HawkRonin commented : Spain is much better than Thailand. Very easy to deal with neighbors in Madrid, and no mad dogs around midnight. Spanish women are lovely, beautiful and sensuous. My recommendation is that since foreigners have rights in Spain, move to Madrid or any other hip cool Spanish town where the flamenco rocks and the whiskey is excellent. Good luck on your journey to Spain!

pachangamac042 commented : This is just discrimination at its best. Is may wife or for an instance any other Thai person married to a foreigner, worth less than a Thai not married to a foreigner? This is just disgusting and shows me what bad folks some Thais are. They are not just bad against foreigners but even against their own people. We have been in the process of looking for a nice location to buy or built our own house in Thailand. I guess that we do not need to search anymore. We will just buy our home in Spain, where foreigners are treated a little better then in Thailand. After some 20 years Thailand experience, I guess, that I am having enough of them. I feel sorry for my wife and her family, as they are great people, but some Thai authorities are worth less then …. I really wish, that Thais would be treated in the rest of the world the way they treat us in Thailand. Well, no, I do not really wish it, as it would not make any difference. It is time that we do not call Thailand, the land of smiles anymore, but the land of foreigners haters. As a response to all things making our lives miserable in Thailand, maybe we should just move out and on. Imagine all foreigners leaving that country. Not only expats, but foreign companies and NGOs as well. Imagine not sending any more tourists to that foreigner unfriendly country. Imagine not doing anymore business with them. Maybe, and only maybe, some Thais would realize then how bad they are and how bad they have been threatening us. Of course would the Thais who less deserve it suffer the most, but it would hurt those rich policy making elite as well. Could that change something? Maybe it is really time for a revolution in Thailand. Maybe it is really time to decapitated some elite and other rulers. No idea where Thailand is going, but I have the feeling that it will never get there.

Ian commented : [quote="AjarnV":2i0crtxo]For 90% of "us" this is much ado about nothing. One would have to be keeping a very large profile for this to be a problem. With all of the other §$%†, visa's and exchange rate deterioration to name a couple; I personally, am not going to get worked up about this. The 49/51% provision is a legit way around this is one believes they have a problem.[/quote:2i0crtxo] I'm inclined to agree, ultimately, like many things in Thailand, this is a money problem. The Thai authorities want to milk us of money and money assets, we have to find ways around this. My solution is simple, minimise my exposure, never let my investment in Thailand grow beyond a sensible "write off" level. I feel sorry for those who have committed themselves 100% financially to Thailand, but there were plenty of warning signs not just in Thailand but in places like Spain in Europe and Costa Rica in the Americas.

AjarnV commented : [quote="Ian":p7r384fu][quote="AjarnV":p7r384fu]For 90% of "us" this is much ado about nothing. One would have to be keeping a very large profile for this to be a problem. With all of the other §$%†, visa's and exchange rate deterioration to name a couple; I personally, am not going to get worked up about this. The 49/51% provision is a legit way around this is one believes they have a problem.[/quote:p7r384fu] I'm inclined to agree, ultimately, like many things in Thailand, this is a money problem. The Thai authorities want to milk us of money and money assets, we have to find ways around this. My solution is simple, minimise my exposure, never let my investment in Thailand grow beyond a sensible "write off" level. I feel sorry for those who have committed themselves 100% financially to Thailand, but there were plenty of warning signs not just in Thailand but in places like Spain in Europe and Costa Rica in the Americas.[/quote:p7r384fu] Yeah, it is definitely a money thing. I'm just hoping they don't kill the proverbial goose! I don't accept abuse kindly and am feeling slightly "misused" but so far so good.

dutchboy commented : Who are we kidding here? Of course tourism is important to Thailand. As stated by some posters, not the only source of income, but still an important factor to the whole economy. Look at yourself as a private investor, would you like to gamble your whole capital in one investment, or spread over multiple? Same with the economy, the more diversified it is, the better suited to absorb downturns in one of the sectors. I live in a Soi where the guides for Bicycle Tours lead their foreign customers. Before the "Reds" actions they passed there virtually every day with groups of 8-15 tourists. After the "Reds" that went down to 2-3 times per week, and usually 2-4 tourists in a group. The guides did not look happy. Now, after about 6 months, the groups are getting bigger again, the frequency gets higher, and the guides are starting to smile again, because....... $$$$ Now are all tourists good? No, course not, but that is not a Thailand problem, it is a world wide problem. Look at the havoc that Western European (British, Dutch, German etc) are causing in tourist centers in Spain and Greece. Difference with Thailand is that they are coping with it. Here they are just complaining that tourists are so bad. Sex-tourism? Yes, so what. Granted, I come from a very progressive country when it comes to these kind of things (first to legalise marihuana, abortion, same sex marriage, etc), in my home country Prostitution is now an accepted for of work. A majority of the prostitutes is organised, get social benefits, etc. And yes, we are happy that foreign tourist come to Amsterdam, and spent their money there. So why not in Thailand?