OPINION

Boost borrowing

Re: "No money left to ease Covid blues", (Opinion, May 13).

The well-known idiom "penny-wise and pound-foolish" would seem to apply to Thailand's managing of Covid-19 relief.

The lack of government financial resources to support workers potentially put out of work as a result of Covid lockdowns seem to have driven authorities to recklessly allow unimpeded Songkran holiday travel and continued opening of many non-essential businesses even in areas of known major Covid-19 outbreaks.

Putting aside the obvious opportunity for securing additional Covid-relief funds by cancelling government expenditure on superfluous purchases like submarines, there is little reason for the government not to raise the limit on borrowing beyond the current cap of 60% of GDP.

Many countries in the world have borrowing levels far above Thailand's current rate of 53.5% of GDP.

The borrowing rates of the US, UK, France, Italy and Singapore all approach or exceed 100% of GDP.

Japan's borrowing tops 200% of GDP.

With interest rates for borrowing at record lows and the country in critical need of Covid relief, it's time for Thailand to loosen restrictions on borrowing to secure the funds needed to keep people safe.

Re: "Murky rules allow Musk to keep moving markets", (Opinion, May 19).

Hats off to Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, for now refusing to use bitcoin as a method of payment for transactions at his business, due to environmental concerns.

I was shocked when I found out that one bitcoin transaction causes as much damage to the carbon footprint as over 1,800 Visa transactions do!

I was hesitant on using bitcoin even before hearing this, when I realised that over 10% of people who invested in the cryptocurrency lost their entire investment, due to the fact that they could not find the specially encyrpted keys that were issued to them which enable them to access their investment, or forgot the code numbers.

So the lesson from all of this is, if one must invest in bitcoin, then so be it, but one should refrain from purchasing goods with the aforementioned digital currency.

Re: "Foreigners face longer wait for jab", (BP, May 14).

Reading the news the past few days about all the new Covid clusters from densely packed housing, wet markets, work camps and prisons, I must wonder what the authorities were thinking. Over the past year these types of densely packed locations have repeatedly been shown to be hotbeds for clusters.

Then looking at locations like Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco that are now returning more to normal as a result of vaccinations I have to wonder why Thailand is so late with a comprehensive vaccine plan. It seems the Thai vaccine plan is changing daily. Many Thais and expats I know wanting a clear vaccine plan from the government. And they do not want to have to wait six to eight months to get a quality vaccine.

Re: "Foreigners face longer wait for jab", (BP, May 14).

I'm a bit taken back by the statements that the government will register only Thais for the initial round of vaccinations. Both my Danish neighbour and I, an American, were able to use the Mor Prom app application to register and obtain vaccination appointments this past weekend. Our appointments are both for early July.