Raid on jomtien complex friday 2 nov

[cdnmatt]

This is completely wrong thinking. Most of the expats you are talking about think they have some kind of purchasing power here in Thailand, but they most certainly do not. The government, for example, receives no benefit from you or me, or probably anyone else on this forum being here. I think they actually appreciate that we are here, but to say that they are going to suffer some kind of loss because many are 'kicked' out is flawed thinking.

That was up to the Thai government. For another example, do you have any idea of how easy it would have been for the Thai government to turn Chiang Mai into one of the world's tech hubs? There were probably 5000 - 10,000 tech guys like me in Chiang Mai before, so all the skills and personnel were there. That's why I was saying for years I wanted to move to Chiang Mai -- because although a little under ground, it had a huge tech community.

All the Thai government had to do was relax their immigration laws a bit, and maybe grant a new VISA classification for self employed individuals such as myself who can prove a certain amount of income, and that income comes from our of country. I would have happily paid taxes in exchange for a VISA, as I'm sure thousands of others would have. Then upon being given the freedom to operate, you'd have seen myself and thousands of others renting office space, offering training courses, hiring locals, and so son. Me and thousands of others like me could have transformed Chiang Mai into a tech hub.

The government could have just turned the thousands of us into lawful taxpayers, while we worked hard and created jobs, spent income earned from outside in the country, etc. But nope, the current military dictatorship went and deported all the tech guys instead, so I guess so much for that idea.