Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy
“Economic development must be done step by step. It should begin with the strengthening of our economic foundation, by assuring that the majority if our population has enough to live on…Once reasonable progress has been achieved, we should then embark on the next steps, by pursuing more advanced levels of economic development.”
“Being a tiger is not important. The important thing is for us to have a sufficient economy. A sufficient economy means to have enough to support ourselves…we have to take a careful step backward…each village or district must have relative self-sufficient.”
His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Modern development has caused changes in all aspects of Thai society. The positive impacts of the development are economic growth, progress of material and public utilities, modern communication systems, and improvement and expansion of education. However, few of these results have reached rural areas or the underprivileged in the society.
On the other hand, rapid economic growth and the rise of consumerism has led to a state of economic dependence and deterioration of natural resources as well as the dissolution of existing kinship and traditional groups to manage them. The traditional knowledge and wisdom that have been employed to solve problems and accumulated in the past are forgotten and have started to disappear.
Significantly, what has dissipated is the people’s ability to rely on themselves and conduct their lives and pursue their destiny with dignity. For Thailand, the 1997 economic crisis served as a costly lesson of unbalanced and unstable growth, partly due to the improper economic and social development process, in which the economy relied heavily on foreign capital inflows and external markets.