Thailand: Sufficiency Economy

encapsulates saving, and making provisions for any future emergencies, as well as ensuring ethical treatment and use of the natural resources of the country, as Anawat Bunnag states; “This ‘sufficiency’ means a ‘sufficiency economy’. It is satisfactory if each individual has enough to live on, but it is even better if the entire country has enough to live on”, (Bunnag, 2013). Successes can be observed in the rural hinterlands of Thailand, where farming and agrarian practices have been revolutionized, ensuring families and communities can survive in the new digital age global economy. In theory, it should mean that communities are protected from any economic disruption, either through internal conflict, or external market fluctuations.

As people are living longer, so the burden on the family and state increases, coupled with declining birth rates, it is difficult to see how long the current provisions will hold out, until it collapses. This is coupled with less transparency in business, from a grass roots level to an industrial scale, in layman’s terms, corruption, greed, and mismanagement, all strong indications that the economy is straying from middle path, as more people strive to become obscenely wealthy, at the detriment of others. Indeed as Sachayansrisakul states in his article, “Sufficiency Economy: A Reasonable Approach for Thailand’s Future”, “Thailand is at a declining stage. According to Transparency International (2007), Thailand ranked 84th, at the bottom of the upper half of the list. However, its transparency is assumed to be slowly declining in Thailand, as can be observed by the declining transparency index, from 3.8 in 2005 to 3.6 in 2006 and 3.3 in 2007. Also, the Income Equality scene in Thailand is considered to be bad, where it scored only 42 in 2006. Also, Thailand was ranked 78th out of 177 countries in terms of inequality in income or expenditure, with a GINI index of 0.42 out of 1.00”, (Sachayansrisakul, 2009). Moreover in the essay “Buddhist-Marxist Perspective of Thai Sufficiency Economics”, Dr. Peoples states, “many Thai’s are in the habit of spending lavishly, gambling and drinking to excess – this money be saved or spent for a greater purposes; and as if anyone cares: Buddhism speaks against these acts. Acting moderately and saving more would help them sustain their livelihood. Once everyone has enough to eat and money to live on, then further steps can be taken to improve the lives of the people. The King has demonstrated that the poorest rural area can develop a sustainable economy. Where do people at the urban/rural bases begin to practice