Transcript of the above video: 

You know the whole story of, it's almost a trope that, "oh Thailand's a third world country, and it's poor and it's this and it's that". Look Thailand has development issues. It's not the most developed; definitely not the least developed. It could always stand improvement just as any other place could. That being said, Thailand should not be considered poor. 

I'm going to go ahead and throw this on screen. I found this I think on Twitter but it's quoting Google AI: "Thailand's national poverty rate was 5.43% in 2022 down from 6.32% in 2021, according to the World Economic Bank's upper middle income poverty line ($6.85/day). The poverty was 12.2% in 2021. Despite overall reduction, poverty remains highest in the South, Northeast, and North," - it goes on. The point I'm trying to make is I actually found this, I think I was on Twitter comment I think I was on Twitter and the population in Thailand is actually lower than for example Czech Republic what was called the Czech Republic, I think they call themselves they call themselves Czechia now; whatever. That's just one place. Look, when you come here to Thailand as a traveller, people that live here get it, yeah there is a big difference between the city, especially Bangkok or Pattaya or Hua Hin, or Phuket or Chiang Mai, versus the rural countryside, but the same can be said for any country really. So I don't really get off into those disparities as being particularly useful for gauging whether or not Thailand is doing well or otherwise in terms of national poverty. But I think the stats speak for themselves.

One of the big things I have said over the years living out here when I meet folks and they're here sort of not for very long, or haven't been here very long and they sort of bring up "well maybe Thailand has problems with development and things", it's like hey. The end of the day I've never seen Thais starving. That's a big one. Everybody here is eating. The employment rate is about as close to full employment as I think you can theoretically even get really. Is everything perfect? No. Household debt; there are all kinds of issues that are out there that you can point to and say hey maybe there's a problem here. 

But long story short, those who come here and sort of view Thailand as poor or developing in the same way that like places that have issues with subsistence are developing, yeah that's just not the case. Thailand is a very sophisticated, developed country; its poverty level is actually quite low as indicated from the information I just put out, and at the end of the day, you really just can't look at it that way and it definitely in many ways cannot really even be compared to many other jurisdictions, western or otherwise. Thailand is unique. That being said, one thing that we can say unequivocally about it, it's definitely not a poor country.