" Show me the money!" Tom Cruise said in one of his movies. I am afraid nowadays people are having problems to show their money due to the value of their savings shrinking by the day.
The cost of living is sky rocketing in the metropolitan areas and slowly increasing in the suburbs and rural areas. The prices of essential items are on the rise thanks to the petrol price increase lately. Yesterday petrol price reduction to Rm 2.30 per liter did no translate to an instant reduction in the food items. So the people are complaining and blaming the unscrupulous suppliers for not reducing their prices. Eventually all costs will be handed over to the consumers, that is the nature of the business chain.
When i was growing up in the 70s and 80s, things were much simpler. I was given a 20sen allowance to go to primary school. With that i used 10sen for bus fare to and fro, 5 sen for a glass of orange juice and 5 sen for a piece of cake during recess. During secondary school, my allowance was raised to 50sen and eventually a ringgit by 1979. Bus fare shot to 40 sen to and fro by the end i finished school and went to university in the States. Roti canai back then was only 20sen and a stick of satay was only 15sen the most. A brand new car Mitsubishi Galant was only Rm9000 during the mid 70s! Back then if your brothers or sisters were getting salary around RM1000 plus, it was considered high. Our electricity bill never exceeded Rm20! A liter of petrol was less than 50sen! and best of all it only cost us Rm1.65 to watch a movie sitting in a first class section!
Fast forward to today where we claim to have to have much improved and becoming a developed nation by 2020. A liter of petrol costs Rm2.30 yesterday, a bag of 5kg local rice cost RM18++, a piece of roti canai costs almost a ringgit, a movie ticket cost Rm11.00, an entry car like Kanchil cost around Rm30,000, and a bottle of mineral water is more expensive than a liter of petrol back then! How much things have changed and the value of money has shrunk! An engineer or architect with an average salary of Rm6000 will struggle to pay for car loan, house loan and keeping a kid or two! He also has to struggle with tolls, increase in car maintenance, tax, increase in medical bills etc. Yesterday i was shocked when a clinic charged close to Rm100 for flu medicine for both of my kids! The cost of everything around us jumped by leaps and bounds but yet the salary increase is very slow at a snail pace. A lot of people have to do two jobs to survive. With the recession around the corner, God knows the hardship these people are going to face. Of course, the rich are getting richer by the day and have no inkling of this or would not care less. The irony is that a lot of them used to be poor! The politicians only stick their necks out only there is something to gain. They are more concerned about taking care of their corporate friends' interests. Mr PM asked us to change our lifestyles and save a lot, question is what is there to save?
Tun Mahathir was right, protect the buying power of consumers by making the value of money high, and keeping the cost down. If need be, repeg the ringgit at certain level. The economy is now export oriented, that is why the government does not want to repeg the ringgit because by keeping the ringgit value low there will be more export to foreign countries bringing in cash flow to the country. But with ringgit value low the import stuffs will be expensive for the local consumers thus reducing the paying power and value of money. A right balance need to be found fast by the government to keep the economy healthy and the people happy.
Otherwise, we cant show you the money as none is left to show!
The cost of living is sky rocketing in the metropolitan areas and slowly increasing in the suburbs and rural areas. The prices of essential items are on the rise thanks to the petrol price increase lately. Yesterday petrol price reduction to Rm 2.30 per liter did no translate to an instant reduction in the food items. So the people are complaining and blaming the unscrupulous suppliers for not reducing their prices. Eventually all costs will be handed over to the consumers, that is the nature of the business chain.
When i was growing up in the 70s and 80s, things were much simpler. I was given a 20sen allowance to go to primary school. With that i used 10sen for bus fare to and fro, 5 sen for a glass of orange juice and 5 sen for a piece of cake during recess. During secondary school, my allowance was raised to 50sen and eventually a ringgit by 1979. Bus fare shot to 40 sen to and fro by the end i finished school and went to university in the States. Roti canai back then was only 20sen and a stick of satay was only 15sen the most. A brand new car Mitsubishi Galant was only Rm9000 during the mid 70s! Back then if your brothers or sisters were getting salary around RM1000 plus, it was considered high. Our electricity bill never exceeded Rm20! A liter of petrol was less than 50sen! and best of all it only cost us Rm1.65 to watch a movie sitting in a first class section!
Fast forward to today where we claim to have to have much improved and becoming a developed nation by 2020. A liter of petrol costs Rm2.30 yesterday, a bag of 5kg local rice cost RM18++, a piece of roti canai costs almost a ringgit, a movie ticket cost Rm11.00, an entry car like Kanchil cost around Rm30,000, and a bottle of mineral water is more expensive than a liter of petrol back then! How much things have changed and the value of money has shrunk! An engineer or architect with an average salary of Rm6000 will struggle to pay for car loan, house loan and keeping a kid or two! He also has to struggle with tolls, increase in car maintenance, tax, increase in medical bills etc. Yesterday i was shocked when a clinic charged close to Rm100 for flu medicine for both of my kids! The cost of everything around us jumped by leaps and bounds but yet the salary increase is very slow at a snail pace. A lot of people have to do two jobs to survive. With the recession around the corner, God knows the hardship these people are going to face. Of course, the rich are getting richer by the day and have no inkling of this or would not care less. The irony is that a lot of them used to be poor! The politicians only stick their necks out only there is something to gain. They are more concerned about taking care of their corporate friends' interests. Mr PM asked us to change our lifestyles and save a lot, question is what is there to save?
Tun Mahathir was right, protect the buying power of consumers by making the value of money high, and keeping the cost down. If need be, repeg the ringgit at certain level. The economy is now export oriented, that is why the government does not want to repeg the ringgit because by keeping the ringgit value low there will be more export to foreign countries bringing in cash flow to the country. But with ringgit value low the import stuffs will be expensive for the local consumers thus reducing the paying power and value of money. A right balance need to be found fast by the government to keep the economy healthy and the people happy.
Otherwise, we cant show you the money as none is left to show!
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