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So the title of this video has WEF/Phue Thai imposing Social Credit Scoring. I am at the point now where I am reading this stuff that is in the English language press at the minute, and I am starting to really wonder if Phue and the WEF are almost interchangeable. My hope is it is merely the Phue Thai, what I would call the Shinawatra faction of the Phue Thai Party that is super aligned with the WEF because these people's policies are going to drag this country frankly down, way down, and we have got to get beyond this. And I am hoping in the coming weeks and months we can.

But let's get into this, what am I talking about. And look, it's not hyperbole to say Social Credit Scoring here. Quoting directly from an article in Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, the article is titled: Huge economic change as Reverse Tax Plan is being pushed by the Phue Thai Government as it battles on. As discussed in other videos, this hyperbole of Thailand is, excuse me, Phue Thai is embattled. It's not embattled. The current Prime Minister is under serious adjudication for what appears to be pretty inappropriate behaviour in having a discussion with a foreign power. That is what is going on, so it is important to point that out. It's worth noting, I do get into some of this stuff in much more detail and how it impacts greater expat land in our paid news service. For those who want to get on the email list for that, I do deep dive videos once a week; most of them are about an hour long these days. Occasionally, if something comes up that I think is warranted, I will do an extra video during the week, but paid news service, [email protected], you can email us there, get on the paid news service email list. I'll send the prior episodes; I think we are up to 14 now and you will get on the list for the new ones. So if you are interested in that. Also while I am talking my book, it's probably worth pointing out that my better half and I have set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. It is called Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime, as well as American Diner style food. The link is in the description below to come check us out there. 

That said, getting into this Thai Examiner article, quoting directly: "The Finance Ministry announced a groundbreaking Reverse Tax System to tackle the black economy." Which first of all, it is not a reverse tax system, it's a broad totalitarian tax system that they say, we will give you a little bit of a refund out of it, basically if they feel like it. That is what they want to try to do. And the notion of a black economy, that is Thailand's free enterprise system, it's not a black economy, okay. It's the little street vendors and the people at the lower end of the socioeconomic strata that make their money on the streets of Bangkok, they make their money on the beaches at the resort towns; they make their money even in other towns and cities in the interior, who are making money cash in hand, person to person, every day. It's not an informal economy, it's an economy. It's not a black economy, it's an economy. It's free enterprise.

Thailand is the domino that didn't fall to communism in Southeast Asia, and it still has a free system, but these World Economic Forum hacks are all trying to attack it and that is what we are seeing here. Quoting further: "Some 60.8 million residents and 600,000 businesses must file tax returns." Says who? The World Economic Forum? I mean this is just ridiculous, and these are the people, again they are not paying any taxes now because they make so little money that it doesn't warrant it. These are people living hand to mouth. Quoting further: "While low-income households will receive payments to offset taxes." Note the wording there: offset taxes. So you pay in and then they are going to offset it. How about you just don't pay? How about you just leave everybody alone, get out of their lives and let them earn a living. Quoting further: "The move could transform fiscal accountability and crack down on unreported income nationwide". That "unreported" income is private enterprise, it's free enterprise. Get out of people's lives. This is nonsense, nanny minder schlock. Quoting further: "This is not a European-style welfare system," oh so you are not going to get anything out of it. Quoting further: "..but a targeted approach that rewards transparency while assisting low-income earners." Remember Glasnost - transparency. Yeah. You won't get anything, but we will know everything you make and suck money off of you. That's what I'm hearing. Quoting further: "Officials believe it could transform the economy and attitudes toward accountability." Yeah, it will be totalitarian, and it will lead us into the hell that we saw; go read Gulag Archipelago if you want to know what this will lead to in terms of "transforming" the economy. Quoting further: "To make the system work, the Ministry of Finance is building an extensive "data lake".. - so if anybody has any doubts that this is digital totalitarianism, doubt no more. Quoting further: "..to consolidate records from multiple agencies. This includes tax filings, customs declarations, business registrations and public health data..." Yeah, your Public Health Data. This is ridiculous and this is Phue Thai. Go read the article, again thaiexaminer.com, Huge economic changes Reverse Tax plan is being pushed by the Phue Thai government as it battles on. On its long march, Mao's long march to totalitarian tyranny. Quoting further: "By integrating the Revenue, Customs and Excise Departments, the Government expects to detect under-reporting and increase collections without raising official rates." Yeah, we will just squeeze everyone harder. Quoting further: "Reduced import duties that boost corporate profits could be offset by corporate income tax adjustments." That is if they decide to give them to you after they have already got your money, which ask anybody about getting a VAT refund, how easy that is. That was how they sort of cajoled people into the VAT. If you read about the history about that, which by the way was supposed to be there to get rid of Tax Clearance Certificates which then this same Phue Thai Government, pretty much at the behest of the World Economic Forum, has tried to impose for the last two years using really spurious notions of tax as well as notions under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, so-called OECD, whereby they take your banking data, integrate it into the Immigration system and you get caught in a man trap at Immigration when you are coming through if you did over 180 odd days in Thailand and they could detect inbound remittances. The system, I did the videos at the time, the system was looking like it was being set up to then be able to man trap everybody at an immigration checkpoint and shake them down for money. We used to call that the Tax Clearance Certificate System. That was gotten rid of because VAT was brought in, but then yet again using the pretext of "oh, COVID, revenues are down", which that happens when the Government shuts down the whole economy, that is what is going to happen. Then they used that as the pretext for imposing more new taxes that they originally got rid of with the VAT. Back to the VAT, try getting a refund of that. But that was how they basically got people to do it. They said, "oh you are going to get a credit for it and you can get refunds and this type of thing." Try getting a refund, have fun with that. Yeah, you can get the VAT credits, we do VAT crediting in our office all the time, it's part of our corporate services system and services, but again it requires administrative output; it requires more fees. You have got to pay somebody like us to file this stuff. I mean that is the irony of what I do is I make these videos where I am railing against totalitarianism, but at the end of the day things like that can oftentimes make lawyers and law firms and accounting firms money. That's the irony of my life but look, I don't want to live in that world. I'd rather live in a lower-level socio-economically, but be free and free of these nanny minders, than having all this crawling all over everybody, especially in a country I have come to love for its inherent freedom. 

Quoting further: "Ministry of Finance to consolidate tax, customs and public health data. Again that's what I find funny. They are just sliding that in there, Public Health Data. I thought our Health Data was private. Quoting further: "..to strengthen compliance nationwide. Moreover, the Ministry already has data on 60.8 million individuals and 600,000 businesses. This foundation.." and they are talking about that because, if they already have data on these people, why do we have to do all this stuff? Quoting further: "This foundation will support the planned Ari Score, a public credit rating system to improve welfare program targeting." What does that sound like? Communist China's Social Credit System. That is what this Government is trying to roll out. Quoting further: "Citizens must register for the tax system to be eligible for benefits, ensuring payments are linked to verified income." I'm sorry what a crock.

This is terrible. This will be terrible for Thailand. This is an attempt through the back door to impose totalitarian communistic type tyranny. Again, it's social credit scoring, and who is that good for? Who does that help? And what's next? They are going to use your Public Health Data so they can tell you what you should be eating, what you shouldn't be eating; then they can turn it on and off and they can turn on and off your digital banking to tell you when you can buy certain things and maybe you can't buy this or you can buy that, or you can consume this or you can't consume that. This is all leading to a terrible, terrible place. I hope this reverses course sooner rather than later.