Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, "tax is not the answer; "ax does not bring prosperity per se." What was it Winston Churchill said? “The man who believes that you can tax yourself into prosperity, is like thinking that you can stand in a bucket and pick yourself up”. It is a pretty good analogy, frankly. 

There has been recent news about the possibility of Thailand becoming a digital, excuse me not a digital, excuse me, not digital, a trading hub for gold especially. I think effectively it's de facto already the case really. Bangkok, especially if anybody has ever been to the Gold Trading Centre in Chinatown, in Yawarat, it just is. I mean if you can't tell that Thailand's at least a major centre of gold trading if not The Centre at least in Southeast Asia, I don't know what to tell you but it's pretty clear right there, and it's cash on the barrel too. You can just “cash for gold” right there, Boom. Pretty indicative of the state of play if you will.

Now that said, there seem to be those out there and I made a video made contemporaneously with this one, who are trying to move in the direction of making Thailand truly a regional centre for gold trading especially in terms of futures contracts and digital trading etc. Meanwhile as always, the bureaucrats seem intent on - anytime they see any kind of activity - their immediate response, "oh let's tax it." I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Gold Traders oppose tax on transactions. Quote: "Gold trader's voiced opposition to Thai Authorities' discussion of imposing a tax on physical gold and online transactions, saying such efforts to reign in baht appreciation would cause the country to lose its status as a Gold Trading Hub." Yeah, there is a reason they exempted gold from VAT to begin with. It's good policy; it creates more economic activity here; it's a good idea. Quoting further, and just generally speaking, I have noticed here recently, and it seems to have a kind of Marxist bent, I am not going to go too far down that road, but let's be clear, a lot of younger folks that are coming out of universities, especially Western institutions, whether they think they are or not, are heavily influenced by Marxist ideology, and there is just a lot of this "oh hey, if there is business activity, let's tax it." That doesn't add to anything. Taxes slowed down an economy; they don't speed it up. To quote Ronald Reagan, "government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." We want economic activity; we want people to come here and do business. We don't want people to come here like it's a Venus Flytrap and just be taxed to death. Quoting further: "Jitti Tangsithpakdi, President of the Gold Traders Association said it remains unclear whether the Bank of Thailand and the Finance Ministry would impose a tax on physical gold or online gold trade. Quote: "We don't agree with any kind of tax as it could send a signal that the Thai Gold Industry is stepping backward, jeopardizing Thailand's role as a Gold Trading Hub," Mr. Jitti told the Bangkok Post." And frankly, I couldn't have put it better myself. That is very well put, and that is exactly the reason we need to avoid this. 

Look, taxation is necessary under certain circumstances. Building infrastructure, there are certain government services that are necessary. Nobody has any problem with paying for garbage pickup, things of this nature or, I don't think anybody in their right mind has any, I frankly look at the road infrastructure and the light rail infrastructure that has been put together here in Thailand, I look at that and I say, "I don't love paying taxes, but at least I see where it is at, and especially with the road infrastructure here that has improved in the last few years, it is staggering, and I am glad for that. I am not anti-tax, but there is also like a balance, and it just seems that here recently it is like the bureaucrats have been off the chain trying to tax every little thing, oftentimes citing that there is all kinds of economic slowdowns and we have a revenue gap. Well it was at your behest that we were all shut down economically for three whole years arising from what can only be described as an over exaggeration of the so-called “COVID” problem. So let's put it all into perspective when understanding where we are at as far as any "shortfalls" regarding Government Revenue. 

But that being said, again I couldn't have said it better myself than this person quoted here. I think it is a step backwards and it would be a very bad thing and it would frankly hobble what is in my mind a good development that Thailand is increasingly becoming a gold trading hub which will have the effect of Thailand also becoming a trading hub of other things - both real commodities in terms of commodities, as well as Financial, in terms of financial instruments - as time goes on. I think it would be a bad idea to shoot ourselves in the foot right now by imposing taxes on something where frankly, I don't know necessarily think it is even needed and that said, it remains to be seen, but we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.