Quote Originally Posted by brithai
how many of you would like to be born again a thai? meaning that you could be born into poverty in the land that many of us belive to be paradise.
Quote Originally Posted by Asiaboy
Why do you say be born a "poor" thai? Not all thai are poor, in fact some have more money than all of people here on this message board. You're assuming and it's offensive.
He did say "could be born into poverty". Otherwise I'd agree. There's plenty of Thais who earn more than most people on this board.

Quote Originally Posted by RichLB
Wouldn't a fairer question be "How many of you would prefer to be born poor in Thailand as opposed to being born poor in your home country?" My choice would be Thailand.
Yeah, I agree that would be a fairer question. I would rather not choose but if I had to I'd rather choose Australia, not Thailand. If you are poor in Australia and most of the West you still enjoy a minimum standard of living. You'll have a decent education, a roof over your head and access to healthcare. You won't starve.

Being piss poor in Australia means earning $40k/year and having a fairly modest lifestyle. Where as being piss poor in Asia really means being piss poor. You might not know where your kids' next meal is coming from, getting ill is double the nightmare due to medical costs and you're very vulnerable to being wiped out by injury, natural disaster and other problems. There's no safety net and it takes a lot more grunt to work your way out of poverty.