OPINION

Drinking confusion

Re: "Ban on afternoon sales under review", (BP, Nov 13).

I have read the news about "after-hours" drinking laws, and it looks to me like another case of "mouth engaged -- brain in neutral" by those who like to make the laws here.

It would seem it is not illegal to sell to a customer right up to the last second before 2pm or 12 midnight, but is to consume it thereafter really an offence?

This is where the usual mess with new legislation brings in a fatal flaw -- if the customer takes the drink off the premises (in a plastic glass), is he/she still breaking the law, or is the seller at fault if they don't have an "off-sales" licence?

To my knowledge, it isn't illegal to drink in the street in Thailand at any time, or in your own home or hotel room, including between 2pm and 5pm or midnight to 11am.

Or is that the next step?

Band-aid economics

Re: "Bad debt scheme to be launched in New Year", & "Analysts predict business loans to increase in Q4", (Business, Nov 12).

Welcome though they are, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's Khon La Khrueng Plus and debt relief programmes are merely band-aids and flashes in the pan. They promise only short-lived relief and, crucially, don't attack the root cause of our poverty -- our very low productivity.

Consider that two-thirds (64.7%) of Thais aged 15-65 can barely understand short texts like " Take one tablet after dinner daily until the medicine is gone". Three-quarters (74.1%) of them cannot perform simple tasks, like finding prices on an online shopping website.

Moreover, 30.3% of youth and adults lack enthusiasm, curiosity, or imagination. The lack of these literacy and digital skills cost Thailand about 20.1% of GDP in 2022, according to the World Bank's report that year.

With a workforce lacking such basic skills, of course, we have trouble earning high incomes.

So to meet household expenses, our consumers borrow and borrow. Unsurprisingly, our household debt is among the highest in Asia, at 88.8% of 2024 GDP.

Mr Anutin needs vision to boost productivity. Instead of being spent on consumer goods, Khon La Khrueng Plus should be used to reduce the costs of, say, buying walk-behind farm tillers/harvesters or high-yield seed, which will kick-start income even during the Anutin cabinet's short tenure and thereafter.

Buying our bad debt/reducing interest rates will leave us in the same trap as before, and we'll keep piling up new debt. Instead of spending on band-aid solutions, subsidise SME loans for production or process improvements, which will again yield returns in the short and long term.

Mr Anutin, you've got a cabinet with more ability than most. Focus them on sustainable productivity boosts, not band-aids.