I am constantly hearing how Thailand (and most other governments) constantly use the notion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as both a measurement and goal of economic strategies and plans.
This is a delusional and short-sighted way to assess economic viability because it centres only on the profit in relation to accounting. It does not consider environmental and social costs associated with the commerce and monetary values.
The GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) is a more accurate means of evaluating economic activity because it includes the impact of everything associated with the process.
For example, Thailand will count the revenue from tourism as 20% of GDP and consider this a welcome addition to the national coffers.
On paper, this amount appears great when avoiding environmental and social impacts of this economic pursuit.
When you factor in costs like the degradation of the environment and nature, disposing of the waste generated by tourists, stress on transportation and utility systems, and displacement of local people for venues and attractions, the amount of revenue actually generated through tourism is greatly reduced. How is the tourist damage to the coastal reefs reflected in this year's GDP figures?
Even the annual costs of flooding, which plagues this region every year, is not factored into the GDP figures or the economic plans. What about the social costs of relying on labour exploitation and slave labour?
How is this reality reflected in the idea of GDP? Currently, dams are bursting and destroying lives upcountry. Money made from the power companies selling the electricity of these projects will be counted on the books and contribute to making the GDP -- but what about the costs to the flooded families and lost lives? How is this fact accounted for? Sadly, it is not.
This avoidance of responsibility is actually hurting us all, not boosting economic prosperity. It is time business leaders and political elites demonstrate integrity when evaluating how well they are shaping the economy.
Using the accounting method of GPI would go a long way to creating a sustainable future for everyone.
Darius Hober
Retirement rules okay
Re: "Thailand for Thais", (PostBag, Aug 4).
One must assume that Sweet Smelling Mango hales from a distant planet if he/she believes that the retirement visa policy in Thailand is anti-foreigner.
The floor limit of 800,000 baht has been unchanged for 12-plus years and is easily circumvented by an income "confirmation" from your embassy, which hasn't a clue.The US embassy does not require any proof and the British freely admit they don't check paperwork.
The Thai processing fee is a modest 1,900 baht if you have a non-immigrant visa to start.
Incidentally, the Cambodian one-year visa costs the equivalent of 10,000 baht, or even 13,000 baht for the express service of 48 hours to avoid two weeks' waiting. Let's hope Clark Kent himself isn't working in Thailand without a permit.
Barry Kenyon
Trump redoubt
Re: "Playing the Trumpette", (PostBag, Aug 2).
As one whose income depends, in part, on investments in the US economy, far from being a "Trumpette" as MWB derisively calls me, I'm one who looks at the bottom line in my portfolio to make my decisions. I watch the economy closely. For the eight years of Obama's rein, folks on Wall Street did fine while those of us on Main Street suffered. The market was "sideways" for us, end of story.
As for the sub-prime mess that Mr O inherited, one can thank former Senator Chris Dodd and his buddy in the House, Barney Frank, both Democrats and Obama buddies for that debacle.
Rarely reported but duly recorded is the fact that George W wrote to these two morons to stop the arm-twisting on financial institutions to hand out these unsustainable and foolish sub-prime loans. I am well aware of the staggering interest payments hobbling our national debt. I was furious with Bush in his final year for the spending mania that brought our debt to 9 trillion only to be followed by Mr O doubling it to an insane 18 trillion!
He started this madness by fuelling that debt with his foolish "stimulus" package that stimulated nothing. I'll leave it to the historians to judge whether or not Mr Trump is on the right track but it worked for Ronald Reagan so why not now?
Richard Rees
Twitter font of fakery
Re: "What's scary about Facebook's new troll findings", (BP, Aug 3, 2018).
Nearly every day, the US president attacks traditional mainstream media with the moniker "Fake News."
By now, however, it should be abundantly clear that the real fount of fake news is the internet and social media platforms such as Twitter that the president and many others are so fond of.
The mainstream media is far from perfect, but it generally does a credible job of fact-checking and confirming information before running with stories.
The same cannot be said for the internet, where any lunatic or anarchist can disseminate half-baked ideas and outright lies, or sow social discontent, with few or no constraints.
It's time that everyone learned to question with far more scepticism anything that that they find on the internet. And perhaps it is also time for more people to return to reading good old-fashioned reputable newspapers and watching mainstream TV news.
Samanea Saman
The nose knows
It is interesting to observe SEC reports over the past two months of insider trading in a construction company, associated with the alleged home of the Black Leopard soup kitchen.
Corporate insiders have sold some 60 million baht in shares.
One has to wonder where some of the money is going.
Feeling Black
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