Thailand: Government social policies have galring contradictions.

(From Thai Press Reports)

Section: Commentary - What's the main cause of Thailand's worsening social malaise? Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra posed the question in a recent radio address, The Nation reports.

He then went on to provide an answer: "excessive capitalism".

Who's to blame? He thought he hit the nail on the head by pointing to capitalism. But if he took the issue seriously enough, he would discover that the real answer is closer to home. The growing number of broken families - which is closely linked to the increase in the number of juvenile delinquents - stems from his basic policy to get the populace to borrow, spend and trust that the capitalist system will provide for their future.

"Thai children now get depressed easily, but they seem to have trouble finding happiness," the premier said. He wasn't citing his own research into the country's latest youth culture. I am afraid he was simply trying to impress upon us that he was now finally addressing the weakest link in his election pledge: the social platform.

But then he immediately hurled himself into a self-inflicted dilemma: his populist economic policy, predicated on raw capitalism, has effectively sapped the very foundation of his social platform.

This government has gone all out to encourage citizens to embrace capitalism in all its shady forms. The people have been taught by the powers that be that being in debt is glorious because that's the path to success (the CEO has cited his own experience to drum that concept into the mind of the average Thai).