Are there many self-made rich people in Thailand?

[BudRight]

Nobody does it alone without family or friends and people who chose to believe in him/her either in the west or asia.

The nonsense spouted by some of these self made millionaires like Alan Sugar who was apparently a barrow bow in the east end is ludicrous.

'I worked hard', they often say, as if poor people don't work hard!

Sugar, of course is jewish with strong family and inter family connections.

Poor people work hard at things that are not worth much.

Rich people work hard at using what they have to get more.

[farang000999]

im guessing a few of those thai chinese traders were involved in opium as well.

[Typingdog]

Lot of Thai girls can do that

Lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cook my sock]

I know a guy from Issan who worked his way up the ladder in the hotel sector, working for Sixth Sense and now has his own little hotel massage and restaurant empire

[Berkshire]

Honestly, I think it's just as tough in the US as it is in Thailand to become "self-made rich."

But I think it's a tad easier in the US to become comfortably middle-class (into retirement)...although even that may be changing.

[elgordo38]

There is no middle class here in Thailand, So the rich get richer by exploiting the poor. probably the same in any Country, But there is little protection in thailand for workers,

no middle class in Thailand? Say families earning between 30k and 200k per month I would consider middle class here. And this group has been growing steadily over the last 20 years and still keeps growing.

I can see that by all the new cars on the roads in Thailand a thriving over their head in debt middle class. How do you think you go from being poor to middle class here?. All we exported to them was how to live on a higher plain than you can afford its called debt. To the bank to the bank to the bank bank bank. It will all end badly. It will take time to play out similar to the time it took to build up. The domino effect.

Edited November 10, 2015 by elgordo38

[elgordo38]

There is no middle class here in Thailand, So the rich get richer by exploiting the poor. probably the same in any Country, But there is little protection in thailand for workers,

What about all the Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Accountants, Journalists, middle and senior management in large companies, the list

goes on. There is an increasing middle class in Thailand. The village I live in most certainly is not Hi So but would say the majority are

middle class. House prices between 4.5 and 7 million. There are loads of similar villages all around me. Ridiculous statement.

Middle class but high class debtors. People living in a village living in a lets say a 5 million baht house. Something is out of wack. Yes I lived in a village and my then g/f's mother built a 600 square metre building for personal living and a store. The building was 3 times larger than what she needed. The bank loan was 7 million bahts. Her reasoning was that all her sisters in this village had stores so it was a case of one up manship. On top of that the quality of the build was so bad the first section was having leaking and construction problems before the contractor could collect all his money so he could cut and run. What a fiasco.

Edited November 10, 2015 by elgordo38

[JacChang]

Like I always will say, to be rich, is simply to acquire more and more assets. In this day, it is very simple to do, requires no connections, simply putting your money in the right places. Of course, we are not talking about the people who were born in wealthy families. Those who had to work hard at the beginning, but realize that working income does not equal spending. You take your income and you invest it in assets, in return, they increase your monthly income. Over a span of time, you no longer need to work, as your wealth just keeps on growing.

[hutchings1963]

I know one he makes brown envelopes.

[KittenKong]

Bill Heinecke was born of US parents in the military, stationed in the Far East and Asia, he's spent his entire life here and is now a Thai subject. He grew Minor Group from nothing to what is now a multi billion dollar group of companies employing over 50,000 people in 32 countries:

This is true. But I wonder where he would be now if his parents had been Thai?

As for him being Thai, this is pretty much the same as Rupert Murdoch being American.

[KittenKong]

If you remove nepotism from Thai success stories there doesnt seem to be much left.

[konying]

The poor are generally not allowed to succeed too much. Once they have something of value, the rich will find a way to take it. Most if not all rich people in Thailand got there money from either crime or exploitation or their family, who got it from crime or exploitation.

Rather a very silly assumption.

For starters anyone with big money AROUND THE WORLD, did not and does not make it clean.

Even to keep the inherited money involves lots of "dirty" work.

I know a few foreigners, who came to Thailand with almost nothing and now own 3 houses(around 12 million each) nice Benz, 5 kids in private school etc.

Would not call them super rich, but certainly not living payday to payday

Edited November 10, 2015 by konying

[NoshowJones]

I don't know one personally and not often have thought about it.

Becoming super rich coming from rural Thailand: looks close to impossible to me.

Generally Thailand offers lot less chances for social climbers than western societies.

I just stumbled upon one example where a person came up from relatively basic background.

Its the founder of the Global House chain of hardware stores:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/suzynam/2013/07/03/thailands-richest-newcomer-is-a-retailer-who-made-his-fortune-in-nations-poorest-area/

But even his mom&pop shop parents opened him the way to study engineering.

For the super rich, the term "rich Chinese families" is not a stereotype but fits for most on top of the list:

http://www.forbes.com/thailand-billionaires/list/#tab:overall

Their ancestor generations (emigrants from China) have built up the fortune, probably from ground up.

From "Mr. Central" (#3 on the list):

http://www.forbes.com/profile/chirathivat-family/?list=thailand-billionaires

In 1927 Tos' grandfather Tiang Chirathivat, a poor emigrant from China, set up his first shop in Bangkok, named Keng Seng Lee (baskets for sale).

The transcription of names in the Forbes list is so useless that is quite difficult to find other source with that.

#1 Mr CP, 7/11, Makro, True etc. pp.

Dhanin Chearavanont's father, Chia Ek Chor, and uncle, Chia Seow Hui, left China for Bangkok in the 1920s to begin selling seeds and agricultural chemicals

#2: Thai Beverage, Chang Beer etc.pp.

Born to a Thai family of Chinese origin, he is the sixth of 11 children of a poor street vendor who migrated to Bangkok from southern China. He left school early, at the age of nine, to work.^[2] To this day Charoen speaks Teochew, his native Chinese dialect, as well as Thai.^[2]

tbc

There is only one way you will get very rich in Thailand, and it is by corruption, but most people who knock it will end up as hypocrites.

[NoshowJones]

Seems everybody thinks you need to have connections or be a crook in asia to get somewhere, well the real truth is either you got it of you haven't and its the same the world over, don't know anyone personally but I'm pretty dam sure is if making it is your focus most will succeed, then how much is enough and how much is success?

With the exception of sports stars, people in the entertainment industry, if you become a millionaire from being brought up in a working class family in the UK, you have to be a crook, and of course have a good business brain, if you come across a good successful product, and sell it to people with a for example a 500% mark up, then you are cheating your customers. That I think would apply to most countries.

[NoshowJones]

The poor are generally not allowed to succeed too much. Once they have something of value, the rich will find a way to take it. Most if not all rich people in Thailand got there money from either crime or exploitation or their family, who got it from crime or exploitation.

You missed out corruption.

[dunks]

Yes. All of them POLICE or POLITICIANS. Apart from those who are POLICE and THEN POLITICIANS 55555

[thailand49]

I've concluded this for sometime. Not a lot if any rags to riches stories. Personally one of the points of the problem is the education system and most of all the have's and the people in charge is the biggest problem.

[mydee]

There is no middle class here in Thailand, So the rich get richer by exploiting the poor. probably the same in any Country, But there is little protection in thailand for workers,

Absolute nonsense, Thailand has a large middle class. The continued emergence of Thai middle class has been highlighted in a number of studies, for example UNDP reports and on an empirical comparative basis in Stanford University studies on income distribution.

[ozyjon]

I think this is a world wide related question,

years ago you could work hard, save your

money, invest your savings and generate

wealth, i know i did it but governments

around the world are doing their best to

erode any savings / wealth accumulated

over the years with higher taxes and more

stupid taxes (ie. carbon tax) the very rich

are in two categories,,,

a; born into money

b; own a business

all of us poor rice farmers,, whats for lunch.

Edited November 10, 2015 by ozyjon

[Shiver]

There is a street chicken stall near me, run by a very modest unassuming person, and if I watch for a minute or two how many customers, retail price, guessing cost price, I reckon it makes about 5000 baht an evening for about 4 hours work (not accounting for time to get stock, cleaning up etc). I'd say that was a very respectable income for the time involved for Isaan (that is, about 150k p/m). I wish they would make more stalls and exploit what nobody else has been able to copy. They could get to a million a month without much more effort, if they found trusted staff.

As for seriously Rich Thais, I don't walk in those circles so don't know any, though my leaning would be much like the colleague of the OP's question.

[TheCruncher]

There is no middle class here in Thailand, So the rich get richer by exploiting the poor. probably the same in any Country, But there is little protection in thailand for workers,

What about all the Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers, Accountants, Journalists, middle and senior management in large companies, the list

goes on. There is an increasing middle class in Thailand. The village I live in most certainly is not Hi So but would say the majority are

middle class. House prices between 4.5 and 7 million. There are loads of similar villages all around me. Ridiculous statement.

Maybe what you call middle class is different to me, and many others,

what do you (or many others as you claim) consider middle class and why do you think it is inexistent in Thailand? And tell me again why you claim a construction worker makes 30k and what is the link between that claim of inflated salary to a non-existent middle class?

I guess you haven't been to Thailand for a long time Robert, because a construction worker in Bangkok doesn't go home with less than 30K a month.

Those rice pickers, who call themselves construction workers a few months a year, are happy with 500 Baht a day but you don't want your house build by them.

[Thai at Heart]

There is no middle class here in Thailand, So the rich get richer by exploiting the poor. probably the same in any Country, But there is little protection in thailand for workers,

Rubbish, Thailand's middle class has been the fastest growing group for the past decade.

"BANGKOK, 14 March 2013— Thailand makes UNDP’s list of “high achievers” in East Asia—a group that includes China, Indonesia, Viet Nam, and Malaysia. The rapid human development progress of Thailand and Asia-Pacific nations are helping drive a historic shift, with hundreds of millions of people lifted from poverty and billions poised to join the South’s fast-growing middle class, according to the 2013 Human Development Report, which was launched by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on March 14 in Mexico City".

http://www.th.undp.org/content/thailand/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2013/03/15/undp-report-lists-thailand-among-asia-s-fastest-growing.html

These days, globally middle class is defined as between 10 and 20 usd a day.

Wow wee. I feel very happy to be one of the uber rich.

[timmyp]

Many Chinese families supposedly came here with nothing, and did well for themselves. There is a saying in Thai, "to have come with just a mat to sleep on," and that is about the Chinese merchants who came with nothing and worked their way up.

I think many of these stories are true, but hard not to think many are also untrue, because most people with money want to look like, "I worked very hard to get here, nobody just handed me my wealth."

The guy who started the nori/seaweed snacks that are popular in Thailand has a great background story about starting small and hitting it really big, but the wonderful story may be more part of the product brand than reality.

[timmyp]

A working-class to wealthy story: My x-gf's dad was a delivery boy at the market. At 26, he started a business selling staffs, flag poles, and batons. They weren't sure if the business would workout, so he also got a truck driver's license. The business worked out, and the family is now very well-off. Two of the daughters did their university and master's degree in the UK. The father was very working-class, and now, thanks to his hard work and the luck of the business, they are quite wealthy by Thai standards.

[Robert24]

@TheCruncher: So salaries for experienced Thai construction workers, whether around Bangkok, Rayong or other areas in Thailand are around 400 baht per day. 500 baht per day is already a specialist with some special skills. So even if you hire more expensive construction workers at 500 baht per day, that still only makes you 15k per month. Foreign construction workers get somewhere around 250-300 baht per day.

Hope that helps. There are no construction workers making 30k per month.

[TheCruncher]

All self made wealth in Thailand is by Chinese immigrants. You wonder why?

A Chinese immigrant, or any Chines for the matter, starts a business and works in it until he isn't able to handle all the work by himself. Then he will employ some people, but still will work every day more hours himself than any of the workers he employs.

A native Thai starts a business, goes to the bank to borrow money for the new Benz and large house, employs as many people he can get, and puts his desk in the middle of the shop and does nothing else as shouting at his employees and counting money.

[farangmick]

Seems everybody thinks you need to have connections or be a crook in asia to get somewhere, well the real truth is either you got it of you haven't and its the same the world over, don't know anyone personally but I'm pretty dam sure is if making it is your focus most will succeed, then how much is enough and how much is success?

With the exception of sports stars, people in the entertainment industry, if you become a millionaire from being brought up in a working class family in the UK, you have to be a crook, and of course have a good business brain, if you come across a good successful product, and sell it to people with a for example a 500% mark up, then you are cheating your customers. That I think would apply to most countries.

If you can find a product and sell for a 500% mark up, it doesn't make you a crook. It makes your customers gullible idiots.

[dundas]

My Thai teacher made a point of saying that Thai has no concept of "self-made man," more like "rich" and "poor." Even if you had what my Thai teacher regarded as that missing concept, I think you'd need luck and help from others as well as an entrepreneurial spirit and a willingness to work hard.

[Thai at Heart]

All self made wealth in Thailand is by Chinese immigrants. You wonder why?

A Chinese immigrant, or any Chines for the matter, starts a business and works in it until he isn't able to handle all the work by himself. Then he will employ some people, but still will work every day more hours himself than any of the workers he employs.

A native Thai starts a business, goes to the bank to borrow money for the new Benz and large house, employs as many people he can get, and puts his desk in the middle of the shop and does nothing else as shouting at his employees and counting money.

In my experience of the Thai Chinese business people I knew and still know in Thailand, they have an absolutely pathological hatred of paying taxes.

The Thai Chinese model works for family, and little else.

[TheCruncher]

@TheCruncher: So salaries for experienced Thai construction workers, whether around Bangkok, Rayong or other areas in Thailand are around 400 baht per day. 500 baht per day is already a specialist with some special skills. So even if you hire more expensive construction workers at 500 baht per day, that still only makes you 15k per month. Foreign construction workers get somewhere around 250-300 baht per day.

Hope that helps. There are no construction workers making 30k per month.

Robert, as I said, time to spend some time in Thailand.

Many skilled construction workers make 1500 - 2000 Baht a day for at least the past 4 years.

Even a rice picker will not come for less than 400 Baht anymore these days, and you know what you got then.