ABSTRACT
This chapter explores aspects of capitalism gone wrong and signals the birth of sufficiency thinking. Capitalism is considered by many to be the most effective way to allocate resources and facilitate economic growth. The market economy is based on the profit motive, which is itself an unworthy motive. However, extreme forms of capitalism, with the excessive, deceptive, unscrupulous, single-minded, short-term and cost-what-it-may pursuit of hyper-profits, are the main cause of several economic crises. The good news is that more benign forms of capitalism exist, where the wealth and benefits are more evenly shared across society, and damage to the environment is minimised. Capitalism is interpreted, applied differently in different countries, even within different companies within the same economy. The literature distinguishes between several forms of capitalism with names such as Anglo capitalism. The Asian Financial Crisis was an unprecedented financial crisis in 1997 that caught the Thai people by surprise and has left its mark on Thailand until today.
