An accurate observation, I agree. But if we take off the western glasses through which we filter everything for a minute, and look at things as the average Thai might, there's a lot going right. Driving around Udon and back and forth to Bangkok, one observes a ton of investment in infrastructure, important to the average Thai, including roads, plans/negotiations for new train lines and the like. And I can't disagree with this decision, -- they don't get a rate increase until the problem of cheating taxi drivers who insist on fixed price airport runs or who have "adjusted" meters is brought under control.

So while it's true that it's far from all good, it's not all bad, either, at least IMO.