/Saturday, August 12, 2006
As an economics student, I could'nt resist pointing out A starklingly obvious matter.
Not trying to be condescending here.Imagine Mr Banana is the head of Banana Inc.Mr Papaya shows interest in grabbing some workers from Banana Inc. Hence, Mr Banana panicks and he tot of a plan that would help retain his workers.
He gives them a one-time payment of $$Moolah$$.
Some workers are happy, they stay; some were unmoved by $$ and left for Papaya Inc.
It does'nt matter, cos at least some workers did STAY becos of $$.
$1000 per person, and he had to pay 1000 banana workers. *hecks*
The payout left Banana Inc. $$$1 million$$$ dollar poorer. Shit man, he tot. Must find way to raise funds.
He start making his workers pay more for coffee and banana snacks in the office.
From 50 cents, prices went up to 80 cents. It's a a one-time increase with no chances of it going down.
Some fussed, but others tot the increase would'nt make such a huge dent in their wallets.
It's only a few cents. They tot to themselves.Years down the row, Mr Banana is sure tat $$$1 million$$$ dollar will come back.
Unless he starts pulling off crap stories about inflation and deflation.
***4 years later***
Mr Papaya had expanded Papaya Inc.! He wanna grab more workers from Banana Inc.
Probably becos banana peelers are
2x more efficient if they become papaya peelers, so tat's COMPARATIVE advantage for you and they should all specialized in peeling papayas instead.
Anyway, Not to digress, Mr Banana comes up with an action plan again. He needs to retain his workers again.
He starts giving free Moolah again!$$$ under a new Banana Inc. scheme:
Thanks for yr loyalty to the Bananas! You deserved it!**************************************************
Again, Some workers are happy, they stay; some were unmoved by $$ and left for Papaya Inc.
It does'nt matter, cos at least some workers did STAY becos of $$.
$1000 per person, and he had to pay 1000 banana workers. *hecks*
The payout left Banana Inc. $$$1 million$$$ dollar poorer. Shit man, he tot. Must find way to raise funds.
He raised the carpark prices and workers have to pay for more for their shuttle buses.
Some complained, Others fuss; but they tot about it and feel tat they can't blame Mr Banana cos oil prices are rising and the ozone layer is thinning.Mr Banana did some maths and realized that within 6 years, he could reap back the amount he gave out in the first place! *yippee*
A few cents per worker each day seems insignificant.
But 50cents x 1000 workers x 365 days earns you a mind-boggling $$182, 500 per year!
So in no time, he could easily get back that $$1 Million$$ Cashout! *whoopee*
**Disclaimer** (Inflation is pretty stable in Banana Land, So the value of a Million Moolah is relatively the same after 6 years. )
************************************************************************************
Mr Banana is one-heck-of-a happy banana head of Banana Inc.In economics, Im always learning stuff about budgets and they are either balanced (where spending = taxes/revenue collected), in Surpluses (where taxes/revenues collected > spending), or in Deficits (where taxes/revenues collected <> The only thing taxpayers could do these days is to participate in Polls on CNN and express their views thru' the screen.
How to finance a Deficit? Get people to pay more taxes lor, raise transport costs lor, or ask yr GLCs like Te-me-sak Hol-dings Or the G-I-C (there is such a company, for yr info.) to put our CPF and tax money into more Moolah-making overseas ventures lor.Do we have a freedom to choose how our taxes paid to the gahmen should be spent? Dun think that our CPF money sits in a stone vault for 55 years waiting for us to collect it cos tat's utter rubbish. Whether yr money gets lost in a venture or market, you are assured a decent payoff after you retire. Luckily, we have prudent investors in Banana Inc., if not, we would'nt be such a wealthy nation.Do we have a freedom to decide whether this policy is the best way to finance deficits or engineer growth? All we could do these days is to behave like "empty vessels that makes the most noise".
So many questions but the whole system is too complicated to pin-point and find faults with.
Oh well, after a while when the flowers bloom and the tide goes down, we are too preoccupied with our own life and ambitions to give these matters too much thoughts. It's scary, come to think of it. It concerns every single one of us, makes everyone whiny all day and yet we have no collective action to tell them what we really want.
Well, sometimes, only sometimes.... collective voices are heard. For frivalous matters like cleaner toilets and saving the beautiful Chek Jawa. But most of the time, we are famous for being "Boh Chup".
it just ain't right @ Saturday, August 12, 2006
