Guest Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 Hi, "But for the sake of argument only, let's accept your assumption that BGs could readily make Baht 180 a day elsewhere (working in rice fields in Issan I guess)." A normal salary for working in rice fields in Isaan is 100 baht. I had the "pleasure" of sitting beside a danish man in airplane last time who owns a farm in Isaan. He told me he just paid married couples 4000 baht/month. Thanks. I thought that was about right; hence, my initial estimate. If we are more realistic, and take your figures, our poorly paid hypthetical BG (for whom we have grossly underestimated her income) earns 8 times more working in NEP than she would otherwise. If we also use more realistic figures to estimate her earnings in NEP, that figure will likely double so that she makes 16 times more in NEP what she would make in Issan working in a rice field. And speaking of Issan, ever notice the occassional very nice houses you see around the region - much nicer and more expensive than you would expect based on average incomes in Issan. If you inquire, you'll often find there is a farang providing the funding. Indeed, there was an article in either the Bangkok Post or The Nation about a year back about a smart village in Issan with picturesque houses nicknamed, I believe, Swiss Village. Take a guess where the funding for this came from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted January 23, 2005 Report Share Posted January 23, 2005 Gadfly1 said:...there was an article in either the Bangkok Post or The Nation about a year back about a smart village in Issan with picturesque houses nicknamed, I believe, Swiss Village. Take a guess where the funding for this came from? Baan Jaan. I am not sure I would call them smart. More like pathetic. From my understanding, the village's trade consists solely of sending their daughters to Switzerland to work in brothels. VERY few do not go as the pressure is great (mostly by the parents). It has been this way for a few generations now. A gal I know who works at Baccara now (too old for the Swiss brothels now) enlightened me. Pretty much as close to indentured sex slaves as you can get without really being that. Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 The article I read did not describe the village that way, but I haven't been there and, as I understand matters from the article, there are several such villages in Issan. Since you qualified your statement with "[f]rom my understanding", it appears that we both only have indirect knowledge (mine from a newspaper article) and could easily be talking about different places. More important, I don't want my main point - large remittances from outside of Thailand by farangs to Issan - to get swallowed up in a factual contoversy about this or any other village, particularly when we both admit our knowledge is indirect and it is not clear if we are talking about the same place. My point was this: when you travel around Issan, you can't help but notice some homes that rise significantly above the general standard of housing there, and very often there is a farang funding that home. And I am sure there are individual situations where the relationship is exploitative, but I am equally confident that this is not true in the majority or even a significant minority of the cases, unless you believe consensual sex for money is inherently exploitative when the parties involved have disparate incomes (a concept I just don't buy). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummigut Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Gadfly: I don't believe comparing working in a bar in Nana versus a farm in isaan is fair. You never took the cost structure into effect. Your Hollywood numbers are off, but not significant to quibble with. Let's say the AVERAGE BG in nana makes anywhere from 25k to 35k (which I think still maybe a bit high). What can she earn IN Bangkok? Well, my maid works for three people that I know of. Between the three of us, we give her 9.5k a month. On those three days, she works from 8am to about 4pm. I have no idea what she does the other 4-days a week. Now this woman isn't anything special and most anyone could be doing this. Lets say on average she earns 8k to 12k a month. Working at Nana is netting a ratio of 3x. Also, I took at my local roti vendor. Charges 10 baht with egg / roti. Takes 3 minutes to make 2. Assume net profit is 5 baht per roti. If he makes 75 (I believe more) roti's a day, that's 10.5k a month. Again, a ratio of around 3x. And I really don't believe 6% of GDP is the low end of estimates of sex tourism. It isn't even close to that. <<burp>> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.. Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Gadfly1 said:The article I read did not describe the village that way, but I haven't been there and, as I understand matters from the article, there are several such villages in Issan. Since you qualified your statement with "[f]rom my understanding", it appears that we both only have indirect knowledge (mine from a newspaper article) and could easily be talking about different places. I remember the article. Not different places. I preface mine because it comes from a BG who grew up there. But I have no reason to believe that she was playing me as there was no financial hook and a mate of mine (who dated her for 6 months) got the same story. But DEFFO the same place. C'mon, they could not write the truth on the paper. It makes LoS look bad! But you are also correct in that there are plenty of places in Issarn that have big houses. Only that Baan Jaan is the only village that makes it their true cottage industry (that I know of anyway). Cheers, SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krml Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 I have also read about the 6% GDP generated from sex tourism. Personally I think it might be higher. Considering how much Thaksin is trying to make Thailand a family destination. It makes you wonder how much the books have been cooked. One thing that I don't agree with that was mentioned earlier, is that it is such a small portion of the GDP that it would not affect anything. Considering that the BGs need to rent a place, buy food, spend a crap load of money on their mobiles to keep in touch with their "boyfriends" etc. etc. Also the liquor industry, hotels, restaurants... I think it is more interlinked than most people think. Sex tourism is thoroughly embedded in Thai society whether anyone likes it or not, including Thaksin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 High Thaied: While maybe one half of what I spend on sanuk there, is unrecordable, I also spend other 75% of total dollars spent, on recordable purchases -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gadfly Then you are an exception - or did you intentionally use the term "recordable" rather than "recorded"? I am sure the charges in NEP bars could be recorded for tax purposes; I am also sure, few, if any, are. " Gadfly is right, besides I find it difficult to find enough bills to come up with decent expenses while coming to Thailand on business trip, very large proportions of local companies sales go unrecorded. There's no need asking for invoice to many of my suppliers there, they won't give any. Very good thing is government let it go and I find it pretty easy to do business in Thailand if you don't expect clear formalities and papers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 Gummi, The street kids (who youve met, fat little thing) parents are now on the road to prosperity. They have a very good stand in the Soi, making food, both husband and wife, and kids after school and on weekends, except when they hide at our place. DarLek stunned me by telling me the father is saving up for a car! That will take a while. No, he already has 90 000 saved, and is profiting 30 000 a month from the business. Now they work HARD, but good luck to them I say! Just another number to add to your data base. DOG - LICK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThaiHome Posted January 24, 2005 Report Share Posted January 24, 2005 krml said:I have also read about the 6% GDP generated from sex tourism. Personally I think it might be higher. Considering how much Thaksin is trying to make Thailand a family destination. It makes you wonder how much the books have been cooked. One thing that I don't agree with that was mentioned earlier, is that it is such a small portion of the GDP that it would not affect anything. Considering that the BGs need to rent a place, buy food, spend a crap load of money on their mobiles to keep in touch with their "boyfriends" etc. etc. Also the liquor industry, hotels, restaurants... I think it is more interlinked than most people think. Sex tourism is thoroughly embedded in Thai society whether anyone likes it or not, including Thaksin. Considering that Thailand?s 2004 GDP is over 150 BILLION USD, are you saying that sex tourism is almost a 10 BILLION USD A YEAR industry for Thailand. That would make it a bigger industry then agriculture. I'm not saying sex tourism is not an important industry for a small percentage of the population, but I think sex tourist tend to exaggerate their importance to Thailand overall. TH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_numbers Posted January 25, 2005 Report Share Posted January 25, 2005 ThaiHome. I have to concur that given the text of the quoted article I must mourn the death of journalism once again Where the hell does someone get off pulling out a number like that on sex tourism. Furthermore, the damn reporter does not discuss GDP or economics at all, and the first quote is by an unsubstantiated source using a "single name". A respectable newspaper or newswire would never run such tripe Some cunt just bounced around a few bars in the daytime and made up a few names.. Sex tourism is something that you can't get a fix on number wise. What about the fella who comes over and just hits a late night spot one time on the sly?!? Sex tourist?? Contributing to sex tourism??! Taxes??! Records??! in Thailand.. of sex. I'm going to start asking for more receipts if this is the case Rubbish, the_numbers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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