Price increase is a buzz word
here in Pakistan everything has gone up food, clothing, fuel, education, rent
nothing is cheap. People are complaining about meeting there wants with limited
income. But honesty speaking this situation prevails for a very long time, this
question is embedded with every living human and it solves once he is dead.
Yet, thinking on the subject I
realized that price in Pakistan, has only added a zero since mid eighties. I
recall I used to buy 10 kilograms of flour with Rs.50 today one needs Rs. 550
for buying the same quantity. Similarly, back in 1989, liter petrol used to
cost almost Rs.10 today a liter is for Rs.110; value of 120 yards house was
around 6 to 7 hundred thousand, today it went up to 6 million, remove a zero from
both the prices and you get closer to old one. And indeed, with similar ratio,
income has also gone up, for example, in 90s minimum wage was Rs. 800 to 1000
today it went up to 10,000 remove a zero and you are even.
Similarly, if this vary
formula apply to our currency one will find that Rs. 10 note is like one Rupee,
20 equals two, 50 buys quantity Rs.5 used to buy, Rs.100 equals Rs.10, Rs.500 has become Rs.50, Rs.1000 is like Rs.100 and getting Rs. 5000 change is as difficult as it used to for Rs.500. You may inquire about paisa which is no longer legal tender? Well yes, but
think of our coins, one rupee, two rupees and five rupees. They are as good as
one paisa, two paisa and fifty paisa. Interestingly, there was news that
Government of Pakistan is planning to print a Rs.10,000 note and Rs.10 coin.
The point is, it has always been
difficult to live a life with present salary because our wants increases with
additional cash in our pockets and we, as a nation, are a classic example,
saving is not our way of life but irrational spending. This way of life creates
all the problems, we live with fear that future will be difficult with today’s earning
and thus we cry for more though fact is, with inflation our income is also
increasing because every individual is a factor, factor of production.
2 comments:
I don't exactly agree to you on this analysis. I think u have discounted quite a few other factors such as wealth distribution disparity,Unemployment rate, law of marketing and have generalized the scenario based on the assumption that every factor of production in the society has equal opportunity. It is taught to marketeers that demand is created by either making the target audience realize that they need it for their social existence or it is created by making the subject feel inferior without their product in his possession. Hence its no wrong in having a greed for better future nor a better life at present. U have also missed out on the psychological aspect of human behavior as u failed to mention the reasons for which an individual is concern about his and his children's future, which of course is the poor or in some cases "ZERO" social service provided by the state, e.g. education and medical. If consumer is not encouraged then the companies that fuel ur GDP would not have fire power to earn revenue and create jobs for the people. I think my argument in nut shell is either get rid of corruption or come up with a system other than capitalism which can defend itself from manipulators. I was junior assistant at EXCEL FINANCIAL SERVICES working under Azeem Amjad :).
Thanks for your comments, but I believe you miss out the focal point of this writing i.e. we only add a zero to price and wage. I am not talking about if someone is doing his job or not.
Post a Comment