Beer far from being cheapest alcohol in Thailand
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Your recent report “Thailand ranked among the cheapest places to buy a beer” was perhaps of interest to European tourists who can enjoy the said cheap beer but was lacking in one small detail for the local consumer.
Beer, being the alcohol of choice for the average working labourer, has a price best considered when related to the average wage. A low-paid worker in the UK could buy something like 14 pints of beer with his day’s wages. A Thai labourer, however, would be lucky to buy five pints of beer for his days efforts. Hence beer is still not the Thai labourers’ drink of choice, being too expensive, and they prefer lao kao as their regular after-work treat. Low wages make prices rather irrelevant.
Lungstib
Chiang Mai
