Subsidies...

Boleh-land is full of subsidies and a vast majority of its citizens 'enjoy' subsidies... subsidies provided by taxpayers like myself. I harp on this issue as the tax that I pay annually has 5 digits before the decimal point and is more than what some people earn in a year... and that's quite a lot of people taking into consideration that Boleh-land's average salary is below RM2k.

Now... getting to my point... 

Ever since I became management in my line of work, I only had to worry about one meal per day as I usually took the other two at work since I spend a lot of time at work. And in the past 4 years, I did not have to worry about transport as I lived in-house and in the past one year I could walk to work or even if I drove the fuel would last me a whole month with a full tank. This is a form of subsidy. Present day... breakfast, lunch and dinner is on my own.

The cheapest McValue meal during lunch hour is RM5.95. A nasi campur of three dishes would set you back about RM4.00 without beverage. So let's just say that on an average each meal is about RM6.00 with the exception of breakfast which may only be RM3.00 if you have just a drink and a roti canai or nasi lemak. So, that's RM15.00 a day... translates to RM450.00 a month... that is if you have the same bloody  boring routine each and every day. Can you?

Next... being in Langkawi you travel... and I mean you do travel... it is about 22kms per way to where I work... so two ways would be about 45kms... no detours. Add in the nature of my work now which requires me to look for places, suppliers and the what nots, I do about 100kms a day. But fro a realistic scenario we will use 45kms a day. My motorboat chugs approximately 1 liter every 8kms... yeah... that's a lot of fuel. So, on an average it is about 5 liters a day and at RM1.80 per liter that sets me back RM9.00 a day and that translates to RM270.00 a month.

That's RM720.00 a month just on meals and fuel... and with the scenarios used it is a BEST CASE scenario. And your imagination is the only limitation to what the worst case scenario is like. Here's some info to boost your imagination... I pump RM50.00 of fuel every other day and there have been a few occasions when it is the very next day. I've been here two weeks so every other day means 7 x RM50.00 which is RM350.00. I had a very nice Braised Lamb Shank at Tapaz today... and it costs me RM44.00++. A Grande Caramel Macchiato  in Starbuck's costs RM13.00. And if you have the same McValue meal at dinner it would be RM9.20 and not as earlier stated. Everything is expensive and we expect people to survive on their meager sub RM1k salaries... and they struggle. As long as you never experience something better, you will never be able to produce something better.

That's about all the time I have today... I'm at Starbuck's... the battery's low and my Caramel Macchiato almost finished. Subsidy... is that the answer? NO... subsidies make you weak. Take the freaking subsidies away... increase the average wage... increase efficiencies, increase productivity. Just my 2 sen... and for your information, I have a shit loads of 2 sens...

And before I go... Here's an article that may interest you.