Transcript of the above video: 

In roughly the past 24 - 48 hours we've been talking a lot about the recent removal of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand. Here in Thailand we have seen in again in the past 24 - 48 hours we have seen a number of developments most notably the Constitutional Court has said that the appointment, one of the now former Prime Minister's appointments was illegal and as a result has dismissed him. We are now sitting here in sort of a of caretaker Government situation, sort of waiting to see what the next move is, for lack of a better term. 

I wanted to make this video because in a lot of comments and things that I saw on the channel, people were burning me or trying to burn me saying I don't like the Destination Thailand Visa, I have problems with it. One, I have problems with it insofar as the way people have been presenting it. Yeah I don't think that there is any doubt about that, based on what I have been talking about here on YouTube. But more to the point and something I don't think many foreigners really quite understood with regard to this thing is the whole work authorization relaxation if you will. As I have discussed in other videos, the relaxation pertains to, for years people have said: "hey I am going to come retire in Thailand," and they will talk to me and they'll say: "but I work in this capacity from time to time, I have got to send an email or I have got to get on a phone call but strictly speaking it is work", and I've had to say well they are not really looking for that from an enforcement standpoint; they are not really looking for people, they're not kicking down doors because a guy sent an email and he's on a Retirement Visa. The relaxation was to deal with that. A very sort of limited, basically just ‘we are not going to worry about who you are on the phone with’ kind of thing, but and I think those that have lived here for a number of years understand what I am talking about. New people and all your preconceived notions, I don't know; maybe listen, you might learn something. But older folks know what I am talking about and by 'older' I mean people that have been in Thailand a fairly long time sort of know what I am talking about when I say the whole work authorization thing. "I'm on a phone call, I am on an email. Do I need to get a Work Permit in order to send an email in Thailand?" 

And basically this “work authorization” aspect of the Destination Thailand Visa, if you read the actual enabling Decree, it specifically says to sort of revitalize if you will the tourism sector to get numbers up if you will, to sort of help bring in foreign reserve, foreign exchange, we are going to relax things to stimulate the economy if you will which again that whole narrative 'the economy needs stimulating' I don't see where that is really necessarily the case. And by the way, where was all this talk of stimulation when you shut down the economy for three years but never mind that for now. This whole notion that look we were relaxing this hardcore work authorization notion because we don't want to scare people off by the notion that well if you get this kind of visa and you make a phone call back to your broker in the United States, you are somehow in a Work Permit violation. 

That said, work authorization and the notion of foreign workers flooding into Thailand is something that is very concerning to Thais; I hesitate to use the euphemism 'rice bowls' but it's important. A mentor of mine, somebody that really taught me how to get going, get up and going out here in Thailand once told me, he said: "one of the primary rules of Thailand is do not mess with a Thai's rice bowl." And that's a euphemism for "don't mess with their livelihood; don't mess with their ability to earn their living". 

I have to be honest with you, there's been a lot of talk the last few months here in Thailand in the political sphere regarding possible changes to property ownership rules - we will get into that in another video - as well as relaxation of work authorization types of things. Then on top of that, again that coupled with the possibility of foreign property ownership in the long term, that makes Thais very nervous and nervousness in the polity if you will, can have implications in the political arena and I think that's what we are seeing here. 

So the thing to take away from this video is while I don't think the Destination Thailand Visa is going to disappear overnight, I do think it is important for people to understand that look things are in a state of flux now. What concerns Thais more than anything is their ability to work and to a certain extent have some insulation from foreign competition which we as foreigners, me when I was a foreigner, may have had a problem with that, but that's just the way that they feel. And quite honestly, in a nation state, I think that's a reasonable feeling. So the thing to take away from this video is this is more of a hot button issue than I think a lot of foreigners, especially folks that are sort of in the foreign punditry sphere, especially out there on YouTube are really, really underestimating when it comes to the issue of foreign nationals working here in the Kingdom of Thailand.