His Majesty proposed that it was not important for Thailand to remain an “economic tiger,” or become characterized as a newly industrialized country. Instead, His Majesty explained that sufficiency is living in moderation and being self-reliant in order to protect against changes that could destabilize the country. The Sufficiency Economy is believed to adapt well within existing social and cultural structures in a given community, if the following two factors are met:
• subsistence production with equitable linkage between production/consumption
• the community has the potential to manage its own resources
As a result, the Sufficiency Economy should enable the community to maintain adequate population size, enable proper technology usage, preserve the richness of the ecosystems and survive without the necessity of intervention from external factors. The concept is now commonly included in many government projects.