Because I'm happy: Thailand rated world’s ‘happiest economy’ in Misery Index

[Jessi]

If they only knew how deep in debt households really are....

Yes I agree and I am just waiting for the

[ozyjon]

Yes if you can read a map upside down and

find your (my) destination, me happy...

[SuwadeeS]

_{Who is going to believe that crap?}

_{First of all, Thailand has at least an unemployment rate of 10%. Of course they are all hidden in temples etc.}

_{The second thing is, the inflation measures only on gasoline. Everything else has the same prices or higher.}

_{These are fact, which can be proven.}

[jalansanitwong]

Bloombergs can't be taken seriously because they never do research. Toss a few graphs and j curves on the table and make a story out of it.

Its impossible to even remotely estimate unemployment or even employment in Thailand.

There are millions of people in LOS working in marginal PT jobs or working illegally ie prostitution. Thailand doesnt have the infrastructure or logistical know how to calculate anything accurately.

Thousands of young Thai men dont want to work so their family supports him.

There is no unemployment benefit in Thailand so how can you calculate anything.

I think if Thai working girls had Burmese pimps then the Thai rate of men unemployed might multiply.

Interesting idea but sadly ,alas, it will end up with blood on the streets. The most stable and lucrative form of income for men in Thailand is pimping out women locally and international.All cash, no tax and obviously no employment stats.

Farangs unwittingly support hundreds of thousands of Thai men via bars ,gogo, Gf's , wives and loan shark debts.

Welcome to the Land of beautiful Smiles.

[starchild5]

Good For You Thailand. Thailand is the best place on planet earth.

Wish I was born in Thailand. Other countries have totally lost the plot. Living in Debt slavery, 9 to 5 corporate slave job, whining about life all day long and hoping for that vacation in Asia and when you old, you are thrown into retirement homes by your own blood and you die on your savings aka retirement benefits.

I never understood why most Thai's don't want to live their country. Now I know why.

All a guy needs at the end of the day is

1. Good Thai Food - Check

2. Good Wife who cooks Thai Food - Check

3. Good weather - Check

4. Beach - Check

5. Easy Job - Check - Thai's don't care much about Job - They can find another one - Don'rt like your boss Show middle finger and move on - That's LIFE worth 10,000 THB than 100,000 USD corporate slave job where you listen to your boss all day long

6. Night life - Check

7. Girls friends - Check

8. THE BEST - Thai Massage - Yes...Check Check

No amount of so called Health Insurance, Retirement Benefits can buy you that Thai Massage back home.

Thailand checks all right marks where it really matters.

If Thailand was so bad. Farangs wouldn't do visa runs

Edited February 6, 2016 by starchild5

[geisha]

I don't know about happy, but I see a lot of angry people here these days, from the road rage to the taxis and transport in general, to the man who sells fruit on the road screaming at customers, yes! And all the sales assistants in the big malls, either sleeping on the job or who look past you , ignoring you, they don't seem bursting with happiness to me.

[tigermoth]

The rate of unemployment would be a bit problematical I would think, given that so many are involve in farming and informal small scale business activities, so how does anybody know, out of the activities I just mentioned, who is employed or not.

Slave labour is well and flourishing, at least in Bangkok where so many workers, particularly in the bar industry, work for nothing and have to rely on tips or selling sex to survive. Many of these people are supporting entire families.

[Lupatria]

We all know the low unemployment rate is a lie, Ask the millions of motorbike taxi jockeys, street vendors and hookers, if they would qualify for unemployment money...

[Mot Dang]

How many Thais were surveyed for their opinion?

Several hundred I suppose. They did survey those attending receptions and dinners in least at several 5 star hotels, in Silom and Sukhumvit areas. A good rounded sample capturing the mood of the entire nation, I am sure.

Of course the above statement holds about as much water as this article.

[reptile91602]

I don't get the article. Is Thailand the happiest or least happiest. I can't figure it out. I am very unhappy about this.

[ddavidovsky]

I can certainly believe Thailand rates highest on the naivety index, and there's nothing happier than childish innocence.

Let's face it, that's why we like it here.

[recycler]

Happy with an almost 80% drop in foreign investments and not registering the labor that gets sacked... Funny-farm!

If you would say investment from "Western" countries you are correct. There is a massive increase of Chinese investment. Way to go!

Chinese investments are also foreign and they came to a grinding halt too.

Jut have look at for example the PRC zone on Amata City industrial estate, full of large empty buildings that are only 2 or 3 yeas old. The Chinese businessman are all back home and others now come for cheap holidays.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/foreign-investment-plummets-78-in-junta-ruled-thailand

[jacky54]

is that lao khao in the glass?

[mmh8]

As with other readers I would question the accuracy of this method of happiness or non miserableness. Also one would need to discover the source of data? perhaps they came from the big file titled "juntas' big red book of favourable statistics - 1001 reasons why your dictatees will not overthrow you"

Should the number of people sent for attitude adjustemtn be included as a factor in this study? would number of non Thai'

s used as scapegoat for other wise slam dunk cases? number of big statues purchased for 1 bn$ each? very questionable.

for me I am sure this is incorrect, because that big hat bloke is on tv every day , and I am sure that the coommon person just wants to watch slapstick tv, crappy soaps, be they from thailabnd , or korea.

now ask those people whos normal viewing is interupted by some self important <deleted> if they are happy

[AlQaholic]

Going back to mom and dads farm does not really enter the unemployment statistics....

[thhMan]

When the people had to take the poll, they had 2 choices..

1. Press 1 for Happy
2. Press 2 for not Happy, then report for some Attitude Adjustment

-sic-

[torpedo1970]

"unemployment rate was just 0.9 percent last year, according to World Bank data."

yes, because to be counted as registered unemployed you have to be without a job and wanting to work.

why should they want to when they have a sister working, and have several walking farrang ATM boyfriends. keep sending money home to support the whole family every month.?

seeing several examples like this on a daily basis up in the northeastern region.

TIT

[bark]

To most Thai people Happy, = Dtac phones. And Happy Meals at Micky D "s

[jamstock]

Cambodia should top the list with only 0.4 % unemployment !

[pegman]

How many Thais were surveyed for their opinion?

It wasn't based on survey data. Instead, it was calculated by adding a country's jobless rate and inflation.

The challenge is in estimating joblessness in a highly agrarian economy like Thailand.

So less than 1% are unemployed plus maybe 3.5m migrants. What % of that total pay income tax or even file each year.

[realenglish1]

From a social standpoint more happy then in the west

[djlest]

HAPPINESS - Its true that Thais are generally much happiers than Westerners and probably a lot happier than its neighbours, but why?

Well Ignorance is bliss it seems...
A Lack of education seems partly responsible for happiness, i think this is because Thais have zero critical thinking which means they cant think themselves out of a cardboard box, but at least they are happy.

Thais remind me of sheep, happy to follow the wolves around just as long as they get theirs.

But despite all this... the majority of us that live or visit here do so because of their carefree nature and attitude... its a double edged sword...

you cant be happy without a lack of something major..

[Jim walker]

Happy times for the generals watching their bank accounts expanding by the day, oh to be so happy. Forget the poor citizens its only me me as long as I am happy and my family is so rich with lovely money money.

[soalbundy]

How many Thais were surveyed for their opinion?

I don't know but nobody asked around in my village, they would have gotten their butts kicked if they had,ask a farmer who is getting less for his rice than it cost him to produce if he is happy. A woman in my village was paid 3 (THREE ) Baht a kilo for her rice last week.

[dundas]

Maybe there are other indicators of happiness besides the price of gasoline and the rate of unemployment?

What about the need to blot out sorrows with alcohol or drugs, as measured by consumption (in the case of alcohol, not just what's sold in the 7/11, but also what comes out of village whisky stills) ? I think that might give a somewhat different result on the happiness/misery index - still impressive, but in a different way.

[Srikcir]

This projected Misery Index is derived mathematically from forecast economic data: the sum of a country's unemployment, inflation, and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita.

Use of these four factors may be distorting the Index for Thailand such as:

- SMEs such as much of the agricultural, fishing and food sectors are excluded from employment

- excessive and low-productive employees paid at minimum wage distorts employment

- significant and persuasive human trafficking distorts employment

- Thailand’s negative inflation distorts real GDP

- massive government funding used to prevent bank lending rates from rising

- significant monetary and price control manipulation distorts real GDP

- economic forecasts since the Prayut regime have been repeatedly overly optimistic.

Obviously, without some kind of leveling parameter(s) in the Index computation (ie., corruption, political stability, social and health services, energy balance, income distribution, etc.) comparison of indices between countries is “apples to oranges.” The Index might be more meaningful when confined to one country (ie., 2013-2016).

Note that Thailand's actual Misery Index for 2015 was ZERO that may further indicate use of the Index parameters are at best suspicious for Thailand.

[elgordo38]

Its all a crooked numbers game. If the leader feels good we must all feel good. Unemployment in the US dropped from 5% to 4.9% but 94 million people 1/3 of the work force are out of work. Go figure you can make numbers read whatever you want and with a smile attached they look even better. If all the migrant workers suddenly took off and went home the numbers would look a whole lot worse and as democracy creeps into Burma a lot of these workers might just jump ship.

[Alwyn]

How does one measure unemployment in country where there is no register of unemployed? Besides that, how can you measure happiness? It's like measuring pregnancy and saying "she's only a bit pregnant, so just 36.9% for her"

[trogers]

We all know the low unemployment rate is a lie, Ask the millions of motorbike taxi jockeys, street vendors and hookers, if they would qualify for unemployment money...

The employed don't get unemployment benefits. You have listed self-employers!

[Enoon]

As has been previously stated this rating has nothing to do with how "happy" human beings are.

All it does is add some figures together.

The resultant number notionally gives an indication of how "happy/miserable" the economy is.

But:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/thailand-s-unemployment-rate-is-a-ridiculously-low-0-6-here-s-why

Edited February 6, 2016 by Enoon