I certainly have much time to write today and so write I will :)
The fact is, I'm scared that Malaysia will experience what Greece is experiencing. If we analyze, Greece government have been trying all it can to be popular with the citizens. And so they made their lives easier. How easy? First of all, education is FREE up to tertiary level. Secondly, civil servants are entitled to 2 months-bonuses each year, and receive full pensions with just 20 years of service. And of course on top of those are the continuous pay rise announced by the government. Thirdly, government had been spending A LOT on projects, mounting to huge deficits.
Sounds familiar? Yes the pattern is almost the same here in Malaysia except of course the free-education-thing. To picture how bad Greece is now, its deficit is 12.7%, and its corruption index is at rank 71. Our budget deficit on the other hand, for last year was 7.9% (god knows what it is now), and our corruption index is increasing, at number 56 (Singapore is in 3rd rank of the least corrupted nation). So is there a possibility that we will be like Greece? Yes IF we don't start to cut short on our spending and be transparent.
What scare me more is the fact that we are borrowing money to pay our debts, which means the government is delaying the crisis because we all are being padded and blinded of our real economic situation. Who will feel the pinch? The future generation, including us. And of course our dear children.
As postulated by my lecturer, "we all are in the same track of the roller-coaster; one day we will plunge and we can't get out of it. Once we hit that, it takes years to get back to the top". The same happens to America. They are still feeling the pinch of sub-prime financial crisis 2008..some houses were being taken away by the banks, and some even slept on the road. It's not being reported much, as the news of the Hollywood glam dominate the papers, but indeed if we read individual stories, we'll start to feel the goosebumps.
The moral of the story? If possible, let us try to spend within our means and do not borrow from the banks, even it's just an "innocent" credit card. That's how the great countries in the world collapse. We definitely, definitely do not want Malaysia to be the same.
The fact is, I'm scared that Malaysia will experience what Greece is experiencing. If we analyze, Greece government have been trying all it can to be popular with the citizens. And so they made their lives easier. How easy? First of all, education is FREE up to tertiary level. Secondly, civil servants are entitled to 2 months-bonuses each year, and receive full pensions with just 20 years of service. And of course on top of those are the continuous pay rise announced by the government. Thirdly, government had been spending A LOT on projects, mounting to huge deficits.
Sounds familiar? Yes the pattern is almost the same here in Malaysia except of course the free-education-thing. To picture how bad Greece is now, its deficit is 12.7%, and its corruption index is at rank 71. Our budget deficit on the other hand, for last year was 7.9% (god knows what it is now), and our corruption index is increasing, at number 56 (Singapore is in 3rd rank of the least corrupted nation). So is there a possibility that we will be like Greece? Yes IF we don't start to cut short on our spending and be transparent.
What scare me more is the fact that we are borrowing money to pay our debts, which means the government is delaying the crisis because we all are being padded and blinded of our real economic situation. Who will feel the pinch? The future generation, including us. And of course our dear children.
As postulated by my lecturer, "we all are in the same track of the roller-coaster; one day we will plunge and we can't get out of it. Once we hit that, it takes years to get back to the top". The same happens to America. They are still feeling the pinch of sub-prime financial crisis 2008..some houses were being taken away by the banks, and some even slept on the road. It's not being reported much, as the news of the Hollywood glam dominate the papers, but indeed if we read individual stories, we'll start to feel the goosebumps.
The moral of the story? If possible, let us try to spend within our means and do not borrow from the banks, even it's just an "innocent" credit card. That's how the great countries in the world collapse. We definitely, definitely do not want Malaysia to be the same.
