I'm not as fortunate as you. The distance to the nearest LRT from my house is almost the same as the distance from my house to work. It's faster to drive, and almost the same cost as taking LRT (if I factor in the fees from my house to station).
Use all your Internet access in your office, then no need install streamyx or 56k. Borrow movies from friends, no need buy. Ask friends to download software, and borrow you, no need to buy. Only take dinner, no need eat whole day, can clear stomach. No need take water to office, take water from office go home. No need cook at home, eat instant noodle or bread enough. Shop once a year? What for? Reuse your father's old clothes la. Disco or karaoke? Can borrow your friend's cd/dvd/vcd, copied them, then go home to play... off the light, take out your mobile phone and use as light... instant disco. Or can use candle. If want to exercise, can go running... from home to work and work back home. FOC! And you save fuel and no need to buy car too! By the end of the year, can buy a new house adi or go oversea for a trip.
Well, the reduction in subsidy is inevitable. I've been expecting it since just after CNY. The government has to eventually cut off all subsidy. After all, we are also subsidizing visitors to our country! For example, visitors from the north (Thailand) and from the south (Singapore). Like us, they are enjoying the benefits of cheaper petrol and lower prices in Malaysia. BUT unlike us, they are NOT contributing to the government's coffers in the form of taxes. If we continue with the petrol subsidy, we will only benefit non-Malaysians because no matter whether our money is spent on petrol or in taxes, the government gets us anyway. Even though the government claims it's a subsidy, we are actually paying for it through taxes. Subsidies like this ultimately benefit only Malaysians who are earning less than RM 2.6K per month (and so, pay no taxes) and non-Malaysians. Of course, reducing subsidy does NOT necessarily mean that the government will actually improve our transportation system. It just allows them to increase their coffers. But whatever they do, of course, is up to them. Whether it's to improve our transportation system for real... OR cover Proton's bleeding asses yet again, or pay for some Sultan's birthday bash.. or even keep our "hardworking" ministers fat and happy, etc.. Well, that's for our beloved politicians to decide. So, if you want to make sure YOUR MONEY works FOR YOU... you know what to do. REGISTER and VOTE!! Vote for HONEST and TRUSTWORTHY politicians. Vote for REAL leaders, not the leeches we currently have in our government. There's really no use complaining about rising prices. If you want real action, you have to TAKE ACTION yourself. Start by being more active in the governance of the country. The country needs more LEADERS, not LEECHES.
Incidentally, talking about the price of petrol here in Malaysia versus the price of petrol over in the US, it's really quite imbalanced. True, we still have cheaper petrol than the Americans, even with the latest increase. BUT if you calculate the cost of petrol as a percentage of what we earn, the Americans win hands down. They will spend less of the pay in % per month on petrol than what we pay, even with subsidy. The fact remains that what's truly important ultimately is NOT the cost but rather, the ratio of your spending power over cost. It really doesn't matter if costs go up, as long as your spending power increases in tandem or more than that. Right? Also, while Americans pay more for their petrol, we pay A LOT more for our cars. I just saw an advert in the US for a Mercedes S550 which costs only about USD 84K or RM 315K. Man.. Over here, that will only get you something like a Mercedes C200 Kompressor or a BMW 325i. This large difference in car prices more than makes up for the extra cost in petrol. SERIOUSLY, you will never spend enough petrol to make up for the extra you pay the government in the taxes and duties for new cars. Take, for example, a foreign car that costs RM 80K. The actual price would be something like RM 30-40K, before taxes. Let's be generous and say RM 40K. So, there's a HUGE difference of RM 40K between the actual price of the car and the price we pay. If the government does NOT subsidize our petrol and we pay an extra ringgit for every liter, we will probably pay an extra RM 100-200 per month for petrol. Let's be generous again and say that we end up paying an extra RM 250 per month WITHOUT subsidy. DYKT it will take you 13+ years to actually break even with the amount of tax you pay to the government when you bought your car???? Let's not even calculate the extra interest we pay to the banks when we take the extra loan to pay for government taxes on cars. In short, the Americans get to buy cheaper cars (which allow them to save money on car loan interest) and spend less on petrol compared to their earning power. If given a choice, I would definitely prefer to select the American model over our current model.
My goodness. Fuel prices are going up every year. I might as well invent and innovate the Hydrogen fuel and bioesters for the energy saving and very less pollution. At least we don't have to use the fossil fuel every time. Well, I always heard that they start to use palm oil for fuel in cars in here?? But I seldom see it. Perhaps they should start promoting it. In Brazil, if I'm not mistaken they are using Ethanol instead of petrol. What a good energy saver.
adrian, register and VOTE? which one shud i vote? BN? Rocket? Moon? pls tell me, which one can do better job? All of them are the same! im not belive in politics and especially, malaysia politics! Malaysia gov=hopeless
I think biodiesel only uses a small percentage (5-10%) of palm oil as additive. So, it will probably have only a little effect on the actual price of biodiesel.
That's why la.. I've always stated many times that Malaysians need to vote for each and every good LEADER we can find. NEVER vote for the party, race or religion. That's the surest way to, well.. maintain the status quo.
Yalah. How to know-ah? All of them are the same. It's like for better or for worse. If don't vote, got problem. If vote also got problem. Is this Malaysia or is it just me?
It's me too. I don't quite like politics like some of you guys do. So, I don't keep up to date. Then I'll never know which one is good, which is not, which one is new or old, etc. So, should I vote for party instead of good leader?
