Can you explain how its visa abuse? I'm not working for a business in that country, I'm working for a business in my home country.
As an accepting country, you're getting all of the benefits of me being there, spending money on services and goods, without having to provide me with employment or unpaid government services.
In the same way a drivers license does not grant you the right to pilot a ship or aircraft, a tourist visa doesn't allow you to work. A government is allowing you in because you stated your intentions to be a tourist, spend money, and then leave. They are under no obligation to allow you in, so it is a privilege being extended to you. Working without the correct type of visa could subject you to imprisonment or deportation.
In general, many nations' laws still remain blissfully unaware of the existence of remote work. But ask politicians of nearly any stripe the following question.
"I'm already working a remote project that took away no jobs from any of your citizens, and can do this from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Can I come into your country for a few months and spend some money there as a tourist while continuing my remote work?"
And the vast majority will throw their arms open. While not realizing their nation's laws are written such that work, any work whatsoever, is disallowed by their visas, as these laws were written back when even the notion of remote work as we know it didn't exist. And even then, there were grey, murky areas; a trader could conduct his offshore business over telex and saunter around the hotel otherwise, and not run afoul of visa rules enforcement despite not meeting compliance, because it wasn't very obvious.
Today there is much more transparency and outward manifestations of "work" like co-working spaces so many traveling coders can more easily run afoul of letter-of-the-law applications of the visa laws. If you are a traveling doctor/lawyer taking phone consultations and charging for them though, then technically you are also running afoul, even though it is extremely unlikely you would run into visa enforcement.
You are technically correct, but more progressive nations like Thailand with their visa laws that reflect an acknowledgement of the existence of nomadic workers with remote work will continue to attract that small demographic until the comparative advantage is erased by adoption of similar legislation nearly everywhere else. In the meantime, it is such a small demographic, and generally relatively frugal, it is arguable that positions like yours are really worth the effort to act out into actual enforcement, or to get worked up over.
That demographic's largest economic impact is likely the advertising and marketing benefits their glowing blog posts deliver to their host nations, and in aggregate they are not really adding all that much to the overall tourist industry nor taking jobs away from the local populace. And unless a significant fraction of the global population makes the highly unlikely shift to nomadic working, that demographic's immediate cash-value economic impact won't change all that much for the foreseeable future.
Yes, exactly. These laws were put in place well before remote work became possible. My mom still has a tough time understanding how I can do work without being in an office. I'm sure many politicians who make the laws still don't understand this concept.
Where does the line get drawn? If a CEO goes on holiday and is on a tourist visa but has a few phone calls back to his company, is that breaking the law? Should he be kicked out of the country?
If a programmer goes to San Francisco to visit but happens to go to a few meetups, is that now "work"?
Actually your work takes place where your employer is registered. The rules for most countries are basically very simple -- If you are on a tourist visa, you cannot get hired by a local employer.
Self-employment == employment in all of these countries. Whether doing business with locals or not.
Take Thailand as an example. The "Alien Working Act" defines work as "Work is defined broadly to include any work involving physical strength or knowledge whether or not done for money or other remuneration."
As an accepting country, you're getting all of the benefits of me being there, spending money on services and goods, without having to provide me with employment or unpaid government services.