Affluent Thais

[marc26]

is it me or has anyone else noticed alot more affluent thais out and about?
my plane was packed with them coming back from Phuket for the Queen's B-Day
also noticed alot more in restaurants and lounges that i went to
i even noticed alot more luxury cars this time

[K2]

Wealth in Thailand has definitely increased under Thaksin (I posted sats somewhere a while back) - despite his questionable actions he did lift the wealth across the board.

Look around Central and on the roads of Phuket - certainly hard to see the old clapped out trucks that were common 10 years ago.

[nelsonone]

Plenty of BKK Thais with loads of money.....try travelling in business on Thai long haul flights.....outnumber the falangs on most of my recent flights by 2 to 1.....thuis is a fairly recent phenomenon though....go back 3 or 4 years and there were hardly any Thais on business or first

as K2 says.....just take a look at the cars....all shiny and new...says it all

[K2]

Bit of a scholarly article -

http://pioneer.netserv.chula.ac.th/~msompraw/Piriya.pdf

Supports the wealthier Thai OP

Page 56 Fig 7 - Shows how wages have increased.

Page 62 Fig 19 - The sharp rise in Real GDP per capita.

Thailand's getting richer so as I've said before - will come a time when BG will demand ever higher remuneration. Sorry but the writings on the wall chaps .

[marc26]

Originally Posted by K2

.

Thailand's getting richer so as I've said before - will come a time when BG will demand ever higher remuneration. Sorry but the writings on the wall chaps .

the 2000baht bar fine that the place Ice Bar was looking for would support your claims
and that was just a bar fine, cant imagine what these "hi-so" girls would want

[ATMwalking]

Based on your observations, could be just that time of year. On a holiday during low season, they will stick out more.

In general thought Phuket Thais do seem richer than a few years ago. But I think that wealth could just as easily start to retract if some of the crazy new laws in BKK go through OR the election goes bad.

[easyrider_au]

Originally Posted by ATMwalking

Based on your observations, could be just that time of year. On a holiday during low season, they will stick out more.

In general thought Phuket Thais do seem richer than a few years ago. But I think that wealth could just as easily start to retract if some of the crazy new laws in BKK go through OR the election goes bad.

Don't forget, if somebody dies too.

[Nicke]

Another indicator may be the number of cars driving around, a sharp increase only the last 1-2 years. The traffic is getting bad, despite widening of roads during the last few years.

[ATMwalking]

Originally Posted by Nicke

Another indicator may be the number of cars driving around, a sharp increase only the last 1-2 years. The traffic is getting bad, despite widening of roads during the last few years.

I was thinking about that as well. With the road widening, getting a car becomes a necessity. But they didn't build enough of a road to handle all the extra cars. So it is just as back-up as a few years ago and maybe worse.

Why don't they have school buses here? All this school related traffic is ridiculous.