Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Tak Tahu Kira Kah?

Sdr. Lim Kit Siang hopes to be PM someday. Maybe in his dreams it can happen. Since he hopes to be PM, he clearly can't be the Cassandra who tells Malaysians how bad shit is in Malaysia. You see, to be PM people must believe things are ok otherwise they go vote for the guy who tells them 'go back to sleep, it's all going to be ok'.



Here is Sdr. Lim's estimate on what things cost in Malaysia. Please don't leave me comments on how someone else wrote it. If you don't believe it then don't publish it or forward it. That someone else wrote it is not an excuse.



I'm going to list down what the prices are listed there and then list down what the prices are in KL. If you want to live in someplace like Sungai Siput then you got no job anyway so the prices there could be RM 1 and it would still be RM 1 more than you had.



Electricity bill - RM 100. Bullshit. Electricity bill for a family of four would be closer than RM 250 assuming they cut down on air cond use and use water heater only for morning bath. Kids need to go to school before the sun comes up. Solar doesn't help you and fogrget wind power. You can put up a windmill and the next thing the blahdy government does is they let a developer build a condo in front of your windmill...ooops, your f***ing wind power just got screwed. We assume water bill is negligible. Therefore this one is RM 250.



Astro bill - We are trying to save money so assume cannot buy DVD, VCD, or go for movie. Assume Ass-tro bill is around RM 100. It would be cheaper if the bloody government would allow competition but we need to pay an arm and a leg through our noses so that some Indian can make a profit. Watch government Tele? Are you kidding. One channel is a full stream of 20 forms of Quran reading a day and the other one is filled with brown fools jabbering in some language only they understand. The rest of us don't need to speak it so most of us forget it once we get out of school.



Handphone bill - Steal a handphone since you cannot afford to buy one. Then sign up for a plan. Use sparingly and try to get by on a bill of RM 50 a month. Oh shit, wife also need phone. So double that.



Total Utilities - RM 450



Meals for the family. Lets assume breakfast is negligible. Eat bread or somethin lah. No ham/bacon/franks/etc . Malaysia no John Morell which is one of my pleasures in life so we assume breakfast is near free. No dim sum, no nasi lemak, no nothing. Bread and a little bit of Malaysian home grown palm oil. Imported butter, out. Cheese, out. Preserves, out. Assume meals at RM 50 per day for all 4 people. This also assumes that no one eats out or that any eatting out (example working lunch) comes out of that daily budget. One good meal I have at Tony Romas is already more than RM80. Ok for 30 days the total is 1500



Total meals - RM 1500



Car Payments - Sdr Lim would like us to believe RM 400 buys a Proton. WRONG. A Proton lasts for around 5 years at best. Actually from what I hear it lasts 3 years. Beyond 3 years you need to start replacing the parts so that the Total Cost of Ownership at the end is higher the longer you keep the Proton. Let's assume that you pay RM 800 a month for your Proton Saga.



In addition to car payments you need to pay for servicing. Assume you service once every 3 months and it costs approx. RM 150. This equals out to RM 50 a month. You also need to pay road tax and insurance. Assume its 600 a year for both. (Update:I hear from readers it's much more). End up another RM 50 into car payment.



A Proton runs about RM 70 per tank. This works out at one tank a week to RM 300 a month. If you need to refuel more than once a week then you are screwed big time. By the way, wake up at 6 AM and send your kids to school and only come home at 8 because you have to pick your wife up. You can only afford ONE car and you cannot afford school bus.



Total Car costs: RM 1200



Housing - Assuming you buy a house at RM 150K (you get a flat for that price I guess). Assume a rate of 7.5%. Your repayment should be around RM 1200 a month assuming a 30 year loan. The bank will want you to buy insurance on the mortgage. Tell them you cannot afford it. If you die then your wife and kids sleep on the street. You have no money for insurance. Pray that your house doesn't need repairs over the 30 years. Let's say you put aside RM 30 a month for fixtures. You still need to pay your quit rent and land assesment. Assume RM 70 a month. Yes you pay annually but we assume you put aside some money every month.



Total Housing RM 1300.





So let's see where we are so far.



Total Utilities - RM 450

Total meals - RM 1500

Total Car costs: RM 1200

Total Housing RM 1300.



So far our costs are already RM 4450.



Still not counted is children's education. Maybe is better you don't send your kids to school. Then they grow up ignorant and stupid. Hopefully life is better when they are stupid enough to believe the lies that people like Najib tells them. Clothes? Groceries, like toiletries, toilet paper (Malay don't use this so we didn't add it to our cost of living survey), cooking utensils and so on.



At 10% EPF and the local tax rates you end up have to make around RM 5500. Sigh, at the rate both you and your wife got to work. Now ask yourself why Najib's wife don't need to work.