Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Thais Working in Thailand. This is going to be a very different video from most of the videos that I do talking about working in Thailand, and for starters let's be clear. When I'm talking about, Work Permits and things regarding foreigners, that's very different matter than Thais in their own country, namely Thailand, okay? So just let's get nostalgic here for a minute. I believe the "Wayback Machine" the so-called “Wayback Machine”, the internet archive is currently out of commission at the moment which begs the question one, why? Two, what's going on right now that nobody wants archived? And three, I mean are we really getting that deep into Orwell, like literally there is a memory hole now. In any event, let's get nostalgic here for a moment, we'll have our own little Wayback Machine on this channel today. 

Let me go back 17 years ago to three prognostications that I never ever thought, if you would ask me in 2008 when I got here, what I thought, there's three things I thought at that time, affirmatively to myself, it had never occurred to me that any of these three things could ever happen in Thailand but here we are. So one, was Hooters coming to Thailand. I just thought in 2008 that was ridiculous that why would you need a Hooters in Thailand? We've got plenty of chicken, there's girls here too, it just didn't seem like a niche that needed to be filled, didn't seem like there was a demand there that needed to be filled but we have seen Hooters come. They're not gone yet, but they were here in a lot bigger way before, they're still around, I think. Hey, hats off to them, I'm glad to see them still hanging on. COVID was tough on everybody but, so I was wrong about that one. Hooters is still here. In any event, next one, I never thought in a million years, Thais would really get into the notion of 'cashless'. I mean in 2008 that just seemed anathema to me, but again you have got to remember, this is pre-smart phone Thailand and it's odd for me because I'm sort of a Gen X or cusp Gen X, millennial in the American parlance. And by the way did everybody forget about Generation Y. I remember when we were called that. Now, no, it's just gone - another thing that got memory holed - so you are either Gen X or you are a Millennial. In any event, so I was born in an odd time in the early '80s where I can really remember pre-fax machine, how different the world even was pre-fax machine, let alone pre-cell phone, let alone pre-smart phone and I can say that there are many things we gave up in the name of convenience that I wish we still had, one of them being personally anonymity, personal privacy. Also not having to listen to people listening to the music and all kinds of other stuff on their stupid smart phones when other people are in a public space only trying to just co-habit in peace. Never mind that, but I never thought in a million years, in a million years, that Thais would get all that into the notion of cashless but here we are and now we have got to worry about these Digital Wallet Tokens, Digital Wallet Tilapia; these things that are not real money in any way that they have tried to kind of finesse onto us this past year. It looks like this is still kind of an ongoing thing but we are kind of keeping on top of that. But those Digital Tokens haven't come out yet but more and more folks are using cashless apps and things and again your freedoms and your basic sort of liberties go by the wayside all in the name of convenience. I think it was once said, ‘the road to hell is littered with good intentions.’ Well, it also has signage all along it telling you how much more convenient this next step down that road is going to be. In any event, the final thing I never thought I would hear in a million years coming to Thailand in 2008, is the notion that Thais would need any sort of “permission” to work in their own country, but here we are.

So, I thought of making this video and I thought of making it after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: New rules issued for Bangkok Street vendors. First of all, did anyone have any say on these rules? Did the street vendors themselves have a say on it? Because I'm here to tell you, if I'm a guy that is just selling chicken or fruit or whatever day to day and living hand to mouth, to say nothing of the issues of taxation and things, but the onus that is being put on these people or proposed to being put on these people with regard to all this “oh we need all this documentation and all of that; you need to go jump through all these hoops to get your “permission’ - which permission for what? It was my understanding that the right to work in Thailand is every Thais God given right. So leaving that aside though, I mean just the basic paperwork that it sounds like you are going to have to deal with for this so-called permission is to my mind it's an onus that I'm pretty sure if you would have surveyed these people who will actually have to deal with it, they probably wouldn't have been very on board with it. That being said, I get that there are interests to be balanced; I do get that a lot of street vendors don't come from Bangkok, they don't originate from this area of Thailand, I do get that, but liberty is one of those things that the only way for one to have it, it has to be given away. I would hope that even folks that say “well they can be a little bit of a nuisance outside of my house or next to my driveway”, or something like this would also remember that would you really want to have your right to work curtailed? Would you really want somebody be telling you how you can earn your living and at what threshold you are allowed to make a certain amount of money, which we will get into here at a moment. I mean again these are really fundamental issues. That's why the thumbnail is what it is because it sounds like COMMIE gobbledygook to me, let alone World Economic Forum trash.

That being said, quoting again, I should say. Again, the article titled:  New rules issued for Bangkok Street vendors, bangkokpost.com. City Hall has longer-term plan to declutter pavements and create Singapore-style hawker centres. That is what everyone needs! Singapore-style hawker centres. The other thing is I love how Singapore is raised up as this like paragon of something to aspire to. It is a one-party totalitarian state, okay? No offence to you Singapore; it is what it is. You are what you are. At the end of the day, and that is what it is. It is a soft style totalitarian state, but it is totalitarianism and totalitarianism is exactly what it sounds like: Total surveillance of everything you do, all your work, people get to telling you to give you “permission” to go to work like they somehow felt that they had the authority to do that under COVID which they never had. Then they ran around and put people out of work and as we will get to, a lot of street vendors died as a result of that. That wasn't their own doing, that wasn’t the perils of being a street vendor that killed them, that was direct Government policy. Quoting further: “The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has drawn up new rules for street vendors across the capital...” and again, did street vendors get a say or did they get to weigh in or comment on any of this? Quoting further: “..with activities set to be limited to certain areas of the capital.”  Okay now I do understand that certain property rights have to be taken into account and things of this nature but common areas in which these folks have been operating in since basically time immemorial to the best of my understanding, or so far back in history as to say “hey there needs to be really substantial exigent need to interfere in these people's day-to-day lives”, I don’t see where that exists here. In any event quoting further: “The rules are in line with an existing policy on managing public spaces said Jakkapan Phiewngam, a deputy Bangkok Governor." Now here's the interesting thing. For all the talk we have heard, especially in the last year or so, from all kinds of politicians in all kinds of places about how we need to get rid of pre-existing policies and things, this “pre-existing policy” seems to be the fundamental underlying reasoning behind the legitimacy of going after these street vendors in the first place. I find the whole logic change spurious. In any event, quoting further: "City Hall had said earlier that only "poor Thais” would be allowed to be street vendors.” So they get to dictate the cap at which you as a free-market entrepreneur gets to operate. They get to say you only get to make this much money because that's effectively how this would work.

Again, I can't stress this enough. This is socialism and by the way for people who think socialism sounds really nice because it has got the word “social” in it, it means “rule by experts”. It means rule by people who think they know more than you about how to make your own money and live your own life. That is what socialism is. And by the way, a man named Stalin, Joseph Stalin, yeah, he once said that “Communism is Socialism in a hurry.” Because that is what it is. It is all rule by experts. Communism is serfdom with clerks who give you permission to work for yourself. That’s what it is. The WEF is on board with this as well although they also happen to like fascism which brings in its own kind of demons with it. But that said, at least the fascists aren’t running around trying to sign you up and tell you that you can't work for yourself. Well sometimes they do too. Authoritarianism, totalitarianism in all of its forms, should be resisted and that is what is going on here. This isn’t good for anyone and by the way, anybody who thinks “oh I’m higher up the socioeconomic strata, they'll never come for me," yeah, they will. History has proven it, time and time again. Anytime you, again liberty is the only thing that in order to have it, you have got to give it away and these street vendors just need to be left to their own devices. Quite frankly, I can’t believe that there is actually somebody who thinks that they are acting nobly by creating extra bureaucracy, extra requirements and permissions to work on people who are at the very lowest end of the food chain if you will, of the socioeconomic strata. I mean these are the people who need this hassle the least. Quoting further: ".to receive permission to work as a vendor for one year an applicant must be a Thai citizen, meets at least one of three requirements..” So Thais now have to have permission to work, to make their own living, to operate as entrepreneurs. Again, I thought that was just an inherent right of being a Thai. I don’t know where City Hall decided they have any prerogative with regard to that. Quoting further: "They hold a state welfare card, they are buying a house under the Baan Mankong Scheme..” Huh, why? “..and/or they receive welfare aid from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.” I'm always, when they start saying ‘human’ - why isn't it Thai security? I don't care about the rest of humans, I care about Thais, like I want the Thai Government to care about Thais too. That said, again, so now you have got to go through these hoops in order to get your permission to work. Quoting further: "In the second year, vendors must show that their annual income does not exceed 300,000 Baht, as shown by their income tax filings." So now these people get to tell you how much money you are allowed to make? Does this not sound like Communism? I mean what was the USSR if not this? Quoting further: “Those who have never filed taxes – expected to be the vast majority of vendors,” yeah, no joke, because they are at the lowest possible end of the socioeconomic spectrum, just trying to make a living, not adhere to some bureaucrat’s notion of what hoops they need to be jumping through, quoting further: “before will be granted a one-year grace period before they have to begin doing so.” Well did you pass a law that says they have to begin doing so? You're just saying they have got to do this stuff? You're abrogating all of their previously existing heretofore inherent liberties because you say so and now oh, it’s just mandated they have to fill out all this paperwork to do something that yesterday they could just get up and do, which is hard enough work to begin with without all this added nonsense. Like Ronald Reagan, the late Ronald Reagan said, "the worst thing you can hear in the English language is we are from the Government and we are here to help." I'd love to know what that is translated into some sort of idiomatic Thai. That being said, quoting further: "Vendors exceeding the 300,000 Baht income threshold will lose the right to run a stall on the streets." Will lose the right! Who gave you that authority? Now if they start doing this, isn't there some challenge at least under the Constitutional Courts, the Administrative Courts? I mean where do they get the right to just tell people “oh, we are just unilaterally telling you how much money you can make, and if you make more than that, you can't do it anymore”. I mean this is the idiocy of Socialism and Communism. If you're really good at your job and you make too much money, you can't do it anymore. I mean, define stupidity. It's that, there's your definition. Quoting further: "However, Mr. Jakkapan said the BMA would review the threshold annually", well thank God for that. What would we do without you people? To review the threshold to tell us whether or not we can still go out and work on the street as a street vendor. By the way, anybody that is sitting there going "well come on Ben, you're not going to go work," I might. I might go broke tomorrow. Everything might all fall apart. Did you ever see Seabiscuit? The first whole half of that movie is how the United States of America collapsed into a Great Depression and people just had to do what they had to do. But what are we going to have if we have a problem here in Thailand? We're going to have a bunch of Nanny-minder bureaucrats telling us we can't make so much money or telling us what paperwork we need to do in order to simply work for ourselves as Thais. I'm not talking about foreigners here, I'm talking about Thai people. The lowest Thai people on the socioeconomic strata too; the working poor, the working entrepreneurial poor. Quoting further: "..taking into account economic conditions, inflation and the poverty line." Yeah, because you know what, look at the Federal Reserve policies the last 15 years over in the United States. Having a bunch of “economists” and people with PhDs in Economics sitting around micro-analyzing the gesticulations of the day-to-day economy; that's done such a good job for the Western economies hasn't it? Having all this interference from the Government. It's just done wonders! Meanwhile, proof is in the pudding. Who's been out here entrepreneurial without all of this government red tape and bureaucracy all over their economies? East Asia, Thailand in particular. Been doing it since the dawn of time. I don't seem to remember reading in any of the old stories of Thailand about bureaucrats wandering around putting people on some digital app where they're low-jacked to them and wandering around and can only make so much money. I don't remember that. Quoting further: "District Offices will be responsible for approving vendors, with priority given to those who are already registered in the tax system, he said." Oh, okay. 

Well first of all, let me tell you. We had to interact with District Offices during COVID which was a total nonsensical exercise in exaggerated hyperbole that resulted in the economic downturn of this whole country to the point where we very nearly were unable to get up, okay, and those people were the worst of it. Going in and enforcing it, with no good reason. You would talk to them, I saw it myself them shutting down places and the owners would say: "Why? Do you any good reason? Can you give me any?" "No, just we are doing it." This is what I am talking about; this is World Economic Forum nonsense. This is Communist, Totalitarian nonsense; this will go nowhere good. I understand the purpose of the District Office; it's like an administrative function for the city, that makes some sense. They're not sitting there telling Thais how much money they can make. That should never be their function. Quoting further: "In areas where demand exceeds available space, vendors will be selected through a lottery system." So now what you can already do, you have got to go join a lottery to see if chance lets you do it? That's all they're saying; they're taking something from you. Don't ever let them obfuscate that fact. Quoting further: "Bangkok Governor, Chadchart Sittipunt, had previously said BMA's ultimate goal is to reduce the number of vendors on the streets by moving them to designated areas" - reduce the number! They are coming after your jobs folks. Quoting further: "..similar to Singapore's approach to Hawker Centres" - you know what? I don't care about Singapore's approach. Let Singapore be Singapore. Just like let China, be China; let the US be the US; let India be India; let every place else in the entire world be itself. I am sick and tired of hearing why 'Thailand needs to be more like someplace else'. Thailand is fine the way Thailand is. That's the reason her currency is strong; that's the reason tourism is coming here; that's the reason her economy is resilient. It's these measures that destroy Thailand. Quoting further: "..in a bid to provide cleaner and more organized spaces for vendors to operate." Yeah, cleaner and more organized. Communists like the notion of cleaner, more organized! It doesn't really go good with the free market, okay? Let the dynamics of the market work itself out. Nanny minders and totalitarians have no place in a free market. Quoting further: "Mr. Chadchart said that over the past 2 years, around 10,000 vendors had been removed from Bangkok's streets, and efforts to establish Hawker Centres are ongoing." Let's read that again. "Mr. Chadchart said that over the past 2 years, around 10,000 vendors had been removed from Bangkok's streets, and efforts to establish Hawker Centres are ongoing." Let's read that again "10,000 vendors had been removed from Bangkok's streets.” They don't say that they created Hawker Centres where those people went to, no, quote: "and efforts to establish Hawker Centres are ongoing." We are from the government, and we are here to help! 

This is the problem Thailand. You don't need this nonsense. In my opinion this is foreign influence, ideological nonsense that's only going to hurt this economy and hurt this country. We don't need this stuff, this is WEF nonsense, globalist nonsense, call it Communist, call it Totalitarian, call it Fascist if you want, call it whatever you want. It's not Thai, that's what I know, because Thai is okay, yeah we learn to live with ourselves within our sort of surroundings, sort of equilibrium. Not totalitarian intervention that goes after the lowest folks in the socioeconomic strata, the people that can afford it least. And those folks further up the chain, if you think it's not coming for you, think again because this is how it always starts. And take it from a person who is coming from a place that's in a real bad situation right now, precisely because we listened to the flowery language of a bunch of nonsensical totalitarians, got us to where we are at this particular moment back in my home country and back in the collective West; Thailand doesn't need any of this stuff. I hope this turns around sooner rather than later.