DualSportBiker

So we don't agree as I use GrabTaxi

Grab Car or Just Grab might be, but Grab Taxi is the metered price with a surcharge. The drivers make more when hired under the taxi booking than they do Grab Car. In fact the amount taken from private drivers of Grab Car is pretty offensive. The price shown when you book a taxi via Grab is an estimate and in my estimation, always significantly higher than the final price. Thai taxi costs are cheap - they meter fare has only recently changed after years stagnant at the initial fee. Drive times have not improved, fuel has increased dramatically. When meters were first introduced, fuel was around 8-11 Baht if I remember correctly... There are plenty of dishonest and unscrupulous taxi drivers, but there are also large numbers of honest and hardworking ones. The fares are too low and that is part of, not all, the incentive to lie and cheat for those who are inclined to do so. Were the fares more in line with the cost of living, the incentive to cheat would be reduced. There will always be those that prey on the newbies in tourist zones, but that needs a different mode of control.

The owner of YSS is highly litigious as well...

And? Pretty sure your original question was not restricted to any time-period. Less ancient would be the Food By Phone guy. Does that pass muster with you?

In the mid-90s, a group of Poles were busted at Don Muang for bringing in kilos of weed! Takes all sorts!

Seems like I am the only one who has seen an improvement in how ambulances get through traffic. More cars readily move out of the way than before. It all changed after the story about the driver of a car was blocking the way for an ambulance with his grandmother in. Perhaps the effect has worn off, in part or in whole. But, just yesterday I saw an ambulance slice through heavy traffic on Chaeng Wattana because most cars got out the way in time. The view that Thais will never change is bogus. I've been riding so-called big bikes here for 30 years. Behaviours have changed, but only in the past ten years. Used to be no car would move out of the right lane for bikes, even a huge convoy of obnoxiously bright GS riders would have to undertake. That is no longer the case. I ride alone, and more than 50% of the time cars will move aside. Of those that do, nearly 50% use a signal! Go figure! For all who think 'Thais will never change' I posit it is you who will not change. You have an opinion and can't entertain the idea of changing it. You might want to look up the implications of low mental plasticity... It's not complimentary :)

I think they should run an experiment. Put up content explaining the short-fall in funding for National Parks, tell non-Thais it is free to enter, but donations welcome. See how that goes. Some will donate nothing or nothing serious, but I am confident that many will make serious donations. Run this at a few popular locations with tourists and see if visits and collections change in a good way.

US trade deals require 6-10 months just to gather internal requirements from industry and the various departments. Deals will not be struck, these tariffs will either continue into a significant recenssion 'cause he won't back down, or he will back down and all his lackeys will try and spin it as a win.

When the Panda ate Food By Phone they had around 20x FBP's marketing budget and they could not compete. Held out for a while, but had to concede defeat. Then at events the public face of the Panda described themselves as the company that opened the food delivery market here! That was nearly 20 years after FBP opened! I remember being stuck by the outrageous arrogance of the muppet who thought buying the company that kicked off the food delivery market here meant they got to wear the hat that said "first"! They were ten years late and spent way too much on market entry. The owner of FBP did rather well out of their late arrival!

How would you know?

I don't make such claims. Almost every new Thai I talk to does :)

If one were to live anywhere for 10 years, would that be being forced to? Or a choice? I am guessing that for most people, moving anywhere is a positive choice; "I moved to xyz for the [insert your own personal reason] climate, food, cost of living, ease of doing business, access to a large regional market, my employer paid me to be here...] Does it make sense to make such a move harder by refusing to simplify and improve every interaction one has? Colour me stupid, but I would not want to ensure everything I do is harder, less reliable, possibly fraudulent or misguided just because I lack the respect to learn even a little of the local language. I would absolutely want to reduce the chances I get taken advantage of and maximise that which I understand. I don't think people who don't are idiots. I think they are lazy, potentially arrogant, fooling themselves and willingly disrespectful to their hosts. Worrying about being perceive a novelty is ridiculous - how vain can you get?

Utter twaddle. I was at dinner a few nights ago with three long-term friends. All have MBAs, work at Thai banks or telecom companies; head of credit, head of call centre ops. None of them speak workable English. They all travel widely - making 150K ++ helps them do that.

We all learn differently. Personally I have given up on reading Thai several times, but my spoken Thai is really quite good. Or at least it is if I believe how Thais react to me. I only started to learn to read Thai after 20-odd years...

Balderdash. I reap rewards daily from my knowledge of Thai, as do the others I know who also speak fair-to-middling quality Thai. Your statement might well be driven by peeve as you can't master it.