Richest 1 percent of Thais own 58 percent of country’s wealth

[DaveE13]

1 hour ago, seancbk said:

 

Also don't forget these entrepreneurs often tried and failed at many things before they made it big.  

And when someone does build a big business, or multiple businesses think about how many other people get to benefit from their success - all the people they employ, the companies that they buy from, etc

Instead of moaning about people being rich why don't people get off their butts and start a business, instead of just plodding along at their crappy jobs..... 

 

This is spot on. I remember when Richard Branson won a big court case some years ago with BA. The money he won everyone who worked for Virgin Atlantic got a Bonus.

 

[nontabury]

Would this be based on the declared wealth,or the actual wealth of the 1%. My guess the former.

[elgordo38]

8 hours ago, Thechook said:

58% at the moment but still working on the other 42%.  A few defamation suits should speed things up.

They say the billionaires are now attacking the paltry millionaires it seems to be a bit shots turf war. Now the millionaires will learn to feel how we ordinary taxpayers feel as they undoubtedly do not pay any. I must channel Leona H and get her views. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by elgordo38

[HooHaa]

1 minute ago, elgordo38 said:

They say the billionaires are now attacking the paltry millionaires it seems to be a bit shots turf war. Now the millionaires will learn to feel how we ordinary taxpayers feel as they undoubtedly do not pay any. I must channel Leona H and get her views. 

 

we ordinary tax payers. funny.

 

my money is in hong kong, not so ordinary.

[digibum]

3 hours ago, seancbk said:

First of all the top 1% are responsible for employing a huge number of people.

The top 1% might hold 58% of the wealth but that is because their businesses account for a significant % of the countries GDP.

The next 10% of the population probably control 20% of the wealth, the next 20% of the population another 10%...   basically if you divide everyone in Thailand who is middle class and up (lets use 100,000 a month as the cutoff) then there are actually a lot of people who are doing ok, and the rest are just farmers and poor people.   

I wish people would be realistic, you cannot have everyone being well off.   We don't want everyone being able to own a TV, a fridge, a car, etc etc   the planet's resources can't take it, besides when everyone CAN afford to become a consumer that is what makes other people rich. 




 

 

But at the same time you cannot set up a system that is rigged against the people and call it fair.  

 

Thailand's main export is not rice or rubber or hard drives.  Thailand's main export is cheap labor.  Look at Thailand's major exports and almost if not all of them are cheap primarily because there is an abundant supply of uneducated poor people to do the work.  

 

I don't believe in demonizing anybody just because they're wealthy but there's a control over the people in Thailand that is almost scary at times when you really consider what's going on.  

 

No, not everyone can be rich but the rich sure have a lot to lose if Thais become educated and start climbing the social ladder.  Who will plant the rice?  What happens when Thais start getting their news from the BBC instead of the Thai media that is either state run or openly threatened by the government?  What happens if the poor start asking for real help, a path out of poverty, rather than buying more submarines or building bullet trains to China?  

 

The price of labor goes up, that's what happens.  And if the price of labor goes up and you sell commodities like rice, rubber, etc, well, you can't really pass the cost on to the buyer since other countries are more than willing to step in and fill the gap.  

 

Guess who that impacts?  

 

[elgordo38]

Just now, HooHaa said:

 

we ordinary tax payers. funny.

 

my money is in hong kong, not so ordinary.

Quite bragging. It does not suit you. Humility carries the day. The proof is in the pudding send me a copy of your bankbook. 

[seancbk]

9 minutes ago, digibum said:

Oh the cry of the poor.  The rich are bad people otherwise they themselves would be rich.

 

I know at least 3 billionaires (maybe 4 or 5 - I don't check their net worth) on a first name basis and several people with net worths in the hundreds of millions.  Are of of them jerks?  Yes.  But most of them are amazing people.   

 

One of the billionaires buys clothes from wherever he can get them the cheapest.  He's the most unassuming guy you could ever meet. So much so that while many of the executives that work for his company refuse to stay in anything less than 5-star hotels, chances you'll find him booked into a 2 or 3 star hotel when he travels.  

 

Another guy, not quite a billionaire but getting close, spends almost all of his time doing charity work.  He runs a multi-billion dollar company and he probably spends 60% of his time helping others.  

 

And I've been in the room with him and seen him leave millions on the table in a business deal because it was the right thing to do.  

 

It's easy to sit back and throw stones when these people are just names you read in a newspaper or see on television but to assume that anybody who has accumulated wealth is somehow mentally defective and crooked it pure self-affirming fantasy.  

 

That doesn't mean that there aren't sociopaths out there amongst the rich (and I've met a few of those people too) but not everyone who is rich is inherently evil.

Thank you, so well said!

I know a couple of very wealthy and famous Thais and through knowing them could quite easily meet many more.  

I have a number of Chinese friends with very large fortunes and I know a few Indians who are very wealthy.   

My own family were not super rich but were certainly very comfortable.   

It bugs me when I see people bitching about wealthy people, if you don't like the income you have then do something about it.   Sitting there making a salary usually won't make you rich unless you are in the right field and can get into the right position in that field.  Most people who get rich through working do it by taking the risk and starting a business.   Most people out there are happy to just get a salary and not take any risk.

One thing that I do know from growing up quite rich and having lots of wealthy friends..... rich people are far far less judgemental and far less likely to turn on you.

 

[elgordo38]

1 minute ago, digibum said:

 

But at the same time you cannot set up a system that is rigged against the people and call it fair.  

 

Thailand's main export is not rice or rubber or hard drives.  Thailand's main export is cheap labor.  Look at Thailand's major exports and almost if not all of them are cheap primarily because there is an abundant supply of uneducated poor people to do the work.  

 

I don't believe in demonizing anybody just because they're wealthy but there's a control over the people in Thailand that is almost scary at times when you really consider what's going on.  

 

No, not everyone can be rich but the rich sure have a lot to lose if Thais become educated and start climbing the social ladder.  Who will plant the rice?  What happens when Thais start getting their news from the BBC instead of the Thai media that is either state run or openly threatened by the government?  What happens if the poor start asking for real help, a path out of poverty, rather than buying more submarines or building bullet trains to China?  

 

The price of labor goes up, that's what happens.  And if the price of labor goes up and you sell commodities like rice, rubber, etc, well, you can't really pass the cost on to the buyer since other countries are more than willing to step in and fill the gap.  

 

Guess who that impacts?  

 

Cheap labor and lots of sunshine. 

[ratcatcher]

14 minutes ago, Brer Fox said:

Yes. It would be interesting to know just who this 1% is. 

Here's a good start for the major players.

http://www.forbes.com/thailand-billionaires/

Chances are that you live in, eat, drink, shop at or drive something produced or run by these families.

 

[HooHaa]

2 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Quite bragging. It does not suit you. Humility carries the day. The proof is in the pudding send me a copy of your bankbook. 

 

what are you talking about, i make no claims to wealth, but what i do have has been offshore for the better part of 30 years and i am liable to no one for taxes.

if you have lacked the imagination to make similar arrangements that is hardly my issue.

[elgordo38]

3 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Thank you, so well said!

I know a couple of very wealthy and famous Thais and through knowing them could quite easily meet many more.  

I have a number of Chinese friends with very large fortunes and I know a few Indians who are very wealthy.   

My own family were not super rich but were certainly very comfortable.   

It bugs me when I see people bitching about wealthy people, if you don't like the income you have then do something about it.   Sitting there making a salary usually won't make you rich unless you are in the right field and can get into the right position in that field.  Most people who get rich through working do it by taking the risk and starting a business.   Most people out there are happy to just get a salary and not take any risk.

One thing that I do know from growing up quite rich and having lots of wealthy friends..... rich people are far far less judgemental and far less likely to turn on you.

 

For future mothers if your new born is not an Einstein/Bill Gates send it back. The above poster states we call all(like in everyone of us) be rich if we apply ourselves. Seems like a human selection story. 

[rkidlad]

21 minutes ago, digibum said:

 

Oh the cry of the poor.  The rich are bad people otherwise they themselves would be rich.

 

I know at least 3 billionaires (maybe 4 or 5 - I don't check their net worth) on a first name basis and several people with net worths in the hundreds of millions.  Are of of them jerks?  Yes.  But most of them are amazing people.   

 

One of the billionaires buys clothes from wherever he can get them the cheapest.  He's the most unassuming guy you could ever meet. So much so that while many of the executives that work for his company refuse to stay in anything less than 5-star hotels, chances you'll find him booked into a 2 or 3 star hotel when he travels.  

 

Another guy, not quite a billionaire but getting close, spends almost all of his time doing charity work.  He runs a multi-billion dollar company and he probably spends 60% of his time helping others.  

 

And I've been in the room with him and seen him leave millions on the table in a business deal because it was the right thing to do.  

 

It's easy to sit back and throw stones when these people are just names you read in a newspaper or see on television but to assume that anybody who has accumulated wealth is somehow mentally defective and crooked it pure self-affirming fantasy.  

 

That doesn't mean that there aren't sociopaths out there amongst the rich (and I've met a few of those people too) but not everyone who is rich is inherently evil.

 

 

 

 

Yea, I stopped reading after 'I know at least 3 billionaires (maybe 4 or 5)'

[seancbk]

2 minutes ago, digibum said:

 

But at the same time you cannot set up a system that is rigged against the people and call it fair.  

 

Thailand's main export is not rice or rubber or hard drives.  Thailand's main export is cheap labor.  Look at Thailand's major exports and almost if not all of them are cheap primarily because there is an abundant supply of uneducated poor people to do the work.  

 

I don't believe in demonizing anybody just because they're wealthy but there's a control over the people in Thailand that is almost scary at times when you really consider what's going on.  

 

No, not everyone can be rich but the rich sure have a lot to lose if Thais become educated and start climbing the social ladder.  Who will plant the rice?  What happens when Thais start getting their news from the BBC instead of the Thai media that is either state run or openly threatened by the government?  What happens if the poor start asking for real help, a path out of poverty, rather than buying more submarines or building bullet trains to China?  

 

The price of labor goes up, that's what happens.  And if the price of labor goes up and you sell commodities like rice, rubber, etc, well, you can't really pass the cost on to the buyer since other countries are more than willing to step in and fill the gap.  

 

Guess who that impacts?  

I never said it was fair, but there will never be a fair system, particularly not in countries like Thailand which jumped from almost totally agrarian to semi industrialised in a very short space of time.   

What I find annoying is the overriding attitude amongst the majority of forum members that rich people should be despised.    

 

[Eric Loh]

1 hour ago, elgordo38 said:

Till their new found wealth goes to their head. The Red Bull guy is a great example. You cannot go from a ox cart to a Ferrari in a generation or two. The controls are different. 

 

The curse of the 3rd generation. Grandpa Chaleo toil and started Red Bull. Daddy Chalerm expanded the business to reach its zenith and son will squander the wealth. True of so many wealthy families. 

[DaveE13]

I have worked for over twenty years in private Security looking after every one from pop stars to Oil Rich Arabs and worked for some serious ass holes but the best to work for are the serous family Rich as Seancbk says they are don't look down on you treat you like a member of the family.

 

Don't get me started on the Pop stars though!!

Edited November 30, 2016 by DaveE13

[digibum]

3 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Yea, I stopped reading after 'I know at least 3 billionaires (maybe 4 or 5)'

 

Well, so glad you felt it necessary to share where you stopped reading.  

 

A+ for you, sir.  

[seancbk]

1 minute ago, Eric Loh said:

 

The curse of the 3rd generation. Grandpa Chaleo toil and started Red Bull. Daddy Chalerm expanded the business to reach its zenith and son will squander the wealth. True of so many wealthy families. 

Or more likely (as I've seen with friend's family businesses) the business ends up being run by non-family members, with the family members merely holding 20%-30% of the shares.   They are already very wealthy and don't need to work and their wealth is so large they make a very large amount through it just sitting in the bank.

Unless the business fails which is won't as they are hugely diversified, there is almost no chance of the heirs running out of money.  

The only way it might realistically happen is if the heirs start producing very large numbers of offspring and the fortune gets sufficiently diluted that its possible for each heir to actually spend his inheritance.  

  

[digibum]

1 minute ago, seancbk said:

Or more likely (as I've seen with friend's family businesses) the business ends up being run by non-family members, with the family members merely holding 20%-30% of the shares.   They are already very wealthy and don't need to work and their wealth is so large they make a very large amount through it just sitting in the bank.

Unless the business fails which is won't as they are hugely diversified, there is almost no chance of the heirs running out of money.  

The only way it might realistically happen is if the heirs start producing very large numbers of offspring and the fortune gets sufficiently diluted that its possible for each heir to actually spend his inheritance.  

  

 

Or they decide to try and run the business, run it into the ground and lose the entire lot.  :-)

 

[free123]

9 hours ago, Raymonddiaz said:

They are called HI SO in Thailand. They can what ever They want to do ?.

 

a typical third world situation

[seancbk]

4 minutes ago, digibum said:

 

Or they decide to try and run the business, run it into the ground and lose the entire lot.  :-)

 

A friend's father started their family business in 1963, his two sons Bill and Kevin both joined the business after being educated in Canada.   A few years ago Bill, who I've know since we were in our early teens decided that working in the business wasn't what he wanted to do, so he resigned leaving his brother to be the one who will rise one day to Chairman.   Kevin is a very smart guy and is never going to run it into the ground.   

http://www.fongs.com/en-us/pages/home   You can see Kevin Fong list on the board of directors and their father still Chairman.

That family are some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.   

[seancbk]

19 minutes ago, DaveE13 said:

I have worked for over twenty years in private Security looking after every one from pop stars to Oil Rich Arabs and worked for some serious ass holes but the best to work for are the serous family Rich as Seancbk says they are don't look down on you treat you like a member of the family.

 

Don't get me started on the Pop stars though!!

 

No one is going to believe you ;-)   
 

 

[DaveE13]

2 minutes ago, seancbk said:

 

No one is going to believe you ;-)   
 

 

I know but don't really give ............... stuff lol.  They pay me well and ive had some superb holidays with them.

[dhream]

2 hours ago, pookiki said:

For me, the biggest issue is the extent to which individuals and/or corporations go to such great lengths to avoid paying taxes that could make this planet a much better place for all of us. A fairer tax system would be a great start and prohibiting or criminalizing the placement of funds in 'off-shore' tax havens to avoid paying taxes.  There is this pervasive and inexplicable mindset that there is 'never enough'!

I'm all for getting off our butts and getting ahead, but yes, it's this never ending lust for more than they could ever hope to spend in tens of lifetimes, what's up with that? 

Very little philanthropy evident from the disproportionate amount of billionaires here. 

Giving huge donations to temples may be all very Thai, but it's not very philanthropic. 

[Banana7]

There is a huge difference between Thai rich and Western rich. I am not aware of any Thai rich people with charities educating Thais. Many colleges and Universities in Thailand have little or no scholarships or bursaries or grants available to the best academic achievers in the institution.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric Loh]

13 minutes ago, seancbk said:

Or more likely (as I've seen with friend's family businesses) the business ends up being run by non-family members, with the family members merely holding 20%-30% of the shares.   They are already very wealthy and don't need to work and their wealth is so large they make a very large amount through it just sitting in the bank.

Unless the business fails which is won't as they are hugely diversified, there is almost no chance of the heirs running out of money.  

The only way it might realistically happen is if the heirs start producing very large numbers of offspring and the fortune gets sufficiently diluted that its possible for each heir to actually spend his inheritance.  

  

 

Really a western concept that yet to gain much grounds with Asia wealthiest. Whether Thais, Indians and Chinese conglomerates will be quite reluctant to relinquish control and will helm the company even at advance age. More often than not, they will only trust and appoint family members. Diversification is another reluctance of Asian companies who will not stray away from businesses they do not know well. Again the trustworthiness issue when handling diversification to other shareholders. Good example are the top10 organisations in Thailand and all managed by family members. Asian culture is really inclusive and losing face if you have to take in partners and professional managers. 

[A1Str8]

That's new. I have never heard of that before. 

[seancbk]

1 minute ago, DaveE13 said:

5 minutes ago, seancbk said:

 

No one is going to believe you ;-)   
 

 

I know but don't really give ............... stuff lol.  They pay me well and ive had some superb holidays with them.

 

I should have mentioned - I have a Royal Hong Kong Police coat of arms engraved with "from all the lads of the VIP Protection Unit" which was presented to me after working in the unit for a year.   I rarely talk about what I've done as people wouldn't believe most of it, but if need be I can back it up with proof.

 

I have also done some private security work mostly for musicians.    We could probably share some good stories.

 

[DaveE13]

Just now, seancbk said:

 

I should have mentioned - I have a Royal Hong Kong Police coat of arms engraved with "from all the lads of the VIP Protection Unit" which was presented to me after working in the unit for a year.   I rarely talk about what I've done as people wouldn't believe most of it, but if need be I can back it up with proof.

 

I have also done some private security work mostly for musicians.    We could probably share some good stories.

 

God yes I bet we can.   Seen some funny things too.  Rod Stewart comes to mind   Love Hong Kong.  Always stop over for a few days on my way from London To Bangkok

[dhream]

31 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

 

The curse of the 3rd generation. Grandpa Chaleo toil and started Red Bull. Daddy Chalerm expanded the business to reach its zenith and son will squander the wealth. True of so many wealthy families. 

I understand there's about 12 billionaires in this family alone at this point. They were recently chided in an editorial to get out if the shadows, and return honor to the family by pressuring the suspect to face justice. 

Surprised this story hasn't gone global by now.

F1 might consider withdrawal of contracts, particularly since laughing boy is suspected of evading vehicular manslaughter charges. 

[seancbk]

6 minutes ago, dhream said:

I'm all for getting off our butts and getting ahead, but yes, it's this never ending lust for more than they could ever hope to spend in tens of lifetimes, what's up with that? 

Very little philanthropy evident from the disproportionate amount of billionaires here. 

Giving huge donations to temples may be all very Thai, but it's not very philanthropic. 

Large corporations such as CP group put a lot into CSR.   The notion that these conglomerates are run by robber barons taking advantage of the poor is very wrong.

http://www.cpfworldwide.com/en/sustainability/policy