There is no welfare system in place in Thailand, therefore every man, woman and child must fend for themselves. While in the UK, the government benefits system get a bad press, mostly down to the people who cannot (for whatever reason) get a job, or just don't want one because it doesn't pay as well, the system in Thailand, in my humble opinion, is far worse and here is why I believe this is the case.
In a region such as Udon Thani, and Issan in generally, where rice and sugar cane is about the only thing that is exported beyond it's boundaries, there is a very fragile economy, with the remainder of job opportunities largely restricted to working for the government or police, or in shops, restaurants, bars, suppliers warehouses, building houses, beauty salons or running your own 'market/street stall', be it selling food, mobile phones, toys etc.
A Thai, if they cannot find work somewhere, has a simple choice (if they want to make some money), and that is to open their own shop of market/street stall.
What are they going to sell?
9 times out of 10, they will sell food, because everyone eats food, and there is always a demand for it. However, as you walk around Udon Thani, take a look at how many people sell food! There are hundreds of them. Some make some okay money, but many do not and there are new 'business ventures' starting up every week, perhaps every day, all adding to the competition. The end result is that a small handful make a reasonable living, the rest are feeding off the scraps, barely making 200 baht a day. If you spend a little time in Udon Thani, you will these new enterprises start up, but after a few weeks they have become aware that their business is barely worth continuing with, they lose interest, and close down, leaving a building or place on the pavement empty for the next person to try their luck, and the cycle repeats itself, time and time again.
I know this to be true as my wife has her own food stall (she doesn't want to stay at home all the time, and wants to earn her own money - good girl!). I raised my concerns about the effort to profit relationship before she started, and suggested that there were already too many people offering food, and so it has proved. Thankfully she is a little more determined to make this venture work, and is looking at ways of making improvements to generate a better turnover and profit.
The sad thing is, she has no idea what else to sell to improve her profit margins, as there is no 'niche' market to exploit here. It is a situation that has been created by a culture of no welfare state or government aid of any kind, together with a region that does not produce anything other than rice, salt and vegetables.
Think of what you can sell in Udon Thani, and you are more than likely to find many, many shops that already sell it. If you think of something to sell, and there are no shops (or very few) that already sell it - then there is little or no demand for it, so is also a waste of time and expense.
This is why so many Issan girls want a ferang husband - someone to financially look after them and their kids (if they have any), because it really is very difficult to make money in Udon Thani, unless you already have lots of money to invest. Even then, many simply lose money, or do not make sufficient return to make it worthwhile.