Sufficient enough reason to be cheap ...

Published on July 23, 2007

RS Public Ltd president Kriengkrai Chetchotisak has been proudly using the same Nokia 660I for almost 10 years. He paid about Bt3,000; anyone wanting to buy it now wouldn't give him much more than Bt1,000.

"I don't think I need anything more 'fashionable'," he said on Channel 3's "Ti Sib" ("At Ten") show.

"This one's okay! I have bought many new covers for it over the years to keep it in mint condition, though."

Another satisfied devotee of sufficiency economics, Kriengkrai's house is worth millions, but it doesn't have a swimming pool - he doesn't want to waste the water or the money. The decor whispers, "Less is more", minimalism for the new millennium.

This might be inspirational, but most people worship at the altar of sufficiency because they have no choice. Minimalist decor means that's all they can afford.

On the other hand, unlike Kriengkrai, lots of low-income people have so many functions built in and downloaded to their cell phones that the gadgets have a hard time recognising an incoming call.

Someone phones you and your mobile tries to figure out whether to play it through iTunes, send it to Yahoo or turn it into a video and uplink it to YouTube. Now that's excessive!