Thai Gen Z Face Cost-of-Living Crisis Amid AI Disruption

At Parliament on July 26, Korn Chatikavanich, a Democrat party MP and deputy faction leader, addressed the DIP16 youth leadership development program on "Financial Factors Affecting the Nation," outlining major challenges in the global and Thai economies and policy solutions.

Korn said that the free-market capitalism that has driven global economics since World War II now faces challenges from inequality and environmental damage. Thailand, meanwhile, prioritizes profit-making without proper safeguards or fair competition, hitting Gen Z hardest. Young people struggle with housing costs, employment, supporting aging parents, and children's education, while artificial intelligence simultaneously restructures society into five groups: 0.01% controlling AI and global platforms; 1% owning traditional assets and real estate; 10% using technology to enhance work; 20% providing specialized services such as medicine, nursing, and craftsmanship; and the remaining majority left behind by the economic system awaiting state aid.

Korn noted that the world is transitioning from the energy era to full AI dominance, visible in how the world's top 10 companies shifted from energy and finance in 2006 to technology and AI by 2026. Thailand faces additional pressure from an aging population, low birth rates, and education inequality, leaving the national budget locked in place. Sixty-nine percent of spending goes to recurring expenses and obligations: 39.5% to civil service salaries and welfare, 15% to social welfare including gold card healthcare (214 billion baht), elderly pensions (100 billion baht), free schooling (80 billion baht), and social insurance (65 billion baht); 12.2% to debt service; and 31% to other expenses.

If government continues mismanaging the budget without long-term strategy, prioritizing populist projects and allowing structural corruption, it risks losing capacity to support most citizens, Korn warned. He proposed two solutions: building a new economic engine through skills training and technology industry development to attract revenue, and pursuing political reform first by redefining the state's role, restructuring the budget, and using transparent fiscal tools to create welfare that genuinely reduces inequality before a financial crisis becomes irreversible.