Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are kind of delving into the plight if you will of the retired foreigner here in Thailand. I thought initially of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, that is pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya retirees, well within their rights, weigh options as inflation bites and prices climb. I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article. It is kind of a downer really. It's talking about how the retirees in Pattaya, they are not having the best of times. I just recently did a video on the issue of driving licenses are now made for whatever reason, more difficult it looks like. I have had other people sending me emails saying, no it's not like that. Whatever, we are looking at a situation where it is looking like it is getting more difficult. How this plays out remains to be seen. I'll keep updating folks if the driving license situation changes. Happy to see further information on that. 

That said, again this is from pattayamail.com, quote: "Critics argued that the stereotype of the "retired foreigner“ in Pattaya -- disillusioned, broke and clinging to outdated dreams -- isn't entirely off the mark. It's a harsh assessment, but not one without merit. Others counter that such portrayals ignore the emotional and social reasons people stay. They might not be wealthy, but they have found a life that suits them -- even if it's far from perfect." Well if you read through that, I mean I don't really think it's good for anybody that we all get into a big pity party sort of regarding how this is all sort of going. At the moment let's be honest, we are in a very fluid circumstance with regard to the Government here in Thailand. We have got this acting Prime Minister, it's pretty much, presumably he is not going to be there once we get some kind of adjudication on the currently suspended Prime Minister, which not going into all that, but that is weighing down on things. Also just generally, the world economy is not doing well. One thing I have been noticing, a lot of people have been talking about, "oh we need Chinese tourists." Well they are not having an easy time in their economy. Somebody was telling me the other day there were 120 million bankruptcies in China which at first glance, you would say, "well that sounds like an awful lot, maybe that's an unreal number!" Well their total population is a billion so it's 12% of the total and if they are truly in a serious significant recession/mild depression or something, 10% of the population being bankrupt wouldn't be that far out of kilter with what something like that would look like. So I'm not sure that the Chinese are some kind of magic bullet to save all tourism in Thailand; I don't think that is particularly correct. Meanwhile, look at the end of the day, we were all so seeing some stagnancy overall in the sort of global economy. The other thing is look, by any metric, Southeast Asian economics, the economies here are rising; Thailand if anything is doing better. Now I think we are seeing some slowdown in Thailand, that could then be reflected in the currency shortly, which could have an indirectly beneficial impact on retirees as their foreign currency could become again stronger against the baht, so maybe stay tuned for that. 

For those who are interested, I do get into these topics in more detail in our long-form videos that I have on our paid news service, Integrity News Service. For those who are interested in that, you may want to check us out, email us, [email protected], to get on the mailing list for those long form videos. I expect in this upcoming one we will be doing this Sunday, I have a lot to talk about with all the developments along the Thai-Cambodian border and everything associated with that and how that is going to impact expat world, retiree world here as well. So we will jump into that in the paid news service. While I'm talking my book, it is also worth pointing out, my better half and I have opened a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok, Pancake Palace. As the name implies, breakfast anytime including pancakes. We also have English, big English breakfast and we also have American Diner style food: hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, Polish sausage; we have also got buffalo wings, chilli bowls, pork chops, glass bottled Coke as well. If you are interested, the link is in the description below to get to Pancake Palace. Come on out if you are interested in some American Diner style food. 

Rounding this up though, yeah look I really don't think get into just wallowing in pity about how terrible it is to retire here is really that good of an idea. One, I don't think it's warranted. At the end of the day, Thailand is still beautiful country; it is still a great place to retire. Yeah, some may be feeling the pinch especially on fixed incomes, especially in foreign denominated currencies, but as I said, I think as we start to see some shifts economically here in Thailand, those things may even out for retirees if not begin to move in a more “positive” direction especially as it pertains to their, or the purchasing power, of their foreign currency here in the Kingdom of Thailand.