all in deciding tax rates and whose wrath no local politician fears.

I find that all this talk of the racist nature of dual pricing to be amusing. Do you imagine that it is a fundamental human right to settle in a foreign country and benefit by commandeering goods and services with the favorable exchange rate for which you can take no credit at all?

[Jingthing]

favorable exchange rate

???

What favorable exchange rate? Have you shopped for wine, cars, or cheese in Thailand? Some things are cheaper, some things are more expensive. This has nothing to with right to settle or not, that is a visa matter, this is about racist pricing policies. Comparing to hotel taxes which are color blind is not apt. If you live in a housing village, you LIVE in a housing village. See the diff?

[TheLaughingMan]

I remember my very first trip here at Don Muang airport 6 years ago. I had come with a group of people and one was of Chinese heritage. We both ordered the exact same thing at the cafeteria type restaurant and stood in line together and paid, my bill was more expensive than hers. So we had a look at the bills, and hers had a "20% Asian discount" on it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Shocking enough to see double pricing but at the airport in its cafeteria! You expect the small businesses to do things like this but at the airport, and make it official by having an Asian button on the cash!

[sanook2me]

I remember my very first trip here at Don Muang airport 6 years ago. I had come with a group of people and one was of Chinese heritage. We both ordered the exact same thing at the cafeteria type restaurant and stood in line together and paid, my bill was more expensive than hers. So we had a look at the bills, and hers had a "20% Asian discount" on it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Shocking enough to see double pricing but at the airport in its cafeteria! You expect the small businesses to do things like this but at the airport, and make it official by having an Asian button on the cash!

yeah right

[CaptHaddock]

favorable exchange rate

???

What favorable exchange rate? Have you shopped for wine, cars, or cheese in Thailand? Some things are cheaper, some things are more expensive. This has nothing to with right to settle or not, that is a visa matter, this is about racist pricing policies. Comparing to hotel taxes which are color blind is not apt. If you live in a housing village, you LIVE in a housing village. See the diff?

The favorable exchange rate that makes Thailand cheaper to live in than the US, the cost of wine, cars and cheese notwithstanding. (I don't drink wine, eat cheese or drive a car myself, but I will take your word for the prices.) Hotel taxes are a perfect, color-blind way to make out-of-towners pay more tax than locals pay because locals don't stay in local hotels often. But why is that fair merely because it is not based on skin color?

In general, charging farangs more is progressive taxation, which I have always supported, even though I recognize that in this case we are talking about merchant prices rather than taxes. The principle is similar. If I were a Thai merchant I would be trying to figure out how to get more money out of you than my Thai customers, because you have more. Just as the airlines figure ways to charge businesses more for a plane ride than regular people.

The deal with living in Thailand is that you get a cheaper lifestyle, more especially in housing and services than cheese. Among the prices you pay is forever to be a merely tolerated guest in someone else's country without the rights of citizenship you enjoyed in your home country. That deal should have been obvious before you bought the plane ticket. What had you ever read that encouraged you to believe that Thais would regard you as legally or morally entitled to be treated the same as Thais?

Edited May 23, 2009 by CaptHaddock

[Jingthing]

I am not going to even bother to reply to the above classic apologia of a severe case of Thai-ier than Thai. Yeah, farangs are all rich, Asians are all poor.

[Lucifer]

This is a simple way Thais feel they can balance the wealth between the ''haves'' and the ''have not’s'.

As we all know, anything more complicated than differentiating between a white face and an Asian face would be un-workable.

[klons]

My little walled in neighborhood has a scummy pool, a maintenace man , 3 security guards,a street sweeper and a Homeowners association fee of 500 baht/month. We bought the house about 4 years ago. Since we only spent a few months a year there the Association said we would not have to pay the monthly fee. I'm a farang, the wife's a Thai. Now that the wife has started staying there all the time taking care of her mother, the association has decided we need to start paying the 500 baht a month. Should I feel guilty and insist on paying the association about 24,000 baht they exempted us from for 4 years? Was this fair to the other residents there?

I don't think charging farangs extra is racism. It's a redistribution of wealth, like what Obama is doing.

[Jingthing]

I will always think it is unfair racism. Your color does not determine your wealth. Many Thais are MUCH RICHER than many caucasian foreigners yet they still enjoy the Asian price. I am not asking for a special price, only the same price, that is justice the same here or anywhere. Many Thais also know this practice is wrong, but so many of you go along with it, why not play the game too. I avoid all race based pricing situations in Thailand whenever I can. If I discover a place is doing this, if there is any possible alternative, they have lost my business for life. I suggest you all do the same. Don't support racism, here or anywhere.

Was this fair to the other residents there?

You bring up an irrelevant example. You got a fee waiver. They were being very nice. They didn't have to grant that to you or anybody. But it has NOTHING to do with race based pricing. Edited May 23, 2009 by Jingthing

[ozzieovaseas]

I can guarantee you there is not even one residential development in the USA that is charging a different price to use shared facilities like pools based on race/nationality. Things like national parks can be justified. Private housing, no way!!!!!

jinting old mate: I hope you never go to the "gastropod" bach or whatever it is called, in Krabi:

Thais:20 baht

Farang:200 baht

I straight out refused to go in with the thai girlfriend,she said "oh in aussie dollars its only $8"...but funny how when things are on the other foot and she refuses to pay a few baht extra for something petty she says " OH you CANT compare prices here to australia because most thais are poor""..YEH RIGHT!

Anyway, i told her that from reading the sign that the tide was not right to see anything anyway.She went in down one side of the beach and i walked to west side about 10 minutes later and was at the exit point that more or less overlooked the beach.

She was 5 minutes in and out and not very impressed

im not usually a smartass but i had to comment how i was glad i didnt pay the 200.

Later went to the green pool...same same..20 for them 200 for me..went for a swim and got an ear infection

AMAZING thailand!!

[TheLaughingMan]

I remember my very first trip here at Don Muang airport 6 years ago. I had come with a group of people and one was of Chinese heritage. We both ordered the exact same thing at the cafeteria type restaurant and stood in line together and paid, my bill was more expensive than hers. So we had a look at the bills, and hers had a "20% Asian discount" on it. I couldn't believe my eyes. Shocking enough to see double pricing but at the airport in its cafeteria! You expect the small businesses to do things like this but at the airport, and make it official by having an Asian button on the cash!

yeah right

You don't believe my experience or you don't believe there is a button on the cash? There has to be a button, otherwise they cannot speedily add the Asian discount on the fly. Which is what they did. I paid, my Chinese friend paid 10 seconds later all nice and quick, all they have to do is hit the appropriate discount button, I used them for years as a waiter at restaurants back home, but there we use them for having a coupon or special membership card.... not for having a certain colour of skin or slant of eye.

[basjke]

Its only 20 baht.

Have you tried talking to whomever is in charge to convince them that you should not pay the increased rate?

Of course, but the answer is still the same. By the way, I should point out that the management told me the pool concession has been outsourced to some guy with no connection to the place. Why, you tell me.

So you buy a house in a moobaan with a communal pool.After some time they start charging for the pool to residents of the moobaan because the outsourced the pool to a stranger.

I should be careful that they don't outsource the maintenance of the roads in your moobaan otherwise you would need to pay everyday to reach your house.

[mrt273nva]

If I were a Thai merchant I would be trying to figure out how to get more money out of you than my Thai customers, because you have more.

Is this theory based on your assumption that the color of your skin is in direct correlation with how much monetary wealth you have?

Edited May 24, 2009 by mrt273nva

[klons]

I bet you 10,000 baht I will go on my first trip and get in for 30 baht.

And I wont have to make a whiny post about it, either!

Would you make the same bet that you could get in the Emerald Temple for the Thai price?