Rising Prices and The Not-So-Bright Society

Have you ever paid RM 12 dollars for a cup of luxury coffee? I know you have. And it’s from just some side walk place isn’t it? I know the coffee tasted alright but… RM 12?? Hmmm… Just because “it’s fucking cool I can afford a coffee that is RM 12???” So, here my story begins.

One fine day, one man named Ah Chong walks into this side walk coffee place and realises something. “What the fuck?!”, he exclaims. “It’s RM 12 for a cup of coffee nowadays and everybody is drinking it with all smiles and laughter. This place is always bloody packed! People can afford this, so why the hell should I charge RM1 for mine? It’s the same bloody coffee. Well, maybe I’ll just try it out. I’ll charge half the price and see what happens.”.

And so, the next day, this Ah Chong opens his shop, throw in a little fancy design, throws in a spoonful more sugar, gives his coffee some fancy name, mounts 2 units of air-conditioners, and then the next thing you know, Ah Chong’s coffee shop sell’s his new fancy Kopi Kapitan at RM 6! You would think its ridiculous. But, Ah Chong ends up buying his new Bee-Em-Dabeliu and starts flashing it in front of his friend Tajudin who owns a nasi kandar place.

Curious Tajudin then goes to Ah Chong’s shop to find out what is actually going on and gets a shock of his life seeing the coffee being RM 6! He could hardly get a seat at Ah Chong’s coffee shop! So, Tajudin thought, “Why the hell am I charging RM1 for my coffee? Money has lesser value nowadays, so, I’ll just charge RM 3 for mine and see what happens. Bloody hell! I have as much customers if not more!”.

Then soon after that, Tajudin’s friend, En. Mydin, the mamak warung owner thought, “If Tajudin can charge RM 3 for his coffee, maybe I should charge RM 2 for mine instead of 60 cents. Then you come and think about it, it makes no sense to charge a plate of nasi lemak with a tiny little piece of chicken RM 2 when the coffee is RM 6. So, nasi lemak becomes RM 8, roti bakar becomes RM 4, telur separuh masak becomes RM 2.

Then as Tajudin gets richer, he starts having ice cream at RM 20 instead of his regular RM 1 ice pops. Then, speaking of ice creams…

Well, you see what we have here? When the price of everything goes up proportionately, you complain and complain and complain. You complain that the value of money is going down the drain, you complain that times are tough, you complain that the government is screwing up the economy (well, yes, they surely do but so are you!) and you start demanding a higher salary, then your boss has to resort to cut throat business and start charging everybody more. And it goes on and on. It’s a simple analogy and if you are smart, you’ll get the logic. It is a cycle. A vicious cycle. Wake up! You blame everybody else for the prices of everything to go up. But then again, who is that making Ah Chong, Tajudin and En. Mydin rich? Who is that thinking its cool sitting at the bloody side walk under the hot sun, with a tiny unsatisfying cup of coffee thinking its cool to have a RM 12 cup of coffee? Who is that sitting in Tajuddin’s nasi kandar place every single night without fail? It’s your personal choice, dudes and dudettes.

Don’t go around putting twenty dollar chocolates in your shopping cart while complaining about the prices of things. And what about eating your hearts out at an ikan bakar stall while complaining to your friends that one silly piece of fish that you can actually bloody catch from the drain (ok, not fromt he drain, but you get the idea) cost RM 20 now? Then you go back to that stall the next day, the day after next. Nobody is forcing you to do it. It’s alright to pamper yourself occasionally, do some luxury stuff with your hard earn cash or spend them on something you truly, genuinely think is worth it. But come on, you know it when your coffee is overpriced. If everybody doesn’t go to Chong’s place, you think he’d still charge you RM 6 for it?! And come on, you cant expect petrol price to be RM 1 when you are eating an RM 30 ice cream can you? They bloody have to suck whatever is left of that already soon-to-be-dried up petroleum field out from the ground deep below, man. I’m not saying petrol prices deserve to be up. They definitely don’t. But, who is it again are you blaming??? We are in this together, though the goverment fucks this up more than we do.

Disclaimer: The credits for this post goes to Lazygirl, who insists that this is not the pent-up post-exam anger spewing like a volcano… At least not yet…

PS: I bet you are wondering where is Muthu during all this ruckus. Muthu was at Ah Chong’s shop doing all the wiring and installation of those air-conditioners and charging them at RM 200 above the regular sale price.