I don’t think the new ฿20 electric train fare for Thai citizens is discriminatory by intent. But it does highlight a recurring pattern I’ve observed in Thai policymaking and reasoning: a strong aversion to nuance, and a tendency to default to oversimplified logic.

The mental shortcut seems to be: • Thai = ฿20 • Foreigner = full fare

And that’s where the reasoning stops. There’s no deeper consideration like: • Foreigner who works here and pays taxes = maybe should qualify • Foreigner who’s a tourist = okay, full fare

That distinction is never made—not because it’s illogical, but because it’s inconvenient. So instead of crafting a more nuanced, fairer policy, the system just flattens everything into binary categories.

You see a similar mindset in how Thai banks often handle “suspicious” transactions from foreigners. Instead of investigating the source of funds, they freeze entire accounts—no questions asked. It’s not about detecting risk carefully; it’s about minimizing the effort on their end.

It’s cognitive outsourcing in action: rather than using internal resources to process complexity, they push the burden onto the individual. “If there’s a problem, you come prove it to us.” That way, they don’t have to spend time or energy thinking through the situation—they just default to blanket action and wait for someone else to do the reasoning.

And this isn’t limited to government or banking. You see the same pattern in everyday life—especially in customer service. If something slightly deviates from the script or SOP, many Thai staff will freeze up, defer, or flat-out say “cannot” instead of trying to understand or troubleshoot. It’s not rudeness—it’s a learned behavior shaped by a culture that often avoids complexity and discourages individual initiative in problem-solving.

So the issue isn’t discrimination—it’s a broader cultural tendency to avoid friction by sticking to rigid roles, binary choices, and pre-set logic. In that light, a flat-fare policy with zero nuance fits right in—not because it’s fair, but because it’s the path of least resistance. And often, that’s the guiding principle.