Friday, June 13, 2008

Don't forget the middle class!

Everyone's feeling the pinch with the increase in fuel and food prices. No one's spared. The lower income, of course, is the hardest hit. But don't forget the middle class, who forms the majority of Malaysians. These are the salaried workers, who have their money deducted monthly and still have to pay more at the end of the year. Unlike the rich fat cats, they have no creative accountants to help them pay less to the IRD. The middle class are the "neither rich and neither poor" - but with the hike in prices, many are drifting towards the poor category. Worse, we are not qualified for most aid. The designations and salaries we carry don't help either, so the children lose out to others when it comes to scholarships. Sure, we understand there are more deserving cases but when you earn an average of RM3,500 or less and you have a family and live in the Klang Valley, you have a serious budget problem. The starting pay for graduates is around RM1,800-RM2,000, and after the rent, food and car loan, they still need support from daddy and mummy. Will anyone listen to the middle class?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dato,

i do agree with you that middle class Rakyat are often been overlooked by the goverment.

Middle class eventhough are in better situation in economy sense but still doesn't mean they could cope with the latest inflation in the country.

The previos press release stated that the inflation will not affect the lower income Rakyat but i do not really agree...once fuel go up...surely everything that connected to fuel or transportation with go up as well.

Poor Rakyat like us are suffering.

Anonymous said...

Can A Family Man With Salary RM3,000 Survive In Malaysia...!




Can a family man with Salary RM3,000 survive in Malaysia

Let's do some simple calculations here.

In Malaysia, the average family income is RM3,000 /month
(where father works, mother doesn't).

I understand there are many families whose
monthly income does not reach RM3,000,
but, to make things simple,
let's take RM3,000 as the figure. Ok lah, right?

Okay, let's start rolling with a family which has
Papa, Mama, 1 daughter and 1 son. Ngam-ngam ....

Calculation starts...

Electricity and water bill: RM100
(No air-con, No home theatre, No water heater ... ok?)

Phone bill ( Telekom): RM100

Meals for a happy family: RM775
(3 meals on RM25/day, RM25 for 4 persons...?)

Papa makan / teh-tarik during working hrs: RM155
(RM5/day, RM5 ... can eat what?)

Car repayment: RM400
(A proton saga aeroback, 7 yrs repayment)

Petrol (living in city, traffic-jam): RM300
(go to work, bring son to school,
only can afford one car running)

Insurance: RM650
(kids, wife and myself)

House repayment: RM750
(low cost housing repayment for 30 yrs,
retired still have to work to pay!)

Tuition: RM80
(got that cheap meh? i don't think so)

Older children pocket money @ school: RM20
(RM1/day, eat bread?)

School fees: RM30
(enough ah?)

School books and etc: RM100
(always got extra to pay in school)

Younger children milk powder: RM50
(cannot have the DHA, BHA, PHA one, expensive)

Miscellaneous: RM100
(shampoo, rice, sauce, toilet paper)

Oh wait!!! I have to stop here, so...
No Astro,
no movie @ cinema,
no DVD,
no CD,
no online,
cannot KFC,
cannot McDonald,
cannot go Park walk during weekend (petrol expensive),
no chit chat on phone with grandparents, and etc...

Let's use a calculator to total up... WALAO EH! Shit! RM3,610 already...

EPF belum potong, income tax lagi........oledi RM3,610 ....

How to survive lah tuan-tuan dan puan-puan sekalian ???

Our Deputy Prime Minister asked us to change lifestyle?

How to change? Don't eat? Don't work? Don't send children to school and study?

Besides that, I believe in Malaysia population, there are millions of rakyat Malaysia which still don't earn RM3,000/month!!!

Anonymous said...

anon 4.10 pm

thumbs up. and they have the temerity to tell us they are sharing our pain by restricting their all expense paid holidays to Asean countries.
and they told us they have done a good job to deserve the holidays and other perks such as entertainment expenses.
They sure deserve the accolades, according to their wizardly economics, coz they managed to increase our annual income by 4.3% a year from 2005 to 2007. Mate, if you factor in the inflation rate, our bloody real income has actualy decline and they are raving to the world about a job well done. On second thoughts, nothing much to say coz it comes from a guy, helming the Finance Ministry, who happened to flop his statistics.

Anonymous said...

can a family man with RM3000 survive ?

Well said, anonymous

you should post your calculations on all the online newspapers and blogs to OPEN THE EYES of those who tell us to adjust our lifestyles. looks like they dont know how to count (simple addition also cannot do)

what is there to adjust? our salary has been stretched to breaking point and beyond... and many malaysians dont even earn close to RM3000.

Anonymous said...

there will soon be no middle class .. only two classes ie the rich and the poor

sinnersaint:saintsinner said...

In my previous comment to Mr Chun Wai, i've suggested to feature the daily needs of a household of 3,4 and 5k income with 3 school going children.

I guess Anon has done a very simple estimations and its scary/sad.

It's time all us Malaysians voice our disgust to BN and ask of wise Ministers to address the reality.

The MSM has to be more proactive/vocal in voicing the peoples needs/problems.

Folks these are the saddest moments/times of our lifes, lets not pretend its otherwise.

Say a prayer and hopefully the divine power will answer it in the coming months.

God Bless Malaysians.

alvin lee said...

let us raykat teach our BN govt a good lesson. Instead of just complaining about it in various blogs, we should take an affirmative action now by not supporting Petronas!!!

SO TO ALL RAKYAT, PLEASE DO NOT FILL UP YOUR PETROL FROM PRTRONAS BUT INSTEAD FILL IT UP FROM OTHER OIL COMPANIES UNTIL OUR GOVT AGREES TO MAKE PETRONAS ACCOUNTS PUBLIC AND AGREES TO LOWER THE PRICE INCREASE!!!

I BELIEVE THIS ACTION IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN HOLDING STREET PROTESTS AND WRITING NASTY COMMENTS IN BLOGS.

Anonymous said...

Will any one listen to the old and retired!

Anonymous said...

Dato WCW,

I have to disagree with you that middle class forms the bulk of the workforce.

IRB confirmed that out 10.5million workers, only 1.2m pay taxes (salary >$3k) and 38,500 pay top bracket tax.

So 90% dont pay tax. This group of people will be hardest hit and next those earning $3-$5k The others will feel a pinch and wont be 'wounded'.

My conclusion is that BN govt didn't take this into and acted recklessly. For years, since Dr M administration, we've been induced subsidy addiction just to win votes instead of building middle income. The fault doesn't lie on malaysians but the ruling govt who is navigating the ship. Now the rooster has come home to roost.

But irks the general public is that why is the govt asking Malaysian to get rid of subsidy mentality but they are asking to subsidised Proton, AP holders, IPP, toll concessionaires, syabas,...etc

Subsidy is bad but please correct the structural problems before we can wean off subsidy.

1)Improve our education system because it's our conveyor belt of human resources. Start meritrocacy in school,get the best brain and pay them the best so that they dont have to give tuition to make ends meet. Don't cheat ourselves by producing 21As SPM achievers by tweaking the system.

2)Get rid of cheap foreign workers. Whatever they earn, their money goes out of the country. Their existence is dragging the overall wages down and hence, we don't have the middle income group. Take a look at Australia, (AUD1=RM3.10), they're able to assemble Toyota Camry and export to this region. The labour cost is much higher than us.

3)We should setup Sovereign Wealth Fund like the Norwegian's model. Read here http://ctchoolaw.blogspot.com/2008/06/petronas-malaysias-common-wealth.html. So that when the oil reserve is depleted, we have the reserve for future generation.

4)Maths and Science must continue to be taught in English. Read here http://ctchoolaw.blogspot.com/2008/05/avoiding-babel-trap-in-malaysia-inc.html

Above are my 2cents opinion.
Regards
Ben

peisheah said...

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Stop lamenting. I'm a middle class but because I'm so "kedekut", I don't have those stupid loans that chained you.

Keeping up with the Joneses will only led you to become others' horses.