Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thai social policies and economic factors, how they kind of interact here in Thailand, just kind of my observations, especially the last few weeks. I got to thinking of making this video after reading a recent article in the Thai Enquirer, that is thaienquirer.com, the article is titled: Thai Economy set to face headwind in 2nd half despite Revival of Tourism industry, says World Bank. Quoting directly and I am quoting an excerpt out of this, I urge those who are watching this video if you want to read this in detail go on over and check that out, read that whole article  I am just going to quote an excerpt here. "Thailand's Economy could face some headwinds from the volatile global economy in the lower purchasing power of Thai households despite the Thai economy starting to witness benefits from the higher number of tourists as the country opens to tourism. World Bank's new Country Manager told Thai Enquirer, "despite the negative impacts of higher energy prices and rising inflation, consumption will be supported by increased mobility and demand for consumer goods." said Fabrizio Zarcone the incumbent Country Head of World Bank said. "However, rising food and fuel prices will erode household purchasing power and threaten food security, especially among low-income households given the large share of food spending in their household budgets," he said. He said that although the main drivers for Thailand's economic growth in the second half of 2022 will be private consumption and tourism recovery, the main challenge is likely to be low household purchasing power and global economic slowdown."

I got to reading that and there is more in that article and I thought it was quite insightful but I got to reading that and I got to kind of asking myself some questions insofar as I was thinking could Thai policy makers, obviously they see the situation for what it is probably with more clarity than I do and maybe perhaps are certain policy decisions, like things associated with the decriminalization especially of medical use Cannabis, the discussions regarding the possibility of Casinos or other types of gambling in Thailand and the revenue associated with that, as well as major changes we have seen almost to sea change with respect to COVID policy especially with respect to the possibility of tourists coming into Thailand, we have seen substantial changes with respect to that policy relatively quickly in the past roughly two and a half months. You go back two and a half months ago we were in a decidedly different position than we are in here at the end of August of 2022.

So I think it's kind of one of those questions where it is like yeah of course governments are aware when their tax revenue goes down and they are going to probably go ahead and do whatever they can to reverse that state of affairs and that maybe is what is driving some of the major policy shifts with regard to social policy; again things like gambling, things like the Cannabis issue here in Thailand. Maybe it is economic considerations that are driving the major changes with respect to those issues.