Thailand is an amazing country and dollars/euros/pounds go a long way. But there are also a ton of Westerners who either ran out of money (or never had any) who live like leeches and even some who "begpack." Plenty more who just barely get by as a language instructor or such.

I'm not claiming there are no productive or welcome foreign retirees -- there are many. But I was responding to "xenospn"'s comment that they bring in money for free, which is absolutely not universally true.