Thailand's selfish super-rich

[baxida]

in the west, those people got rich with ideas and inventions and business that grew over the decades

overhere : people got rich by stealing from the taxpayers and exploiting the poor

tax on unused land, would be a nice start to redistribute the wealth in this country

I hope you are not referring to the U.S. when you say 'the west'

If my memory serves me correct, most of the 'Super Rich' got rich by robbing taxpayers money ($700 Billion) and paying their own CEOs disgusting amounts of money in bonuses...FOR CAUSING A MELTDOWN!!!!!

I'm a westerner, but feel ashamed to talk about our 'super rich' as they aren't even part of our human race, they have distanced themselves from the other 99% of society, and the sad thing is that even now, we have people in the plutocracy wanting to LOWER tax on businesses..So once again the 1% super rich benefit and the other 99% (you and me) will be burdened with the huge debt that is now a reality in every country in the US and in Europe.

[techboy]

I think that this is pretty much a nowhere article. It is poorly focused and reeks of superficial research. Also, the guy John Roberts is full of it. Stiffing his kids like that he is either a gone 'round the bend zealot to a personal cause or has a beef with them.

[bigbamboo]

In Thailand charity ends at home.

[Ragzilb]

TAX the rich, Tax the companies, Tax Real Estate. But whatever you do dont tax the Farmers, and dont tax the people with lowest income , otherwise thet will have a western society, which also stinks in many ways, We have a change now to Thailand to be a good and prosper coutry, not a country with a central bank like we have (Money Vampires) Did you know that the elite in US a sitting on more than 60 Trilion Dollars in Money and Assets. now that sucks

[3NUMBAS]

philanthropy is not in their dictionary ,they would sooner trample their fellow thais into the dirt .

in the UK funding for universities and medical research , and scholarships for the less fortunate have been common for generations .

[bino]

There is an inherent selfishness in the concept that wealth should be kept within families, passed on from one generation to another.

Indeed - so that the children can grow up and run over policemen with their Ferraris and get away with it.

That is their parents up bring , not the fault of the system .

Precisely.

[MGP]

In Thailand charity ends at home.

Not in the Thailand that I know. Perhaps I am being lucky with the people that I am surrounding myself but, as I've said before, Thais are amongst the most generous persons that I've ever met.

[american12bthai]

for those who have been unfairly treated. I ask of you all to not worry, Historty WILL repeat itself. they have to pay the price. the piper will come for them.

[Ulic]

Who says the charities will spend the money any more effectively that the children. The UN in Africa are almost entirely

a bunch of fat cats with big salaries and bigger expense accounts driving around in new white Land Rovers, staying in

five star hotels and flying business/first class everywhere. And of course totally ineffective. With all the charity scams going

on where 98% of monies raised going to fund raising and other expenses with 2% getting to the intended project.

Of course I do believe the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, Jimmy Carter and a handful of others are effective, but

when you look at the billions spent in Africa, Haiti, etc.. and the progress made, how can anyone reach any other conclusion.

[Yunla]

This is partly a religion issue, and the difference between East and West resulting from this. Philanthropy as we know it began during the heyday of Purgatory Theology, when rich people left their whole life savings to Churches, Poorhouses, Hospitals and food-for-poor schemes. The rich person was paying to have his time in Purgatory cut, a small amount of money would get you 40 days reduced, some very rich people paid for 40,000 years less time in Purgatory. If you believe in Purgatory or not, the social consequences of this were very positive, people tried to live good lives and if they didn't manage that they would upon death leave a fortune to the poor and hungry in society. This was because in Purgatory (a sort of Hell_Lite) you weren't spending eternity in the Cellar as it were, but you were still suffering for a good long time. Greedy selfish money-men were forced to drink molten gold in Purgatory, liars had their tongues nailed to the floor, murderers were hewn upon the block. These are real incentives to live a good honourable life, or at the very least to give all your money to poor people when you died.

I wouldn't be so sanctimonious about the East. Do you know what "tam-boon" means in Thailand? It's making merit, and millions (if not billions) of baht are channeled into religious institutions here for the purpose of earning a higher status in the "next life." Same motivations. Learn your hosts' culture, friend.

I wasn't being sanctimonious about anything. Re; the East, I spent decades travelling the East, and have many Buddhist friends in Thailand, Japan, Laos, etc. I can confirm that my Buddhist friends are happy to give small donations and spend time praying, but when they die their money will go to their family. A small sum may go to the temple, most will go to family. They believe they will be reincarnated regardless of donations.

My original post, which you totally missed the point of, was talking about the OP, the super rich, philanthropy. Put simply the only time I have seen the super-rich giving away *all* their money, was when they felt that they would suffer terribly in Purgatory. Did I "sanctimoniously" say that the West was better because of this - NO. I am fully aware of the crimes committed under Western religion too, and the suffering of people under oppressive sects in the West. My point was entirely about ; super rich, why don't they give away their money.

These Purgatory-fearing super-rich people gave away ALL their money, and usually not to Churches, but to actual poor-houses for the feeding and clothing of the poorest, or hospitals - it was essential that the money actually helped the poor, because Jesus said "'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." and so the super-rich of the purgatory-fearing era believed that ensuring all their money went to the poor, was a safe way to not suffer too much torment.

And these super-rich people of that era, they were not giving away their life savings because they were especially kind people who loved the poor - they were giving their money away out of fear of punishment, and the "its better to be safe than sorry" ethos.

[malm1943]

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They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

1% of humanity owns 50% of its wealth, which is estimated at US$110trillion (yes trillion). Hence, no matter how the 1% "made it", there is something vitally wrong in the system!

Edited April 17, 2014 by malm1943

[jamstock]

To not pass your wealth on to your children seems insane to me.

[chotthee]

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They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

1% of humanity owns 50% of its wealth, which is estimated at US$110trillion (yes trillion). Hence, no matter how the 1% "made it", there is something vitally wrong in the system!

It is only wrong if you are not the 1%.

[binjalin]

In Thailand charity ends at home.

Not in the Thailand that I know. Perhaps I am being lucky with the people that I am surrounding myself but, as I've said before, Thais are amongst the most generous persons that I've ever met.

amazing... you must be VERY lucky I've never seen it in many years and IF they do something they want something in return it's endemic

still there is good and bad everywhere but in all my worldly travels Thais are amongst the most selfish

[ChrisY1]

There is a Thai word for philanthropy, but to my wifes' knowledge, she can not remember any rich family ever donating or leaving large sums to a cause.

Similarly the Chinese, they also never donate.

Greed and more greed......and there's never enough!

Wow. I do love your ignorance! How you can in one sentence generalize the whole Chinese population. To open your biased eyes, see the link to Forbes 2013 Chinese philanthropists.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/russellflannery/2013/04/23/2013-forbes-china-philanthropy-list-full-list/

Quite correct.....I guess I should have mentioned "rarely donate"....anyway.

.00005% , according to Forbes, do donate.

[kingstonkid]

My dad was not rich but he told my sister and i that we would receive no money from him. Instead what little he had I had to put in trust for his grand kids until they turned 21 or went to university/recognized college. happy to say that all 3 are doing well..

I have done the same thing my son in law is not happy but I really could care less. The only provision I added was that if they did not go to school they could not get the money until 45 years old. This part is really pissing off my oldest who dropped out of school.

What they do ot realize is that part of the money they were gong to get is going to go to Thai gf. LOL

[jpeg]

I love it when other people tell you what to do with your money !!

The er, thrust of this article really has flown over your head hasn't it We're not talking about 'telling people what to do with their money'. Rather the sense or otherwise of the egalitarianism that goes with obscene wealth. You are obviously of the 'otherwise' group. 'is fer me an' me kids, innit'.

[Soutpeel]

What about the Shin clan who absolutely love their country and country men and women, isn't their aim to do good for all ( of their own family ) ?

Wow, that didn't take long, 2 post to turn this into a "Shin clan" bashing, I wonder do you know that any of the "Shin clan" do or do not donate to any cause? and for that matter do you? As for myself I do such as world wild life fund, world vision, green peace,

And of the 3 you donate to, how much of what you donate actually goes to the "cause" and how much is used to pay "admin" costs for some "activist" on a USD 250k/yr "salary"

It would be interesting if you could name one, just one, charity "activist" on a 250k USD salary. Won't be holding my breath.

Refer to post #43 dear boy a few listed, but you are correct in one sense, they are earning more than 250k

So maybe you should have held your breath, you head might have exploded

[bigbamboo]

In Thailand charity ends at home.

Not in the Thailand that I know. Perhaps I am being lucky with the people that I am surrounding myself but, as I've said before, Thais are amongst the most generous persons that I've ever met.

I'll give you that.

I was thinking more about the rich.

[thrilled]

I guess if you worked your butt off to have A large fortune it should be up to you where it goes.I believe Bill Gates is giving most of his money away.But I believe A few million of it he's keeping for his family.

[fasteddie]

Bill Gates worlds richest man? Don't think so, Jacob Rothschild is worth between 300 to 500 Trillion!

[shadmo63]

Bill Gates worlds richest man? Don't think so, Jacob Rothschild is worth between 300 to 500 Trillion!

Seems like a ridiculously high figure given that world GDP in 2012 was $85 trillion. Can not even find him on any rich list. $5 billion is all I can find

[Familyonthemove]

This article is a quite a contradiction to the one which states how generous Thai's are as Asia's top tippers!

Thais, in general, are amongst the most generous people that I've ever met, but the article is talking about a super-rich minority, not about Thais in general.

One of my Thai friends once said that most Thais are very generous and kind-hearted and that's one reason they have no money ..... and then there's a small minority who are mean and selfish - and they end up with a fortune.

So perhaps one reason the super-rich are so rich is because they focus entirely on themselves and do not help others. Cause and effect.

Personally I would feel very uncomfortable driving a Ferrari or Lamborghini in a developing country (and not just because of the state of the roads) - you'd have to be a special kind of person to flaunt wealth in public to that extent.

[arthurwait]

This article is a quite a contradiction to the one which states how generous Thai's are as Asia's top tippers!

Thais, in general, are amongst the most generous people that I've ever met, but the article is talking about a super-rich minority, not about Thais in general.

One of my Thai friends once said that most Thais are very generous and kind-hearted and that's one reason they have no money ..... and then there's a small minority who are mean and selfish - and they end up with a fortune.

So perhaps one reason the super-rich are so rich is because they focus entirely on themselves and do not help others. Cause and effect.

Personally I would feel very uncomfortable driving a Ferrari or Lamborghini in a developing country (and not just because of the state of the roads) - you'd have to be a special kind of person to flaunt wealth in public to that extent.

There's one born every minute.

[Thai at Heart]

Andrew Carnegie built 2000 libraries. There is one just down the road from my house in the UK.

Great people do great things. I don't see enough of this civic and societal concern in Thailand. The uber rich coulddo a lot more in Thailand, but as yet they don't.

Schools could be transformed by charity in Thailand.

[baxida]

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They made it, they can do what they want with it. Don't see anything wrong at all with providing financial safety for x amount of generations to come, only wish I had a huge win-fall coming my way!

1% of humanity owns 50% of its wealth, which is estimated at US$110trillion (yes trillion). Hence, no matter how the 1% "made it", there is something vitally wrong in the system!

It is only wrong if you are not the 1%.

That sounds like a Michelle Bachmann quote..Completely batshit crazy!

Edited April 18, 2014 by baxida

[MGP]

Although the topic of the OP article is only about the super-rich selfish minority, some are still criticizing the kind and generous average Thai People.

This picture from the last mega-floods is to remind that generosity is not only about money or about getting something in return:

The majority of (non-super-rich) Thais are wonderful people.

I can't give my opinion about the super-rich because I don't have direct experiences with them (except from the occasional news, like bribing the Police to not to incriminate the drunk rich-kid that kills a policeman with his racing car)

Edited April 18, 2014 by MGP

[baxida]

Although the topic of the OP article is only about the super-rich selfish minority, some are still criticizing the kind and generous average Thai People.

This picture from the last mega-floods is to remind that generosity is not only about money or about getting something in return:

The majority of (non-super-rich) Thais are wonderful people.

I can't give my opinion about the super-rich because I don't have direct experiences with them (except from the occasional news, like bribing the Police to not to incriminate the drunk rich-kid that kills a policeman with his racing car)

I agree, from what I've seen, the Thai's I have met are extraordinarily generous human beings who will help people who are in need of help, or who don't get help from the majority.

On the flip side they like to extort money from the rich...I guess karma is the key, which IMHO makes Thailand a lovely place to live, if you live by this rule of course...

[wolfmanjack]

 

Andrew Carnegie built 2000 libraries. There is one just down the road from my house in the UK.

Great people do great things. I don't see enough of this civic and societal concern in Thailand. The uber rich coulddo a lot more in Thailand, but as yet they don't.

Schools could be transformed by charity in Thailand.

 

Carnegie did a lot of bad stuff while accumulating his wealth. The building of libraries was a way for him to make sure his name lived on after he was dead. I personally would not call him a great man by any stretch of the imagination.

[jpeg]

This is partly a religion issue, and the difference between East and West resulting from this. Philanthropy as we know it began during the heyday of Purgatory Theology, when rich people left their whole life savings to Churches, Poorhouses, Hospitals and food-for-poor schemes. The rich person was paying to have his time in Purgatory cut, a small amount of money would get you 40 days reduced, some very rich people paid for 40,000 years less time in Purgatory. If you believe in Purgatory or not, the social consequences of this were very positive, people tried to live good lives and if they didn't manage that they would upon death leave a fortune to the poor and hungry in society. This was because in Purgatory (a sort of Hell_Lite) you weren't spending eternity in the Cellar as it were, but you were still suffering for a good long time. Greedy selfish money-men were forced to drink molten gold in Purgatory, liars had their tongues nailed to the floor, murderers were hewn upon the block. These are real incentives to live a good honourable life, or at the very least to give all your money to poor people when you died.

I wouldn't be so sanctimonious about the East. Do you know what "tam-boon" means in Thailand? It's making merit, and millions (if not billions) of baht are channeled into religious institutions here for the purpose of earning a higher status in the "next life." Same motivations. Learn your hosts' culture, friend.

I wasn't being sanctimonious about anything. Re; the East, I spent decades travelling the East, and have many Buddhist friends in Thailand, Japan, Laos, etc. I can confirm that my Buddhist friends are happy to give small donations and spend time praying, but when they die their money will go to their family. A small sum may go to the temple, most will go to family. They believe they will be reincarnated regardless of donations.

My original post, which you totally missed the point of, was talking about the OP, the super rich, philanthropy. Put simply the only time I have seen the super-rich giving away *all* their money, was when they felt that they would suffer terribly in Purgatory. Did I "sanctimoniously" say that the West was better because of this - NO. I am fully aware of the crimes committed under Western religion too, and the suffering of people under oppressive sects in the West. My point was entirely about ; super rich, why don't they give away their money.

These Purgatory-fearing super-rich people gave away ALL their money, and usually not to Churches, but to actual poor-houses for the feeding and clothing of the poorest, or hospitals - it was essential that the money actually helped the poor, because Jesus said "'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." and so the super-rich of the purgatory-fearing era believed that ensuring all their money went to the poor, was a safe way to not suffer too much torment.

And these super-rich people of that era, they were not giving away their life savings because they were especially kind people who loved the poor - they were giving their money away out of fear of punishment, and the "its better to be safe than sorry" ethos.

Your post is extremely cynical. Whilst it's a fact that Asians will donate enormous sums to temples (a recent article pertinent to another thread being a case in point) hoping for a kick upstairs once having shuffled off mortal coil, and anyone who's read George Orwell's Burmese Days would get the drift of course. But people DO give out of the kindness of their hearts and always have done. Particularly during the Victorian era in the UK.

Philanthropy crosses all borders, but it has to be admitted that apart from the Forbes named Chinese, there's little to see of it in the Orient. Although, again , I do remember a piece quoting a Thai as saying '...... (forget the names, while ago), built hospitals and schools, where are Taksin and his wife's contributions?' And no, not having a pop at the 'reds' could equally be the er, 'yellows' .