The statement by Labour Ministry inspector Viwat Jiraphanvanich in the Oct 9 report on how a minimum wage hike will hurt the economy clearly shows the elitist disconnect within Thailand.
His defence analogy about how "high pricing" would destroy demand is a serious distortion of reasoning. His statement would mean then that minimum wage workers should only work "minimally" in alignment with the labour valuation, according to his logic.
The reality though is that people like him expect maximum work for minimum pay which is a pricing structure contrary to consumerism. With consumerism, you expect to get the "quality" you pay for.
I believe that the only way someone should be qualified to promote and develop such social policies is through direct experience. I challenge Mr Viwat to live for 90 days on the current minimum wage, then report and defend his position that there is no need to raise the minimum wage from real world experience, not elitist wishful thinking. Just having to get to work on the free bus every day might open his heart to the problems that institutional slavery creates.
To further state that higher minimum wages will drive away foreign investment should be examined also. If the only reason a company invests here is because of the exploitation of labour, then maybe their corporate model and philosophy is not needed.
Darius Hober
Beware wage hike
Re: "Minimum wage hike 'will hurt economy'," (BP, Oct 9).
I agree with the Labour Ministry that a minimum wage hike "would hurt" the economy. A minimum wage hike (that politicians only care about to get votes) does indeed have unintended consequences -- that politicians don't care about once elected.
Here's an idea that both the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee and the Labour Ministry may like: MMTers (proponents of Modern Monetary Theory) suggest that the federal government should consider starting a transitional Job Guarantee (JG) programme that, here in Thailand, would pay 712 baht a day. The idea behind the federal government providing a job to anyone unemployed is that: 1) it acts as a wage level "floor", or "buffer", which can be adjusted like an interest rate target set by the central bank; 2) it prevents any unemployed person from suffering through long periods of unemployment which hurts their chances of ever getting employed again; 3) it could pay the unemployed to continue education, or to attend training, or perhaps even getting some kind of vocational certification.
In addition to the federal government acting as "lender of last resort" (monetary policy-making) and "spender of last resort" (fiscal policy-making), a JG programme would also make the federal government "employer of last resort", which complements the central bank's price stability mandate and eliminates the politics of, and the need for, a minimum wage.
Eddie Delzio
Caught in a trap?
All these comments and debates about the popularity of a non-elected PM are useless, as one could remember that in 1930s Adolf Hitler was immensely popular within his country and remained so long after having been elected when he became another tyrannical autocrat crushing any dissent to remain at the helm of his country without true elections.
And today, so-called democratic countries such as Iran, Russia, Iraq, Venezuela, Egypt, Turkey and the former Ukraine all have at their helm elected "dictators" ... seemingly following the model of Germany in 1930-1945. Forbes magazine calls this process a new "hybrid non-democratic democracy".
Are we falling into this trap in Thailand through the disguised of never-ending "liberating" coups d'etat always performed by the same autocratic military institution in the name of peace and stability?
Michel Barre
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