My opinion from experiance is that thai men are often work shy ,so want the girlfriend/wife to work,bring up kids and do most things around the house , while the man is often lazy and cheating. People have said on here 99 percent of farrangs marry bar girls. That's a load of rubbish only desperate overweight guys who don't look after themselves end up marrying bar girls. Also not all bar girls are bad far from it. Also I have seen that it's the girls in a family that tend to support their parents if needed as the men just would not care or be bothered too.
Dowries I completely disagree with it's like uour buying the wife for a price to her family and it's becoming a dying practise these days.
Finally unfortunately guys --- very few woman are free in any country of the world that's a fact there will always be costs of being with them.
All I suggest is take your time and remember farrangs are most likely not looking for the same qualities that have been a mentioned requirement for Thai men.
Take your time and don't make decisions when your drunk lol
it's duration is 5 years total but they don't expect that many to go over the 180 days --- as you become tax resident and will pay amounts of tax remitted to Thailand