Loosing the power to buy

I've bought a second-hand Wira for forty-four thousands ringgit in 1997 and the car has served me for 18 years. Today, the car value is about three thousands only. Though I could afford to replace that old car with a new one at that time but the monthly repayment and the cost of maintaining the new car could be tough for me. The children were young and they need the basic necessities of shelter, clothing and food. Luckily, primary education and secondary education is free. But then, on each new schooling year, clothing, exercise books and shoes would reduce the already minimal needs of the monthly livelihood for that month. The children pocket money for buying food in school during recess time was a mere 50 cents for a day which I believed, not enough to comfort hunger. I remember I used to have 20 cents in primary school and 50 cents for a day in secondary school during 1967 to 1972 and 1973 to 1977 consecutively. The children did not spend money on tuition as they know that their parent could not afford.

Though I over-worked, I managed to received escalating income for only a short period from 1990 to 1997. After that, I lost my job when my employer was unable to survive during the economic crisis. However, when my employer was profiting well during the 1985 to the 1989 booming years, many colleague of mine including myself were earning little and the starting salary of a manager was just eight hundred ringgit. Unless, one has a professional qualification, that was their income standard and they didn't earn more than enough for extra spending other than the basic necessities. To this point, I encourage anyone who is studying, may he or she in the primary level, secondary level or tertiary level, to study hard. Unless, they depended on financial support of some sorts, they couldn't afford to own a new local car of price around seventeen thousands ringgit during that time. That means they could be afraid to buy a house of their own with their income bracket. This class of wage earners would not have the capability to take a vacation tour without depending on other sources of income. They did not have the power to spend.

Even though you may have wide working experiences and wide work knowledge, if you are not certified, you could land on an eight hundred ringgit a-month job again after the economic crisis after the turn of a new century. That income standard is a poverty class individual income. It is prudent to consider that my new employer would not increase the employee salary annually. True enough, the new employer don't. It was only wise to leave the job for another or to be called back with a higher offer if you are a good worker. On the later option, my monthly income increased two folds calling back after resignation. How many are lucky this way ? Better than eight hundred ringgit, the revised salary still kept me in the poor class at the age of 44. Many people were in the same situation. To keep their livelihood sustainable, many spend on credits as prices were inflated. The interest rates lower and your work for the bank. Then the price of household consumables gradually goes upward again. From observation, more and more people are buying household goods on credit these days. And the described, was the scenario about more than a decade ago.

As the cost of living of the past one decade has gone up by a big margin, spending on credits also increases. Pushing aside other costs in this paragraph, and just to mention the cost of tertiary education; learning has become more expensive for the poor. In the 60s, 70s or even in the early 80s, supporting a child who study in a university was still affordable but today many parents find it tougher to do that. Luckily, the government has introduced a education fund to help the poor citizen. The poor earnings group has also garnered the attention of the caring government and their children are able to complete the needed education. In other word, the K-citizen is never neglected. Education is the key to succeed wherever you may be. Down the road, education enriched not only oneself but also the society. In the society, you can see the super earner, the high earner, the moderate earner, and the poor earner. Usually, you will find that the poor earner is from the lower educated level. However, the poor earner could later on in life be more successful than the educated ones when he goes into potential businesses.

Since education is an essential tool to make a man prosperous and a prosperous society, no matter how poor, any boy or girl has a chance to complete acquiring knowledge and skills from the tertiary level. Reading to gain knowledge is accepted as a journey to life-long education and to fortify the habit, the government is again kind enough to give book vouchers away. Generally, the people imagined that today graduates are far less qualified than those before the 80s. That assumption has created a lousy reward for them and they have to struggle when they begin working. They struggle to pay the cost of transport, the education loan, the place of stay for some, their meals, and for those who are filial, a token-sum is reserved for the parent. The educated ones are beginning to lose the power to spend.

How about the aging and the less educated ones that retired from the private sector ? What about the less educated young ones who are unemployed ? They might resort to rob and steal for things they like but cannot afford, for a few cases. In fact, the fresh and new graduates are more ready and prepared because their instant access to wireless knowledge is a thing the old graduates of the past never had. I believed that given chances, the fresh and new graduates can do better for the society.

Monetary rewards to graduates of the Y-Gen need to be updated so that the talents are not used by other countries making us left to depend on the limited human resources. Maximum pay and maximum salaries is unable to be fixed but we see the fixing of the minimum pay of RM900 recently. Many are not patient to wait for the feasible positive result when the ruling of the minimum pay to care for the poor is proposed; many protested. Well it is in fact a good action to protect our domestic workers from being underpaid. Unless you are working with a multinational or international company, the income of a non-qualified worker has no improvement over at least the last two decades.

While many are still struggling from the result of the previous decade of adversities, they have to add on to face the rising cost of living due to the taxes on goods and services. What more with the weakening ringgits.

Surely, those are teething problems, and time will show that the under-privileged persons are taken care for.