Is cost of living in Malaysia too high?

Using the Big Mac benchmark does put our purchasing power quite high - meaning we are actually quite good in terms of spending power, with consideration to how much currency is needed to commit a purchase. Once incomes get considered, that's a different story.

Which means: a Big Mac here (after taking into account foreign exchange)cheaper than in the US. But real incomes in the US is higher, so basically they can afford more Big Macs with their incomes over there than we can with our incomes over here, although we can get them at a cheaper price (after taking into account foreign exchange).

The question isn't too much about what our purchasing power is now, but in what direction it is heading. Is inflation going faster than pay rises? Keep in mind though that prices for goods are more elastic and thus usually change faster than wages (which tend to be revised in longer cycles), so wages not changing at the moment does not mean that they're not headed for a change.

The differing prices of Big Macs may illustrate yet another evidence that supply and demand (different populations have differing demands) ultimately determine the prices of goods. Costs of production may be a contributing factor, but if it's so, then we should be able to see a pattern of increase based on shipping distance, or the availability of beef.

The Big Mac Index:
http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8649005
Reading tip: Descending down the graph are cheaper prices for the Big Mac in terms of the USD.

Tradeoff between wisdom and knowledge

Have you noticed?

Some old folks just humbles you with their wisdom, they don't admit to knowing everything. They're fine with admitting their ignorance. They struck you as being wise.

Some old folks just belittles you with their age-old knowledge, they admit to knowing more than you. They struck you as being a know-it-all, or a know-it-all wannabe.

Either way, point is there's a trade-off between being seen as wise or knowledgeable.

Some people just admit to knowing so much, even if it seems like they have no way of stumbling upon that knowledge. Classic example would be when it comes to judging people by the looks. Notice how many elderly take pride with their people judging skills?

When they're correct, they loudly exclaim it. When they're wrong, zilch is said.
I'm sad for these folks. They're old yet they're unwise.

Trade benefits both sides

Many people think that trade is zero-sum, meaning there is a loser and a winner and the net effect is zero. Their logic is that you pay money to get something and give something to get money, or otherwise; exports are good, imports are bad.

So allow me to make this very simple example:

There are 2 individuals here:
A man that demands sex and supplies attention.
A woman that demands attention and supplies sex.

If they trade with each other: Both sides get what they want. They become happy.
If they don't: Both sides don't get what they want. They become unhappy.

Observation tells us that on the above case, such trades happen (relationship and marriage) which means people must believe they will be happier after the trade or the trade will not take place.

The next time you buy foreign produce, think about it.
You get what you want, you're happier.
The foreign firm gets your cash, they're happier.

What did we learn today? Don't isolate ourselves! Trade!

Benefit of the Doubt

Sometimes laws get overzealous.

Take for example laws against drug smuggling. We put penalties against people who smuggle or distribute drugs because we don't want our society to be drug addicts. The purpose of the law is as what I've said, because we don't want more people to get drugged by drugs.

But because it is hard to prove motives in courts, because it's difficult to see if the person possessing those drugs are doing it for the purpose of distribution, lawmakers and courts give leeway to the law, so much to the extent that possessing a certain quantity of drugs alone is penalized severely by law, sometimes even by death.

And that's what I feel is wrong. Some people may come into drug possession as an accident. With such severe punishments attached to drug possession, innocent people with no intention of utilizing the drugs in any way may have their lives ruined by exactly the laws that are supposed to protect them.

I still remember how witchcraft trials in the west came to an end. Persecution of witches stopped because the emerging wisdom was how it is better to put loose 10 witches than to burn an innocent man.

Benefit of the doubt must be given to those found possessing drugs. We don't need to take a life for this. We don't want to take innocent lives. We know accidents and bad luck do happen. We know people get in trouble simply because they are in the wrong place and at the wrong time, without any intention of wrong-doing.

It is only fair, that as much as we don't want to be put on death-row for accidentally possessing drugs, that we don't put another fellow person in that situation.

Surely, no innocent life deserves to be lost just to make a firm warning to many others?

Big men, small women

I was chatting to a Malaysian friend who transferred to a US university for his studies. I fixed for language.

FIS says:
But I now feel more liking for American girls lor

Me says:
Why?

FIS says:
For no reason

FIS says:
I don't know

Me says:
Are their girls (American) much taller and bigger?

FIS says:
Not really

Me says:
But why are their guys so big then?

FIS says:
Haha


This is weird. My dad is tall, at least half a head taller than me. My mum is short, at least half a head shorter than me. I'm relatively short and I've always thought that this is the case because I had partially inherited short genes from my mum.

Americans (at least their men) are generally bigger in size than Asians. But if their women are actually much smaller, then the height of their population is supposed to converge to a value between the height of their men and women. So since their women are not that big, their men shouldn't be that huge.

But their men are big.