The policy of mass cash transfers was one of the campaign slogans of the centrist Pheu Thai Party (For Thais), which came to power in the Asian country in the summer. The aim is to stimulate the economy by giving the equivalent of over a thousand Dollars to 50 million people, encouraging them to spend more and thus helping local producers, shops, and small businesses. Under the influence of opposition criticism, Prime Minister Srettha slightly reduced the initially planned scale of the program, which was originally intended to cover 56 million people. Income limits and savings limits were introduced. Ultimately, anyone who is at least 16 years old, earns less than 70,000 baht per month, and has less than 500,000 baht in their bank account will be eligible for the transfer.
The money is intended to reach the broad masses of the population exclusively in electronic form, through an e-wallet available via the government application used by millions of Thai citizens. Citizens will not be able to convert the virtual wallet contents into cash, and the funds will need to be spent within six months of receiving them.
The authorities also want to control how the money is spent. Recipients of the government program will not be allowed to use the received funds for debt repayment, bill payment, tuition fees, gas and petrol purchases, gold or gemstones, internet products and services, alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana.
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Question : is this a planned experiment regarding money supply manipulation and full control over society? Is this an attempt before implementing "temporary" currency internationally? A test on the population? What are your thoughts on this?
I feel this policy is one-sided because not all citizens benefit from these types of policies. The government manipulates the process just to control how people spend. This policy gives the government the upper hand in the control of the citizens, but the same government would steal from the process to enrich themselves.
The idea of controlling the citizens on how to spend their money is another factor that is not feasible, as not everybody would want that, and as such, nobody would want to be controlled up to the point of their personal life and privacy being breached by the government. This would be worse than one could imagine.