"Economics, society and politics are all tied together. Do we want to wait for the time when the poor will rise up and fight?" Mr Kittiratt asked.
Kittiratt Na-Ranong, Thailand's deputy prime minister in charge of economic policy, says in an article in the Bangkok Post that raising the minimum wage and farm income is part of a strategy aimed at reducing inequality.
The new government in Thailand plans to phase in a raise in the minimum wage to Baht 300 (about $10 per day, somewhat less in outlying provinces), and help farmers, in an explicitly stated policy of rebalancing Thailand's society and economy. Income inequality in Thailand is nearly the same as income inequality in the U.S.
Thailand's income gap has increased in recent years, and (it) has one of the highest inequality rankings in the region. Economic inequality meanwhile has helped contribute to social and political infighting and instability over the past several years.
Last year a part of downtown Bangkok was occupied by protestors, mainly poor people and farmers, for many weeks until the demonstrators were forcefully removed.
"Do you agree that 250 baht a day is a decent wage? Or even the 300 baht per day that I am proposing," Mr Kittiratt, also the commerce minister, said in an interview with the Bangkok Post.
"Working for eight full hours ... do you think that is good enough for these people who are Thai human beings, and foreign human beings ... whether this kind of level is considered decent? I don't. I wouldn't let my son, or my brothers, or my good friends work and earn that little. I'll do anything that I can to help them."
The former investment banker stressed that he believed in capitalism and free markets. "It's not necessarily true that the middle or upper class must subsidise the costs of these policies. It's not a zero-sum game.
"Please trust me. It's not a populist policy just to please workers in the city and farmers in the rural areas. It's actually a package of policies which tries to rebalance the country."
Mr Kittiratt said for years, the poor had been asked to bear an unfair burden through policies that kept wages low to encourage labour-intensive industries to invest in the country.
"We have 7 million people at the minimum wage. They are [living] almost not as human beings," he said.
I applaud Khun Kittirat for his compassion and for speaking out and taking action on the need to dramatically rebalance society and the economy.